Co-curriculum Marks for STPM/Form 6 leaver

March 3, 2010

Attention to all STPM leavers. This is an important post regarding your co-curriculum marks, which are especially important if you are applying for public universities in Malaysia. Since many students of the Berry Berry Teacher is asking this question, it is better for Berry Berry Easy to clarify this matter.

Attention: Clarification on Form 6/STPM Leaver Co-curriculum Marks

Regarding to young berries co-curriculum marks:

• You need to find your school counselor or senior assistant co-curriculum or class teacher (depends on your school administration)
• He/she will be holding all the co-curriculum book (the green colour book).
• Remember to bring paper and pen to copy all the marks or photocopy the page that you need to key in the UPU online form and return back to the counselor / senior assistant co-curriculum / class teacher.
• You cannot bring the book back! In case you lost it, school cannot trace back your marks and you only get minimum mark. (2 marks for every co-curriculum activity! Scary!)

So make sure you know what to do before you submit your UPU forms.

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SPM Chemistry Form 4 Notes – Terminology and Concepts: Chemical Formulae and Equations (Part 2)

March 2, 2010

This is the second part of the notes on Chemical Formulae and Equations that was posted on Berry Berry Easy some few days back. The first part focused on relative atomic mass, relative formula mass, relative molecular mass and the various scales from different atom types. So here we are, moving on to some tougher concepts. Let’s us get acquaintant with Mr Avogadro and see what we can further learn on this topic.

SPM Form 4 – Terminology and Concepts: Chemical Formulae and Equations (Part 2)

Berry Berry Scientist

Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro (Name at birth: Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro)

• Born: 9 August 1776
• Birthplace: Turin, Piedmont, Italy
• Died: 9 July 1856
• Best Known As: The guy they named Avogadro’s number after

1. Avogadro constant / Avogadro’s number is 6.02 x 10²³

2. Atomic substances

• Elements – all the particles are atoms.
• Example: zinc (Zn), sodium (Na), aluminium (Al) and all noble gases, argon (Ar), helium (He) and neon (Ne).
• RAM (Relative Atomic Mass) of  Na = 23

3. Molecular substances

• Covalent compounds – the particles are molecules.
• Example: carbon dioxide (CO₂), water (H₂O) and non-metal elements, iodine (I₂), nitrogen (N₂) and oxygen (O₂).
• RMM (Relative Molecular Mass) of I₂ = 127 + 127 = 254

4. Ionic substances

• Ionic compounds – the particles are ions.
• Example: sodium chloride (NaCl), hydrochloric acid (HCl) and potassium iodide (KI).
• RFM (Relative Formula Mass) of HCl = 1 + 35.5 = 36.5

5. Avogadro’s Law / Gas Law states that equal volumes of all gases contain the same number of molecules under the same temperature and pressure.

• Example: equal volumes of molecular hydrogen and nitrogen would contain the same number of molecules under the same temperature and pressure.

6. Volume of gas (dm³) = Number of moles of gas x Molar volume

7. Room temperature and pressure (r.t.p.) = 24 dm³ mol^-1 (25°C and 1 atm)

• Example: What is the volume of 5.0 mol helium gas at s.t.p.?
• Volume of gas = Number of moles x Molar gas volume
  = 5.0 mol x 24 dm³ mol^-1
  = 120 dm³

8. Standard temperature and pressure (s.t.p.) = 22.4 dm³ mol^-1 (0°C and 1 atm)

• Example: What is the volume of 5.0 mol helium gas at s.t.p.?
• Volume of gas = Number of moles x Molar gas volume
  = 5.0 mol x 22.4 dm³ mol^-1
  = 112 dm³

9. Mass (g) = Number of moles x Molar mass

10. Number of particles = Number of moles x Avogadro constant

11. Volume (dm³) = Number of moles x Molar volume

Be sure to copy down all these formulae a few times on paper so that you will have a better chance recalling it in the future. Copying them onto a card to bring around will be very helpful.

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SPM 2009 Results Out – Prediction

March 1, 2010

It has come to the Berry Berry Easy team that the e-mails that we are receiving daily (adding to a couple of questions on the Berry Bising box and comments) are all about the release of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) dates.  So Berry Berry Jenius would like to make a calculated prediction on the date which the SPM results that will be released. It is purely speculative, no reliable sources were obtained. So the prediction are done to calm all your nerves.

Past year SPM results announcement:

• SPM 2006 – 12 March 2007 (Announced in The Star on the 28th February 2007)
• SPM 2007 – 12 March 2008 (Announced in The Star on the 03rd March 2008)
• SPM 2008 – 12 March 2009 (Announced in The Star on the 06th March 2009)

Prediction assumptions:

• Announcement of release date on newspapers will be at least 6 days before the real release of the results.
• Since, STPM 2009 results are out, SPM results should not be later than last year by much (if any).
• The gap between announcement and actual release are getting shorter every year. (From 12 days for SPM 2006, 9 days in SPM 2007 to 6 days in SPM 2008)
• However, don’t think it will be 3 days for SPM 2009. It should not follow arithmetic progression.
• In recent traditions, results are available towards the middle of the month.

So taking into consideration of assumption no.1 and no.2, and that weekends for the middle of the month in 2010 is on the 13/14th March 2010, the predicted dates are:

SPM 2009 Predicted Release Date – 15th March 2010.

15th March 2010 – Predicted date!!!

(or possibly also 12th March 2010, again!!!)

So until the real announcement are made, let us stop the speculation and start early application of colleges before the announcement of the results. Don’t waste time asking when the results will be announced. Berry Berry Easy will post the actual date once we get the news. (So all of you can stop typing “Keputusan SPM”, “When will SPM results come out?” or the likes on search engines)

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STPM Results 2009 on 25th February 2010 – The Summary (2)

February 28, 2010

This is the part two of the STPM 2009 Results summary as compiled from various newspapers online. As most newspapers had similar news articles, the set of news are sources from The Star between the announcement of the results until now.  Here goes the summary part 2 as compiled by Berry Berry Easy.

Summary of STPM Results 2009 – 25th February 2010 – The Summary Part 2 (Last update 4:43pm, 28th February 2010)

[Summarised from : The Star website ~ 4pm 28/02/2010]

Nationwide:

• Chairman of the Malaysian Examinations Council (MEC), Tan Sri Prof Dzulkifli Abdul Razak mentioned that there was an increase in the number of students who obtained a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.0 and above also increased to 35.9% for STPM 2009 when compared with 31.5% in 2008.
• 331 students scored a perfect CGPA of 4.0, which represents less than 1% of all Form 6 students who took the exams.
• There was an increase in the percentage of candidates who passed all their subjects to 47.7% in the 2009 STPM from 44.1% in 2008.
• The gap between urban and rural areas were large but not as large as in the science stream, where 15.6% of urban students scored three to five As as compared to 4.5% of the rural students counterparts.
• Overall pass rate improved for ten subjects, which are the : General Paper, Arabic Language, Literature in English, Malay Literature, History, Geography, Economics, Accounting, Mathematics T and Biology (varies between 2% to 6.5%).
• An overwhelming majority of Form 6 students answered in English for Science and Mathematics papers in the 2009 STPM, with 97.5% of candidates answering fully in English versus 92.7% in 2008.
• This is especially so in the Mathematics papers such as Mathematics S, Mathematics T and Further Mathematics T where more than 98% of candidates answered fully in English.
• Ten subjects showed non significant changes in their pass rate, with changes under 2%.
• Among biggest drop in pass rate include, Computing and Sports Science. The drop in pass rate are 5.7% and 5.6% respectively.
• In, Further Mathematics T, only 16 candidates took the subject, with only two candidates obtaining full passes.

Top scorers:

• Masmin Mensih emerged as the country’s top scorer in the special candidate (visually impaired) category. He intends to study in the University Malaysia Sabah in education.
• Yap Jun Fai, formerly of SMJK Katholik in Petaling Jaya emerged as one of the top two science stream scorer in Malaysia with 5A’s. He’s hard work was mixed with extra activities such as jogs, badminton and marathons.
• Muhammad Najmuddin Firdaus Abdullah of SMK Ayer Lanas in Jeli, Kelantan emerged as one of the top three national top scorer in Malaysia for Arts stream with 5A’s. He is also active in sports and represented his school at the district level in both football and running.
• Over in Kedah, Nor Liana Abdul Munim of SMK Agama Kedah and Cheah Yt Chun of SMJK Keat Hwa scored 5As.
• Muhammad Raizan Abdul Rahman emerged as top scorer for the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) in the Special Candidates (Spastic) category. He scored two As, an A- and a C+. He attributed his success to consistent studying.
• Nurul Imani Zakaria, with 5A’s emerged as the top student in the Rural Category. The arts stream student is from SMK Seri Aman in Pasir Puteh.
• Loh Wei Siong emerged as the top student in the Special Candidates (Blind) category.
• Among national top scorers include  Ayu Faridah Nor Azman, Hoo Xiao Mei and Muhammad Najmuddin Firdaus Abdullah.
• The two best scorers in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) were Png Ning and M. S. Prarthini.
• John Soo of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tinggi Kluang in Johor scored 5A’s in his STPM. His achievement was unique as his was achieved with Further Mathematics T being one of his options. (Only 16 students took it nationwide, and only person in Johor). He aspire to be a doctor.
• Hadawiyah Moham­mad emerged as Terengganu’s top STPM scorer with 5As. Incidentally, her brother was Tereng­ganu’s best student in 2005. She considered herself as an average student as she only obtained 6As for her SPM. (Great improvement, we must say)

Miscellaneous state results:

• 3,122 students from Penang sat for 2009’s STPM examinations. From it, 16 schools achieved 100% pass rate.
• In Penang, Chung Ling High School has the highest number of straight As student with 11, followed by SMK Jit Sin with 10 and SMK St Xavier Institution with four.
• 18 students scored straight As in STPM 2009 in Kedah, of which two students scored 5As.
• 14 schools in Kedah achieved 100% passes. They include SMK Jitra, SMK Labu Besar in Kulim, SMK Megat Dewa in Kodiang, SMK Bedong, SMK Sin Min Sungai Petani and SMK Sultan Badlishah.

So how did you all fared in the exams? Do drop the Berry Berry Teacher a line if there are any mistakes or addition to the top scorer list.

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STPM Results 2009 on 25th February 2010 – The Summary

February 25, 2010

The grand anticipation to the revealing of the STPM 2009 results has come and gone this afternoon. Besides students who collected their own results feeling joy and pain, the general public will also like to know about how well the vintage group of 2009 did in their STPM Form 6 exams. Berry Berry Easy will help everybody save some reading time and summarise everything from major newspapers periodically until everything on this matter settles down. Without further adieu, we present you the STPM 2009 Results that was published on the 25th of February 2010.

Summary of STPM Results 2009 – 25th February 2010 – The Summary (Last update 10:29pm, 25th February 2010)

The Malaysian Examination Council (MEC) has announced that :

[Summarised from : NST website ~ 10pm 25/02/2010]

• 92.55% of the 52,348 Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) candidates of 2009 obtained full pass. [NST 10pm 25/02/2010]

[Summarised from : Berita Harian website ~ 10pm 25/02/2010]

• Chairman of the MEC, Prof Tan Sri Dr Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said that 4,316 candidates obtained full pass in 5 subjects, whereas there are 20,670 candidates who obtained pass grades in 4 subjects
• From the same source, 9797, 7412 and 6251 candidates obtained full pass in three subjects, two subjects and one subject, respectively.
• Percentage students (government school, private school and private candidates) who obtained full pass in five and four subjects increased to 47.73% as compared to STPM 2008’s 44.09%
• Only 13,205 STPM 2009 students took five subjects. (maximum allowable)
• A total of 15 STPM 2009 candidates obtained Grade A in five subjects, as compared to 13 candidates in STPM 2008.
• From the 15, six are from science stream, while the other nine are from arts stream.
• The gulf between urban and rural students remained large with 12.14% candidates from urban areas scoring 5A, 4A and 3As as compared to only 7.06% from rural areas.

*MEC is the English name for Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia (MPM). Please refer to the original sources for the exact figures. Any misinformation on this post is greatly regretted.

The Berry Berry Teacher would like to know how STPM 2009 candidates fared in the exams. Do drop us a line.

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SPM Chemistry Form 4 Notes – Terminology and Concepts: Chemical Formulae and Equations (Part 1)

February 25, 2010

After few weeks of learning chemistry, there are still some students who wrote in to Berry Berry Easy to express their problems in mastering chemical formulae and chemical equations. Some ask if they could just forget about it and catch up later. The answer is NO. Among basic skills which students must master to understand chemistry, none is more important than mastering chemical formulae and chemical equations. Most newcomers to the subject of chemistry are scared off by the rather complex chemical formulae and equations, although they become easier when you understand the underlying concept behind them.

Chemical formulae are simply there to describe chemical reactions as denoted by the chemical equations. Confusing? Nay, it should be. Some memorising and practise will go a long way in understanding this topic.

If you think this is hard, try understanding the difficulty of chemistry students before Mr Berzelius devised the current chemical formulae writing system. So give it a try before saying that this is hard. For those who do not find this difficult, congratulation. But do work hard in learning how to express information in a chemical formula properly. So Berry Berry Teacher would like to share with all some notes as shown below.

SPM Form 4 – Terminology and Concepts: Chemical Formulae and Equations – Part 1

1. Relative atomic mass, Ar is the atomic mass of an atom when compared to a standard atom

2. Standard atom:

Hydrogen scale: hydrogen is the lightest atom of all and the mass of one hydrogen atom was assigned 1 unit.

Weakness of Hydrogen scale:

• not too many elements can react readily with hydrogen,
• the reactive masses of some elements were not accurate,
• hydrogen exists as a gas at room temperature and
• has a number of isotopes with different masses.

Helium scale: the second lightest atom of all and the mass of one helium atom was assigned 1 unit.

Weakness of Helium scale:

• Mass of 1 helium atom = 4 times the mass of a hydrogen atom
• So, mass of 1 helium atom = 4 times 1/12 mass of a carbon atom
• helium exists as a gas at room temperature and
• helium is an inert gas.

Oxygen scale: chose as the standard atom to compare the masses of atoms

Weakness of Oxygen scale:

• the existence of three isotopes of oxygen were discovered,
• natural oxygen (containing all the three isotopes) as the standard (Chemist) and
• used the isotopes oxygen-16 as the standard (Physicists).

Carbon scale: standard atom of comparison internationally.

• a carbon-12 atom is 12 times heavier than an atom of hydrogen,
• used as the reference standard in mass spectrometers,
• exists as a solid at room temperature,
• most abundant carbon isotope, happening about 98.89% and
• carbon-12 is close to the agreement based on oxygen.

3. Relative molecular mass, Mr of a substances is the average mass of a molecule (two or more atoms) of the substances when compared 1/12 with of the mass of a carbon-12 atom.

4. Relative formula mass, Fr is for ionic compound which is calculated by adding up the relative atomic masses of all the atoms.

5. Example:

• Relative atomic mass, Ar of helium = 4
• Relative molecular mass, Mr of CO₂ = 12 + 2(16) = 44
• Relative formula mass, Fr of NaCl = 23 + 35.5 = 58.5
• Relative formula mass, Na₂CO_3·10H₂O = 2(23) + 12 + 3(16) + 10 [2(1) + 16] = 286

Try to solve some of the examples without looking at the answers. If you can understand this, then stay tune and log in again for Part 2 of this topic’s notes. If you cannot understand the examples, try and try and try and try and try again until you are good with it. Till then.

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STPM 2009 Tips Analysis – Part 1 – Audience Reach : 23.4% of All STPM Science Stream Students in Malaysia Benefitted From Berry Berry Easy’s Tips

February 22, 2010

Berry Berry Easy will be publishing a series of analyses regarding its hits and misses on the 2009 STPM Tips. First up, are the audience reach. Berry Berry Easy would like to estimate the number of STPM students benefitted from this humble website. This analyses will be used as a baseline for future references to see if we are growing or not growing. To see if we are serving enough students or not. To see if our efforts are worthwhile, or would there be a better way to serve our students.

So to start things off, we would like to estimate the number of 2009 STPM Chemistry and Biology students served, by % of total STPM students in Malaysia.

STPM 2009 Tips Analysis – Part 1 – Audience Reach

There are 9,079 and 5,343 STPM students who took the subject of chemistry and biology in 2009, respectively. (Source: http://www.mpm.edu.my/main.php?Content=sections&SubSectionID=64&SectionID=63 – Valid as of 22 February 2010)

Top 5 Post as of December 2009 (STPM 2009 season)

Legend:

• Single post – denotes visitors who logged onto a specific post via search engine (this meant that they intended to visit the site)
• Category – denotes visitors who viewed the specific category of “Berry Super Tips”
• Archive – denotes visitors who viewed the monthly archive of “November”
• Home – denotes visitors who viewed the post from the main homepage

Calculation:

Hence, to estimate the number of students who are served by Berry Berry Easy, we have developed a simple formula for the calculation. It is not fool-proof but serves as a rough estimation.

The formula will follow the assumptions:

• Single post : 1 view = 1 visitor
• Category : 1 view = 0.25 visitor (because there were 4 possible tips that the reader might be interested at, so 1/4 = weightage of 0.25)
• Archive : 1 view = 0.045 visitor (need to divide the value by 22, as there were 22 posts in November)
• Home : 1 view = 0.1 visitor (need to divide by 10, as the homepage displays 10 posts at once)

Extra assumptions:

It is also expected that the following phenomena will cancel out each other (as it is impossible to track)

• Some readers might print it out for distribution (so actual numbers might be even higher)
• Some are repeating visitors (the numbers of repeating visitors are rather low – based on Google Analytics tracking, so expected to be negligible effect)
• Some of the tips are posted in forums and other blogs (so the actual number of readers who benefitted from the tips should be even higher)
• Some visitors are not STPM students (this will pull down the actual numbers)
• Some did not use the tips (this will also cause the numbers to be over estimated)

Hence, it is postulated that the aforementioned factors cancel out each other.

Final formula :

Total students benefitted from Berry Super Tips =

=(Single post x 1) + (Category x 0.25) + (Archive X 0.045) + (Home x 0.1)

For STPM 2009 Chemistry

= (1860 x 1) + (890 x 0.25) + (26 x 0.045) + (388 x 0.1) = 2122.47 = 2122 STPM 2009 Chemistry students

For STPM 2009 Biology

= (826 x 1) + (794 x 0.25) + (110 x 0.045) + (890 x 0.1) = 1118.45 = 1118 STPM 2009 Biology students

Percentage students in Malaysia who benefitted from Berry Super Tips

Chemistry : (2122/9079)x100% = 23.4%

Biology: (1118/5343)x100% = 20.9%

Berry Berry Teacher is pleased to inform all readers that, the site has successfully served an estimated 23.4% and 20.9% STPM students in the whole Malaysia who took Chemistry and Biology, respectively. This is quite a happy finding for a new and humble site like Berry Berry Easy

For readers who might have benefitted from 2009’s STPM tips, can you also drop a comment on what you think of Berry Berry Easy’s effort, so that we can improve ourselves. Part 2 of the analysis coming up.

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STPM 2009 Results Coming Out

February 21, 2010

For Berry Readers who took their Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) in 2009, behold! Results will be out on the 25th of February 2010. Yes, it has been confirmed by the Malaysian Examination Council (MEC) that the results will be announced this Thursday, which is a mere 4 days away.

STPM 2009 Results to be Announced on the 25th February 2010

Students will have 3 methods to check their results:

1) Collect personally

Students (non-private candidate) can obtain their results from their school from 12pm that day. (Although the schools will be getting it slightly earlier) Private candidates however would have to wait for their results which will be delivered by post.

2) Short messaging service (SMS)

Students may use their handphone’s sms capability to check their results too.

• Type STPM (space) followed by identity card number
• Send it to 36363
• Example: STPM 900722011234

• Alternatively, type STPM result (space) followed by identity card number
• Send it to 15888.
• Example: STPM results 900722011234

3) Website

Students can also check their results online via the MEC website @ http://www.mpm.edu.my from noon on Thursday.

Good luck to all candidates who took their STPM in 2009. The Berry Berry Teacher would love to hear from all of you as to how all of you fare in the exams. Do drop us a line in the comment box.

STPM 2009 Trivia:

• 52,348 candidates sat for the examination.
• 47,260 (90.28%) government school candidates
• 1,747 (3.34%) private school candidates
• 3,241 (6.38%) private candidates

Posted in: Berry Announcement | 7 Comments »

Berry Berry Easy Wishes All A Berry Happy Chinese New Year 2010

February 16, 2010

Berry Berry Easy wishes all Berry Readers a Berry Happy Chinese New Year 2010. May the year of the tiger brings you success.

Posted in: Berry Announcement | No Comments »

SPM Biology Form 4 Notes – Terminology and Concepts: Cell Structure and Cell Organisation (Part II)

February 12, 2010

Continuing from Part 1 of Cell Structure and Organisation, Berry Berry Easy will like to present you with part 2 of the same topic. The previous part involved Mitochondrion, Nucleus, Neucleolus, Neucleoplasm, Chromosomes, Ribosomes, Endoplasmic reticulum and Plasma membrane. So be sure to check out the previous post.

SPM Form 4 – Terminology and Concepts: Cell Structure and Cell Organisation

Cell Structure and Function

Comparison between Animal Cell (AC) and Plant Cell (PC)

9. Golgi apparatus / Golgi body: AC and PC

• bound sacs
• processes, packages and transport molecules synthesised in the cell
• forms lysosomes
• transports and stores lipids
• synthesis of carbohydrate from hormone
• changes protein into glycoprotein
• excretes waste products out of the cell

10. Cytoplasm: AC and PC

• aqueous solution (except nucleus)
• stores water, enzymes, nutrient, salts and dissolved gases
• provided support, shape and protects the cell organelles
• medium for metabolic reactions
• provides substances

11. Lysosome: AC

• sac-like organelle with one membrane
• digest proteins, lipids and carbohydrates
• removes undigested materials
• releases enzymes to digest external materials

12.  Centriole: AC

• are paired cylindrical organelles
• nine tubes with three tubules each
• produces spindle during cell division (mitosis and meiosis)
• migrate to the opposite poles of the cell (during cell division – will be discussed in Chapter 5 Cell Division)

13. Vacuole: AC (temporary / lower class species) and PC

• small cavity in the cytoplasm
• bound by a single membrane
• filled with cell sap
• storage of food (protein, oil and water)
• some vacuoles remove metabolic waste
• functions as cell expansion
• Amoeba: food vacuoles (phagocytosis)
• Paramecium: contractile vacuoles (expel water)

14. Cell Wall: PC

• rigid and tough cellulose layer surrounding the plasma membrane (cell membrane)
• protects and supports the cell
• maintains the shape
• prevents the cell from busting (excessive intake of water)
• allows substances to move freely through the cell wall

15. Chloroplast: PC

• disc / lens-shaped organelle
• have two membranes: inner and outer membrane
• contains chlorophyll in the grana to trap sunlight energy
• carry out photosynthesis in the chlorophyll
• storage of food and pigments

Keys:

• AC and PC = similarities
• AC or PC = differences (Carbohydrates storage: AC = Glycogen / PC = Starch)

The notes for this topic is not yet complete, so check out for Part III. Log on frequently to Berry Berry Easy for more notes.

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