This is the end of my third week in the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. You may notice that my blog hasn’t been updated for about 2 weeks. Why? The short answer is in the title of this post, while a more detailed answer will follow as you continue to read this post.
Although my short stint in Malacca High School seems like a distant memory to me now, but I still can remember what the teachers there used “brainwash” Form 6 students about how you can have an easy life in college. They say, “If you want an easy life, go college lah! In Form 6, you must be prepared to slog!” (Although I’m technically a university student, but I still categorize myself as a college student, because saying that I’m a university student would give the impression that I’m an undergraduate.) No doubt that life is a little easier here, but in no way that I’m passing my days as if each day is a holiday. To let you have a “feel” of my life in Nottingham, I’ll start off with writing about the subjects (they call it modules) I’m currently taking in Sem 0 of my Foundation in Engineering course.
Light, Waves and Electron A (EN0 LWA)
Lecturer & Tutor: Dr. Khiew
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of example class per week
Time: Monday, 2 – 5 pm
This is basically a Physics-related module where we learn about mostly light and waves, for example lenses, interference of waves and so on. Dr. Khiew is my only lecturer with a PhD. We have 2 hours of lecture where he lectures while showing PowerPoint slides and another hour of doing exercises. His lessons are quite easy to understand, but what I don’t like about his lessons is that he refuses to derive some of the formulas we encounter, like the lens formulas. He would say that we are engineering students, so it’s enough to know how to apply these formulas... I wonder what Mr. Wee will say about this.
Basic Mathematical Techniques (HG1 BMT)
Lecturer & Tutor: Mr. Balrama
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of example class per week
Time: Monday, 9 – 11 am; Thursday, 11 am – 12 pm (Example class)
This module is taught by a quite experienced-looking man, though I'm feeling that we're moving too slowly. What we learn here is basically what we learn before in Form 4 and Form 5, like indices, inequalities, progression and so on. But the questions given can be quite tricky in such a way that befits our age. It’s like a tougher form of the SPM Mathematics syllabus.
Properties of Materials (EN0 POM)
Lecturer & Tutor: Mr. Chiang
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of example class per week
Time: Tuesday, 2 – 5 pm
Fondly (the opposite is true) known as POM. The lecturer of this module claims to be the funniest lecturer in the University, and true enough, he likes to crack jokes. He has something funny to say every few minutes or so, but then some are not so funny… Anyway, this module is a mixture of Chemistry and Physics, but it’s still more related to Chemistry than Physics. Examples of topics covered are atoms, bonding, crystals and gases. And even worse than Chemistry in secondary school, this module requires a lot of memorizing. Well, we’re supposed to know about the properties of materials, and the only way is to memorize them.
Basic Engineering Mechanics A (EN0 BMA)
Lecturer: Mr. Lim
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of example class per week
Time: Wednesday, 2 – 5 pm
This is another Physics-related module that everybody who studied Physics before is familiar with. Topics covered in this module are usually discussed at the beginning chapters of most Physics textbooks. It includes physical quantities, vectors, kinematics, Newton’s Laws up to work and power.
English Language and Study Skills Introductory (EN0 ELI)
Lecturer: Ms. Cecily
Duration: 4 hours per week
Time: Tuesday, 11 am – 1 pm; Thursday, 9 – 11 am
English lessons again… the most boring and useless (the study skills part) subject (that’s what I think). The difference is that we’re learning academic English, not the story-telling kind of English but English based on cold hard facts (my emphasis). I can't deny that I learned something more about the English language especially the grammar part, but there’s nothing more to that. And this module is supposed to teach us study skills, which I doubt it will reach its objective. In order to “teach” us study skills, this module requires us to submit a so-called study diary to our lecturer each week. And my lecturer is going on very slowly, so I wouldn’t learn much actually.
IT and Design A (XX0 C02)
Lecturer: Ms. Geetha
Duration: 2 hours lecture, 1 hour of example class per week
Time: Thursday, 2 – 5 pm
The lecturer for this module has the easiest time. A Masters Degree holder currently pursuing her PhD in my university, she spends the least time with us. Her class ends at 3.30 pm at most (so far) and she leaves us doing the exercise she gave us. For the past lessons, the exercises given involved finding information about IT-related stuff. We have to arrange the information we found in a folio, and we have to hand it in the following week.
Malaysian Studies (MPW2133)
Lecturer: Ms. Evans
Duration: 5 hours per week in one day (!)
Time: Friday, 12 – 5 pm
It’s Sejarah all over again during Malaysian Studies. Not everything is about History though, because we also will learn about the Malaysian parliament, government and its policies, kind of like Paper 1 of Pengajian Am in Form 6 if I’m not mistaken. Ms. Evans, a Masters Degree holder too, is a part-time lecturer at Nottingham and she’s the best History teacher I’ve ever had (because my previous ones suck). She knows the history of Malaysia like the back of her hand. It’s quite interesting learning about the history of Malaysia actually, but I shudder at the thought of squeezing all these facts into my head again to sit for tests.
Lab
Supervisor: Mr. Tan
Duration: 2 hours per week
Time: Wednesday, 10 – 11 am
This is not a module on its own, but just a slot in our timetable where we carry out Physics and Chemistry experiments. I can’t comment much here because lab sessions are only on next week.
Now you can see what my coursemates and I have to go through each week. According to our timetable, we have an average of 5.2 hours of classes per day, sort of like the time spent for classes in school if you’re in Form 6. And this does not include breaks. But of course, Form 6 students will have lots of extra classes, and some of my lecturers are “kind” enough to give early dismissals.
Phew, what a long post I’ve written. However, it won't end just yet. Proves that I’ve a lot of free time right? Nah, this is just to compensate for the drought of updates in my blog for the past two weeks. If you don’t believe me, let me show you why my hands are not empty.
- Malaysian Studies assignment about Home Ministry – 10 pages worth of research to be done by the end of this semester.
- Malaysian Studies presentation – my group is planning to do a video about the Malaysian Parliament. If all goes well, it may be uploaded on YouTube.
- Tests! Next week I have English, Malaysian Studies and POM tests. And I’ve been to Form 6 long enough to know that their monthly tests also fall on August. Proves that we’re moving at a very fast pace (not exactly, just joking). Yesterday I just had my BMT quiz, a small test that was over in 20 minutes. All of these tests will contribute to my final results.
One more thing, for the very first time, I’ll be spending my weekend at Nottingham. I still haven’t thought of what to do over the weekend. Living full-time in Nottingham can be described as living like a frog underneath a well; the only contact with the outside world is through the phone, internet, newspapers or taking a bus ride out of this “well”.
P.S.: The JPA scholarship results for 9A students are out, and I was offered a scholarship even though I stated my institution as Nottingham. Moreover, the ever-you-know-what JPA still keeps people guessing about the details of this scholarship. If they sponsor foundation students like me too, don’t you think that it’s better to do foundation here at a prestigious (again my emphasis) university like mine fully-sponsored rather than studying Form 6?
P.S. 2: A big salute to those who managed to read each and every word of my 1000-plus-words post.
P.S. 3: To those who want to see photos, I would say this: Since a picture is worth a thousand words, therefore I've just posted a very clear picture of Nottingham, don't you think? OK, OK, I'll try to get some photos during this weekend. But then when I'll be posting these photos will be another unknown...
UPDATE: To avoid any misunderstandings especially regarding my comments on classes and lecturers, please check out my
follow up to this post.
