Life of a NUS Business (Acc) Student: AY 17/18 Semester 2

Not the most flattering picture but this shall suffice

I said in my module review 1 year ago that I would be a basic bitch and take a picture in front of the business school logo. After 4 years the day you never felt would have come now has officially arrived; last day of school, last day of student life, graduate lo~ And this equates to my last module review!! This semester I took a different (and more unconventional) approach to the selection of my modules. As I wasn’t going to pursue an extra specialisation, I decided to take modules mostly out of my home faculty, so the title of the review is kinda contradictory since it didn’t feel like I was a business student this final semester HAHA.

In short, I had to clear 1 more 4k accounting/finance module and SS so the other 3 modules were really just pick and choose. It was a balance between interest, maintaining a 3 day work week, making sure I have a manageable finals schedule and still trying to score well. Another reason why I took mostly electives is because I still had an S/U remaining so I wanted the flexibility to S/U a module in case I *touch wood* screwed up a module. Trying to keep it simple and stress-free as I spend the last semester with one objective: MY 2ND UPPERRRRRR!!! So the aim was to get at least B+ for all the mods with the S/U being a slight safety net. Okay it didn’t end up really completely stress-free but it was a peaceful and tranquil final chapter in the student life.

ACC4611 Advanced Taxation

The only business module I took for the semester. I still had to clear 1 more 4k module and there weren’t many good options for Semester 2. Other 4k modules which I considered taking had either timetable clashes or were just too early (8am class on last semester omg i shouldn’t put myself through such pain).

Advanced Taxation in Semester 2 is taken by Prof Simon Poh, as he and Ms Lim Cher Hui will swap modules between 3k taxation and 4k adv tax. So if you want to take this module take note of which prof is taking which semester. I was taught under Ms Lim for basic tax so I was interested to be taught under Simon Poh because many peers have enjoyed his classes. Course assessment is exact same format of basic tax: 20% class participation, 20% group presentation, 30% Mid Term & 30% Final Quiz. Content covered under advanced tax include more in depth tax planning businesses, such as incentives and international perspectives.

I score slightly above average for midterms and was quite confident coming out of the final quiz, so maybe I did not class part enough or didn’t do as well as I thought. I was hoping for more math/calculation based questions for exams but prof dropped hints that he wouldn’t be testing them. Exams were “open-notes” so it was more of a test of application and answering of questions rather than memory. Kinda disappointed with final grade so maybe this is a sign not to pursue tax as a future job HAHAAA.

Final Grade: B 

GE2202 Economy & Space

This was the final module which I bidded for as it slotted in nicely between morning tutorials and a late afternoon lecture. The module was basically an introduction of Economic Geography, one which I liked when I did geography back in JC and covered certain aspects of it in my business modules. The whole module consists of lectures that are webcasted and 4 bi-weekly tutorials; with 10% pairwork presentation, 30% individual research essay and 60% finals. Prof Henry Yeung is one who is well established in terms of publishing numerous research papers and his lectures really value adds to the slides and textbook. The cohort is really small with several exchange students which was quite surprising because I thought this module would have attracted more people. Tutorials consists of discussions and your own presentation/listening to presentations so it was a chillax start to my Thursday mornings haha.

My topic for my research essay was on the digitalization of the supply chain of Uniqlo. Being an avid shopper at Uniqlo myself made research more enjoyable as you learn more about the company itself and the behind-the-scenes logistics behind each product and campaign. Prof Leung always uploads comments and mark distributions for past years’ semesters so I did take note and was hoping for a B+, but after seeing the distribution for this semester I was like WTF oh god please let me get a B and bell curve god save me. Worries start to hit; thinking whether I may not have not answered the research question adequately or I wrote it too much like a business essay rather than a geography one.

ohgod average is like a B?!!

Prof showed some sample essays of a C/C-, B and A+ essay, and we got to collect our essays after lecture ended.  Boomz I got an A~!!!! *starts dancing internally omg an alphabet I love to see anyday anywhere* It was a pivotal moment for this semester as it really boosted my morale for the remaining weeks heading towards finals. Finals preparation consisted of preparing of sample essay pointers and memorising of case studies. Past year questions with comments are also made available to us so I tried to do some spotting of topics as well. 2 hours for 2 essays for finals so it was just “vomitting of information” while making sure you answer the question.

Final Grade: A

GE2220 Terrestrial Coastal Environments

Well after taking a human geog mod, you gotta take a physical geog mod to compliment with it HAHAHA! Unlike the econ geog mod, there wasn’t much overlap from A level physical geog other than plate tectonics (I didn’t study rivers in As so thats 1 less chapter of prior knowledge). Weekly lectures with 3 lab practicals/tutorials; but lectures aren’t webcasted so these were lectures that I couldn’t skip sadly 😦

Module consists of 3 lab reports, a mid term and finals. It was revitalising to be doing something in the form of outdoor practicals after semesters of fighting over class participations in seminar rooms. Writing lab reports is something new as I wasn’t used to reading studies for referencing and the proper formatting of presenting data and analysis. The 3 reports constitute for 50% of the whole module, and some of it may be time consuming due to the need to draw out figures/manually plotting out river profiles from Google Earth. Deadlines were tight at certain periods but other than handing up reports, this is a module which doesn’t require consistent studying and can be chiong-ed within a few days since it is mostly memorisation. Finals consists of short definition questions and 1 essay, so its memorisation all over again. Very straightforward module overall as everything tested will be in the notes. Additional readings are only required for the lab reports and are highly recommended sources to boost credibility (and obviously marks) in your reports.

Final Grade: B+

GEK1531/GET1004 Cyber Security

A module which I took which I hoped that I could score and pull the CAP up. Y said this module was a breeze and so I decided to go for it. Turns out D also was taking the module as he was looking for an easy module to score (being an IS student himself), and my sis’s bf was in here as well. Ended up forming a group with them, the sis’s bf friend and N whom I did projects with in business and we were all set.

Grading consists of 35% mid term, 35% final quiz, 25% group project (split into 15% group paper and 10% individual presentation) and 5% homework. The module is split into 2 parts: the technical cyber security component and the mathematical calculation component. I learnt some of the math part way back in Living With Maths in Y1S1, such as encoding and decoding so I found the math part much more enjoyable. Lectures are on Wednesday evenings so towards the end of the semester I began to either leave early or just skip the lecture completely (even though it wasn’t webcasted). Homework I would usually double check my answers with D, so the only differentiating factor is those 2 exams. T

Steep bellcurve and below average MCQs were my downfall for this module but there really isn’t anything to complain about hahas. There really isn’t much to study for this module and not a lot of practice of the math component so I would recommend this module for those who are looking for something with light workload to balance their other cores.

Final Grade: B+

SSS1207/GES1021 Natural Heritage of Singapore

Not a big fan of the Social Studies compulsory university requirement but after 7 semesters, it is finally to clear this requirement. I have been saving my G account for this module, but they have properly split the bidding procedures between the 2 module codes (old vs new students) so I was only up against Y4s and above who have most likely cleared their SS requirement. I have been eyeing this module because it was the only science-related SS module and open book MCQ exams sound like a breeze

No tutorials but 2 lectures each week from 4-6 which is not webcasted. It was a plus to have this as the last lesson of the day as I could just walk back home. The module was taught by 2 profs, one took the animals topic while the other took plants/vegetation. Grading consists of yet another midterm and finals, all MCQs and all open books, but the fallacy of open book tests being easy is oh so wrong here as you would be flipping around your tags and notes scattered around your table. Textbook and notes are a must so it’s really burn and drink so you know where to flip during the exams.

Did below average for midterms as my tagging was way inadequate and I struggled to know where to flip. To the person who lent me his/her textbook, sorry I still struggled quite a bit in this module as I wasn’t able to grasp the content completely, leaving to much guessing (And praying) in choosing option A-E.

Final Grade: B

FINAL THOUGHTS

CAP (for Y4S2): 4

CAP (for Y4S2 with S/U on SSS1207): 4.13

Overall CAP: DON’T REALLY CARE I GOT MY SECOND UPPER HEHEHE ^_^

I was considering plotting my cumulative CAPs in a table format but I’m like nahhhhhh it’s over there’s no need for such things. Looking back there were many things I could have done better, such as module selection and planning, but it isn’t meant to be perfect so I can finally wrap up this storybook and move onto the next one. 

Being a “jjamppong/rojak” semester, the biggest difference is the change from 3 hour seminars to lecture tutorial format. Often I’m just staying within business school, but now I’m hopping around 3 faculties, which resulted in many squeeze and rushed bus rides from one place to another. On the bright side, it led me to be able to sample the many cuisines of the canteens of different faculties instead of just biz canteen and deck HAHA.

FINAL WORDS

When I just enrolled and started university, 4 years felt like an extremely long time and hell weeks feel like the worse as you just can’t wait for each summer/winter holiday. Now after 8 semesters it is truly finally over. Hasn’t hit me as hard as I thought, but the self-growth during these 4 years has been tremendous. I know most people who visit here come for my module reviews so I hoped they have been of assistance in anyway. Apologies for the lack of diverse vocabulary and me being a jukebox HAHAHA.

To those who are still studying “omg take this mod, aim for 1st class, play as hard as you can in grade-free semester etc.”, in the end 4 years of studying would just amount to a certificate and a transcript. Yes it will affect your future prospects but no one will remember what your grades were, it’s all about the memories and the people you met along the way. It’s all about finding the balance between work and play, plus knowing what you want out of everything. Time is precious so spend it on the things and people that matter, and before you know it you would be like me, getting ready to graduate. You will face many setbacks in many different forms, from failed interviews, strained relationships and many more, but please remember that the only way from there is up. Dig a bit more within you every time you feel like letting go and as time passes, you will understand how capable you are actually as a person. Don’t be afraid to try and fail because university will be the last place that you can try without much consequences.

and don’t forget to smile 🙂

Uni-Y Step Up 2015: When there is love, there is life

Not the most flattering pictures, it doesn’t do much justice for the camp but these will have to do for now haha. If I were to go by chronological order, I would be posting about Union Camp, but I decided to cheat a little and go this camp first instead. It was between doing this camp and Biz Oweek, but I ultimately ended up choosing Uni Y because (1) Oweek was just before the start of school and I wanted a break for myself before school starts (2) PD is my friend and it would be quite ass of me to just quit (3) I didn’t want to squeeze & sleep in a seminar room for 4 nights LOL. This was the last school event for my summer holiday, and as usual I hoped that I ended it off in a good note (especially with how UC went whoops). So for a second time let’s go, Step Up 2015: When there is love, there is life.

A little context before I begin the whole thing, this was a pretty unknown & low profile camp. I only knew about this camp through L since he was the PD, and I dragged S along (again haha bffs yo) with me. Half of the people who interviewed me knew me, so that was awkward again LOL. Again, I presented a kind and caring side of me and TADAA, I was chosen to join the camp as a OGL. Half of the comm and OGLs were mutual friends of L, so it ended up being a half-business dominated camp haha. Not that I am unhappy about it, trust me it’s always nice to see some familiar faces in camps where you are exposed to new people. There wasn’t much to do before the camp, our first real meeting where I saw everyone was like 1 month before the camp (unlike being in the comm for NBC). Given the much smaller group of people, towards the end of the camp we sort of knew each other. This made me feel like I played a significant part in the camp, which always feel good as you feel that you made a difference for the camp, no matter how small it is.

Fast forward to the day after our OGL training, we were handed our list of freshies and this was where the fun began muahahaha. I was allocated to Wolverine with D, which made us the only duo-male OGL pairings. (Side Note: Sorry D, but at the start I was a little sad that I was paired with a guy LOL. But at the end it worked out so yayyyyy :D) For half of us, it was our first camp as an OGL so the excitement was there! We all decided to give ourselves a fake identity and changed our name & display pic on WA. S was Debbie, LY was Mei Li (thumbs up for the name choice), N was Emma and I was Emily (Em sisters unite haha).  We were supposed to build up some hype before the camp and tried to keep the freshies to talk in the group chat. Sam and I decided to act as FF and we each other into our own group’s chat. Cyclops was completely dead and boring as hell, but ‘Debbie’ played her role perfectly and started chatting up with some of the freshies. Some of our display pictures caused quite a lot of commotion HAHAHA (especially for us 4 guys), which was a total joke but we had our own facepalm and epic moments.

It was the standard camp procedures as we came to the chalet a day earlier to do the final preparations and debrief before the actual camp started. We ate supper (Thanks M for driving us safely in spite of you being way past your bedtime) and had our own HTHT among the OGLs. It was the last night we could so and instead of having enough sleep, we talked quite late and ended up having not enough sleep LOL. Too bad, it’s camp what do you expect HAH! We arrived to school early to prepare the registration and welcoming of freshies. We were thinking of ideas for a grand revelation but due to constraints, we had to just reveal our own identities beforehand. For Wolverine, we did a self intro for our ice breakers and had to add one interesting fact about yourself. When it was my turn, I was like: “I’m actually Emily.” And some of the freshies were like ya right… I had to show them my phone to prove that it was true and omg their face expressions… priceless hahaha. Imagine a super friendly female OGL in the chat that turned out to be a guy…. which is me… no wonder they felt totally cheated. Omg all these bad things I do to others, karma will bite me back somehow, someday. We had some station games and after lunch, we headed the way back to the chalet.

The whole camp had a really chill vibe as compared to NBC & UC, and of course minus away all the lupsup-ness (with a certain OG being an exception tsk haha). Did I mention that each OG had an entire chalet to themselves, imagine yourself in a camp having a bed to sleep on, with air-con… Not bragging or advertising for the camp but it was quite remarkable when I heard it myself the first time! Most of the OGLs aren’t the super hyper kind and I figured out this is why we meshed well with each other from the start (which I am soooo grateful for). The camp had their own version SP games (still one of the most exciting elements during a camp), and it has its own unique elements exclusive to the camp. It wanted to impart how it feels to be partially disabled, such as loss of sight and restricted movement. There were only 8 of us OGLs so the movements from chalet to chalet were pretty hectic and messy. It was kinda cute how we had to arrange all their slippers nicely so that we will remember whose pair is whose. Aside from the comm members who came and did irrelevant stuff, all of the games went smoothly and everyone was having fun. I always felt that there is a fine line on what people can and should do during SP games, and also facilitating the games while having your own fun too. (I’ll get more about this point in UC) Although you would want to do things that were done to you when you were a freshie 1 year ago now that you are a senior, it will end as an never-ending cycle if you think about it. Just random thoughts haha.

Just doing my job as Cupid ❤

Every time after the day ends, we also had our own supper and night activities. Me and S ended up playing asshole taitee with some of the comm members during one of the nights after our freshies fell asleep. We had a guys talk during the last night as well, just 4 of us standing outside a chalet for over an hour. All these small and random moments are the ones which become the sweet memories which make me smile as I pen down my thoughts here. It wasn’t as intense as UC (where we stayed up until 5am omg), but as with any camps we were left sleep deprived throughout the camp. There wasn’t exactly much HTHT this time but more of just activities to let us know more about each other. Having one chalet all of ourselves really helped, so every night we just gathered in the living room to eat and play our games in a comfortable setting. There was this freshie N who tormented me with his lateral thinking puzzles, such as meh meh jump over the wall, what MRT station is this, and my most dread THIS IS A STRING (which took me 3 days to figure, and only because S made it super obvious to me). Although he tormented me, he ended up being the one whom I am most comfortable with and still keep in contact with after the camp. He really is just the bro type (sorry for the side note again, but thanks a mill N, I’m really glad to have met you through this camp haha).  During the last night, I was introduced to this demonic game called burning bridges. It’s such a cruel game, but it’s similar to first impressions, only much better since you get to dig out some deep secrets from the person. So demonic, but so much fun hahaha.

Lastly, there was a CIP component in the camp and all of us would be involved in a CIP event held by the CCA. I was allocated to the intellectually disable (ID) group; and it was SOOO intimidating at first. I was one who never really did volunteering, not because I don’t care, but you could say that I was afraid to meet new people. Interacting with strangers was never a go for me, but attending these camps as an OGL proved to be a stepping stone. It turned out alright, but maybe I didn’t find it that meaningful due to the lack of interaction? Nonetheless, it had some meaning to me as this was my first volunteering event in a really long time! We break camp at the evening and that signaled the end of my fulfilling summer holidays.

~Final Thoughts~

I had many doubts about this camp and didn’t come in with any expectations, but it really turned out for the better and I really appreciated every moment of it. Maybe it was because of the disastrous UC weeks ago, so the only way was up. Me and D really complimented each other well and there wasn’t a very obvious dominant and loud one. I still took a very long time to get comfortable with everyone and ended up only taking to them when it’s 1-to-1 or 1-to-2. Fortunately the freshies in my OG were really friendly and they were the ones who usually start the conversation with me. I really need to stop using my phone (such a bad habit) when it becomes awkward and just straight up talk to people instead of just fidgeting with the phone. And aha assumptions, it’s really natural instinct to judge people based on looks but we don’t give a fair chance to them and ourselves as well. I had my fair share of own assumptions regarding people but they turned out opposite of what I thought. If you slap the person with a negative connotation, whatever the person does is going to be negative in your eyes, so note to myself to keep an open and welcoming mind. I know this isn’t really like what you should learn from camps, but my participation in camps ended up becoming life lessons and more self-realization moments. If you want comments about the camp, I’ll just sum it up: It’s good, and I enjoyed this one the most.

After going through all these camps as a senior, I sort of realized that my personality is super not suited for it HAHA. I am not one who is able to get close and comfortable with people in such a short duration of time. Although it has been a step out of the comfort zone, it has been a really hard one and there have been many times where I pondered whether it was worth it. Each camp really burned a portion of the holidays, but rather than thinking if it was worth my time, I’m really proud of myself to have at least tried out these new stuff. Even if it didn’t work out and I didn’t have fond memories, everything I had experience was a learning experience! Hey, I could have had this mindset of how great of an OGL I would be, but NAHHHH it’s much harder than it seems. I read from somewhere that introverts need time to recharge their energy level, which felt true throughout 4 days of camp. It’s not that I don’t want to meet new people, there always seems to be this pressure to speak up and even if I do, it isn’t just as natural. I don’t want to paint perfect pictures of each camp (because they simply aren’t) so I shared some of my honest thoughts towards the end of this post.

It wasn’t the most fairy tale ending, but let’s just say the feeling is like a very good spent holiday overseas? You know it’s the end and you wished for it to be longer; and if you had the chance you might have done some things differently. Okay that was a sucky analogy LOL, but at the end, I would say Step Up was a good closure of my holidays. 2k words WOWWWWW

그댈 바라볼 때마다
가슴 떨려오는 순간마다
이런 내 감정이 사랑이란 건지
자꾸 멍 해지네요

Drama OSTs are my new love, it’s been too long since I watched a kdrama.

~~~

25 Things You Should Learn About Yourself Before You Turn 25

4. The one fundamental value you don’t think will ever change.

Hmmmmmmmm…

우리오래가자 ♥ ~

DISCLAIMER: Seeing the number of revisions I have for this post (23 revisions last count), this is yet another post which has been terribly delayed. I wanted to get this out by the end of recess week, but I was drowning in work during recess work and I fell sick too, so it was really a shitty recess week. It has been a bad fucking shitty year for Kpop as well, and as a small dedication I’m using Korean words for the title of this post. It doesn’t really have any link to the content of the post, and the topic for this post is just a recap for the first half of Year 1 Sem 1, with some of my reflections as well. Another very wordy and dry post, but I’ll split into sections and of course, add pictures!

Sending WZ off to UK!

A whole new environment (and class participation)

Looking back 2 years back, what C said was right: “Until you experience it yourself, you won’t know how uni feels like”. After 2 years of my brain rotting, I was going back to school with no idea what was going to happen. It can be scary yet exciting at the same time.

I still remember our first sectional ever in NUS, we all just walked into this large seminar-style room, were given name tags and just sat down quietly. My first gut feeling was “Where am I, what is this”, my first steps in uni and the environment felt very intimidating already. My first sectional was Biz Law (BSP1004) with Prof Ravi, and he was telling us how in our mod 30% of how we are graded is based on class participation. FUCK the thing I dread the most when I hear there is such a thing in uni. And oh yeah, how we were sitting was going to be our grouping. LOLS. Prof Ravi is one who really emphasizes class part as a very important part not only in his mod, but for our subsequent future. You would rarely see other profs trying to encourage everyone in the classroom to class part. Fortunately the people who I sat with were people who I was familiar with and we did our biz law group project pretty smoothly (although we completed and sent it to prof at like 4am lols). I won’t go on the breakdown of all my mods because that will be at least an addition of 500 words more lols. For now, all my mods is going well so far, nothing bad coming up yet so I’m contended. I got the supposedly easier basket of mods for this semester and they are all level 1 mods as well. ALL IZ WELL 😀

For class participation, somehow I’m doing alright, like above average. According to feedback from my professors and classmates I’m doing really well; not only for Biz Law and also MNO (my other mod which 30% of my grade is class part). MNO was a pleasant surprise because I didn’t think I was speaking up enough but Prof Wu gave me very positive feedback yays! ^_^ I was quiet through out one lesson and everyone came up to me and was like “Nick are you alright? Why you never class part?” WOW WOULD YOU HAVE IMAGINED?!!! ME BEING ONE OF THE ACTIVE STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM. And of course there are some who are the class part ‘whores’ and the ones who don’t utter a word over the whole lesson. Over the few weeks, some of us started to get used to the environment and gradually, our classroom became a war-zone with people shooting their hands up. It’s scary and it makes the whole learning environment feel so artificial. It also made the Monday blues even worse, because it was an 8-8 day and I would have to class part for 2 sectionals straight. Imagine you sitting there stressing yourself because you haven’t spoken up and waiting for a chance to say something. I don’t blame those who speak a lot; in the end it’s all for their marks so it’s inevitable that you become a ‘whore’. To sum it up in 1 sentence: I hate class part, I don’t see how it helps to making the learning more conducive and I have no choice but to do it because I don’t want to later emo over my Bs because I knew I didn’t class part enough. I’m doing well so far (what a surprise seriously ahahaha) so keep it up Nick haha! (just don’t overdo it, and don’t be shy)

In NUS, Business and FASS are the two faculties with the most free time and seeing how the timetables are for my fellow friends in Engineering/Science, the discrepancies are really quite significant. This is not saying Business is slack or anything, on the contrary it makes it even more stressful since most of the learning is put onto yourself. There’s really a lot of independent work and it’s up to your own self if you don’t want to be left behind. That’s why they call NUS National University of Self-Study. No more spoon feeding, no more fixed timetable; if you don’t care about your work, don’t attend your tutorials and lectures, no one is going to care. So you really got to have the self-discipline to do your work in time and at the same time do some revision as well for your finals. It really feels like you’re studying for A levels again, only now you have 5 months instead of 2 years. Time is really flying right now and it’s getting easier to lose track of the dates of the month. When time flies like that, it can be easy for me to lose my direction for uni. So just take it day by day, week by week and don’t lose sight of your final end-point. 

Skyping with L, N, JQ and YN for our Biz Law project!

 

Joining GENUS and KCIG

For CCAs, the original plan for me was to join a music/culture-related CCA if I was in hall, and since I didn’t get a place… I had to go find other options. Before entering NUS, I was just another lost puppy in the big world and I have no idea what CCAs were there for me to choose. C recommended persuaded me to join GENUS [Guitar Ensemble NUS]. One of the things I told myself when I come into uni was to try something, one of which could be a new instrument for music. Going back to your comfort zone works as well, so I emailed them and went for an audition. It was a short Q&A with 2 of the main committee members of GENUS, and obvious some music theory tests, such as actual playing, rhythm and sight reading. Back at DHS, our conductor would just feed us tabs so when I was told to sight read I was like sorry I can’t read music LOL. Especially when I had CO and percussion background, I think their expectations of me were higher and imo it could have been a total flunk in the audition. In the end, I made it in and became part of GENUS. Practice so far in GENUS can get quite painful in the head, because I am totally new to reading notes and I’m sticking to old habits by writing the fingering on the score (much to the displeasure of my senior LOL). Being someone with guitar ensemble background, given how I’m playing it doesn’t seem like I’m from one… 😦 Well, the only way for me to go now is up, so there’s still much room for improvement and hopefully I’ll get better in playing and sight reading.

For KCIG, I was contemplating whether to even join at the start, just scared of being judged. Why was I thinking of joining a 2nd CCA anyways? The Nick who scores completely zero when it comes to dedication and enthusiasm in CCAs, going for a 2nd CCA? Okays I admit the main purpose was just to score more points in the CCA section for exchange (they give you 5 points for every CCA you are in). Partially also it’s a grade free semester for us freshies so I see it as a semester of trying. I roped in J to join me in KCIG, and in the welcome teathere was us and 2 more male freshies, the rest all girls LOL. I was bewildered on how the ratio was so skewered; it was like 9 girls to 1 guy. I expected the ratio to be quite in favor of females, just not by THAT MUCH of a margin. There was this buddy system where they would pair 2 members to 1 exchange student from Korea here, so me and J signed up for it as well and we met up for a few times already! Our trend seems to be eating some ‘baby-portion’ food (as quoted by Minee) at a posh restaurant before excusing ourselves to a fast food place HAHA. It’s quite a cool system, the only problem is the communication barrier because not all the Koreans can speak Korean well. Fortunately, J’s buddy was an Korean American (who’s a Year 4 in Pol Science… like omg wow?), so she was there for translation in case my buddy didn’t knew anything. The other 2 guys convinced me and J to join the sub-section of KCIG, KDT (which stands for KCIG Dance Team). Yes yet another day which I never thought would come, me dancing rofl. Another thing I always wanted to learn was dancing, and the first opportunity for me to do so was B’RAG, but I didn’t take that opportunity (which now I look back, don’t really regret haha). Of course the first few sessions were super awkward as I don’t have any dance background, but neither do most of the people inside so it’s all cool if we awkward together. This was a really good platform for me as I accomplished 2 things at one go: learning dance and KPOP dance. I guess that’s the only genre of dance I really have an interest in. How is my time there so far? Okay I still have a long way to go and I look totally horrendous on video, but I’m enjoying myself there a lot. The seniors are really friendly and there to teach you step by step.

Somehow the rank of priority changed as I got more involved in KCIG instead of GENUS. Truth to be told, I’m not as close to much people in GENUS. There isn’t much interaction in GENUS too, and now we are in the workshop period as everyone is learning the basics. Hopefully it gets better when it comes to ensemble playing. Okay maybe it is because I was skipping 2 weeks worth of practice whoops, carrying the guitar around is quite a big burden, especially when you live so far away from school. Just 1 of the many excuses I have given for skipping CCA :x. I’m now only going for the dance part but not the culture part of KCIG. Honestly, it’s really tiring to be juggling 2 CCAs which have commitments of 2 days per week. I feet really burnt out, but in a good way. In the end, it seems like I’m giving 75% to each CCA, so maybe it’s better to just focus on one. I’m seriously considering leaving 1 of them if it starts to affect my results and for now I’m more biased towards KCIG because it’s more fun. Not saying I would 100% quit GENUS if I had to drop a CCA, so if the time ever comes let’s just hope I follow my hear (plus brain) and make the right decision!

Dinner with the korean buddies!

 

Cub in the lion’s den (and making friends with your fellow cubs lions) 

Before I went into Business, I sort of knew that I would need to do some presentations. Never would I have thought how much I hated it, and I’m forever nervous in front of a big group. According to many, I was trembling when I was presenting LOL (yes nervous wreck me sigh). Somehow everyone else seems so confident when they present, and yes I envy them and wish I could be like them. In that sense. I’m like a cub in the lion’s den. To add on, it’s a total new playing field in NUS Business. Everyone who got into here scored at least an AAB in their A levels or have a good GPA back in poly. Everyone in NUS is smart and everyone in NUS Business is fucking smart. There are many people who somehow are able to juggle work and commitments super well. Life’s just a bitch at times right? You study hard, you do well but it’s still not enough. Why is that so? Because there are so many people who did better than you and you get stuck in the middle of the dreaded bell curve. I’m not getting buried in the bell curve for now, did slightly above average for both of my midterms (GEM plus acc). I know I should be contented with my results, but strangely I want to do better. So even though some people out there are smarter and can grasp things faster, I shouldn’t be using this an excuse : it just means that I have to work harder. But what J said was somewhat true: The cub still has a chance to grow into the lion.

For such an introverted person like me, it’s really hard for me to make friends because I always hope that someone there comes up and speak to me first. In the end from NBC and UC, I didn’t really make any lasting friends, all of which end up as people who I wave and say hi when I see them around in school. Thankful for O’week though as they group us with our classmates so it’s not like you will lose contact with them. For any potential NUS Business students out there, hre’s a pro-tip: You can skip all the camps and RAG, but please don’t skip Oweek. It became quite prominent that cliques are being formed among us. To start off, there were the people who went for Oweek and those who didn’t. Branching from the ones who went Oweek, there is the Sheares gang, the USP gang, the others gang, and there’s me. Okays I’m not that loner, but I don’t even know myself if I belong to a clique LOL. It seems like I’m making just acquaintances, but not any close friends. I do feel left out at times, many times in fact and this is not in Business itself; the same applies for GENUS and KCIG. It’s more of my issue rather than others. Especially in uni, you see yourself changing in order to fit in the environment. There’s a fine line between being yourself and changing to fit into the environment, I believe that many really change themselves in order to fit in, which shouldn’t happen. I used to think clubbing becomes a must when you go uni, but now I rather just don’t because firstly: I’m not a fan of clubbing and secondly: You don’t really have to follow the crowd. So just be yourself and be natural. You may end up like me having no friends HAHA, but really don’t let others change you, but you do need to change a bit as well. Not everyone can be accommodating to you (And that is something I need to take note and do better).

Also, now being in uni for myself, I understand why it is so easy to fade away from your older friends because uni is occupying most of your time. I still try to keep in contact with my JC friends and army friends, but again it’s really hard to find a common time to meet up so the only times we really see each other are during 21st birthday parties and when we send our fellow friends off. Thankfully most of them are in NUS as well so sometimes we can meet up to mug and have a meal together. In uni you really meet some weird people lols, and in the end the people in Dunman High are still the best. I just hope that I don’t lose contact with people anymore, because I really value these relationships a lot.

Guys selfie during Oweek! HAHAHA so gay~~

 

Staying optimistic 

Okays conclusion time! (3k word count oh em geeee) I feel that another deja vu moment yet again: me soloing mugging in school nearly everyday till the latest time possible. Only recently did I make my trip back to Bugis and NLB (I never fail not to be productive there haha!). Yes, it feels really lonely at times, especially when you see people around you having at least 1 more person to accompany them there. I don’t really mind, but of course it would be nice if I had a mugging buddy along. Thank goodness for BX for accompanying me for some of the nights @ UTown. Although the student life can get really stressful, it still feels really good to be a student back again. So many insecurities, and half a semester have passed so far! I’m really not sure if I can survive all of this, but the only way is forward. Give me strength somehow, plus a little bit of motivation and drive. Okay I need much more than that, I just need someone to catch me if I fall. Let’s go Nick, 8 more weeks and then give yourself a good break from all of this! 

 

AND TIME FOR SOME KPOP:

Super Junior, EXO, KARA, Wonder Girls… never would I have thought the day would come where the same thing happen to SNSD, where a gap is suddenly formed…  God my heart broke when I saw the beginning of the performance of Gee during the fan meet, where Jessica is no more in front with Tiffany. T.T No matter what happens, I’m still a SONE to the very end. 8 + 1 in the eyes for now, but forever 9 in the heart. #StayStrongSNSD

우리오래가자 ♥ ~ let’s go on for a long time…

I need a virtual hug right now boooo T_T

EXORDIA: NUS Union Camp 2014 (Day 2) – THE AMAZING…disappointment

Onto Day 2, and with every camp it’s all the same old shit again; lack of sleep, just running on adrenaline. Camps really have this magic power that you can be so energized with 3-4 hours of sleep. I’m having more sleep now that school starts but somehow I’m feeling more tired and dead. 2 options: Either sleep more or more caffeine. I’m now doing the latter and it isn’t working the best so far, really treasuring the days where I can sleep wihtout an alarm. Okays all these camp posts are so delayed… so let’s go back to UC 2014!

We started off the morning with sponsorship talks, but everyone was dead/close to dying so no one was listening at all. I pity the people who have to give all these talks, I think they know that none of us are paying attention but still have to give it for the sake of giving. We had talks for close to 2 hours before we move off for the first activity of the day: The Amazing Race! Our group was assigned the purple line, and there were some activities that we had to complete at different stations. A main comm member was attached to each group to facilitate the activities, and for our group we had WH’s gf! We first had this food hunt at Giant Supermarket at Vivo where we had to find the barcodes of certain food items. We moved to Chinatown afterwards for a food hunt, where we had to order a dish starting from A,B,C,D and E. Lastly, we had to complete some activities in Little India. I didn’t really go into details for each activity because seriously, it was very boring and worse of all, it was a very hot day. I heard the idea of The Amazing Race was a last minute change since the original pool games got cancelled due to some issues from Jurong Swimming Complex (No wonder I was wondering why in our packing list we didn’t need to bring our swimming costume).

Hela @ Food Hunt!

Getting back to school, it was close to dinner time already so we were just waiting till then. We still had 1 more activity lined up for us before dinner time, which was *drumrolls*… REVELATION! I was hoping for something simple like what they had in business: The seniors trolling us a little, then we sit down, count to 3 and take out our blindfolds together. NAHHHH it wasn’t going to be that easy. Our group of SPs were all sitting in a hall room and each of us had to go into the room 1 by 1 to do a forfeit before proceeding to guess who is our SP. If you chose incorrectly, you just keep trying till you succeed. It was quite anti-climatic that we were going to know our SP after meeting them the day before, but we only had 4 nights and the night after we were supposed to go on Date Night (which I will explain for Day 3). Some of my OG mates peeped through their blindfolds and already knew who their SP was so they managed to guess it in 1 try. Okay even if I wanted to peep I couldn’t because my eyesight is quite bad and I really rather don’t go peep and spoil the game for myself. We did really simple activities, like singing, carrying the girls and doing squats, all the lame things. A few of us (4 to be exact, which includes me) couldn’t guess who our SP was and we were quite dumbfounded. We were at our 4th try already and in my head I was like HELP ME PLEASEEEEEE JAEBALLLLLLL. My SP said that she was “of Chinese descend” and with “average length hair and height”, so I just based off these descriptions and kept guessing. I realized that there were only 3 girls waiting while there were 4 of us guys, it didn’t make sense so I probed my house head Kellie who was chilling at the side why was 1 girl missing. She pointed to herself and said: “I’m one of your SPs”. MINDBLOWN~! All of us were panicking and thinking of the possibility that our own house head could be our SP. WZ and YW both guessed Kellie and she didn’t turn out to be their SP. She was damn funny because both of them were lifting her and she kept saying that she’s heavy hahaha. I was just thinking if Kellie would go to the extent of lying that she was from Business, SAJC, and totally crap false things about herself. In the end I went with the rational choice and chose the remaining girl (excluding Kellie) and tada, I found my SP, Audrey from Cockeye! (Yes that’s really the name of her OG). I really don’t know how to phrase this because I know some people will read this so I need to put it in a subtle way; let’s just say my lucky star was there for me.

Vincent was being such a blur cock because it was obvious that Kellie was his SP already since she wasn’t my SP so he was the only one left. But he proceeded to pick out someone else and had to do another forfeit. He was made to do a strip tease, which was freaking funny as he was wearing a shirt that we sweated in the whole day and Kellie was begging for help. Our other house head Gabriel came along as Kellie rushed to him for help but he was being nonchalant and told us to carry on. Using that sweaty shirt, he hooked his shirt around her neck and started dancing around here, and finally, all of us finally found our SPs (phew!). We proceeded to go to FASS canteen to have our dinner and after which we had our Fright Night night walk for our night activities. It was held somewhere near King Edward Hall and Science faculty, it was just an open area. When we reached there, we were to sit down and wait for around an hour because there were people doing it as well so there was a bottle neck. It ended up being a killing the mosquitoes session as they were relentlessly attacking our legs and we just chit chatted till our turn came. We were sent in pair by pair and we were supposed to hold hands, but no one cared and we just went in. Our mission was to collect 5 Joker cards (sort of like marbles during NBC), and honestly it wasn’t scary at all. At the start there was his abandoned small house and I was thinking “Are you kidding I need to enter that?”. It turned out there were 2 people nearby them and we just had to take the card which was placed in front of them. Throughout the whole journey, me and Audrey were just being total blur sotongs as we keep getting lost. Audrey was really terrified and I had to lead the way, but yeah so glad that it wasn’t scary at all. The councilors stationed there were trolling her and there was one case where we were lost and had to ask for directions, and after we walked away the councilor rushed up behind Audrey and screamed. I was like laughing LOL but honestly, those kind of scares are the one I hate the most.

After completing the night walk, we headed to the Science block and had to find a LT which was our next lecture place. BEING BLUR SOTONGS AGAIN… we went down this flight of stairs and realized that we were nowhere near the place where we needed to go. After using some common sense, we finally found our way back to the LT, where we were made to watch this horror movie. I wasn’t a fan of horror movies and Audrey said the back portion was terrifying so we ended up sitting out. We made our way back to Temasek Hall afterwards and bid farewell from there. (Because of the delay in writing these posts I really can’t recall much of the things we did so please excuse me in the following posts >.<). The OG made our way to the senior’s room (Which was a double room) and we did some simple drinking games, like I never and some random games. I really can’t recall much what we did during that night, but the nights here weren’t very exciting and there was a lack of HTHT. Sean was freaking funny as he continued to be this daddy figure and questioned the OG girls on anything possible. Same ol thing again, go back to our respective rooms, short sleep and onto day 3 we go!

Day 2 thoughts:

Most chill camp ever? Omg time actually passes really quick here in UC as compared to NBC, and in an instance half the camp is almost over.  I liked how I had more time to interact with my OG mates here, okay it’s not a whole lot more but it’s an ever slight improvement. Yays to my SP coming from biz as well, but I really hate forfeits. I really need to find something that I’m good at which can be a forfeit lols. And thank goodness for entertaining night walk and not frightening shit. I mean is it really fun to scare others? T.T. I’m glad there is somewhat less of a barrier between the OGLs and us. Was it just me or are these OGLs in a way more sociable? Lack of sleep is really killing me, and I really hope I don’t fall ill. *Squeezing in my half of the bed* SLEEP KTHXBYE!

To make up for the lack of photos in this post, here’s a post of my awesome Hela OGLs! 😀

(from left to right:) Carolyn, Yan Lin, Kimberlyn, Wei Hao, Sean!

Fun facts of the day regarding my secret pals so far:

– Both of their names start with A, Andrea and Audrey!

– Both of them are from Business Administration (me being the lone ranger from Accountancy)

– Both of them are short (LOL I feel awful stating it like that, height isn’t all that matters ahhh this is another #justsaying moment)

– Both of them were relatively quieter than me, so I was the one asking questions most of the time

– I didn’t keep in contact with both of them (sadly again haiz…), added Andrea on FaceBook and Twitter, added Audrey on her dead Twitter and Instagram. Only waves when we bump into each other in biz (Andrea is in the same BFS lesson with me coincidentally)

– I think my SP luck is really not bad, hearing how screwed up some of my friends’ SPs were at other camps, so guys you better start doing good stuff and accumulate some karma. Nah I’m just kidding, the best advice I can give when it comes to SP is just keep the conversation going and don’t think so much. Remember it’s all just a game so just play along with your trolling seniors, be nice and be yourself! 🙂

P.S. And on another side note, I’m not expecting myself to be posting as regularly as I thought I would be. I would play around with the sequence of these posts, maybe going to Biz O-Week as well as sharing some short thoughts on university life for me so far (I’ll do one most likely on recess week when half of the semester is gone). I’m not really productive at home so I see myself staying up late in school, be it to study or just typing out some posts here. As of right now, I’m at UTown myself plugged in with some music and chilling with my laptop. It would have been so nice if I had a residence in school so that I can stay up later and save on the travel time, but oh well just make the best with what you have. Signing off for now, I will be back! 🙂 P.P.S. 벌써 보고 싶어 ㅜㅜ

 

To the future we go

It has been roughly 2 months since results day, this post should have been out way earlier, but I haven’t really had the time to sit down and write/type it out. This is just going to be my thoughts regarding my A Level journeys and everything else, what went right for me and the future installed for me.

me with my class 🙂

Got to school, got my results, the end. That’s is basically a summary of what happened that day. Everyone in the school (as expected) did well, we had 90+ people getting 6As and above, which gives them a passport whatever course their heart desires. What I was more worried about are the rest of the 300 of us, can we get into the course of our choice? Or even worse, can we even get into any local university? Flashing back to what Mr Yap said to us a year ago, would we be crying tears of joy or tears of sorrow and regret? The wait to receive our results was so fucking bad, totally feel like shit during that moment. How would my 2 years of studying come out? All of these questions would be answered once I see those letters on that piece of paper…

So what was the end results? 3 words: Totally worth it. Of course, it could have been better, but I’m satisfied and happy, that is all that matters. Those mugging sessions in the school library, Starbucks, NLB, Subway, have not gone to waste! It also felt great to see all your effort paid off in the end. I supposed all the things I previously told myself really helped: the positive mindset, the constant hard work, the never-say-die attitude. Being “academically-challenged” for 4 years doesn’t mean that you have to be the same for the next 2 years. I still recall an assembly talk which showed statistics correlating GPA and A level results, well sorry but I didn’t see myself getting bad results since I had a lousy GPA. To those who think they aren’t “meant for studies”, don’t believe in those bullshit. People are “smart” for a reason, they study and put in the work, it’s just that simple. If you claim you study but still can’t get results, review your methods. Studying while talking to someone won’t help you absorb much, so there is always something out there where you can improve in. The most important thing is not to give up, never give up. Although you may feel down at times, just think how badly you want it, cause if you do, you will definitely work for it.

Here, I really have to thank the teachers who have helped me immensely throughout those 2 years: Mr Ng Hao Jin, whom I give full credit for saving my maths when I was at my worst and re-instilling my long lost passion in maths. My chemistry tuition teacher Chris, who although may not be the most knowledgeable, but always puts in the effort in preparing questions despite having another job. My economics tuition teachers Mr “Sean Pang” and Mr Gilbert Lee, one which gave me the foundation and another who probably vomitted marking my essays :x. And Mdm Koh Li Keng, who helped me at the final stretch of the As, even though I wasn’t her student which made me twice as grateful. I feel awfully sorry to Mr Augustine Chan for my below-par GP grade, who always comes up with interesting acronyms to help his students in GP.

And that’s for me, but what about the others? Some of them did well, got close to the 6As needed to stand on stage. Some did worse than expected, but good enough for most universities. And there are the others, whom I’m really worried about: those who may not even be able to go to a university, or go to courses not even close to their preference. It’s really frustrating to see people whom you know studied hard, but the results did not show on that goddamn freaking piece of paper. Some of them are your close friends, but you can’t do anything but say: “It’s going to be alright”, which doesn’t really help, which leads me to the post A-level days… The most surprising thing that happened the day after results day is that a teacher, whom I didn’t expect at all, called me. She congratulated me for my results, and lead to the discussion of my class, where some did not do well. She told me to do something for them to comfort them etc, which at that point of time I didn’t really care, but I don’t know why, but in the end I decided to write something for them, kinda like what I write here. I even wrote a draft first before typing it out and posted on Facebook, and what the heck, might as well tag along the 4F guys as well. To be honest, that post doesn’t sound like me at all, because I never really open up in front of my class unlike I do here. But thankfully, I got a positive response from it, even some teachers texted/Fb-message me and told me that they liked the note. What I wanted to say is all in the note, so those who are interested can read the note at the link below

http://www.facebook.com/notes/nick-lim/to-my-dearest-friends-classmates-and-anyone-else-that-i-might-know/10150604239626888

So what is installed for me in the future? Well I got accepted into NUS Faculty of Science :). In the end, I chose interest over “utility”. With my grades, I could have gone into other courses which promised a better future, such as Business or Accountancy, but as I told myself, since I am going to study something for the next 4 years, might as well make it as enjoyable as possible. It always gets tempting to go to a course which seems more “sought-after”, but I think I made the correct decision and went with my heart, rather than just future practicability. I would probably have an average salary, but at least I would be doing something I enjoy. Just a little conflicted between Applied Mathematics and Statistics, both have its pros and cons. This leads to another big question mark in my life, what am I going to be in the future? I seriously don’t want to be a maths teacher LOL, but that seems like what most people do with a maths degree. Teaching do seems fun, but not as a profession. Imagine students come find me for consultations and I don’t know how to solve the question.. And how interesting could teaching Maths be? There’s only 1 way to solve it. Let’s just hope that I made the right decision!

So university life let’s go! But that would have to wait till 5 March 2014… Can’t wait to say the word ORD LO!