By the time you read this entry, a few hundred students would have already been claimed as casualties by the fluid mechanics paper disaster on 3rd May 06: 1200 hours @ Nanyang Technological University examination hall B.
It's ironic how contradicting the opinions are from students from universities worldwide. I recall that slightly less than 4 years ago, people once told me university life was super relaxed and relatively stress free as compared to the 'A' levels. To the super elite uber intelligent people with brains of super computers process capability, they probably say,
"I never touched textbooks/ lecture notes/ tutorials/ research papers all my life and yet I scored all straight distinctions for the exams. So easy!"
"I never touched textbooks/ lecture notes/ tutorials/ research papers all my life and yet I scored all straight distinctions for the exams. So easy!"
Yeah rite..... in my 4 years of university life so far.... I can only think of two words that best describes this.
BULL SHIT !!!
No such thing! As a fellow student, I sympathise with your situation. The administration has always made everything sound so easy. Despite being the incumbent, the university's top heads have failed to comprehend the situation on the ground. Where are the creme la creme when the students need them. I can safely assure you that 8 out of 10 professors suck in teaching despite their "amazing academic track record". So what if they have the best qualifications, it doesn't mean a thing to the students if they cannot relate, speak or teach properly. Go ahead and ask the students down the lecture theatres. Oh... then again, does the top administration go on the ground the relate to you the fellow student? I've never ever seen a top head walking around checking on the state of the student population. Not convinced? Go ahead and sue me for defamatory remarks. I challenge you to do so.
Forget about all that "hoo ha" imagery that the media has painted on television. No where in Singapore do you see students sitting on a big green field staring at the clouds after a hectic day of lessons. Forget about the idea of enjoying a good cup of ice blended mocha every now and then grooving to the background music while chilling out in between lectures. Going out to play and shop whenever you feel like it? If you do lead such a lifestyle, there can only be 3 possibilites.
Forget about all that "hoo ha" imagery that the media has painted on television. No where in Singapore do you see students sitting on a big green field staring at the clouds after a hectic day of lessons. Forget about the idea of enjoying a good cup of ice blended mocha every now and then grooving to the background music while chilling out in between lectures. Going out to play and shop whenever you feel like it? If you do lead such a lifestyle, there can only be 3 possibilites.
- You are not a student from NTU/NUS/SMU.
- You forget that you are even a student.
- You skip lessons 5X daily, 5 days a week.
If you wanna know the extent of madness that goes on in university, think of it this way.
If you thought PSLE was hard,
'O' levels is 5X more difficult,
'A' levels is 10X more difficult than the 'O' levels.
University education is magnified 15x more than the 'A' levels.
Question: How much more difficult is university as compared to PSLE? (15 marks)
University education is ...
5*10*15 = 750x more difficult than your PSLE standard.
5*10*15 = 750x more difficult than your PSLE standard.
Simple right?
But wait... academics in universities never like making things simple. This is how they will pose the simplified hypothetical question to you.
The degree of difficulty can be modelled as the rise in water level in a tank. The water level rises under a steady state for 5 seconds before overflowing from the tank. Assume only frictional pipe loss f , DERIVE an expression of the rise degree of difficulty of university h(x) with respect to time using the following equations. (15 Marks)
Function of PSLE : f(w) = 6wy + 3t
Function of 'O' levels g(u) = tan (4u+7w)/ dt
Function of 'A' levels h(t) = (dy/dt * dt/dz ) 4xu * cos (5wt) + du/dt
Hint: You may find the following formula useful...
[P1/pg + V1^2/pg + z1] = {P2/pg + V2^2/pg + z2+ (fLV^2/2gD)] + K(V^2)/2g + (l/g)dv/dt}
The displacement of overspill is z(t)= (z2 - z1).
Or something like that. WHAT "USEFUL" hints. Which doesnt really make sense to the common man on the street. WTF?! Why must derive? 3/4 of the paper is based on DERIVATION. "Siao leh!" Cannot ask application type of questions found in the tutorials is it? After the professors drill the students with lots of graphs, complex formulae and application questions throughout the entire semester for the module, they examine the unexpecting student on DERIVATION? Curses to you and your freaking overdeveloped brain. Thanks to you my dear professors, many final year students with hopes of graduating in 4 years are now living in morbid fear that graduation may never be a possibility.
Assuming that some student will send an email to the administration complaining about the many matters which are considered "trivial" to the top heads, they will probably detract the student that he/she did not have his papers (lecture notes) in place, and say the student is a liar and a person who lack of integrity. How dare they accuse the top heads of the administration of such atrocities. The administration is FIRST WORLD ok? Our professors are also FIRST WORLD ok?
To to first world, we must have first world professors who will produce first world students. Nothing but NATO (No Action, Talk Only). Even all those evaluation forms are darn useless. The same old dogs still come biting you semester after semester. Who says life in university is wonderful? A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I don't think so. Stop dangling the carrot with advertisements like.... "I can clinch a deal anywhere, I can address the world and what not...". Nothing but hot air and bullshit. Academic theories rarely apply in real life. First class university education? I don't think so!
