Friday, January 06, 2006

At the threshold of a new semester

This is it. Semester 2 is about to commence with most of us already successful been allocated all our modules through the bidding via the cors system. The bidding this semester was rather exciting, unlike the last semester’s where we more or less got our modules through the engine faculty’s protected system with a mere 1 point. This time, much more time was spent into the bidding, monitoring as well as discussion with fellow classmates and friends.

The bidding for Principles of Economics was unexpectedly intense. At first, I thought since it’s a SARTOR module and the fact that it’s protected, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get and with little points. Yet, just before closed bidding, people started getting panicky and the minimum successful bid rose up from 1 to 50+ and with 80+ people competing for 70 seats. So I decided to dump in 200 points while Jian Cheng only threw in 100. The minimum successful bid was 109. Oops! That was so unfortunate. Well, he bid again in round 2a and got it.

Next for Living with Fluids, I was shocked the moment I saw the bidding status when I logged in. 1/1/1193 (lowest /min successful/highest) and within a few hours this rose to 1/103/1193 and just before the closed bidding, it was 1/121/1374 with 102 bidders for 75 seats. Shucks. I decided to just show hand since I expected many would do that. I was right; many did. Yet I am glad that not everyone was willing to risk it, if not we will end up with a high successful bid. 293 was the minimum successful bid and it’s about what I would want to invest in this module.

And so, it’s now finalized. This is going to be a hectic semester with 6 modules and out of these 6, I can expect Programming and Critical Thinking & Writing to be the more time-consuming and challenging ones, Economics to be the more disadvantaged one as I have no background and Fluids to be the more relax one.

Anyway, this is how my timetable looks like now (without CS1102C’s tutorial & labs and EC1301’s tutorial):

Oh my, look at those undesirable long breaks during Monday and Wednesday. I will either slot in some tutorials or probably find some program to fill in those breaks, perhaps go swimming with Liu Ting?

After some planning, this is what I would like my timetable to turn out after the tutorial balloting:


Also, i might just skip the math lectures to watch the webcast. One, the lectures are all so late. Two, its Tan Ban Pin anyway.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well ur timetable is very xiong .. how come ... u took how many modules ah?


feel free to ask me for mine if u are interested.

JH said...

Chuwen: yea, zg is a fan of dr tan, i am sure he will continue to go for his.

blueodyssey:

6 modules. Programming is a 5 MCs mod (a typical nus mod is 4 MCs) and so it accounts for 3 lect, 1 tut and 2 lab slot every week.

The tue lab slot is only for 2 weeks(phy lab) and can be ignore, thus i will be having around 25 hrs a week, which imo is managable.

How abt u?

Anonymous said...

hey isnt it blatantly obvious? Dr Tan is good leh! He is like the best lecturer! Able to go at a reasonable pace, though he conducts many extra weekend lessons. But heck! If you are able to follow his lectures, lessons are really interesting! BTW, his lectures are also very quiet one. Must be because everyone paying 100% attention to his talk. Don't webcast lar... whole day webcast here webcast there... In fact, I didn't choose 1 of those GEM which I wanted cos it clashes with MA1506 lecture on Friday.

Anonymous said...

But he is trying his best to go through the material at such a pace where everyone can understands and MOST IMPORTANTLY the fact that he has held additional lessons over not 1,2 but 3 weekends showed his selflessness and devotion in his teaching. To reinforce his point, he often prints out extra handouts (which I'm sure the other lecturers don't) to supplement us with more practices. Isn't it a no wonder that I placed my bidded modules carefully such that it DOES NOT clash with the maths lectures... ...

JH said...

Yes i would have to agree with chuwen that rushing through the last few chapters, like the laplace last sem, isn't really very apealling to me.

Oh yes selflessness and immerse devotion to teaching indeed, or perhaps he din really have the choice and have to finish the syllabus before the exams? And not everyone loves to go sch on sat..

Then again, every lecturer have their own style of teaching, but his is just not for me. Glad u find him suiting ur taste.

Btw, webcasting is good. Attending it wheneva u wan and at ur own pace, rewinding when u miss a pt, in the comfort of ur room. =)

Anonymous said...

Ai yo. At least recognise he has put in his very best in teaching. I'm sure a dedicated lecturer like him is always well-liked by many. And moreover, he cld have just smoked everyone out and spoke quickly to complete his part of teaching but he didn't. With his many years of teaching experience, I'm sure it's jsut a matter of time that he dominates the maths department. =)

J said...

Well, I took his class in Graph Theory last year, and I really enjoyed it. Probably because most other lecturers in Maths suck, as you have absolutely no clue what the hell they are saying.

I did think that TBP was one of the best lecturers I've had in the whole time I majored in Maths in NUS.

Anonymous said...

Yesh yesh, Jenny! You are absolutely right! Sheesh... Nowadays people don't appreciate how good lecturers teach... TBP managed to simplify many profound stuff in layman's terms instead of using the usual notation. I think he deserves the Best lectuer of the year Award.

Anonymous said...

Sheesh... i felt that he is an interesting fella who tells intriguing jokes that help stimulate our mathematical thinking ability. I'm certain that students under him wld be able to excel in that subject!

Anonymous said...

One word to say, the webcast this sem would be great, since you can watch at your own pace (as b4). Also, VT even do a separate capture of his computer screen, ie, super clear ppt slides. Then again, like what Jackson said b4, he teaches concepts well, if you can manage to stay awake. Grp A had the 1 hr intro lect oredi, u gotta find the webcast in the webcast section - it is not bookmarked in the module section of IVLE.

Anonymous said...

Sheesh... fir... at last u are here to help me... It's hard fighting for TBP alone... =)

Anonymous said...

I don't? *sigh* i need more pple to stand for my side... prefably all the masters like taichi master, gong fu master, all can come and help me... ...

Anonymous said...

farnie... ... u are farnie... no wait.. u are FUNNY! sigh... still in sch now. btw, i saw tbp just now at sci fac. =)

JH said...

Oh god...

You guys are treating here as your chatting room arh? This is going to be the next most commented post in this blog after the Funny exam answers post..

And oh my.. firdooze and Jenny joined in the TBP debate too? That will make it 3-2 and with TBP in the lead? Nono this is soo wrong! We need more anti-TBP!

Oh yes the tkbk by VT is damn expensive lar.. and out of stock somemore.

Anonymous said...

ai yo.. be glad leh... we all patronise ur blog so much... TBP is good... =) go for his new and improved lecture leh. In fact, I was thinking of taking higher levels of maths module taught by him... Cuz he teaches well leh.. =) but it better not be some timing like my stats... 6-8PM and 8-10am... so extreme...

Anonymous said...

u know hor...as for the textbook, I don't quite get why lecturers love to print lecture notes into book form instead of, say, sending the stack of notes to the printing room to have it printed then we cld have purchased the exact same material at 1/2 the price without having to pay excess $ to the publisher. In fact, the notes shld be uploaded and allow students to choose whether they want to print from the net or just pay for a copy in the printing room. Then, the worse thing is now they DARE tell us that the book is out-of-stock? Knowing that students have no choice but to resort to purchase the book, the least thing which cld have been done was to, say, ensure that there wld be a constant supply of the book.

If u ask me, I agree this book is one of the most ex. Cos' I BRAVED the rain to the science fac bookstore to purchase the book, rendering me utterly drenched...

JH said...

Ninja: Exactly! Thats why i intend not to even buy the book liao. Well, i was webcasting on Victor Tan's lect on 3-D surfaces yesterday and i realised the notes are almost the same as the book lar, so effectively i can just take down impt notes during my webcast session and forgot abt getting any book. Yeah, save 20 bucks amd the touble to queue up for it. =)

Anonymous said...

of course loh! In fact, with TBP's lecture, all u need is just to be there to listen. Nothing else needed... =)

Anonymous said...

Neh.. no lar. Where got so good... only for lecture u can sit and listen but u still gotta practise... it's like i can show u to ("chk clr"?) [do something] but u still gotta practise this urself... So TBP effort is like 50% and u have to fork the other 50%. There... words of wisdom for u...

Anonymous said...

eh, by the way, what kind of fluids that u drink is viscous kind? I can't think of any of such sort that are safe for consumption. Well... Unless... u include... (but i dont drink those.)

Anonymous said...

what is man and cat juice? sheesh... And i'm kinda sure that strawberry juice wld be under non-viscous cos it flows steadily and does not stick. BTW, i drink strawberry juice too... =)

JH said...

Man? Cat juice?? ohhh gross... i wonder.. Strawberry juice can be viscous one lor. Oh wait, you still owe me a non-viscous drink right, zg?

Wait a minute... why did we even began discussion of viscous liguid? Aiyo, must be zg with his "ChkClr"s again right? What? You DRANK those?? Disgusting!

Anonymous said...

heh! farnie! BTW, im the 3 puck master, so there... =) my words are final! Heh! BTW, i didnt say all those sick stuff... go see what CW said. =) he's more sick than me... I'm innocnet. =P