The first week

on Sunday October 1, 2006 0005h by Jonathan
in Education, Life, SP

Since I’m in the ranting mood, I might as well take the opportunity to rant about the first week of school.

I’ve got a full complement of Tech related modules this sem, for which I’ve got nothing to rant about. Previous Sem has seen things like Business Operations Management (which was actually quite fun), Ethics and Law of IT (which was interesting and informative to say the least) and Introduction to Organisational Behaviour (which I got a Dist for, so I’m not complaining). But yes. Hello full complement of Tech modules.

I took 2 Tech Modules for my GEMS (Electives) and this is where the rating comes in. First module was Securing your PC(SYPC), which is really similar to Information Systems and Network Security, which I took last Sem, so yeah, the group of us who took SYPC this Sem found the first lecture extremely boring.

Then yesterday was SOHO Computer Networking, again somewhat of a mirror of the Networking Fundamentals taken in Year 1. So that class was pretty dull too.

Which finally brings us to the ranting part. Why the heck did I take modules of things I already have a foundation in? The answer to that lies in the stupid GPA calculation system that SP (and I reckon other Polys as well) use. See, GEMS is supposed to ‘broaden our educational experience’ by allowing us to learn things outside our field of study. But the results of our GEMS is taken into account when calculating GPA.

This means that for me, I would think twice before choosing a GEM on say, Biology, simply because if I don’t get an A for it, my GPA’s screwed. So taking it into consideration into our GPA while claiming that the objective is to ‘broaden our educational experience’ is rather oxymoronic I think.

While I completely understand the need to include it in the GPA (else people might not give two hoots about their GEMS), can’t we follow the Uni GPA calculation? Where a Dist is a 4.2, so at least should one get a B+ for GEM, keeping a 4.0 is still possible. I can think of a number of coursemates who would be happier with the Uni GPA calculation.

But alas, I’m not exactly bothered enough to take this up to the people upstairs, so like any other lazy person, I’ll just go along with my boring and dull GEMs.

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