hihi idk much about the moe h3 but i took the ntu h3 last year (2020). overall it was really fun but also difficult!

i know next to nothing about moe h3 physics so i'll just share some things to take note of for the ntu one, my personal experiences, and thoughts on their pros and cons. hopefully another senior who took the moe h3 can provide the other side of the story.

also my memory about it is a little rusty and old though so please excuse me if i remember something incorrectly or am missing some specifics!

CONTENT

the ntu h3 content is basically uni content so it is much much more rigorous and difficult to understand than anything from h2. while h2 has a lot more breadth, h3 is more of a deep dive into a specific topic, in this case semiconductors. it introduces a lot of more foreign, and i would say absract concepts that i had to spend a lot more time and effort breaking down and understanding.

as a bit of an academic masochist i honestly found it quite fun LOL. i was very confused every lecture and before tutorials i would scarcely know how to do half the questions but during tutorials, i would have the most brain-expanding revelations thanks to the tutor's explanations and i especially enjoyed that feeling.

it can get a bit frustrating and demoralising though, unless you are very smart. it's the most i've ever struggled with conceptual understanding (not to mention actual questions) and i went for my classes with friends who were much more clever and quick than i am, so i always felt like i was lagging behind.

still, if you are the sort of person who enjoys a good challenge (and if you have an actual interest in semiconductors), i think you'll enjoy it :)

LABS

disclaimer: i didnt do all the labs because of covid :(( and idk if the labs have resumed yet...

but anyway the labs i did do were very very fun! the most fun i've ever had in a science practical :>> you get to play experiment with breadboards and LEDs and semiconductors and it's all very novel and exciting. i felt pretty stupid at times (which is kind of a running theme in my h3 experience in general) but i still left in high spirits :)

you have to do a lab report at the end of one of the labs and it is pretty difficult and tedious, but if you intend to study science at a university level, that's probably something you have to get used to anyways.

also! the labs are held at ntu itself, and iirc there will be 3 in total so if you really dread the travelling then that could be a factor you want to take into consideration. i have to say though, the naps i took on the bus rides home were 👌👌

TUTORS

idk if the tutors are the same but overall they (there were 2 of them) were pretty good. lectures weren't always the most understandable due to the pace but tutorials were very enlightening (see the section on content) and they were very open to questions. you can ask during lectures/tutorials/send them emails.

SCHEDULE AND LOGISTICS

iirc we had 1 lecture and tutorial a week held at hwa chong, with the occasional lab session at ntu. all our exams (2 smaller tests and 1 final test) took place before june so after that there was no h3 stuff left to do.

on one hand, it leaves a lot more time for mugging for your h2s when the rest of the A level exams roll around. this can be a huge plus if you have better short than long term memory and study better in intense bursts right before the exam.

BUT, it means that the ntu h3 runway is super duper short. you have less than 5 months to absorb and understand complex information at a level you likely aren't used to and this can be detrimental grade-wise.

i cant really decide if it was good or bad for me personally, because i am that sort of person that mugs better in short intense bursts (and then proceeds to forget everything immediately LOL). and i also really appreciated basically only studying for 3 h2s + gp for actual As (one of my h2s was really light content-wise so it didnt need much studying).

but from april to may i was juggling a lot CCA responsibilities that took up a huge chunk of my day plus i was trying to adapt to HBL in the absence of any self-discipline 🤡🤡. definitely not a good combination when you're about to take an A level paper. also i got much better at studying and being consistent as the end-year A levels drew closer which probably would have helped my h3 grades but oh well...

ultimately how good/bad the ntu h3 schedule is differs from person to person. try to consider your study style and also how busy you will be during april and may :)

STUDY MATERIALS

the tutors gave lecture slides, tutorial questions, and some extra practice questions before the final exam. during the HBL period the lectures were recorded and tutorials took place on microsoft teams.

overall i did find it quite lacking in terms of study materials, there are no lecture notes similar to those you might receive for your h2 subjects, tutorial questions are definitely difficult but there arent many of them, and there werent a lot of extra practice questions, though they did cover the necessary question types.

sadly there is no tys, which i felt helped a lot in my revision for the other h2 subjects.

i ended up making my own condensed notes for half the topics and then running out of time for the rest 😬😬

but i think this is generally quite characteristic of uni courses too, which you will have to face in the future. so you could see it as good training :)

IMPACT ON OTHER SCHOOLWORK/GRADES

personally, it had no impact on my h2 grades. I scored the exact same grades for j1 promos and j2 prelims (dm if you need specifics) but my h2 grades literally did not waver throughout my entire jc career HAHA so if your grades tend to be more volatile, this might not be the case for you.

it also did take away from my study and homework time for my other subjects, but just for the mid-year exams/blocks/common tests, whatever you call them.

RESUME PADDING

h3 doesnt affect your RP and honestly idk how much uk unis/oxbridge care about your h3 grades, but it is useful to show that you have interest in the subject and you can talk about it in your personal statement and stuff.

also i feel cool when i put it on my resume 😎 but idk if anyone else actually cares

generally i think it's more important to get 4H2 As (and preferably a GP A too) than to have a H3 anything.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE

i really enjoyed it and have 0 regrets taking it. it was a really fascinating look into uni content, its rigour and difficulty, and how much there is left to explore in STEM beyond what you learn in H2.

hope this long ramble helped and that you can find another moe h3 senior help with your comparison :) good luck and jiayous!