25 Years

Pretty special 25th birthday this year. Not in terms of celebrations (like my 21st birthday), but in terms of significance.

When I was planning my timetable for my final semester in NUS, I realised that my final paper would be on my birthday, 28 November. I initially thought that it was sucky to have a paper on my birthday (the prospect of it still sucks). However, given that it is my last paper in a formal education setting, I think it’s pretty apt.

The semester was pretty tiring. I would have thought that my Year 5 Sem 1 would be one that would be relatively a breeze – after all, I am not taking Honours for my Economics degree, and I’m only taking two Accountancy modules. Turned out that it was still a busy semester, with projects for every module (and large projects for the level 4000 Accountancy mods) that suck up a lot of time and energy and effort. It was nice meeting new people and working with them, but by the time week 13 went by, I was surprised that I was able to weather through the multiple overlapping deadlines.

Still, throughout my 13 weeks in school (plus the two weeks for recess and studying), I was always aware that studying life is better than working life, and really am thankful for the extra semester to spend in school, to savour the last bits of life as a full-time student before plunging head-on into the workforce early next year.

Given my short break – my five weeks of break start now – I didn’t want to wait to hear “pens down” (nor did I want to wait for the invigilators to collect all the papers), so off I went after finishing (and checking) the EL1101E paper. Quite cool to be taking a final paper with so many first-year students, including my youngest sister who was seated right in front of me.

What’s next? Turns out my studying life won’t really come to a standstill yet, as I will attend (what is probably) the final Pre-Admission Course at ISCA over the next two weekends. And of course… things like completing the Standard Chartered Marathon – the full distance this year.

I do have trips to look forward to, before going into work. A family trip to Japan (!) and then a solo grad trip (somewhat) to Hong Kong in the new year.

Maybe I’ll update this blog with some of those adventures 🙂

End of Year 4

Four days ago, I ended my last exam as a fourth-year student in NUS. I’m now left with one semester to go before I complete my NUS journey (if all goes well on results day at least).

It’s been not a very good semester, the past 13 weeks. I would like to think that the semester could have been better, but it’s quite difficult to be so optimistic because of the interim results received during the semester.

Content-wise, there were modules I enjoyed (but that does not necessarily mean that I would score well) – particularly ACC3606 (Advanced Accounting) where I did my first few journal entries since Year 2 Sem 2 (2 years ago!). I thought consolidation was interesting, but final exam was so challenging that I felt immediately disappointed in my liking for the module.

I also enjoyed ACC3613 – Advanced Audit, more of the general topics that we covered, which include government audit. But just like the basic audit module, it’s very theoretical and very difficult to really ‘apply’ in real life.

Accounting theory – ACC3615 – is not too bad in terms of capturing my interest. My third module under Prof Stephen Lynn (something I was quite amused with). Enjoyable lessons but content-heavy, with essays and argumentative things.

Didn’t enjoy risk management however, mostly due to the theoretical nature of the module and I felt the instructors were not as effective as the instructors for the other modules I’ve had in NUS, which is a pity.

I did take two non-accounting modules this semester… MKT4417 Consumer Decision Making which is a marketing module which is tough for me as a non-accounting student, but thankful to my friends for helping me catch up in the project. And my only econs module this sem – EC3361 Labour Economics – was actually quite interesting and I pretty much enjoyed the module. Could have done better for finals though, because it did not help to have ACC3606 and EC3361 finals on the same day, just a hour apart. (BAD BAD IDEA)

And that’s pretty much it for the semester. Met many juniors this semester ‘cos I’m doing the modules mostly with year 3s, and made some new friends. It’s great in that sense, but in the academic sense it generally had a disappointing undertone. Sigh. Hope results day will be okay…

Next monday, summer holiday officially starts, which also means my internship begins. Internship at MOH Holdings as an internal audit intern is something really interesting and I hope it gives me an idea as to what internal auditing entails before I enter the working world full-time (and got less ‘risk-free’ opportunities to try try).

 

Year 4 Perspective on NUS Open Day

What a busy period it has been! The last two weeks or so have been incredibly busy, filled with overlapping deadlines and projects, and trying to juggle all those with midterms and “late-term” exams (thank you very much ACC3615). In the midst of it all, I almost forget I’m a year 4 student, who is supposed to be laid back and relaxed and let the juniors take over (I can say that because most of my classmates/project mates are 3rd year students)

Until Open Day arrived, which was on 12 March (two weeks ago – this post is really outdated as of now!). It’s my fourth year taking part in NUS Open Day, and my second year helping the Office of Corporate Relations (my first two years were spent promoting Tembusu College). With that I have completed my involvement in Open Days – four years in a row, which is quite impressive considering I never really went for NUS Open Day when I was a prospective student (think I spent 30 minutes in the NUS SRC back in 2010 before heading to the law campus to see see look look).

This year I was a tour guide again, which was really awesome because I enjoy doing things like this. My tour partner was Isabel, which was a pleasant surprise because it’s the first time since we’ve known each other back in Tembusu that we are doing something together.

NUS Open Day, if you’re somehow not aware, is a hive of activity. Many, many people descend onto University Town, where existing students rub shoulders with prospective students and their parents. Notwithstanding the parents, I felt really old. I mean, these prospective students are as young as 19 – born in 1997! That’s six years younger than me. Where did all the time fly to?! (And it got worse – I chatted with some students who were still in their first year of junior college)

Knowing that it is my last Open Day, it kinda felt a little different this time. My first two years were really exciting – especially my first year when I was intimately involved in the planning for Tembusu’s first open day ever. I felt like a student showing a junior (who’s probably like one or two years younger) around his/her future school – and the excitement was palpable. This time round? Going around campus just reminded me of how much time I’ve spent here… the many times taking the D1 shuttle service, the many times going past Business School, and the number of sectional classes I’ve sat through. Yet, for most of the tour participants, it was their first time seeing NUS up close. Even UTown – the newest extension to the campus – felt dated to me because I’ve been there for a good period of time!

It was still a nice experience as I think the campus is quite nicely built. It’s just that the spark dissipated. Maybe the campus didn’t seem so intriguing to me. Maybe I didn’t feel the desire to show off the campus so much. Or maybe year 4s tire quicker than others (Isabel and I were quite tired by mid-day and we concluded it is due to our relative age).

As I enter week 11 of this semester, I’m mindful that another semester is ending. Most of my friends would be going through their last month as an undergraduate at this point. For me, I have one more sem. Despite things in NUS being a lot less novel than they were in 2012, I have a feeling that when August rolls by, I’ll still treasure every minute as a student!

Leap Day

29th February… the one bonus day we get every four years.

I realise that it’s an awesome way to take stock of how things have changed since the last leap day (back in 2012).

I can’t really remember what exactly happened on 29th Feb 2012, but what I do know is that I just ORD-ed from full time national service a few days ago, and I was probably lazing around, enjoying my return to civilian life. Oh, and I did a run too – a 6.2km run near my house at a 4:41/km pace, tracked using my then-still-quite-new Forerunner 405.

Four years on, things have changed again. I’m in my penultimate semester (could have been my final semester if I were a single degree student) – where did all the time in uni fly to? Thankfully, running remained a thing I do for leisure four years on… so I did a run today too – a 10km run at 4:18/km pace at West Coast Park, before school… basically equaling my personal best set in December last year at the SCMS.

(Good to know that my running has improved quite a bit since then! Didn’t fall into the “fittest during my NSF days” trap)

Also, four years ago, I was single, yet hopeful that I will find someone in NUS. Four years on, I’m happily attached to my girlfriend Chelsea (for almost 39 months now).

Four years ago, I was looking for a part-time job. Four years on, I’m still looking for a part-time job (aka internship).

Four years ago, I was super excited about school. Four years on, I’m quite sad recess week had just ended, and my enthusiasm for school has dipped. (But still not too bad!)

Very curious to know where I’ll be, how I’ll be four years from now.

29th February 2020… let’s go!

 

Recess Week

Hello, hello.

It has been a long while since I’ve updated this blog. Just a bit too busy to do so, which is surprising since I’m a year 4 student and I should be relaxing and taking a more “whatever” attitude towards my school work. But nope.

Back in Business School brought a rude shock to me in terms of project workload. This semester is interesting because I’m taking a whole basket of accounting modules and not knowing my groupmates beforehand in most cases. Something that is beyond my comfort zone because I think I tend to work better with people I’m comfortable working with? But of course, reality does not allow that to happen all the time.

It obviously doesn’t help that all the project deadlines are literally packed next to each other. Welcome to Weeks 8 to 10… Project submission period. Sigh.

Still, I tried to make recess week as fun as I could. Went out with Chels to Resorts World to see fish in an aquarium and had a pretty decent half-day out. Did some long runs at MacRitchie and Marina Bay with the Running Department, as well as with the Run 350 pacers. And read some books too.

So unfortunately, I’ve missed out posting on CNY, Valentine’s, and other fun stuff in my life. That’s just too bad…

The second half of the semester is starting soon and it’s going to be a blast (in terms of speed, not in terms of experience probably)!

Penultimate Semester

Tomorrow will be the last semester in university for most of my friends. For me, it will be (hopefully) my second last semester in NUS. Even the ‘extended’ stay in NUS afforded to me as a double degree student is coming to an end… Hahaha.

In many ways the coming semester is crucial for me. I will be taking 5 of my remaining 7 modules required for my Accountancy degree, so how I fare for these five mods will really determine my final CAP for my 4.5 years in NUS. And of course, these are accounting/business modules, which may (or may not) be useful in the future.

Finally taking ‘Basket D’ for the accounting modules – that includes ACC3606 Advanced Accounting, ACC3612 Risk, ACC3613 Advanced Audit and ACC3615 Accounting Theory. I may be one year late but I guess it’s better late than never. I’m also taking a level 4000 marketing module as part of my thesis replacement (MKT4417 Consumer Behaviour) which I am quite nervous about because it’s marketing and I never took marketing in NUS before (I mapped it overseas).

On the econs side I may be taking EC3351 if I can get it in CORS Round 3 tomorrow. Because it fits my timetable and it would even out the workload for my last semester. (My interest in my econs degree is probably at an all-time low)

For my friends who are still reading this blog, have a great final sem ahead! 🙂

2015

Another 365 days has gone past. The SG50 year is reaching its end.

What a year it has been. Many events have happened this year, both within Singapore and outside Singapore. Terrible terrorist attacks, saddening deaths, joyous celebrations. Compared to my own life, and what I’ve experienced, 2015 was a tame enough year.

But tame doesn’t mean boring.

I did my internship at PwC and finally got to have a taste of the audit world in a Big Four firm. I spent the first half of the year attending class with my good friends, and spent the second half of the year attending econ classes mostly alone and meeting new people. (And of course, not forgetting FSP in the second half of the year) I did okay for school, and frankly I think I did quite good for the things that matter. Of course, getting exposed to modules like Game Theory leaves me humbled and cautious.

There were fun parts to the year too. Spent a beautiful five days in Bali with Chelsea in July after internship, and then spent a nice ten days in Yunnan, China with my family in December. Of course, significant progress was made in my relationship with Chels after we applied for our first BTO in May. 🙂 And I finally hit a target of 1,000km ran in a year this year, despite getting injuries (like an inflamed tendon late this year).

December was a particularly fun month. I also spent some time volunteering at the ASEAN Para Games before heading to China with my family. After coming back, I met up with many friends, spent time with my girlfriend and family and finally got my Lasik done.

The past few days I went out with Chels, with friends and with my family, spending time with people important to me in my life.

Just today I brought my grandma (and my aunt) to Gardens by the Bay, taking advantage of free train rides on the Downtown Line. I admired the scenery in the Gardens that seem to be in higher fidelity than when I was wearing specs. I’m really enjoying seeing the world through my new eyes.

I’m immensely thankful for a relatively smooth 2015, especially when there’s so much uncertainty going on in the world. I wish for an eye-opening and enriching 2016 – my final year as a student – and a healthy and safe year ahead for my loved ones.

Happy new year!

Year 4 Sem 1

Finally! It’s December and I can take a breather from school, and update this little blog. It’s been a while, sorry to anyone who still reads this and hopes for an update. (Here it is!)

Quite a lot has happened in November school-wise. I also celebrated my 23rd birthday with Chelsea and my family on 28th November, but perhaps I can leave that for another post. Today, I feel like writing some thoughts on the semester that just concluded at 11am (for me) at the end of my final paper for EC3312 Game Theory.

Another semester with six modules worth of study. Overloading is now the new norm for me, and I expect to complete another 12 modules in the next 2 semesters so that I can graduate in a year’s time. It’s not easy…

This semester I cut myself some slack by ‘dedicating’ my time to my second degree. I have quite a comfortable buffer for the FASS CAP because I am not taking double honours, so my CAP classification does not matter much. Which is good, as it allows me to take risky modules, hahaha!

To fulfill my Econ requirements, I took EC3102 Macroeconomics II, EC3303 Econometrics I, EC3312 Game Theory and NM1101E Communications and New Media. The first two are compulsory modules, and the last one is used to fulfill my FASS requirements. And the third one… well, it’s for “interest” which turned out to be suffering.

EC3102 was okay, and I guess I will perform absolutely average, which is disappointing because I think I could have done better for the finals but it just didn’t go smoothly. Thinking about it now makes me sigh a little. I don’t know why but I’ve always struggled with macroeconomics compared to microeconomics since JC. Oh well. (That’s where I need the buffer to come in)

EC3303 was quite manageable and in fact at points felt a little trivial. It’s puzzling because it didn’t feel like a level 3000 module. Very introductory, very easy to follow. I think it’s an anomaly this semester because looking at past-year papers, the seniors definitely had it worse. This semester, a Singaporean lecturer taught the module. My first Singaporean lecturer from Economics. Indeed a rare species.

NM1101E was an introductory level module, which is exciting because there are year 1s taking it! Except it appears that there are quite few Year 1s taking it… many were Year 2s and 3s taking it to fulfill their breadth requirements. Dewei convinced me to take this module with him during our internship at PwC. There’s a project for this module which is SUPER guided and spoon-fed… as a Year 4 business student, it feels a little too guided. Somewhat interesting module, enjoyed the many videos during lecture. That’s pretty much it. MCQs for mid-terms and finals, for what I thought would have been a crazy content-memorisation and writing module.

EC3312… Game Theory. Bane of my semester. During the course, the lecturer sent out an interim survey asking for opinions regarding the course. There was a question that asked:

What do you think about the difficulty of this course?

It’s so funny because I thought it was INCREDIBLY difficult. So I picked the first option: Very hard – most difficult module in NUS I’ve ever taken.

And that’s true – at least in FASS. Even EC2104, which I struggled with, was nowhere near this.

It’s not really a difficult module if you are attuned to logic combined with many mathematical notations and superscripts and stuff, along with differentiation and some integration. If you can visualise how games work extremely well (and we’re not talking about the basic prisoner’s dilemma) perhaps you stand a chance.

I thought I stood a chance, so I tried. Came out deflated. After the second lecture, the entire module is humble pie. I’m definitely not a logical thinker (at least in terms of game theory) and all the weird game types just knocked me off. My friends may know how much I dislike this module. I dreaded every lecture, and dreaded doing every tutorial. I’m so relieved every time I’m done with this module for the week.

I guess all the above would sound quite extreme to someone who may find game theory easy… it’s true I guess. Some things are more intuitive to me, and some things are not so intuitive. This is firmly in the latter camp.

Thankfully I have the CAP buffer. If not I would have regretted taking this module because I don’t think I will do well.

Do I regret taking it? Probably not… it was enlightening and eye-opening, at least on a personal level.

Lastly, I also completed my one-semester Field Service Project, which is a Business School honours requirement. It’s 8 MCs and meant to be completed within a year, but my teammates (comprising my sister, Chelsea and Isabella) and I, as well as our supervising prof, wanted to finish it quickly and so we did.

Our project was on developing a risk management mobile app. Interestingly I had not taken the module on risk management yet, but decided to give this a try with my group because it sounded interesting.

And it was! 14 or so weeks of fun and sometimes pain. There were many things I’ve learnt from this, but probably the biggest insight was how the business world is very different from the academic world that we live in, and how we have trapped ourselves in this academic bubble for so long. Can’t be helped as we’re basically in it since 7 years old! (With a 2-year break for guys)

So this project allowed us to place a perspective on the things we learn in school, and really, gave me a better idea of what I should be getting away from university. Hard skills? Perhaps, some of the modules may be relevant. (Note “some” and “may”) But I think the bigger takeaway is the soft skills – time management, interpersonal relationships, understanding others, and adaptability. Just that the soft skills we practise subconsciously are set in an academic setting.

That being said, there were enough ups and downs throughout the duration of the project. When we were done with our 281-page deliverable (app specification), it felt like a huge stone was lifted. It’s probably one of the biggest checkpoints that a business honours student needed to clear to graduate.

One year to go.

Next semester would be challenging for me. Planning it already thanks to Business Module Preference Exercise underway, but that’s a post for the future. Till then, there’s still December! A whole month of excitement.

And I will try to update this blog a bit more 😉

The Year 4 Feel

Taking a double degree programme forces you to be behind your cohort, sooner or later. Unless you decide to drop the second degree early, you’ll soon face a semester taking modules with your “juniors”. Intake year makes no sense anymore.

For accounting students, this is particularly painful thanks to the large number of projects involved in the higher-level modules. But that’s a problem for the next semester because I’m doing 100% FASS modules this semester!

This semester is exciting because I’m taking some (what I think) difficult economics modules, such as EC3102 (Macroeconomics II; difficult because I didn’t take EC2102), EC3303 (I’ve lost touch with statistics since… DSC1007, which was all the way in Year 1 Sem 2), and EC3312 (‘cos many reviews state how difficult the module is). I’m also doing my Field Service Project in one semester, so that will really amp up the intensity of the FSP. With all the MCs added up, I’m overloading this semester again!

It has been week 2 already, but thanks to the National Day holiday on Monday, I felt like I just finished a proper week of school. Frankly, it’s not much. Without tutorials I have a 2 day week (and with tutorials, 3 day week), to the envy of my youngest sister who’s still in JC (all in good time…). I’m also taking an exposure module this semester – NM1101E, the new media exposure module. Taking the mod with De Wei, fellow Year 4 and Acct DDP student, should be great.

The year 4 feel has definitely kicked in. Walking around school, thinking that we are the oldest undergrads in the school (with the exception of rare Year 5 students) really make you look at the wide-eyed freshmen with some sense of envy. And probably vice versa too – they probably look to us as the seniors who have battled the bell curve for 3 years already, and who are on the cusp of entering the next phase of life, when they are just starting out with university. Would really love to go back to those more energetic days. Hahahaha. (But please spare me the painful business core modules like leadership and business communication, yucks)

So Week 2 is underway. Semester promises to fly past quickly because of my lack of school days and FSP. Case in point: Tomorrow is my last day for the week. So Week 2 is almost over.

Undergrad life is ending sooner and sooner.

End of Internship

My compulsory internship is over! Yay!

Ten weeks (minus one day) after stepping into PwC, I finally can feel the start of this year’s summer holiday. This year, I get to enjoy a longer break already, as I did a twelve-week internship at ACRA last year, leaving me with only one pathetic week before school starts. This year, I get three. I’m very happy. (Hahaha)

I must say that I’ve gained more from the internship than I had expected. I must note that I didn’t have high expectations from the get-go, thinking that even though PwC is a somewhat prestigious accounting firm to work for, ultimately when it comes to the work, it’s going to be the same. So I didn’t expect to learn much, because interns are supposed to do the lowliest work, like checking supporting documentation and doing simple math (like adding up numbers).

While I did get my share of that in some engagements during these ten weeks, I am also very lucky to have the opportunity to be involved in an audit for a firm that wants to do an initial public offering. These audits are more difficult because they are likely to be first-year clients (i.e, no past year working papers), and we have to do multiple-year audits to meet the requirements of the stock exchanges. Add on different stakeholders, such as investors and other professional firms, and potentially inexperienced accounting staff, and you get a whole new dynamic.

I got to experience and work on an IPO audit for seven out of my ten weeks in PwC, split into two halves. The team was very, very small. Most of the time it was me and another full-time staff at the client’s place, and the client’s finance team also comprises just two people – the financial controller and an accountant. It was somewhat tiring because towards the end of the internship I was working somewhat independently on testing different parts of the financial statements, which is definitely a far cry from just looking through supplier invoices.

I also got to interact with the client and my manager very frequently, so it really gave me a sense of ownership and purpose. Of course I still followed my intern working hours and didn’t stay overtime on most days. (Last chance to leave on time!)

Of course, my experience is very different from my friends’. Some of my friends were in financial services audit, so they see in the workings of financial institutions and insurance companies. Others work on larger firms that have larger engagement teams, so they don’t really have the autonomy to work on evidence-gathering activities like I did.

So I guess as much as PwC’s internship is an internship ‘programme’, what each person gets out of it is vastly different from another’s. Since most engagement teams only have one intern here (the internship intake is very small compared to other big 4), your experience is almost definitely unique to you.

That could work out well or poorly. For me it turned out well. Which is a good thing, because it would be very sad if one only earned money from these ten weeks (and given the lousy pay, it’s basically gaining nothing).