By Gao Wenxin (14A03A)
Photos by Carol Yuen (14A01A)
“At first when I joined Hair for Hope, somebody told me that shaving was just a publicity stunt, and all it meant was just to get money.” Continue reading “Bald Moves: Hair for Hope 2013”
Ever wanted to rant about that someone you just can’t stand? Not getting any help from RJ Confessions? Try out Raffles Press’ new column, Ask Uncle Stamford, and our resident agony aunt (and uncle) Aunt Sophia and Uncle Stamford will be glad to help you in your Rafflesian troubles! Submit your questions to tinyurl.com/UncleStamford and we’ll give them our best shot.
For this series, the Raffles Art Club has kindly contributed illustrations created by their talented members. The illustrations used in this article were done by Rachel Tay Xi Boon (14A01E) and Sean Chua (14S06O).
Continue reading “AUNT SOPHIA & UNCLE STAMFORD: WELCOME TO THE CO-ED JUNGLE”
By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B)
“Hey bro, could I take just 5 minutes of your time?”
Continue reading “Fowl Play: The Curious Case of the Chicken Heaven Vouchers”
By Chua Jun Yan (13A01A)
According to statistics released in Parliament earlier this year, Literature is on its deathbed. Not so in RI – at least, not if the organizers of Words’ Worth Lit Week 2013 have their way. The event will run from 16 to 20 July. In line with the latest H2 A-Level Literature syllabus, this year’s installment is loosely based around Victorian Literature.
While Lit Week has not been held in recent years, it is not a new idea. Ms Lye Su-Lin (Literature Tutor) recalls, ‘In the past, students would come to school dressed up as their favourite characters during Lit Week, and the amphitheatre was converted into a period showroom.’ In fact, Raffles Press learnt that the 37 posters outside the Performing Arts Centre were designed for a previous edition of Lit Week – one for each Shakespearean play. When asked why Lit Week died out, Ms Lye replied, ‘the H1N1 virus killed it.’ She explained, ‘In 2009, various emergency measures made any large gatherings on any scale quite inadvisable, and while the design exhibition went on, the Lit classes lost the habit of coming together for one celebratory, literature-themed event. Lit Night on 19 July this year hopes to put an end to this dry spell.’
Indeed, the organizers have ambitious hopes for the revived Lit Week. Throughout the week, literature-themed merchandise will be sold at the canteen walkway. This correspondent was granted a sneak preview to the limited edition novelty items, which include Sherlock Holmes-themed postcards and quotation notebooks. In addition, a special poetry anthology will be launched, with verses from present students. The gift booth will be accompanied by a research exhibition on life in the Victorian era. Entry is free for all Rafflesians.
Raffles Press also understands that a line-up of illustrious writers will be conducting on-campus workshops on Wednesday, 18 July. Prominent names include Alvin Pang, Aaron Lee, and Daren Shiau, who will speak on their works, as well as Kenny Leck and Adeline Foo, who will discuss the intricacies of local publishing. An anonymous source also revealed at press time that Dave Chua and Koh Hong Teng had just confirmed their session on Singaporean comics and illustrating.
Speaking to the organizers during a rehearsal at the Performing Arts Centre, it is evident that Lit Night on Friday, 20 July*, will be the highlight of the event. According to Anne Ng, who has invested the past 6 months in this project with her committee, ‘We are all really excited about Lit Night. It will feature star cameo appearances by many of our institution’s finest actors, with the Year 5s from Raffles Players putting up a reduced Dickens play.’ At press time, the confirmed programme included tableaus from novels like Dracula, as well as an Open Mic featuring RGS Literature Raffles Academy girls, and long-time teacher Mr Geoffrey Purvis. Raffles Jazz is also putting up a performance.
Indeed, 2013 has enjoyed a good year for Literature in RI, with ‘Great Expectations’ declared the 190th Founder’s Day theme in January. ‘Our aim is to share our love for language,’ says Stephanie Koay, ‘not just with literature students, but also with the broader community.’ Indeed, Stephanie was the one who initiated the idea with her committee, after learning about the interregnum which Lit Week experienced. While Lit Week directly involves a smaller group than Bio Week or Economics Week, the organizers believe that Literature should belong to every student in the school.
Will this be able to combat the wider national apathy towards literature? One can only say that it is still too early to tell.
The writer is involved in the organizing of Lit Week. The Literature Week Executive Committee comprises Stephanie Koay, Jacqueline Khor, Cai Xiaohan, Alvin Soh, Sum Xinyi, Sandra Chong, Anne Ng and Deepak Warrier.
For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/litweek2013. Tickets for Lit Week will be sold at the door on Friday at $2 each, and include a door gift.
*Amendment: Do note that Lit Night has been pushed up to 7.00 pm instead of 7.30 pm as stated on the poster.
By Lee Chin Wee (14A01B), Allison Choong (14S05B), Law May Ning (14S03O), Tan Jun Xiang (14S06C), Bryan Chua (14A01A); Image retrieved from Dailymail
Remember the time when getting less than 90% for your Math exam was a disaster, and when you could actually understand the Science syllabus? Relax, neither can we. Academic complexity intensifies the higher up you climb the educational stepladder, and grades inevitably start falling.
Depressing, yet darkly humourous anecdotes about the aftermath of the Year 5 CT1 exams have already began to emerge – SEAhist essays which barely filled up a single page of writing paper; distressed students who didn’t even answer enough questions during the Math exams to theoretically be able to pass; brave souls who elected not to draw any graphs for their Economics paper. Little wonder, then, that avoiding the dreaded ‘U’ or its nasty cousin the ‘S’ has quickly become a cause for celebration in and of itself. Come next week, we entirely expect to see adrenaline-filled guys with goggly eyes running up and down the corridors of Block A, holding their ‘E’s and ‘D’s aloft as if they were acceptance letters to Hogwarts.
In an unabashed attempt to ramp up the stress before the CT1 results are fully released, student journalists from Raffles Press have actually been compiling exam-related rumours from teachers and peers over the past week, trying to figure out the amount of damage inflicted. This may be the first in a short series of articles published – depending on the quantity and quality of rumours which reach our ears, we will consider putting up updated rumours every few days.
We considered sorting the subjects in order of the intensity of the horror story, but since they all scare us out of our wits, the subjects have been sorted in order of convenience according to how many people study them. If you do not see a particular subject listed below, it is because we have not heard any substantial rumours about the results. At this juncture, it is important to point out that these are simply rumours, a heady mixture of fact, fiction and romance which should never be taken as gospel truth. Continue reading at your own peril.
The subject taken by (almost) every single Rafflesian, Mathematics is the greatest nightmare for the average Arts student. Yet, it seems the subject has claimed more victims than just them: rumour has it that even the Math RA class has fallen short of expectations!
Yes, as our sources inform us, it seems that instead of getting the grades in the range of 80-85% as expected, the maths whizzes have just barely scraped ‘A’s with a miserable 70% on average. So much for the stories of prodigies finishing half an hour before time was up – and without the magic math wand, also known as the graphic calculator. But then again, the aforementioned mastermind probably remains unafraid: averages presumably don’t apply to wizards.
(Here’s the part where we begin to fear for our fate. If the Math RA classes performed below expectations…)
What’s that saying again? Writing is as easy as ABC? Well, apparently not.
“Out of sight, out of mind”, but the paper which we’ve pushed out of our heads for a month will come back to haunt us precisely next Thursday (if you take our word for it). Even the standard technology question which most students take refuge in did not guarantee a decent grade – students were labelled as slightly “complacent” and may not have done as they expected.
Here are some of the other rumors we’ve heard about the dreaded subject:
One of the few papers that have actually started getting round to the students, even the supposedly foolproof “put all ‘C’s for MCQ” doesn’t seem to have worked this time round, as some people reportedly scored zeros on MCQs.
Thanks to the remarkable marking speed of the Chemistry department, we bring you these bite-sized nibbles for those who have yet to see their papers.
The Bad:
The Good:
For the large majority of the 1200 over students taking the subject, things are not looking good. As one teacher put it, “The prognosis is that your class has terminal cancer.”
The supposed facts:
Alas, all good bad things come to those who wait. Given the sheer volume of essays for the teachers to mark, it will probably be a couple more weeks before the papers come streaming back (we hear it is Week 5). Till then, happy panicking!
One of the few other subjects where papers have started to come back, the teachers of the Geography department (who’ve been marking at the speed of light) bring us these facts:
Unfortunately, for all the Newtons out there, given how teachers are rumored to still be in the process of marking, that’s just about all we have for your eager ears.
Rumored to be coming back late next week at the earliest, the open ended questions seem to be way more daunting than the MCQ section which students have gotten the answers for in class already. Some classes have reported an average of 18-20/30. Don’t rejoice too early! Even though more than one student seems to have gotten full marks for the MCQ section, the open ended section is said to be so poor that, perhaps mercifully, teachers are rumored to be considering increasing the MCQ weightage. Not so lucky for those who didn’t even do well to do that…
SEA History essays have started coming back! The IHist essay question on the outbreak of the Cold War was apparently much better done than the other question requiring students to compare the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Almost everyone attempted Question 3, but to mixed and scattered results. For the brave souls that ventured onto Question 4, it was supposedly the more difficult choice. Well no risk, no returns? Right?
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Once again, your friendly journalists from Raffles Press would like to remind everyone that these rumours have been sourced from off-the-cuff remarks by teachers, as well as distilled from popular stories which are currently circulating. As we all sally forth next Monday to collect the bulk of our results, we would like to wish all Rafflesians the best of luck. If you did not perform to your expectations, do try to pick up the pieces and move on. After all, promos are only 9 weeks away!
Have you heard anything else? Share it in the comments below!
