Hello everyone!

PLEASE READ: Please direct all questions to the comments section below so that they will also be visible for other prospective students. Do note that I will not be entertaining any NTU-related enquiries through e-mail from now on. Thank you for your understanding!

Time really flies, doesn’t it? I’m already in my third year at NTU and very soon, I’ll be decked out in my robe and mortar board and receiving my degree scroll on stage! I vividly remember how jittery I was on the very first day of school, worried that I would not be able to adapt to the challenges thrown at me. But I survived it all and I am truly thankful to those who have helped me in any way.

To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the end of this semester because I will be embarking on my 6-month Industrial Attachment (IA) at the Ministry of Education in January. That would mean having to make a tremendous change to my lifestyle, sleeping and rising early everyday. 😥 But I’m sure it’d be a fulfilling experience!

And no, I won’t be interning as a teacher if that’s what you’re thinking. I will be there as a Recruitment Marketing Executive to assist in their recruitment campaigns. So any MOE marketing collateral that you chance upon next year could possibly be designed by me. Hehe *excites* 😀

I went for a couple of interviews during my recess week and was subsequently accepted by MOE as well as MediaCorp. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t manage to score an interview with L’Oreal because it was one of my top choices. But I doubt L’Oreal even got back to anyone at all because nobody was allocated to the cosmetics giant in the end. Even if they did, most of the students would already have a placing somewhere by the time they start their selection process since there was an acceptance deadline for any existing offers.

I was offered a position as a Production Assistant at MediaCorp Channel 8 and I reeeally wanted to go for it. Argh, how I wish I could accept more than one offer haha. But I had to choose one, so I picked the one that’s nearer to home (MediaCorp is currently located at a godforsaken place and it’d probably stand a better chance if it has already shifted to Mediapolis) and would allow me to humbly display my prowess. MediaCorp, as every Media Studies student knows, accepts interns in batches so it’s gonna be difficult to stand out from the rest. And of course not forgetting the long working hours and meager pay. These, my boyfriend strong disapproves 😐

Enough of the internship talk. It’s now time to review the courses I took this semester! Only 3 courses though, so it’s gonna be a very short one.

1. CS4002 Media Law, Ethics and Policy (CORE)

I requested for an exemption from this course because I had studied something similar in Poly. But it wasn’t granted since it was an upper-level course. The course however turned out to be totally different from what I had expected because Dr Mark Cenite, the course coordinator (and my newfound WKWSCI idol after Dr Cherian George’s departure), included U.K. and U.S. law and policies (which are absolutely bizarre in my opinion) into the syllabus. Hence the lessons didn’t feel like a repetition to me at all. Also, with Dr Cenite’s witty sense of humour, his law classes were never boring nor draggy. I really like that he used current cases (e.g. Roy Ngerng’s defamation suit, the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement and etc.) to illustrate his points. They kinda kept me updated about the latest news. Haha.

Conducted in two 2-hour lectures per week, this course has no written exams but there is a collaborative (discussion allowed, open-book) quiz at the beginning of every session. The quizzes constitute 10% of the total grade and the remaining 90% is divided equally among three closed-book midterms (all of which are MCQ questions). Aren’t you glad that more profs are moving towards the pragmatic approach of not having exams? To me, exams are never the best gauge of knowledge and they should be abolished.

Anyway, this semester was the last time this course would be offered due to a curriculum revamp. It will now be a lower-level CORE available to the first-years.

2. BU8541 Sports Marketing – The Marketing of Champions (GER-PE, LS)

I added this course mainly because the tutorial time slot fit perfectly into my timetable and it was the only LS elective that appealed to me. This course basically teaches you about the various marketing tools (e.g. sponsorship) for sports products and how non-sports brands infiltrate into the sports market. Lessons can get pretty dry as I found myself hard to stay awake sometimes. There were 2 time slots for this course (only a 3-hour tutorial each week) and mine was on every Friday morning.

You would be allocated to a group with whom you’d be doing your major project (30% of total grade) and an article analysis (20%). The other components are an individual report based on the article analysis (10%), class participation (10%) and an open-book final exam (30%). The major project just involves studying any sports marketing related aspects of a chosen organisation (e.g. Netball Singapore) and presenting your critiques and recommendations. For the article analysis, you’d only need to select an article related to sports marketing issues. My team did on one that discussed about the partnership between Formula One and Singapore Airlines.

We kinda set the benchmark for the attire because we were the only group that bothered to dress up. For our first presentation, we added a pre-flight safety briefing in the beginning and an arrival announcement at the end for comic relief. The ladies had to do some silly hand signals to mimic the flight attendants so it was pretty embarrassing. But it’s all in good fun 😀

All in all, the course was only enjoyable because of the group projects. My other gripe is that we didn’t manage to go on any field trip (as proposed on the weekly schedule).

I’m not certain if I’d do well for this course so I am still on the fence whether to S/U this one.

(ADV) Need a pair of good futsal shoes? Check out the reviews on some of the best futsal shoes on NicerShoes.com!

3. CM8002 Forensic Science (GER-PE, STS) – S/U

I finally had the chance to take this course because Wednesday afternoons for me were previously always packed with classes I couldn’t drop. Over the years I have developed a keen interest in Forensic Science from watching crime TV series (most of them are from Hong Kong because I find that they’re more realistic and relatable to as compared to Western ones). If you’re like me, always wondering how actual murder cases are solved, then this is the course for you. It also teaches you how to reconstruct crime scenes like a pro. Haha!

This course provides every essential information you need to know about Forensic Science with topics on finding out the time of death, blood, DNA, fingerprinting, polymers and fibres, firearms, narcotics and toxicology. Each topic is accompanied with a few real-life cases (mostly based overseas) to demonstrate how these investigative techniques were used. And they are all very, very enlightening. I had personally spent additional time online reading up on some intriguing cases that were featured in lecture.

However, all lectures are pre-recorded and posted on this education platform called Coursera on a weekly basis, spread over 8 weeks. You would only need to go to school for Forensic Science after this period to hear guest speakers (actual forensic scientists and law enforcers) from various organisations such as HSA and SPF. If you’re not disciplined enough to watch the online lectures, you can always read the transcripts (which was what my friends did). The lecture notes are also quite comprehensive on its on.

There would be weekly assignments on Coursera (just 15 MCQ questions based on the topic covered that week) and 3 graded assignments (short-answer questions) over the course of 8 weeks. All these form your e-learning activity, which constitutes 5% of the total grade. There is also a midterm (15%) and a closed-book final exam (80%).

I’ve decided to exercise my S/U option on this because this course is extremely competitive so getting a good grade won’t be easy. By the way, this class is so huge that they have to conduct the lessons at the auditorium.

Okay that’s all from me for this semester! Do drop me a comment if you have any burning questions.

Talk to you guys next time!

Read also:
University Freshman: Year 1 Semester 1
University Freshman: Year 1 Semester 2
University Sophomore: Year 2 Semester 1
University Sophomore: Year 2 Semester 2
University Senior: Year 4 Semester 1 & 2