The fat lady is about to sing: AY2018/19 Semester 2 will be my last B.A. school-based semester

It hasn't exactly been the blink of an eye, but it's certainly gone much quicker than anticipated. I'm now entering the last semester in which I study modules in school. From July to November, I will be doing an internship, after which I would have completed all the requirements for a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree. I can then decide to graduate, or stay for one more year to do Honours.

As usual before the start of every semester, I look forward at the modules to come, and back at the semester just ended.

My modules this semester

GES1035: Singapore: Imagining the next 50 years
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: CS/CU, does not count towards the CAP or S/U allowance
CORS bidding result: Bid 1632 General points, won for 1614 General points
Format: All lectures are e-lectures and face-to-face tutorials are held on alternate weeks
It's not that I, or the 150-odd other lucky souls whose virtual wallets were big enough to afford this expensive module, give a damn about what happens in the next 50 years. But we all need to do a Singapore Studies module to graduate, and since this one has no physical lectures and, because it's pass-fail, won't put our aggregate scores at risk, we're willing to pay everything we have to secure it. Other Singapore Studies modules usually sell for 1 point, making the price of this one all the more startling.

JS1101E: Introduction to Japanese Studies
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: Standard letter grades, eligible for S/U
CORS bidding result: Bid 2552 Programme points, won for 1 Programme point
Format: Face-to-face lectures and tutorials every week
Unlike many of my contemporaries, I'm not a fan of anime, manga, J-pop, JAV or whatever. The only thing Japanese I like is food: sashimi, ramen, soba, udon, tempura, unagi... Yum! But because it's compulsory to take a module in Asian Studies, I chose this one because 1) the final exam has multiple-choice questions where the other Asian Studies modules only have academic essays, which I abhor, 2) the lecturer is a jolly old American man who came highly endorsed by my contact in the Dean's Office, who said he's a nice guy, and 3) it was the best fit for my timetable.

NM2104: Qualitative Communication Research Methods
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: Standard letter grades, eligible for S/U
CORS bidding result: Pre-allocated for one point from the Programme account after participation in the Module Preference Exercise
Format: Face-to-face lectures and tutorials every week
The truth is, I dread this module and put it off for as long as possible, which is why I'm only doing it now. Qualitative research is a real pain in the neck because the data collected doesn't come in the form of numbers, but rather words. And how does one properly analyse words to extract meaningful conclusions? I don't know, but I do know that the first step is to transcribe all audio recordings into text... Imagine what tedium that is! As a converted psychology student, I am okay with handling statistics, but this is just a whole new ball game altogether, and I don't like it.

NM2203: Social Media in Communication Management
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: Standard letter grades, eligible for S/U
CORS bidding result: Bid 1 Programme point, won for 1 Programme point
Format: Face-to-face lectures every week and tutorials on alternate weeks
I really do want to work in public relations and my main area of interest is media relations, the most "traditional" kind of PR. You know, the kind where you issue press releases and hold media conferences. But PR, as with everything else in this world, is becoming increasingly online. Social media is a big part of PR now, and besides the obvious role of creating and posting content on organisational pages and reacting to comments and messages from netizens, PR practitioners must understand social media because that's where people make their voices heard, and at its very core, PR is about knowing what people are saying about the organisation and managing that. So even though I don't intend to make a career out of social media PR, and recoil in horror at the mere mention of the terms "viral", "analytics" and "search engine optimisation", I still think it's important for me to take this module to get a foundation in the world of social media in PR. With more news platforms now existing online rather than offline, such knowledge could come in handy even for a traditionalist like me. Actually, I didn't choose this module at first, and opted for another one about social psychology of new media at the Module Preference Exercise instead, because the person who used to teach this module didn't do a very good job, according to various reviews I'd found online. But that person, who has a PhD, disappeared, and the replacement is an industry practitioner who has something better than a PhD: accreditation from the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore (IPRS). When I discovered this, I dropped the social psychology module and bought this one from CORS. The new lecturer is a Vice President of marketing at a big regional business by day, rather than a paper general, i.e., a professor who has never done actual social media PR before in their life trying to teach us about social media PR. He describes himself as being "pretty chill". I can live with that!

NM3219: Writing for Communication Management
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: Standard letter grades, not eligible for S/U due to being level-3000
CORS bidding result: Pre-allocated for one point from the Programme account after participation in the Module Preference Exercise
Format: Face-to-face lectures and tutorials every week
This is the one I'm most excited about because it's right up my alley, being all about media relations, pitching, press releases, speechwriting, and stuff like that, all of which fall into the category of what I can see myself doing for a living in future. It's also being taught by a practitioner rather than an academic. Oh, joy! The most awesome thing is that although there is a compulsory textbook, the lecturer chose one that we can download for free off the library database using our student accounts. More faculty members should do this and help us save on those notoriously ripoff books.

NM3232: Strategic Communication: Concepts
Number of MCs: 4
Grading: Standard letter grades, not eligible for S/U due to being level-3000
CORS bidding result: Bid 2579 Programme points, won for 27 Programme points
Format: Weekly three-hour seminars
This module is a sort of overview of the entire public relations process, from the planning stage to execution through to evaluation. It's very popular, obviously, and I didn't get it from the Module Preference Exercise even though I requested for it. So I bought it from CORS. As a seminar-style module class, I suspect this module will involve quite a lot of peer teaching. I don't mind, since this is a subject I'm interested in anyway.

My workload for the semester is 24MC, which is a slight overload from the standard 20MC. The reason is because I am doing an extra major module this semester rather than delaying it to the following semester to be taken as an online course concurrently while I'm on internship. I don't like that option even though it's available, because when I'm on internship, I want to have 100% energy to give to my employer during the work week, and my weekends will be for resting, not slaving away at tutorials and assignments. I'd rather suffer a bit more now. And I still have more than enough S/Us to catch me if I drop the ball anyway. There's an S/U with NM2104's name on it, and another with JS1101E's...

My academic journey thus far

I'm not shy to openly declare that as of right now, my CAP is a more-than-decent 4.81. This isn't something I remotely imagined would happen when I enrolled so I'm very happy with what I've achieved so far.

This blog

There will be one new scheduled post released in February and another in April.

New NUS EduRec Academic Advisement system

The National University of Singapore (NUS) has launched a new graduation audit system as part of its Educational Records (EduRec) online portal for students.

It shows students exactly what requirements they need to fulfill in order to complete their degree.

Here is a quick tour, with screenshots! They are taken from my EduRec account.

The goal is to get this to turn into a green "Satisfied".

This is a summary of my student details. The most important ones are Acad. Prog. and Acad. Plans. Under Acad. Prog. it says I am taking a Bachelor of Arts degree and my current level is ARS3. ARS means Arts and to get to level 3, I had to complete at least 80 modular credits' (MC) worth of modules. Under Acad. Plans it lists my major, Communications & New Media, and the fact that I am on the faster "polytechnic track", which means that I should be able to graduate half a year early due to credit exemptions.

This section lists the language proficiency requirements an NUS student must fulfill. In my case, because I am a polytechnic entrant who did not take the A Levels, I had to prove that my command of English was up to par by taking the Qualifying English Test (QET) administered by the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) before starting on the degree course proper. If I had failed, I would have had to take remedial modules during the first couple of semesters. Fortunately, I did not have to suffer this fate because I placed in the highest possible scoring band. The Mother Tongue (MT) and Mother Tongue Bonus Point (MTBP) milestones are not relevant to me. They are for students majoring in language-related subjects like Chinese Language.

The system clearly shows what is needed to fulfill a certain requirement. Here, it is saying that I need to complete 20MC of General Education modules, and I have already taken 16MC with 4 more to go. In NUS, General Education modules are divided into 5 pillars, one of which is Human Cultures. I have fulfilled this pillar by taking GEH1014 and passing it with a grade of A- in Semester 1 of the 2018/19 Academic Year.

Another General Education pillar is Singapore Studies. Unfortunately I have not fulfilled this requirement yet, so the table is blank and under Units it still says 4MC, the equivalent of one module, are needed.

My major stipulates that some essential modules must be completed. The system tells me that there are 12MC of such essential modules and I have done 8. I need 4MC more to fulfill this requirement.

What if I have no idea what module I need to do to fulfill a certain requirement? All I need to do is click View Course List in the table on the previous page and I will be shown a full list of all the modules that go into the specific requirement. Can you guess which module I am lacking in the major essential requirement? Hint: Look for the module that is in this screenshot that is not in the previous one.

Obviously I did not show the entirety of my graduation audit report here as there are so many parts and so many sections. But they all look similar to what I have shown you here: one line telling you how many MCs you need in total, how many you have done, and how many you have left to go; followed by a table showing the relevant modules that fall under that category.

The new system is an upgrade over the previous Graduation and Academic Planning System (GAPS) in which students had to manually classify their modules into the various categories of requirements. Now, everything is done automatically.

But it is still important for students to understand from the very beginning what they need to do in order to graduate, as this will allow them to plan their academic career better and avoid costly mistakes such as forgetting to take a module to meet a certain requirement and having to delay graduation as a result. For a rundown of what goes into an Arts degree at NUS, read my post on Majors, unrestricted electives, and everything in between: How the FASS curriculum works.