So. This is my final year, final semester at NTU. With all my modules registered for, my timetable looks like this:



YAY! The Friday-free-day continues for the 4th semester in the row! =D But, I must say though, it's quite sucky for a NBS Final Year student. Normally, we will be getting like 2-days work, max even 3 days. But a 4-days week? :'(

BH326: HR Metrics is my last HR core left to do. Frankly, the course outline doesn't sound promising. There are a lot of things to do, including interviewing a company for its Performance Management system. But the topic kinda rocks, especially when I did HR Metrics and PM for a big part of my internship in NUHS. I am interested to learn more about it, and hopefully, contribute in class my experience in this subject. :)

AB205: Negotiating to Get What You Want is an interesting NBS elective that I choose to take up to fulfill my requirements for Unrestricted Electives. It is taught by my former Econs tutor, A/Prof Geraldine Chen, who is damn nice and damn good at what she does. So, it was of no surprise that I really enjoyed the first lesson. Every week, we will take part in different negotiation scenarios with different classmates, honing our negotiation skills throughout the semester. Sounds fun right? The first exercise was an eye-opener, and I look forward to all the other lessons! =D (Of course, waking up at 6am is zzzzz, but the class is motivation enough for me to sacrifice a few hours of sleep! :D)

HMF4: French 4 is the main reason why I have a 4-day week. Sigh. Mais oui! I have finally reached the ultimate level for French (in NTU, that is...)! Bien sur, this is gonna be S/U-ed, since I have 3AUs worth of S/U to use, I might as well use it right? Classes haven't started yet, but as always, I am looking forward to increasing my French language skill. =)

I might have a sucky timetable, and a heavy workload, but it's all ok. You know why? Because...



I have no exams this semester! YAY! =D Everything will end by 28th April. Of course, I deliberately picked non-examinable modules. My philosophy is that since I will be busy in the semester with exams, I might as well sacrifice a bit more and do a bit more work in the semester, than to mug for exam papers at the end. That means my French 3 exam was officially my last exam in NTU, and boy, I am glad I ended my undergrad exams on a good note! =)

Here's to a good final semester ahead! HUAT AR! Yesterday, I woke up at 7am to relieve my full bladder. I drank too much prior to sleeping, apparently.

Today, I woke up at 7am because I was feeling parched. I drank too little during my XLB buffet, apparently.

Oh!!! Why must you do this to me towards the end of the holidays? Why can't I have nice good long rests before the holidays end?

Seriously though. I have thoroughly enjoyed the holidays. Everyday, I sleep at 2am, and wake up at 11am (or later). And I just did what I want to do all afternoon and night, be it random site surfing, reading books or fanfiction. Life really rocks.

Thinking back the same period last year, I was practically moaning about being utterly bored out of my mind, and that I wanna go back to school. I think the change in mindset occurred after going through internship. There's nothing like a dose of reality to "wake me up", and that I better do all the relaxing now before I consign myself to waking up at 6am all year round (except on weekends and on annual leave).

In short: I wish time to stop right here, right now. I don't want school to start! I don't want, I don't want, I DON'T WANT!! =p So, I am left all alone at home again.

This time for dinner, I had grand ideas. Oh yes. Really grand. Like maybe steamed eggs. And a plate of aglio olio. Or maybe stir fry something.

But alas! It was not meant to be! There wasn't enough ingredients at home to cook what I wanted, and the nearby stores don't stock dried herbs and chilli flakes for the aglio olio that I wanted to cook.

So I had to settle for this:



I am rather pleased with my steamed egg, with pieces of century egg inside. The surface was smooth, so YAY! Next step, chawanmushi! :D For the main dish, I just used chicken stock and throw in udon, hotdogs and crabmeat. Simple and nice. :)

But seriously though. I am determined to make aglio olio someday. =p So, this is my 333rd post, and I am using this to announce my results. =D

I said in my post of Year 2 Sem 2 results that Year 2 Sem 2 was my busiest sem ever. Scratch that. It never match the crazy of this semester, as evident by the crazy last 3 weeks.

Anyway, the results are as follows:

Year 3 Sem 1 Results:
Learning and Performance Development: A-
Strategic Management: B+
French 3: Satisfactory
Forensic Science: Satisfactory
Semester GPA: 4.25

Lemme elaborate:

Learning and Performance Development: I expected an A-, because I have got A- for 50% of the grades (We had two tutors. The first released the results of her portion of the class). But actually, I was disappointed a little bit, cause I thought I can maybe get an A, cause I thought I scored pretty well for the second-half of the class. That means I cross-dressed for the presentation at the end for nothing. =p But yeah. A- is still a good result.

Strategic Management: Another expected result, because at the end of the whole class, my tutor told me practically all my grades for the various components of the class. So I expected worst case B, best case B+. So, I am thankful that my best case scenario came true. Maybe my individual essays saved me. =p But seriously though. I spent the entire semester worrying about this module, cause I clearly sucked in class and there were more zai kias showing off their knowledge. But yeah. Heng ar.

French 3 and Forensic Science: I S/U-ed both modules. I don't wanna play with the scary bell curve for Forensic, and after sitting through the exam, I was right. I won't be good enough to score, but I did good enough to get a S. For French, I am just glad that I can go on to take French 4. I don't wanna think about what-if I never S/U-ed. Ha. I made up my mind to SU before Sem 1 started anyway. =p

So yeah. This sem's results are very expected. No major surprise la, so it was kinda anti-climatic. HaHa. My CGPA even remained constant too. Looks like I am on track for my Second-Uppers, if I don't screw up in my last sem. And I won't. =D When I heard the news that undergrad tuition fees are gonna raise again, I was rather dismayed. Then, I went to compare the fees that I am paying against the fees that the business undergrads are gonna pay this year, and I found a rather shocking figure:

AY 06/07: $6110
AY 11/12: $7940

I can't believe it! In a space of 5 years, school fees for NBS students increased by a whopping 30%! You know, every year, the press will announce an increase of school fees by small percentage figures, like 5%. But after 5 years, the increase is very substantial.

What's more, I found out that since AY 09/10, NBS students have been paying more their fellow peers studying other degrees. In 09/10, they paid 5% more, but 2 years later, the difference doubled to NBS students paying 11% more. Please note that after adding the government subsidies, the raw cost of laboratory-based courses still cost the most.

I am quite flabbergasted at all these increases.

Firstly, before 09/10, NBS students have been paying the same school fees as the rest of our peers. But now, it seems to me that NBS is embarking on a differentiation strategy, raising its price to a premium just because its brand value increases (due to rankings and all that). Of course, there will still be demand for NBS courses, because it is considered one of the premium business courses in Singapore. Then, Leslie postulated that maybe because the increase of money all goes towards getting more (and better?) profs and developing better content.

It would be good if this is true. But, doesn't other faculties need the same? They would also need more money to hire more and better profs, and to develop their course content too. But apparently, NUS offers an explanation to the same situation here here. Huh. I think it would be similar to NTU's official reasoning too, if there is one. But, do you think that is really the case? Or is it more of "I can raise the price because I can. And I can because my brand value is good, and you know it"?

Next, I am really flabbergasted because from my point of view and personal background, the 30% increase in 5 years is really shocking. Coming from someone who has all his tuition fees loaned from bank and school; this would mean that fellow students who have the same financial background as me would suffer more in the future to pay off more loans. I don't like this implication at all. However, as NUS kindly pointed out (isn't it ironic that I am getting all the info from NUS? NTU really has a lousy Q&A system. Tsk!), "it is a global phenomenon that the average operating cost per student has been increasing", it seems that my juniors can only LLST about it. After all, this is a worldwide problem. Everyone is experiencing it. Or are they? Is this a valid explanation? Who knows man.

I guess, the point of this post is to discuss whether the huge increase in school fees properly justified. Relf says that it is not, because "who doesn't want to earn more" and, "after all students or their parents have no other choices". This is very true. Compared to alternatives of studying in private colleges or going overseas to study, $7,940 is still the cheapest option.

But whatever it is, boy, am I glad that I am born in 1987, and that I am enjoying my "cheaper" school fees. Yesterday, I attended my very first friend-wedding. Not first friend as in someone I first knew, but rather, first person of someone I know around my age group getting married.

It was my Year 1 NBS classmate who got married, and she invited our Year 1 class to her wedding (yeah, also because it was customary to show the embarrassing photos of both bride and groom, guess who made a lot of special appearances during flashes of the bride's university life? Yeah. We never knew our Thursday Theme Days [which ranged from school uniforms to bring-a-softtoy-to-class-day] could be shown to the whole world. So embarrassing!!). For many of us, it was really our first friend-wedding, and the experience was really very surreal. None of us could really imagine getting married at such a young age too.

But yeah. We did have a lot of fun catching up. It has been long since our Year 1 class got together! :D We were all also happy for our friend, because we can tell that she has found herself her Mr Right. 在这里，我祝她白头偕老，婚姻幸福，早生贵子！=)

You know, it has been very long since I have picked up a novel to read. I mean, seriously. In 2010, I have been so busy with reading textbooks and journal articles every week (at home, in the journeys to and from school) that I didn't even think of borrowing books from the library.

That's a very stark revelation, especially to someone who really loves to read. So, last week, I went down to the National Library en route to my HRYF meeting to borrow some novels.

I borrowed Terry Pratchett's Making Money and Andrea Levy's The Long Song, and have finally completed the two books yesterday.

I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and Making Money doesn't disappoint. I enjoy reading the escapades of Moist von Lipwig, and the clever machinations of Lord Vetrini, Patrician and Tyrant of Ankh-Morpork.

Andrea Levy's The Long Song chronicles the tail-end of slavery period in Jamaica, through the eyes of a slave named July. It was actually on the short list for the Man Booker Prize 2010. It's a very good read. I was taken into a journey of rebellion, of love and passion and of gains and losses. I enjoyed the ride, and I hope you will too.

It is indeed very lovely to get back to reading again. :) So, today is 1/1/11.

On this day of quatre uns, I shall attempt to look forward for the new year, and attempt to put my life back on track.

Yes. Back on track. I realized that I have been slacking a lot. Procrastinating. I have somehow, within the space of one semester, mastered the art of procrastination to its highest level. I am quite aghast at myself, how I managed to push back all my assignments and reports to the very last minute, and causing myself a mass panic attack trying to complete all of them at once.

Last year, I wasn't even like that. I would do all my tutorials and assignments diligently and well in advance of my classmates and sneer at them for doing things so last minute oh my god. But my god. Things took a 180-degree change, and I don't know why. This is very bad you know, so this year, I resolve to stop procrastinating for goodness sake and complete assignments and report on time. Yes.

This year will be one full of exciting events and changes.

This year, I will see myself being really busy, trying to juggle 3 heavy modules, doing FYP and organizing a successful Human Resource Youth Forum. I foresee myself going bonkers in the middle of the semester and possibly will never be quite the same after, but I look forward to all the excitement with... excitement!

4 months later, my university education will come to an end, and a new chapter will unfold. I will step into the working world, making money to survive, and if I am lucky, pamper myself. =p But yeah. That would be the major part of anyone's life, non? After all, we are gonna spend around 2/3 of our lives working. So, I better be doing something I love, at a place that I enjoy working for, so that when I get up every morning, it won't be full of dread (I mean, after the initial "this is an ungodly time to wake up" =p). So, yeah. Let's see if I can fulfill that! =D

So yeah. Hopes and dreams. Will they be made? Stay tuned to find out! =D