I'm on exchange at Boston University this semester, and keeping to the tradition of doing module reviews every semester, I shall do one for BU as well!
If you have any questions, email them to atqhteo@gmail.com, or leave a comment below (email preferred).
The courses covered in this post (people in US call it 'course' instead of 'module'):
PS234/NE234 - Psychology of Learning
PS251 - Psychology of Personality
PS354 - Psychology and Criminal Justice
PH221 - Philosophy of Sport
Thursday 27 December 2012
Saturday 22 December 2012
Adventures in USA - Final Day
I'm at the airport now, munching on a grilled cheese sandwich and sipping my iced tea. I still have 2 hours before I have to enter the boarding area, so that's a lot of time to think and reflect lulz.
I'm still in a state of denial that I'm leaving. I can't believe I'm actually over and done with this chapter of my life. If I close my eyes I can still remember vividly the scene on the day I left Singapore, with all my loved ones at the airport sending me off, and my gf all teary-eyed, wrapped up in my arms.
And when I open them I see myself seated in front of the departure gates of Logan International Airport, getting ready to leave this chapter of my life behind me.
A question I got a lot from my friends here in the past week was "Are you sad? (that you're leaving)" And every single time, my response had been "YES I am DAMN sad! I wish I could stay for another semester.. that would be perfect."
Indeed, I think one semester is too short. It's like, you just begin to get acculturalised; you just begin to form bonds with people here; you just begin to settle in to the weather - and then you have to leave. And then you have to re-calibrate yourself back to your home country, and forget every fixed action pattern you have acquired in the previous 4 months. And then you have to accept the fact that you will not be seeing some friends for a very, very long time. Some probably never again.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="403"]
Two dear American friends[/caption]
In the past week I met up with all those that mattered. I had meals with the friends I had made here, hung out and played cards, taboo, etc. And when the time came to say goodbye, I gave them the best hug I had to bid farewell. I wasn't too emotional, though I had a heavy heart. I was nowhere close to tears at any point of time of any goodbye, but my heart was making a frowny face.
My friends in Singapore were like, hey, look forward to meeting us! Don't be so sad! But I don't think they understand (besides bestie, who has gone for exchange as well and gone through the same thing). Emotions do not balance like an equation. Increasing positive emotions do not counterbalance and hence eliminate negative emotions. While I can look forward to meeting my loved ones again, it does not take anything away from the sadness of leaving my friends here.
I do look forward to seeing my gf again though. The sight of her suddenly breaking down and sobbing when I left will always be etched in the tablets of my memories. And then again just before I went through the departure gates. It made me realize how important I was to her. It wasn't that I didn't know before, it is more of it accentuated the point. It put it in the spotlight and highlighted it and screamed out at me to treasure what I had, that many desire. To have someone love you like that, it's truly a blessing.
When I see her again, I know exactly what I will do. My arms will invite her in, and she will fall into me and I will hold her. I will hold her with such conviction that she'll know how long I've waited to do that, how much I will hold on to her and not let go, how much I've missed having her in my arms. I can imagine how my body would relax and my heart would sigh as I bury my head in the nook of her neck and let her smell wash over me. I would embrace the feeling of comfort and familiarity that she brings.
Before all that. Before I get back to the harsh, humid, hot reality of Singapore, I still have a long journey. My flight to New York is at 3PM, and my flight from New York to Singapore is at 11pm. That's another 7 or so hours of waiting. I will make another blog entry then I think. And then it's a 12.5 hour flight to Dubai, a FOUR hour stopover, and then a 7 hour flight back to SG. So, it's another 33.5 hours before I return to Singapore. Holy shit that's long.
I'm still in a state of denial that I'm leaving. I can't believe I'm actually over and done with this chapter of my life. If I close my eyes I can still remember vividly the scene on the day I left Singapore, with all my loved ones at the airport sending me off, and my gf all teary-eyed, wrapped up in my arms.
And when I open them I see myself seated in front of the departure gates of Logan International Airport, getting ready to leave this chapter of my life behind me.
A question I got a lot from my friends here in the past week was "Are you sad? (that you're leaving)" And every single time, my response had been "YES I am DAMN sad! I wish I could stay for another semester.. that would be perfect."
Indeed, I think one semester is too short. It's like, you just begin to get acculturalised; you just begin to form bonds with people here; you just begin to settle in to the weather - and then you have to leave. And then you have to re-calibrate yourself back to your home country, and forget every fixed action pattern you have acquired in the previous 4 months. And then you have to accept the fact that you will not be seeing some friends for a very, very long time. Some probably never again.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="403"]
Two dear American friends[/caption]In the past week I met up with all those that mattered. I had meals with the friends I had made here, hung out and played cards, taboo, etc. And when the time came to say goodbye, I gave them the best hug I had to bid farewell. I wasn't too emotional, though I had a heavy heart. I was nowhere close to tears at any point of time of any goodbye, but my heart was making a frowny face.
My friends in Singapore were like, hey, look forward to meeting us! Don't be so sad! But I don't think they understand (besides bestie, who has gone for exchange as well and gone through the same thing). Emotions do not balance like an equation. Increasing positive emotions do not counterbalance and hence eliminate negative emotions. While I can look forward to meeting my loved ones again, it does not take anything away from the sadness of leaving my friends here.
I do look forward to seeing my gf again though. The sight of her suddenly breaking down and sobbing when I left will always be etched in the tablets of my memories. And then again just before I went through the departure gates. It made me realize how important I was to her. It wasn't that I didn't know before, it is more of it accentuated the point. It put it in the spotlight and highlighted it and screamed out at me to treasure what I had, that many desire. To have someone love you like that, it's truly a blessing.
When I see her again, I know exactly what I will do. My arms will invite her in, and she will fall into me and I will hold her. I will hold her with such conviction that she'll know how long I've waited to do that, how much I will hold on to her and not let go, how much I've missed having her in my arms. I can imagine how my body would relax and my heart would sigh as I bury my head in the nook of her neck and let her smell wash over me. I would embrace the feeling of comfort and familiarity that she brings.
Before all that. Before I get back to the harsh, humid, hot reality of Singapore, I still have a long journey. My flight to New York is at 3PM, and my flight from New York to Singapore is at 11pm. That's another 7 or so hours of waiting. I will make another blog entry then I think. And then it's a 12.5 hour flight to Dubai, a FOUR hour stopover, and then a 7 hour flight back to SG. So, it's another 33.5 hours before I return to Singapore. Holy shit that's long.
Saturday 15 December 2012
What am I doing in NUS?
This is going to be a rant about the disparities between BU’s and NUS’s academic standards. They may be a bit disjointed because I’m just going to type whatever comes to mind.
Recently I’ve been hanging out with some Singaporeans here at BU and listening in on their conversations about their academic planning. Many of them are talking about ‘overloading’ so as to graduate earlier. Makes perfect sense, since school fees are really high here ($40k per year, not including housing, food, etc). At the same time I scoff at it.
Why do I take issue with this? Well, in BU, the standard workload is 4 courses/modules per semester, versus the 5 modules in NUS. You would think that since there is one less per sem, the workload should be correspondingly heavier, right? No. It could be a poor snapshot of things, but from the courses I have taken this semester, the workload in one module here is LESS than one module in NUS. Considerably.
Let’s say I just got lucky and got the easy modules. Even if we overcompensate, the workload is going to be about the same as NUS, per module! Thus, when they ‘overload’ there, they are actually doing the standard NUS semester load of modules, and they get to graduate one YEAR earlier -_-
Are you kidding me?? One year?! That’s a LOT of time. I know for sure because this year, 2012, has been such a long and eventful year that I can’t even believe is only one year.
Back to the course/modules (I use these two terms interchangeably because they call it ‘courses’ in BU but ‘modules ‘ in NUS) issue. I find that some (not all) of the professors here are trying to help you get an A. Like they really try, and set the quizzes/tests really easy such that you don’t even have to study from the textbook, and I know one prof deliberately sets one or two questions from the TB as if to justify the existence of the TB in the syllabus.
I’m SO pissed by this. Like if you are not going to use the textbook much, DON’T include it in the syllabus?? I don’t know why I was so stupid to purchase all my textbooks and end up using less than 10% of them. So yes, I only had to study from the lecture notes for my exams. In NUS? Hell no. You have to memorize the bulk of the textbook for most of the core modules (can’t speak for other electives and lv4000 mods)
Further examples to show how chillax it is here – Two (out of 4) of my professors ended up not finishing the syllabus due to time constraints – and simply cut the material out of the exam. For example, if we were originally supposed to study chapter 1-10 for the finals, she only reached chapter 8, so she said 9 and 10 will not be in.
WHAT A JOKE. Let’s first address the root issue here – they fall behind because they don’t really plan out each lesson well? I find that the profs in BU (once again, I have to emphasize that when I say ‘the profs in BU’ I don’t’ mean to generalize to everyone, but it is a lot simpler to say than ‘the profs that I encounter in BU’) do not plan far ahead – half of my courses did NOT have a complete syllabus at the start of the semester, and only gradually shaped up the syllabus as the semester progressed.
And they don’t plan out each lesson too – for example in NUS the professor will aim to complete this topic in one lecture, and will pace himself/herself to really finish it. In BU? No, it’s kind of a play-by-ear thing, and the prof stops it whenever time runs out. I don’ t think they pace their lessons well and spend way too much time trying to answer questions (there’s a lot of question asking here in the US classroom lectures), and as a result lag behind in content covered.
Some people ask me why I am so chill here – no, it’s not because I only have to pass/fail. It’s because the content is so skimpy and little, what is there to really mug?? The absence of stress for me is not because I only need to pass – I don’t have that mentality, I have quite a lot of Asian pride and want to get As (trololol) – the absence of stress is because I don’t find the volume of content particularly challenging (vs in NUS, when I really have to study regularly)
So back to the lagging behind. So as a result of poor pacing, we seem to be stuck on the same topic for weeks (we spent like 2-3 weeks on Classical Conditioning alone and another 2-3 weeks on operant conditioning alone.. and it’s not even like in-depth coverage of the available theories it’s very surface and basic. ) and I just begin to switch off during lectures. And at the end of the semester, oh oops we can’t finish the syllabus ok nvm this is not tested.
Man, if I was paying $40k/year for this, I would be pissed.
So why am I pissed? Well I think it’s ridiculous how at the end of the day, when you graduate from BU, NUS or wherever, you still end up with the same thing, a college degree. Before you even start to argue that NUS is more prestigious or anything, refer to this table on employability of graduates from global universities.
BU is actually ranked #17 in the world. Where is NUS? #36. WTF.
So let me get this straight, I spend one extra year in university, slogging my guts out in a more stressful, competitive environment with a heavier workload, and I end up half as employable as those who study in BU? (fine, the ranking is an ordinal ranking and not an interval so #34 is not half as employable as #17 but you get my point) FML seriously.
Ok end of rant. I need to go do research for my project next semester, back in NUS. Hooray.
Recently I’ve been hanging out with some Singaporeans here at BU and listening in on their conversations about their academic planning. Many of them are talking about ‘overloading’ so as to graduate earlier. Makes perfect sense, since school fees are really high here ($40k per year, not including housing, food, etc). At the same time I scoff at it.
Why do I take issue with this? Well, in BU, the standard workload is 4 courses/modules per semester, versus the 5 modules in NUS. You would think that since there is one less per sem, the workload should be correspondingly heavier, right? No. It could be a poor snapshot of things, but from the courses I have taken this semester, the workload in one module here is LESS than one module in NUS. Considerably.
Let’s say I just got lucky and got the easy modules. Even if we overcompensate, the workload is going to be about the same as NUS, per module! Thus, when they ‘overload’ there, they are actually doing the standard NUS semester load of modules, and they get to graduate one YEAR earlier -_-
Are you kidding me?? One year?! That’s a LOT of time. I know for sure because this year, 2012, has been such a long and eventful year that I can’t even believe is only one year.
Back to the course/modules (I use these two terms interchangeably because they call it ‘courses’ in BU but ‘modules ‘ in NUS) issue. I find that some (not all) of the professors here are trying to help you get an A. Like they really try, and set the quizzes/tests really easy such that you don’t even have to study from the textbook, and I know one prof deliberately sets one or two questions from the TB as if to justify the existence of the TB in the syllabus.
I’m SO pissed by this. Like if you are not going to use the textbook much, DON’T include it in the syllabus?? I don’t know why I was so stupid to purchase all my textbooks and end up using less than 10% of them. So yes, I only had to study from the lecture notes for my exams. In NUS? Hell no. You have to memorize the bulk of the textbook for most of the core modules (can’t speak for other electives and lv4000 mods)
Further examples to show how chillax it is here – Two (out of 4) of my professors ended up not finishing the syllabus due to time constraints – and simply cut the material out of the exam. For example, if we were originally supposed to study chapter 1-10 for the finals, she only reached chapter 8, so she said 9 and 10 will not be in.
WHAT A JOKE. Let’s first address the root issue here – they fall behind because they don’t really plan out each lesson well? I find that the profs in BU (once again, I have to emphasize that when I say ‘the profs in BU’ I don’t’ mean to generalize to everyone, but it is a lot simpler to say than ‘the profs that I encounter in BU’) do not plan far ahead – half of my courses did NOT have a complete syllabus at the start of the semester, and only gradually shaped up the syllabus as the semester progressed.
And they don’t plan out each lesson too – for example in NUS the professor will aim to complete this topic in one lecture, and will pace himself/herself to really finish it. In BU? No, it’s kind of a play-by-ear thing, and the prof stops it whenever time runs out. I don’ t think they pace their lessons well and spend way too much time trying to answer questions (there’s a lot of question asking here in the US classroom lectures), and as a result lag behind in content covered.
Some people ask me why I am so chill here – no, it’s not because I only have to pass/fail. It’s because the content is so skimpy and little, what is there to really mug?? The absence of stress for me is not because I only need to pass – I don’t have that mentality, I have quite a lot of Asian pride and want to get As (trololol) – the absence of stress is because I don’t find the volume of content particularly challenging (vs in NUS, when I really have to study regularly)
So back to the lagging behind. So as a result of poor pacing, we seem to be stuck on the same topic for weeks (we spent like 2-3 weeks on Classical Conditioning alone and another 2-3 weeks on operant conditioning alone.. and it’s not even like in-depth coverage of the available theories it’s very surface and basic. ) and I just begin to switch off during lectures. And at the end of the semester, oh oops we can’t finish the syllabus ok nvm this is not tested.
Man, if I was paying $40k/year for this, I would be pissed.
So why am I pissed? Well I think it’s ridiculous how at the end of the day, when you graduate from BU, NUS or wherever, you still end up with the same thing, a college degree. Before you even start to argue that NUS is more prestigious or anything, refer to this table on employability of graduates from global universities.
BU is actually ranked #17 in the world. Where is NUS? #36. WTF.
So let me get this straight, I spend one extra year in university, slogging my guts out in a more stressful, competitive environment with a heavier workload, and I end up half as employable as those who study in BU? (fine, the ranking is an ordinal ranking and not an interval so #34 is not half as employable as #17 but you get my point) FML seriously.
Ok end of rant. I need to go do research for my project next semester, back in NUS. Hooray.
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