In a blink of eye, my last semester in NUS has come to an end. This also marks the end of my 20-year-long schooling journey. The last week of school had been quite ‘eventful’, with a project deadline, role-playing skit, presentation as well as a final examination on my very last lesson as a full-time student. Graduation from university seems a little anti-climax compared to primary school, secondary school and college. There are no big events (like O, A Levels) to send us off on our last days in school. There is still a graduation ceremony coming up soon, but it’s spaced so far apart from our final schoolday. It’s more like a reunion I guess, similar to O, A Levels result collection day, before we officially say goodbye and part ways.
This semester I’ve been busy with lots of non-school work, mainly tuition, Japanese-related activities and job-search. Still managed to have fun though, with a couple of outings here and there. Really appreciate those who initiate outings, despite the difficulty in deciding upon a common date and time, especially when everyone has many other ‘more important’ commitments.
For the last time, let's review the rating criteria:
Difficulty - Self explanatory.
Workload - Amount of lesson hours per week, assignments, tutorials, projects, self-study required, etc
Lecture/Tutorial/Lab - Enjoyability and understanding
CN4121 – Design Project (Part 2)
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Workload: ★★★★★★
A pretty demanding project indeed. It has become a common grumbling topic among the final year students. Previously I heard from seniors about how ‘jialat’ this module is, now I know why haha. The level of demand also depends on which section we are in charge of, as well as the corresponding professor-in-charge. I can say I’m quite lucky to get a manageable section, instead of the *erhem* unit.
This module makes an effort to strike a balance between teamwork incorporation and fair grading to each member. Simply speaking, the department wants us to work as a team, yet grades us separately based on individual performance. Honestly, I feel that I underperformed for this module, for a mixture of reasons. And it does not follow my usual style of taking control, pushing my own beliefs onto others, etc. Probably the scale of the project has made me realise that it’s not possible to take control of every section (unlike in lab modules), and I should try to trust others’ abilities.
As for individual part, it was a struggle deciding whether it is worth the effort to include additional details and research. There are so many things we can include since the project is quite open-ended in a way, but yet restricted by time and page constraints. I kept in mind what my prof said – ‘Focus on the important things.’ But what is considered important? I decided that for myself and naturally took the easier (aka slacker) way out by eliminating effort-consuming approaches. Looking for practical data is not easy too, due to industrial confidentiality.
CN4118R – Final Year Project
Difficulty: ★★★★
Workload: ★★★★★
For most courses, the biggest (and final) project students will embark on before graduating is FYP (or thesis). This is why most people were surprised when I told them I’ve already completed FYP. Thanks to Design Project, the research period for FYP is relatively short (to save us from one agony into another lol).
It was a blessing in disguise when I failed to get all 15 choices in the first round of project balloting. Really thankful to get a good supervisor and a helpful mentor subsequently. Their guidance and support also helped me to overcome several difficulties along the way, to the extent that I feel I didn’t put in much effort myself. Their encouragement kept me motivated all the way too. Sadly I still feel that I’m not suited to do research, though my supervisor often says otherwise.
It was also lucky that my project is computational based so I need not go to school everyday for lab, and I could use the software on my PC. This gave me a lot of flexibility and free time to commit to other matters…oops haha. The most torturous part was report writing, which I spent a lot of time on the formatting and appearance rather than the content, because my report consists of lots of equations and diagrams. As a result, my report ended up looking like a textbook. A considerable time and $$$ was also spent on printing matters. Although my thesis has a pretty-finish, I personally feel that the content is lacking. Fortunately thanks to my supervisor again, I was able to speak my way out during the poster presentation. And that unexpected award made me realise something…
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| FYP Poster Presentation Day. My supervisor and me (and my poster, which curled like crazy). |
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| Be it in blogs or FB, I see that people usually take photo of their FYP report after completion. I shall monkey see monkey do as well. (anyway the title has a mistake, so I went to bind again...) As you can see, the form of my report is different from the norm, thanks to my supervisor who encouraged me to break the norm haha. It's smaller than A4, bigger than A5. |
CN4201R – Petroleum Refining
Difficulty: ★★★★
Workload: ★★
Lecture/Tutorial: ★★
This module is like an extension to the petrochemical module I took last semester, just that it focuses more in-depth into refinery processes. The good thing about this module is that it’s taught by Singapore Refining Company (SRC) engineers who have many years of experience in the field. But the bad thing is they have too much experience to tell, and tend to let us off very late. =(
This is a very very useful module for those who wish to enter the refining industry. It gives a lot of insight as to what chemical engineers do in a refinery and what kind of problems they face. The site visit to SRC was my most enriching visit to Jurong Island (out of 4 visits there) because we were allowed to walk around the actual site, look at the process units close-up and experience the heat and noise, rather than just taking a simple bus tour through.
The assessment is basically memory based. With so much information given and closed-book exams, studying can be quite difficult because you won’t know which information must be memorized in detail, and which information just require a rough grasp of concept. Didn’t do well for the mid terms, as I was caught off guard by questions which require answers that I thought wasn’t necessary to memorize in detail. IIRC I was positioned around the 25-30% percentile. Sigh.
LAK1201 – Korean 1
Difficulty: ★★
Workload: ★★★
Lecture: ★★★★★
Tutorial: ★★★★★★
I had already thought of taking this module since last semester, as there are no more Japanese language modules left for me to take haha. What a lousy reason to learn a new language lol. Honestly I don’t have any interest in Korean culture, pop songs and their dramas. Neither am I extremely keen in their language because they ditched the use of Chinese characters and used some alien-doodle typography with lots of squares and circles.
However starting to learn a new language from beginner’s level brings me back to kindergarten days when we were still trying to speak simple vocabulary and grammar. It’s a big 解脱 from other modules that require a high level of thinking and analytical skills, and demands strong written and spoken abilities for reports and presentations. When starting off a new language, everything is so simple. If something is A, just say it is A. If you like B, just say you like B. 直接了当，不需理由. No need to explain so much with justifications and supporting evidence. Since Korean is so similar to Japanese in terms of vocabulary and grammar, I could pick them up easily. Except that the pronunciation can be pretty tricky.
The lecture notes, textbook and worksheets are filled with cute and colourful illustrations, really reminiscent of kindergarten times. The instructors are friendly and humorous, making lots of funny gestures and sounds to ensure that we understand what they are trying to say. I appreciate the teachers for thinking up so much fun-filled activities for the tutorials, such as ‘snake and ladders’, jigsaw puzzles, shopping and auction. Never expect myself to experience such an enjoyable class at this age. Really thankful to my tutor who spiced up the early-morning sleepy atmosphere by her hyper greetings, funny antics and evil laughter.
Without passion for the culture, I understand that it’s difficult to motivate oneself to learn the language. But I’ll see how it goes.
