2024 Review

Hi it's me again!!! Who am I even talking to? Actually maybe the fewer readers the better cos I can just write whatever I want.

Anyway it's the time of the year again! Let me list some of the things that I'm proud of.

1. Lost 10 kg
2. Got a lot better at lab work 
3. Read at least 14 books

Wait that's all? Btw I'm still in the same job after 4 years, so skip this post if you are looking for career switch advice.

Ok la let me describe the events that led to those achievements.

Lost 10 kg (From Jan - Jul 2024)

I had a gym buddy for the first 2 months of the year, and our starting goal was to lose 5 kg (per person). So every Wednesday we would go to the gym after work, and we were not supposed to eat after workout, then usually I just be like ok lor don't eat. But then he often found reasons to eat dinner, like to commemorate our first/last gym session of the month, to celebrate losing 2 kg, treat dinner after winning 4D. Ofc I went along with it cos I also liked to eat HAHA. 

Also he said he would buy me a pair of cheap wireless earphones if I lose 5 kg, cos I kept losing the ones I bought lol. 

But one day he was gone ah, like forever, so our promise to eat Sushiro the next Wednesday never happened. 

Ya then I was damn sad and shocked. What to do? Suddenly a random colleague near my house asked me to run along the canal downstairs so I started running. In the first 2 months, I often cried after finishing the target distance(~3km), cos the sadness only surfaced when I could actually breathe xD. Running was one of the daily activities that kept me from spiraling into despair, maybe cos you can't feel despair when struggling to breathe. I also ate a lot less la, cos I low key trying to see if the earphones gonna happen if I really lose 5 kg. But nope, still no free cheap wireless earphones 10 kg later. 

I was still using my wired earphones until December this year, when my phone kept showing the alert 'moisture detected' when I plugged it in. The same alert appeared when I plugged in a new pair of earphones. So I just took it as a sign to not be so stubborn and bought a wireless one lol. xD

Oops I digressed. So how did I lose weight? 

At first I only ran and eat less. Then I realised I no strength to even close my lab's vehicle's door. So I went to random gyms and did some dumbbells to build muscles. Also ate 7 eleven chicken breast and 0 sugar soy milk. 

Where did I get my motivation?

To distract myself from emotional pain by inflicting physical pain caused by running and muscle aches.

How to be so disciplined to exercise 5 days a week? 

Oh you underestimate what humans can do to escape from reality. That's why people take drugs. But I no cool friends so I dunno where to buy drugs so I can only run and cry and sweat. 

Define your Eat Less?

For the first few months I had a packet of The Future Food each for breakfast and dinner, and my usual portion for lunch. So people didn't realise I was trying to lose weight since I was eating my usual big plate of caifan for lunch. -purposely be sneaky about it-

How sustainable is this?

Afterwards I got less sad so the discipline also drop drop drop like grapes soooo my weight stopped decreasing, but it didn't increase either! (phew for now at least)

Got a lot better at lab work

I mentioned last year that the person I wanted to impress got pulled out of lab. The reason why I wanted to impress her was cos she knows everything in the lab, so getting her recognition probably meant I'm good enough. The funny thing is that my skills and knowledge shot up after she left. Mostly because I had to do a lot of things on my own now, and mistakes and struggles helped me to learn a lot more than hand-holding. 

My confidence increased when I learnt more, and I also started to trust my learning process and learnt even more quickly. Oh I'm still clumsy but I'm confidently clumsy since my dexterous colleagues can cover for my clumsiness. 

And I also stopped trying to hold back. Instead of worrying about whether the things I said were correct when talking to my boss, I just said/did them and see what happened. Cos the worse thing that could happen is to get scolded or laughed at if I say something wrong, but I won't ever learn if I said nothing. My boss would also assume I knew nothing if I did nothing. 

Oh wow it worked better than expected cos my boss started to laugh at my jokes and tried to understand what I wanted to say. Can tell that she actually listened and wanted to know my opinions and thoughts this year!! Some background here: I was damn rebellious last year cos it felt like she didn't care what I was doing or my progress, so I decided to not show her anything I knew cos she wouldn't appreciate it anyway. (yaya career suicide)

The more confident I look, the more stuff my boss handed me and I learnt more different things. So it's a virtuous cycle! Actually this is supposed to be common sense lol but I no common sense. 

Read 14 books

Soooo my boss' boss started lending me books 2 years ago and I read 11 books last year and 14 books this year. I think reading books also distracted me from overthinking, and I learnt a lot of things that I would never think of learning before reading those.

So what did you learn from the books?

• Sometimes being successful only meant you are lucky, not that you are doing the right things. So we need to be able to differentiate between luck and skill, and have the discipline to keep doing the right things despite setbacks(bad luck) -The Biggest Bluff
• We can only get better by doing stuff we are not qualified to do. -The Diary of a CEO
• Even the government and international organisations make dumb mistakes. -War/Spy books (Russians among us, Ghost Wars, The triple agent)
• Everything becomes more exciting and precious when death is close. - Marie Colvin books

Where do you find the time/motivation to read those books?

Motivation ah? My stalker tendencies lorrrr, btw I read most of the books twice and wrote a book review for each one HAHA

Time ah? Err read on phone, read on train, read books instead of scrolling tiktok. My stalking obsession propelled me to keep reading. :3

Then my boss' boss gave me his old kindle with 200 (and still increasing) books inside. Wa it's like the ultimate stalking device sia!!! First time I got more material to stalk than I can handle lol. Ya I so happy hehe.

Ok how about more random stuff I did

1. Plotted lots of random graphs at the start of the year
2. Watched lots of TV shows and movies (award winning ones!!)
3. Wrote many many meeting minutes cos I was the minutes writer for 2 monthly meetings
4. Shed lots of sweat and tears 
5. Got promoted
6. Half-assed through half of The Odin Project - Foundations, cos I wanted a career switch (oh what's new for me)
7. In the middle of the sem for a specialist diploma in Data Science (Artificial Intelligence)
8. Volunteered tuition for 2 students 
9. Taught paid tuition for another 2 students
10. Went around taking photos of 50+ colleagues, designed shirts, keychains, lanyards, caps for everyone.

Sometimes it feels like I'm not actually a chemist, not complaining tho!

Feels like I improved a lot, but it was because of what happened that made me stop caring so much about what people think of me. Cos nothing can compare to that hopelessness I felt. Things can change as long as I am alive, so what's the worse that could happen? IDK I would probably sound immature if I read this a year later, but that's for the future me to worry about. 

Oh now I'm casually flipping through the book Range, and I just finished the book War. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I KNOW I GONNA LEARN STH NEXT YEAR REGARDLESS OF WHETHER 2025 GETS BETTER OR WORSE.

2023 Review

I haven't updated my blog at all this year since there weren't any notable achievements that I'm proud of. But I should have something here for me to remember.

This year, I went to two different countries(not Malaysia) for work, got a Specialist Diploma in Data Science and an Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance. So random right, all these are unrelated to chemistry. Oh there's one chem-related thing, I took a 4-day HPLC software course and then revamped the results tabulation format which saved a lot of time and papers. But it wasn't a big deal since anyone who took the course could have easily done it. I also went to Japan with my friends for the first time.

Even though I only had 2 tuition sessions a week as compared to 7 last year, I didn't accomplish much of my own things. It felt like I was just going through the motions, or forcing myself to go through the motions so that I can get a certificate to show that my year is not futile. There is nothing else that I desperately want to attain, and I didn't shed any blood, sweat and tears to get anything. 

It felt like school again, where my motivation to study came from the fear of repeating and the desire to write course reviews. Just that now there is even less to fear, except for losing my job and having no income. 

My initial plan was to stay in this job until I'm 45 and then quit to teach tuition until I save enough money to retire. I don't think it's gonna work lol. The person I always want to impress at work is not here anymore, so now I don't want to work hard. (such a stupid reason right!) I haven't changed at all.

This year is full of distractions, maybe because I'm not busy enough after work. But work is sian. 

Even though this year is so sian, time still passed really fast. 

I wish I can find something that I am willing to work hard for soon. 

OK HAPPY NEW YEAR

How I got my driving license from BBDC

I finally got my Class 3 driving license!!  This is really the most difficult challenge I have ever faced until now, more than any final exams :p. Hence, I shall update my blog to commemorate this almost impossible achievement!! -cheers by myself-

Below is a summary for those who don't have time to read the entire post since it would be quite long.

I enrolled in the BBDC Manual driving course in Nov 2020, passed the Basic Theory Test in Jan 2021, and Final Theory Test in Feb 2021. I started my first driving lesson in Apr 2021, and passed my driving test with 16 points, in Jun 2022 on my 2nd attempt. I had 51 lessons in total (others usually took 20 - 30 lessons to pass, and my friend only took 17), and spent about $4000 cos I'm damn bad at this. Do not use my experience as a benchmark cos I am clearly the outlier HAHA.
Please read on to increase my view counts if you are still interested :D

Theory lessons and tests

We had to attend a total of 4 compulsory theory lessons: 2 for the basic theory test(BTT) and 2 for the final theory test(FTT). After completing the lessons, we can book practice sessions for the BTT and FTT where they gave the exact questions and answers for the theory tests to practise. We would also have to pass the evaluations before taking the actual tests, which is good since the evaluations are cheaper than the actual tests. I recommend to book at least 2 practices for BTT and 3 lessons for FTT to be familiar with the questions tested. I needed more practice sessions for the FTT since there are more booklets of questions, and I failed my FTT evaluation once :p.  Oh there’s an app called TP test that is super useful.
You need to pass the BTT before you can get the Provisional Driving License (PDL) that is valid for 2 years to attend practical lessons.

Practical Lessons

The longest nightmare ever. There are a total of 5 stages, Stages 1 and 2 (driving on the road) have 10 modules and 1 review each, Stage 3 (driving in circuit) has 9 modules and 1 review. Stage 4 has 2 modules on defensive driving and Stage 5 is the final evaluation before you can book the test. 

 I read other blogs that mentioned that the instructors usually only cleared them one module per lesson. But guess what, I took 3 lessons to clear one module sometimes HAHA. I think I went home and cried twice during stage one cos I couldn't pass 1.05 after 3 lessons. That was also partly because I only booked one lesson per week and ended up forgetting everything after a week, so my progress was slow. So it would be better to book 3 lessons a week to not lose touch, especially when you are just starting to learn driving.

 
After struggling for about 14 weeks and only cleared stage 2.02, I decided to cancel all my subsequent weekly lessons after July 2021 and block booked the maximum 17 lessons in Nov and Dec. (Should have done that earlier). I spent about half my leave entitlement on taking multiple half days for driving lessons and sometimes I had trouble coping with my work lol. So it is better to get your license while studying.

 
The hardest part in stage 2 would be the U-turns. I must have caused the instructor a lot of stress cos he started saying things like "Eh I still want to go home alive today leh" and "You know there is a module called reacting to road hazards right, but YOU are the hazard now!" It was terrible HAHA cos I lacked awareness of my surroundings, and my foundation was really non-existent, probably cos I stopped lessons for 4 months and forgot everything. Both of us didn't talk much cos he feared for his life xD. Obviously I didn't pass my u-turn that lesson, so I had to continue the next time, and IT WAS HIM AGAIN. This time he tried to be patient at first, but as I made more mistakes, he was like "If I had known it was you today I would have taken leave" HAHAHA. Ok but he passed me in the end cos he said it might be better for me to proceed to the circuit courses first to improve my low speed control and the basics. (Which is probably true) I didn't cry this time lolol.

I thought I could clear stages 2 and 3 in the 17 lessons, but I overestimated my abilities lol. One good thing about circuits is that I mostly move in the first gear, so no need to be afraid of getting into accidents yay... I struggled a lot with the low speed control using the half-clutch technique, and I had trouble imagining how the car would move when I turn the wheels and reverse. The most problematic one was the parallel parking (3.05) which took 3 lessons to pass, and I ran out of lessons when I finally passed it. 

My next block of 8 lessons was in Mar 2022. It was super hard to book lessons since the slots are usually fully booked for the next 2.5 months. Again, I thought I could clear stages 3, 4 and 5 within 8 lessons but nope. :( So I should have booked more. I only passed the circuit slope (3.06) on the 3rd lesson as I forgot all my previous circuit stations and had to do multiple revisions (I suck). Unsurprisingly, I had to do 4.02 and the final evaluation twice ._. I experienced failure like more than 10 times throughout my whole practical driving lessons, so by then I was already desensitised and didn't cry anymore.

We also had to attend 3 driving simulations from the traffic police which were like 20 min per session, and 1 session from BBDC. It was quite fun la since I could get into accidents without stress HAHA. There is also a risk forecast lesson which was conducted online due to covid, the instructor would take turn to ask us about the possible dangers in a scenario. I think both the simulations and the risk forecast are quite useful as I got a bit more aware of my surroundings when driving. 

The most relaxing lesson would be the Autocar lesson. All manual learners have to take one lesson on it and it was much easier to drive since I didn’t have to worry about the engine stalling. I also managed to improve on my gradual lane changing during that lesson, like finally get the difference between gradual and abrupt lane change HAHA. Just turn steering wheel a bit and accelerate woohoooo. I managed to pass my final evaluation (5.01) in April, a week after my autocar lesson. 
 

My 2 driving test attempts

I booked my first driving test in end May on a whim. I actually booked 10 revision lessons (mid May to mid Jun) after a 1.5 months’ break from driving. My plan was to book my test date that is one or two days after my last revision, but one day I just decided to try my luck and booked a test slot that was right after my 5th revision lesson. (The latest test slot available: 15:10 to 17:00). 

First Test

I took a full day leave for my first test, even though I had nothing on in the morning as my revision lesson was at 13:20 to 15:00. The instructor was very helpful as he went through all the common pitfalls/traps that the testers may test on, and I made so many mistakes during the lesson. But it really helped me to refresh my memory and be more careful during my warmup and actual test.

The warm up was uneventful as I went through all the circuit elements without much issues and went out of the road and back. Then I went to wait for the actual test at the 2nd floor. I was the first one to be called and I finished the circuit elements quite smoothly. I wasn’t tested on the emergency brake. After I finished the parallel parking, the tester said “Ok let’s go out to the main road”. I was relieved and forgot that I didn’t return the steering wheel, so I hit the kerb on my left and got an immediate failure HAHA. That was for causing an accident/near accident, so the test just ended like that, and I saw that I only got 6 points in circuit *cries*, 4 points for turning steering wheel while vehicle was stationary for each parking, 2 points for vehicle roll back on slope, and one free pass for wide turning. SO WASTED. 

Second Test

I booked the second test date immediately after the first test, also on impulse. I think this last slot is one of the least popular slots, so it was again, the only one available. I also had my 10th and last revision lesson on the test day. Coincidentally and with much luck, I met the same instructor who taught me on the lesson before my first test. He went through with me again on the common mistakes and told me that I should be able to pass as long as I don’t get too careless. Cos I tend to space out and get distracted when driving lol. He also said that he don’t want to see me again HAHA. 

I only took half day leave that day cos I didn’t want to waste my leave in case I fail again. So I was a little more tired than last time. During the warm up, I forgot to signal right after stopping at the slope. And my directional change also not very good. I also almost didn’t make it to the right lane when turning right at the Bukit Batok road. There weren’t any serious mistakes but I felt less steady than my first warmup.

I was the 4th or 5th person to be called for the test and this time the emergency brake was tested. I got 2 points cos I did not grab the steering wheel with two hands AIYA. Then he asked me to turn right and stop behind a car to wait for it to finish vertical parking, but I ended up going in front of it(I dumb). He just sighed and asked me to do other stations first. 

When doing the circuit slope, I actually rolled back a bit when I released the handbrake at the slope, but I stepped on the brake immediately so it was less than 1 m(another 2 points). 

During the parallel parking, the first turning point felt weird but I just reversed and turned, then I stopped when I saw that my wheels were dangerously close to the kerb!! I had to reverse my action to figure out what wrong. Turned out that the angle of my side mirror was off, so the turning point was wrong. This never happened before so I thought I failed at that point cos it felt quite long. I got another two points here for turning the steering wheel while vehicle is stationary.

I think the tester really wanted to help me pass, cos after I went into the vertical parking lot, I was SUPER close to the right kerb that I would almost definitely hit the kerb if I had to turn left to exit. But he asked me to turn right so I was safe. He also did not give me points for failure to adjust back mirror after both parkings. 

Then we went out to the road. I thought I would have accumulated more than 10 points at that time, so I was not very concerned since I assumed that I would fail. I just told myself that at least I managed to go to the main road this time. I made sure to slow down at every traffic light, stop at every stop line, and check blindspot at every turn and lane change, so no points given for those yayyy. But I changed lane at a bend at Teck Whye Ave which got me 6 points, and u-turned to the wrong lane which got me 4 points. Note: if you are already at the wrong lane just move on and don’t go back to the correct lane or it may be dangerous. I was lucky that there were few cars at the road so nothing happened.

I also forgot to cancel signal once which cost me 4 points, this happened a lot during my revision lessons too. :p 

On the way back to BBDC, I had to make a right turn back. But there was a SUPER LONG queue going into the school, and the traffic was quite heavy. So I waited near the divider for about 7 minutes, getting more anxious as it was nearing 5pm. I wanted to rush in a few times but the moment I moved the tester whispered “Eh”, so I just stopped and waited. I thought I would get penalised for delay in moving off but I didn’t so YAY. 

At the end of the test, I parked near the entrance and the tester was like “off engine and wait upstairs” but I only heard the wait upstairs part. Then he repeated it again. I thought he has failed me cos I probably looked idiotic HAHA. But he didn’t. I think he could have failed me but decided to be lenient about it, so I was really really lucky.

Conclusion 

I was super happy when he told me that I passed, I even suspected that I was dreaming. My hand-eye coordination has always been terrible and I’m bad at remembering things and following instructions. Also, I always get confused between left and right so I turned in the wrong directions many times when driving lol. 

Finally this ordeal has ended. I’m so happy that I spent hours writing this post HAHA. It feels like I can achieve anything I want, if I want it badly enough, even though it may require a much longer time and more money. Or maybe I was just lucky this time. I'm very grateful for the instructors in BBDC who kept correcting my repeated mistakes and really tried their best to help me improve. (except for the guy in my stage 1 low speed control module who was sleeping the whole time I was turning in the circuit lol) 

How I saved $21k in 10 months to repay my CPF Education Loan

 

Preface

Hello it's me again, here trying to get more views on my blog. I hope I have the motivation to continue posting here regularly xD. I managed to save $21k from Sep 2020 to Jul 2021 to repay my $25k CPF Education loan and below are the steps I took. This post is solely based on my own experiences and is not meant to serve as any professional advice since everyone's circumstances are different. Eh maybe I should invest in Grammarly if I earn more money HAHA

About CPF Education loan

My first mistake was not looking through the terms of the CPF loan carefully before starting uni, even though everything I'm supposed to know is stated here clearly. Please read the CPF loan FAQs properly before deciding which loan to take, and also to plan your finances carefully throughout the 3/4 years of your time studying.

CPF loan or MOE Tuition Fee Loan?

This question has been answered many times in websites such as here and here. But if you are feeling too lazy to read then you can look at this summary below.

CPF Education Loan vs MOE Tuition Fee loan

	CPF loan	MOE Tuition Fee Loan
Interest rate	2.5% per annum, interest start accruing from first deduction	~4.75% per annum, interests only start accruing one year after graduation
Guarantor	No need	Need but no income requirement
Max Repayment period	12 years	20 years
Loan amount	Up to 100% of tuition fees	Up to 90% of tuition fees

Ya so I would have saved about $1000+ in interest if I had chosen the MOE tuition fee loan, plus the extension of the repayment and interest-free period due to Covid-19. Choose CPF loan only if you think that you are going to spend more than 4 years repaying the loan since the interest rate is lower.

When did I start saving?

I never thought much about my loan when I was in uni as I just assumed that it was interest-free, so I splurged most of my money going out with friends, and shopping online for things that I didn't need whenever I was in a bad mood. 

I was left with a mere $2000 at the end of Y4S1, which made me reflect on how I have been spending my money. Since I won't have much time to meet with friends during internship, I decided to just stop going out and save intensively. My internship allowance was $900 for the first 3 months, and there was a pay-cut to $650 in the last 2 months due to covid-19.

Monthly income and expenditure from Jan to Mar 2020

Expenditures	Income
Transport: $100	Private Tuition: $665
Food: $180 ($6 a day)	Internship allowance: $900
Shopping: $200
Total expenditure: $480	Total income: $1565

Net money in: $1085/month

My income decreased by $250 due to the pay cut in Apr and May, but my expenditure also decreased since I didn't have to travel and I had my meals at home, so my overall savings dropped to about $950 a month.

This helped me to save about $5000 by Jun 2020.

Accumulated savings in Jun 2020: $7000+. 

Graduation

The period between graduation and landing my traineeship was the most uncertain period ever. Since my internship was on private tutoring, I had no work experience in labs and I was too socially awkward to get a job in tuition centres. So I just randomly applied for jobs/traineeships without specific degree requirements between Jun and Aug 2020, where I saved an additional $2000+ in the 3 months from tutoring as I managed to get more tuition assignments after internship ended. 

Monthly income and expenditure from Jun to Aug 2020

Expenditures	Income
Transport: $30	Private Tuition: $1000
Food: $100
Shopping: $150
Total expenditure: $280	Total income: $1000

Overall savings: $720 a month

Accumulated savings in Aug 2020: $9000+

Traineeship

From Sep to Dec 2020, my traineeship allowance was $1800 per month, plus my monthly income from tutoring was about $1000 on average, so I have a take-home income of about $2800 a month. I also spent more on transport since my student concession pass expired and I had to travel to my students' homes for tuition after CB ended, and more on shopping since I felt richer.

Monthly income and expenditure from Sep to Dec 2020

Expenditures	Income
Transport: $110	Private Tuition: $1000
Food: $180 ($6 a day)	Traineeship allowance: $1800
Shopping: $300
Parents: $360
Total: $950	Total: $2800

Overall savings: $1850/month

Accumulated savings in Dec 2020: $15000+

What came as a shock for me was the realisation that my loan interest was piling up. I happily thought that there won't be any interest for my loan for at least a year HAHA and I never bothered to figure out the interest rate. So this was the amount I owed.

A grand total of $25,421.22 lol, yes I encounter problems

Repayment Part 1 of 3

I panicked when I saw the amount of interest incurred and I kept thinking there must be a mistake with the calculations. That was when I started to read about this loan more carefully and I came to the conclusion that the only mistake here was my carelessness lololol. Luckily I have already saved $15,000 by Dec so I paid $10,000 to CPF to reduce the monthly interest(which was $42/month at that time). I also set up a GIRO arrangement with CPF where $238 would automatically be transferred to my mum's CPF account every month. I wasn't sure why was it $238 though...I forgot what happened when I applied for the GIRO.

My interest rate was also reduced to about $30 a month which was still quite high but better than $42. At that time, I decided to just focus on earning money until I can repay the loan, whatever side hobbies(such as blogging) can wait :p.

Accumulated savings in Jan 2021: $5000+

Repayment Part 2 of 3

This was my loan amount in Jun 2021, 6 months after my first repayment.

This picture was like that when I uploaded it from my phone hmmm I guess I cropped it. 

My income increased to about $3150 on average between Jan and Apr 2021, as I took on more tuition assignments which was really tiring and crazy of me. There was a period of time where I taught tuition for 6 days a week and I felt like dying HAHA.

Monthly income and expenditure from Jan to Apr 2021

Expenditures	Income
Transport: $110	Private Tuition: $1350
Food: $180 ($6 a day)	Traineeship allowance: $1800
Shopping: $400
Parents: $360
Repayment: $238
Total expenditure: $1288	Total income: $3150

Overall savings: $1862/month

Accumulated savings in Apr 2021: $12000+

Repayment Part 3 of 3

With many strokes of luck, I was converted to a full time employee in May 2021 and my income increased. There were changes in my tuition and expenditure due to the phase 2HA and my average monthly savings in May and in Jun 2021 was about 2.5k. So I managed to hit 17k at the start of Jul and paid another 10k to CPF.

 

This was taken from my laptop screen. And my savings dropped to $7000+.

And finally I got my salary on 16 Jul so I immediately paid the remaining amount and left with $238 to be deducted by GIRO tomorrow cos they say I need to call CPF if I want to repay them in full. Ofc I wouldn't want to call xD.

Last pic, also taken from my laptop

This concludes my repayment journey, I hope this post is entertaining enough for you to come back for more. BUT I don't think I will be updating until end Oct since I need to focus on tuition. The reason why I'm free to write this now is because today is a public holiday HAHA.

Oh and I'm a fan(is it called a fan??) of The woke salaryman. After reading this post, I feel that being able to repay my debt within a year was largely due to the privilege and luck I have. It was a privilege that my loan was $24k instead of $32k since my parents paid for my first year in cash, and I was really lucky to get a full time job which facilitated my repayment. 

Okay that's all byeeeee.

AY 2019/20 NTU SPMS CBC Y4S1

I am always one sem late in updating hahaha sorry xD

Last semester seemed like a figment of my imagination, given how drastic the world changed in the past few months, I could barely remember how it was like walking on campus with people without masks. However, since I don't really like to interact with people, working from home is quite welcomed yay. The only thing I miss is to hang out with my friends, even though I usually like to stay at home and read manga HAHA. 

OKAY

CM4013 | CURRENT TOPICS IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY | 3 AU | MPE

This course is actually easier than CM4011. My friend said usually the "Current topics in ..." courses are actually easier since they are meant to be an introduction. But easier does not mean that I can do well HAHAHA. There is one mid term of 30 % weightage, and 10% goes to clicker questions during lectures(which I tried to attend in the first half of the semester but I got lazy...) Lecture was 2 hours per week, and there was another 1-hour lecture slot  on another day but we are supposed to do e-learning so no need to go school. 

I think the most memorable session was the first lesson which the lecturer had a bag of 50 numbered apples and asked a student to come and pick 5 of them randomly. (the lesson was about sampling methods) I still couldn't believe that there were 50 apples in the bag??? Or maybe there wasn't...I have no idea

We learnt about biosensors and immunoassays which are not difficult to understand, but need to remember how to draw the binding of different antigens and antibodies. For me, the hardest part was the DNA sequencing methods like Chain-termination, Illumina, and one that makes use of fluorescence which I had trouble imagining how it works. I think my friend who learnt these in a different course was exasperated when trying to explain to me HAHA. In the end I watched videos to understand better. I think I get confused easily, is this reversible? irreversible????

Oh and the last chapter is about nanotechnology yay~

CM4017 | BIOMEDICAL IMAGING AND SENSING | 3 AU | MPE

Actually I decided to take this is because I thought it would be too boring if I took the exact same set of MPEs as another senior who has a chemistry blog. I mean I already took 3 of the same MPE HAHAHA. Sometimes I think its good that I rarely talk in school since everyone is going to avoid me if people know that my priorities are so messed up. 

This is a combined course for both physics and chemistry students, so the prof assured us that it will not involve too deeply in chem or physics. Which is true but the content is A LOT and the slides are very wordy cos the lecturer said it was meant to be like a textbook and we don't need to refer to other textbooks for the course. There is a slight overlap with CM4013 as we learnt a bit on biosensors too. Those who took CM4014 will also find some of the content familiar as we learn about SERS. I feel like this course focuses more how light and sound waves are involved in imaging, there are also calculation questions but those were easier than CM3041. 

There are 2 mid terms and each one is 20% of our final grade. The questions did not require us to write a lot, but we have to remember the content well. This is quite bad for me since I really cannot memorise stuff HAHA. I did better for the second one cos my friend helped me to study😍. For the finals, I just re-attempted my tutorials and pyps twice and highlighted and underlined everything. Some of the questions from tutorials came out in the final exam so please review tutorialsssss. 


MH8300 | IT'S A DISCRETELY DISCRETE WORLD: MATHEMATICS IN REAL LIFE APPLICATIONS | 3 AU | GERPE

Actually I didn't have to take this if I changed one of the ue I took to gerpe HAHA. And after the sem is over then I heard from my friend that the course category for past courses can be changed lolol I dumb. 

We had to watch the online lecture before going for the weekly 2-hour tutorial. The good thing is we only had to do the tutorial during tutorial, and we got to discuss in groups so its good for me HAHA. The content before recess week were quite easy and I managed to score above average for the mid term even though I didn't watch the lectures much :x Which is why I got complacent and continued to slack off when the content gets more complex HAHA. 

Oh and the lecturer emphasised that there is no bell curve. PLEASE ATTEND THE LAST REVISION LECTURE. The lecturer said he will only release the answer for the previous year's paper only if 250 people attend, and he will take attendance using clickers. OF COURSE I DIDN'T GO😭. I thought the answers will be uploaded to ntulearn if there are enough people, but turns out that only those who attended could scan the qr code and access the answers from the screen lol. It wouldn't be a problem if I have more friends but I have none in the same course as me HAHAHA. Also the webcast cameras are like lopsided and didn't capture the screen fully so the only way is to attend the lecture HAHA. 


CONCLUSION
After writing all these, I realised that I have been setting bad examples one after another in every semester. So I'm really thankful for the people who still read this blog even though the author is a lazy ***. I hope everyone who reads this has obtained some useful information/entertainment/inspiration(😶).

BYE
GRAD ALR
(IS THIS SOMETHING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT ?)

This may or may not be my last post

AY 2018/19 NTU SPMS CBC Y3S2

I'm procrastinating so much nowadays...but I'll try to finish the review today HAHA. Sorry for being so infrequent in updating :0 I took so many mods this semester cos I wanted have a very slack sem in year 4 so I almost died xD

Oh let me tell you a joke, I exceeded my ue requirements since I took so many courses, but I still had 3AU of gerpe to clear in year 4 HAHAHA. Its not funny but sighs I'm a bad planner. And I had to file for ue overload in order to match a course I took during summer exchange HAHA THIS IS THE FUNNY PART (or not) I sound really crazy idc year 4 alr

CM3021 | ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY | 3 AU | CORE
This course is split into 2 parts with different lecturers before and after recess week. For the lessons before recess week, the lecturer usually only spent 1 hour on monday instead of the stipulated 2 hours. However, we had to watch some pre-lecture videos and attempt a quiz before the lecture, and the quiz is graded. The lecture is quite interactive as there is plenty of clicker questions so it's less boring HAHA.
Then, there is a weekly compulsory tutorial in the middle of the week where we had to complete tutorial questions before going to class, and new questions would be given for us to discuss.
On fridays, there are graded reflection activity to be completed, you get full marks as long as you did the reflection, which is usually about the content taught during the week.
The best thing about this course is that the first mid term is open book, open internet, meaning that we can use phones during mid term yayyyyy.

For the lessons after recess week, things went back to 2 hour lecture on mondays, a tutorial on wednesday and a one hour lecture on friday. I feel like the second part of the course is more content heavy but the lecturer was very patient to guide us during tutorials. The mid term was open book too I think that really saved my grades a little ^_^ The final exam was also open book, but remember to bring a periodic table!!! I forgot to bring and had to guess my way through some questions x_x.


CM3031 | ORGANIC REACTION MECHANISMS AND SYNTHESIS | 3 AU | CORE
Arghhhh can't do organic chem. Even though all the exams are open book, I just can't do it. Maybe its also cos I didn't attend the lectures :(
Ok this is really due to my laziness and trying to smoke my way through
But it didn't work, so everyone please attend all the lectures and tutorials in this course. There are two mid terms and tutorials are graded, but I skipped them to go earn money. $.$
I'm just glad that this is over phew
Finals was also open book, but it feels like there is no use when I didn't understand the notes in the first place. I'm just stupid and lazy hahaha.



CM3061 | CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY 3 | 3 AU | CORE
LAST LAB YAY
This is an organic lab course like CM2061, but the lab sessions are less scary and usually ends early. Sounds good right? NOPE, the lab reports are much more difficult to finish than CM2061, and there are some group work too. This time the senior's reports are less helpful cos some of the experiments are different from the past, so there is nothing to copy from. :( I remembered using Shlenk line for quite a few times and I had to keep switching fumehood with other people. Finals tested on the chemical structures appeared in the lab manual, and also the names of apparatus. Some of the questions were quite similar to the finals questions inside the seniors' report so take note of them~

Sometimes I question my degree choice since I have disliked labs since secondary school. But yay no more labs~~~


CM4011 | ADVANCED ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY | 3 AU | MPE
This course is also split into two parts, with different lecturers before and after mid terms.
HAHAHA I prepared something for this blog since last sem, its not much but here it goes
For the first mid term, which is all MCQs, I noted down the number of questions from each topic
Quality Assurance - 5
PSI - 3
Electrolytic - 10
Voltammetry - 4
EPR - 8
So you'll know which topics to focus on. The EPR topic is taught online so make sure to know how to do the questions~

For the second mid term, it is mostly focused on mass spectrometry. The questions are quite similar to what the lecturer went through during lessons so there should be no problem if you pay attention in class, or attempt all the practice questions.

For the finals, all topics are tested and the format is like the past year exams. Generally an okay course, even though it may look like there are a lot to study, the questions are not as difficult to do.


CM4014 | NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY | 3 AU | MPE
Ehehe interesting course, but quite content heavy x_x. There is only one mid term after the recess week which is worth 25%. Then another 20% from the clicker questions during lectures. There is a lot to remember, but still I feel like it was quite a fun learning experience. Oh and it turned out that the two courses I took in Year 4 also touched on nanoparticles wheeeee~ I did badly for the mid term cos I had to prepare for a concert which is right at the end of recess week, and also cos I was lazy to study during any available free time lol.
So I tried to study harder for the final exam which is 55% of the grades. I think there is an improvement (??). I spent most of the time before finals to study for this HAHA. Oh ya another joke is that the final exam venue was at north hill, and I only found one handicapped toilet. I had to 💩 so badly that I rushed into the toilet but didn't lock the door properly. Then a guy opened the door and I had to scream HAHAHA.

HW0228 | SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION 2 | 3 AU | GER-CORE
I don't remember much about this course just had the impression that it was really stressful. There is a critique assignment where you have to use the skills learnt in class to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the assigned research paper. Oh the tutor said that the research paper for us to critique was chosen as it has many flaws, so if you are unsure if something in the paper is wrong, it probably is. 😬
The group project is the stressful part as we have to conduct a research on a topic that we chose ourselves, write a report that is like a real research paper, and do a presentation  on our research findings. x_x

AED06A | SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION AND INCLUSION | 3 AU | UE
Finally a UE yayyyyy
The weekly tutorials are 3 hour long and they are at NIE, and then I had a tutorial right after this lesson. So I had to run from NIE to the hive for lesson every week and would still be late lol. Overall the lessons are really chill, and we learnt mainly about how to be inclusive, and what steps could be taken to help students with special needs to learn better. The course really changed my perspectives so I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in special needs education.
A highlight of this course is that we visited a vocational school for students with special needs during recess week, and enjoyed a huge buffet prepared by the students. We also had a tour around the school and learnt abou the efforts the staff put in to prepare students for work.
The only tiring part in this course is that there are 3 essays to be completed throughout the semester, and one group work. Overall I like this course a lot. <3

Woohoooo I found my internship yayyyy graduating soon

AY 2018/19 NTU SPMS CBC Y3S1

Ok this post is wayyyyy overdue
My motivational level is like droppin droppin dropping
From a bright-eyed eager year 1 student to a jaded year-3-going-to-year-4 old person
So much stuff had changed, so many things happening
I just feel like ranting a little, even to strangers
HAHAHA OKAY HERE GOES NOTHING

This sem is really the worst one ever, they say when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up
For me, this is really the rock bottom cos my grades got slightly better after this sem (still bad tho)
I only took 15 AU cos I thought it may help pull up my grades, but ended up studying even less cos I underestimated my workload HAHA


CM3011 | CHEMICAL SPECTROSCOPY AND APPLICATIONS | 3 AU | CORE
Midterm 1 - 20% (open book)
Midterm 2 - 20% (closed book)
Final - 60%

The first part of the course is more about determining the structures of compounds when given spectroscopic information about them. The main concepts taught were interpreting the spectra of different tools: 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass spectrometer, IR and the degree of unsaturation formula. The thing is that even if I felt I understood all the techniques used, I had difficulties guessing the right structures. The first mid term is even an open book exam yet I did badly x_x. It is important to know the fragmentation mechanisms for different functional groups in the mass spectrometry well. The lecturer also taught a little on 2D NMR which was not tested for exams, but I would advise to pay attention too cos it was in one of the experiments during lab in sem 2.

For the second part of the course, it was entirely on the different types of NMR. The important thing is to be familiar with the calculations of coupling constants and the number of splitting peaks. I would recommend doing the practice questions a few times to get the hang of it, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention in lectures. We were required to calculate the chemical shifts of each peak to precisions of 4 decimal places which I totally flunked it. So sad cos the way the lecturer taught made everything sound so easy, he even excluded transition metals and told us that the test would be a breeze. I tried the past mid terms and they seemed manageable, but the mid term I did was more complicated than I expected(again overconfidence). Obviously I did badly for the test and what's worse was that 73 people got full marks for it. -_- How stupid am I to have done so badly sighs.

Finals was similar to midterm, except that it is entirely closed book so remember to memorise the mechanisms!

CM3041 | PHYSICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 2 | 3 AU | CORE
Midterm - 40% (restricted open book)
Finals - 60% (restricted open book)

This course is almost entirely calculations, the most used constant would be the Planck's constant HAHA. There are quite a few formulas to know too. The lecturer was saying how a few years ago, the top student scored 90+ % for the final exam, and the second student only scored 70+. When asked how did he managed to get such high marks, he said that he attempted all the questions from the Atkins and the David Ball textbooks. Sooooo you all can try this too xD. Oh the worked solutions for the Atkins textbooks exercises can be found in the NIE library so go take a look if you feel hardworking. We were allowed to bring 2 or 3 (I forgot) A4 cheat sheets to the exams. Mid term was in week 11 and tests both the first and second part of the course.


CM3062 | CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY 4 | 3 AU | CORE
Lab reports - 50%
Finals - 50%

Finally got my hands on some senior lab reports for reference YASSSS. Those were a great help when I do my lab reports omg. Most of the experiments required full reports, with proper data tables and figures and graphs. But the lab sessions are quite relaxing since all of them were groupwork and the sessions usually ended early. Doing the lab reports was quite tedious so try to finish them early as I spent at least 7 hours for each report even with senior reports as reference.
For the final exam, take note of everything in the lab manual and remember how to apply the equations used. I remembered there was one experiment that involved knowledge from CM3041 so its better to take them together I guess.

ST9001 | INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY | 3 AU | UE
Midterm
Presentation
Individual project
Weekly reflection

I took this course mainly because it fits into my timetable HAHA. Don't be fooled by the title cos it is definitely not a science course. I feel like this course is the most tiring and requires the most effort. Firstly, the weekly readings were about 100+ pages each, and we had to write a one page reflection about the readings so can't really read everything last minute. Attendance is compulsory and we discussed the readings during tutorials. We mainly discussed about the development of science and technology from the past to present, so it requires a lot of thinking on our own.
The midterm was based on the key points from the readings, but there is just so many things to read x_x. For presentation, we were given the topics to be discussed every week and we had to choose one topic to present on a week. For the individual project, we had to write a multimedia essay on a webpage, which basically meant an essay with pictures and maybe videos or music? Sounds difficult right, shouldn't have taken this course :(


ST9001 | ASTRONOMY - STARS, GALAXY AND COSMOLOGY | 3 AU | UE
Midterm 1 - 20%
Midterm 2 - 20%
Final - 60%

I saw many reviews on this course so shall not say much here. This course is really content heavy and actually I took this also because it fitted into my timetable nicely. One interesting thing about this course is that there were 3 stargazing sessions where we could use the telescope to view the planets at night. I went for one but there were too many people there so didn't manage to see much. It is really up to one's personal preferences whether to take this course~ All the tests were in MCQs but still too hard for me. Dx

AY17/18 NTU SPMS CBC Y2S2

It did get worse haha...The drop in grades was so surprising that it took me 2 weeks to recover enough to start this new post. HAHA JKJK I was busy with work recently xD. My results were too embarrassing to be displayed so I will just show the results for my electives for this post. (Will reveal my grades for this sem if I do very well next sem HAHA). I brought all of these upon myself, I did a lot worse even when there were fewer exams than y2s1 cos of excessive slacking. I think I'm one of the laziest person you can find. What use is there saying all these now right? I didn't buck up when I know I need to :( Okok enough of the nonsense, lets go on with the course review~~

Btw I didn't realise this blog has so many readers, even when my results were really far from perfect. Rmb if you want any notes can email me and I will send them, sadly I don't have any senior lab reports and I don't share my reports cos they would probably worsen your grades HAHA.

AED23C | CRITICAL REASONING SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING | 2AU | UE | A-

Group presentation (30%)

Class participation (10%)

Individual assignment (10%)

Individual Essay (50%)

There is a weekly 3 hour lesson for this course but lessons ended at around week 9, so you would have more time to study for your other courses yay xD. The best thing is that there is no exam!! The lessons are very interactive and fun and relaxing, would definitely recommend this course! The only 2 drawbacks I can think of are that NIE is quite a long walk from the NTU campus, and you have to write a 1500 words essay with proper citations. I shall not spoil the fun by describing the details of the lessons, but I assure you that it would be fun. :D

For group presentation, we had to conduct a 1 hour lesson to teach students about critical thinking. We were required to design our lesson to suit a particular age group, with the students in the class acting as our participants. I think our group was hilarious HAHA thanks to my group mates, but I didn't talk much during the presentation (in fact, I'm not sure if I even spoke), but I did contribute in other areas okayyyy. >< 

For class participation, I don't know how we were graded, but again I didn't talk much. The lessons taught some philosophy which may overlap with HY0001, and we also learnt about fallacies and other skills that helped us to think critically.

The individual assignment was interesting as we were asked to imagine ourselves as an old person writing an email to our younger self.

And the main thing of the course is the individual essay, the topic was quite broad as it required us to discuss the critical thinking strategies or applications of critical thinking. But I had fun writing the essay too, oh and the course instructor speaks very well and his lessons are very engaging.

CM2031 | ORGANIC AND BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY 1 | 3AU | CORE | :3

Mid term 1 (20%) 47%, average: ~60

Mid term 2 (20%) 52%, average: ~60 (average before moderation was 32/100 HAHA)

Final exam (60%)

I thought CM1031 was scary, but CM2031 was 10 times worse! (In terms of the amount of content taught) Also mainly cos I didn't study/ wrong study method. Oh and I wil try to upload all my notes with filled blanks by July as I'm still busy with work. Take note that for CM2021 and CM2031, the way the content are being taught and tested are different for different sems, I only realised that recently HAHA

Something different about the 2nd part of the semester was that we were able to choose whether we want to attend the real lectures or just view the e-lectures online via LAMS. There were different sets of notes for the different types of lectures too.

For mid term 1 and 2, around 50% of the test required us to draw the structures of the product when the reactant and reagents are given. I guess that means there is less emphasis on memorising the reagents and conditions?? BUT the other 50% required us to provide the synthesis and retrosynthesis routes of the product and reactants, so we still had to know the reagent and conditions. Mechanisms would also be tested but not as much.

For the final exam, I thought I was well prepared and the questions seemed manageable but I still managed to flunk it real badly. That's what I got for being too complacent.

CM2041 | PHYSICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 1 | 3AU | CORE | -_-

Midterm 1(20%)

Midterm 2(20%)

Final Exam(60%)

The course has a lot of math HAHA, a bit of differentiation and integration which were required to determine the rates of change. There are also some "show that..." questions which reminds me of simultaneous equations in o level math. I dunno how to describe HAHA you can look at the pyp for more info.

For midterms 1 and 2, I noticed that many of the questions were exactly the same as the ones given in the notes, so study the notes and practice questions carefully. ESPECIALLY for midterm 2, where the proving questions contributed to a big part of the test(the questions and answers were exactly the same as the ones given in the practice questions).

For final exam, the questions actually looked more straightforward than the previous years, do we seem less smart than the previous batches? HAHA But I guess I didn't do well too, which I somewhat expected since I only started studying the content for the whole sem in 2 days. SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT HAIZ. TOO COMPLACENT ALR

CM2062 | CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY 2 | 3AU | CORE | ._.

Labs (50%)

Final exam (50%)

This semester's labs were mostly group work, and we usually ended early yay. But I still did badly for lab reports, mainly because I did them only a day before submission. Most people got As for their lab reports but I got a wide variety of grades for them HAHA. So don't ask me for lab reports.

Here are some differences between CM2061 and CM2062

- we had to buy and use a lab notebook

- 6 precautions instead of 3

- pre-labs were not checked at the beginning of each lab

For the final exam, there were around 35 MCQs(?) and some short answer questions. Some MCQs required us to plot graph and do lots of calculations so don't underestimate them. We had to really understand the formulas given in the lab manual to do the questions. Some questions are tricky so it would be good to take note of the units given in the questions.

ET0001 | ENTERPRISE AND INNOVATION | 1 AU | GER-CORE | PASSED

Compulsory GER course, I took it this sem because I can HAHA. There are quizzes at the end of every module and you have to get at least 11/15 to proceed to the next module. Unlimited attempts are allow so just relax~

HY0001 | ETHICS AND MORAL REASONING | 1 AU | GER-CORE | PASSED

This course is about ethics and some philosophy, I usually just read the slides and answer the questions without viewing the videos. There is a 300 word reflection to be submitted by a certain deadline in order to pass this course.

ML0002 | CAREER POWER UP! | 1 AU | GER-CORE | PASSED

This course taught us about how to dress for different situations and also some dining etiquette which I found quite interesting. There is a compulsory assignment which we had to film an elevator pitch of ourselves speaking and upload it to youtube for grading. You can search for some of the examples online.

HG8011 | DETECTING MEANING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES | 3 AU | GERPE-LA | B+

Project 1 (20%)

Project 2 (20%)

Project 3 (20%)

Quiz (40%)

I actually couldn't understand much about the first part of the course but the second part was fun as we looked at Sherlock Holmes films during lectures. For more details about the course, just google HG8011 and click on the first link as all contents are posted there. :D

PS8001 | DEFENCE SCIENCE | 3 AU | GER-CORE | PASSED

Quiz 1 (20%)

Quiz 2 (20%)

Final exam (60%)

I heard that this course is going to be replaced by another course next year so this review is probably useless HAHA. The 2 quizzes are online so I googled for the answers xD. The final exam is 100% MCQs.

UPDATE: FINALLY SCANNED THE 3 CHAPTERS THAT NEED SCANNING

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1j8AplqIJOUB4aPBC2OBoJbBtsNvkCKnN

AY17/18 NTU SPMS CBC Y2S1

This is by far the worst semester! Hopefully it won't get any worse... Mainly because of my lack of motivation haha I dunno what was I doing for the whole semester. So...I tried to minimise the damage caused by SU-ing 2 electives, which means I have 2AU of SU left omg

I also realised that I should have saved the notes for the previous semesters so shall start doing it from now on, if you want anything can pm me at 151tqju@gmail.com (from random username generate)

Pardon my bad grammar

CM2011 | ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY | 3AU | CORE | B 

Midterm 1(20%) 

Midterm 2(20%)

Final(60%)

Comments

This module is about extractions, chromatography, a bit of statistics, electrochemistry and potentiometry. I think this is the first time they included PSI in the syllabus, the topic is quite interesting as we learn things that are relevant to our daily lives. Overall the first few chapters are easy, until electrochemistry and potentiometry where the calculations became complicated and sufficient practice is required to understand the concepts. Luckily the lecturers also provided questions and answers for all topics except for the PSI. Oh and even though the calculations are easy, there are quite a lot of things to remember, like the drawing of diagrams, and comparing the properties of Nitrogen, Hydrogen and Helium as mobile phase in gas chromatography. There are blanks to be filled in the lecture notes so go for the lectures as the recordings are sometimes unclear. (learnt my lesson) One of the 2 recommended textbooks is available online so can go google~

Assessment

Mid terms 1 and 2 are quite straightforward, with simple calculations using the formulas given and some memory work, and must remember the significant figures and decimal places!! Mid term 1 only had short-answer questions, while mid term 2 had 25 MCQs. Just when I thought the final would be as simple as the previous years...We got the shock of our lives. You can compare the questions between 17/18 final paper and the others and see how different they are. Or maybe it's just me not studying enough... Actually I was surprised to even get a B since I only started studying 1 day before the final exam. (I spent the whole week studying for cm2021 and a bit of cm9081, again bad choices)

CM2021 | INORGANIC AND BIOINORGANIC CHEMISTRY | 3AU | CORE | A-

Midterm 1(25%) 78/100

Midterm 2(25%) 

Final(50%)

Comments

This module is about bonding (VSEPR and molecular orbital theory), symmetry and point groups(a very important part of the course), character tables and transition metals. The lecturer decided to leave out main group chemistry and focus on transition metals instead during the second part of the course, so our final exam only tested on transition metals. A very good thing about this mod is that ample practice questions were given with detailed answers provided! :D So can don't go for lectures and just stare at the answers provided. :x Just kidding! Of course attending lectures is much better than racking your brains trying to figure out the concepts, but I was too lazy haha. Don't be like me, really, go for lectures. There is a tutorial during recess week to prepare us for mid term 2 but I didn't go, argh I should have went for it cos I heard from my classmate that the questions discussed during that tutorial were similar to those in the mid term. >.<

Assessment

Mid term 1 is about molecular orbital theory, so we were tested on MO diagram drawing, and to determine point groups of molecules. Mid term 2 also required the drawing of MO diagram, plus character tables(A NIGHTMARE), and chirality(actually I still don't really get it).I would suggest doing the exercises provided to prepare for the tests, as well as attempt the questions from the Miessler textbook. There are actually detailed solutions for the textbook questions online, so can go find it. I can't find any free textbook online so I guess you would have to buy one(Update: I found the textbook online! Look for it at the side bar). For the final exam, it seems to be dependent on the lecturer's mood HAHA cos the content tested for each year differs greatly. Nevertheless, I think he is really nice as he tried to explain new concepts to us patiently which took a lot of time, and used interesting analogies to help us understand the concepts. The Tanabe-Sugano diagrams looked scary when I first saw it but not that hard if you understand them, and there are actually a lot of online resources to help you. 

CM2061 | CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY 1 | 3AU | CORE | B

Labs and lab reports (75%)

Final (25%)

Horrible. It was so horrible. I kept hearing people getting upset when they had 11 marks deducted from their lab report(s), while I got 20+ marks deducted for quite a few of them. ._. Such big blow to my self esteem. *cries* I should have been much more careful in my work(given that I'm the opposite of meticulous). Ya its entirely my fault haiz. 

Okay some lab safety tips to avoid being penalised during labs

1. Use a container(for example beaker) to hold your syringe with needle when walking around
2. Needles are to be thrown into the big container in the same fumehood as the waste chemicals (NOT IN BINS)
3. Only syringes can be thrown into syringe bins (NOT needles)
4. Don't throw filter papers with chemicals exposed into the bins, put them into used gloves and tie them first

There are still many more written in the lab manual but the above 4 are the common mistakes. Needles are dangerous cos they may hurt the cleaners if not disposed properly. 

For lab reports, take note of the decimal places and significant figures and units. Your work must be typewritten as much as possible. There must be a space between the number and the units. For final exam, one thing that I didn't expect is that we need to draw the structures of the common chemicals in labs, like acetone, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether etc, so take note. Also read the lab manual and try to understand each step. Some of the answers for the past year papers can be found online so can use them as reference since answers are not provided.

CM9081 | MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY | UE | 3AU | S

Mid term 1 & 2 & Homework (40%)

Final (60%)

Comments

I took this because I didn't know what elective to take, and I couldn't find any reviews on this module might as well try it so that a review can be written HAHA. The content taught were not difficult, but you need to know how to draw the mechanisms and the "cartoon" actions of some proteins and enzymes. Quite a bit of memory work(but less than CM1031) which I wasn't feeling motivated enough to study. We were asked to submit 5 homework during lectures and those are included in the grading. It feels like H2 Biology but many more actions of receptors (GPCR, tyrosine kinase receptor) were taught.We also learnt about the different types of drug administration and how it affects the action of drugs. Overall the module is quite interesting. The textbook is available online.

Assessment

Most people did very well for the tests as I heard the lecturer say that the average score is 80%.😱I'm definitely not one of them(didn't take back my papers cos I forgot). EH but the lecturer likes to reuse questions for the tests!! And he only uploaded the past year tests AFTER the mid term!! I saved them in my laptop so if anyone need those can pm me. For final, it was alright I guess, but I still SU-ed it since I didn't study enough and couldn't expect a good grade after all the slacking. 

HG8004 | COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURAL CONTEXTS | GERPE - LA | 3AU | A

Mid term 1 (25%) 16/25

Mid term 2 (25%) 18/25

Final (50%) 80/100

Comments

I took this because I didn't get my first choice and had to choose this during add-drop. This module is mainly about how people behave when they encounter different cultures overseas and how to cope and adapt to the cultures. The lectures are fun but a bit too long(weekly 3-hour lectures) and the lecturer is a lady who knows many languages! She shared a lot of her personal experiences which made the lessons interesting, and I would definitely recommend this module. Oh I realised that the slides on this link have more details than the ones I got for this sem, so you might want to download that instead.

Assessment

For mid terms 1 and 2, there are 25 MCQs each and most of the questions tested on content in the notes, but may also test on stuff the lecturer said during class, as well as the readings. Thus it is best to attend all lectures and pay attention to them. The average score for the tests were quite low though, so the lecturer said she would add 10 marks for everyone(YAY). For the final, we had to watch a movie and write a 300-word essay about one competency displayed by the character(s) in the movie. The competencies would be taught in the last few lectures and we only need to write about one of them, so it is not hard haha. 

MH2500 | PROBABILITY AND INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS | UE | 4AU | S

Mid term 1 (20%)

Mid term 2 (25%)

Class participation(5%)

Final (50%)

Comments

Uh...this is actually a year 2 math core, I took it because the prerequisites were MH1800 and MH1801, and since I did well for those 2 I thought this would be simple too. In the end I did really badly for the tests hais. I thought it wouldn't be that hard since the first 3 weeks were about binomial, poisson and normal distribution which were taught in JC. I read reviews for this modules and they didn't say it is so hard! Or is it because I'm not a math student haha, luckily can SU or I will die. Yes yes it's great that I passed~ The textbook is available online too.

Assessment

For the first mid term, 1 single-sided A4 cheat sheet can be brought to the exam, and 1 double-sided A4 cheat sheet for the second mid term. For the final, 2 double-sided A4 cheat sheet can be brought. I don't know how to do well for this so go read other reviews instead~ 

Okay end of year 2 review, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I added some links for the textbooks at the side bar but I think it is only visible on web view.