CSB

Carlo Lastimosa’s game-winning shot helped the College of St. Benilde (CSB) to a sensational finish over Jose Rizal University (JRU) on Wednesday’s NCAA men’s basketball at The Arena in San Juan City.
St. Benilde was just 1 point behind JRU, 77-76, when Lastimosa received the inbound pass and drove for the finger roll lay-up that pushed the Blazers ahead, 78-77, 5.3 seconds remaining in the game.
The Heavy Bombers tried to regain the lead as Raycon Kabigting ran all the way to the other side of the court and forced a pass to Ronnel Carampil.
Carampil, however, lost the ball just as the final buzzer sounded.
The final scores were 78-77 in favor of the Blazers.
It was JRU’s second straight loss to a come-from-behind effort by an opposing team.
Last week, the Heavy Bombers fell to a 79-77 triple overtime loss to Perpetual Help Altas.
Lastimosa finished with 30 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and was named Best Player of the Game.
“It feels great kasi nabigyan ko ang team ko ng panalo,” he said.
The Blazers were trailing the Heavy Bombers for the first three quarters, 58-54.
When it came to the final canto, St. Benilde began tightening the noose while chopping off the Heavy Bombers’ 77-73 lead through the free throw line.
Lastimosa split his charities to bring the Blazers within 3 points, 77-74.

Joseph dela Paz’s 2 points off his free throw shots brought St. Benilde even closer to JRU, 77-76 with 46.9 ticks remaining.
A couple of scrambles brought the ball to St. Benilde’s court before Lastimosa received the inbound that led to their win.
“Sinundan namin ang mga sinabi ni Coach [Richard del Rosario], ‘yung pressure namin sa basket nila,” said Lastimosa.
Ian de la Paz and Mark Romero each scored 12 points for St. Benilde.
John Montemayor topscored the Heavy Bombers with 12 points. Carampil and Cabigting added 11 points each.

Valedictorian

A university's valedictorian who blurted out a profanity at the end of her convocation speech last Friday apologised for the slip yesterday.
Nanyang Technological University's Ms Trinetta Chong, 23, gave a speech to inspire and congratulate her schoolmates during the school's convocation ceremony held on campus.
"I'm sorry if I offended anyone, as convocation ceremonies are supposed to be family-friendly events," she told my paper.
In her speech, which lasted some six minutes, the graduate from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information paid tribute to the efforts of her fellow schoolmates, professors and parents. She even compared her cohort which was dressed in academic robes to characters in the popular Harry Potter books.
It was only at the end of her speech that she blurted out: "We f***ing did it!"
The use of the profanity was greeted with cheers and applause from the hall.
Ms Chong said: "I used the word on the spur of the moment, as I felt that it resounded with graduating students."
She said that her parents, who oppose the use of profanities, were shocked at first, but later took it in their stride.
A copy of her speech had to be vetted, but it did not contain the expletive.
In response to my paper queries, an NTU spokesman said that the audience at the ceremony was in a "highly charged mood" by the end of Ms Chong's speech.
The spokesman said: "In that environment, she probably got carried away.

"Her inappropriate choice of word is regrettable and she apologised to the School Chair in person and in writing after that."
my paper understands that the school nominated Ms Chong for the title of valedictorian based on the criteria of excellent academic performance, leadership qualities with high level of participation in extracurricular activities, including that of community service, and good public speaking skills.
Ms Chong was also one of her batch's top students and was picked by graduating students for the valedictorian title based on an online voting process.
A video clip of her speech was posted online shortly after the ceremony. It has since drawn mixed responses - flak as well as nods of approval - from netizens.
User markcenite was "shocked and scandalised by the abominable language used".
Others, such as netizen Samtiago86, felt that Ms Chong's speech reflected the struggle that undergraduates face in their four years of university life.
The user added: "It's very inspiring and candid at the same time."
The video, which was uploaded onto YouTube last Friday, had drawn close to 1,200 views by last evening.
A Facebook page has been created by the school's students in support of Ms Chong.
The page, titled "Wee support our school's Valedictorian", attracted more than 30 "likes" after it was created yesterday afternoon but it was unexpectedly shut down by the evening.

Bangladesh HSC Exam Result 2011

Bangladesh Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will declare the result of the Higher Secondary Examinatons on July 27, 2011 at 12:30 p.m. The results can be checked here.
Mr. Nurul will announce the results  through a press conference at his ministry by handing over the copy of the results to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Around 779,441 students appeared in the HSC exams this year under 10 education boards including Madrasah and Technical education boards.

Around 424,823 males and 354,618 female students gave the HSC exams which were conducted in April 4, 2011.
Around 629,619 students gave their exams in eight general education boards, 76,957 in Madrasa Education Board and around 68,961 students Technical Education Board.
To get your result via SMS, type the first 3 characters of board name < Space > roll number  and send to 16222. For example, for Dhaka Board Roll Number 123456.
Write: dha 123456 and send to 16222.

CFA

Thirty-nine percent of Level 1 takers and forty-three percent of Level II’ers are likely feeling prettay prettay prettay good at the moment, possibly on account of celebratory morning drinks or the realization that the promise land is within reach. The rest of you are probably in not as great a place, on account of having just thrown away the last 4-6 months of your lives.

In the event you want to express whatever emotions are running high right now, be it anger or sadness, but work in narrow-minded institutions that will presumably not appreciate psychotic meltdowns– the likes of which would have Biff Basness slowly backing out of the room– or JO&C’ing on company property, don’t be shy about letting it out right here. Tell us all about how you skipped a midget-themed Memorial Day pool party for this crap and this is the thanks you get?? We’re listening. In related news, we’re considering having Matt take Level 1 in December, so if you have any tips for avoiding spectacular failure or making the exam your bitch.

NTU

With the recent spotlight on the PAP-endorsed presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan’s pro-foreigner education policies and the relentless influx of foreigners, the state media has been churning out propaganda lately to convince Singaporeans that they still come ‘first’ in terms of job opportunities.
According to Channel News Asia, a record 9,066 students are graduating from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) this year with two-thirds already ’securing’ employment.

It interviewed brothers Harry and Henry Zhuang have just been conferred their Digital Animation degrees and will be working in the same company.
“I think there are jobs available. It’s whether you’re willing to work or not,” Harry said.
However it was revealed whether these jobs are full-time permanent positions or short-term contract ones only. Neither was the starting pay mentioned.
The Straits Times followed up with another misleading report about one NTU accounting graduate who is earning ‘close’ to $10,000 monthly after landing a job as a sales analyst with an investment bank fresh out of school last year.

CBSE

CBSE

The Nagpur bench of Bombay high courton Monday expressed deep concern over 'minor'CBSE students being unnecessarily made to suffer on account of ongoing dispute with the Maharashtra state board. A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode sternly directed both boards to make appropriate statements in the interest of the students within a week.

The court's directives came while hearing a plea by Aggrieved Parents' Forum (APF) who challenged Maharashtra government's decision to prohibit CBSE school-assessment students from getting admission in state's junior colleges.

Earlier, Anand Parchure appearing for the state board pointed out that in the original scheme, CBSE itself mentioned that it had introduced the school-based examination in Class X for the students who don't want to change the board. He added that if they want to shift, they should be asked to clear any examination, including the supplementary one, that should be conducted and evaluated by the CBSE itself and not by the school teachers. After the judges asked him for possible ways out, he suggested about provisionally admitting such students till they clear the board exam.

When government pleader Nitin Sambre was quizzed on this possibility and whether such students would be accepted by the state board, he stated that the admissions were made by the Central Admission Committee (CAC) under centralized admission process (CAP) and he had to seek instructions regarding this.

During last hearing, the CBSE had clarified that both school and board-based examinations were equivalent and should be treated at par by other boards, and in long term it plans to do away with board-based exam.

An affidavit by CBSE assistant secretary (legal) S Dharini Arun categorically stated that internal evaluation did not undermine the legitimate, standardization and authenticity of school-based examination. Moreover, the results of both examinations were declared simultaneously and even the marklists bear resemblance.

Taking a dig at the state, CBSE strongly argued that no other board in the country has denied admission to its students who opted for school-based exam. It further contended that CBSE Std X examination is valid, legal and duly recognized by the Maharashtra Government. The affidavit informed that CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi held a meeting with state principal secretary and chief protocol officer of General Administration Department (GAD) on July 5 where it was agreed that CBSE school-based exam students would be allowed to apply for Std XI admission in state junior colleges.

CAT 2011

CAT 2011

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is getting a format makeover.

The test, which holds the key to admissions to the 13 IIMs and other major B-schools in the country, will be conducted between October 22 and November 18, 2011.

Though the number of questions remain the same,CAT 2011 will have two sections instead of three, and students will get an additional five minutes to tackle them.

According to a statement released by testing agency Prometric and IIMs, the first section will focus on quantitative ability and data interpretation while the second will be on verbal ability and logical reasoning. These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits.

It will be a 140-minute exam. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions in each section, which will have an on-screen countdown timer. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move on to the second without having the option of being able to go back. Although new in the computer-based version of CAT, this format was previously used in some of the earlier paper-and-pencil years," the statement, released on Monday, said.

The change is vital for the entrance test as admission to IIMs is based on sectional cut-offs. "This move is aimed at being student-friendly. There are many students who lose out on a seat as they would have failed to perform in one of the sections," Prof Janakiraman Moorthy, convener, CAT 2011, said.

An additional five minutes have been added to the existing two-and-half hours available to students. This includes a 15-minute tutorial that will guide students through the process. "Considerable effort has been made in maintaining a similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions are randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks. These will be used to assess post-test equality across the days," Moorthy said.

Meanwhile, taking CAT closer to northern states, Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun have been added to the existing 33 test locations. The number of testing days will remain 20. The check-in time has been reduced by half-an-hour from the previous two hours after considering "the continued punctuality of the candidates". With this change, the afternoon sessions will start at 3.15pm.

A practice test to help candidates familiarize themselves with screens, layout and navigation will be made available in the coming weeks and a video on the conversion of CAT to a computer-based test and candidate impressions of this transition will be available on YouTube by the end of this week. Also, buying CAT vouchers won't be very tough-they will also be available at 201 Axis Bankbranches, an increase of 30 outlets. Last year, around 1.85 lakh students had taken the exam.

More details will be available on the website www.catiim.in by August 8, 2011.