Module Reviews For Year 1, Semester 1 (AY2015/2016)

Now that results are out, I think I might be a bit more suitable to do a module review for people out there who are curious and may have to choose these modules. I did quite okay for this semester but I will not publish my results. Please read if you want to get some information but do that it with a pinch of salt as different people have different abilities and I might not be representative of the cohort. If you want to read just about the finals, go to this post as this module review post is pretty lengthy. On a side note, even though some papers like CS1010E might allow graphing calculators (GC), do buy a scientific calculator as all mechanical engineering modules cannot use GC other than the 2 math mods (MA1505 and MA1506).

Check out my other module reviews:
Year 1 Sem 2
Year 2 Sem 1
Year 2 Sem 2
Year 3 Sem 1

Modules taken:

PC1431 Physics IE:

Difficulty: 3/10 (Manageable) (at least for me)

This module is sort of an extension of "A" Levels physics. We learn about kinematics, Newton's Laws, Energy, Momentum, Rotational motion of rigid bodies and thermodynamics. If you still remember your jc stuff, good for you as you can build on the knowledge. Which was what I did. What my professor said was true, the first half of the semester, the module is okay, manageable, but the learning curve increases after your mid terms where the rotational motion of rigid bodies and thermodynamics come in. As they are new concepts, the fast paced university life might catch slow learners off guard. However, practise is important and it will certainly help you to understand.

Module breakdown:
Online quiz: 10%
Labs: 10% (5% + 5%)
Mid term: 20%
Finals: 60%

Lectures:
My lecturer went through the topics slower than the other professors and I heard some professors do live demonstrations of some experiments which mine did not have. However, I still find that mine explains the topics very well and is good. There is no webcast for any of the lecture groups. So please do attend all lectures even though some might be at 8am.

Tutorials:
Tutorials occur once every 2 weeks. I believe the tutorials are insufficient but at least the tutor is good and she explains very clearly to me. The tutors help us do the past year final exam papers which makes up for the lack of tutorials. Tutorials are not graded but it is good to go.

Labs:
There are 2 lab sessions of which one is on the principle of conservation of linear momentum and the other is on the heat engine. Lab sessions are 3 hours which you will have to finish your experiment and collect the data. I am not sure if all lab reports can be submitted by the next day, but mine was able to do so which allow us to concentrate of conducting the experiment and the writing of lab report can be postponed to be done at home or outside of the lab session. The lab assistant will come and ask you questions for your understanding of the topic which is also part of the marks for labs, so be prepared before your lab sessions.

Online Quiz:
There are hints for the online quizzes but there is a penalty for every hint. Marks will be deducted for every mistake made too and up to 5 mistakes can be made before a 0 is awarded as your marks. Thus, it is usually better if you gather your friends and do with one another to ensure that you will get more marks.

Midterms:
The mid term paper is 20 MCQs. The difficulty is medium. Plan your time well as some questions are pretty tricky and tough

Finals:
6 short answer questions and 3 long answer questions. Difficulty is medium. Finals will not be easy. Ensure you have enough practice and have of good understanding of the topics tested.


CS1010E Programming Methodology:

Difficulty: 8/10

This module is programming in C language. If you have not touched any programming before, it will be hell. The learning curve is steep. However, if you have programming background, this module will be a breeze. difficulty level of 0/10. I always thought the E for the module means either for engineering students or it just means easy, as the one without E seems harder. That is not true. I had a bit programming background but I did not go through proper training, I just followed Codeacademy for python but I forgot everything about Python already.

Module breakdown:
Labs: 20% (open book)
Tutorial participation: 5%
Practical assessment: 15% (closed book)
Mid term: 20% (closed book)
Final: 40% (closed book)

Lectures:
Our professor is an entertaining guy and keeps us engaged during the lecture. However, he had some course which caused a swap in lecturer for about half of the topics. The lectures became more boring and there is webcast for all the lectures. Even though the first lecturer said he will not upload any webcast, he did in the end but do go for your lectures.

Tutorials:
We engineering students are quite passive and the tutor was not able to get us to participate so he implemented a system where students will have to present their code for the tutorial questions for the tutorial participation marks. So for us we will be notified through email which questions we will have to present before hand so that we can prepare for the questions. My tutor told us to use ideone to present, but other tutors might want you to present your answers in MinGw.

Labs:
Our labs are guided by a lab assistant for my case it is a year 2 senior but he is knowledgeable and very helpful so I did not have to worry. We can ask him any questions and he will try his best to help us. The first lab is just a familiarisation lab session which is a free 2%. The subsequent lab sessions, they will choose the 2 best score out of 3 for 6% 3 times. Which means for example week 1, 2, 3 is one group, 4, 5, 6 will be another and so on. So within the group, they will choose the 2 best score and the best six scores will make up the 18%. I hope I did not confuse you.

Lab questions are in levels. Usually level 1 is the one which they want you to scanf user input values and maybe printf the values out. There are usually 5 levels and if you are good, you can just go straight to level 5 and submit. If you code pass the system and and manage to pass the hidden inputs that our professor adds in then you will get the score for level 5. Otherwise, they will choose the next best level which is usually your level 4. Thus, the strategy is to slowly build up your code by doing all the different levels to protect yourself from the unseen test cases. The good thing about our lab is that we are able to bring home our code and submit the codes by 2359 of that particular day. So we are not limited by the short 2 hours given.

Practical assessment:
Ours was pretty tough, it is the same format as the lab questions but in this case, you will be unable to ask your lab assistant or your friends for help. There is no internet connection in the computer lab also, so there is no chance of you googling for the answer. I was stuck at level 3/5 which I think was the average for the class. Do try to practise typing your code on Sunfire or even on MinGw so that you are used to the interface.

Mid term:
10 MCQ questions. The questions are very tedious and ours were about finding the pattern so we had to trace and spend a lot of time. To me, the mid term was manageable which might have made me complacent for my finals.

Finals:
10 MCQ question, 2 short answer questions and 2 open ended questions. According to our professor, the format changes every year as he likes to test different formats. For us, if you have read about me ranting about the finals on my previous post, so sorry, I will type it here again. The final paper is very very very tough. I left close to half the marks of the paper blank. It is not that I want to leave them blank, but I have really no idea how to do it, or even what to write. Looking back, even if I studied for this module, I might not be better off also. Good luck to you if you are taking this module. However, if you have programming experience, it should be a breeze.


GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning:

Difficulty: 3/10

This module is new and my batch is the pioneer batch. Many things are pretty vague and we did not know what was going on. Hopefully it will be improved with time. The hardest and the most consuming part of this module will be the project.

Module breakdown:
Tutorial participation: 10%
Onlne quiz: 5%
Group project: 30%
Mid term: 25%
Finals: 30%

Lectures:
There is not physical lecture. All lectures are online videos but they are downloadable. There are different lecturers for different topics, so you will have to get used to it. There will be slides and scripts which are downloadable to help in the understanding of the lectures.

Tutorials:
Tutorial is once every 2 weeks and you have to do and discuss during lessons. The tutor will use a random number generator to select a person in each group to present. Those groups are your group members for your project.

Online quiz:
The system will select the latest submitted answer for each quiz, so be careful not to accidentally press the quiz if you have already submitted. Quiz questions are tricky and sometimes the professors like to phrase the options in a certain way to make it harder to choose. Do select the most appropriate answer. As usual, you will be able to gather all your friends to help each other.

Group Project:
The project is really vague to us, we are supposed to submit an executive summary of 2 pages and a poster online and print it out for presentation. The project requirements are really vague and we took a few weeks to sort of understand what was actually required.


Mid terms:
14 MCQs. As there is sufficient time, do make use of the time to check through all your answers. The difficulty is fairly easy.


Finals:
24MCQs. As there is sufficient time, do make use of the time to check through all your answers. The difficulty is fairly easy. This paper is the only final paper for all the modules where I am able to walk out of the examination hall before the official end time. You might think that I am arrogant but it is true, many people walk out of the hall before me and it is certainly not due to the paper being overly difficult.


MA1505 Mathematics I:

Difficulty: 8/10

I have not touch math for a long time and after going through 2 years of army, I had not touch any math for close to 3 years. With a mouldy brain, it is hard to start to think and work on math problems. However, girls have an advantage here. One of my female friend can remember most of her jc stuff which are the fundamentals. For us, without the fundamentals, I struggled with this course.

Module breakdown:
Mid terms: 20%
Finals: 80%

Lectures:
Lectures are pretty boring. However, they are essential because I could not bring myself to watch the webcast lectures. All lectures are webcasted but it is still better to attend. I did not attend after the second half of the semester and I suffered terribly. I could not catch up at all and I did not understand what was going on. It took me a long time before I managed to be able to do some tutorial questions.

Tutorials:
Tutorial questions are usually doable until the last question which is really tough, most people go for tutorials just for the last question but many people just give it a miss as they can do the whole tutorial and do not require any help.

Mid terms:
10MCQs. I find it very tough. However, I heard many people score very well and the average was 7.03/10. So I guess I am the few who cannot do math. And...I still want to do engineering. How ironic, an engineer that cannot do math.

Finals:
8 long answer questions with 2 parts to each questions so it is as though there are 16 questions. I left quite a few questions blank, about 4 parts. As usual there are people who can do, so my assessment of this difficulty is tough, but it may not be true for the masses.


EG1109M Statics and Mechanics of Materials:
(I heard that this module will be removed soon and all future mechanical engineering students will take CE1109 or EG1109 (can't remember), hopefully this review will still be useful)

Diffculty: 9000+++/10 (OVER 9000!!!!)

To me, the difficulty is very high as it is a relatively new topic for me. The module is split into 2 parts, the statics part which is very close to the physics that we learn in junior college with some stuff added in but the mechanics part is entirely new.

Module breakdown:
Midterms: 10%
Finals: 50%
Project: 15%
Online quiz: 15%
Tutorial assignment: 10%

Lectures:
Statics: The lecture is very boring but you will still have to listen. However the good thing is, there is webcast so if you don't understand or you missed it, you can always review the videos.
Mechanics: The lecture is more interactive and the lecturer is strict. Because of that, sometimes the lectures may drag and be prepared to go for extra lectures or lectures with extended periods. There is NO webcast for these lectures. If you miss it, you die. Lecture notes have to be bought and there is no soft copy.

Tutorials:
For our batch, there are only 4 tutorials which I think is insufficient for this relatively new topic for us. Be expected to submit one of the tutorial question as a graded assignment. For all questions in this module, Free Body Diagram is a must.

Online Quiz:
There were hints provided and there is no penalty for using them. For the first few assignments, the hints were like answers but with different values. If you have no idea how to do, just follow the steps and change the values, and the answer will be correct. However, the last few assignments had hints but were not comprehensive. In the end, you have to refer to your notes and get used to doing those questions before you can solve. The good thing about these questions is you can check your answer with the system and not get any marks deducted. The system also takes the best score (or the latest score, I cannot remember). As with all online quizzes, you can always ask your friend to help you.

Project:
The project is about how you design a bridge based on the given requirements. This requires you to submit a written report of maximum 20 pages and a presentation. I would suggest you to work on it earlier as many of us forgot about it and did it last minute which causes our grades to suffer.

Midterms:
2 open ended questions. Difficulty is tough. Our teaching assistant marked our paper leniently but it is subjective, so do not depend on this. Make sure you study hard for it and expect the unexpected. Even though it is of a small percentage to your overall score, make sure your foundation is good so that you will suffer less. The paper is not easy to me but as usual, there will always be people who do well and get full marks.

Finals:
4 open ended questions and all are compulsory. Difficulty is tough. I was told previously if you can ensure that you get at least 2 questions full marks, you will get good grades. How true is that? I am not sure as I did not know how to do the questions. For my year, the questions were more doable but the lack of understanding did not help me to do well for this module. So, work hard!

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Please do try them and if they are good, do support by using them more often!

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas, but my family and I don't celebrate Christmas, so no presents for me. However, I hope everyone will enjoy today and receive many presents!

School term is going to start soon and I seem to dread going back to the hectic life. Everyday will be tiring and sleep will always be insufficient. It will be back to the days of spending money, time and energy. What to do? We have to work hard for our degree so that we will earn more in the future, to pay off our debt. Kind of ironic huh, borrow money to study hard just to earn more money to pay off the debt. However, in the long run, such an investment will be worth it (hopefully).

With this new government initiative of Smart Nation, with the rise of technological start ups, the Internet of Things and BILLION dollar technology firms like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, computer science seems to be the craze. In Singapore, it is hard to find such globalised firms and software engineers might not be able to demand wages that are comparable to those in the United States. However, with a rising demand for programmers, I think their pay should increase. The government seem to be encouraging more programming lessons for the youths and in the future, my job security might be weaken as I will lack basic programming skills. In order to not lose out to these people, National University of Singapore forces all engineers to take at least a programming module and mine was CS1010E Programming Methodology which is C language. However, I have no idea how to apply this knowledge and I am curious as to which programming language will benefit or even complement the skills that a Mechanical Engineer will have in the future. Is it Python? Java? C++? No idea, hopefully there will be a kind soul who can advise me on this.

The current trend of the world seems to be electronics and many things require computer. Computer scientist, computer engineers and electrical engineers will be able to ride on this trend, what about mechanical engineers? I always hear that the world will always require mechanical engineers, but I always wonder if they will be in high demand, will they be cherished, will they be respected? These are things to ponder. You may wonder why don't I choose those courses? I have explained it in my previous post.

Holiday Period a.k.a Spending Period

As you all know, I like to stay at home and lead the life of a recluse, but this is a festive season and there is a need to go out of my house. Chinese New Year, is a celebration where relatives gather or we pay a visit to our relatives houses in our new clothings. So, going along with traditions, I have to go out to spend money, time and energy on trying out new clothes and squeezing with random people. How troublesome. Luckily, most of the shopping were settled on Sunday and I do not have to continue with this until the same period next year.

I wonder why some people like shopping, is it because of the air condition? The 'scenery'? I have no idea, I just don't like the feeling of squeezing with people, being in a crowd is bad. Going out seeps my energy.

Now that I think about it, did I say I will exercise during this holiday period? How amusing, I didn't know I am so humourous. I think nothing can really force me to exercise other than the army. So I should be exercising next year before my fitness test a.k.a Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT).

However, people reading this, please don't be a lazy person like me. You have to work hard and exercise!

Monthly Expenses in National University of Singapore (NUS)

Since I am currently saving money, I think it will be good to have a budget or at least something to remind me not to overspend.

I am assuming a month has 4 weeks and has 22 working days. This spending is for my Year 1 Semester 1 as different semesters will have different timetable and will affect my spending.

CCA - Co-curriculum activity (which also means activities that occur outside of studies and is something that we chose to do)

MRT concession - $45.00
Bus rides - $1.00 * 8 (about 2 times every week due to my CCA ending late at night                                          and the shuttle bus frequency is very low)
Daily coffee - $0.70 * 22
Lunch meals - $4.00 * 22 (the prices vary but $4 is about the average)
Dinner meals - $4.00 * 8 (I stay back for about 2 times a month for CCA)

Total - $188.40

Total budget required - $250

However, due to unexpected spendings, like staying back for projects or going back to school for projects, the expected spending is actually higher. Hence, I will give myself a budget of $250. All these does not include the cost of socialising with friends and anything. Actually, I try to avoid too much socialising too as I have budget constraints and the lack of time also due to CCA. However, this budget is not representative of the cohort as many people do not require to save and might spend more freely.

This budget certainly differs from the people who stay in campus as the accommodation fees are exorbitant. Thus, please that this budget with a pinch of salt, or can be used as a reference for the base or minimum spending required which studying in Singapore and specifically for NUS.

I will like to promote my friend's app from DanbooruWorks as the downloads are quite pathetic. The apps are:
Prix - CompareFirst is not just another shopping app!
PriceText – Price searching and comparing made easier

Please do try them and if they are good, do support by using them more often!

Anime that I am watching

This season, the hype is all about One Punch Man and yes, I was also caught in the hype due to GIFs on 9gag that made me interested. There are some anime which I prefer to wait and finish them once the season ends like Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blodded Orphans and Noragami Aragoto which is season 2 of Noragami.

Next season, which is Winter 2016, I am looking forward to Gate: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri and Assassination Classroom. The anime, Gate, was introduced to me by 9gag. It is also due to an interesting GIF that I saw which made me interested. I liked these type of military anime, so I will not miss this anime when it is out.

As for reviews of anime, I won't do it as I realise I am not someone who is very particular. I do not pay attention to many small details. My friend notices the art, how the drawing might differ, the colour, the OST and etc. All I bothered was whether it interest me and if it can keep me craving for more episodes. What constitutes those feelings? I have no idea either. Hence, I think I am not really qualified to give reviews and rate anime but if I become better in the future, I might try.

Investment Items

Being a student with a debt of about 52.2k is no joke but I will be using some of that money for my investments. What investments have I been making? I adopt the dollar cost averaging method where I will spend a certain amount of money every month to buy some shares regardless of the share price. This is a good way to lower down my cost and to prevent myself from trying to time the market. Whether it works or not will be known at least 40 years later when I retire. Currently, as a poor and heavily indebted student, the amount of money spent per month is very low. I shall not talk about how low is low but it does not really matter. So what do I buy? I buy shares of Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), go google it and you will see many information about it. What exactly do I buy?

iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF | IWDA (LSE)
This ETF tracks the index and to me, it is a good exposure to developed markets.

SPDR Straits Times Index ETF | ES3 (SGX)
This ETF tracks the index and it is to gain exposure to my home market, which is Singapore.

ABF SINGAPORE BOND INDEX FUND | A35 (SGX)
This ETF tracks a basket of high-quality bonds issued primarily by the Singapore government and quasi-Singapore government entities, and it is good to have a balance of stocks and bonds in my portfolio.

For local SGX stock purchase: Standard Chartered (I believe Maybank offers something cheaper)
Minimum commision SGD10 or 0.20% whichever is higher

For overseas stock purchase: Interactive Brokers (IBKR) due to their low commissions. 
However, do note that the Interactive Brokers require a minimum of USD 3k to open account for age 25 years old and below and will have a mimum monthly fee of USD 3. If transaction cost for the month is above USD 3, that amount will be charged and no additional USD 3 will be incurred.
Above 25 years old, USD 10k is required to open account and minimum monthly fee of USD10. If transaction cost for the month is above USD 10, that amount will be charged and no additional USD 10 will be incurred.
Monrhly fees will be waived when your total assets held under IBKR is above USD100k.

Sadly, IBKR cannot be used to trade in SGX for Singapore due to unknown reasons. Else, I will be using IBKR for all my transactions.

I don't encourage anyone to follow blindly and I and no expert in this field. I am just typing out what I am currently buying and I judge based on my own personal risk appetite. Follow at your own risk and I am not liable to any losses.

Being an introvert or even becoming a recluse

First of all, I would like to say, as much as I would try not to have a life of a recluse, I seem to be going towards that way. If not for my commitments in NUS, I think I will be stuck at home rotting away. However, have we considered whether living the life that is close to a recluse has its benefits?

Based on an article from The Straits Times, it is said that on average, people spend $2,600 unknowingly in a year. That might not seem a lot but it is. The few reasons cited are: shopping, dining and etc. So being a recluse that is stuck at home is more likely to be not tempted by these as one will be at home. While it can be argued that online shopping and the advertisements that try to entice people are present online, but I feel that the effect is less.

As a heavily indebted student and a person who does not like to go out as it seems to sap energy rapidly, these help me to control my spending very much. However, whenever I have to go to school, I will spend money on a cup of coffee in order to keep myself awake. I do search for the cheapest coffee I can find that is convenient. People might ask, why not buy those coffee packets so that it is cheaper. I would like to have that but coffee seems to induce movements of the bowels and given that my travelling time spent on the MRT is about 1.5h, it is safer to only consume the coffee once i reach my destination, which is usually NUS.

While it is true that a lot of our spendings are covered by our parents, since kids like us in Singapore are pretty sheltered and will not move out of the house like our peers in the Western who fend for themselves at the age of 18, I must admit that being outside and especially with friends, we will tend to go to more fanciful and certainly more expensive restaurants or cafe to dine. Hence, being at home does have its benefits. However, I certainly do not advocate one to stay at home at all times, it is desirable to go out to meet with your friends and enjoy some quality time with them but it will help to save some money if you try to go out less. Less will be spent on travelling and food.

Being a recluse has its benefits and we should not look down on hikkikomoris. However, such behaviour is not to be encouraged if we think in terms of the country. The government will not like to have many recluse as it will affect spending, jobs maybe even marriage and etc. So recluses who are reading this, please go out once in a while to soak some sunlight too. I am directing this to myself too.

Investment

I have only started investing and adopting the dollar cost averaging approach in July this year. This strategy is to use a certain sum of money to buy a number of shares at a certain price at a fixed interval. It helps to lower the cost of the shares over time and helps people who are busy to just buy and sort of forget. This is for my future retirement which is currently set at the age of 65 but might be 75 by the time I retire. Sometimes I dread the feeling of buying the shares as it seemed like I am spending those money away. Most people, including me, are short sighted, not stricken with myopia, even though I am, but being only able to consider short term gains. A lot of us are unable to resist the short term temptations that are right in front of us. For example, we might want to get a better phone or a tablet but do not have sufficient money due to our investment strategy. I know it is extreme but I do think that those are a waste of money currently as I am still studying and do not have an income.

Seeing my bank account depleting every month really pains me and makes me envious of the richer people who are out there having fun, spending money freely. As on Instagram or Facebook, I saw many people travelling overseas for holidays feeling happy. Or many people have the money and option to go overseas for exchange and they spend most of their time there travelling around, exploring new places and trying new things. It must be nice to be rich, but I will not blame anyone for not being as rich as them. What I believe is that those people will spur me on to save harder and hopefully have more money to invest. With the savings, I will be able to travel around and maybe spend more freely. With this, I hope everyone has a goal in their mind and work towards it. I will not recommend anyone to follow my investment strategy and I hope you will read up more about different investment strategies, explore before adopting one that is suitable for you.

Do plan for your future!

Time Flies

Looking back, 4 months have passed and it seemed so fast but 4 months in army felt so long. Even though university life is so packed and we are tired almost everyday. This experience is similar to the life in army except that we have more freedom. Is it because we enjoy university life more? Do I actually enjoy the life of studying? Or is it because I get to slack more in university, where I have the freedom to just sleep during lectures and stuff, knowing that it is my future that will be affect? I dun have an answer for all these questions but it is good to keep in mind.

Sleep Inducing Weather

I think many people have experienced this before. When the weather is too hot, it seems like your brains are fried, eyes strained, you just can't work and be productive causing you to feel like sleeping. However, when it rains, the cooling weather makes it very pleasant for you to sleep. Many it is just me being lazy and using the weather as an excuse to slack and lie in bed but aren't those weather nice to sleep? Ok, hot weathers are a pain to sleep as you will perspire while sleeping and makes it feel unbearable but to me, there is nothing else that is worth doing. Sleeping is the best option.

How do you feel about such weathers?

Post Exam Talk

Now that exams are over, I should give some comment on how I feel about the modules I took for Mechanical Engineering Year 1 Semester 1. I took quantitative analysis (GER1000), Mathematics 1 (MA1505), Physics IE (PC1431), Programming Methodology (CS1010E) and Statics and Mechanics of materials (EG1109M). I will not be giving a review of these modules as I am too lazy to do so unless someone requests for it I made a module review, explanation is given at the P.S. However, what I would like to type is how I feel about the modules overall, ESPECIALLY THE EXAM.

GER1000:
This module's exam was my first exam in my university life. After going through the exam, even though the questions are tricky, I feel that it is manageable as compared to the other exams.

MA1505:
For this module, I couldn't catch up with the syllabus at all. It may be that I am stupid or I am just slower than the rest in learning, but I found that the exams are really tough. I left about 3-4 questions (5marks each) blank. That paper is over 80 marks. Those are only the questions that I left blank, I didn't consider the ones that I skipped halfway through as I didn't know how to do or felt that I had to at least write something for other questions.

PC1431:
The exam for this module was tough too. I can't remember the number of blanks I left but it is ok. Sometimes, memories are lost due to traumatic experiences. I believe the brain erased the memory to protect me.

CS1010E:
THIS PAPER WAS THE WORST. IT IS TOO DIFFICULT. Out of 40 marks, 15 marks were left blank. BLANK. Initially, I thought that if the exam is not too bad, I might consider taking another programming module as one of the unrestricted elective module. However, after this exam, I guess I am not suitable for it.

EG1109M:
Despite how difficult it is to understand this module, as many concepts were very new, the exam paper seems doable. It made me doubt myself while I was doing the paper. However, life is not always rosy, I was stunned by the first question. It looked simple, but I just couldn't do.

To conclude, I guess I was arrogant, over confident and lazy. After going through these exams, I realised why people said that university is really tough. I have really underestimated the difficulty of the exams. What to do? All I can do now I hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Who would like to redo their mods? I guess nobody likes it. But doesn't matter, it is over. I feel like I am complaining and whining like a little kid, but please bear with me, so sorry.

I shall quote from Saitama (main character of One Punch Man), "I shall leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me." The sentence structure doesn't seem correct, but it is ok, as long as you can get it, it is fine.

P.S. I realised that maybe a module review will be beneficial for people out there who are going to take these modules, so I made a review.

I will like to promote my friend's app from DanbooruWorks as the downloads are quite pathetic. The apps are:
Prix - CompareFirst is not just another shopping app!
PriceText – Price searching and comparing made easier

Please do try them and if they are good, do support by using them more often!

Feeling Old

Many people have their physical abilities peak at about the age of 25 but I wonder what was mine. Why do I have that thought? It seems like I am always tired everyday. Might be my sleeping pattern, diet or my lack of exercise. However, I wonder how many people experience this too. Being tired everyday, it seems like I am old already. I just started my university after 2 years of army life, is it because of army that it made me feel like I have aged a lot? I wonder...

Exam Effect

Now that examinations are over, it is time to discuss what happened during study breaks. My friends and I agreed on this thing called the exam effect, I don't know the exact scientific term, but let's just call it the exam effect. As the name suggest, it seem to only occur during the period before exams and subside once exams are over. So what is this effect about? It was discovered during my "A" Level study break. Anime, mangas, games, movies, everything and anything that is not related to studies seemed way more interesting than studying. I am sure many people experienced this too. This was confirmed during my study break for university too as the same effect took place. The surprising thing is that once after exams, there is really no urge to do these leisure activities anymore. Currently, I seem to lose interest in watching my anime and I have no idea what to do during this short break before school starts. It is certainly nice to take a break but I just can't stand the fact that the animes that I loved to watch during the exam period, didn't appeal to me currently.

This effect is certainly detrimental to my grades and I have no idea and no way to overcome it, my guess is my self discipline is way too low. If I were to be able to resist in conducting these leisure activities, all these pent up demand will certainly explode after exams and I believe that anime and etc will be very enjoyable to watch. Does anyone also feel the same way?

School Life

I think it might seem boring that I keep typing about school life, but what to do? I have no other life. Even if i were to be free, I will be spending my leisure time staying at home reading manga, some light novels and watching anime. However, university has mainly reduced my leisure time. I know that school is coming to an end, which also means that exams are coming in 14 days, but I am just able to get rid of the laziness. Being at home makes me feel like slacking, but going out to study will also mean that I will have to spend the money on transport and food, and also waste time travelling. Even though walking is my only exercise, I pretty to lie in bed doing nothing.

Currently, I am reading Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei. Although I have watched the anime, I feel that anime tends to cut a lot of details and sometimes I prefer anime is because I cannot visualise the fight scenes or the light novel/manga has not been translated. Being a lazy person, I can't be bothered to learn Japanese.  Reading Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei makes me look back at myself.

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS ALERT*

It makes me think back about why I chose to study Engineering. What are my dreams? What have I done to work towards them? What are my talents? Do I even know my strengths and weaknesses? Then I also realised that as a normal Singaporean, we like to compare with others and are afraid of losing to others. I admit I have the tendency to do that too but I would like to convince myself that if I tried my best, I shouldn't compare with others. Everyone works hard, but different people have different learning ability, so we should not compare. However, I am unable to convince myself as I am lazy and hard do my work, I can't really blame anyone when I don't do well. Who wouldn't want to do well? When I don't do well, I will feel demoralised but I don't change my ways. I wonder how long more or how many more set backs will it take for me to actually start working hard...

Sometimes, don't we all wish we are some over powered main character of our own life? And not some minor character or even an invisible passer-by?

Always Tired

We usually see memes on the internet about how people are confident that they will be able to wake up for their 8am or even 9am lectures. I also wondered, how hard can that be? However, after experiencing university life for about 11 weeks, I realized that I still cannot get used to waking up early in the morning and commute for more than 1.5h to school to attend that 8am lecture or 9am tutorial. It is really quite difficult. I realized what exactly was the problem. Most, if not all, activities only start after 6pm where it is certain that most people will be available to join the activities. If you do not live in school, after attending CCAs, it might end at about 9+ 10+. By the time you each home, it will be close to 12. After bathing and other things that you have to do, the earliest you can sleep is only at 1am. Imagine waking up at 5+ next morning just for the 8am lecture. HAHA quite impossible. It is no wonder why i keep sleeping during lectures. You might say that I should be mentally prepared to have a lack of time if I join CCA. Yes I am prepared but it seems that my body and my eyes just cannot get used to it. Hence, I am always tired.

Reflection

Sometimes I like to ask myself, why did I choose Engineering, especially Mechanical Engineering. It is a sunset industry in Singapore. Many people advised me not to study Engineering as it is really tough and there is not much demand out there. They are speaking from experience, but is there anything else that interest me?

Dreams...What are my dreams? When we were young, we have some crazy dreams. "I want to be a pilot when I grow up." "Flying an aeroplane, especially a fighter jet looks so cool." Then I was exposed to anime and especially gundams. Flying machines everywhere shooting beams and stuff. Cool!!! I want to make these machines in the future for fun! Or if I were good enough, I might want to even pilot them. However, being the lazy me, I have never tinkered with anything. I like to tell myself that I will do so in the future, but the future never arrives. I am lazy, a person who only likes to boast but with no actions taken. People ask me, if you want to do these in the future, have you tried building anything? Have you opened up devices to see how things work? Do you think you are able to build your machines alone? Somehow nobody seem to actually crush my dream by saying it is impossible to build, they will say it will not happen as there is no need for it as everything is autonomous and we are in the age of stealth. Will I continue to dream? Or will my dream be shattered by myself? Or will I do something about it? Only time will tell....

Why Engineering? Specifically Mechanical Engineering

I like to ask people why they study a specific course, I wanted to see how they came to the conclusion, is it a similar method that I used? I will always explain after that why I chose to study Engineering, and specifically Mechanical Engineering.

During my junior college life, I am just your average student who took the standard combination of PCME, aka Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Economics. This combination is the most common one and usually people who don't know what they want to study in the future, they will choose this combination. Why? As it is the combination that can allow you to go anywhere, to get to any course that you want, provided you do well and get very good results. I already knew I am not an essay writing person due to my lousy command of both languages. However, it was during my 'A' level economics examination that confirmed my choice. I told myself that I did not want to write any more essays. Hence using the method of elimination, I have eliminated courses like Accountancy, Business Administration and all the Arts and Social Sciences. I did not even consider things like medicine and law as I did not have interest and actually to be honest, I am not smart enough either, so there is no point considering. My choices are left with Science, Engineering and Computing. I did not see much hope in studying Science as my impression of studying Science will lead you to only two paths - if you are very good, you will be a researcher/scientist, if you are just average, you will end up being a teacher. Knowing my own abilities, and that I cannot teach for nuts, Science is out. There is another point actually, I believe that Science seems way too specialized. Leaving with Engineering and Computing, I did not like Chemistry and Biology, so those 2 engineering courses are struck off. It is mainly down to Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. I find it hard to learn programming and it does not seem to suit me. Seeing how I struggled a lot for circuits during my younger days, I chose Mechanical Engineering.

University Life

It has been sometime since I last blogged as I was busy with university. Life in university is really different. I always heard people saying that the stress level every semester is like "A" Levels again. Initially, I didn't believe them. I guess I was arrogant and didn't know the true horrors of university. "A" Levels again? It is really an understatement. I have no idea if it is because of me not studying for close to 3 years and I am not used to studying or university is just SUPER FAST PACED. Once you cannot get a concept in one chapter, you are basically dead. All the doubts will start to pile up and snowball. Hopefully it is just a thing that I am still not used to but I have to adapt.

In university, I heard someone saying "university is like the hunger games of academia". I guess it is very true, especially in the grade obsessed culture of Singapore. I agree I have that mindset too, where grades matters. However, I believe many people will agree with me that being able to have a comfortable pace of learning and being able to learn what we like will be ideal. Reality is so much different, grades do matter especially if you want to graduate and find a job quickly with better pay than the rest.

I guess I have to go back to studying again. The never-ending projects and tutorials will continue to reduce my sleep but I believe everyone is going through the same process and will have to compromise on things. For me, I think I will have to compromise on sleep. How long will I be able to keep this up? I wonder...

Reading Magazines

In junior college, we always hear how our general paper is very difficult to score. The need for examples for our essays is very high and one way to do it is to read newspaper daily. Then, people come to recommend Time and Economist magazines as a good way to broaden our perspective and to know more about the current affairs. Being the typical kiasu (scared to lose) Singapore, I subscribed to 3 years of Economist and 2 years of Time magazine. I thought just 2 magazines per week, how hard can it be to read? I have never been so wrong.

Time magazine is shorter and easier to read than the Economist. It is less content heavy which allows me to finish reading it quickly. However, I just could not finish the Economist magazine fast enough and slowly, the new issues stack up. Even after trying my best, I managed to keep up to 8 new issues unread. Actually, I was quite thankful that i applied for the Economist magazine. It made me realize how small Singapore is and that there are many things that are going on around the world that I might not know. There is hardly any article on Singapore but it made me very interest to know about current affairs to the extent that it is not for my GP anymore, it is about gaining more knowledge.

I was given the chance to subscribe to the economist during my NS. This time the average cost of the magazine is not the manageable $2-$3. It is $5+. After much consideration, I chose to extent my subscription, but I am starting to regret now. $5 is a lot to me and for a magazine that I only read once, I really do think that it is not worth it. I will not have the time to read the magazines in the future too. I guess it will become a burden and the $5 will really be wasted. I will just have to get my news from other sites which are free. However, I do recommend people to read Economist if they have the chance to try, it will not be easy as it is really very content heavy.

Telling people that I reading magazines makes them assume that I read tabloid magazines or health magazines. However, when I tell them that I read the Economist, they will give me the disgusted look, name calling like nerd and etc. It does not affect me, I am okay with it. As long as I have the time to read the Economist, I think it is good enough.

Motivation to exercise

How do people actually get the motivation to exercise? It is really hard to me to get out of my house and go down for a run. It just...saps all my energy thinking about it. However, I will still need to exercise due to IPPT. Failure will mean more remedial training which equates to more exercising. Is there any short cut to boost my stamina and strength? I guess not, hopefully I will think of a good way to motivate myself to train.

Anyone has a good way to motivate yourself to exercise? The IPPT monetary incentive and RT do not seem to work on me. Keeping fit and slim is another motivation, but I am just too lazy, I guess personal image is not that important anymore. Any suggestions?

Cost of learning to drive in Singapore?

My parents sort of 'forced' me to get my driver license as soon as possible as it is a life skill that every man should have. I also find it convenient but it is quite to pain to actually concentrate on the road and cars are so expensive in Singapore, is it even worth learning how to drive?

After my NS, there isn't a better time to learn driving before university starts. I am always hoping that firms like Google or other big car firms will actually commercialize autonomous cars as soon as possible. This will make driving license redundant and I will not have to go through the painful process of slowly learning and putting my life and others' lives in danger because of my driving. However, someone told me that even if autonomous cars are rolled out, qualified drivers might still be needed as autonomous are not as reliable yet and the law might require drivers to actually have a driving license to use the cars. So that spurred me to actually learn driving. There are two choices in learning driving, do I learn in driving school? Or do I learn from private instructors? Auto or Manual?

From what I heard, learning in school is very expensive. Just the theory lessons and test cost a bit more than a $100! Of course I chose the 'private' way which is cheaper and rely on the books that is available. As for practical lessons, we have heard stories from both sides.

School:

1. The instructors will keep changing, if you want a certain instructor, you will have to pay more.

2. The cars that you use will be different. It is hard for learners, especially those learning manual to get used to the paddles, turning radius of the cars and etc, which may result in more lessons required.

3. Lessons are way more expensive than private. About $60 for weekdays and $70 for weekends. (Correct me if I am wrong)

4. They are more reliable as seen in statistics where the passing rate is higher.

Private:

1. Have to get recommendation from friends or people whom you know so that you will avoid the ones that don't suit you.

2. The car that you use will always be the same as it is the instructor's car.

3. Price of lessons differ depending on instructors, from what I heard some charge very low but the ones I knew was $45 for weekdays and $50 for weekends.

4. In order to go to the circuit to drive, private students have to pay $30 more.

After all these, I chose private since it is cheaper and I will not have to adapt to the different cars.

So what is the total cost of my driving license?

Theory:

- BTT + etrial test : $16.70

- FTT + etrial test : $16.70

PDL: 2 * $25 (I applied Provisional driving licence (PDL) too early, after my BTT but I only started driving after my FTT)

Registration + deposit: $100

Weekday lessons (4): 3 * $45 + $48 (the rate increase towards the end)

Weekend lessons (20): 20 * $50

Circuit: 5 * $30

Warm up: $48

Test + circuit: $20.90 +$15

Insurance for car during test: $270

License: $50

Total: $1864.30!

That is not inclusive of my bus fare to and fro. Hence the actual cost should be close to $1.9k. Luckily I managed to pass on my first try, otherwise there might be a need for 3 extra weekend lessons and the exorbitant cost during the test day itself. It should be about another $600+ for every failure. The cost of my driving license can actually be lowered if I chose an instructor that charges less, go for less lessons or even cramp my lessons so that I will not incur the extra PDL renewal cost. However, that might not allow me to pass on the first try so I have no regret and hope that people who are going to learn driving in Singapore, be prepared to lose at least $2000.

Driving is still very tiring for me, so I am hoping that technology will advance quickly to allow my wish of having autonomous cars in Singapore ASAP so that I can continue to be lazy. THE AUTONOMOUS CAR HAS TO BE CHEAP ALSO. Currently cars are really a waste of money for the average people. 

Recent Interest In Passive Investment

My life has been pretty smooth sailing until the time when I went for my National Service. My parents have been brainwashing me with examples of the friends having no burden as their children are good enough to get scholarship and fund their own studies. Examples of rich people who retired and have no income but yet their children still live off them. Hence, their point is to ask me to get a scholarship and give them money when I start earning money. 

During my NS life, I adhered to their advise; I gave them and my grandmother a total of $250 which increased to $320 when my rank was increased. I tried to spend my weekends with them and also with my friends. However, it took me a long time before I realised that my bank account was stagnant. It dawned on me that I actually do not have much savings. What about university? Do I have the money? Then my friend talked to me about POSB Invest Saver about how the dividends will beat the savings account interest rate. I didn't pay much attention to it initially until towards my ORD when I heard more people talking about how they did investments and earned from it.

I started reading up a bit on passive investment. Being the lazy and risk adverse me, in the form of  'gambling', which is speculative investment, I believe that passive investment is the way to go for me. I would not have to spend a lot of time staring at the computer screen and timing the market, or even read all the different financial reports of different firms. Luckily I have a friend that is interested in investment for retirement and we shared our knowledge which really helped us to cover some blind spots that we might have missed.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT ADVOCATE PASSIVE INVESTMENT. ANY FORM OF INVESTMENT HAS TO BE DONE ON YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS.

Introduction Of My Blog

This is just a random blog for me to record my life. It seems that I have forgot pretty much of my life that happened before I was even 12 years old. Hopefully this will help me to remember more of my life before I start to forget even more.

I am a person who is very lazy as you can see from my blog skin, I am too lazy to even change it. However, if I have the sudden motivation to learn, you will see changes.