The Wondrous Cross

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

To Christ, who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore.

Isaac Watts

If anyone's interested in doing something special for Easter, you can pop over to MacRitchie (beside the Flower Clock) at 6.45-8am on Easter Sunday for a special experience

Combination of A-level Certificates

Have been having a number of queries about combining certificates for application to the unis. Here's the answer from NUS' FAQs.

Q: Can I combine the results from two sittings of the Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'A' Level examination to meet the entry and course requirements?

Ans: You can only combine results from separate sittings of the Singapore-Cambridge GCE 'A' Level in the following instances:

a. You may take the Mother Tongue Language (MTL) paper more than once and submit your best grade for the computation of the University Score.

b. If you are applying for Law-related course(s) and did not obtain at least a B3 (for old syllabus) / B (for new syllabus) for General Paper (GP) or a good pass in your Knowledge & Inquiry (KI) (for new syllabus) in your first sitting, you may submit the improved GP grade from another sitting to qualify for application to this course. However, the GP or KI grade obtained from the first sitting will be used for the computation of the University Score.

For those of you who are not satisfied with your GP grades, you may wish to consider taking the SAT 1 reasoning test: http://www.relceb.org/newweb/sat/SatIndex.htm. I'm not sure whether it will help, and the test is rather difficult (mainly MCQ but has an essay component too). The next test date is in May, so probably only useful for the boys, who can try to apply for uni again next year.

Appraisals

If you need me to write an appraisal for admissions to NTU, pls email me your I/C number, admissions number, the course you are applying for, your CCA posts and other achievements (not necc if you are fr my civics class). And drop me an sms so that I'll look out for your email.

Pls note that this is an additional safety measure, not necessary if you are confident of getting the course you want. Also, it will be better if you ask your civics tutors to write the appraisal 'cos they have written a testimonial for you already and know some details of your CCA achievements.

Pls don't do this last minute, give your teachers at least 3 days to write it

So many choices!

Uh oh... this is the time when I'm reminded of my age and the fact that it's been some time since I've graduated from uni *sigh*. There are so many new uni courses and changes in the system that I decided to go to the NUS open house to update myself. Reminds me of the time when I was 19 ha!
It's pretty exciting entering uni now, 'cos there is so much flexibility...double degrees, majors/minors from other faculties, exchange programmes... But if you've read the papers yesterday, seems like you are competing with quite a number of people - poly grads, foreign students, army boys hoping to change course. So make your choices carefully!

This is what I learnt from the NUS open house:
1) NUS colours are still as mismatched as ever. Never liked the orange and blue combi :P the whole world knows you've got a goodie bag from NUS
2) Faculty talks are pretty useless (at least the ones I attended)...they don't tell you what you wish to hear. They used to be better.
3) People manning the Arts booth speak better than those at the Science and Business ones. Ha, am going to get shot at for this, but kudos to FASS for giving me the most comprehensive answer! The science lecturer didn't bother to give me extra info and the business one was just out to sell her programme without giving me proper answers. The Engineering faculty produces the best FAQ booklet, so I'll give them the thumbs up for efficiency!

Ok, on to the more serious stuff:
4) Beware of the label 'direct honours'. This used to be offered only by NTU but NUS is jumping on the bandwagon too. 'Direct honours' does not mean you will definitely get an honours degree, you still have to maintain good grades over the four years. Science fac allows you to opt out after 3 yrs, Business will offer you the honours at the end of first yr if you are good, Arts will only offer you the honours yr if you attain a min CAP. If you intend to go into Government service, it will be good to get your honours
5) Double majors - this was the main reason that prompted me to check out the open house. For those of you who met me on Fri, I'm sorry, but I think I gave you the wrong info 'cos I didn't realise there was this new system.
Seems like the norm these days in all faculties is to read a single major, unless you want to add on credits to pursue double majors. This can be from the same fac or a different fac (Liu Ying, if you are reading this, yep, you are right. Thanks for drawing my attention to this. Hope you managed to get your answer during the open house). This is a very exciting concept, 'cos you can pursue your interests in other faculties. The catch is that there are selected courses that you can do a 2nd major in, and you have to fulfil more credits if you wish to do 2 majors, which means you have to be prepared to extend your course for another 1/2 - 1yr.
6) Accountancy in NUS - this is new to me...but it should be good news to those of you intending to take up accountancy. Of course, NTU's accountancy course has a very established reputation after so many years but the NUS one sounds pretty good too. So if you are really interested in accountancy, there's no harm applying for both 'cos NTU's course is very competitive
7) Prospectus - in my time (*sigh*), all the course modules and description were nicely bound into booklets for every fac. Now, the prospectus are just colourful and trendy, but without detailed info. So you should check out the fac websites and module descriptions when making your choice

Hmm...guess that's all I gleaned from the Open House. Hope those of you who went gained more specific details for the courses that you are interested in.

Here are a few websites that you can look at:
1) Funkygrad - this website is an online magazine written by undergrads from the various unis. There are useful study tips and other freshmen related issues. Quite a number of A-level grads have been asking qn abt admissions on the Forum. But the answers are just suggestions by the seniors so take them with a pinch of salt - http://www.funkygrad.com/think/
2) This NUS freshmen guide is for last yr's batch of students but still helpful - http://www.nus.edu.sg/oam/publish/freshmen_guide.htm

Career Compass & School of Health Sciences

If you are interested to know about the kind of industries that Singapore will be focusing on and the possible growth in various industries, you can check out this website:
http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/general/career_compass.html
The Career Compass 2008 aims to give students a better understanding of the opportunities in the current and future job market. Students can make use of this information when choosing what courses to pursue in the universities, polytechnics and Institute of Tehnical Educations (ITE). They can also make informed career choices when they enter the workforce.

Another area that you might wish to explore is the School of Health Sciences at Nanyang Polytechnic (http://www.nyp.edu.sg/). This is a highly misunderstood school because people think they offer the usual Poly diploma courses. Actually there are 4 courses in this school that are meant for 'A'-level graduates (you cannot enter the school without A-levels) : Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Diagnostic Radiography. You will graduate with a diploma but the degree conversion course only takes slightly more than a year at SIM. This is part of the Healthcare Sector that will burgeon over the next few years (I'm a strong supporter of this sector 'cos it was one of my career options after my As).

After the results...

Finally, the day we've all been waiting for has come and gone....whatever your results may be, you've all worked hard and persevered to the end, so congrats to all!

The results are important, but the process is even more so (cliched but true!) and I think you've all matured and grown through it all. I'm especially impressed by the attitude you all displayed when you received your results.

Now's the whole process of figuring out "What to do next?" Here are some resources that may prove useful:

Uni Admissions
- This year, the local universities have separate applications, and they are all done online. I think NUS have sent you all a personal PIN number. For NTU and SMU, I believe you just have onto go to their webpage to apply. Every uni has an 'Admissions' link so click that to see what to do.
Closing dates are early April so pls don't miss the deadline!
- Here is an idea of the requirements for courses at the 3 local universities: Requirements

Private Institutions
- If you are considering alternatives to the local unis, there are a number that you may want to check out. These unis offer courses from foreign unis and some of them are really pretty interesting. These are all established schools, not the kind that will close down in 2 months time:
SIM, Informatics, PSB Academy, Kaplan, MDIS, NAFA

Scholarships
- If you have done relatively well, do look out for scholarships. They will help with your school fees and most will pay for overseas exchange programmes. But always make sure you want to work with the company, don't want to see any of your faces in the papers as bond-breakers
- Some scholarships don't require perfect results. Read through the criteria and just try if you really have an interest in the company. Even better if you have good CCA records.
- This website has a very comprehensive list of scholarships. The 'Tips for scholars' page gives pretty good advice for choice of uni even if you are not interested in taking up scholarships: http://jobs.st701.com/scholars/

Other info
- Re-taking A-levels: MOE doesn't allow combined certs, so if you re-take, you'll have to re-take all the subjects for the new grades to count. If you wish to retake in our college again, you have to get an application form from the General Office on Thurs (13/3), 9am-12noon. No application will be accepted after that. To retake the exams as a private candidate, you have to apply online at www.seab.gov.sg
- Testimonials for applications: If you need a testimonial to apply for scholarships or foreign unis, go to the gen office to look for Ms April. She'll give you the testimonial that your teachers have written for your SGC.

Do cast your nets wide. If you don't know which uni will take you, just apply for all. Of course, pls be very careful with how you rank your choices. If you know for sure you can't get into the course, don't waste your 1st choice by putting it down.

All the best in your choice of courses and unis! Find a course that you enjoy!

Terrorist on the loose...

Die...really starting to get insomnia over the results...can't sleep, so doing funny things like this...

This whole terrorist escape thing has been pretty surreal and dramatic. We were even in the international papers for this...1 week of good news (Youth Olympics) followed by the bad (Singapore apologises for terrorist escape).
Some interesting ways that Singaporeans are coping with this:
- Coming up with conspiracy theories (some of the J1s have pretty hilarious theories about this whole fiasco!)
- Dedicating songs to the search team (heard this over the chinese radio)
- Coming up with 'better' posters to help us spot the terrorists (see below...the wonders of photo editing softward!)

Hope they find this guy real soon...

http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=2487

D-Day

4 more days to THE day... scared x 87 (students)...

New students...

Meeting new students again....will have to spend time getting to know and like them and trying to get them to like me and be interested in what I have to say...sigh...am always scared to meet new people :P
Have met 2 classes so far, science classes...they seem ok, hopefully we can get along. The challenge will be the pure arts class...have been teaching science students for so long, not sure what to expect...