TLDR:
Participate in class
Prepare in advance (even before school starts)
Create your own notes, don't rely on senior's notes
Do recent PYP multiple times
Everyone knows that studying in University is tough, more so if the school adopts a bell-curve system to grade the students. Nanyang Business School (NBS) is no exception.
The purpose of this post is to advice current and future NBS students on how to score in the various modules offered by NBS. This is purely my opinion and do take it with a pinch of salt.
The Bell Curve
As mentioned, bell-curve system is used to differentiate students’ performance.
This means that the some statistical tools are taken into consideration (such as cohort’s average) and used in the computation of students’ grade.
In other words, to do well (i.e. score at least a B+), you have to perform better than the average student.
Don't neglect Class Participation
In Business Schools, you would have expected some form of Class Participation.
Most, if not all, of the modules in NBS have Class Participation component, with a weightage of around 5% to 20%. The most common weightage I have seen so far is 10%.
To many of the students, 10% is nothing compared to the 50% weightage allocated to Finals (for most courses).
Hence, many of the NBS students would talk only occasionally, since 10% is pretty insignificant to them.
However, I disagree.
To me, Class Participation is a low-hanging fruit that is easy to score.
Of course, I am an advocate of quality over quantity.
Don’t speak for the sake of speaking. Speak when you have formulated your thoughts and value-add to the conversation.
If you have spoken at least once each lesson, you should do better than the average student in class.
This should have given you some advantage in the overall score already.
Here’s an illustration: If your class participation is 3 percentage points higher than the average student, you have a buffer of 6 marks (or 6 marks advantage) in the final exams.
Every percentage point matters and score whenever you can.
Prepare (even before school)
To be very honest, 13 weeks (excluding Recess and Study Weeks) is extremely short to cram the contents of a module.
The first few weeks of school are extremely critical, as the contents taught in the first few weeks are usually the fundamentals.
Usually, many people would be pretty chill during the first few weeks, as they have just recovered from their “holiday hangover”. By the time they go hardcore mode, it would be around Week 3 onwards.
My advice is to start preparing approximately 2 weeks before the school starts.
This includes: downloading the course outline, purchasing textbooks if necessary and printing lecture notes.
Usually, professors would upload the course materials one to two weeks before semester starts, so you really have no excuse not to start preparing early.
The objective of preparing early is to “prep” your mind and kickstart your engine, so that you can go into full force once the semester starts (while the rest start their engine).
Create your own notes
Passing down seniors’ notes have been a tradition in many schools, not just in NBS.
However, because of the bell-curve system, some students may be unwilling to share their resources as they may “lose out” if their resources benefit their friends more than themselves.
So, count yourself lucky if you receive multiple seniors’ notes.
However, I am not a strong believer of using seniors’ notes to study. More often than not, these notes contain many errors and are often outdated. My advice is that you should use these notes only as a reference.
Craft your own notes, using lecture notes/professors’ tips as primary source and seniors’ notes as a secondary source. A good thing about making your own notes is that you are actually studying while making the notes as you will need to filter out irrelevant content.
Furthermore, when you need to study for Finals, you would be more or less familiarised with your own notes, so it wouldn’t and shouldn’t take too much time.
Past Year Papers are your Friends
The last tip is to practice recent Past Year Papers (PYP) multiple times. When I mean recent, I mean the last 5-6 semesters.
This is because: (1) the content is the most up to date, (2) practice makes perfect, (3) you will be able to read the Examiner’s Report after you attempt the papers (available on NBS intranet).
Most importantly, try to get the answers to the PYP, be it from your seniors, your professor (through consultations) or discuss with your friends.
There’s no point doing PYP if there is no review. Once you have reviewed your answers, take note of the potential “trick” questions so that you will not make avoidable mistakes in the Finals.
I hope this post is useful and all the best in your studies! Again, a disclaimer: this post is purely based on my opinion and I do not represent NBS.
This article was anonymously contributed by a Year 3 student from Nanyang Technological University in hopes that his peers and especially juniors get some tips from his experience.
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