NUS academic system & environment

Ok, so after a few weeks of exposure to the courses, the study environment, etc, here are my personal impressions and accumulated knowledge about NUS academic system.

There's an overwhelmingly intense academic atmosphere among the degree students at NUS. Like. Seriously. The one grand plan since the day they enter university is to get an A in a course. And apparently it's not that easy there, because NUS uses bell curve grading system, which means all students are ranked relative to their classmates. The number of A students could not exceed 5% of the class, in most cases, and professors are supposed to honor that rule. So you can just imagine, if you are in a class where everyone scores above 90% and you get some wherein the 80-range, you'll fail the course?!?!? This grading system, coupled with the already competitive character of Asian students, unfortunately yet predictably, has generated the hyper-competitive relationship between students, to the point that I don't feel it's healthy at all. I've heard many unbelievable stories from my friends who study in the Business School - the supposedly most prestigious and competitive school in NUS, about how some can go to any lengths to achieve an A in a course. Anyway, on the bright side, if you are really into studying seriously, you'll have very serious students to work with =))

Now let's briefly talk about my view on my course selection. So I chose 5 courses, corresponding to 20 MCs under NUS system, which, according to NUS definition, would mean 50 hours of of work a week, including lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, assignments, and independent or group study (!). Sounds like WTF huh? Well, as exchangers, why so serious about these estimated required hours? We'll survive by all means, just enjoy the life and traveling=)) I've never heard of a single case of exchangers to NUS who has failed a course, no matter how neglectful they could have been here. Because of the bell curve, only less than 5% of a course participators could fail, so unless you do absolutely nothing for the course, I doubt you could fail one. 

As all my courses are at 3000s level, they all have roughly 40-50 students/ course, from which we will be divided into our chosen tutorial time slots. Therefore, in the tutorial sessions, you will usually have around 10-15 classmates there, which leaves a lot of room for discussion and interaction with the teacher. NOTE that while lectures are not compulsory to attend, all tutorials are, and your attendance will be recorded. This is also how the lecturer assesses your attendance and participation grade for the entire course. Anw, this grading part is the most ambiguous part in the assessment, in the end, no one knows how they are assessed relative to other students, and how active should one be in the tutorial sessions=.=

Ah yes, about course materials, NUS has the most affordable textbooks for their students sold via NUS COOP, at a much much cheaper price than wherever you buy. NOTE though, you guys MUST first check out the IVLE second-hand booksale forum from other NUS students to see whether you required textbooks are available there. In most cases, they often are, especially if you choose a popular course with many attendants. For me, I found my Game Theory coursebook there, looking perfectly new, at only 30SGD, whereas if you buy the book from NUS COOP/ Forum bookstore, it'll be 65 SGD :). I also bought an Econometrics and Math textbooks from some students via the forum, useful for my future studies, since they are such a bargain and they seriously are brand new!

Exams, you may wonder. Most exams at NUS are conducted in two hours only, be it Math course or Essay-based course. That is a bit of a challenge for us Aalto sudents, since we are very used to the four-hour setting at Aalto, where you can just take your time to a certain extent. I run out of time in some exams, especially though that demands some calculations, since the professor usually make the exam really longggg=.= So yeah, you need quite some practice to get your head in the game before you take the exam, otherwise, you'll run out of time and curse yourself afterwards. In the exam, it's just read, think for 2', and then do it, no time for prolonged meditation on any single question!

More to go about NUS campus in the next post!