‘Speak up’: Advice to polytechnic freshmen from this year’s graduating class

SINGAPORE – April marks a new academic year at polytechnics, heralding a new crop of nervous yet excited freshmen. What can a been-there-done-that batch of graduating students tell these newbies to calm their nerves and ease their minds? Here are the graduands’ three tips.

Use digital tools to manage your time

There are big changes in store for students making the leap from secondary school to polytechnic. One of the biggest changes students will experience is increased freedom, though graduating seniors said that this can often be a bane as much as a boon.

Ms Chaarumitha, a business studies student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), said: “(Starting polytechnic) will feel like sudden freedom – no more uniforms, more flexible hours, and a lot less hand-holding. With that freedom, it’s easy (for new students) to get distracted and start putting less time into their studies.”

Added the 20-year-old, who goes by only one name: “But poly has a way of creeping up on you. If you slip up even one semester, pulling your grade point average (GPA) back up becomes much harder.”

Other soon-to-be-graduates TL;DR spoke to echoed her sentiments – unlike in secondary school, every semester’s grades at polytechnic counts towards a student’s GPA, which ultimately affects a student’s ability to enter their desired course in university.

Communications and media management student at Temasek Polytechnic Muhammad Azri Syafiq, 19, said: “I would encourage (new students) to balance time for work and play. Without proper time management, they might find themselves too stressed out over work, or falling behind and struggling to catch up with lesson materials.”

Seniors recommended using digital planners, calendars and other tools to balance and keep track of academic deadlines, extracurricular activities and recreational time with friends.

NP’s Ms Chaarumitha said that keeping a simple calendar on her phone – to keep track of her deadlines, events and classes to attend – helped her to “prepare for things ahead of time instead of rushing things (at the) last minute”.

Speak up and ask questions

Increased academic freedom also means increased responsibility for one’s own learning. In practice, seniors said that this means that lecturers are less likely to regularly check on a student’s progress or content knowledge.

Biomedical Science student at Republic Polytechnic (RP) Simran Bhaumik, 19, said: “If you need help with certain modules/topics, ask your tutor and peers for help. You will not be spoon-fed information in poly and are expected to seek help when you need it.”

Ms Prerana Das, a media arts and design student at Singapore Polytechnic (SP), said being afraid to speak up affected her grades in the first year.

The 20-year-old said: “Polytechnic assignments had such a new structure, and I got the hang of it only once I made new friends, and we could discuss it together. But this compromised my year one grades… (which) form the basis of (your) GPA for the rest of your poly journey.”

She said: “Ask your lecturer as many questions as possible whenever you’re in doubt. I was too embarrassed to ask (my lecturers) because no one else would. I felt like I was stupid for not understanding the assignment, but I realise now that I should (have) just asked my lecturer as much as possible.”

Participate in non-academic activities to boost your CV

Finally, seniors stressed the importance of participating in activities outside the classroom to boost one’s chances of getting a desired internship, university course or job.

SP’s Ms Das said: “Building your portfolio makes it so much easier when you apply for university and internships. When lecturers see you involved in (extracurricular activities), they also tend to introduce or recommend you to extra gigs outside school too because they know you can handle it.

“Everyone can have good grades; but you can have good grades and a great stack of extracurriculars that show your personality and values.”

To build her portfolio, Ms Das assumed various positions within extracurriculars that helped showcase her skills in the media field. These included being a publicity committee member for the media, arts and design ambassadors, where she showcased her experience promoting and covering various events held by SP’s Media, Arts and Design School on social media.

She was also the vice-president of student-run media start-up and content creation agency Re/Define, where she honed her writing and editing skills.

She even had the opportunity to represent SP on a student exchange programme to Fukuoka, Japan. She added: “(My experience in Japan) shows universities that I am a good candidate to represent them overseas.”

Mr Pravin Vincent Ramesh, a mass media management student at Nanyang Polytechnic, said that one of his biggest regrets of his three years of polytechnic is not realising the importance of co-curriculars sooner.

He said: “I was very much focused on my grades and while that is good, it did cause me to lose out on (aspects like) building up a portfolio and participating in out-of-school volunteer work.”

Nevertheless, Mr Ramesh said he felt that the co-curricular responsibilities he took on later in his polytechnic life did help him build his resume for university applications. He added: “(Being in charge of the CCA’s social media and publicity) helped me showcase my leadership capabilities while still remaining relevant to my interest in communication courses.”

RP’s Miss Bhaumik encouraged students to go the extra mile and take on part-time jobs or internships during term breaks. She worked at restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez during her term breaks in her first two years in polytechnic.

She said: “Although (my part-time job) was completely unrelated to my field of study, I feel that it still helped to boost my portfolio by allowing me to build up my soft skills such as interpersonal skills.”

“(Interacting with customers) taught me how to deal with conflicts and converse with people in an effective manner – skills that are essential no matter where I work in the future. This part-time job allowed me to boost my resume by (demonstrating) these skills.”