Perception

My results for the term were released last Tuesday, the eve of Christmas Eve. I was a little apprehensive about knowing how well or badly I did for the semester, and even on the morning of that fateful day itself I was still slightly hesitant about checking my grades. When I did, however, I was overcome with a justified feeling of relief and satisfaction, mostly because I wasn’t confident of doing well in a few modules. The breakdown of my results, with the module codes sorted in alphanumeric order, is as follows:

CS1101 Programming Methodology: A
CS1105 Computing and Society: B-
CS1231 Discrete Structures: B+
EC1301 Principles of Economics: A-
NM2216 Introduction to Interactive Media Design: B+

CAP: 4.2

Those aren’t impressive grades, and I’m especially disappointed with what I got for CS1105 Computing and Society, the only non-examinable module of the lot. The irony is that I had thought at the start of the semester that it would be easy to score in this module, as the emphasis was weighted on a term-long project.

There was difficulty completing the project, and this led to the submission of a substandard product which ultimately cost me a good grade. I remember the optimism that I had at the start of the term, but on hindsight it was perhaps just naivety. The lesson I’ve learned from this is to be less reliant on others, particularly in project-focused modules. When one works with group mates he or she isn’t familiar with, it’s easy to lose motivation (if there’s any, at all), and sometimes this luck can make or break your grade.

But enough of the whining. I’m really happy with the grades I got for my Economics and New Media module, which I honestly felt I would not do well in. I guess I have the Bell Curve to thank for this, for allowing me to fall in the better half of the distribution. Perhaps it was my background in Economics that made the crucial difference, but I highly doubt this was the case.

As the results effectively signal the end of my first term of University studies, a lot more challenges await me in the coming semester. The term break is quickly coming to an end, and similarly 2008 draws to a close. A lot has really transpired over this past year – the end of my National Service, my first job as well as my first internship, my aging into adulthood (21) and especially my transition to a University undergraduate. I also started this blog, Perception, as a documentation of my maturity into design practices, web development and programming. It’s good to look back and see how much I’ve accomplished, but it’s more exciting to see what the future brings.