My First Semester in NTU

Hi guys, I just wanna share some of my experiences as an undergraduate, since some of you have asked me how Uni life is like and I know some of you are rather tensed about getting enrolled into a local university come August. Hence, I'm here to enlighten you- some little little things about university life.

Like all other educational institutions you have went through so far (a.k.a primary, secondary school and JC), there's a lot of initiative you will need to make your study period an enjoyable one. Firstly, making friends. If you hate Orientation, and you despise the fact that you have to attend... don't worry, it's not compulsory. I didn't attend FOC and in my first week of school, I was pretty clueless and walk into class gong gong, as if I didn't know anything at all. In fact, as a Communication student, I really have no idea what's going on- because my course of study is so different from what we were used to in school last time, there wasn't the science nor the humanities. Ok, then I only knew one girl who was from my previous work place, and saw a few familiar faces from MJC, but I didn't say hi. I'm kinda a bit anti-social... ha ha ha... But I admit it la, despite my unamiable face, I did make a few friends who are very helpful and will always nag at me when I'm late for class. =P

The most tensed period of uni life would of course be the start and the end of the term. During the first two weeks, we have something called an "add-drop period". That's the NTU system for registering for electives. We get to register whatever we wanna study, it can be econs, psychology, sociology, engineering (YUCKS!), maths, arts, blah blah blah. In order to graduate, we have to fulfill a certain number of General Electives, Prescribed Electives and Unrestricted Electives. That's not the irritating part, because the math would already be done by your school and you just register according to the type of electives you have to fulfill for this year.

The irritating part is, each course has already its prescribed time slots, and hence this irritates the _______ (fill in the blank) out of me. Your favourite electives either clash with your core's timetable, clash with your core's exam date, or worse.... NO VACANCIES!

This is why I say that the start of the term is a very tense one. I remember my first add-drop period... I didn't have a laptop back then, but everyone else DID... they brought their laptops to school and waited for add-drop to begin... It was scary! Everyone had their laptops open and all of them had their browsers waiting at the STARS website.... Creepy.... Truly Singapore kiasu spirit!! Because it's a first come first serve basis, by the time I reached home TWO HOURS later... I couldn't get much of the courses I wanted.

Piece of shit.

As for the NUS and SMU system, I'm not familiar with, but I guess I'll be even more frustrated than I already am. My sis used to be from NUS FASS, and everytime she'll be screaming either about a server jam... or that she got out bid and was unable to get the course she wanted. Free market, eh? That's what we economists called "inequality".

As for why the last part of sem is quite tensed is cos EXAMS LA! What else? Hahahaha... Don't be like me... I didn't realise one semester was less than 4 months long and before I knew it, the exams are here! Golly! I freaked out, of course... But my results weren't all that bad la. Lols.

Oh oh oh, I only have 21 school hours in a week. That's so seenang compared to the JC timetable, RIGHT? If you have enough self restraint and good time management... University isn't very difficult one. It's just more challenging on the intellectual level. It's very very manageable, and if you attend every lesson and listen carefully to your prof, won't do too badly one.... The thing is not to get too carried away doing other things that will take away a lot of time from your studying (sometimes, Hall activities are a bane) and although money can be quite an issue, I'd still say put your focus on your studies. Let your parents worry about what they need to worry and you do them justice by getting the good results.

Well, the above goes the same for our kiddos still in JC, do your parents and teachers proud... Give the best you can in the new academic year and you will be duly rewarded.

Signing off,
Eunice Chan