Another post about Some FAQs. This is all info available and probably repeated over and over if you ask any Computer Systems students but I digress. I don’t really have relevant photos so enjoy some random ones for engagement.
Will I get to see Peter Bier?
Yes. On the rare occasion he’s on the street or if you want to relive your Part 1 lectures.
Unfortunately, Peter Bier will NOT be your lecturer. I have heard much about this man but the only time I’ve seen him I almost tripped him up on his unicycle. PSA: don’t randomly stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk.
But guys it’s ok, you do get to see the also very iconic William Lee making a come back. You even get to see him in labs or sometimes tutorials for the first sem at least.
What is the workload like?
I have no idea how to quantify the workload but here’s an overview of my experience so far:
Sem 1 was a lot of work. I don’t want to relive it. My tip though is don’t overcomplicate things and make use of any help you can get. There’s a lot of content and you have to get in a lot of practice to get good.
There’s labs for 2 classes : ElectEng291 and CompSys201. This year CompSys201 experimented with having weekly lab quizzes which were only 1 attempt, 20mins and worth ~4 or 5%. I suppose it’s meant to keep students accountable and are keeping up but it was odd. ElectEng291 labs get you to kind of see what the circuits you’ve been drawing look like in real life and verify what you’ve been learning with real life observations. You also get to work with cool lab equipment. Sometimes there’s a time crunch but it’s more important that you set everything out well rather than just having everything done on the page.
Mmmm, what else? Oh I know! Remember the 101 assignments you had to do? Well those are making a come back and it’s even ‘better’ since you don’t get marked for every question, if you get 1 question wrong you have to redo that whole part to get full marks. 🙂 I can’t explain it very well but you’ll see.
There’s also assignments for 201 later in the Sem which were untimed and weren’t too bad if you were keeping up, but again, only 1 attempt. Weekly coderunner for SE281, also wasn’t too bad and EngSci 211 weekly quiz is similar to 111.
There are 2 long answer tests for EE291, 1 test for EngSci211, 1 MCQ test for CompSys201, 2 one-hour Coding tests for SoftEng281. Tests for 291 and 211 were brutal. Clear working is so important! You can’t write just anything for the sake of getting marks.
3 exams though. Which is nice.
Sem 2 workload is not as bad depending on which elective you choose. However, as you’ve probably alr been forewarned CompSys/ElectEng 209 is basically your whole workload and takes up soooo much time. With 292, at least in the first half of sem, there is a lot of content overlap with 209.
What can I expect in PIII and IV?
I have done my fair share of pestering my seniors about what my future looks like and this is what I have gathered.
In PIII and PIV. You do get more electives that you can choose between so you can sort of control your workload. There are some design courses you can choose from which will/can take up a lot of time. Apparently you do more specialised computer systems work where in Part II there are times where I feel like a glorified electrical student. However, it’s less about calculations and more practical so there’s a lot of self-learning.
For PIII in particular, this is the year with the most workload where you’re in labs all the time.
People are super nice though and usually pretty enthusiastic about their spec and helping you make a decision. I didn’t know Part IV CompSys students existed but you can usually find them in IEEE, clubs and stuff. There’s also elective night which has very valuable info probably.