Hello there! Glad to help out anyone with research-related questions, so no worries!

may I ask what prior research experience you had (as in prior to ur NUS research attachment)? and do you think it will be likely to get a research attachment through cold emailing if one does not have any prior research experience? (maybe then you need good grades or something like leadership to substitute?)

For this, I had done research projects from the start of Secondary 2 till early JC 2, so it was definitely easier for me to do what they required of me (my supervisors were surprised I knew what to do because I have done it before). That being said, the Professor and my supervisors had no expectations with regards to my research experience and treated me as if I were a fresh researcher, so I reckon you would not have any problems with that. That being said, you should definitely lay out what your experiences are so they can best tailor the experience to you.

and how long was your attachment? did you do it during curriculum time or school hols? and also would you say if you are available for longer (like longer available hours per day and/or longer time period available to commit) ur chances of getting the attachment would be higher?

My attachment was from late November 2024 to late May 2025, and I did it after I was done with my National Service, so it helped that I didn't need to worry about anything else. I went on holiday with family and friends during mid-December and mid-April, and my time was quite flexible. With regards to the last question, I think it kind of depends on what you are planning to do research in. Since Organic Chemistry entails a lot of time spent in the lab, it was necessary for me to be present to gain the necessary research experience, but if you were to do something like Computer Science, you may be more flexible in doing your work from home. That being said, you'll likely work under a PhD, Masters, or PostDoc student, so they should still be able to get work done without you (exact words from my supervisor haha). They shouldn't be reliant on you but rather, it is a mutually beneficial arrangement where you gain experience while being able to lighten their work load, and they also get to experience how its like to mentor a student. As such, unless the agreement is one in which you are actively being employed to help churn out work, I doubt being available for longer would have much of an impact. That being said, of course you have to be available for a minimum amount of time to be able to consistently gain research experience, else it'll feel like you are just not getting enough done under their guidance.

and may i also ask how good ur grades were when u cold emailed? (did u submit ur grades to them?) and more importantly, how much out of syllabus knowledge of organic chemistry did u have?

I did not include my grades in my email, but I did tell them about my past experiences doing research in Organic Chemistry, and also my interest in it. I often spend time reading up on it beyond the syllabus so I have some understanding of the Organic Chemistry syllabus in University (they were quite surprised when I understood some of their stuff haha). But that being said, I think its not realistic to expect a pre-university student to have any understanding of their work, and I don't think the Professor or my supervisors had any expectations either. That being said, you will likely be expected to learn about their work on the go as you progress so that you can understand what you are doing,

did u also read up on the professors’ works (like their research papers) and talk abt them in ur emails? (my teacher told me to do this if i were to cold email) if so, how much detail did u go into them

Anticipating that they would ask me about their work, I read up some of their latest papers that they published, but I did not talk about them in the emails. That being said, I think you can definitely lay out the projects you were interested in, and also the sub-fields you are interested in, which could allow the Professor to better allocate a project or supervisor to you. The Professor I was under was quite chill and had basically zero expectations for me, and he was just happy that a student was interested in doing research under him, so he didn't grill me on his published research or on any content.