All NUS Lecturers / TAs Should Read This

We don't need long explanations of the theory, etc. All we want to know are three things:

a) What kind of problems we need to solve
b) What we need to know to solve it
c) How to solve it.

Likewise for labs. All we want to know is this:

a) What must we do?
b) What kind of readings must we take?
c) How to do the lab report?

Okay, a little extreme I must say, but sometimes I do wish that our lecturers will cut to the chase and explain to us what we REALLY need to know :P

A Response to Anon

I guess it's really a big step of faith to trust in God for His provision and for results isn't it? For me, I find myself not being able to commit to such a great step of faith. The fear of failure is holding me back and I don't like it a single bit. Especially when the suffix (Hons) is under threat. I know that as long as the (Hons) is still there, even if it's a 2-2 or even a 3, i am still a honours degree holder and will at least have a better standing in the job market as a honours degree holder, even if i don't have the prestige a good honours confers on me.

so you say i need a push in the right direction. problem is that i don't know what the right direction is now. My studying method for example. I don't DOTA, I don't have a girlfriend, I don't participate that actively in hall... yet people who do all three are performing. Why? Because although i studied HARD, i have failed to study SMART. And now I am at a loss as to how i should study as i do not know what the RIGHT way to study is. Likewise for my life. You are right in saying i need a breakthrough. *shrug* you are right indeed, in all areas, because I don't like where I am standing now a single bit. But where to? Definitely continuing to use my old methods which have failed are not the way. And I am hesitant to use a new method when i do not know if it will work... The price of screwing up this sem is really too high to pay..

Something interesting

Taken from somewhere. This guy is my senior in NUS ME as well.

Suffice to say that I'm not entirely happy about my results, even though I still remain within the second class (upper) honours zone. The problem stems with the dropping of 0.05 CAP points. That may seem paltry, but it gets me to closer and closer to the 4.0 danger mark before I drop into the second class (lower) zone.

In a way, I kinda envy those who already are in the second class (lower) zone. A lot of people I know who are already in that zone have pretty much accepted that that's the honours grade that they're going to graduate with. In other words, they will always be more contented than I am.

It's always worthwhile to remember that academic achievement isn't the only yardstick by which success can be measured.

Well I guess contentment is very important... MY VERSION:

"I'm not entirely happy about my results, even though I still remain within the third class honours zone. The problem stems with the dropping of 0.02 CAP points. That may seem paltry, but it gets me to closer and closer to the 3.2 danger mark before I drop into the pass degree zone."

Okay, but I don't relish the part about envying those in the category below... 3rd class is already too low as it is.

I just got back the appeal results. Failed. My grades remain as they are.

I have two signposts in front of me: one is the 3.5 mark and the other (very distant) one is the 4.0 mark which will signify entry into the elite 'good honours' range. The other mark, only visible through a telescope, is the creme de la creme 4.5 mark. Which, sadly is out of my hands now.

Well, we are in the same boat...

Changes to Recruit Training

In an effort to ensure proper training and readiness among the military services, Congress has approved the following changes to basic principles of recruit training:

Haircuts
Marines: Heads will be shaved.
Army: Stylish flat-top's for all recruits.
Navy: No haircut standard.
Air Force: Complete makeovers as seen on the Jenny Jones show.

Training Hours:
Marines: Reveille at 0500, train until 2000.
Army: Reveille at 0600, train until 1900.
Navy: Get out of bed at 0900, train until 1100, lunch until 1300, train until 1600.
Air Force: Awaken at 1000, breakfast in bed, train from 1100 to 1200, lunch at 1200, train from 1300 to 1400, nap at 1400, awaken from nap at 1500, training ceases at 1500.

Meals:
Marines: Meals, Ready-to-Eat 3 times a day.
Army: One hot meal, 2 MRE's.
Navy: 3 hot meals.
Air Force: Catered meals prepared by the Galloping Gourmet, Julia Child, and Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse. All you can eat.

Leave And Liberty:
Marines: None.
Army: 4 hours a week.
Navy: 2 days a week.
Air Force: For every four hours of training, recruits will receive eight hours of leave and liberty.

Protocol:
Marines: Will address all officers as "Sir," and refer to the rank of all enlisted members when speaking to them (i.e., Sgt. Smith).
Army: Will address all officers as "Sir," unless they are friends, and will call all enlisted personnel "Sarge."
Navy: Will address all officers as "Skipper," and all enlisted personnel as "Chief."
Air Force: All Air Force personnel shall be on a first name basis with each other.

Decorations/Awards:
Marines: Medals and badges are awarded for acts of gallantry and bravery only.
Army: Medals and badges are awarded for every bullet fired, hand grenade thrown, fitness test passed, and bed made.
Navy: Will have ships' engineers make medals for them as desired.
Air Force: Will be issued all medals and badges, as they will most likely be awarded them at some point early in their careers anyway.

Camouflage Uniforms:
Marines: Work uniform, to be worn only during training and in field situations.
Army: Will wear it anytime, anywhere.
Navy: Will not wear camouflage uniforms, they do not camouflage you on a ship. (Ship Captains will make every effort to attempt to explain this to sailors.)
Air Force: Will defeat the purpose of camouflage uniforms by putting blue and silver chevrons and colorful squadron patches all over them.

Career Fields:
Marines: All Marines shall be considered riflemen first and foremost.
Army: It doesn't matter, all career fields promote to E-8 in first enlistment anyway.
Navy: Nobody knows. The Navy is still trying figure out what sailors in the ABH, SMC, BNC and BSN rates do anyway.
Air Force: Every recruit will be trained in a manner that will allow them to leave the service early to go on to higher paying civilian jobs.

Yeah, and the recruitment queues at Air Force are so long, only the luckiest few get to join. The rest get drafted to the other three services depending on their 'suay-ness'. The most suay ones go to Iraq.

Having said that, I don't really agree that Air Force is slack. There's a lot of sh*t that goes on behind closed doors there as well. Just like a lot of ppl say clerk is slack, well 2 1/2 years as one persuaded me otherwise ten times over.

Concerns on tuition fees

Dear Sir/Mdm

I am relieved by the announcement from Prof Shih that tuition fees
for AY 07/08 will not be increased. However, I have the following
reservations:

1. The President mentioned that expenditure is increasing, but
however, the University will absorb these costs for the coming year
ahead. It is my understanding that this absorption cannot go on
indefinitely and that fees will have to be revised in the future to
match these increasing costs.

2. At present I have observed several wasteful practices in NUS. The
Civil Service practices a 'Cut Waste Panel' whereby members of the
public can write-in with their suggestions. Is there a similar body
in NUS?

I wrote to the Cut Waste Panel but was told that its purview only
extends to civil service organisations. Following that, I have e-
mailed the Quality Service Manager with these suggestions but have
received no reply.

Hopefully, if these wasteful practices can be eradicated, the
University can save on operational costs.

3. Finally, may I clarify that I do not forsee myself being affected
by any of these increases as I am on track to graduate in AY 08/09.
However, I am making these comments out of consideration for my
juniors and those who will come into NUS in years to come.

revamped blog

Okay, it's the new year 2007 and after three days of inactivity, i am pleased to announce that my blog has been revamped and is back in action!

I'm in the third week of school and work is indeed starting to pile up. Must learn to study smart - guess that's been what's lacking all this while.

I may not update as often as now on (not as if i have been updating often anyway) but i'll drop by when i have time...

School so far

Week three and that means tutorials (and labs for me, since i didn't have any last week) have started.

1st week of school and....

It's been about a week since school started. The CORS bidding was pretty eventless as i have 5 core modules this sem and thus got all of them for 1 point, and I decided not to overload this sem in the interests of concentrating more on my modules and getting a higher CAP. I will need to get Bs and B+s on average to push to a 2nd class honours. For a 2nd upper, it will have to be As and A-s on average. Pretty much a tall order but I will still try my best and trust God for the rest.:)

I recently ran into a problem which I am not sure will affect my hall stay in year 3. RH is having a cultural groups performance Rhazzmatazz in February. Problem is, I have a test (30% of the marks) on that same day and time (and another test earlier in the day) which basically means I cannot participate in the event. I'm not sure if there are other events which I can take part in to fulfil the minimum workload, but if not, that will basically mean like last year. And unlike last year, I have nothing to fall back on this time round...

Some comments on the modules so far

MA3501 - A rehash of MA1505 and 1506, at least at the starting part, but I anticipate that it will start venturing into unknown territory pretty soon.

ME2142 - Looks like we need to be very good at differential equations and Laplace transform for this one.

ME2114 - Quite similar to ME2113, even the lecturer is the same.. hopefully the difficulty is, too!

ME2135 - Struggling to understand it, and the lectures... guess i will need to put the energy which will otherwise be spent on the 6th module on this one. Hope the monotony will disperse soon enough though.

ME2101 - Guess it's quite an interesting module on mechanical design etc... builds on what we learnt in ME2103. The lecturer is pretty jovial as well.

I expect to attain a SAP of AT LEAST 3.8 for this sem. No excuse to score any lesser than that since I am only taking 5 modules...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!

More SM3 pics...