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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?
A Study on the Happiness Levels of University Students
Today, I would like to present my findings on the happiness of university students as a function of time.
With reference to the chart above, we notice a gradual downward trend from the beginning to the end of the semester, with a sharp spike in happiness once vacation begins.
If we set the values of +/-10 to be Extreme, and +/-5 as Moderate, we can see that the average student starts the semester extremely happy, and no doubt full of good intentions. The euphoria declines slightly in week 2, and drops further in weeks 3 and 4 to a moderate level. This drop is due to the beginning of tutorial classes, which means less free time.
The downward trend of weeks 5 and 6 is interrupted by a small increase to a level of moderate happiness, due to the midterm break. The increase is only very slight as many students still have to contend with midterm assessments.
From week 8 onwards, happiness levels begin to dive, culminating in the nadir of extreme unhappiness at the beginning of exams. The following week brings a recovery to somewhat extreme unhappiness levels, as most students have completed a significant portion of their papers and are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Finally, the semester ends on an extremely happy level as vacation begins. This graph does not extend all the way to the release of results, where it is postulated that happiness levels will plummet to “somewhat unhappy”.
This concludes my presentation on the level of happiness of university students as a function of time.
Deadlines, we got deadlines
It’s Reading Week, which means the university campus is stuffed full of muggers. And at this point in time, everyone’s a mugger. Exams begin on Saturday morning, and I have the honour of being one of the season openers with my Forensic Science exam.
This late in the semester and I still have deadlines? Indeed. I have a topic review due tomorrow. In a huge break with tradition, it’s already finished, with a good 24 hours to spare. Usually I cut it terribly fine.
But from another point of view (namely mine), I’m already 3 days overdue. I was supposed to get it done by Monday, so that I could have 3 comfortable days of poring over the intricacies of Forensic Science. The plan was to write it all weekend, tune it up on Monday, and then pat myself on the back.
Well, nothing ever goes as planned. Saturday was spent lazing around, Sunday was spent watching Beowulf (great fun), and Monday and Tuesday passed in much the same manner. On Wednesday I couldn’t motivate myself enough to get started, even though all the readings had been done, and I just needed to type 2000 words. But I just couldn’t get my ass in gear.
It’s very strange. I’m starting to think that I am only motivated by deadlines. 10 years ago at the age of 13, I was feverishly doing piano theory homework in class, where I hit upon the insight that “I work better under pressure”. It’s still true now.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not a self-starter, or that I’m inert until someone comes along and gives me a push. I’ve never missed a deadline, you know. I just… like living on the edge.
I have your prints!
It’s Week 13 of school, which is the final teaching week. I’ve just returned from my final class of the semester - indeed, the final class the entire school shall see, since it’s a Friday night class. This is my Forensic Science module, code GEK1542. It came highly recommended as a real-world, behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on in CSI, as well as the courts, the morgue, the police station and the labs.
As part of our continual assessment, we did a fingerprint dusting practical where we had to dust A4 papers for our own fingerprints, deposited previously. In addition, we had to match some sample prints to a selection of choices. Apparently I got all of the matches correct, because I was one of 40 people chosen to get a prize.
My prize is the black film fingerprint lifter and the vial of white fingerprint powder. In the practical, we used black powder and a white film lifter, so this is for me to play with. I probably won’t, I’ll just keep it to show off. The background is my practical report on the dusting session.
As it was the last class, the lecturers also released the list of top scorers for our midterm quiz. Interestingly enough, there was ZERO overlap between the top scorers and the 40 people who got all-correct matches on the fingerprints. Very interesting. Perhaps the top scorers read so much that they spoiled their eyesight? Haha.
It was a fun class, despite being 3 hours long and rather tedious at times - spending a Friday evening in class isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, it’s one of the most popular modules, as evinced by the massive number of bid points required to secure a place. And it’s really very informative.
Kopi vs Coffee
I didn’t have time to grab breakfast today, so I queued up at Coffee Express for a muffin before my lecture began. Unfortunately, the line was terribly long so I gave up and got something from the vending machine instead.
Who are these kids paying 3 bucks for a cup of coffee? I don’t get it, but I’m not a java junkie anyway. I just want a hot, sweet milky drink. I don’t care where the beans came from, what kind of flavour and acidity they have, and whether or not sugar helps the taste.
50-cents-coffee from the Arts Canteen it is. Even then, I get ripped off. Ask the uncle for a carrier handle, because a paper cup full of hot coffee is a bit difficult to keep hold of, and he puts it in the plastic bag containing my takeaway lunch instead. I don’t mind saving the world’s landfills from unnecessary plastic bags, but if you’re going to charge me an extra 10 cents for a takeaway, give me the carrier, dammit!
For 20% of the price, you get 20% of the service.
Where’s the ‘fun’ in Honours?
As far as the libraries are concerned, Honours students have it good. We have loan allowances of 28 days, compared to 14 days for other students, and we’re allowed 15 books at a time, when a year previously we would only be allowed 10. Although I never used up the quota of 10, so 15 is just overkill to me. I don’t have space for 15 books!
Yes, life takes a turn for the worse when you become an Honours student. Just look at what passes for leisure reading:
They’re all psychology books. I got some of them as background research for a term paper, but the rest are for fun. “Psychologists in Word and Image”: that’s basically an illustrated primer to psychologists of the past and present. Whee! Honours students - we’re basically geeks of our chosen field. Thanks!
Change of topic after the jump.
Have I reached the bottom yet?
PL3241: Personality and Individual Differences
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
Result: C+
Uh, yay? One grade above the pessimistic prediction. Lynn 1, exams 0.
PL4207: Social Psychology: Theories and Methods
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: A-
Yayzors, I scored for this one. Proof that I can swim in the big kids’ pond - as long as I like the lecturer and the subject material. Lynn 2, exams 0.
PL3238: Social Cognition
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Result: B+
One grade above the pessimistic prediction. Strangely enough I scored worse for this than for its close relative PL4207 even though that is a level-4000 module. Lynn 3, exams 0.
PL3239: Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Result: A
W00t I outdid myself. I’m pretty pleased about this grade, considering that I wasn’t entirely sure how my final essay turned out. Midterms helped to pull up the grade though. Lynn 4, exams 0.
PL4214: Evolutionary Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Result: C
Ack, ack ack ack. Much much worse than expected - this is what happens when you have a foreign lecturer who places great emphasis on class participation. Speak up or sink, and I sink sink sink to the bottom of the pond. At least I hope this is as low as I ever get, if I fall any lower it’ll be a fail grade. Seriously. NUS has no C-, it’s straight to D which is “acceptable for graduation” with certain conditions, if I recall correctly. Anyway I have no wish to explore the depths, I’m afraid of the nasty things down there in the dark. The result is 2 grades below the pessimistic prediction (I have truly overestimated my psychic abilities) so the final score is Lynn 4, exams 2. Which shouldn’t be that way, since I should be able to predict with 95% confidence at least. Tsk tsk tsk.
Future plans:
Thanks to the generous buffer I built up in early semesters, not to mention my low expectations for myself, I still have a little bit of wiggle space despite the horrendous performance this entire academic year. 2006/07 was a real annus horribilis, and I hope I’ve truly seen the back of it.
Now I have to concentrate on acing my Honours-level modules and pulling my grades up so I can graduate without too much disappointment. When I checked my GAPS, it informed me I had another 16 MCs of unrestricted electives yet to take. I was a bit surprised, I thought I had only 8 MCs’ worth. So that means I can take all the easy-peasy modules and pull up my grade a bit, which is good because I was getting a bit worried over the Honours-level modules available to me.
Secondly, since I’m such a genius and have spent all my Programme points bidding for stupid Evolutionary Psychology which bankrupted me, both points-wise and results-wise, I shall have to spend General Account points instead to bid for non-Faculty modules, which means it’s back to the ol’ Science faculty to do GEMs. I think I shall take “Inside Your Personal Computer” after all, except that since it’s so easy I’m afraid it might turn out to be a trick module. GEK 1542, Forensic Science looks like fun too - is it going to be like real-life CSI?
Oh, and I’ve finally figured out why 2006/07 was such a shitty year. It was because I was an ARS3. Hur hur hur.
Prognostications Sem 2 06/07
PL3241: Personality and Individual Differences
Optimistic: B
Pessimistic: C
I bombed the lab report for this one, which will undoubtedly pull down the final grade. My class participation wasn’t all that fantastic either, but maybe there’s less class variation on that measurement, so that has less impact.
The paper was at Temasek Hall, so I completed my collection of taking papers at other halls, with the exception of Raffles and King Edward VII because I don’t take Engineering or Science modules.
The paper was doable, it wasn’t a WTF moment. Although the exit comments among the others were “I had nothing to write” and stuff along that line. It’s true, for the second question on Freudian development of personality, I had 1.2 pages and that was that. The lecturer did say to go for concision, but surely that is rather scanty for 30 marks?
This module is already beyond hope, so I’m just hoping that the final paper will rescue me from the quagmire caused by the lab report. It’s really just a case of barely surviving.
PL4207: Social Psychology: Theories and Methods
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
One of two modules which I’m taking with the same lecturer whose module was responsible for my bombed Sem 1. I bear him no grudges, however, because maybe I really did do a crummy job. I did okay on the midterm quiz, although my class participation will probably be a bit low because he told me I wasn’t as vocal as some other people. Our presentation was all right, so that might help a bit. Or perhaps not, because I think everyone’s presentations were all right so that variable isn’t going to help discriminate us on the bell curve.
The paper was fine, in fact I hope I didn’t write too much for the first question - I overflowed to 4 pages and he did say 2-3, but I wanted to cover more ground and be more thorough. I planned everything out nicely so it would at least have some semblance of ‘flow’ and not some random assortment of ideas churned out via memory dump.
As he collected the papers (our class has an enrolment of 50 and we were sharing the hall with at least 2 other classes) the lecturer asked each one of us how we found the paper. My reply was a sheepish grin and a mumbled “uhh”. Yes, not much brain juice left after 2 hours of frantic work.
I’m feeling good about this module, but I had a good feeling about the last one I took under him too, and look where that got me. For a level-4000 module, I should be happy to just get a decent middling grade, because I am a small 3rd year minnow swimming in the big 4th-year kids’ pond.
PL3238: Social Cognition
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
I think I did okay for this one, but I wasn’t in the zone the whole day. The first of 2 consecutive papers, it wasn’t difficult but I didn’t feel the words flowing out, that’s why I say I wasn’t in the zone.
I did fine for the CA component, although I think we bombed the class presentation (I had way too much caffeine and sugar) plus I wasn’t very vocal in class. It’s going to be hard to justify an A- for this paper as my final answer script had entire paragraphs cancelled out when I realised I was quoting the wrong research study. Bleah. Such errors and omissions do not bode well for making a good impression on the examiner.
I must say I’m a bit disappointed by my performance on the final paper, it wasn’t as though I didn’t know the material which is essentially a repeat of PL4207. In the end, all I can say is I wasn’t feeling it. Sigh.
PL3239: Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B
Another lacklustre paper. I usually slept through the lectures for this one, and stoned my way through the tutorials, so I doubt anything mentioned during class time went in. The only things I learned were whatever I crammed in during the studying for the 2 class quizzes, which may save my ass in the end.
The 2nd of 2 consecutive papers, I was just wishing to get to the end of this and have my mini-break. Even though the first question was on an oft-repeated topic, it threw many of us off because of the integration needed. Doable, but not brilliant. I also couldn’t find any research findings to back up my points - or rather, I didn’t (and couldn’t) memorise the names. I mean I could probably bring up the relevant reading but I couldn’t cite the author. I hope that won’t count for much.
I was just quite numb throughout the whole paper, and even though I went through the questions again and tried to find the answers in my lecture notes, I wasn’t successful. I give up, I don’t care, I have to move on with my life.
PL4214: Evolutionary Psychology
Optimistic: A-
Pessimistic: B-
Urgh. I had 3 to 4 days to study for this one, but I crammed it all into 2 days. Serves me right for procrastinating and reading webcomics when I could have been studiously analysing the inherited mental processes of humans.
The questions were perfectly doable, but where I bombed on this one was time management. I took 45 minutes to finish my rough draft for both essays, this must be a new record. I wanted the layout to make sense, see. But that doesn’t take three-quarters of an hour!
I just couldn’t focus. My mind kept wandering, and it was probably because I couldn’t sleep the night before. I went to bed at 2am, hoping to catch a solid 6 hours, but at 3 am I was so wide awake I could have written my essay then. I tried to put myself to sleep by playing DS in bed, but no go. It might have been the fault of the 3pm cup of coffee, but I doubt caffeine stays in the system that long. When my alarm went off at 8am I leapt out of bed, fully alert. I did sleep, and I even got some REM (because I remember saucy dreams about Draco Malfoy, mmm) and I just don’t know what’s wrong with my bioclock.
The first question for 60 marks was an evaluation question which I had sort of spotted, so that was fine. Neatly written too. The 2nd question was up to me, and again I chose #3. I’ve been choosing #3 for the other papers as well, it’s a little bit freaky. Anyway it was on violence. I crossed out an entire paragraph when I realised it didn’t jive, it was on aggression and while violence is a subset of aggression, it is not the same as explored in my essay. Bah.
And one of the theories I remembered, but didn’t put into the essay due to bad organisation, turned out to be wrong after all, so that was fine. Not to my credit at all, but fine. It was a horrible, horrible essay though. Messy and incoherent.
I don’t know how this is going to be graded, the class has 44 people or thereabouts so a bell curve is theoretically possible. No idea how I did on the term paper as we handed it up only 2 weeks ago and the lecturer didn’t send out any emails regarding collecting our papers. I’ll just be really pessimistic and hope for a decent grade that at least reflects what I learned. Evo psych is fun, it’s controversial but the readings were easy to read (as compared to dry research papers) and used properly, you can amaze your friends with your bizarre but empirically proven reasons behind human behaviour. I just wish it could explain why I’ve been crashing and burning all year.
*Edited* Nods to Agagooga for recommending this module to me. He took it as a USP module, so that’s your academic-cred rating right there. It’s meant for those extra-smart boffins, so you should take it just to feel smart too! But make sure you don’t end up in the same class as those people, that’s just academic suicide.
Not much of me left
Can attacks to one’s self-concept also deplete the ego and its regulatory effects?
I don’t know who I am any more. I don’t know where I went. Something somewhere has gone horribly wrong and I don’t know how to fix myself.
I just got a C for my lab report. I knew it was a p.o.s. when I handed it in, because it was done while sitting in a darkened lecture theatre, waiting for rehearsals to end. It was my own stupid fault for taking the easy way out and cutting corners, instead of taking the time and effort to make it more detailed. While others were frantically cutting words to make the limit, I was looking for things to say to fill up space. That was already an indicator that something was wrong.
And sunk-cost effect. If I had started earlier, I would have had enough time to change my thesis statement and find empirical data to support that. But lack of time meant that I stuck with my admittedly shaky thesis. My statistics were never very strong, so I shouldn’t have tried to be funny and run my own analysis. Foolhardy, I think the word is.
I’ve never received such a bad grade, ever. The previous record was a B- for a term paper. Two, in fact. But C! Not even C+, but C! The letter seems hunched over, ashamed of itself, as it glows at me on the screen. My breath catches in my throat. I knew it was bad, but I’d never expected it to be THIS bad.
I feel like I should cry, but the tears ain’t coming. This is getting to be a worrying trend, this lacrimal deficiency. Does it make me any less human if I’m unable to cry? Do I even want to be human any more? It’s a huge burden, being responsible for myself. Why fight the current, why strive, why struggle? Why not be carried along on the eddies of life, biding my time until the merciful end arrives?
To counter Nietzsche, there is chaos in my soul, but it will consume me before it births a dancing star.
I should never have invested so much of myself in my academics. For so long I have defined myself by my grades and my achievements that when they take a hit, so does my self-concept. Self-esteem rises and falls, I can deal with that. But when the very notion of who you are has been questioned: what then? Who am I, if I do not go on to do Honours? Who am I, if I can’t achieve the 2nd upper that for so long has been a perfectly reasonable and achievable goal? Day by day, the spectre of a job in the service industry looms larger, more concrete, no longer just a flippant joke but a serious consideration.
This shitty year just keeps getting worse and worse.
*Edited 23rd April*
I just read through the comments for my lab report, and I’m now amazed at the generosity of my lecturer. I severely underestimated the shittiness of that lab report. Firstly, I committed the fatal flaw of misreading the instructions. Yes, that’s right. The page limit was inclusive of the references and title page, not exclusive. OMG im teh n00b. Because of that mistake, he regarded my final paragraph and references list as missing since they were over the page limit. Urgh.
There were some formatting problems in that I didn’t put in a running header and a little title at the corner, but I doubt that’s the biggest concern. He took more issue with my “ridiculous” statistical analyses (see, I knew it) and indeed, with my overall thesis statement. Not only was the evidence shaky, he said the thesis wasn’t even related to the module. I dispute that it’s not related, after all we are covering individual differences, but he’s the one with the red pen, so.
I’m totally astounded by my inability to differentiate between “inclusive” and “exclusive”. Not the first time I’ve done these kinds of heroics. I had better open my eyes wide tomorrow and read each question through 3 times before even writing a draft.
Schooling Strangeness
The longer I stay in NUS, the weirder it seems to get.
When I was a naive young freshman, you could have told me anything and I’d have happily nodded and agreed. That’s why we make such good psychology research subjects, we’re still not wise enough to the experimental designs.
But as I ventured out into the other faculties, I discovered that NUS can be very strange indeed. Besides the interesting modules one can take beneath the auspices of the stuffy Science faculty (Strings Theory, anyone?), even the exams can be a little unorthodox. I still say the prize goes to that 100-question fill-in-the-blanks final exam I took for Living With Chemistry. Nothing wrong with filling in the blanks, but for a final exam… it totally threw me for a curve.
And in between, the students spice up campus life as well. There’s the infamous lecture PowerPoint proposal by a hapless lovestruck chap. I can’t think of anything else that comes close to rivaling that for sheer gossip factor.
And today, my 9am-12pm class was shrunk to a 10am-11am class. For me, anyway. We were having an in-class quiz, which started later than usual to accommodate sleeping in, and I finished within the hour. So here I am, enjoying my already very-short day.
Yup, the longer you spend in here, the funnier and less routine life gets. In fact, I foresee that in my final year, I shall be spending practically no time at all in school. Fancy that!
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