aha. common tests are finally over. whew. ok i can hear the sniggerings of "hate to remind you but prelims r in TEN weeks time"

YES TEN WEEKS TIME. and considering a month had not been enough, i must start like NOW. except. i gotta take a break first (:
now dont ask about common tests. it wasnt the best, but i think it was better than cts1. though i m seriously ggxx confirmed die until cannot die for CHEMISTRY. o gosh. chemistry. i m never meant to take that subject. i wld hv taken history instead of that. or something else maybe. perhaps just not physics or geog. i think chemistry hates me. tt's y i hv no chemistry with anyone. hahas. yar but chem was bad lah. i opened up the paper and was like er wat the hell. but i shall practise more! AND become a chemistry expert. and have loads of chemistry with everyone around me! haha. o the other papers r fine. although i m pretty sure i will end up without an A AGAIN.

i do hate it when the reason behind not doing well is due to the time factor. argh. time constraints, like chemistry, are the bane of my life. though time constraints have ALWAYS been a bane of my life. since like primary school. o well i m not making sense. anw it's good to finally come home and hv a good sleep without feeling guilty! and i still owe ppl presents, drats! happy belated birthday ajit and happy birthday in advance yangbin.

and the nat team is in wales! go suhas, chere, mark!

anw, m finally online and was just reading the econs s stuff on their yahoogroups (tt i din leave even though i only went for the holiday classes and was told to just join the egroups anw, haha hey - take the 10 bucks i paid as a fee to continue reading those posts) ... it is interesting, the kind of responses that came after sheng asked " how do you decide whether or not to study your notes, when their marginal value to yourselves becomes precisely apparent only after you've studied them?"

so here r the responses:
"By asking the guy who's already read it if its worth
reading or not, of course! Its not exact, but it's a
reasonable estimate. Then again, I hear a free rider
problem manifesting."

"the answer - wait for others to read them first and tell you if they're any
good. like the springboks who wait for other springboks to jump first. i'm
not sure if this is a particularly stable strategy though, since it is
obviously open to cheating. but which student would be so boliao. and more
importantly, which student actually reads notes till 3 hours before the
exam."

"I really should not have to dignify this statement
with a reply.

Because you have to know the person before you ask
them such a question, and I make the implicit
assumption that you wouldn't ask a person who:
a. hates your guts
b. lies perenially for his own amusement
c. doesn't understand what the notes are saying
because you are a rational and intelligent individual.

Moreover, what benefits does he accrue to lie to you?
It is not as though the Common Test grades are
adjusted according to a bell curve, creating a
situation where the achievement of high scores is a
zero sum game.

Your reading the notes, which he deems good, may
improve your chances of getting an A, but in no way
reduces his chances of doing so. Hence there is no
impetus for him (or her) to lie."

"Actually, I'd contest Mike's point about the grade curve here - the common tests aren't graded on a grade curve, but to some extent, a distinction at the common tests is a positional good. Not all the utility accrues simply from your having it - some of its value as an academic marker comes from your having it while others do not. (Thus the risk of grade inflation; it impinges on the value of the currency and the validity of its signals.)"

"Adding to my previous reply:

It occurs to me that, if you ask someone for advice about notes, the gains to them (your goodwill/favours if you do well) are concentrated, whereas the effects of grade inflation are dissipated, so it seems reasonably likely that those you ask will tell the truth."

"> I'd posit that if reading your notes were a major
> contributing factor to getting that very elusive
> Distinction, that Distinction then wouldn't be all
> that elusive. That in turn would suggest that grade
> inflation already abounds.
>
> So I don't think an honest assessment of a set of
> notes' worth is seriously going to factor into
> someone's calculus on how special his or her
> Distinction will be.


Ah, but we all know humans are irrational creatures who, even if they
could perform these complex calculations about maximising utility
under constraints, would ignore their conclusions and fret about
things like grade inflation (and do other irrational, nasty things
like throwing away other people's notes).

Besides, they don't learn the Lagrangian at A Level. How to maximise
like that?!"

"Thank you both.
Well, my experience is that people tend to err on the cautious side and
always tell you that the notes are useful. They do not intend to lie.
One can be sure if a piece of notes is useless when:
a. One takes the test and finds oneself capable of answering all the
questions without reading the notes. (If one finds otherwise, oops, it's too
late.)
b. One reads the notes to find that one already knows all the material,
though precious time has already been wasted.
To many people situation (a) is unbearable and only occurs when short of
time.
In situation b, since you know all the material, you should read faster than
usual. You probably only need to read the first few pages and the last few
pages to convince yourself that you know the contents.
If you ask a friend before the test and get replied that the notes are
useless. Your friend should be in situation (b), ie, your friend knows the
contents of the notes before reading. Whether that implies that you also
know the materials I hold my doubt."

haha and the discussion goes on ... so how do u decide anw?

and i think i m a mutant. i hv now lost my lil finger fingerprint as well. soon i will b without fingerprints!

then i wont b able to work in any high security thingy cos no fingerprint = no access! haha

junyi! posted at 10:55 pm.