A Rough Guide to SEP/OIA

Foreward:

This guide is recommended for NUS students who intend to go for SEP/OIA. It will be a rough journey but defintely puts u in a steep learning curve, hence the title Rough Guide. There will definitely be grammatical and spelling errors. As long as u get the idea, is ok liao la.

This guide will be in a six part series. Of which, most of it will be devoted to preparations for SEP, reaching your destination of SEP and how to survive during SEP. This Guide is best recommended for students heading to Technische Universität Darmstadt. However, it can still be used for reference for those gg to other SEP destinations.

This is just a guide and should not be assume to be accurate at all times as the writer frequently encounter memory blackouts during certain phases of his life. Hence, use at your own risk. It is with hope tt this will prove useful for future SEP-bound students. Please note tt this is inexhaustive and will be revised from time to time.


Contents:

Series 1 - Preparations for SEP in NUS.
Series 2 - Destination Touchdown and so it begins
Series 3 - Syllabus and Courses to take or avoid (only for TUD students)
Series 4 - Special Places of Interests in boring Darmstadt.
Series 5 - Your First Overseas Internship
Series 6 - Going Home and Modules to match back


Introduction:

Firstly, ask yourself these questions.

"What is your purpose of going for SEP?"
"Why SEP? Why not other NUS Enhancement Programs?"
"Am I willing to forgo my comfort zone for the harsh reality of life?"
"Can i survive teh tarik or bak kut teh for at least 3 months?" (This qns is the most vital, seriously)
"What's next after SEP?"
"Do I just want SEP to make my frens go 'wow' and 'cool'?"
"Am I ready at all?"

Once u have done all that thinking with plausible answers, u are more or less prepared mentally. It is important u give a good thought abt the above mentioned questions. There are no correct answers, unlike how we are trained to think tru out our 15 years of education. All boils down to this:

Perspective.

Other than this point, one more thing u shud always keep in mind when u go abt handling your SEP matters:

Never Ever Assume

Let me elaborate on this. U hav rough idea of SEP. U know which Uni u r gg to. How r u gg to settle your accomodation? Are u gg straight to the hostel/place to stay right after u reach the airport?

There are alot of things which we always assume that the other side is the same as NUS. Just to reinforce my point,

We are a bunch of pampered students expecting and assuming everything.

Keep these points in mind and u r safe.


Coming soon: Series 1