freshbytes

I’m a little disappointed with my TCE results 2008. It’s entirely my fault, because I just managed to do really, really badly on my external exams, the mythical places where careers are made and extinguished…

In my case, the flames were pretty much put out permanently. Okay – so maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was ridiculously worse than I was expecting.

After having a bit of a mull-over for a couple of days/weeks/months (years, even) I’ve come to the realisation that your TER/ENTER/UAI (Tertiary Entrance Rank [SA, TAS, NT], Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank [Vic] Universities Admission Index [NSW]), while important to what courses you want to do at Uni, isn’t a definite sign of who you are, or what you want to be.

As a side note, Queensland also use something else, but it’s called the OP (Overall Position) and it’s really weird compared to the TER/ENTER/UAI. Instead of being a percentage-based score, the OP is a number from 1 to 25, where 1 is “You’re awesome at academics”, and 25 is “You’re not-so-awesome at academics”. Multiple inter- and intra- school scalings are taken into consideration, but in this blogger’s opinion, it Just Doesn’t Work^TM.

The TER isn’t a measure of how intelligent you are (that’s your IQ, folks), or how “street smart” you are. Far from it, it’s more a measure of how well you did compared to your peers. If you take that literally, it’s a measure of how you stack up against your fellow students – which is something that can be influenced by heaps and heaps of different factors like subject choices, aptitudes, and a whole lots of other stuff I won’t bother to name here.

I think my main cause of concern was that I wasn’t in the top 10% of the state. Yeah, that was probably it – NOT! I care not whether I was in the top 10% of the state or not. I’m heaps glad for those select few who are in the top 100, so congrats to Ellen and Elise, but really – that doesn’t matter.

I guess I’m just disappointed about my whole performance overall. I know I completely screwed up my exams, and that just really sucks!

If I tell you the truth (I do always try to), then I guess that arrogance played a part in this. Either I had the arrogance to think that I was going to do spectacularly in the exam (and I had reason to think so, with one B internally and the rest As), or I was just arrogant enough to think that I would do well without adequete study. Neither are particularly pleasant options, but hey, I guess that’s life…

Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: arrogance, Blog, intelligence, TCE, TER, Untitled

Yeah, another community service message. I found this while trawling the internet – actually, it was from one of my all time favourite websites, MacTalk Australia.

From member Andreww says:

As a friend once said, “Assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME”

So anyway, that got me thinking – that is so true! If you make assumptions about anything at all – you’re potentially making a huge mistake, and I’m talking EPIC sized here.

Of course, the main thing to bear in mind when you are making an assumption is that it shouldn’t be confused with judging others. If you judge others in the ten or so seconds that you’ve known them for, you’ll probably dislike them for whatever reason, all before you’ve even spoken to them! It’s this kind of predetermined, on-the-fly stereotyping that makes us act harshly towards people in the street, just because of how they look, act, smell (ewww…) or their attitude.

I’m sorry, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be.

On the brighter side, I know it is sometimes hard to let go of all your assumptions and start fresh with something, but it can be one of the best choices you can ever make. You’ll get the experience new things, and hey, if it still sucks, you can drop it and not touch it with a 10m pole ever again, or you can leave it and come back to it later down the track. The choice is yours.

However, what would happen if you had already stigmatised whatever you were dealing with? Those preconceived ideas and misconceptions would then affect your experience of the whole affair – leading to some sort of mess in one form or another. I’m sure none of you would want that, right?

Right.

For a real word example of what I am talking about above, read on. Me assuming that Chris was going to post something (anything!) on the weekend was close to insanity – I now know that I’ll always have to have a backup post whenever it’s his turn to post. Now it’s made an ass out of both him and I, I think I”ll just let you read on…

Well anyway, lately I’ve been feeling that my posts are a little lacklustre – not up to the usual standard. I do heartily apologise if this is the case, but it feels like I’ve been banging out posts with no forethought, no direction, no purpose. Obviously, it isn’t working that well for me, so I rekon I’ll go back to the old way of doing things – carefully planned out thoughts, like crafting an essay. Or something…

There is, however, someone you can blame for today’s late post; Chris. I, once again, have had to cover for him (not that I wasn’t going to anyway) but it would be nice if he occasionally posted something decent.

Comments below!

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: arrogance, assuming, Blog, mactalk, misconceptions, preconceptions, stereotype, stigma

Because, dear reader, there is definitely a difference. Let’s start with a definition:

Confidence, noun
1. freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities;
2. a feeling of trust (in someone or something);
Source: WordNet

Arrogance, noun
1. overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors
Source: WordNet

It’s one thing to be confident, but another thing entirely to be arrogant.

Confidence is all about knowing what your limits are. Arrogance is not. If you’re arrogant, you’ll then push yourself past your limit, and FAIL miserably.

Confidence is all about knowing where to draw the line. Arrogance is not. If you’re arrogant, you’ll take it too far and FAIL disappointingly.

Confidence is all about knowing when to say “I’m not entirely sure – but I can find out for you.” Arrogance is not. You’ll lead someone on a wild goose chase, and from there, FAIL massively.

So you see, there is a difference between confidence and arrogance. If you’re confident, you’ll drink at a party, but won’t get totally smashed and wake up in the morning feeling like someone has tried to preform brain surgery with a blunt knife. Mr Arrogant, however, would drink far more than he can handle, and wake up in the morning wanting to die.

If you’re still unsure about the difference, please try and err on the side of caution; don’t go all out to see what it feels like to be Mr Arrogant. Stay on the safe side, just in case you regret it later.

There’ll be another post sometime today… check back soonish.

That’s it, comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: arrogance, Blog, confidence, difference, drinking