BLOG POST 7

“You? A Maths student? You have got to be kidding, right!”

That’s the common reaction whenever I correct all my new friends about my major. My initial reaction to them was either a back-handed insult (‘What? Do I look like someone who could not han dle complicated theorems?!’) or a compliment; given that studying mathematics in NUS is no easy feat. Well, I guess this week’s blog post may give an insight into my very quirky world. So here goes…

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BIODATA

I am a year 3 NUS undergraduate pursuing a degree in Applied Mathematics. I would like to be in the tourism and travel sector where I would be able to incorporate two primary interests of mine - travel and business. I am drawn towards numbers and the major role it plays in our everyday life. Studying Mathematics has trained me to be more analytical and logical in problem solving, with a disciplined and perseverance attitude.

I have an interest in the theatre and indie music scene; and am currently a publicity manager of an independent theatre company. I am able to exercise some managing and interpersonal skills on all the people that I have met and worked with.Besides backpacking and art, I enjoy photography and is currently experimenting with a Holga. I am an extrovert, outgoing, quirky person with a zeal for life.

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BLOG POST 5

Bonjour Mademoiselle and Monsieur!!! 

For this post, look at Appendix 2 of the skill builder Documenting Reports 6: Peer Review. Use the questions there as a 
guide for writing about one aspect of your learning experience, be that your success in teamwork, communication amongst 
your group, problems encountered, etc

Let’s face it! We all have cursed under our breath, vented our frustration out and raked our brains to perfect this research project. And my my, can I tell you that despite all this tedious and time-consuming project that we have to do, I’ve thoroughly came out of it with a positive experience. It wasn’t a smooth ride though. We had some minor scares and a whole lot of editing along the way. However, my group mates (Huimin and You Fei) are pretty satisfied with the report so far.

When it comes to communicating with my group members, I had my reservations at first. After all, they were really good friends and I may feel really awkward just being in the group. However, there wasn’t a moment where I was made feel uncomfortable.  Assigning of task was simple and most of our meetings were very focused. We got most of our work done on time and if any one of us slipped up, there is always another who are ready to solve the mistake. Hui Min was great at spotting all my grammar mistake (Yup, all that maths has totally made my English rusty!) and updating the report. You fei was really good at phrasing out our sentences, given that Hui Min and me had a hard time trying to express our opinions on paper. Well as for me, I tried not to be my usual ‘klutzy’ self and since I was much more familiarize with the topic, I tried to fill the group in with details. Everyone was pretty much a team player and not any of us had any major attitude that would have caused problems in the group.

In terms of research, the Internet was a great source and I also emailed some links of some local arts scene WebPages so that the group would take a look at. There was also no problem crafting the survey questions, as we just had to cut out those that we didn’t want. We had to spend a whole night mass emailing the entire NUS Science students since our deadline was drawing near and we have not reached 100 respondents. Let’s just say emailing a whole faculty of students was really tiring! However, our first real scare was when we could not access our survey result. I remembered vividly when Hui Min called during dinner and said we had to pay US$25 each just to access to it. Apparently, the three of us were so engrossed in the number of respondents that everytime we logged in to Zoomerang, none of us spotted the notice in red. However, we managed to contact Zoomerang office and they were nice enough to extend our membership for a week so that we can access our result. That incident really had us on edge but with a stroke of luck, we recovered from it. The report was the dreaded part of the project; partly because something is always due in every lesson and that it clashes with all our exams. We cringed everytime we got our report back and saw all the purple markings all over the paper. Since it has been ages since I wrote a report, I was glad that I had the textbook and the 7C’s of writing to guide me. 

Our upcoming team project is our oral presentation and I can’t wait for that. I like presentations as compared to writing but I have some problems in it. Like I said in my 1^st post, my major problem was finding a balance between professional and informality so that the audience doesn’t go ‘ZZZ’. The non-verbal cues that I learnt earlier in the module may come in handy and some of the writing methodology may help in making my presentation slide. Oh well, we have to see how it goes later on.

I did enjoy working with my group and pretty much like our project topic. =)

Just a little side-note, do give the local arts scene a try! They have some good works and some of them are recognized internationally. If you are into films, try Eric Khoo’s 12 Storey or there is always Army Daze. By far, Eric Khoo is the best Singapore filmmaker. Or try check out some local music! There's some great music under WakeMeUpMusic, a local records label!