Thursday, March 25, 2010

My Three Years in NYP (Part 2)

Year 1 Semester 1-
The modules for the very first semester was okay. except for Maths & Physical Chemistry. I remembered how much I gasp when I first opened the Maths book-- SURDS!!! & I thought I was over with A Maths...

Physical Chemistry was quite tough too, because I had zero background with physics. & there were so many laws to remember, the chemical equilibrium, etc. Even had to SOS my secondary school Chemistry teacher for help. Though I didn't in the end.

Inorganic Chemistry
was the best subject, because it was practically a revision of secondary school Pure Chemistry lesson. We got to do titration & calculate number of moles too.

IPCT was the best, because there wasn't much in-house lessons. We were usually going for 'excursions' or field trips.

Business Mandarin
was horrible. Because it practically meant studying business in Chinese, & I simply hate it. It only got better during the second part, when the topic is more focused on body language, traditions, & etc. My best buddy during that class was PeiShan. & we skipped some lessons together too. That was my first time skipping lessons.

Off lesson, there were many fun times. Like how we took pictures with Janella's Macbook, how we went to Junction 8 to watch movie, & how i went all the way to Toa Payoh to visit my then-eyecandy with Evelyn.

During exam period, I was so determined to get good grades. I shut myself at home, off-ed my handphone, and did nothing but study. From then on, my cliques would say that I would go up a mountain & write my secret manual during exam. I obtained quite an average grade. I did my best during my first year, but it just wasn't up to my expectations..

& yes, during this time, I was still working in G2000.

Year 1 Semester 2-
Modules in this semester was a little more different, & harder. I also came to realize that my wushu buddy is sharing most of my lectures with me. Like Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, & I think, Cell Biology too. Organic Chemistry was seriously a torture, thanks to all the hidden carbon compunds. Then, there was this nomenclature thing whereby we were supposed to name funny compunds. Then there were stereoisomers which totally failed me because I cannot read the 3D compounds. Last but not least, i won't forget the chair conformation compound which gave me the biggest headache as well as the Marknonikov rule. However, thanks to one of my ex-G2000 workmate, Evelyn, she assisted me, gave me tuition, and helped me scraped through it.

Then, there was Biochemistry. Can remember vividly the statistics of our common test result. Out of 10 classes, I think about half of us failed the module. Well, I got a C or C+. Mr Alvin's MCQs were really hard. So we studied really hard for the final exams. Like Glycolysis Cycle, Kreb Cycle, Glucogenesis cycle, etc. The different steps, the in-between compounds, the enzymes, the electrons, etc... I guessed it tore almost everyone's hair out.

We had our practical lessons, but they aren't really fun, as much as I remember. I thought the theory was much nicer to study. The only thing I remember was that practical was very easy to score because the teacher-in-charge closed her both eyes when she marked them. Oh, and the project too. My group & I did something about cheese fermentation. & my part was to find out about the process. So much researching till I did not eat cheese for quite some time..

And there was this module on Biostatistics as well. I remembered this project. Because it was supposed to be pair work among our own classmates, obviously. However, when I met with difficulties in this project, the person whom I consult was actually WeiMun. hahah! If i did not remember wrongly, half of my project was thanks to him. How nice..

& IT!!! The module that I hated the most. I remembered that the lecture is every Tuesday morning at 8am. & i would wake up at 530am, rush to school, tap my card, & sleep through the one hour. The chair was cushion-ed in Blk L lecture room. So it was really comfortable to sleep in, especially when we sat right at the back. The practical was teaching us how to use Microsoft Excel as well as Microsoft Frontpage. Something that we hate & like at the same time.

Same as Semester 1, I worked hard during examination period. For one reason, I was more rebellious at work at this point of time, & I had to work more. So I was scared that it would affect my studies, & hence, I worked harder. When I got my result, I was super shocked. Because I did not score any As. Instead, everything was all Bs and B+s. The only thing that I could count myself lucky was that my GPA did not dropped but increased.

& yes, I was still working at G2000.

Year 2 Semester 1-
This year played the greatest part in our NYP life. We had modules like Pharmacology, DDS, & Pharmacy Practice, that were much related to our course. Because of these modules, we got closer with our mentors due to more bondings. They started to know us more personally as compared to Year 1, & they became like our friends off lessons.

It was our first time doing Pharmacology. It was really a huge torture, huge headache. For lecturers, for students. Whatever pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, classifications, side effects, mechanism of actions, etc. We practically knew nuts about it, & yet we had to figure it out on our own. There isn't any practicals or projects, or reports for this module. Only tutorial which also tore our hair out because it was supposed to be done beforehand of lecture.

Pharmacy Practice 1 was more about calculation of dilutions, studying forensic laws & communication skills. It was super fun, because our project was doing a skit. Everyone moaned & groaned when given the task, but everyone gave in their best, thought of the funniest & weirdest ideas to present the skits, & made the whole lecture room roared with laughter. Mr Kelvin even brought along a video camera, Dr Henry took time off his precious lab to watch our skit. & yes, I still have the CD with me. Was really a great memory.

We did Marketing as well. It was a total bore. Another module which failed to interest me, but I tried to score because it was mainly memory work.

Immunology was the first module that I failed in my poly days. I failed the common test even though it was an open book MCQ test. Imagine how shocked I was. So I worried for my final year because I could never understand what the lessons were talking about. The great thing was that Mr Micheal gave us great deal of hints.

During the holidays, we had our study trip to Hong Kong too!!! It was my first time going overseas without my parents, but only with my friends. & I got to celebrate my birthday overseas too. The best memory in my poly life.

Because of these various reasons, yes, my results maintained. I hit my target of scoring more As & no Cs.. That was the best grade that I obtained.

& yes, I was still working at G2000.

Year 2 Semester 2-
The semester which was a great deal of fun too. But this was the semester which affected us a lot. There were lots of projects, lots of quarrels, lots of unhappiness that lasted for quite some time.

We had Medicinal Chemistry. Dr Phoon again was our lecturer again. & this new lecturer called Dr. Subra. He is a very very very tall guy who taught us HPLC machine. Remembered him as a very 'naggy' lecturer who always repeat things that we should & must know. It turned out because he was really worried about us. He knew we knew nuts about those HPLC results, knew nuts about singlet, doublet & triplets. He gave us lots of practice papers, came back to school during study break to give us extra tuition.. & we had a easier time during final year exam.

TEP was the best & worst module. The best, because it was based solely on practical. We got to do tons of hands-on practical like making solutions, emulsions, suppository, etc. We had to write labels too, & I remembered the number of labels we threw away because we kept writing the wrong thing. It was the worst, because it was either a Pass or Fail thing for every session. & i barely passed every session. There were times when I got an F. There was a time when I handed in the wrong sample, and got a straight F in my face. During test, I almost got locked in the cold room because I could not open the door. I made 6 suppositories, but 5 cracked. How lucky... Remembered this module as the one & only module that I scored the worst grade- D+ among everything.

PMT was another module that sort of bored me as it was usually about Manufacturing again. The only times when it interest me was the GMP part because it was really interesting. & that was towards the end of semester already.

Pharmacotherapy was a fun module too. We got to do dispensing, we got lots of case scenarios, we had our MIMS as though it was our holy bible.

This semester, I had my first relationship too. Well, of course, it affected my studies in some ways. I remembered how we quarrelled one day before PMT exam paper, and I couldn't get anything into my head. I remembered this the most because I couldnt write down the definition of GMP during exam. & it bothered me lots. How dumb...

& during the exams, I remember how the other class students envy us because besides the question & answer papers, we had biscuits & chocolates on our desk as well. Isn't that so true, LEONG WEI MUN? haha!!

No thanks to TEP, & pharmacology, my GPA decreased. I actually hit the bottom because of it. That was like the downturn of my poly life.

& no, I QUITTED G2000 FINALLY THIS SEMESTER!!

Year 3 Semester 1-
Our last semester in school. We had Pharmacology again. And Pharmacotherapy and Pharmacy Practice too. This was because we are all in the Pharmacy Track, & hence, everything is really very pharma-. Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy, Pharmacy Practice, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Pharmacy Management...

Pharmacology was once again the tremendous headache. But we could cope it better because of past experience. The one giving us the most headache, & the most not looked-forward-to lesson is Pharmaceutical Analysis practical instead. We were tasked to a group project which we knew nuts about. Everyweek we sent samples to lab, every week, our results were total crap. We used 150 ependorf, & yet, our results & effort were washed down the drain. We were super stressed, Tirza, Khairul, Dionis, Felyssia. We even extended our presentation into the study break. It was only till like one lesson before our final presentation that we knew what was wrong with our dilutions. How nice..

My elective this time was Aseptic Dispensing. It was a night class because the lecturer is a part time lecturer. We had tons of fun in his class. Especially practical. When we could play with the syringes, the needles, the saline, the ampoules, etc.

There were lots of projects this semester, & because we were drawn lots to form our project groups, hence, meeting time with the various groups to do projects are usually the long break hours. We always arrange & reschedule study hours, we do projects in between. For the past semesters, long break hours equals to shopping time, or even sufficient enough for me to go home. However, this semester, our long or short breaks are all used for project discussions. Everyone bought food to tutorial rooms, our 'personal classroom' & held discussions. We brought laptops to school almost everyday.

Communication Skills. The module did not drive us crazy. THE TUTOR DID. He was super strict with everything. Even tiny alignments in everything. But it did great help by helping us notice everything.

This semester, I didn't have anymore relationship problems because it was over. But I was still quite affected. Oh well.. On the other hand, I was in NDP. And Saturday became my most dreaded day of every week. Because everyone would see me studying my pharmacology notes while waiting for time to pass at the F1 pit. To be elaborated in Part 3. I mean, the wushu & NDP part.

Needless to say, my GPA fell again. Because of the various committments I had, because I had not much heart in my books no matter how hard I was studying. I really don't know what I was thinking that time..

Year 2 and Year 3 was also the time when we had tons of class celebrations. Like birthday celebrations, & we would take tons of class photos.. enjoyed!!

Year 3 Semester 2-
This whole semester, was attachment & FYP. Hougang Polyclinic & SGH.
Report, AES, Presentations. NYP School Library became my second home with Irene. My laptop & thumbdrive became the most precious things to me in my world. I finally got out of my shell from bgr, & strived to get back all my As. & I did!! Perfect score this time round. The best ending to my 3 years of poly life.

& no, I did not went back to G2000 to work anymore. But I found back friends & nicer memories with my G2000 friends though. :))

to be continued...

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