Sem 6, Week 6: Whirlwind

OK, so this post is a full week late. What happened?

Quite a few things in fact. There was a packed weekend and then a big rush throughout the past week, but I will update that in the next post.

So, let's get back to what happened in the recess week. There was supposed to be a meeting with my co-supervisor, to update him about my MSc project, but that didn't happened. The date was tentatively agreed, however a day before the meeting, he had second thought and find it more efficient that I just sent him the draft of the thesis once it is done. The reason for that my project is not his project, and he just wanted to help by agreeing to be my supervisor. Well, that's fair enough, though somehow I don't feel so good. I guess that is related to another event relating to the Chemistry Department Office.

 There is an administrator for the MSc program and she is a really wonderful person, always there to help and answering all the queries (except for those that I sent when I was in a desperate attempts to land a supervisor - more on that next time). However, the same can't be said of her colleague. I emailed the administrator mid-week, asking a few questions. She, efficient as usual, was able to answer all of them except one. That one she referred me to her colleague, who asked me a few follow-up questions and then went silent. Since then, I had not heard anything from her (the colleague), even though I had emailed her a reminder and called her twice. Just to be fair, maybe she can't answer that question on her own, and she needed to forward it to someone else, and it's that someone else that's holding things up. Then again, the question I asked is a rather simple one, and I am sure I am not the first one asking it, so for it to take so long to get a reply - in fact, I am not sure I will even get a reply - doesn't really leave a good impression on me of the department office.

 Oh well, enough complaining. Good things did happen throughout the week. One of them is the poster presentation during the UK-Singapore Symposium. I was out of my depth sometimes, but I think I winged it. So I am happy. As for studies, finally got a little bit of things down. Not much, but it's still progress.

Sem 6 Week 5: Still Clueless...

So another week went by and I found myself thinking: what's going on?

Seriously, I think I had not been following the lectures (especially Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging) and am having trouble catching up. It is normal to feel clueless about what's going on in the lecture as it had happened before. Usually the reasons is that I don't understand the lecturer (applicable for all modules this semester), or I have been slacking in revision (also true for this semester). For the previous semesters, eventually in the end, the situation will be resolved, usually by some very painful cramming and mugging.

This semester, however, I am rather worried that I can't see any head or tails for all three modules. The reason is actually very simple: I am not familiar with the subject matter of the modules. Analytical chemistry and macromolecules are just not my stuff. Not that I am not interested in them (I do actually), but having to study something unfamiliar, and to get a good result out of it will always be difficult. Extra effort will be needed, which so far I had not been putting in...

The week past had presented a good opportunity to set at least some things in motion, but self-inflicted bad luck (shouldn't had leave the headlights on...) and the bad, old habit of procrastination robbed away those precious time I could had used to brush up on my studies. I'm having two presentations coming up at the end of this month, plus a meeting this coming week with my co-supervisor about my project. I can ill afford to waste anymore time.

 No point looking back. The only way forward is to get my act together and get things going. Being optimistic, I am quite sure I can pull myself together and push things through.

 On the other hand, I am getting back to work on my project next week, which I am quite sure some positive result will come through. Still not started on my thesis yet, but I should be able to crank out something by the end of the week - which, by then, I should be less clueless.

Sem 6 Week 4: Time to Get Serious...

Remember what I said about Bioanalytical Chemistry? That it is non-examinable and there's really no need to study the lecture topics? Well, that's not the case anymore.

Now it turned out that, the lecturer's request to cancel the exam was denied by the administrative office because his submission of the request was late. So the exam is back on, and will account for 50% of the total mark. The other 50% will come from the presentation. There's no more small quizzes, no more class participation, and (most importantly) no more essay.

I had never come across such "unpredictable" module before, where the mode of assessment is so on-the-fly and seems to change week by week. Considering a quarter of the semester is already gone, and the mode of assessment is really bare minimum now, I think it is more or less fixed. But I won't be surprise if there are changes again.

Going by the current situation, it seems that I will be better off attending Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging on Friday instead. There's no more small quizzes during lecture for Bioanalytical Chemistry anymore, so there's no real need to attend the lecture. Plus, more importantly, I am lagging behind in viewing the recorded lecture for Advanced Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging. Also, the lecturer seems to do some drawing and calculation during lecture, which is not captured in the recordings. Thus it is really a very good idea I start to catch up by attending the lectures.

Advanced Organic Materials needs a bit of catching up too. The same goes for my MSc project. particularly the thesis part of it, which I had not started. This weekend was another weekend wasted as no serious work was being done. I had a good rest though, and ran my first half-marathon in 10 years, so it had been a good weekend, But it would had been perfect if I got some work done in between. I can't really procrastinate anymore. It's already 4 weeks of the semester gone, and with time running out, it's time to get serious. Really.