Week 1 Over!

Decided to throw all most of the boring stuff into 1 entry, haha, so you can expect another lengthy entry full of text. If you find it too boring, feel free to skip lah hor. Please make wise choices. =D

Well, been through a week of school, so at least attended each module’s lecture at least once liao. I think the first lecture is gonna set an impression on every student what to expect from this module, and certainly how much they “enjoy” themselves during the lectures are going to somewhat affect the way they treat the module. Ok, maybe that doesn’t apply to some people, but oh well.

CS1102S: Wah, kinda nice to see all the familiar faces in class again, but unfortunately the crash course in java is nowhere as nice. Kinda lost from the obj/field thingy onwards liao. Haiz, looks like this is going to be a major pain to tackle for the rest of the semester. But oh well, I think the lecturer’s pretty good, though my lack of understanding/appreciation of java now doesn’t really make the lecture a very enjoyable experience. Ended up sitting in the front few rows again as with 1101s, and I’m thinking whether I should stop sitting in front. After all, the front most 6 people have 5 pro ppl. No prizes for guessing who the odd one out is :P

CS2100: Wah having a 2 hour lecture after 2 hours of 1102s is going to be a killer very soon. At least starting is numbers (binary/octal/hexa etc) so it’s still somewhat ok since I’m quite comfortable with such not-too-advanced number crunching. But looking at the overview of the topics to be covered in the entire module, sighx, 4 hours of intense core module lectures are going to take its toll on me very, very soon. And it’s not like I have any other viable combination of lecture slots since this set-up is the only one applicable if I want to take these 2 modules this semester, which are essentially the keys to unlocking (hohum) many level 2 modules (which are a greater pain but I’ll come to those at a much later date). Oh wells, pretty normal lecture, or probably I had expected much more from the lecturer. Hey, even zihan, jon and dom were bored from the lecture, or perhaps the material so far is of little difficulty/challenge to them.

CS2301: This module is the required English-based module that all majors in SoC need to take in order to fulfill their degree, and being a business & technical writing module I certainly isn’t very looking forward to this module ever since I knew of the rough nature of the module’s content. Well, at least the module coordinator’s pretty good with his lecture and presentation, which is sort of setting a good example and image of his module? Haha. He goes through his slides pretty fast, and we can’t really expect slides to be provided (can’t assume rather) and there’s no webcast. I guess there’s a need to train up on note taking skills liao, and probably -really- got to browse through the book for the week’s content to roughly know what’s going to be covered so as to know whether the material can still be referred in the book or really have to add-on ourselves. Not sure how often he’s gonna lecture, but certainly I think it’s quite hard to find his lecture boring (the fast slides are a -ve factor though). The 2nd lecturer isn’t bad, but the unfortunate thing is that she started lecturing after the coordinator was done with his part, so it’s inevitable that some sort of comparison takes place. Well, I think she’s pretty much the usual kind of lecturer, which isn’t too bad lah. Wonder what nature the tutorials will be like. Hopefully it’s not super formal and stuff. I’ll see how things go. Hehz.

EC1301: Was a little late for the lecture, but wow, didn’t expect the LT to be the super big type, with it mostly filled up with students. After all, I did win the module with 1 point so I was thinking maybe it ain’t that many people. Easily a few hundred of us there. Looks like the curve will be extra cruel since based on past sems, the midterms and finals are going to be in MCQ though it’s not like you can take your time to do and expect to finish every question. Haha. Anyway, the first lecture’s content is pretty basic and simple, since I’ve taken econs back in JC. I guess for those without any background, it may seem a little overwhelming since quite a number of terms/principles were introduced which in JC took quite a while to cover each of them, though admittedly this lecture did not go into details for many of the stuff. I guess the details will be covered in the subsequent lectures to come. The lecturer’s pretty patient and going slow with her explanations, which I think is really good for those without prior knowledge. But of course, people with prior knowledge can be quite easily identified with their more restless behaviour during lecture. Occasionally tries to crack a joke or something to keep our attention level there, probably can tell that some of us are rather bored or something. Oh, being an evening lecture might take its toll on me after tutorials start, though I hope to keep my Tuesdays the way they are now. Oh yah, the over-emphasis on “fishing” kept me thinking it’s “phishing”. BLAH…

EG1108: Morning lectures starting at 8am. Seriously waking up early for this lecture is already bad enough. Add that to a lecturer who tells jokes that are not at all funny, nor cold is certainly a good way to start your morning. Very good way indeed. He goes through the material really fast though. Can’t believe this is a 3MC module. Seriously, they ought to “upgrade” the status of this module and give it more “recognition”. Bleah. Judging from the measly handful number of SoC students taking this module against 400+ other Faculty of Engineering students, on top of the fact that I’ve never been good at physics, this module is certainly heading towards a certain doom. Perhaps it’s a good thing it’s 3MC this time? I certainly hope I will be able to survive the module. I foresee myself using much lifeline during the entire semester to seek help from my engineering friends. Sigh, and this is the only level 1 engineering module which I have to clear for my degree requirement. The future looks bleak.

Also spent my first batch of moola on buying textbooks, which I’ve happily scrimped on last semester. But this time around I’m not spared from the evil grasp of textbook buying and have already burnt $100.35 (after discount thanks to Wai Lun) and there’s still 1 more little book to get, which is unfortunately still unavailable at the bookstore. Sure is good business for the bookstore every semester even though many 2nd (or more) hand sales/purchases do take place all the time. I foresee more buying in the future though, so yeah expenditure is going up, up, up. Hopefully my mom won’t make too much noise after a few more semesters. Haha. Anyway, I think if the textbooks are the type that actually have some kind of retain value in “archiving”, I think the money spent will be appear to be so “painful”. Haha, some books’ turnover is so high that it’s essentially exhibiting a clear property of the usefulness of the book outside the module.

Bleah, now to plan for the dreaded balloting which requires planning + long odds. /bad-feeling-creeping-up-on-me… Yah can’t really ballot yet since I don’t know how the 1102s slots will change. Maybe do it on sunday or monday, depending when the list is updated.

p.s. gg to my potential time-table. gotta endure it for 11 weeks I guess. Madness….