End of Chapter Two: Recluse

It's like waking up from a dream, only to realise it's another dream...
What is real and what isn't? How can you tell?

So begins the end of everything.

I think I did a pretty good summary of stuffz the last time round, when I posted the end of Chapter One. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the same now. The truth is, I totally forgot about this! Sometimes things and even time itself, become hazy and blur when you are lost in your own world. More on that later, I don't wanna go off course before I even finish. So I lied, I didn't actually spend alot of time thinking this through. Not really. Laze and idle around mostly. Mind rot.


Anyway, let’s get started. If you've read my blog before, you know that I always just speak my mind here. At the end of every Semester, or an important phase of my life that is not in the semester (hasn't happened yet..), I will post up something like this. It is a summary of sorts, where I try to refresh memory and recount my experiences throughout this period. Hopefully, as a form of reflective and learning process, rather than to re-experience pain again. It's a short summary of what has happened thus far.
 
This time round, I'm doing things a little differently. I'm not splitting the semester into 4 phases anymore. Semester 1 is a whole lot quicker than Semester 2, since we have about 1 week lesser time. Couple that with the fact that my timetable was only a 3-day week, there really isn't much to talk about to divide into phases. It's all really just one chunk of my life.

To make things easy, I shall try to divide it into the 5 modules that I took during the Semester. It doubles up as a 'module review' of sorts. But I'm not really focusing on content, my summary has always been more about the people I meet and my experiences, and my personal evaluation on all these. So, that's what it will be about. Let's go!

GEM2900 - Understanding Uncertainty & Stats Thinking

GEM was rather fun. It felt more like a holiday resort than actual lessons though. Seriously. Early morning wake up and cramp in the bus all the way to the far away place that is U-Town. That place looks cool and relax. Not the typical NUS faculty place. AND they sell loads of food nearby. Not to mention the way the lecturer teaches. I'm not saying she's bad, coz I nominated her for the award. But she is jovial and pronounces things funny, and tries to make jokes. Very entertaining, but not serious enough for me to work hard at the module. Everything was like "oh, you don't need to memorize the calculations.." and such.

The only thing I didn't like was that I was kind of a lonely soul there. Nobody I know is taking the module. Well, actually have but in different group, hence not the same timeslot. Also, while it is 'good' that there is no tutorials, it is also a bad thing. No real chance to mix and interact with the people from other faculties, which is kind of the idea for taking GEM modules, to try and make some new friends. Results wise, it was better than expected for a module that I planned to S/U from day one. In fact, it is the source of my headache. I had to think damn long about whether or not to use it.

TR2201 - Entrepreneurial Marketing

This module was 'fun', to say the least. The module is on a subject which interests me alot. I'm really interested in the type of marketing people do, and I also have hopes of becoming an entrepreneur one day. Problem is, interest and hope do not equate to passion and commitment. They are not the same degree (no pun intended).

This is another "no tutorial" type of module, just 3 hrs of lecture per week. Though "lecture" is kinda vague and misleading term. It's more like a seminar. A small group of us sit there at the tables and he gives us stories and examples. Don't even get me started on Mr. Kwok, he's weird. The so called lectures seem alot like storytelling sessions. Again, it is really entertaining to hear his experiences and examples, but I'm not sure I really learned alot from that.

The difference from GEM is that there is project work. I got to work with what I would say an "interesting" bunch of people. Firstly, I met an FASS student who is really into gaming and sorts. To be honest, I didn't know nerdy FASS students exist. Sorry, it's just hard to picture it sometimes. Then the remaining 3 people excluding me, are from business. I have to be very honest, I was just slightly disappointed. I had always pictured the business students to be very driven and motivated / on the ball. I thought they were a hardworking bunch. Moral of the story, there are many sorts of people from all faculties. It is not good to generalize and stereotype people. My bad.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm angry at them. I think they are a nice bunch of people. Happy folks who like to party and go clubbing. I am more disappointed at myself. I always had an interest in marketing and how businesses work. But right now after looking at my results, I'm not too sure anymore.

Maybe I'm one of the "square pegs in the round holes":



Or maybe I'm just destined not to take anymore marketing based modules, considering that I messed up the first marketing module as well... Overall, very very very sad about this module.

CS2105 - Introduction to Computer Networks

This module.... Is so full of ups and downs that it is not funny. I started the module totally motivated and ready to score. I did all my first few tutorials and actually read through the first 2 chapters of the book. But then as the semester dragged on, and more work piled up, somehow I lost motivation. I didn't really study for the midterms thinking it will be easy anyway, and ended up flunking that. Afterwards, very close to the end, I told myself I had to wake up and pull ahead. Then I started studying again, and felt really stressed. Eventually, managed to get an acceptable grade for the finals. Considering the midterm screw up, I'd say it's not too bad.

One thing I wanna say though. The lecturer is damn weird. It's like they just took him out of india and put him as out lecturer. No offence to my indian friends, but his indian accent is so freaking strong that it is sometimes impossible to understand. No intonation and no pauses, and weird pronunciations! Sometimes he goes so fast, it's almost like he is rapping, except it doesn't rhyme. Lectures are dry and boring as hell, and textbook is at least twice the size of the bible.

In a great contrast, my tutor is really good. I have a very strong bias against PRC people, I'll tell you that upfront. No need to beat-around-the-bush, I'm super honest about this. So, it takes alot to convince me that he is good. But this guy really is. Apart from his gentle and feminine way of talking, he really does take the pain to explain every detail until we understand it. So much so that we usually exceed the 1hr timeslot, and I have to miss the last bit and rush to my other class.

Overall experience, satisfied but not overjoyed.

CS2102 -Introduction to Database Systems

Are all CS modules like this? I started the semester quite relaxed about it, not completing my lab assignments, and not doing my tutorials. Naturally as the semester dragged on, all the uncertainty piled up, and I had no idea what was going on. Thankfully it is only SQL and the equivalent languages. I excel at picking up new programming languages quickly. Managed to pass the midterm exam that I thought I would fail, albeit below the cohort's average. I think the only reason I didn't score for this module, is that I was once again the lonely soul. I knew most of the people in my tutorial group by name as they are all the computing club people, but I don't actually know them in person. i.e. we never talk. In the end, I got an average grade for the finals.

About the lecturer..... I tell you ah! Computing all the lecturers CMI one leh. Their english is so hard to understand. For this module, it was Bressan again. I've been tortured by him before in my 1st year, so I knew more or less what to expect. Now to give him credit, he has changed a little. He tries to joke in his own not funny way, and can see that he has lost weight! But some things are impossible to change. For instance, that super boring lullaby voice he has. Instant knockout more powerful than sleeping gas.

Then my tutor is this Hong Kong fella. How I know? Well, I imitate different accents for fun as a pastime. LOL! Just go watch Russell Peters, seriously. Okay, enough complaining about accents. But the thing is, this guy really doesn't know his stuff. I think he just needs the money. He obviously has no idea what the lecturer taught, coz he is constantly unable to answer our questions. And since I didn't do most of the time, tutorial sessions became copy answer sessions.

I know I'm ranting alot, but I still have to talk about my project group. Chih Yong is my good friend and I think he is a nice guy, but he had to find 2 other Vietnamese people. My preconceived notion is that all viets are super good programmers, or at least they appear to be. In reality, not always the case. They are good enough to do some of the theory things on their own. But hearing what some of my SINGAPOREAN friend-of-friends did with their social network, I'm no longer impressed by them. First complaint, they have no respect for presentations and aesthetics, which is actually is not graded upon, so it is acceptable for practical reasons. But worse of all is that they are not good at working in a group that is not all Viets. i.e. zero people skills. It was supposed to be a 5 man team (ok 4 men and a girl). But the 2 viets and Chih Yong did everything by themselves. They totally excluded us from the discussions and coding, and never let us do anything. So end up, I had to find something for me and Jas to do, so that it wouldn't seem like we are freeloaders.  Do the website theme lor, since they totally ignore it. lol


Overall experience, boring module.

ACC1002X - Financial Accounting

And finally, accounting. To be honest, I had high hopes for this module. I am naturally interested in most business modules. But as I said earlier, interest alone is not enough. I tried working hard for this module lor... But I didn't do it to the extreme lah. Maybe I didn't try hard enough, need to go to the extreme. OR maybe... My project screwed up, and that is quite likely since I was typing it up the morning before submission. I felt like the finals was quite okay also leh. I guess It is just way too competitive. I only managed to get an average grade in the end. Disappointed.

About my project group members... I would call us the motley crew. Like a strange group of people thrown in together to finish an assignment. One Year 4 FASS-philo big guy who is not doing honors, one Year 3 engineering PRC dude who can't wait to get things done and over with, one Year 1 Computing PRC girl who wants to transfer over to Science Faculty, another Year 4 FASS-econs girl who crossed over from China when she was younger, and myself. We couldn't possibly have a that is stranger. It was amazing we even managed to get 2-3 meetings throughout the whole semester.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't dislike any of my group mates. I think they are a friendly and nice bunch of people. The problem is that we usually can't get anything done at meetings. Everyone has their own ideas. FASS people surprisingly are not necessarily the best at writing either. Is it so hard to get a standard GP essay together? I don't think what I managed to cook up in those few hours was very fantastic either, I feel like we could have done better.

Then there are the lecturers, both of them. The first on was terribly boring and monotonous, but I think that accountants are meant to be like that? Anyway, at least she got the job done. I understood everything and managed to do quite okay for the midterms. The second guy is a China man (notice a trend here?). He tries to act cool / funny, but fails miserably. Worse still, I can't really understand his explanations. Gotta go home and read up the textbook myself. I'm proud that I did complete every week's tutorial faithfully though. That's why I am puzzled why I didn't do well. So sad. Shouldn't take in Sem 1 maybe? Competitive.

Overall experience, disappointed but I guess it's to be expected?

In conclusion, I am not at all please with this round's result. In fact I am rather devastated by it. I think I'll have to use 2 out of 3 of my S/U option, to pull my CAP to a respectable number. Still it's only an increase of 0.05 from last semester. And if I don't use both, it goes in the opposite way. A decrease of 0.05 points. And if I only use 1 S/U? Then it only increase by 0.01 points, like not worth it leh. Sigh... I had to think damn long whether to use it or not lor. Headache.

What is going wrong with me?

I need to find a tether to the real world, and soon. Otherwise I may end up lost in my own world. Isolation poisons the mind.....

Anyway that's all I have to say. Please do leave you thoughts and opinion below. What do you think of my year, or how I reviewed it? How can I improve? Friendly advice would be helpful. Thanks.