Weekly Blog 4-4 (67): SBA Testing

 Hello 'Ilima

This week of school was very special as this was the week of SBA testing. But the way SBA testing was done was very unique. Instead of both grades testing during their classes, one grade would test for 2 days in their advisory. 8th grade had to test on Monday and Tuesday which was actually amazing because that means there would be a 5 day weekend. So on the first day of testing, all of the 8th graders mentally prepared for the worst to come. The first subject we would test on would be ELA which was the best outcome as it means I could spend more time studying Math and Science. We started with writing an essay and my topic was an explanatory on how devices were ruining people's focus. It was actually pretty simple and I was the first person to finish in my advisory. Then after the essay was ELA questions that were also rather simple. But I expected ELA to be the simple day because ELA is my best subject. Besides the testing, we spent a lot of time just waiting around for other people to finish. During this downtime, I began reading a book called You've Reached Sam. The story revolves around a high-schooler named Julie who had her whole future planned out which revolved around her boyfriend, Sam. But everything crumbles apart when Sam dies. Julie is heartbroken and her life starts deteriorates. But one day, when Julie was so desperate to hear Sam's voice, she called Sam's phone to listen to the voicemail. But then Sam picked up the phone. There is so much to the story and I find it very interesting. I even started to tear up at some parts of the story. Moving on, Science and Math was on the second day and I was much more worried for this day. The Math SBA is very important for my future in Campbell while the Science SBA is full of stuff we never learned which makes both tests equally stressful. The Math test was first and it had a lots of highs and lows with it. Some questions were rather simple, just requiring you to know the equations. But other questions had weird parts that I simply didn't recognize. But the easy questions outweighed the difficult questions so I think I did a good job on the test. Finally, the Science SBA test was just as dumb as I expected. I think the reason why none of things are familiar to us in the Science SBA is because there is a lot more applying information in the SBA test then just the information we learn in class. But I was able to get Level 4 on the Science SBA which is amazing, specially with how little I knew. The only thing else school related that happened during this week was Recognition Night which happened on Wednesday. This was by far the best Recognition Night because the least amount of people showed up. It went by so quickly and we were able to get home rather quickly. But after this school stuff, we were left with a 5 day weekend that I spent being lazy. 

Last Recognition Night

Freaky Birthday Boy

McDonalds Adventure

National Geographic

Apothecary Diaries

For this week, I will actually start with the lowlight from this week because the only lowlight was SBA testing. SBA testing was just very stressful and always a bummer to participate in. But we can now start with the highlights that will begin with Monday After School. It was my friend's birthday and so my friends went to McDonalds to celebrate it. But before going to McDonalds, I took a quick pitstop to go with Riselle to the Pet Store. She needed to stay there for someone to pick her up and I went with her so she could have some company. At the pet store, Riselle showed me the different fishes and toys which was pretty cool. She also kept on calling it National Geographic which was funny. But after that, I went to the McDonalds and took a seat with my friends. They were all eating and we eventually sang happy birthday. But probably the funniest part of going to McDonalds was that one of our friends bought 13 cookies. It caught everyone off guard but when they said they always bought 13 cookies, it just made us laugh even more. The next highlight would be The Apothecary Diaries. So a little secret about me is that I suck at watching shows. I constantly forget to watch it and will always push back on watching things. But I wanted to at least finish a show that I started a couple weeks ago, that show being Apothecary Diaries which follows an Apothecary who kidnapped and made to work at the Emperor's Palace. It's very interesting and my friend kept on telling me to finish it. So I watched all of Season 1 during the break and it was as awesome as my friend described it. I won't explain what else happened, but just know that it was really good. The final highlight would be downloading OBS. OBS is a platform for streaming and recording videos and I got it so that I could make videos of playing games. I made the first one on Saturday which was on my friends playing Lethal Company. It was very fun to play and the recording was really good. I just have to find more things to record now.

The lesson that I learned from this week is that you need to trust your innate abilities. This comes from the SBA testing as my friends and I were stressing to study everything. But as I kept on studying, I realized something. I'm doing too much. Looking through every page over and over again is not gonna magically make me better. I need to trust that I know the stuff instead of trying to force myself to know the stuff. The best example I can think of is that you should trust you own ability to cook food rather than stressing throughout your cooking if you are doing the right measurements or using the right tools. With that being said, this concludes my blog. I hope you have a great week. Cheers to another day!