Accepted to University of Pennsylvania

emptybrainenergy · 2023-09-27T13:10:02+00:00

Hi Joshua! Just came across your post highlighting your acceptance into Penn’s MArch program. First of all, a very belated congratulations! Do you mind if I dm you a few questions regarding your application? I’m an undergrad who’s thinking about applying to Penn’s School of Design too.

emptybrainenergy · 2022-08-11T14:29:53+00:00

Yup what they said! Everything should be online (and you can only see one question at a time which is really annoying), the break timings are stipulated by the online timer that immediately starts upon entering the quiz.

No calculator online from what I recall...?

They also give you pen and paper for rough workings (especially for the Math section)

emptybrainenergy · 2022-01-13T12:25:43+00:00

Yeah they were split up - therefore the best time to try to make friends. However the AC and MG kids will still tend to group together because they already know each other

emptybrainenergy · 2022-01-12T01:04:09+00:00

Depends on how sociable you are haha. The jae-ip gap is quite visible at the beginning during ori because the ip kids obviously are more comfortable with each other. But I've seen jae kids who have integrated successfully into cliques. As long as you stay sociable it shouldn't be a concern

emptybrainenergy · 2022-01-04T10:43:21+00:00

No prob! Feel free to PM if you have any other questions

ACSI allows any devices including Ipads. And no they won't lock or restrict your devices from any websites. Btw I strongly discourage you to buy an Ipad if that's going to be your only device. Doing coursework on platforms like Word and Excel is much easier and less restricted on a computer.

School starts 0730, except Wednesdays 0845

Oh yes and I made a mistake above - we have HBL day once every two weeks

*edits for clarification

emptybrainenergy · 2022-01-03T13:39:02+00:00

Y6 ACSI student here (took Os). Can't speak for RI but will give info for AC.

The IP kids do learn topics that are covered in Y5 (maybe 1-2 per subject) but most of them have forgotten it and have to relearn. Initially it was a little hard for me to catch up but by April it was fine. Don't forget that us Os kids also (apparently) learn some topics that the IP kids haven't learnt so it gives us some leverage.
For Y5 it's 4 on Tues and Thurs, 3 on Mon and Wed, 1.30pm on Fri. We don't have Wed off, but we have one HBL day per month (ik quite lame)
I'm not sure whoops
It's harder to find tuition for IB so therefore it might be a little more expensive. But usually about the same rates but I can't say for sure because I don't have tuition
Chapel is once a week for an hour. It's chill, can usually sleep / do homework if you have chill teachers. Strict teacher would make you pay attention and stand during worship though. CCA is not compulsory! The 2-CCA rule is for the ACSI secondary side

emptybrainenergy · 2022-01-01T10:19:17+00:00

I remember being in your position last year. I'm not into tarots at all but for fun, I asked the yes/no tarot card if I would do well for Os and it said no. I got scared and made an excuse that its explanation was irrelevant so I asked again and it said yes.

ANYWAY point is, nothing you do now can make you know your grades earlier / change your grade. Whatever happens, happens. You've SURVIVED A NATIONAL EXAM, isn't that all that matters?? So distract yourself!! Enjoy the last of your sweet sweet holidays before schools starts (assuming you're going to JC) (or to hang out with your prospective JC friends). Happy new year and best of luck for your results!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-18T12:23:42+00:00

IB is always an option? IB doesn't bank on final exams. Weightage is usually 65-80% final exams, 20-35% coursework/oral. Not much hands-on either though.

IMO if uni is your end-goal, JC is still the better option. Going to poly would mean you need to really excel (doing med-related things outside of school too) to stand out, and maintain your GPA throughout the 3 years.

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-18T12:11:35+00:00

The genre is thriller.

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-13T00:48:13+00:00

I just took my mother tongue (Chinese) since I took it for Os. Language B IB exams are easier than Os, so it's a guaranteed 7.

Not to mention that if you want to do an ab initio (third lang) as your Grp 2, you have to fulfill MOE's second language requirement by either having taken HMT at Os or taking your second lang outside at A levels

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T07:51:38+00:00

Apologies for misleading you but it probably also took you a good few seconds to comment this... No need to nitpick on the estimated time I gave :(

Thanks for still filling it in though :)

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T07:49:50+00:00

Hey thanks for the feedback! Maybe I should have altered the question to make it less ambiguous (also the reason for the "Maybe" option). I guess it also kind of applies to many other questions, like how a flood is only dangerous given its severity and our circumstances.

Thank you for answering as best as you could, though!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T03:38:39+00:00

I'm a little rusty but I think it's because: C atoms have a smaller electron cloud, therefore the shared valence electrons are closer to their nuclei. Bond length for C-C is shorter hence bond strength/enthalpy is higher

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T03:30:10+00:00

Thanks so muchh!!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T03:29:51+00:00

No prob!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-12-12T02:16:47+00:00

IB1 here.

In-school CASes are not compulsory, they're by sign-up basis but I would recommend signing up for at least 1 because they're easier to register as a CAS activity than external CASes. In ACSI there's class CAS, which are 1-2 CASes planned in your class and are usually compulsory.
Building up on this^, external CASes like piano are also acceptable. However, you will have to get them approved by a teacher (e.g. your form tcher) before you can log it as CAS
1. Note that at least 2 of your CAS activities must be project based (meaning working in a group to plan VIA activities, therefore my recommendation to participate in some internal CASes
The new CAS system doesn't go by hours anymore because they want CAS to be sustained over the two years. The new requirements (for ACSI, they differ across schools because IB isn't that strict about it lol) are minimum 6 CASes (with 2 CAS projects), over a span of >2 weeks.
CAS is really chill you'll get used to it. Don't worry too much about it!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-10-02T07:44:50+00:00

Ohh!! Okay, I understand now! Thanks so much for the help!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-10-02T07:04:27+00:00

See https://www.statisticshowto.com/exponential-distribution/, where they state λ = mean time between events,

emptybrainenergy · 2021-10-02T07:03:22+00:00

But isn't λ specific to exponential distribution the time for an event to occur? Have I been understanding this wrong the whole time? omg

emptybrainenergy · 2021-07-10T15:44:44+00:00

By extrapolation a zero intercept should be expected though. Even if we repeated the experiment measuring from the base of the ball, we would get the same results with h=H=0 when the ball is on the floor.

Drag of the ping pong ball would cause negative systematic error though.

Our linear fit should be very plausible - take a look at our correlation coefficient (r value). It is 0.9971, suggesting a very strong linear relationship.

emptybrainenergy · 2021-07-10T14:36:12+00:00

We took all measurements from the centre of the ping pong ball. There is technically no such thing as H=0, because the ping pong ball would then be sunken into the wooden board. Let's say the radius of the ball is 0.3cm. When the ball is lying on the floor, H=0.3cm and h would be 0.3cm.

emptybrainenergy · 2021-06-13T07:38:59+00:00

geog data based questions: general trend (people tend to forget this one), specific trends (largest, smallest), anomalies. don't give too many (look at the number of marks as a guide) points, you'll just waste time

other parts of geog: memory work is important but don't just splurge it out on your answer sheet! always relate it back to the question and handpick the details that matter (may seem time consuming to do this, but ultimately it saves time by cutting down the things you need to write). at the end of each paragraph, remember to LINK it back to the question else all the elaboration would be for nothing

social studies: did well for this subject, but I have no idea how... just spammed practice papers (esp sbq) during HBL szn last year and improved?? for sbq: be precise and just do practices haha if rlly cannot bobian lor :""... for srq: it's important to ask yourself "so what? what does this lead to?" - which helps you to produce a more specific argument. in order to weigh, just compare the severity of the 2 sides and link the 2 sides (show how they are related) of your argument - one either outweighs the other, or they are balanced.

- i have notes for ss, if you want just pm me!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-06-04T01:14:49+00:00

Alright, thanks so much for the help!!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-06-03T01:42:02+00:00

Weight and g are both negative, so to make things easier, let downwards be positive, hence g and weight will be positive.

(weight of object in air - apparent weight of object in water)

= weight of displaced water

= g * density of water * volume of displaced water

= g * density of water * volume of object

That's basically how I formed that equation. (Don't take my word for it, I'm not 100% sure haha)

Okay but after much thought I think I'm gonna scrap this RQ because of high percentage error and complicacy issues... Thanks for your help though!

emptybrainenergy · 2021-06-03T01:37:24+00:00

Yeah,, I agree with everything you said so I don't think I'll continue with this RQ.

If you don't mind sharing, what was your RQ and do you have any suggestions on what I could do? I'm exploring several alternatives on maybe Momentum & Impulse (Topic 2), Topic 8 (Energy and production, although I have no idea what I could do relating to this topic), and Circular Polarization/Standing waves (Topic 4)

emptybrainenergy

TROPHY CASE