Anyway, does anyone know about the types of degree offered by
universities? I don't really understand what are masters degree,
bachelor degree or first-class honours. Very foreign terms to me.
I'm taking a look at the possible courses I may want to take when I
enter uni in the future.
And yes, is the Dean's list = Honours Roll? I read it up from
NUS website and it was stated that only the top 5% of students from
each school will get into it. How many students are there in each
school usually? (i want to know the top 5% is equivalent to how
many of the top number of students.)
Are there many students taking Medcine or Law? I'm interested in
the arts and social sciences but I heard that job prospects aren't
that good. Most of my bro's friends study the arts and social
sciences and end up becoming teachers.(no offence to the teaching
career, but i don't plan to go into that line) Is it a
myth that if you do well in the arts and social sciences courses,
you will have good job prospects in your hands but if you don't do
well (let's say you fare decently), you'd end up with "normal" jobs
that most students in these courses are getting - like being
teachers, etc? (not looking down on the teaching career. But I'm
not really interested in that line)
Hi Audi,
When a person take up a university course, he or she will start
off with the Bachelor Degree course. Upon completion of it, he or
she proceed to take up the Masters Degree Course. With the
completion of the Masters Degree course, he or she will be able to
take up the Doctorate course. Do note some outstanding students are
able to bypass the Masters Degree after completing their Bachelor
Degree, and take up the Doctorate directly.
When a person completes his or her Bachelor Degree course,
depending on his or her results, he or she may be given a Honours
along with the Bachelor's Degree. The honours given are as
followed, from highest to passing:
1) First Class Honours
2) Second Upper Class Honours
3) Second Lower Class Honours
4) Third Class Honours
5) Pass with Merit ( Not always applicable, depends on the
degree course itself )
6) Pass
In universities, the grading system is similar to that of
polytechnics. Each module, which is like a mini-course, will have a
certain number of Academic Units (AU), which represent the number
of hours the module has in a week. Depending on one's results, a
grade will be given for each module, and a certain amount of points
will be attached to the grade.
For example, a student who gets an "A" will have the maximum
possible points of 5.0, whereas a student who gets an "A-" will
have 4.5 points.
The CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) will be a calculation
of the points you receive for each module, and the number of
Academic Units for each module. It is also the main factor in
deciding which Class of Honours an undergraduate will receive upon
graduation.
As for the Dean List, besides being the top 5%, there are
usually other criteria which varies from faculty to faculty.
For example, a faculty may require students to also have at least
15 AUs and a SPA (Semester Point Average) of at least 4.5 for a
student to be in the Dean List for that particular Semester. For
certain universities, the Dean List is compiled annually, thus
requirements may be based on the entire study year instead.
For different courses, there are different amount of
undergraduate intake. For example, Dentistry allows an intake of
only roughly 40 undergraduates whereas Medicine allows an intake of
about 300 undergraduates. Thus, for dentistry, there will only be
at most 2 people on the Dean List, whereas for Medicine, there will
be a maximum of 15 undergraduates on the Dean List
I hope this answers your query.
Cheers.
