Category Archive
Browsing entries filed under School Life
Youth is not always foolish.
And age is not always wise.
Today I had two students, and the interplay between them showed me the areas that I need to work on if I’m to deliver on my motto of “Better Grades, Better People”. One of them (Student B) makes his school out to be terribly notorious, and the other (Student A) sits and listens to tales of debauchery and extreme materialism.
I rode the bus back with Student A, and he showed me what lessons I could learn from “my kids”.
He reflected on the conversations we had during class today, and stated his opinion that extreme materialism, premarital sex and all the other scandalously juicy topics found in his classmate’s stories are nothing to be glorified. I know that seems obvious, but the way Student B was talking about it, you’d think debauchery was the new black. What was great was that Student A saw through all that, filtered it through his own moral values and came to the conclusion that he did not agree with his friend. One point to him for not giving in to peer pressure.
Throughout the bus ride, he told me why he had come to that conclusion. His upbringing had not involved massive sums of money, electronic toys and other such goods that children nowadays seem to take as their birthright. He said he had turned out fine, which translates to “I like myself the way I am”.
I was very pleased with his maturity and security in being himself. He told me he couldn’t be bothered with comparing cars, watches, phones or bags with his schoolmates, because he bought what he wanted, trends and coolness be damned. He rightly identified this obsession with luxury goods as just so much showing off, because we both very much doubted that teenagers know how to truly appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into a Rolex, even if they owned multiple genuine articles.
He is also very sure of himself, without needing to compare himself with others to see who’s superior. Insults rarely got to him, even if they were regarding his weight, hair or clothes - topics that would probably cause other kids to fight to first blood to defend their “honour”. He did not see the need to live by others’ standards, and I have to say that I admire him for that. Especially when I take into account that such taunts are purely out of malice, because there is certainly nothing wrong with his appearance. Not retaliating against untrue insults is definitely much harder than when the insults are rightly deserved.
Barely halfway through his teens, he already shows signs of becoming a man with whom one would be proud to associate.
So today, my student taught me something: Teenagers aren’t all stupid and shallow. Once in a while, you find a gem like my student, who is superbly level-headed. I won’t say he’s wise beyond his years, because that would imply that people aren’t usually this insightful at his age. Perhaps over the generations, humankind became so soft that you’re allowed to be stupid and selfish at 30 years old. But this is not our birthright, this is a regression. It shouldn’t have to be this way.
There is nothing to stop us - or our children - from attaining mental maturity at an age when some are still undergoing puberty. I will not make excuses for my kids any more. For too long, I have excused what society at large considers inexcusable behaviour, on account of their youth. No more. One student has shown me the path that all of them should be on. I would have been remiss if I did not at least try to set them on the right track.
Playing favourites with my kids
Some days, my job is so insanely fun it seems illegal that I’m being paid for it. Until, of course, the credit card bill comes back and I find out how teenagers can eat you into the poorhouse.
Anyway, the centre was undergoing some minor renovations today. Nothing that would have really disrupted the lesson, but the smell and the dust and the noise were getting to me, so my student and I ran away to a cafe and sat there for 2 hours, revising the chemical reactions of metals. We were joined by a second student, and the two of them proceeded to order drinks on my tab.
These 2 kids are good friends, so I had an interesting dynamic to deal with. All in all, it was more like taking my juniors out for a meal than conducting a lesson. By the time I got back to the centre, I had been gone for about 5 hours. My boss must have been wondering if I’d dragged them to another country or something. See what an awesome place I work in? I go AWOL for 5 hours and it’s okay!
It might seem like I play favourites with “my kids”, and I’ll admit that there are students to whom I feel closer. But I don’t really have my likes and dislikes. I’m only closer to certain kids because I’ve had one-on-one time with them, and had the opportunity to know them as real people, instead of just evaluating the academic part of them. I’m sure all the kids have interesting things to teach me, if I just allow them to let it out. Plus, they’ll tell me things about each other, such as who likes whom and who’s a good artist. Gossip is an integral part of rapport-building.
For some people, a job is just a job - something they do that allows them to make a living. For some people, it’s something more - it gives structure to their day and allows them to feel useful, even if they don’t need the money. But for a fortunate bunch, their job is their life’s work. It gives meaning and purpose to their life. Special needs teachers, religious brothers and sisters, doctors, activists - their work allows them to achieve their dreams.
My dream is to change people’s lives. And I’m slowly seeing that come true. This is why I work more than 40 hours a week - not because I have to, but because I want to. Today was supposed to be my day off, and I end up working until 9.30pm. Why?
Because this isn’t just a job. This is my work. This is my contribution to the world. Not better grades, but better people.
This will be my legacy.
My First Paycheque
I made a paycheque! Okay, so it’s not technically my first, since I’ve received cheques from my previous job, 4 years ago. But this is my first REAL paycheque from a REAL job. Ahem. So of course I took a picture of it to commemorate the occasion.
I’ve modified the picture to eliminate personal information - in other words, it’s an intentionally bad picture.
To celebrate my newfound wealth, I decided to share it with a lucky proprietor of some shop selling earphones. My Nokia N78 is a brilliant music phone that comes with very unfortunate stock earphones. I have no idea why they’re so bad. Even the headset on my old Nokia 6230 fit and sounded better than these earphones. So I went on a search for Sennheiser in-ear phones, because I primarily listen to my music while travelling, and it has to block out the bus noise (as well as the annoying TV Mobile dialogue).
I ended up paying $159 for a pair of Denon earphones instead of the Sennheisers, because a) the dude in the shop told me they were better and b) Denon’s a pretty low-profile brand so fewer people will have the same earphones. And I like being special. Later I found out I got pretty much ripped off, as the same earphones retail in the USA for 50 USD. But I was going to fork out more than a hundred for my earphones anyway, so I’ve not much to complain about.
They fit great and the sound is bliss, compared to the stock earphones. The sound isolation works very well, I’m stuck in my own little world once the music starts. And they also double up as impromptu earplugs when the aircon at work starts getting too noisy.
Unboxing pictures after the jump, to save bandwidth.
Dear Students
Dear students,
This is the story of how I came to work at this place, teaching you. It’s a long and winding story, but persevere and you’ll see the point.
Guess what I wanted to be, when I was 12. A doctor. How very pedestrian, that’s what all kids say growing up. But I stuck to it for a while. Until 16, actually. Then biotech became the next big thing and I wanted to be a genetic engineer.
(Un)Fortunately for me, biology in JC at A-Level sucked all the aspiring geneticist out of me. That was when I realised something about myself. Being a doctor had been about helping people (gag, cliché), and it was also fueled by a fascination with the human body. Now that the human body wasn’t holding my interest, I turned to the human mind. When human bodies go wrong, they see a doctor. Where do human minds go when they need help?
The answer was psychology. What I had realised, was my inherent desire to help people. The method didn’t matter, as long as I could solve their problems or alleviate their pain. The study of the human mind - essentially psychology - was my other road towards fulfilling this desire.
And that is how I, a triple-science student, switched to Arts and Social Sciences in university.
Close to graduation, when the job-hunting begins, you always start to consider what other options you might have. If I weren’t teaching you right now, I’d probably be unemployed, an insurance agent, or maybe even working with Knight Frank, the property management company. So how did I come to work here?
Truth is, I didn’t really consider teaching. It’s a common saying among Arts students that if you can’t find a job, you can always teach. But I don’t have a passion for teaching, not the way MOE wants us to teach. I can’t stand children, and facing 30 or 40 of them just seems like a nightmare. But I came for a job interview here anyway.
They convinced me that this company is really different, not just from the MOE style, but even from other tuition centres. How many tuition centres will send you for a motivational course that’s in line with their in-house philosophy? And of course tuition is a more relaxed way of teaching than working in a school. Tuition centres are naturally more easygoing than classrooms. You can wear whatever you want, and we’ll let you eat in class. But what we do here is something more than even tuition.
Your ordinary tuition centre doesn’t really care about giving you life skills, career guidance, or being your friend. They just want you to get great results to put in their advertisements. That’s not how I roll. If I worked in a place like that, I’d just feel it was a job. But what I do here, in a very roundabout way, is what I set out to do when I applied for a place in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. I’m not just a teacher, I’m also a counsellor. I help you with your grades, but I also want to set you on the right path for life. I want to help you to be a better person - to be the person you want to be.
Because that’s what this job is letting me do - it lets me be the person I want to be, by helping others.
That’s why I work here, and that’s why I’m talking to you today.
It’s finally over!
GEK1541: Reproductive Health: What One Must Know
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B+
Well! It turned out to be not so bad after all. In fact, if I choose to S/U this module, I could actually kick up my CAP a notch. But between a barely noticeable change in CAP, which makes no difference to my degree class (2nd Upper Honours), and the chance to boast that I made it through 4 years without exercising S/U, I choose the latter. Hee hee!
PL4213: Cognitive Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B
Result: A
Well done me for a well-chosen module. The final exam wasn’t all that enjoyable, but I suppose I must have impressed the lecturer sufficiently. Either that or she was more lenient, since we’re mostly graduating students who need a final push.
Oh, have I told you how much I enjoy her classes, and what a great instructor she is? *butter butter butter*
PL4219: Advanced Abnormal Psychology
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
Result: B+
Well! That wasn’t all that bad, considering my fiasco with the final sentence. Again, I suspect the instructor was a soft touch with us, as he knows we’re graduating students. Still, every kindness in this cutthroat academic world is deeply appreciated.
JS3213: Alternative Lives in Contemporary Japan
Optimistic: B+
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B+
Hooray, hooray, I didn’t screw it up, yay! My essay came back with a B so the final exam was probably good enough to make up for that - again, taking into account the final QUESTION fiasco.
On the other hand, though, this is the worst grade I’ve ever had for a Japan-related module.
PL4208: Introduction to Counselling Psychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B-
Result: A-
*dance dance dance* Hooray! Contrary to the trend of the previous modules, I scored an A in the continual assessment, which means my final exam was not up to par. But I will admit that I didn’t do as well on the final paper as I had hoped. An A- is still pretty good - it’s a triangle!
So, in the end, after 8 semesters of slacking and slogging:
CAP: 4.14
Examination Status: 2ND CLASS HONOURS (UPPER) <—– w00t!
I return to campus one final time on the 9th of July, following which I get to be an annoying old woman spouting reminiscences about the way things were “in my time”.
Prognostications Sem 2 07/08
GEK1541: Reproductive Health: What One Must Know
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
I refer to this as my sex-ed class, which is a very apt way of putting it. It’s run by a lecturing OB-GYN from the School of Medicine, and it’s enormously popular - it cost me 1500 CORS points. No, I don’t think the popularity is due to the content - at least, it’s not because we’re prurient. It’s because, bluntly speaking, it’s easy. C’mon, everyone has a set of “this” or “that” so the class runs mostly on common sense, actually.
The class covers basic anatomy, puberty, prenatal diagnosis and care (although not fetal development), contraception, abortion and menopause/andropause. It’s basically everything you should know about the reproductive feature of the biological machine commonly called the human body.
The true appeal of the class, however, lies in the extremely honest approach. A penis is a penis, a vagina is a vagina, and you better get used to these terms unless you want to spend 13 weeks blushing in embarrassment. For crying out loud - we watched videos of live births. We watched babies being forced out of vaginas, and while I had absolutely no problem with all of that, the poor dude in front of me was cringing at all the blood and poop. Sometimes, babies poop as they’re being born because they’re getting squeezed and they have no bowel control (duh). The miracle of birth - rather a messy affair.
And while it’s not part of the official syllabus, there was a lot of discussion on homosexuality and transsexuals, as well as sex workers. The lecturer did a good job in not being judgmental, but that’s part of being a doctor anyway.
I guess I learned quite a bit, even if most of the stuff is fairly common-sense. I already had a grasp of the basics, and I know quite a few medical terms so none of the stuff on contraception and abortion was new to me. The extra information for me came in the form of the lecturer’s expert knowledge on why certain medicines or procedures are preferred over others. Having taken classes with a few practitioners, I can say with confidence that those adjunct professors who have a day job in a practice bring something new and different to the classroom. Theory can only bring you so far, before you need to see what the situation on the ground is.
Anyway, the exam was a pretty standard 2-hour closed book multiple-choice paper. This is my one and only Medicine module so I can’t replicate the experience, but those folk do stuff slightly differently. Firstly, their answer sheet had 150 answers on one side. Standard NUS sheets have only 100. Plus, there was an “over” printed at the corner, and when I flipped it, answers 151-300 stared blankly back. The very idea of a 300-MCQ paper sounds like a monster from an academic horror story, like Cerberus and its 3 heads. Presumably, doctors have to recall everything extremely quickly, hence the different format.
In NUS, most papers have a time limit on when you can enter and exit. You can’t leave until the hour mark, even if you finish the paper in 30 minutes. However, this exam was different - the first person left slightly past the half-hour mark, I left just before the hour, and by that time the hall was more than half empty. Not that it was an easy paper. If it was, most of the class would have found it easy anyway, so I have no advantage there. Plus I made a few silly mistakes, so an A- would be a real boon. It used to be that my GEMs were default A-, but competition is stiff in these popular modules, especially since most of the class are 3rd and 4th years who already know the finer points of academic warfare. Moreover, my term paper came back with a B-, so the B+ to B range seems most probable.
PL4213: Cognitive Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B
This is one of my few hopes for at least a decent A- grade. It’s the second time I’m taking a module with this lecturer, and I got an A for the previous one so that bodes well. Plus the content is rather similar - only hell of a lot deeper. I also did pretty okay on the midterm, 28/30, and 8/10 on the presentation. The range for the presentation was quite narrow - 7.5 to 9 - but at least I have a leg up on most of the class.
I kept falling asleep during this class - I blame the Monday afternoon timing, the stuffy classroom (it’s notorious for a faulty air-con) and the shuddering projector that for some reason just couldn’t hold still and project a stationary image. If you looked at the screen without blinking for long enough, you could detect a vertical oscillation, maybe at a frequency of 30-40 Hz. Just estimating. What all this boils down to is a very panicky Lynn during study week, going “what the hell is this I don’t remember learning this in class oh I must have been sleeping”.
But all in all, it wasn’t the worst possible module in the world, and I quite enjoyed myself because I had fun groupmates to sit and chat with whenever class got boring. The exam wasn’t a lot of fun, I did have writer’s block, so that probably erases my advantage a bit. In the end, I’d be perfectly happy with an A-, but considering the cutthroat competition in Honours-level classes, I might only have the 3rd years as a cushion and end up at the B- range. I seriously hope it won’t be that bad though.
PL4213, you’re my only hope (so far).
PL4219: Advanced Abnormal Psychology
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
It’s not that I hate this module. In fact it’s a very informative and challenging module. But it is extremely heavy going, with a lot of emphasis on reading research papers, and I just found that part to be less than engaging. The adjunct professor knows his stuff, and had a lot of anecdotes and case studies to flesh out the otherwise theoretical module.
The whole class did pretty okay on the presentation, range was between 15-18, if I recall correctly. The midterm, however, really separated the wheat from the chaff, and it’s pretty obvious where I fell. This time, I am the cushion for other people to push up their grade (assuming the curve is in effect). Knowing you’re handicapped from the beginning just kind of reduces your motivation to do well. Yes, I know it’s counter-productive, but realistically speaking, not only am I disadvantaged, chances are, whatever I produce in the exam will be inferior to those of my classmates, simply because they absorbed the material better than I did.
So I pretty much gave this one up for dead. I showed up for the exam, spent 45 minutes drafting my essays because I didn’t understand what the question wanted from me, went for a toilet break halfway through (toilet was being cleaned, so I had to walk farther, what fun) and was in the middle of writing my concluding sentence when the dreaded “please put your pens down” came. Unwilling to see a pathetic incomplete clause, I broke out the correction fluid and erased it. So my essay ended with a comma.
After the exam I went for shopping therapy and blew more than 1000 bucks. That’s how bad the paper was.
Nah, I exaggerate. I went to IKEA to buy furniture for my new room.
At least the new furniture will be untainted by memories of the horrific experience I had with this module.
JS3213: Alternative Lives in Contemporary Japan
Optimistic: B+
Pessimistic: B-
Pretty narrow range of predictions there, but that’s because it ranges from “pretty bad” to “quite bad”.
The term paper came back with a B. That’s “bad”. I expected better, but apparently my paper wasn’t as deep as the lecturer would have liked, so it got downgraded. Oh well.
The final exam was open-book and quite easy. Or at least, it would have been, if I had read the bloody instructions.
After a lifetime of NUS 2-essay exam papers, this one came with 3 questions, of which I did the first 2. With 10 minutes to go, I looked one more time at the rubric. And goggled.
The third line of instructions read, “Answer ALL questions.”
I started writing furiously, and had one side of the argument down on paper when the time was up.
Utter stupidity. I don’t know what else to attribute it to. Attentional blindness. Over-reliance on schema. What it all boils down to is, the instructions were right there on the page, and somehow I understood the one before and the one after, but not the one that mattered.
I’ve given this one up for dead, too.
PL4208: Introduction to Counselling Psychology
Optimistic: A
Pessimistic: B-
The lecturer for this module is the same one that gave me an unpleasant surprise last semester, so this semester my vastly more experienced classmates and I pestered her for every bit of pertinent info so that we wouldn’t get nasty surprises again. We wanted to know how the presentations would be graded, what concepts would be tested, what was expected of us in the exam… we were all kan-cheong spiders and you’d be too, if you had been in my position last semester.
So far it looks decent, my group got an A for the presentation which she says is “a good grade”. However, she was unable to give me a numerical equivalent for this grade. Sure a triangle’s all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t give me much comfort if say, an A is 35/40 and a B- (the lowest presentation grade) is 30/40. Okay, I exaggerate, but you see the point of making the numerical grades transparent as well? My letter-grade advantage should carry over into the exam room! Assuming, of course, that our final performance doesn’t vary that greatly. Of course I could get a C for the final, while the B- kids get an A, and then who’d have the leg-up on who, eh?
I hope it won’t turn out that way though. I wrote 4 pages for each question, which should be enough to satiate an examiner’s thirst for information. It was nearly impossible to write any more, as I was writing all the way until time was called. I could have spent less time drafting the essays, but I didn’t want to risk being incoherent. So, all in all, I gave my best, which I think is of a pretty damn good standard, so an A- doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
But I’m not holding my breath, because turnabouts always happen just when you think the case is in the bag. Just ask Miles Edgeworth, Franziska Von Karma, or any other prosecutor with the bad luck to come up against Phoenix Wright.
Finally, none of this really matters in the long run - unless it causes me to downgrade my degree at the last minute (KNOCK ON WOOD!). I already have a job, I’m done with school, and it looks to be that way for the rest of my life. I can’t stomach the idea of more school at the moment. Maybe in a few years’ time I’ll start longing for the carefree campus life again, but right now I just want to let my brain (and wrist) recover.
Numbered Days
My days in Eusoff Hall, and indeed in NUS, are coming to an end.
It’s so easy to point to my final semester and to graduation as some sort of watershed event, whereupon I suddenly become an adult, complete with adult burdens (thanks ah). But nobody grows up overnight. I’ve been on this road a long, long time. But I think I’ll keep that story for another time.
Now I’m closing the curtains on 4 years in Eusoff. Note I said Eusoff and not NUS. I will miss Eusoff tremendously, but I can’t say the same of the university. But yes, 8 semesters in Eusoff, 7 of them in the same room. There’s so many things to miss. The practical things like being near classes, near a bus terminal, near VivoCity, near 24-hour food outlets. These places will be in my backyard no more.
But there are still the intangible things. Like the sense of safety. In hall, you’re pretty much free to do as you like. But still not as free, and the pressure doesn’t just come from the authorities. Part of community living is, well, other people. Social norms keep you (mostly) in line. Drinking parties and midnight football viewings are ok. Doing drugs and stealing panties are not. There are still limits on things that matter.
Out there on your own, who’s going to make sure you’re okay? Who will take up your call for supper at 2am, who will watch football with you, whom can you count on to show up for your performances? It’s kinda lonely out there.
And I never quite realised the logistics that goes into planning one room. Just one. You move into hall, everything’s there. Bed, wardrobe, shelves, table. Then when you move into your own place, just deciding on furniture alone takes 2 days of online and on-site research. Then you have to make sure it all fits in, before you buy it and not after it’s assembled, obviously. After that, you still have to play interior decorator and rearrange stuff around to resemble at least a degree of normalcy. I mean, sure you can put your wardrobes in front of the window. But why, though?
And I’m so going to miss the Internet connection. Nothing can be as fast as institutional networks, and mine is free and unlimited and the fastest I’ve ever experienced. It’s a totally plug-and-play environment too - just bring your own LAN cable and your login ID. But on your own - I’ve been checking out broadband plans all of this week, and I’ve vacillated between home and mobile plans, StarHub and SingTel, cable and ADSL. How to decide? Well actually once again, logistics is the answer. There’s no cable point in my room, the only point is outside in the living room. So ADSL it is (for the time being). My gosh, how do people handle all these things, out there on their own?
I guess it’s just because my situation came in a more DIY format than others’. Most tenants just bring their luggage, make do with provided furniture, and cough up their share of the Internet bills. Their only major decision is finding a place. I, on the other hand, had to find a place, buy furniture, set up an Internet line, AND do this while also dealing with exams and Commencement. Go me.
But in all this frenzy of planning for the future, there’s a sense of loss for the past. It IS the end of adolescence. I left home a long time ago, but I was still dependent on my parents. Now even that is coming to an end, and it is kind of sad. Even getting married wouldn’t be such a large transition as this, since a large part of being married is relationship management and living with other people, neither of which is new to me.
Even the best-laid plans can’t assuage my anxiety - not just about broadband plans and furniture, but about the unknown that’s soon to come. New mothers sometimes get post-partum depression; do new graduates get post-convocation depression?
A Psychology Primer: Psychodynamics
I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I’m a psychology major before, but I’m also just as sure that many of my readers have no idea what we really study in the field. It’s not all peering inside people’s minds and figuring them out - just as much time is spent figuring out the human mind in general, and not just creeping out particular individuals by making predictions about them.
In order to shed some light on this popular but misunderstood academic discipline, I shall begin writing a series, based on my limited knowledge. As Freud seems to be the main figure/scapegoat in the public perception, we shall start with the field he pioneered, now called psychodynamics.
The main crux of psychodynamics is that our behaviour is influenced by unconscious processes, and that abnormal behaviour or emotional distress can be relieved by bringing these unconscious processes to light, thus allowing the client to be in control of them.
Another school of thought within psychodynamics postulates that early relationships form the child’s inner world (i.e. thought patterns and ways of perception) and that these relationships set a pattern for future, adult relationships. To give a real-world example, a child who was mostly neglected will always expect to be neglected by future partners, along with a self-perception of being unlovable or unworthy. Hence the popularity of the cliched “tell me about your mother” view of psychodynamics.
Those who disbelieve psychology because they disagree with Freud’s sex-fixated approach can take it easy, because psychodynamics leaves behind the sexy bits and focuses more on the unconscious processes. So, your psychodynamic therapist isn’t watching your every word or action to find one that will pinpoint you as some sort of sexual pervert. As Freud himself said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
This concludes part 1 of A Psychology Primer. Keep checking back for more instalments, and feel free to ask questions concerning the field!
A slight rally to finish above 4.0
GEK1542: Forensic Science
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Result: B+
Hey, not too bad! Not awesome like an A- would be, but I think this is an appropriate grade. Prediction-wise, within range.
PL4202: History and Systems of Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B
No surprises there. Also smack in the middle of my prediction.
PL4218: Psychological Assessment
Optimistic: A+
Pessimistic: B
Result: B
I have been cheated! I got full marks on the midterm and I can’t have done that badly on the final. Thus I can only conclude that something went wrong along the way, or the lecturer’s not such an open book after all. I could ask for a review, but those usually turn out to be useless. I guess I’m one of the guinea pigs for whom the experiment didn’t work, then.
GEK1046: Introduction to Cultural Studies
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Result: A-
Yay! And also my sole triangle for this semester, and it’s a “minus” to boot. That sucks, but it could have been worse. This upper-limit result makes up for the lower-limit one above.
PL4223: Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: B
A solid performance in a non-examinable module! W00t (word of the year)! I pronounce myself pleased with this result.
Overall, it was rather a miserable performance with my CAP dropping even further, but still within range of my target. And with only one more semester to go, I don’t think I need to be unduly worried. Performance over the whole semester is a lot more consistent than last semester’s fiasco, since it’s mostly square letters and they’re all decent grades. No nasty round ones like last time, although the triangles are in scant supply as well.
The fact that all three of my Honours-level modules scored Bs should be reassuring, I suppose, since last sem I scored a C at the same level. I suppose I have the hang of 4th-year modules now, but there’s definitely room for improvement since I no longer have CCAs to get in the way. Sem 2 is always a killer though, because of Chinese New Year interrupting the momentum. Plus I’ll personally be busy hunting down jobs and sending out resumés. Bah! Looks like I’ll be grabbing easy Unrestricted Electives to boost up my grades, as usual.
At the beginning of 2007, the ol’ Chinese Almanac predicted a yucky year for Rat students. And yes, I know I said things would get better after the 2006/07 academic year concluded and I was no longer an ARS3. But 2008 is MY YEAR (as superstitious as that sounds), so I really don’t expect things to get worse.
Just to make sure, though, I’m rearranging my room according to Feng Shui principles.
Prognostications Sem 1 07/08
GEK1542: Forensic Science
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
The paper was 100 multiple-choice questions, and required us to recall probabilities, drug dependencies and evidence law along with other more mundane stuff like how such-and-such a case was decided. Time management was a bit tight, but I had enough time for everything. Some questions were ambiguous, however, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. The forum was filled with complaints later about the fuzzy wording of the questions.
I got B+ for both the midterm test as well as my fingerprint report, so an A seems out of the question. I would be very happy with an A- in fact, as my GEMs have a tendency to score that way (with the exception of that nasty Food and Health module). But in a class of 404, competition is keen, so a B+ seems more likely. Bah. I hope it won’t get worse than that, because it IS a level-1000 GEM after all. And if all else fails, I still have the S/U option to exercise. Whee for post-hoc grade elimination!
PL4202: History and Systems of Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
I refer to this as my pseudo-philosophy class, since for the first half of the semester we were mired in terms such as dualism, consciousness, and other vague terms that did not hold my interest. It was mostly a talky class, with the lecturer interacting with a few outspoken students while the slower-brained ones (like myself) sat and watched the clock.
I really dislike false advertising in IVLE module outlines, and I didn’t realise it was going to degenerate into a giant discussion session. At least some history got taught, in the form of dates, notable contributions and so on, but it didn’t make up the bulk of the module. While it’s an effective module in terms of making the students think critically and deeply, it does not satisfy my criterion of “can I score”. I’m sorry, but if employers only want to see the triangular letters and have no interest in how well I can argue for a functionalist perspective on machine AI, then I shall only focus of the ability of the module to fulfill that criterion. I’d recommend this module to others only if they really love talking in class, or have a high enough CAP to make up for the shortfall this module may cause.
PL4218: Psychological Assessment
Optimistic: A+
Pessimistic: B
This is my fun Wednesday module, because there’s very little preparatory reading to be done, and most of the class is hands-on. You show up, the adjunct professor talks a bit about the topic of the week, and you split up into groups to work your psychological magic on each other.
It’s about the use of assessment skills and tools in clinical practice, and our lecturer is a practicing psychologist with an Irish accent. This is the first time she’s teaching in NUS, so her classes weren’t as bogged down with NUS-style assessments of class participation. Anyway participation wasn’t forced and we always had a lot of fun administering tests to each other, or roleplaying as therapists and patients. Continual assessment (CA) came in the form of a midterm test (for which I scored full marks, yay) and a solo or group presentation on a topic of our choice. That was great. Anything went, as long as some form of assessment was covered. Since I was presenting solo and I only had 10 minutes, I went for a narrow focus of diagnosis and assessment in autism. No one else did autism, strangely, although a couple of presentations dealt with gender identity issues, as well as malingering.
The paper had 2 questions, both compulsory, which meant that our whole class of 50 people wrote the same essays. The first question was a case study in which we were supposed to come up with a treatment plan for someone presenting with a whole litany of disorders. You couldn’t begin to disentangle his depression from his anxiety and drug abuse, and that’s probably a realistic portrayal. Nothing in psychology ever comes clear-cut.
The second question was basically a chance for us to earn points by doing a memory dump. She requested descriptions of the symptoms and possible developmental factors in the 10 personality disorder subtypes we had learnt about. Just as well I spent time mugging those 10. Beautiful, flowing prose went out the window, to be replaced with tersely worded descriptions of antisocial personality disorder, borderline PD, and the like. I didn’t even have a summary - what was I supposed to say, “In short, the above are the symptoms and possible factors” bla bla bla? I hate repeating myself, and my hand was hurting anyway. Memory dumping - I like. A throwback to my JC days where regurgitation was a prized skill, I suppose.
So yes, she did seem quite eager to give us all triangular letters. Quote from the last class: “If your spelling and punctuation are all right, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get an A+”. Or something similar. Of course the A+ is contingent on your getting the correct content onto the page first, of course. She was just warning us about her finickiness for spelling and grammar. With an enrolment of 50, I’m sure some sort of bell curve will still come into play. But so far, this is my best bet to make my quota of a triangle per semester.
GEK1046: Introduction to Cultural Studies
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Another level-1000 module, one more and I’ll have hit quota. Arts students are allowed a maximum of 8 level-1000 modules (presumably from our own faculty, since we should be encouraged to take modules from other facs). This one is under the aegis of the English Literature Department, so I felt at ease to spout misinformed theories of Marxism and gender identity formation. Tutorial participation isn’t graded anyway, so I decided to have fun spouting off.
Despite what many people think, it’s not all about watching TV shows and movies and analysing them. Sure some watching and analysing goes on, but before you think this is a chance to legitimise repeated viewings of ‘300′ by taking a gender issues perspective, we had to watch a David Lynch film, and it wasn’t pretty. It’s very theory-laden for an introductory course, and I’m sure more than a few freshmen got lost along the way.
The final exam was open-book, but I didn’t touch my notes. I decided to take up their offer to analyse a Nokia advertisement and a 50 Cent poster, and managed not to make any references to any cultural theories. Baudrillard, Barthes, Adorno and Horkheimer, de Certeau - nice knowing you, so long farewell. Perhaps my analysis of the 50 Cent poster was lacking in depth a bit - I didn’t talk about how he influenced gender identity formation in adolescent males by his overt display of masculinity, because I only have an hour for each question and I have to handwrite. But all in all, I think it was okay. Which, knowing my luck, means I bombed the paper.
So again, another B is the lower limit, since I really don’t expect to do very badly. But not impressively well either, despite my “interesting reading” of the Ratatouille poster that I did as a take-home assignment.
PL4223: Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
This is a non-examinable module, so by right it should be at the top, but never mind. This course is taught by an adjunct professor who practices as a clinical neuropsychologist at SGH and various care centres.
Coursework makes up 100% of the grading, of which 30% was from our case study presentation, 30% on our topic review on any neurological disorder, and 40% divided between reading reflections and class participation. He gave us the option of doing an extra assignment and being graded on 10% participation, or the original set number of assignments and 20% participation. Since I write better than I speak up in class, I opted for the extra work.
It was primarily quite dry in the beginning, with a set topic of the week - stroke, dementia, epilepsy etc. He used videos extensively, which is great because 2 hours of him talking about a single disease can be quite boring. It’s not that he’s unable to hold our attention, but because the subject matter is quite dry to begin with.
Also, his focus is more on developing our soft skills in preparation for a life in clinical practice. So we would often watch videos with real patients documenting their life with their condition. I think many of us appreciated this human focus, plus it’s all non-examinable so we were able to just watch and learn whatever we wanted from it, rather than hurriedly copying notes. I gave up writing notes after maybe week 5, when I realised that “hey, none of this stuff is coming out anyway!”. So yeah, sometimes no-exam modules can be great.
So since I did quite enjoy this module, and put effort into my writings and topic reviews, I hope to score something decent. I’m not sure of the score for the presentation but it should be okay as well, based on the feedback he sent to us. The lecturer is very fond of class polls and feedback, which makes for a more transparent learning environment. I think that’s great.
I guess I should have written all that in the feedback exercise, huh?
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