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Back To School - The Highs and the Lows! |
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Written by Marissa Chen
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It is certainly no secret that the start of every semester opens up a new can of worms - from disagreeable tutorial mates to getting wedged in between the doors while the shuttle bus pulls away from the bus stop (yes, we kid you not).
These all-too-familiar characteristics of varsity life have become so ingrained in our routine that indeed, it’s impossible to envision carrying on without them. Hooked buckles down and waxes lyrical on what we loathe and love coming home to this academic semester.
CORS
How do I abhor thee, CORS dear? Let me count the ways.
Surgically attaching your cellphone to your palm while barking every five minutes at your friend to “throw in more points!” or “withdraw my bid now!” with all the authority and fervour of an illegal bookie is a scenario many of us only know too painfully well. The only available alternative to this is chaining yourself to your desk and refreshing the bidding results Web page every two minutes.
Although the Module Preference Exercise alleviates our stress-level somewhat by pre-allocating most major modules to students, it is undeniable that CORS has taken some of the best of us.
Freshmen undergraduates who are unfamiliar to this bane of varsity life are in for a rude awakening – it’d be prudent to seek assistance from some of your older classmates before participating in that first crucial round.
NEW MINOR MODULES
Finally, some benevolent has decided to take the headache-inducing ordeal of choosing which UE modules to take right off our hands. Your academic transcript gets a breath of fresh air with an extensive range of new minor modules introduced by various faculties in NUS.
If you’ve toyed with the idea of enrolling into a double major programme but haven’t the time (or, we might as well admit it now, the discipline) to pull it off, there’s a fine alternative.
By taking a minimum of 24 MCs (five to six modules) in any of the stipulated courses fulfils the criteria for a subject minor, and with over ten new minor modules – including Economics, Philosophy, and Geography – you can stroke your ego by gracing your Bachelor of Arts degree with an additional title, at the very least.
Visit the respective faculty sites for more information on minors offered within and outside your faculty.
THE MATRICULATION CARD
Freshies are going to love the wealth of privileges which comes with wielding their spanking-new matriculation card (the least of which being able to disown poorly-photographed EZ-Link cards as the only handy form of identification), but returning students too, will only be more than happy to resurrect that magic pass which has remained more or less inactive for the past three months.
Your trusty matriculation card covers everything from access to library references to bearing the 20 per cent discounts off your Big Breakfast or Club Sub, so be sure to keep it on hand at all times. Surviving on a student’s budget is easy as pie with bazaars and jumble sales organized by various clubs and societies on a biweekly basis (yes, we’re cheap).
THE NEW DECK
After being deprived of proper food for a whole semester, FASS students can finally rejoice at the completion of the newly revamped Arts canteen, more commonly known as The Deck.
Check out what's new at The Deck here!
SCHOLASTIC IDOLATRY (No, really)
Those who have had a taste of the corporate world by way of internships, work attachments, or even part-time vacation odd jobs, will vouch that school is a glorious reprieve in comparison.
The holidays usually throw up endless barrage of internship horror stories including an entire work attachment programme which involved a hapless intern binding and stapling documents every single day for three months, or walking five blocks to purchase kaya toast long after office hours were over.
“Nine to five” usually just meant slogging away at your desk for eight hours...before returning home to slog some more. In some industries, OT demands are so severe that it would probably make more sense to kip in the office overnight like one particular student intern did at the height of deadline pressure, returning home only when children from the neighbourhood are traipsing off to school.
Beat down the academic errors of your past and make the most of your undergraduate experience this semester - after all, crunch-time only hits during assignment submissions and just before the examinations, furthermore, the age of mandatory tuition and chicken essence has prepped us to tackle these problems since primary school anyway.
So before you commence whinging about that heinously boring 10 am lecture, remind yourself that it could be a lot worse – indeed, that in a couple of years, it will be a lot worse.
Welcome back. hooked
Images courtesy of Google Images and www.CartoonStock.com
What are the things you look forward to, in the new semester (if you look forward to it at all)?
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