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My life in RPRepublic Polytechnic
- Yvonne NgSingapore
- Republic Polytechnic, Singapore
- Diploma in Communication and Information Design
- Vocational Study (Certificates and Diplomas)
- 2010
It requires three years for one to complete and graduate with the diploma. Currently, I am in the last academic year. Every freshmen study general topics such as Mathematics, Science, Communication, Cognitive and Enterprise Skills. In the sophomore year, we get to study our specialised modules. Particularly for this course - Communication Theory, Effective Presentation Skills, Cross Cultural Communication. As for the final year, the students are required to do two Final Year projects. Although we change class every semester, I enjoy knowing classmates from different faculties. As for my course, I am glad that it is a small cohort of less than a hundred where everyone knows each other and we are only doors apart.
For a Singaporean student, I went in through my O’levels (Ordinary levels). I applied through the normal admission and am able to secure a position in my course. For Republic Polytechnic (RP), if the student passes all his subjects, it will easy to be granted admission as RP is a newly established polytechnic which is only 5 years old. Three years back, when I just graduated from secondary school, it was easy to get into this course this is a new course and the cut-off point was very high. (For o’levels the lowest score one obtained, the better) For now, I am not very sure of the cut-off point. But I am quite sure that as years go by, the cut-off point will be lowered. However, this course has got limited in-takes. Up this now, there are three batches of students and every year, they take in no more than a 100.
Due to the fixed schedule, students from different faculties are still able to meet up on a regular basis. We enjoy holidays as a school, unlike other polytechnics which have different holiday for different faculties. Although the timetable is more or less fixed for everyday, we are able to experience a stable school hour (around 6hrs a day). If you do not like to study notes, listen to lectures and take major papers, then RP is the school for you. RP has a paperless system where every student owns a laptop and everyday assignments are done through the laptop. No written papers, but computerized tests are being scheduled thrice for each module, per semester. In RP, instead of lectures and tutorials, we have Problem Based Learning (PBL) and we do team work everyday. Instead of calling our teachers lecturers, we call them facilitators.
Things that I have learnt from the module is easier applicable to my daily life as everyday, we are given problems to solve. These problems are problems which we may face when we step into the society in future. We solve these problems through research and applying whatever we have learnt in previous lessons. So what we have learnt will not be forgotten easily and is easily applied. Sometimes, even when I am out shopping, I will see things which will remind me of what I have learnt in class. Any day in class, towards to end of the day, we would have to present our findings as a group. Presenting everyday has helped me to get use to facing and speaking to the crowd. It has also helped improve my public speaking skills. After each presentation, our classmates and facilitators are suppose to critique our presentation. It has molded me to be resilient towards negative comments and taking it as room for improvements. Through that, I have also learnt to be firm on what I have to present and to speak up for what I think is right.
In this course, there are a wide variety of careers to explore after graduation. With the diploma, one is able to become a radio deejay, broadcast journalist, print journalist, public relations officer, marketing manager, events organizer and many more.
If you are studying right now or you have completed your studies, then help future students by sharing your experiences.