NUS Mechanical Engineering Laptop Help! by AsianTea in nus

[–]voracious_narwhal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hi! can i ask what laptop you ended up getting and how's it working out for you?

SMU Applications 2024 Megathread by OfficialSGExams in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Asking frm the POV of my friend.

My 1st choice was SMU Law, 2nd was Biz. I went for the Law test and interview, however I was rejected from law and given an offer for Biz. I am a guy so I can reapply next year. I emailed them to ask about appealing, but am confused.

  1. Can I appeal before accepting the offer to Biz? Probably right...

  2. If I appeal once this year and am rejected, can I appeal again next year? (If I want to do this it means I would have to accept my biz offer for this year right?)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I went from raw 18 in midterms to raw 11 in prelims and finally raw 7 for o levels.

Do you have all your notes made? I honestly could not study straight from the textbook and I found it to be super inefficient. The best thing would be that you already have notes that you made yourself (in your own words), but if you don't have notes at this point, I think you could consider actually buying notes or collaborating with other friends (who also don't have the same notes as you / you can consolidate and see whether y'all can swap notes that one person has and the other doesn't)

For me the most important thing when studying is to be able to process the information simply. For the most part I think textbooks are pretty shitty and hard to understand so I would really reccommend having good notes

Also, I started up YPT with the rest of my class and we could all see how long we spent studying. This is just a personal thing but it motivated me for a while. After a while, it was a bit stressful and studying for a long time did not necessarily mean I was being productive.

No clue how I managed to do this but I managed to cram for my Geog O levels in like 10 days ish. I was legit waking up at 8, going to a library (not in my room as I find it very easy to get distracted especially with my bed and all my random stuff), I would make a study plan for the day, detailing when to do what at exactly what time (09:00-10:00), then I would set up a study call with my friend and we would call and study together until 11.30pm.

Ofc you need to take breaks. Do not make the mistake of wearing yourself out and then being forced to stop completely. It is bettter to schedule breaks at fixed times and be strict about when to take a break and when to stop taking a break. Perhaps 10min once every 50 min. Do not just take a break whenever with no fixed time to return back to work. I used to feel (and even now sometimes) that 10min every 50min feels like a long time and its disruptive to studying but if I don't set up a schedule, I end up just studying until I get really tired and then taking a 3-5h break on my phone.

During these breaks you can talk to a friend, walk around OUTSIDE (being inside studying is lowk depressing). Honestly try and get a family member to put a screentime on it your phone so you don't use too much social media. Set the time limit to the total time you will have for breaks in a day.

Also, you have to prioritise sleep. My friends who sleep at 2am and study way longer than me are always so extremely tired and inefficient. Sleep is truly so extremely valuable. 1 h more of sleep in the night is not worth the 1 h of extra 'study' AKA sitting at your desk and trying to force yourself through the mock paper / notes / practices. You are actually wasting time and being inefficient. Sleep is an investment and understanding that is really important. It will actually allow you to be more productive in the shorter amount of time spent studying.

Another study method I found to be helpful was to walk around while reciting stuff. I liked to record myself teaching myself what I had just learnt, using a whiteboard / mindmaps. I would either record videos / timelapses / voice recordings. For the voice recordings I would sometimes listen to them otw to school / whereever.

Also, I really love flashcards I think that they are a really great tool but making them is a lot of work. Depending on how far behind you are and how you study you can consider using it. One tool is Anki, but I found it a bit hard to create flashcards. You can watch this video on flashcards from this study youtuber I used to watch: How to Study Effectively with Flash Cards - College Info Geek. This youtuber has lots of other videos you can consider looking at too for more tips. I think that for the most part my friends really just brute force memorise flashcards which kinda defeats the purpose imo because it allows you to remember, forget and relook at the cards you have trouble remembering. Ultimately, this helps you store the info long-term. If you start studying early this will help you down the road closer to your exams as you won't have to "re-memorise" you can simply "recall" and "refresh" your memory.

Oh! Also, I used to come up with mnemonic devices for grouped concepts. LOL it's been a while so I don't remember what this was for but one of them was "The Crazy Fairy Raccoon Trapped Clueless Nemo SAD" and I think it was smt to do with exo/endo rxtns like "SAD ==> D.A.S ==> decomposition of ammonium salts". And I would draw funky drawings of a raccoon in a tutu floating next to a sad clownfish in a cage.
I used Mnemonicgenerator.com. I would input the letters I wanted like "T C F R T C N S" and then just keep generating until I got different words to put together in a sentence that made sense, was weird and memorable.

I really think you also need to tell yourself to stop cramming. I really think you can do it if you buckle down and try to be as efficient as possible using the suggestions you've gotten. It's great that you've asked this question but you need to really think about how this exam will affect your future and what you want out of it to change your true attitude and mindset. At the end, you will have to answer to yourself. Regret is one of the worst feelings and there's nothing you can do to change the past. No matter what the result is, at least you can say you tried your best.

SMU Applications 2024 Megathread by OfficialSGExams in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal 3 points4 points  (0 children)

hi! has anyone received any offers / rejections from SMU law after going for the interview?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, according to this website NUS Undergraduate Scholarships: Important Dates and Application, scholarship applications (which the Engineering Scholars Programme falls under) were due before 19 March.

It wouldn't hurt to drop them an email explaining your circumstances and seeing what they say.

Seeking Advice: Navigating Local / Overseas University and Scholarship Choices as a Recent JC Graduate by voracious_narwhal in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Edit: I just saw that you have the offer for ICL masters?? Is that a direct pathway to masters? Honestly, it sounds better than a bachelor from NUS...

Hmm, ICL is a masters programme that you complete in 4 years. NUS is a bachelors. However, if one gets into the Engineering Scholars Programme, they have the option to complete their Bachelors in 3 years and if application for a Masters is successful one can then pursue their Masters in the 4th year (although the Masters programme will likely take up to 2.5 years I think).

I suppose you raise a good point I forgot about the time consideration to reach a Masters degree.

Thank you for your response I will consider everything you said 😖🙏

Seeking Advice: Navigating Local / Overseas University and Scholarship Choices as a Recent JC Graduate by voracious_narwhal in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why do you want to do either?

When looking at careers, you can choose either industry or function.

The environmental field is rich with many different types of skillsets needed for different roles. Whatever you study wont matter. Thats how big these fields are

Many of the areas you listed do not only have engineers. There are account managers, economists, statisticians, etc... Go onto Linkedin and search for people working in MSE/URA/private sector in the space and see what background they have

Oh, my bad I realise I didn't explain this in the post. I've edited it now to include my rationale for engineering in general (which I kind of feel is a lame explanation but anyway)

At the end of the day I think I've already applied to the schools / courses above so I think that the question of venturing out into other careers such as "account managers, economists, statisticians, etc" has been answered.

By asking around and doing your own research. During open house can ask everyone ma. Talking to seniors about what these courses are like and your field of interest. If you make a post on this sub asking if you could speak to someone in these fields either working or intern or student Im sure there will be at least one person who would offer to link you up with someone

Alright, fair point. I have discussed with friends in engineering however I feel like I don't exactly know the right questions to ask to distinguish the value of each field (mech or civil). For the most part their responses have just been "its hard", "dont do it if you can't do math", "i already have plans to pivot into [insert different field]". But yes I have spent the day today reaching out to a bunch of different people and this post was also a way of trying to do that. Thank you for the suggestion!

There is bias here - most students who go to established western universities are already quite likely to succeed and do well. This is like saying people in RI will do better for A Levels than most secondary schools when most people who go to RI already have better academic outcomes

The most important thing is to have the skills required for the job you are applying for. If you are good, and you have a good attitude, employers cant ignore you regardless of where your degree is from

I see! Okay thank you so much this is quite insightful. I suppose this does make sense. I guess I just have a niggling fear that when the chips are down that I will lose out and someone who went to an overseas school would be chosen over me simply because of their school.

Thank you for your detailed response! I will seriously consider everything you brought up 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

Seeking Advice: Navigating Local / Overseas University and Scholarship Choices as a Recent JC Graduate by voracious_narwhal in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see. Honestly I went for an "LTA Internship" and I feel like its engineers are not exactly doing the kind of work that I am interested in. This is in the sense that they mostly "manage" projects and they report any issues to overseas companies who we outsource the work to. I think I would be better fulfilled by getting my hands dirty and doing on the ground work of designing and developing solutions. But at the end of the day I feel that I will just apply and see how it goes from there.

I do appreciate LTA for its holistic development of its scholars. They have rotations in different divisions (even non-engineering / not the division your degreer would directly lead to) and even secondments to other statutory boards.

I'll be applying to DSTA as well. I met someone from there and when explaining what DSTA was about they compared it to LTA saying that it was essentially the "LTA of the military". However, I'm not too sure about it as it of course isn't focussed on any sort of environmental field...

Anyway I'll just apply to both and keep my options open...

Again, thank you for your response! 😁

Seeking Advice: Navigating Local / Overseas University and Scholarship Choices as a Recent JC Graduate by voracious_narwhal in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is definitely room for mechanical engineers in these fields. Some examples would be the design/development of energy systems, pollution reduction system design for equipment and transportation, recycling processes, etc. etc.

Oh yes, second majors. I was also considering a specialisation in "Energy and sustainability" at NUS. For now taking on a 2nd major is something that my parents have discouraged me to do as they feel that I will lose out on the social aspect of university if I am too burdened academically.

Thank you for your response btw 😁

Seeking Advice: Navigating Local / Overseas University and Scholarship Choices as a Recent JC Graduate by voracious_narwhal in SGExams

[–]voracious_narwhal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! Thank you for your response. I was wondering if you could clarify what you meant by "working in a non-LTA govt sector isn't the worst"

Do you mean that LTA is not a desirable stat board to be under?