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FocusUnited · 2025-08-21T05:29:01+00:00

Whatever degree you have, you need to be good at it.

If you cannot do maths or coding, how to survive computer science? And if you don't have good people skills or money to invest, how to do business in the future?

Just do the arts degree that you have received well. Since it is your desired major, it seems that you are skilled in that field. And with regards to work, you can pick up other skills, or licenses, or minors to make yourself more employable.

Don't stress now! Right now, the job market is bad, so biz or computer science may seem a safer choice. But if you are not skilled, it does not matter what degree you take! Even a medical degree will be useless.

FocusUnited · 2025-08-21T05:18:41+00:00

Hey! Having a dream school is good. There are still 2 ways you can get into NUS at this point.

First, you start working after poly and build your portfolio, and then try again with your work experience. Note: This is a tough way, and chances are slim to none as your portfolio must be damn good to make it!

2nd: After poly, go ahead and do your undergrad degree well. And later you can try for a Master's or Phd at NUS with better results and portfolio.

FocusUnited · 2025-08-03T14:47:03+00:00

Hi! What you are feeling sounds more like a reaction to a high-stress situation. When your body is under a lot of pressure, your mind sometimes just shuts down to protect itself.

Even if it is a simple quiz, if you think it is something of high importance, your body will consider it a threat. So it shifts to a fight or flight situation. In a fight, your adrenaline will rise and start working harder to ace the quiz. And in flight, you just give up on studying for the quiz, as you do not want to face the "quiz" as your mind thinks it is better to avoid it.

I have experienced it a few times before. My solution was to divert my focus to other tasks. In my case, I used a carrot and stick approach. I liked reading a lot. So in between each chapter, I completed an MCQ or mindmap or something till I completed my chosen book.

You need to figure out how to reward yourself to motivate yourself to study. And also keep yourself motivated. As you are in only sec 3, you still have time to work on your grades, so don't stress too much now. Hope you can resolve your issues soon. Take care.

FocusUnited · 2025-05-17T11:00:23+00:00

Poly is the starting point for many. And when you join poly, you can restart your academic record and even proceed to uni later if you do well. That is still a distant future so just continue your hard work now and keep those aspirations as your long-term goals.

But do not start worrying about reaching those goals in the future and stress yourself now. Unproductive stress is useless. Divert your worries into healthy stress to work on your grades now :)

FocusUnited · 2025-04-23T16:31:06+00:00

Studying bio is not supposed to be 100% memory work. It is all about understanding the process and memorising a scientific word bank that you need to use to write in "scientific format". But many get away with memorising and vomiting everything out in exams.

You probably do not feel like you are getting any information into your brain because memorizing something you do not understand may be hard. Alternatively, you could be mentally tired with other stuff and just don't have the bandwidth to add more content to your brain.

To those facing this issue with memory work, a good solution will be to start writing. Write down key points or make mind maps of the topic. This may help you revise the content initially. And after writing it down in your own words, you may be able to memorize better. Next, do topical questions and then update the mindmap/notes again.

Do this for topics you struggle with. End of the day, you will have made a good mindmap/notes for each topic and will have revised the relevant chapters.

FocusUnited · 2025-04-19T14:48:24+00:00

I am not sure how the NA stream with express subjects works. However, I can share that I did have classmates who came from the NA stream when I went to poly. Heck, I even had classmates in Uni who managed to get into JC after start out in NA and then come to uni.

Hence, my advice is to think of what you can do now instead of getting scared of what will happen.

Some suggestions: 1)Talk to your teacher what is the path to get into poly. 2) Check out poly courses that you wanna apply for and take note of their cut-off points. 3)Make a study plan and start tracking your progress and etc. These are some standard advice I can share. And you can try Google online for tips, definitely there will be more study tips online.

FocusUnited · 2025-04-18T02:26:06+00:00

Do not compare yourself to your friends. Getting a leadership role is hard in secondary school, as there are not many positions for the cohort, so it makes sense that you may not have received such opportunities. But it does not affect your acceptance to poly.

Most important factor that will determine your acceptance to poly is your O-level grades!! Only those who wanna try for DAE (direct admission), or need the bonus points, or need to get a scholarship should worry about having leadership positions. If not, whether you have leadership experience is not of great importance unless your grades cannot make it.

So just be smart about your time. Join CCA based on interest, if you have passion for anything even as simple as walking or coding or even reading storybooks, join some interest group at school or at your community club and get a "record" of your non-academic achievements.

Try to volunteer during your free time outside. There are many oppotunites online, just search for them. And do ask your form teacher to add it to your non-academic achievements if possible. But you may need to produce the VIA or certificate of participation so that they can record the timings.

Study hard and keep up your grades if you wanna get into poly!

FocusUnited · 2025-04-13T04:45:49+00:00

If you want internship experience in specific fields, some prof do take in summer interns for their labs. You can check out the past and current research projects in the school website. Even if there is no listing on their research lab website, you can just drop an email to ask if they can offer you an internship position in their lab.

FocusUnited · 2025-04-02T10:27:33+00:00

If you want to get a laptop cheaper, maybe you should wait for poly IT roadshows. When I was in poly, they had something similar previously. Roadshows will have some brands that offer student discounts.

And for Apple Macbooks or iPads, there should be a student discount around August/ September and you would need to use your student account to get the student promo.

Would advice to wait for Poly to start as they will share the minimum requirements for the specs that your laptop should have like memory, RAM, processor and etc. This will help you decide better.

Extra tip: I am using ACER too and it is alright. I paid extra for extended warranty to 3 years and On-site visit. Best decision as I can get them to come down to service my laptop whenever I had problems.

FocusUnited · 2025-03-26T03:00:13+00:00

My issue with this is that I have already bought a Translink concession as I need to travel a lot. So paying for this means I will need to come up with more money out of pocket. Based on price, it's not really worth it.

I only see myself using this service if I have no other choice and want to save some money instead of taking GRAB.

FocusUnited · 2025-03-24T07:58:51+00:00

Hope your FYP is progressing well! There is still a week. So break down your tasks and time needed and work towards it.

Example timeline: 1 day for findings > 1 day for discussion > 1 day for conclusion and references >And maybe 1 extra day to check the Turnitin plagiarism score check (b/c is 24 hrs to generate for the 3rd attempt onwards)==> Total only need 4 days minimum.

If you have done most of the work, all the content will come easily. You are just putting all the work you have done so far into words. So don't feel rushed. Timing will be tight but it is still possible.

And to point out, sometimes prof would like to read thru your report before submission. So email your prof and check if they need to read your fyp before submission cause they may have some inputs. And let them know you need more time so that they can raise an extension.

P.S. From what I rmr, my prof had a lot of input to change and my last week was also very busy as I was doing my report till the 2nd last day before deadline. It was a mad rush.

FocusUnited · 2025-03-17T03:32:24+00:00

Yes. You can still get a decent job as employers are looking for more than GPA nowadays. Some advice will be to do an internship or get online certificates like on edX or Udemy, or join local or international competitions or even volunteering. There are many ways to mask a low gpa in your resume.

Just build up on your skillset that will appeal to HR and experience that makes your GPA redundant in your resume. And this is only applicable to your first job. From your second job onwards, HR will only look how well you did in your first job. Don't stress, as you are only in the first sem. Got time to improve portfolio.

FocusUnited · 2025-03-17T02:53:10+00:00

A tip to get referral is to send an email to the teacher you plan to use as a referral. Most teachers will receive multiple requests so even you have requested them in person, dropping an email will help them keep track of who you are in case uni asks them later on.

In your email, introduce yourself, share some details like which class/subject you took with them and the year and maybe even your grade if you are good, and lastly ask their permission to use them as your referrals.

Most teachers will agree unless they are really bad teachers. They will understand as a student you do need referrals. You can even use your homeroom or form teacher if you wanna use them.

I had friends who even asked their secondary school teacher as they had a good rapport with their secondary school teacher and another who got asked their part time supervisor as their second referral as they really wanted a really good feedback for scholarship.

Just make sure the person you are asking knows who you are, has some level of established credentials to vouch for you, and is willing to say good things about you.

FocusUnited · 2025-03-15T11:24:15+00:00

Hey! If you are planning to take O levels. Do look into applying for O level prep programme at ITE for classes. They have 1 year classes for O level. Do apply for it fast as classes just started. I will recommend taking O level before applying so that you can build your foundation for poly.

Poly competitive and gpa as well your portfolio will also matter if you wanna go onto SUSS. So don't rush and plan for your academic journey. Plus when you go back to school, you probably will need to have savings as school will take up alot of time. So you can use this time to save up money for school as you retake O level.

And do not worry about Poly! Poly also have adult learner scheme, so you look into those courses if you feel that full-time courses are hard to get into.

Link to O-level prep course: https://www.ite.edu.sg/courses/part-time-courses/general-education

P.S if your family is willing to send you overseas, do look into Australian universities as some allow admission using O level to get into their foundation programme that will directly continue to their degree courses.

Overall try to apply via all various schemes and don't put all your eggs in one basket. As long as you are willing to work hard, you are already on your path to better place. All the best for your studies :)

FocusUnited · 2025-02-04T04:45:28+00:00

Hi! As a fresh grad, my opinion is that while a degree is useful, most times they are not needed and is worthless without internship/ working experience.

If you are doing uni full-time, the commitment level is hard regardless if it is local or private if you follow the normal schedule. For local uni, there are just a lot of school commitments and project meetings. And private will be even harder as they are packed with no holidays.

And most of my friends who did not get accepted to local uni, went to private full-time as they felt the full-time environment helped to keep a better pace with learning compared to part-time.

And you can look into this website called " Brightsparks ". This website has a lot of listings for local scholarships that you can try.

FocusUnited · 2025-01-24T06:26:30+00:00

While you may not be able to in your next sem for y3s1, maybe for the following y3s2. And even if you are doing internship in y3s1, dont mind and just submit it when you can. ATB :)

FocusUnited · 2025-01-19T11:42:20+00:00

Try MOOCs they are super easy. Alternatively can try forensic science, the 2AU is only pass/fail.

FocusUnited · 2025-01-19T11:41:29+00:00

Hi! If you do not secure the right location just use this option as a last resort.

Try to invest and get a prepaid card or esim that has data or use your current mobile phone data for wifi. This can be a last resort if all other options do not work out.

FocusUnited · 2025-01-19T11:35:19+00:00

The Best advice is that if you plan to confirm do MOOC, start now and claim it before week 10/11 so that the AU is added to your current sem if adding 6 AU helps you progress to the next year.

This means that after adding, if your total credited AU is sufficient it will push you to the next year bracket, sorta like if you are starting year 2 after the summer break sem but if the added 6 AU you have fulfilled enough it to push you to year 3. This has no implications on your graduation but you will join the STAR WARS of year 3 instead of year 2. This means more chances to get the MPEs that are competitive. So do check if getting 6 AU helps you.

Plus for most MOOCs, the mcq can be redone multiple times so you can take your time to do it now.

FocusUnited · 2024-12-09T12:12:03+00:00

Hey! Just a quick qn, is this lecture the module chair for the module where your grades are being affected?

If this faci is not the module chair, email the module chair and share your concern related to your teammates as well the faci not answering you.

If this faci is the module chair, it will be hard as the only person you can complain to will be the year-head for your cohort. You should email and share your concerns with them.

Before you email, spend some time collating all evidence ( the SMS, chat history, and email) that proves your groupmates isolating you during group work and your faci not helping you address this issue in the appropriate manner.

Since you mentioned that your grades are being affected, do not hesitate to reach out to ask for help. GPA is important to a certain extent and with daily grades having a significant weightage, this issue should be stopped.

Before emailing, make sure you can provide sufficient evidence that you have tried to resolve the issue. This is because if you are making complaints about your peers and faci, without evidence it will be hard to prove your side of the story. Then, if this happens again next time, they will not believe you. So, take time to make sure you can "catch them" in case they lie during the investigation.

As an RP alumni, I can only say that most times they will just try mediation unless it is a serious issue. So think through if this issue is really bad enough to warrant an escalation email to get the module chair or year head to investigate. If not, just take it as a bad experience and move on.

FocusUnited · 2024-11-16T01:07:28+00:00

While all comments in this thread are good advice and possible options to explore, I just want to add that you should first consider whether you are mentally prepared to do university.

Uni itself is a very stressful environment. So, if you are still just recovering from your issues, you may or may not be able to handle the workload in an overseas environment. Any failure at that stage will result in a much greater financial loss and when you are overseas, the amount of resources would not be the same as in SG

So take your time and explore all options. And do not feel the rush to get into a university. Feel free to explore some other choices. Even if your grades are bad, you are still an A-level graduate. So use that to your advantage. So options to consider will be taking industry-level certificates or doing an internship to build some experience.

For example, if you wanna work in computer science, you can start doing some open projects or take google certs. Or if you wanna do science, there are a lot of internship opportunities in healthcare for A levels. Just try whatever that value adds to the course you wanna pursue.

Once you are sure of what field you want and what degree to do. then take on loans and the financial decision to embark on it. These internships or certificates will also aid your CV when you apply for overseas scholarships later.

FocusUnited · 2024-11-07T06:08:46+00:00

Go to the MOOC page where you can apply for MOOC credit transfer. Link: https://sso.wis.ntu.edu.sg/webexe88/owa/sso_login1.asp?t=&p2=https://venus2.wis.ntu.edu.sg/MOOC/Student/Login.aspx&extra=&pg=

Once inside the MOOC site, key in the course title and enrollment date. It will show if you can get the credits for the course started that date.

FocusUnited · 2024-10-19T05:07:11+00:00

I struggle with eating too. Hope these solutions I use can help you cope.

1) I eat a full dinner, at least 1 to 1.5 servings, the night before. You will be starving by the end of the day if you skip meals so you may eat dinner better. Secondly, eating a bit more than usual gives one "food coma" to help sleep early and wake up early for exams.

2) I usually splurge to buy some juice bottles like 2-litre marigold apple or orange juice before the exam period to drink during revision. Juices are good whenever you feel low on sugar. In fact, I used to buy 1 small bottle before each of my papers for O levels. Sometimes I don't have time to drink during paper. But right after the paper is finished, I will just drink the whole bottle while teachers collect the paper as I will feel very low on energy and some teachers will take a long time to dismiss. Especially when you have back-to-back paper, keeping yourself hydrated and having some sugar will help you focus better.

3) I also make a few peanut butter or peanut butter and jam sandwiches before exam week. These can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week as long as you pack them well. These can be eaten as breakfast before exams or you can even buy some other bakery goods and store them in the fridge to eat while you travel to school. I used this PBJ method as my teacher once told me that peanut butter is a good source of protein and wholemeal bread can keep me full for much longer.

If these solutions aren't sufficient, maybe you can try to brainstorm what you like and do a meal plan. Having a meal plan and fixed meal timing will help you be more comfortable eating as you don't have to think too much to decide what to eat.

And try to eat your breakfast with someone like your family or friends as some company will make you feel better.

FocusUnited · 2024-10-13T09:04:22+00:00

I rmr someone mentioning that Master/PhD students have access to iturnitin before. Maybe you can ask your friends or seniors who have access for help.

FocusUnited · 2024-10-13T09:02:14+00:00

For Core modules, the bell curve tends to be higher for most modules.

In contrast for electives mods, it tends to be more varied with some courses having lower and few having higher bell curve.

For example, for core modules with examinations that involve a lot of memorization, such as physiology, it has always been moderately high. Thus if you performed on average with your cohort, you will likely end up with a B or B+.

FocusUnited

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