E-journal #6: JC1 MAAHL (Final Entry) – To move or not to move.

Term 1

The announcement for the new math syllable (MAISL,MAASL, MAIHL, MAAHL), plus the schools decision not to let Indonesians take Indonesian B messed up my subject selections. Since I didn’t take additional maths, and was advised not to take MAISL, I concluded that my only options were either MAASL or MAIHL.

I had a backup plan of taking a business major incase I didn’t get accepted into medicine, which made me ultimately decide to take Economics HL and MAASL. I sat in the MAASL for two days and then found out that math HL is preferred for medical applications! There goes my first switch~ (Economics HL to SL; MAASL to MAIHL)

I was in MAIHL together with Alysha and it was really fun. Most of the days, we skimmed through powerpoint presentations and finish the class with a “Problem of the Day (POD)”. We also had exit tickets, which were questions needed to be answered if you wanted to leave the class. An interesting thing we did when learning complex numbers was plotting a rose curve in our GDCs (Mine was wiped out during SA1, but here’s a picture taken from https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Rose.html):

Term 2 (This is a long one)

Manual calculations were not emphasised, instead, we were taught how to use our GDCs to its maximum capability – especially when learning functions. Alysha and I plotted a bicycle together (again… it was deleted for the SA1), and we also had to plot any image that we wanted on either GDC or Desmos for our semester assignment. I plotted Mr Rodel’s face wkwkwkwk. I used an application to trace the outline. then manually adjusted functions to fit the outline. I’m really proud of it to be honest.

Unfortunately, most of the students in the class including myself struggled doing the tests as we were too depended on the calculator and unfamiliar with the manual calculations. In one of the chapter tests, Alysha suddenly had a nose bleed after realising she couldn’t answer questions 1, 2, and 3 (sorry for exposing you Aly 🤭). I didn’t know that people could get nose bleed from stress XD. Alysha moved to MAASL after that.

As the SA began to approach, I wondered what I learnt in functions as we only did the Desmos task for it. GDC was a life saviour actually, since I could find everything I needed from it. I mostly studied the theory myself or in my lesson.

One thing that really hit me was when we were told to solve for the square of complex numbers without given a formula. I tried to solve it using some kind of sample from a website. :’)

At that point, I was really stressed out. My stomach acid became out of control and I was at a pretty low point. Then one day, after asking help and ranting to about my struggles in that class, Drel said:

“Why don’t you move to my class?”

I thought she was mental.

I have never been a math genius and most importantly, I didn’t take additional maths in IGCSE. She then mentioned how the topics we learnt were exactly the same. I started questioning the difficulty level of MAIHL and wondered if it also needed additional maths. At that point, I considered moving. I also borrowed Anushka’s notes and photocopied it for SA1 and sir, let me tell you this since I know you will be reading: Your notes saved my pitiful ass. Yes I was particularly enlightened by the functions part. ;D

2 weeks before SA1, I couldn’t make up my mind. To move or not to move? If I move, will I fail? If I don’t move, what will happen? Can I manage studying whatever I missed? What will Mr Rodel say when he finds out I’m moving up a level? (most people moved downwards) Will Mr Kichan even accept me in his class? Am I biting more than I can chew? These thoughts kept me wide awake at night.

In the end, I asked my mom. I consider her my main support, then my dad, and then Drel (Drel will get cocky if she reads this but she doesn’t read muehehehhe). What my mom said to me was the last push I needed to finalise my decision. She said:

“Isn’t it better to give this class a shot even though you don’t know the outcome, rather than staying in a class where you are sure that you’ll not do well in?”

I finished my SA1 with an okay score and moved to MAAHL the next term!

Term 3

During the term break, I went to my maths lesson to catch up with Add maths topic that I haven’t studied. He was also quite shock to hear me moving up the level heheheh.

I moved into MAAHL with doubts, but Mr Kichan and everyone else were really welcoming, helping me adjust to the new class. I asked a lot of help from Drel too.

We started learning about Euclid’s postulates and also TOK. (You can read my e-journal #4 on this) I was really confused at that time and I thought whether I moved to the right class.

“Drel… Is the class normally like this?”

Thank god Drel was like naahh – and she said she was also confused HAHAHAAH. Anyway, I actually learnt that mathematical concepts could be untrue for certain circumstances (something I didn’t know was possible, since maths is perceived as unbiased).

After that we began learning vector, which was like a normal maths class. It was interesting and I really liked Mr Kichan’s teaching style. It was a combination of learning the formulas and theory with explorations.

Amazing tests, amazing quizes, and unit tests were like a mental shock to me – especially 4 of them (?) happened within 2 weeks. Fortunately, I was able to get through it just okay~ (I think).

One of the most interesting events happened in this term and it’s the math event SISMO. I wasn’t able to engage as much as I hoped, but it was memorable nonetheless. You can read my e-journal #5 for the details ehehe~

Term 4

This term was unusual. The pandemic meant that we were all self isolated at home and had to resort to online learning.

We did a “not-so-mini ” IA on statistics, sampling Kognity university students XD and also another IA for our chapter test. I think it was a really good idea to approach statistics this way as it made it more enjoyable to learn.

This term went by really fast and in a blink of an eye, it has ended. The mocks yesterday made me feel good about myself, but the exam just now… mau nangis :’)

Overall, I’m glad that I made the decision to move class.

Now I have a new fam: MAAHL FAM!!! 💚

💚💚💚