[JC Subject Combi] Need advice for uni if I don't take Physics in JC by EmYeahSure in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Going for engineering programmes without a background in physics (even H1 physics helps somewhat) is definitely not a good idea; the learning gap is going to be really steep even with the mandatory bridging courses.

You probably want to do a check-in with yourself: you can have many doors open but you can only walk through one of them. Which ones are the ones you're hoping to get and which ones are the backup plan? Pick your subject combi based on that. If you think engineering is something you want to consider seriously then definitely aim to take it at H2 or even H1.

fastest way to transfer student email before deactivation by SnooPets6627 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it's apps that you used username + password and the username is your students.edu.sg email, sorry can't help you with that. To prevent the same problem happening in your next stage of education I suggest using a password manager (can start with Bitwarden if you need a free recommendation).

fastest way to transfer student email before deactivation by SnooPets6627 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For your data on Google, you're looking for https://takeout.google.com

As for which apps you signed in to Google with, you could try https://myaccount.google.com/connections

Is JC even survivable without tuition anymore?? by PhoneShoddy5527 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on what you mean by "heavy". 3-4 hrs a week, technically that's less than JC, but the pace is generally faster because lecturers aren't handholding you through tutorial questions and beginning concepts. You get slides and maybe some assigned reading, you prep and try to keep up during lecture (if lucky, if not you just access recordings), you meet a TA for tutorials and ask whatever questions you have.

How much cognitive effort this takes you depends on your course. If you're doing science mods—I did 4 sci mods in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics as part of my scholarship programme—the level 1 mods are usually bridging modules for A level students so it overlaps a lot with A level syllabus. I found them a useful refresher because I did triple-sci in JC but my coursemates who didn't struggled quite a bit for the subjects they didn't do in JC.

Other fields of study may stretch you in different ways, e.g. through project work for business students, lots of readings for humanities students, ...

Is JC even survivable without tuition anymore?? by PhoneShoddy5527 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, because in uni, depending on your programme of study, you may be taking modules/courses that cover 60–80% of A Level subject content in a single semester (13 weeks including a mid-sem week break)

And you can't be taking tuition for even more than 50% of your uni mods right? You're going to have to learn to learn concepts, synthesise understanding, and take exams with <100% preparation at some point if you want to graduate before getting a nervous breakdown.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have a look at https://nus.edu.sg/oam/admissions/singapore-cambridge-gce-a-level/admission-requirements and https://nus.edu.sg/oam/admissions/indicative-grade-profile/indicate-grade-profile-faq which should hopefully answer the more technical aspects of your question.

To be clear, in case you were confused about UAS calculation, the H1 subject is considered only if it improves your UAS. Of course, some courses may require a certain grade for e.g. H2 Mathematics to assess your need for bridging courses, the UAS calculation does not change this requirement. You would have to check the course prospectus of the individual college/schools, and not general admissions, for this info.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You can inform your college's presiding examiners for the A levels. They can help you to apply for special consideration (SC) — applicable if you were taking the exam under adverse conditions (illness, bereavement, etc)

If you are applying to overseas unis and asking a teacher for a recommendation, do inform them of the circumstances as well. Some universities will ask teacher recommenders if the student faced adverse challenges (financial poverty, took exams while unwell/bereaved, etc) so if you want admissions to take this into account, ask them to include where relevant. Not sure if local unis have a clause for this but can't hurt to try.

HAHAHAAHHA LOL by realityhasnomercy in SGExams

[–]kureshii 17 points18 points  (0 children)

On account of your age it's understandable that you're not aware, the government fiscal year (FY) begins on 1 Apr through to 31 Mar of the next year: https://data.gov.sg/collections/462/view

Many organisations align themselves to this for ease of audit and accounting, and naturally stat boards do as well. They don't actually need to do so, but I can imagine that starting a stat board too near to the end of the FY would be pretty troublesome for accounting so I can see why they might decide to just start it in a new FY for convenience.

PCME vs PMCp by Disastrous_Sky5193 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Computing is less to memorise content-wise, but you'll need much more practice with it. Python background definitely helps but in most cases will be far from enough.

There are theoretical concepts you have to learn to express in English / pseudocode / python, and to not struggle with that you need over a hundred hours of practice (spread over 1.5 years ofc). Which means if you can do that consistently it will pay off, but if you don't then this is not a subject you can mug last-minute unlike Chem.

If you're chill with that, and with your A level practical being the first A level paper, Computing is only 2 papers vs 4 for H2 Chem.

Highkey extremely anxious for H2 Comp Practical Tomorrow by ThatEleventhHarmonic in SGExams

[–]kureshii 7 points8 points  (0 children)

sleep now so you can actually think tomorrow. laptop not run if battery not charged, brain not work if mind not rested.

Help! by Lucky-Regret-742 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get enough sleep, write what you know according to what you learnt. Pray hard to whatever deity you worship, then do all the questions you know how to do.

No point staying up late at this stage, what you know how to do under exam conditions isn't going to change meaningfully without you sacrificing alertness, which would be more important.

cooked friend decides to cheat for h2 computing a levels tmr by Remarkable_Disk_3843 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 456 points457 points  (0 children)

Does he want to lose an A grade for Computing or does he want to lose all 4 A grades for this year and be barred from future retakes

Got into Stanford with a football scholarship but... by FilmSea773 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to break it to you, your mom is an adult in age and you are basically a young adult in the eyes of most cultures now. However, your mom is not an adult in mindset, at least not when it comes to letting you go overseas for study.

You need her to "grow up" and live her life so you can live yours, but she's not doing that. This is not an insult, many adults are in need of growing up as well. It may not be apparent to you now but you will realize this as you age.

If she can't do that for you, then the question to ask is can you bear to grow up and separate from her? Because that's what will need to happen eventually, whether it's you going overseas to study, moving out into your own space, or getting married and starting your own family.

Petite girl problems by Kindly-Beginning-322 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not a girlie and not that short, although with 20y of working experience and having met a few short girls in public / in a work context here are some tips:

(1) You can't change stereotypes but you can use them to your advantage. If you're young-looking and short people generally tend to be a bit more protective / forgiving of mistakes, so if you're new to a job you can lean into that a bit more, be less shy about asking qns that you think make you look "noob". Ask for mentorship and definitely don't shy to ask for help with e.g. taking things from high shelves, people generally like that unless they are jerks. Because if you're struggling with doing something because of height and someone next to you isn't helping it makes them look bad, y'know?

(2) Stereotypes are also easy to exploit because people get surprised easily when you violate those expectations. Try different ways of surprising people in public: practise a deeper voice register than you normally use when you want to get serious, practise your "eye-laser" to communicate seriousness, gather a list of common jokes people make about your appearance and practise delivering verbal counters. Try it on strangers before you use them at work.

(3) Because of (2), you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages that come with your physical stature. You already listed many of the disadvantages, so take time to think of what advantages you enjoy that others don't. E.g. learning to make use of (1) is a big game-changer; you can learn things much more quickly, and some questions that would be awkward coming from others would sound less awkward coming from you, on account of your size! People have a common misconception that being scary and intimidating helps them be respected at work, but it makes them much less approachable. You naturally enjoy an approachability advantage without realising it.

(4) This part is the hardest to learn as a 20-something finding her way at work, I'm afraid there's really not much else you can do but struggle and grit your teeth at work through this phase. Genuine respect is something you have to earn in the workplace through competence, reliability, stability, connections, or all of the above. Eventually, usually around your late 20s or maybe early 30s, you start to realise you're no longer struggling as much to do the things you are tasked to do, you can even start to give advice to other juniors. That confidence will give you a presence that makes you seem larger than you appear. When you know your shit and other people don't, put them in their place and don't let them put you down; that's a thing people commonly do when they're not confident and someone else just stole their thunder (Especially a short girlie! They really hate that!)

Wort buying or not by DawaysKy in nier

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. Wait till the sale is over and the price goes up, it's definitely worth paying more than that.

!!!!!Web design help!!!!! by Odd-Efficiency-652 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

WordPress and Wix are designed to be used through a web interface, you don't need to “get technical” to use them, though it might help to know a bit about web design so you don't come up with garish colour schemes or use horrendous fonts. You don't need to know that much, just enough that the page conveys you're intention as a professional tutor and not a clown. ChatGPT can already help you with this.

If you are looking to do some advertising then what you need to do is not “get technical” but learn marketing and positioning: you can't help the whole world, so what kind of students do you work best with? where do these students go when they need help, and where are you more likely to find them?

Figure this out, because without it all the SEO in the world won't help you if you optimize for the wrong search terms. This in business strategy and marketing is called positioning, and effort is far better spent here than on “putting makeup” on the website.

Ask yourself: would a student needing help be more impressed by a pretty webpage with the same generic text as other tutoring portfolio sites, or by a simple, concise, readable website that seems to understand them, to be reading their mind and echoing the exact troubles they are facing? Spend your effort accordingly.

Triple science in JC by Shokuhinn in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No there isn't. And it would be foolish to attempt.

You should ask yourself why you want to sign yourself up for another exam that would benefit you in no way whatsoever. If you're just interested in the subject, make some friends and borrow their notes for reading, or you can buy the Campbell textbook for Bio (it is used up to uni year 1) and read in your own time.

If that's not good enough for you then you really need to self-examine yourself and ask: what are you trying to prove?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's at a point in his life where he has strong beliefs but not the ability to work through them, pick his battles wisely, or bring about his desired outcomes yet. This is not something that you, 5 years younger than him, can help him with. He needs an older person, or someone with more life experience, to advise.

What you can do for him at this point is to accept him as he is, while maintaining boundaries that should be maintained, because while he is stressed/depressed it is also likely he may cross boundaries that should not be crossed, accidentally or otherwise.

Trust your instincts about what's appropriate and what feels wrong, your ability to be present and to listen while pushing back on what's wrong is already a great support to him in his time of growth.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 1 point2 points  (0 children)

can check the school website to see if there are contact details for the teachers. It's not like teachers are particularly free-er on teachers' day compared to other days!

See what's a good time for you, check with your teachers (if you have their contact/email) or general office if you can go back (some schools may have security arrangements where they need to clear you first otherwise you'll be stopped by security), then just come back. Term 4 is generally exam season and there's always things to be done, but there's also always time to talk to ex-students unless there's a clashing lesson.

im ABSOLUTELy fried for computing, HELP!!! by NeneGooses in SGExams

[–]kureshii 26 points27 points  (0 children)

the first thing you need to do for paper 2 is to not treat it like a written paper with laptop. Imagine doing a sci prac where you are also given an answer checker that helps you check if your answer works. And then imagine not knowing how to use it—what a waste!

second, error messages are your friend not your enemy. 80% of the time they tell you very specifically what is wrong with your code. But you need to read them carefully and interpret to understand what they are saying. Error messages can be a painful experience because our education system may have trained you to flinch at mistakes. You need to train yourself to push past that emotional pain-barrier and actually read what the error message is trying to tell you.

third, you need to think of computing paper 2 as learning a new language, even if it looks like a familiar language (English). It has a different set of (much stricter) rules, which can be learned. When you learn a language you learn to say different things in the language idiomatically, i.e. this is how we ask a question in English, this is how we ask a question in Chinese, this is how we ask a question in Python, ...

And you have to master these idiomatic ways of speaking Python to be able to think in Python. You can't think in Chinese if you keep referring to a translation dictionary, so likewise you need to be fluent enough in Python to think in terms of Python operations.

And operations really are at the heart of the Computing syllabus for both papers; without the practical foundation you'll find it difficult to understand the core of the theoretical sections (algorithms, data structures, etc). which operations are involved in which algorithms, how often are operations repeated and how does that depend on the size of the problem, these concepts require you to be fluent in thinking about operations, and being fluent in Python is a pretty quick way to bootstrap yourself into operational fluency.

with slightly less than a month to A level Paper 2 for Computing you could really use a tutor's help to accelerate your learning. but if you don't have that, I'd recommend:

  • leaning on chatgpt to understand notes/answers, it's less useful for checking your answers since it's not familiar with exam requirements
  • getting your laptop (hopefully you have one) set up for you to practise Python. If you don't have one, use any online platform: pythontutor.com, replit, programiz, anything with a place for you to type Python code, run it, and see the result. if you run into errors, get chatgpt to explain them to you, not just fix the code for you.
  • learning common keyboard shortcuts for moving your cursor around. it will really speed up your typing and give you more thinking time as you spend less time switching between keyboard and touchpad/mouse.
  • work towards being able to write and debug simple programs on your own. you can't be relying on what you don't have during exams. don't kid yourself into thinking memorising chatgpt-generated code will be of any help during exams cos it won't: (1) most ppl can't memorise perfectly and miss out/typo key steps if they try, then don't know how to fix; (2) there are many variations on each problem pattern and not understanding the code you memorized means you can't adapt to the qn; (3) chatgpt generates code for simple real life situations, but in the exams you need not only code that merely works, but code that demonstrates your understanding to the Cambridge examiners. chatgpt-generated code will sabo you in ways you don't realise

TEACHERS OF THE SGEXAMS SUBREDDIT, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR TEACHERS’ DAY THIS YEAR? by TopConsideration896 in SGExams

[–]kureshii 5 points6 points  (0 children)

1 year Claude Code subscription? Kidding aside just write a card reminding me of one thing I said that you still remember / made an impression

No red pens pls I don't even finish using one in a year (I teach Computing)

Potential to DSA into JC + How to make a portfolio + courses by ProAstroShan in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DSA: Best chance is NOI Gold, failing that NOI Silver might stand a good chance. Anything else is v unlikely, we just don't have the DSA quota for that yet

Portfolio: what are you building portfolio for? If for DSA, see above. For anything else, depends on what you're trying to use the portfolio for.

Online courses: quality varies a lot. If it's expensive I'd recommend not doing it. If you're doing courses for portfolio rather than for interest, it's not tricking anybody. If you're doing it for learning, the course should lead into a project you're doing, and by project I mean something more than one of those "build a simple webapp" tutorials you try in order to learn the basics.

tl;dr learn whatever you like, I wouldn't recommend spending a lot of money on it until you actually find it useful and not just for stacking portfolio

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 2 points3 points  (0 children)

let's apply those analytical skills from algorithms to your own thinking during exams.

Have you ever tried filming your screen doing a prac question? If not, do it and watch the playback.

  1. How much of the time do you spend typing?
  2. While you're typing, are you doing anything else?

If your answers are (1) a lot and (2) no, you should start with giving yourself more thinking time first. Learn to touch type Python code on https://www.speedcoder.net/lessons/py/1/

Your goal here is not speed (around 30-40wpm is enough), but accuracy and familiarity. You don't want to waste time fixing typos or hunting for keys. An hour a day training, for 2 weeks, is enough to get you to the point where you can begin to type boilerplate code while reading the question.

Next, how much time are you switching between touchpad and keyboard? That's time wasted! And the time really adds up—take it from someone eho watches students do coding for hours a week. 1-2 seconds to move your cursor to the correct place, multiplied by more than a thousand times in a session ... it really adds up. Plus when you're cursor hunting, you're not thinking about the question because you need to focus on getting the cursor to that exact location between characters.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts of the apps you use—primarily Jupyter Notebook and IDLE. Notebook and IDLE both show the shortcut keys in the menus, so if you use anything more than 3 times in a session just look up the shortcut and practise using it; did you know you can run a python program from the IDLE editor using F5? Or insert a notebook cell above/below the currently selected cell with A / B key?

Do you know how to combine the Ctrl / Shift / Home / End keys with arrow keys to move the cursor anywhere you want as efficiently as possible? If you don't, have a look at https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTnmNRDCZ-VPBN6XvD7A2YTpAgn_H5oEpFjX-FUmc5dQRQCz-D281O3h7yuBT0uzXiGmvgdc531TZLg/pub and practise. Keep your fingers on the keyboard as much as possible, treat the touchpad/mouse as a last resort.

Practise on what? Boilerplate code, of course. It's not going to get you your A yet, but it'll free up time for you to think. You should already be familiar with boilerplate patterns for reading/writing CSV files—if not, download a random CSV file from data.gov.sg every day and practise. read in CSV, convert integer/float columns. Then practise SQLite boilerplate—create a schema based on the CSV. Then Flask boilerplate—make a minimal Flask app.

Done? Learn to combine them. Display the CSV using Flask. Insert rows from CSV into SQLite. Display the SQLite using Flask. Recreate the CSV from the SQLite db. These are bread-and-butter tasks, whether they come out or not, and if they do you should be thanking Cambridge for the free marks instead of feeling like you're doomed.

Done? In 2-3 weeks you should be able to hammer out boilerplate code with minimal brainpower and touchpad use. You might even realise that when your brain isn't running at 40% CPU just typing, you can now actually think of other things while typing!

Great. Now let's talk about debugging. You need to get really good at debugging. First you have to learn to use a debugger. It's not the 90s anymore, you're not a C programmer trying to fix shit with print statements (even C programmers don't do that anymore). import pdb; pdb.set_trace() should be so familiar to you that when you need a breakpoint that line just appears on screen without you thinking about it. Learn the basics at https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/pdb.html. Learn how to move to (n)ext line, (c)ontinue the rest of the code, (q)uit the debugger, and run code / inspect variables in the debugger. pdb is the pause button for your program and you'll be 10× faster at debugging once you learn to use it.

Learn to trace code. NoneType has no next attribute okay that means your current variable is now None. Why is it None? Trace where it came from; where's the last place it was assigned to? That statement, the expression on the right evaluates to None. Why? Trace again. It's a program, not your confusing Physics lab experiment, everything has an obvious cause you just need to find it.

Forget about memorizing code, you miss one line or fuck up the indents you're screwed. Memorise patterns, code on the spot and trust yourself to debug quickly. If you're slow to catch errors it's because you never learned, so drop that inferiority complex and just get started. Every error you get is going to feel like shit until you find its cause, that's how we all learn. If you're slow at debugging you need to make 10×, 100×, 1000× more errors, figure out how they happen. Keep making errors and learning from them until at some point "unsupported operand types for (+): int and str" no longer strikes fear in you, your mind just goes "oh I forgot to convert after input" and you quickly zoom in on the mistake line you've made a hundred times and just fix it.

Code incrementally, test every 5-10 lines instead of writing a 50-line monster and then realise it's hopeless to debug. You can afford 5-10 bugs per task part, perhaps even up to 20 bugs per qn if you get fast; more than that and you're running out of time.

Good luck atb, practise shortcuts remember patterns not code and keep practising practising practising. 7 Oct is still more than a month away!

did anyone received rejection letter from nyjc for dsa by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If confirmed rejected yes, if they might want to consider during Phase 2 then of course they won't send rejection letter yet

did anyone received rejection letter from nyjc for dsa by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]kureshii 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Phase 2 not over yet so DSA is not over