The First Month of Being a 12th Grader

It's been a month since I became a twelfth grader. From what I experienced this month, I can predict what kind of life I'll have until this year's over.

Perhaps this semester is the most important because it decides who deserves SNMPTN Undangan form. And everybody is like... MAD. The atmosphere is extremely tense and uncomfortable. You know, I've participated in many competitions, but I never like to compete. I hate competitions. I hate when there's a side to win and the other has to lose.

When I was in holiday in June, I'd always wanted to fast forward the time into living as a twelfth grader. I was so eager to start a new page of my life. Thought I could do better and I actually wanted to, as soon as possible, improve my scores. But the fact is quite the opposite.

The facts that every lessons are difficult and every students have motivated themselves then transformed into a machine -which thinks as fast as a calculator and works as long as a computer with no sense of boredom or fatigue- make me think twice over my eagerness to write a flawless golden page in my life's history.

Every time I feel down like this, I always remember what my father said. He said,"Just run as fast as you can without looking at your opponents. What you need to do is try your best and enjoy every single moment. And in the end, you have to resign it to Allah Azza wa jalla. Because nothing can stop what Allah wants. If Allah wants to give you something, then no one can hamper it. Vice versa, if Allah doesn't want to give you something, then you won't get it no matter how hard you try."

With this new beginning.. I hope I can survive. I just have to try. At least try.. About the result... we'll see next year.

- This is story of a student who's worrying her future.

Science Marathon

Hey, readers... first of all, happy Ramadhan!! ^^ (i know it's a bit late, day 13th already)

Today's post is about "Science Marathon"...!!! It's a competition but I prefer to call it a game. Because rather than just stuck with a bunch of questions, this game involves a lot of fun! I'm so eager to tell you the detail about this event *gasabar*

SMA Negeri 8 Jakarta presents a huge event this year in September. We call it "8Schoolastic" abbreviation for 8 School Art and Science National Competition. This 8Schoolastic or SCH (es-ce-ha) for short, consists of several branches of competition. And as the name's shown, they are classified into art or science competition.

Science marathon is one of its branch that belongs in the science group, as seen on its name. You don't have to be afraid if you can't run. Because it's fully science, regardless the "marathon" word. The game will be in teams. So, to join this game you have to submit your team to the committee. One team must consists 4 high school students from the same school.

This game has 3 parts.

1. The elimination round (babak penyisihan). In this round, the four members will be separated into 4 different classes. And every one of them will be given a problem set that differ in subject (the subjects are maths, physics, chemistry, and biology). For example team 1 consists of A, B, C, D. In the first round A will be doing the maths test, while B will do the physics, C will do the chemistry, and D will do the biology test. There will be 15 teams that pass this round. get it?

2. The Quiz round (babak cerdas cermat). In this round, all members are united together.They have to work together to defeat other teams in cerdas cermat round. In each round, 3 teams will be pitted. So, the total round is 5. Each team will choose 1 envelope consisting 10 compulsory questions. After that, the moderator will ask 15 questions and the team that rings the bell first deserve to answer the question. The first winner of each cerdas cermat round will proceed to the next round.

3. The Marathon round (babak marathon). Why this round called "marathon"? because, the finalists will be moving from one location to another to answer the questions. There'll be 5 different test locations. Different locations has different theme and the questions asked in each location will be coherent with it. Every team will get into those 5. And....the exciting thing is there will be a clue which leads to the next location. Every time they solve the mystery given in the clue, they'll be rewarded some points. And the committee will also record their time for solving questions in each location. Finally, the committee will rank every finalists based on their points.

Interesting isn't that?? You can train your brain but you won't feel bored because the committees wrap it in a fun way. Don't be hesitate to join...!! comment if you want :) .

oohh I almost forget.. of course the winner will get prize

1. The first winner will get Rp 4.000.000 + medal + sertificate

2. The second winner will get Rp 3.000.000 + medal + sertificate

3. The third winner will get Rp 2.000.000 + medal + sertificate

So.... what are you waiting for????? SUBMIT YOUR TEAM NOW to the committee (SMA NEGERI 8 JAKARTA) or you can comment to this post or you can follow @8Schoolastic via twitter.