Year 4 sem 1

oh how wonderful it feels to type those words: Year 4

Indeed, it is the final year of my life. and now that sem 1 is all but done, all I have are 4 remaining months, and just 2 modules in addition to my final year project, which honestly has all the bones and structure in already; all i need to do is build up the muscles some more and make it a real monster.

And the crazy thing is, year 4 has been SO relaxing and simple. Half my time this semester has been spent learning other skills (like programming iphone applications) as well as applying for jobs (a recent job assignment for Weeby's 250k a year [thats usd] job took me a whole week of nonstop work) and I barely spent any time on my modules, and yet I feel ridiculously confident. My final year project was self-proposed, so it doesn't really feel like school work; feels more like I'm doing it for myself. Its a difficult feeling to express.

Anyway its been so easy so far, and everyone who met me points out that I'm just oozing confidence this sem. I feel like I'm nailed on for my 3rd dean's list this sem and yet I'm barely even trying! A small part of me is still feeling doubtful; perhaps this is an aftereffect of going on exchange last sem, where grades were not factored into my overall GPA and thus the ridiculous confidence since all i needed was to pass (still received an A for a graduate course, mind). But a larger portion of me feels that I have arrived; university has not been useless for me; it has actually trained me and honed me into a ridiculously intelligent beast. School is too easy for me now; I'm ready to go into the real world and start owning it. And I don't mean meaningless mundane jobs that any average joe can perform, I mean startups, and creating the next facebook or whatsapp. And its not like its easy to "pass", it was ridiculously easy to pass from my first year; passing is like breathing. Its actually easy to ACE and top the cohort!

Indeed, this sem was ridiculously easy so far, and I'm well on my way to achieving my target of a 4.6 GPA this sem to push my overall GPA up to 4.5 for first class hons. (i actually wrote an iphone app to calculate this, can't wait to go try it later, i've missed it for an entire month! i'll need to use my mac for that though (bought it just to program iphone apps) cos I haven't bought the iphone 6 yet, so that can wait for now.) However, effort-wise it was easy; I still can't be 100% sure that I have arrived at that penultimate state, or if this is really a state of overconfidence. The exam results which will return will determine which state I am in. Will I really obtain a dean's list with such little effort? Lets do my usual results prediction which I always enjoy so much before the results actually come out!

Final Year Project Part 1 (6mcs)
It would be ridiculous if I received anything other than an A, or even an A+ for this module. Seriously. Like grounds for complaining to the press ridiculous. 2 Chapters of my final year project report were published in a paper. Yea. Firstly, an undergraduate publishing a PHD level paper? Okay. Next, it was published in the Asian Conference for Computer Vision 2014. That's a big ticket. I've checked other publishers from NUS in previous years and they are all PHDs; some are professors from NUS. Basically that means I published a paper in the same conference as some of papers published by professors who are teaching in NUS. And its at a competitive rate too, 18 papers were submitted for the conference, and only 9 were accepted. Mine was one of them. So if I dont at least get an A... what are they saying about the other Professors who also submitted papers also?! There's no way I'm not getting an A; extremely confident about this.
Projected result: A+

EE2031 (3mcs)
In this mod, you build an electronic gadget and present it in a sales pitch style. My group built an electronic piano playground and presented it; the beautiful thing was that a few groups prior to my presentation, the profs really tore the presenter a new one. All the students were looking at each other in silence and giving the zomg face. One girl whispered to me: omg so mean!
I was delighted. (not because the guy was getting destroyed, im not so pathetic to need others to fail for myself to succeed). No, I was delighted because adverse circumstances release my full potential. Now that I saw that this was not a usual school presentation where you just go up, spout your prepared speech and get some polite applause before returning to your seat, I was ready to turn on the style. The harsh remarks might make others nervous; for me, I love this real-world, realistic format. I went full bankai. Halfway through the presentation, all the professors' stern faces had turned into smiles of respect. Every other student was silent; the entire room was crowded around me. I was in my element. I had attracted a crowd larger than any of the other groups have. Not a single person was even talking; every single person's eyes reverted on me. It was beautiful. I basked in the glory. Props to my teammate; he was the perfect man to work with. We were going for ambitious stuff in our gadget, and halfway through there were technical glitches that stumped even me. Not him. He surpassed all difficulties; he was truely ace. If the product wasn't perfect, there was no way I could have given the presentation so well and convincingly. With his substance, I was able to truely shine.
The results for this mod have actually returned, since there is no final paper for this (its just the project) and my group received 88.2%. The average was 74%. The project is half the weightage; for the other assignments, I received 95.2%, so overall, i would be VERY surprised if i received anything less than an A. Definitely grounds for press complaint too lol
Projected result: A+

EG2401 (3mcs)
Bullshit mod of the sem. honestly. Let me just tell u the name: Engineering professionalism. what. Throughout the mod they were teaching us about stuff like how to make sure a nuclear power plant doesn't explode, or how to make sure pollution doesn't destroy the world. O.M.G. I am specializing in computer vision. The work I will do revolves around what you play with in your handphones/laptops. This mod had absolutely nothing to do with what I was going to do in future. And whether I was going to get my dean's list or not depends on this mod? I was P.I.S.S.E.D off you better believe it. The only useful stuff i learnt from the mod were regarding patents and copyrights, and that was only 2 lectures in the entire mod. Either way, I was not going to let this mod destroy my chances of dean's list. I ate the entire thing up. This mod was the only thing all semester I had to actually study for; and i memorised for 5 whole days before the final exams. Wrote like a demon, 11 full pages in 2 hours, and thats A4 size, no line spacing. The only possibility I'm getting anything below an A- is if the marker gets pissed off trying to decipher my horrible handwriting (hey, try writing 11 full pages in 2 hours neatly) and gives me that mark. It isn't impossible, but honestly i deserve an A- for this, at the very least, considering how much crap i memorised. (7 pages btw, front AND back. i memorised 7 pages of WORDS. and by memorising, i mean i could spout them out word for word without any reference whatsoever. raw memorisation. u better believe i was pissed off when i was memorising crap)The reason I'm not predicting an A is because there was a presentation, and honestly I didn't really believe in it, so i presented it rather half-assed. My half-assed is probably pretty average amongst the cohort, and average is B+, so it should balance out my finals for an A-.
Projected result: A-

EG2604 (4mcs)
This mod was beautiful. Seriously. I spent like 2 hours all semester on this module. I went for all the classes, but i was typing my final year report and doing experiments for my final year report during the classes lol. And for the final presentation, i spent 2 hours the previous day coding a program that worked beautifully. It was pretty easy, for my level. Basically I was using thumbprint recognition to act as a credit card. So you didn't need to pay at the school canteens; all you do is scan your thumbprint, order, and the bill gets saved in your account. Really easy program. In fact, I did more than necessary, and added in some additional features in case the professors asked for some wierd situations, like if the guy went to the same stall 10x in a day or something, or if the system would be saved for the next day, or month, or whatever. I even made the presentation of the bill fancy (all automated with the program. making it fancy was actually the hardest part, and took like over a hundred lines of code). I would have done more, but this was a pass/fail module and the grades weren't counted. And the professors didn't even ask that, all I did was present my basic program and it was finished. I didn't even bother preparing the presentation since it wasn't graded, just went up there and spoke. Some of the other groups gave real efforts too, created models and everything.
And the profs gave me distinction as well as the top idea award. whaaaat? I was DELIGHTED. like seriously; i wasn't expecting that, considering the effort I put in. its just the software guise: anything that is software based is impressive to anyone who doesn't know how to code. There are some programs that are extremely complicated and deserve full kudos, like the facial recognition password system I created this summer, but this was not one of them. It took me 2 hours! Beautiful, and the perfect end to my semester, this module. The distinction was from the profs, but the top idea award was actually from voting amongst the students, so that really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, cos I didn't really talk to any of them, just went for class, did my own stuff during the class even while others were having discussions, and left immediately after)
OH OH OH and the best part of this mod? 250 dollar budget to buy whatever you want. AND U KEEP THE STUFF U BOUGHT TOO! I actually bought an arduino starter kit which was easily explained since i needed it for the thumbprint scanner. the thumbprint scanner was useless, but the kit i can use for the rest of my life. And since it was a starterkit, it had manuals and parts and all, so i could really learn some serious stuff with the kit. the kit was like 100 bucks and its free! Love it. I actually exceeded the budget (used $311) but the profs were suitably impressed when i told them my idea and said i could exceed my budget. when i submitted my bill the sch admin wasn't pleased, but lucky my profs were there and smoothed it over. the sch admin chick handling it was bloody hot, btw. (had a tingly feeling when she called my name later on "zhikai" with perfect pronunciation. like seriously it is rare for someone to pronounce my name perfectly. even i can't do it all the time. its hard. and someone that hot? ain't getting a christian name though, even when i went to usa i shortened my name to kai and everyone pronounced it perfectly. its the zhi, and the combination that is difficult)
Projected result: Pass (not counted to GPA. wish it was, woulda been a free A considering I received the top idea award and distinction. doesn't matter though, i'm delighted to be able to add these accomplishments to my resume which is seriously getting buffed up this couple of years!)

So that gives an average GPA for 4.875 for this semester. Even if i receive the dreaded B+ for EG2401, I would get dean's list with 4.75. Either way, seems pretty nailed on for dean's list. But this being the semester after my exchange semester, there is still a seed of doubt in my mind. Everyone says they find it hard to concentrate again after exchange, and its the same for me; u just have such a good time during exchange it doesn't feel real after returning. So its possible that it was either 1) too easy for my current standard and i nailed everything without even trying, or 2) i haven't evolved that much and i just couldn't find the heart to try as hard as usual after returning from exchange.

The results will determine which it is. Can't wait to receive em.

And now i can finally return to working on my FYP which i really missed after spending the last month on the other mods (presentations, final exams etc). The FYP makes me feel like i'm doing something that actually matters for my future, yknow. Studying for mods is just studying for mods; u won't remember that crap after u finish it. Its more a training than actually learning the knowledge. Maybe that is the best way to approach school. We'll see after I get my results. Because if i really ace my results, it means i have really breezed through a semester while topping the cohort (dean's list), which I have never done before. Even the past 2 sems where i got dean's lists, i worked my ass raw to the bone. I don't think i was overconfident though. Feel like I've already surpassed that stage. Overconfidence is taking it easy, and slacking off. I'm a monster who works every single moment of the day.

We'll see in a couple of weeks.