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class photo of TB22 Apr 09
in what I can only describe as an extremely-uncalled for hiatus, I am back again.

some of you may have realised it by now, but I am kinda losing steam in blogging often, one thing because a post takes a long time for me to write (this took 4 hours or so), and its not easy for me to take out an entire hour and just blog nowadays.

nevertheless, I will continue updating, albeit occassionally. not ready to shut this 6 year old thing down yet haha, though I may migrate to wordpress since blogger appears to be deleting my archives already.

the feeling of losing your old posts hurts. bloody blogger. they are like bits and pieces of my past. does wordpress delete old posts as well?

==

I promised to talk about the April 2009 Semester, and I will do so now.

the semester started out similar to the October 2008 one, where only junxiang, hup song and I managed to enter the same class again.

however, unlike at the end of Oct 08 where I made friends who I still remain in contact with now, April 09 did not return such a result.

don't get me wrong, April 09 isnt any less friendly than Oct 08. its just that April 09 sticks to their cliques a lot more, and there is a lot lesser interaction.

it is not something only I observed, even the ECD (entrepreneurship) tutor Liang Wee Kok said so, that we dont behave like a class.

could it be that the group did not attempt to include us like what simon and justin did? or is it our problem that we did not really try and interact with them as their clique is bigger?

I am treading on thin ice here, but this is a question that bugged me for the past semester. to be honest, I dont know the answer myself. my personal belief is that both sides did not make that leap, and this opportunity to know each other much better is wasted.

==

for the second part maybe we will talk about the modules.

CMA is Cost and Managerial Accounting. unlike POA, is really different from your conventional accounting, with a much greater focus on theory rather than accuracy of long calculations.

and thus there was some growing pains associated with it. it really took me a while to get used to how CMA was, with new theories that are pretty much unrelated coming up every other week while learning to apply the knowledge. this resulted in my poor showing for my CT2.

my determination to not screw CMA up made me work hard for the final exams, and thankfully the format of the finals are quite standard and I finally managed to make sense of the chapters, especially those on Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis.

FMGT too was quite a struggle, though not as much as CMA was. financial management had both theory and calculations. its the theory that was more troublesome. the theory is somehow related to one another, but it takes some effort and logic for you to see all of them in a bigger picture that will help you to appreciate it better.

the time value of money calculations though was a real problem for FMGT, since the questions varied year after year, much like your E Maths O Levels papers. the question somehow became more like a test of your understanding of english.

the FMGT video project was also fun. the video has to be 8-10 minutes long and so it was a different experience having to come up with a proper script and editing the entire length of it. also one of my group members had a nice room in his bungalow that let us filmed properly without all the surrounding noise so it was all quite smooth.

HRM was alright since it is very much like BMGT, OBSE and BLAW in the sense that it takes more memory work. however the content is somewhat deeper than the year 1 modules. the questions are also more application based (identify the job appraisal method in the case study and explain its function as opposed to explain the graphical scale rating system).

EBA (tech module) and ECD (entrepreneurship) should be discussed together, since their deadlines collide all the time. I remember vividly working like a dog for both proposals that are due on the same weekend and both requiring around 15-20 pages. in the end the quality of the reports were "split" between the two. now I know I dont work so well when multitasking lol.

the EBA online store project was quite a trouble for us as well, especially since we dont really have an idea of what to sell, and we are lazy to think of another thing to sell after having to sell things in ECD as well. some more we have to do an access database. thats why EBA isnt quite as enjoyable even with a good tutor.

the ECD bazaar was a good learning experience at doing my own business as well. it is my first go at running a stall, and we went with longkang fishing, thinking it would be easy money. turns out it wasnt quite as easy as we expected, probably since parents are watching how much they spend, and games for their kids are probably not the most important.

still, it was fun to source for fishes and its supplies, visiting places like Farmart Centre and Qian Hu multiple times, in the process learning more about rearing fishes. staying overnight at Kovan Hub was also really fun as the group spent time chatting and preparing. its probably one of the most unique memories I will ever have of my polytechnic days and I am really grateful for that. I am not sure if the rest of the group felt what I felt but I am really thankful for them for being with me throughout the process.

==

as for the tutors, I have to say they are all really nice for April 2009. probably except the CMA tutor whom I never really managed to chat with.

Mdm Jacqueline Fong struck me as being extremely nice of the entire lot. she goes through lecture slides and tutorials pretty immaculately, checking to ensure we did our work and shared quite a bit of her work experiences. in fact she lectures quite a few modules for year 3 HR as well, all of these very telling of her experience in the field of HR. she was also the one who kinda made me realise I have quite some interest in HR which I may consider pursuring.

Miss Lim Meng Keng is one of the lecturers for Financial Management and also my tutor. she probably has some experience, but I feel that she isnt as knowledgeable with the topics as what Jacqueline Fong had with HR. not to say that she is unqualified la, just that the depth and passion in the field seems different. but she is incredibly friendly as well, and one who likes to crack jokes. not the most funny but in a way she tries to connect with the students and did not fail that badly.

Mr Jonanthan Chan is the module leader, lecturer and tutor for EBA, a computing module. the things we learn in it are definitely not the most fun, especially the e-business thingy that involves setting up eBay stores and everything. however, he is a cool guy. he is probably the one I had the most non-academic related chats with, similarly because he knows quite a bit about news both technologically and non-technogically related and its interesting to exchange ideas with him.

Mr Yam Weng Wah is the module leader, lecturer and tutor (again) for CMA, an accounting module. he is kinda monotonous and thus its a little difficult to understand what exactly he is talking about. to be honest my interaction with him wasnt exactly great for that reason, thus I dont really have much to say about him. I feel bad but well, I have to say at least he made the effort to go through all tutorials and classwork properly, something that other CMA tutors may not have necessarily done.

finally, Mr Liang Wee Kok is the module leader, lecturer and tutor for ECD. he for one is one of the most easygoing tutors I have ever known. he gives plenty of hints for the final test, shares a lot of his information he garnered from his time as an entrepreneur and is generally quite relaxed about rules, such as formal wear during presentations. his lessons are relaxing to attend too.

to conclude, I would say that I am really lucky for April 09 since I met all the tutors who are either lecturers and/or module leaders, which meant they had some years of experience in both the field and in teaching behind them. this was probably why the entire learning experience was generally more pleasant for Apr 09 semester, helping me to achieve the results I had set out for.

==

and thats the April 2009 Semester in review.