You probably just got accepted into NTU (Nanyang Technological University) and you’re probably going to be part of the NBS (Nanyang Business School) real soon!

Congratulations! You’ve acheived your childhood dream.

Finally kickstarting your university life and you might want to know what it’s like in uni.

Don’t worry, I’ve got your back!

The following will be a week of my life as a Year 2 Student at NBS.

This semester, I took 3 core modules, 2 GERPE and 1 UE. Whew, 6 modules. The week that I am documenting is 30 March 2020 to 4 April 2020 (Week 11 of the Semester).

MONDAY (30 March 2020)

I have two classes today, Green Marketing in the morning, then Communications class in the afternoon.

Even though Green Marketing starts at 8:30 am, I woke up at 7:30 am. The reason being, the campus buses only start at 8 am. If there is a need to get to school earlier, I would opt for the public bus (Bus 199) to North Spine. Otherwise, I would try to catch the campus bus. Be prepared to squeeze on the bus early in the morning though.

There are a few campus bus that we have. Red and Blue (the 2 main lines). Both circle around NTU in opposite directions. However, during peak hours such as lunchtime or at 8 am, there are express buses which go to selected bus stops. So beware especially if you want to go to South Spine (for the Red Line). This is annotated by the sign they hang upfront. There is also Yellow line (more for the residents living in estates on campus) and Green (Greenline will travel pickup from Pioneer MRT to North Spine, vice versa). The best part is that this bus is absolutely free!

Alternatively, there are also two public buses which travel within NTU. Bus 179 generally covers the Southside of the school while Bus 199 covers the Northside of the school. Both buses will meet at North Spine. They also start much earlier and end later than the campus buses. So if you need to head out of school or travel to class earlier, these will be the buses to take.

Here is the on the NTU campus buses routes.

Today, the bus god was shining on me because I managed to reach North Spine at a reasonable hour to get my breakfast. Today, I decided to indulge a little and got myself some MacDonald’s breakfast, sausage wrap with orange juice before I tracked all the way to class. Sinful.

So the fast-food chains are situated at North Spine whereby you can grab some breakfast on the way to class. Some of these chains include McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks, Long John Silver, Pizza Hut, KFC and Mr Bean. A local supermarket, Prime Mart and bakery is also situated here. In addition, there are little food places where you can sit and have your meals.

My class is at S4, the next block, so I had to walk… and walk… and walk… till the end of the building, essentially making a U-turn. Face Palm.

Tip: Most of the business classes are held. block S3 and S4, which is between North and South Spine. I would suggest getting to class like 5 – 10 minutes earlier since it is not as easily accessible as compared to other schools, just so you can reach right on time.

When I reached class, most of my groupmates are not here yet. I was quite surprised to see most of the class though since the Professor gave us the option to come for his afternoon class instead.

This is a special scenario so as to allow safe distancing between us students. The class went on while he lectured.

After lunch, I decided to have my weekly lunch with Zong Hua, missing the usual few. I got myself some Chicken Fuyong from the Japanese/ Korean store. However, due to the ongoing situation, we had to ta bao (“takeaway”) the foods and sit at a safe distance between ourselves.

Afterwards, Alan came by and we bought bubble tea from the store (Chi Cha San Qian) that just opened at FineFoods (the old KouFu).

I got myself the Honey Osmanthus Oolong Tea, one of their signatures. It was a refreshing drink for an otherwise hot day in Singapore (what’s new?).

Alan brought us to meet the rest of our friends where we chat a little before I headed back to my hall.

Some typical scenes of NTU. I took the Red Route from Wee Kim Wee till Nanyang Crescent Hall (I stayed at Tamarind Hall).

The typical Red Bus route passes by the newly renovated Yun Nan Garden, Crespion Halls, Hall 6, Canteen 2, Hall 8, 9, 10, 11, Graduate Halls and finally Nanyang Crescent Hall. See above for the full Red Bus route.

I stayed in for the rest of the day because I had a Social Marketing test happening the next morning. For dinner, I got some dumplings at the noodles store from the canteen below my hall.

There are canteens in most of the halls and if there isn’t. There is probably one within walking distance! Tamarind’s canteen can get very crowded as it has some of the best food around campus. So be sure to drop by here to try out some of their food (ahem best Mala, Korean, Indian…)!

TUESDAY (31 March 2020)

Today, I had my Social Marketing test in the morning. The weightage of the test was 20% which could be potentially critical to my grade which was why I spent Monday studying for it.

I woke up earlier at around 6:30 am to recap a little on what I memorized. As per usual, I got onto the campus bus and headed to North Spine, where my test was held.

I opted to get Mr Bean, a “healthier” breakfast since I indulged the day before and headed to the lecture theatre.

The test went by smoothly (I hope) and I got lunch from Subway before heading back to my hall.

I had a few skype meetings to get through today so at 2 pm, I skyped my Art as a Commodity team to discuss the project. After a 4 hours meeting, we finally ended the call.

I met up with my girls from my hall, Elaine and Sherwinna, both I’ve not seen in a long time. We decided to have mala from the canteen downstairs (which is one of the best mala places in NTU!). We were so unused to how empty the canteen was.

It was great catching up with the girls as we caught up and fangirl over some mundane activities (Drama, school life what else?). A really good break from the hectic month.

Before I knew it, it was back to reality as I had to skype the guys from my communications class on another project. The meeting ended in an hour (thankfully). Majority of the project is done since we started earlier. So that was awesome!

I then spent another one hour or so reading up on the notes for my Commodities Trading test on Thursday.

What a productive Tuesday!

WEDNESDAY (1 April 2020)

My class for today had been shifted online. My professor did not really do much today apart from going through some questions and clarifying some of the doubts for the quiz on Saturday.

Yes. This week is one of the hell weeks that I have this semester. Which was why I am studying so much this week.

In addition to the test I had on Tuesday, I have another 3 coming up.

faints

Afterwards, I decided to do the LAMS for the week. LAMS is online lectures which need to be completed.

Tip: Since LAMS are online lectures, you have free rein of doing them whenever. My advice is doing it at the time which is specifically allocated in your timetable, or fixing a time especially for it. Otherwise, it becomes tough on you to play catchup during finals period and in tutorials! Completing this will count towards the class participation. So please do your LAMS!

Lunch Time! Today, I got myself some Western Food from Tamarind’s canteen. Grilled Fish with Fries and Baked Beans. Their western store is pretty good too!

During lunch, the school sent an email to notify that us that exchange for next semester is cancelled. It was horrible news since I had been looking forward to it 😢

The afternoon was spent on doing research for Commodities Trading.

At 6 pm, I had to attend an online seminar, the criteria of one of my 1 AU class. The talk lasted for 2 hours but it had been quite informative.

Wednesday dinners are my hall friends catch up day. I could not make it for dinner since I had the online seminar so they bought Japchae for me. How sweet!

I spent some time catching up with the rest of them, even having our girls talk at the end.

In the midst of a hell week, it is important to sneak in that break and not just focus on studying.

Last task of the day was to spent on Commodities Trading revision.

THURSDAY (2 April 2020)

I did not have a physical class in the morning (my classes are only on certain weeks), but our Commodities project team had decided to make use of the allocated timeslot for the project meeting instead.

During this period, we also had a quiz. When the quiz was finally uploaded, we took some time off the meeting to complete it.

Finally, it was lunchtime. We got food from Co-op Café at the Hive. Finally food outside of Tamarind Hall. I got some grilled chicken with mushroom sauce.

After lunch, I headed for my Communications Class where we revised for the writing test for the following Monday. Probably one of the most tedious classes but pretty interesting if can managed to implement what was taught.

Tip: For the freshies, there are two such classes. One is taken in the first year, the other in the second year (if you followed the planned curriculum). The area of focus for both classes is slightly different. This is also the “killer” module for a lot of people so so ask your seniors for advice on which profs’ class you should take. To take the year 2 module overseas, you’ll need to score an A for your year 1 class.

After class, I went back to my hall and skyped my Social marketing group. This skype meeting was way overdue, so it had to be done.

Afterwards, I took a two-hour nap (whoops) and spent the rest of the night working on the cheat sheet for my python class. If you’ve seen the sky, you’d know why.

My python class is the data and decision-making class. This is another killer module for those who don’t have any python background at all!

Tip: So I would suggest spending your winter or summer holidays looking up on the basics of python. Otherwise, it gets tough when there’s a need to play catch up every single lesson.

FRIDAY (3 April 2020)

I had no class today, so I woke up early and spent the day working on the remaining parts of the python cheat sheet while revising for my test.

However, news came at 4 plus as the country has decided to close the university and stop school. They advised everyone to move out of their hall.

Hearing the news, I spent the rest of the day packing so that I could move out of hall over the next couple of days.

On the bright side, my tests were all cancelled! This I can tell you, it does not happen often unless something dire happens. Although it can happen if your class is the only one and your prof has free rein on amending the syllabus throughout the semester. I’ve had some classes like this. For example, rescheduling test dates for commodities class.

Tip: This is the reason why it is important to keep track of your submission and test dates, in case of such changes. Here is how I managed my time while in uni by using simple trackers digitally or in a bullet journal.

THE WEEKENDS (4 to 5 March 2020)

Despite not having to study for my tests, it was still a hectic weekend.

I had my final lunch in school for the semesters with some of my campmates. I had Korean, one of the best food in Tamarind.

Yeah I know. Everything is so good.

The Korean store auntie even asked me if I was moving out of my hall and said bye-bye. So touched. This goes to show how much Korean food I buy.

I packed up my room and moved out of my hall. It was a tedious process since I had so many belongings at hall.

Next semester, I would no longer be staying at hall so it was a very bittersweet moment.

It had been really fun staying in the hall, getting to know new friends. It was also a great opportunity for me to learn to be more responsible for myself. Here’s a post on “15 Things I learnt as an Incoming Freshman“.

Disclaimer: By this week, the COVID-19 has impacted some areas of school life as they started preparing to take things online for our classes so some events that happened may not occur in a normal school semester.

So, that was a week in my life.

Let me know in the comments, what are some of the craziest hell weeks that you had?