SP declassified survival guide

Hi incoming freshmen of 2026, new year new beginnings, many stuff has changed, life’s tuff This channel is 3 years old so some of the stuff and terminology may be outdated with constant evolving of SP systems and infrastructure but feel free to use this channel as reference and all previous FAQ is all up

Created this channel when was about to grad poly, now about to (unofficially) grad uni in a couple of months. Glad this channel was able to guide 1100+ students into their next phase of life for the past 3 years. Noticed a lot of things has changed in school. Many things has happened in the span of 3 years right here with smiles and tears.

lowkey crying cos the first batch of students here are about to graduate soon, time flies

EST and Exams (by a user on reddit) EST refers to End-Semester test examination, basically it is the equivalent of your EYE exams in Primary School and Secondary School, except that for EST, it is for the end of a semester, not for the whole year. EST is the graded exam that carries the greatest academic weightage for that module, and it can be your saviour at making your academic comeback and determining whether you pass or fail that module. On a brighter side, it can also be the factor that pushes up your score enough for it to change the grade for that module (for example from B+ to A). If your module is a Semester long module, you’ll have one EST paper, but if it is a year-long module, you’ll have 2 of these. Now, exams. These exams are graded, and will affect your overall GPA for that module, and they range from the mini graded class quizzes that you have at the start of the week for the module, to written exam papers that carry a heavier weightage, such as your Mid-Semester tests (MSTs). For the mini class quizzes, your net score will be computated from your scores from all of these quizzes, and they will usually be combined with other means of assessment to determine your net score for that aspect eg. CA3, which is a combination of class participation marks and graded quizzes(usually these class quizzes will combine together with your in-class participation marks, and yes, coming to lessons on time will get you awarded with those class participation marks that can also be the saviour that helps to save you from having to remodule if you fail that module, so please, PLEASE do not be absent for classes unnecessarily, without a valid LOA)

Library Etiquette 101 By u/judyully Library Room Booking — You can book rooms via the eService portal on your laptop, or through the SP Mobile app by clicking on “Library Room Booking.” Here’s a little secret that’ll boost your chances of securing a room – it’s a bit intense, but it works. Let’s say you want to use a room on January 15. When should you book it? You should make the booking on the Wednesday 2 weeks before, which would be January 1. Some rooms are super popular, so sometimes you have to book them the moment the clock strikes midnight – right as the new day begins. That’s how you get the slots you want. All facilities in the rooms like aircon, projector, power outlets are available for use, FREE. Sometimes even if you didn’t book the room, you can still use it — but just be prepared to get kicked out if someone who actually booked it shows up. If you don’t need the room slot, please leave it for someone who really does cuz school resources are limited. If you just need a space to chat and don’t need a private place and tv or projector, there are plenty of open discussion areas in SP you can use instead. Please help keep the library clean. If you spill your drink or make a mess on the seat or table, clean it up right away! The cleaners will not patrol the library 24/7. I’ve never borrowed any books from the library, and neither have my friends, yall will have to figure that part out on your own. I’m not giving every detail here, so you’ll need to explore it a bit yourself. Power Outlets — All unlocked power sockets in the library are free for anyone to use – charge your devices or use them for whatever you need. About Seats — Please don’t “chop” seats with your bag or tissue. It’s not a very considerate thing to do. Let’s keep things respectful for everyone. Library Entry — You’ll need your school card (admission card) to enter and exit the library. Technically, you’re supposed to tap in and out with your own card, but it’s pretty common to see four or five people walking in using just one. That said, sometimes staff will stop you, so it’s safer to just bring your own card. Food Rules — You’re allowed to bring drinks, but they must have a lid. Small snacks are usually fine too, just don’t make it too obvious. Keep them in your bag. But full-on meals? Yeah, don’t push it. That’s a bit much.

Plan or Panic: Your SP Guide about BRIGHTSPACE By: u/judyully Since many freshmen are still unfamiliar with how SP works, here’s a quick breakdown: A) SP divides the academic year into two semesters, and each semester is split into two terms. B) Between semesters, there’s usually a 6 week break or even longer if you finish your exams early (depends on school arrangements) C) Between terms, there’s about a 3 to 4 week holiday (depends) D) Each term lasts around 7 weeks (excluding exam week — not 100% sure, go check to be safe). You can find your Learning Map on Brightspace, along with everything else for example quizzes, presentation weeks, exam periods, etc. Make it a habit to check it and mark down key dates. It really helps when you’re trying to plan ahead (yes, even for your holiday trips). With this kind of structure, time flies by really quickly. Most importantly! ALWAYS review your lecture notes before class and complete any quizzes if there are any. Most of the quizzes are graded and will be expired on certain timing. In SP (and probably other polys too), lecturers assume you’ve already studied the material at home. They won’t go through the notes page by page like chers did in secondary school. So if you don’t prep, you’ll probably be lost in class.

Why 3 Electives Might Be the Smarter Choice By u/judyully (again) Around Year 1 Semester 2 or Year 2 Semester 1, you’ll need to start choosing your electives. While completing a certificate might seem like a nice achievement and could look good on LinkedIn, it usually doesn’t make a huge difference in the long run. I’d recommend going for the 3 elective option instead of 5. With 3 electives, you won’t need to return to school during your internship, which allows you to fully focus on your work (your company will be happy too). If you take 5, you’ll have to attend classes every Friday, meaning you’ll only be available to your company 4 days a week. From a company’s perspective, it’s easy to see why they’d prefer an intern who’s fully available. And even though the arrangement says 4 working days, some companies might ask you to make up for Friday on weekends. And also, it limits the number of companies you can apply to, since not all of them offer a 4 day workdays option. Naturally, the pay will likely be lower too. If the company you’re aiming for is well-known but your elective schedule holds you back from joining, that’s probably the last thing you’d want to happen. This is just a suggestion based on what many students have experienced. In the end, it’s up to you to decide what suits your goals and priorities best. Also for those unsure of what elective to choose, there’s a link for elective reviews here. Though it may be limited but some are very in depth

Freshman Tips You’ll Thank Me By u/judyully ——A) Check your bus routes. If your classes are in SMA, ABE, or SOC — aka the far-from-MRT blocks — make sure you figure out if there’s a direct bus from your place. Learn how to transfer buses too. Trust me, it helps a lot. ——B) Make friends, not drama. You’ll be with your coursemates for 3 years. Try to build good relationships and avoid unnecessary fights. Group work is gonna be a thing. ——C) Know your syllabus. Seriously, read through it. Know what assessments are coming up, internship timing, and when electives start (some start in Year 1 Sem 2, others in Year 2 Sem 1 – depends on your course). ——D) FC food is actually worth it. Cheap and good compared to outside food. Some personal faves: FC5 juice stall – try the avocado juice. FC3 – salad bowl. FC1 – western & Japanese curry (Drop your own recs below!) ——E) Class performance matters. Don’t just show up and zone out — sleeping or talking loudly during class isn’t it. Try to engage a bit, be polite, and show some basic respect. Trust me, your tutors do notice. ——F) ATS (attendance) tip: You have a 14-minute window to mark yourself present. If class starts at 9am, just key in ATS before 9:15. After that = late = absent. If something screws up, just let your prof know nicely. ——G) Group mates = system assigned (usually). You’ll get new 3/4 every sem. Don’t be a slacker! Your groupmates can grade you for projects. Do your part. Add on! *There are multiple gates around campus, but only one lets you in without your student card, the one near the MRT, closest to the Business block. If you ever forget your card, that’s the only gate you can use to get in. **You also need your student card to enter and exit the library, so always keep it with you. Don’t leave it at home, it’s more important than you think. ***You can bring refreshments into class, most people just tapau drinks or light snacks like waffles. Just don’t randomly tapau a full meal into class okay… ****Orientation isn’t that serious, no need to bring your laptop. Just go and enjoy yourself, no stress. Try to learn people’s names, cause once school starts, you won’t really get much chance to bond properly until way later. *****Before class, make sure to go through the lecture notes uploaded on Brightspace. This ain’t secondary school anymore, you’re expected to read at home, then come to class with questions. Most modules even have quizzes before class starts (yes, they’re graded), so go check your Brightspace now. ******During orientation, you can join as many CCAs as you want! seriously, just sign up for everything you’re interested in. Chances are, you might end up not going at all anyway, so no harm trying first. *******Dress code for school: just answering in advance in case anyone asks. It’s super casual: T-shirts, shorts, jeans, long pants, dresses, colourful, all okay. Everyone dresses chill. Just remember to keep clean and appropriate. For presentations, ask the lecturer beforehand if you need to dress formal or smart casual. If it’s smart casual, covered shoes, shirts, and either jeans or dress pants are fine. !!!!! For WFL (not sure if that’s the exact name but it’s some sports-related thing), if you hate sports, just go for something like bowling or yoga, got aircon and not that tiring. I’d recommend bowling, just that you gotta walk quite a bit no matter which block you’re from. Last personal tip: Be humble and actually willing to learn especially when you’re working with seniors. If you get the chance to do stuff together (cca or whatever), don’t keep going “I’ve never learned this~” like it’s a free pass. News flash: seniors were once blur like you too, but they figured it out. I bet you wouldn’t dare shout out that during your internship right? So don’t act blur blur and expect others to cover for you. And please stop picking on the quiet nice ones. They’re not your free labour.

Hi everyone It is sad to announce that the comment section will be closed as well as requiring email to sign in order to ask a question. Which can be tedious for some but it is necessary to prevent harassment as what I encountered last week This channel is supposed to be a place where everyone can focus on SP stuff to prepare for the upcoming first year. A few bad apples has ruined the experience for everyone. I have no choice but to remove the comments section which results in helpful remarks being unable to reach their target audience. Those who abused the comment section did this, not me. In the meantime, I will be also working on a solution for this once all of this dies down

PSA: This is not a place to publish your fanfiction Please go to squeak or wattpad or AO3 or sgexams to showcase your interesting linguistic creations. Thank you

Deadass my poly laptop It had 3 more stickers transferred to my current one Btw these stickers basically free one

If poly can wear whatever you want (as long nothing offensive) same goes for your laptop.

Good AM everyone! IMHO, let’s say a MacBook Pro is more of an investment like some specifics can really change your work like better processing and graphics. Would be helpful if anyone from S&M shares their experience too

So am I, can anyone explain?

Laptop recommendations for business students (cross posted from Reddit, not by me, username at the bottom) Laptop advice for business students Hello there everyone, I’m your DBA Senior and since there since to be a lot of confusion on laptops I’m h gonna give some advice. For business, please do try and avoid MacBooks. Simple reason, there’s softwares like Minitab and other that simply are not compatible with MACOS. This is a massive hassle and I had a classmate who brought two different laptops to class depending on the day. With that being said, in business school, the requirements are light. You won’t have to do any heavy lifting with your laptop so you should prioritise weight and ergonomics. Try to get smth light and portable (I lugged a 2.5kg legion laptop to sch everyday.) For simple requirements, 16GB of ram is a must. With windows 11 bloat and other software hogs like chrome running in the background, pls do not cheap out and go for 8gb of ram. It was barely enough in 2021 and it certainly isn’t enough now. You want something in the 14-16 inch range, small enough to carry and bring with you everywhere but not so small that it becomes hard to use. I would recommend minimally an Intel core 5/ultra 5 or a Ryzen 5. I’m gonna drop some quick reccos below since 4.4 starts tmr, I’m sure yall can get some good deals on the laptops. For my budget warriors (under 800), this Lenovo v14 is exactly what you need. A LAPTOP. It’s nothing fancy, but at the price point of under 600 on sale it comes with a good enough cpu, 16gb of ram, 512gb of ssd storage and a screen allowing you to see. It might not be the best, but it’ll do its job and the only recco I might give is to extend the warranty to 3 yrs. https://sg.shp.ee/qGDr24R For my mid tier gang (800-1000) can try to snag the Lenovo IdeaPad slim 3 with the core 7, 16gb of ram and 512 gb ssd. Seems to be a solid upgrade over the Lenovo v14 with a more powerful processor, a better build and probably a better screen. If not can always go for the trusty Asus Vivobook which is the SB special (istg 25% of yall use this laptop) Slim 3: https://sg.shp.ee/TE6kJ7u For my upper mid tier (1000-1500) yall have arguably the best experience. Yall will have more storage more power and likely more creature comforts but you have to pay for these benefits obviously. For my money, I’d try to get an IdeaPad pro 5 14 or a yoga slim 7. Both will come with a very nice upgrade in processor power and will net you double the ram and double the storage ensuring a smooth experience through poly. An alternative would be something like a Acer Swift go 14, same good screen but slightly cheaper with 16gb of ram IdeaPad: https://sg.shp.ee/WVgwswu Yoga: https://sg.shp.ee/KJdPz8G Acer: https://sg.shp.ee/9ikUo5h Acer no.2 (without oled) https://sg.shp.ee/sYY7mVb For my ballers out there (1.5k-2k) well well, you guys have basically all the choice, you will be getting the best of the class ig… good display good chip the whole 9 yards lah basically. You can’t go wrong here and honestly, if you spend this much, it should last you beyond poly… but here are some quick reccos. This yoga pro 7 with the Ryzen ai 9 would be my pick, one of the best chips on the market rn combined with 32gb of ram and 1tb ssd cannot go wrong. The display is oled too which is something you will love if you watch movies or even do creative work. You can consider this Asus Vivobook S 14 too with the new core ultra 7 processor which is supposedly a big leap forward over last gen core ultra which you’ll find in the lower end models. Asus: https://sg.shp.ee/kUfHYc7 Lenovo: https://sg.shp.ee/iDQWn5H For all my gamer buddies out there. If you want something tailored to you, I recommend the legion 5 from Lenovo as that’s my choice of weapon. 4060/4070 variant can be found around 2-2.5k. If you want Asus, tuf gaming not bad but imo a bit expensive. Can consider Acer predator the 14 inch with the 4060 I’ve seen drop to 1.3k on sale which is a banger. With that being said, gl with this new year and happy shopping By u/twbop

Personally I couldn’t remember about this bit But the school website shared a little more on these discounts They said to present your student card or your acceptance letter and they provided a few links for vendors with prices specifically targetted for students Acer: https://store.acer.com/en-sg/student-poly (Haha not the minion but the laptop computer, student discounts vary from models, like 15-29%) HP: https://www.asiapac.com.sg/sp/ Lenovo: https://www.asiapac.com.sg/lenovo-sp/ Apple: https://www.apple.com/sg-edu/store (school website states you have to verify that on Unidays) Ensure the laptop specifications are suitable for your course CCA: Pretty sure I have answered this already but you never know if you don’t try out the CCA, go for trials and CCA carnival to find out more about the CCA. As for easy sports competitions, it isn’t really a competition if you don’t try your best to succeed because each CCA is unique in skill,strength and difficulty. Seniors, feel free to share

Welcome new people! Where did you come from?

Hello all I would like to address the situation that happened earlier this evening I acknowledge that screenshotting the above conversation is unprofessional but I do believe it is justified as it was done in a public place. The person in the images above has changed his username and been banned from the channel Such words, comments, actions that are abusive will not be tolerated in the form and the comments section and will not be entertained Any similar attempts by others will result in action taken against them.