It is a rather happy day today because my appeal went through and I got what I wanted. Yeah! Haha... Basically all those who submitted appeal forms got what they requested for. Haha... Cools... So it was not due to my scoldings and ranting to Loh Mei Ying on Monday that helped me get my timetable. I guess there were really FATAL errors in opening up slots for us to register. Haha... Nevertheless, I think everyone who registered on 30 June were disgruntled and pissed like me. Haha... Suyun wrote this long complain letter which I think is freaking pro, tactful and yet can get NBS registration get their butts moving. She is cool-ness. We were even discussing how to like write in to the dean to complain. Haha... The complain letter is as follows:

Dear NBS Registration Office,

I am Tan Saw Hoon, a double specialisation student and a student who has just returned from GIP. I am writing this generic complaint about why having earlier registration may harm us more than benefit us. In my own opinion, if the earlier subject registration defeats its very purpose of letting the double specialisation students and the exchange students have the priority of getting our (limited) subjects, then I do not see why there was a need to give us an earlier date of subject registration at all.

I understand that it is necessary for you all to only open up limited vacancies for each slot for each module. It is to ensure that the greater bulk of the cohort also can get the modules they want to get. However, I am suggesting here that there is a possibility that the office could have underestimated the proportion of exchange students who want to take certain modules. With the Business Year 2 modules we need to clear, the timetable and exam-date clashes may leave us to take only certain slots of certain PEs, and not other PEs. Thus, exchange students may need more vacancies in some slots than other slots! Moreover, from GIP Beijing alone I know that the proportion of BAF students is much higher than other specialisations, I am curious if this aspect was taken into account.

To further illustrate why I think earlier registration might harm us more than benefit us, an example could be as such:

If we had earlier registration:
I may be the 17th person to register for the 15 open vacancies in a particular slot. I cannot successfully register.

If we had registration with the bigger cohort:
I may be the 45th person to register for the 50 open vacancies. I succeed in my registration.

Of course, the example may seem overly simplistic and naive, but it does highlight the disadvantage of doing earlier registration when only 15 vacancies are opened up, compared to when 50 vacancies are opened up. And if we "Fail to register; no more vacancies" for a particular index no. within the first 10 seconds, by the time we get to register another index no. of that subject... all the vacancies of the subject would already have been taken up.

If earlier registration will penalise our chances of getting the modules we want/need, I would rather the office let us do subject registration with the entire cohort, where at least all the vacancies are opened up for a truly fair competition of "Fastest Fingers First".

In previous semesters, personally I had no friends in my circle who faced problems with registering subjects they want. Even if the timetable was bad, at least they got the subjects they wanted. Surprisingly, for this semester, at least 6-8 friends (from double spec, as well as from GIP/INSTEP) have highlighted to me problems they faced with registering subjects they need, rather than want. They were all on time, at 9:30am sharp. I suspect that insufficient vacancies were opened up to accommodate for both the double spec and exchange students on the 30th June 2008. And if the failure to register the modules they need can (only) possibly be rectify during the game of chance (Add/Drop Period), then I am very disappointed with the office.

I hope you understand from our point of view.

Best regards,
Saw Hoon

Haha... So after reading, you realised that her complain is really very well written. I think she has no need to clear her AB214. Haha... I think next sem her AB214 will confirm be A+++. Haha... Okie... I should learn from her. Seriously. =]