NUS guide: entering university! 🏫🎓💯

Tutorial Registration Round 2 results officially release tomorrow, at 9 a.m. (but as usual, you may be able to sneak peek beforehand). 🚨What is important is that the add/swap tutorial option also opens at 9 a.m. The add/swap is first come first serve (this is unlike all the previous rounds!) Thus, you’d want to be awake at 9 a.m. to have your first pick at any remaining vacancies (if you need them). Requests to add/swap are processed at regular intervals: you’ll be shown the number of “matching requests” when you try to swap. Typically, swapping with friends would mean to coordinate to submit, at the same time, aligned swap requests and hope the system swaps both of you successfully. The course/faculty groups we shared earlier on our channel are helpful for this and you can start searching ahead of time for one-one swaps since the swap period is short, ending at 5 p.m. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Bots for matching - study buddies, lunch buddies, new friends, going to events (e.g. today’s Supernova) and more: If you’re feeling bored or want to meet more peers, you may check out these telegram bots for matching anonymously with other users! These were first started way back in 2021 across different universities during the Covid-19 pandemic and was viral on TikTok for a time ( https://www.tiktok.com/@nicolettecalliewe/video/6973191836521237762 , https://www.tiktok.com/@ninjabread_/video/6971050102278360321 ), gaining over 50k users! Note: This project originally received NUSSU Council Funding in 2022. NUSSU is not involved in nor responsible for any of the project’s operations. The bot continues to operate today, and is student-run! @nusmatchbot : opt to match only with verified NUS students, match by faculty/batch/major, and goals — such as watching today’s NUS Supernova together! This may be used for making friends or getting helpful senior advice too. 🎓 @nuschatbot : older version; quick match but lack of student email verification means higher risk of spammers/scammers — use with caution! —- @cupidsgbot : this bot is geared more towards dating, and you can match by MBTI and specific dating goals! 💘 @simplymeetbot : match by location; chats reset at 10 am daily, and you can opt to meet with verified students who are already near you. This is meant for meet-ups for lunch/dinner/activities etc. (you can set various goals) on the day itself. This is meant for wholesome meet-ups, and there isn’t gender selection by default. 🤝 Nonetheless, stay safe and limit the personal info you share when chatting! If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

What if I didn’t get a spot in round 1? [TODAY, TILL 5 p.m.] Tutorial Registration Round 2: if you didn’t get a spot, bid in excess and be mindful of vacancies left for the courses you bid for. Securing something is better than nothing — at least you have something to offer for potential swaps later on. If you did secure a tutorial slot in Round 1 (but not a desirable one), our understanding is that the only way to switch in Round 2 is to drop the current slot to bid for another; however, this is extremely risky and not recommended, as you may end up with neither. The opportunity to add/swap is on 17 August, and that is generally a safer time to do so. [17 August 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.] Add/Swap Period: Remaining vacancies after Round 2 are up for grabs first come first serve on 18 Aug. Join the group chats listed in our pinned message too — these may be helpful for swapping requesting to swap tutorial slots! [17 August after 5 p.m.] Appeal to Course Host Faculty opens, with limited reasons accepted for why they should offer you a spot. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Just a note that the “drop classes” page stopped being visible earlier today; this does tend to happen the day before the official release. (Being able to view a sneak peek of tutorial slots under the “drop classes” tab has always been an unofficial loophole). For those who did not manage to view it, or are still hopeful for further allocations, all the best for the official release at 9 a.m.! 🚨 Round 2 tutorial registration also starts at 9 a.m. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

This student deal back! If you think you’ll benefit from a full suite of AI tools’ access (despite the recent announcement), or think you’ll already be needing it in August, then this may be a good deal! (@ThisCounted shares various student deals; you can also expect another round of bonus rewards with them for Apple purchases supposedly launching soon, and for Lenovo as well — you can wait for it if you haven’t got your devices!) Also, another thing that may be worth it for you is to get an NUS Concession Card, if you use public transport very often. Notably, the AY2026/2027 Undergraduate Concession Card bulk application exercise ends 30 August 2026. This is in just about two weeks. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

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Tutorial registration results are already mostly visible at this time, ahead of the official release! You can unofficially view these at: Edurec Coursereg > Drop Classes You will see a list of classes, including both lectures and tutorials for each course. If it is empty, it likely means you have fallen to what seniors have dubbed “tutrekt”, which means you lost out to others and probably should have had more backups. There is still a chance of more allocations until the official release date of 13 Aug 9 a.m. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

🚨Tutorial registration has opened and ends at 5 p.m. today. Note that you can still edit your choices after pressing “continue”. Do prepare sufficient backups, as it is common to not get your preferred choices. Naturally, certain slots e.g. those after a lecture may be more popular. Rank strategically if you know that slots you want are popular (this could either mean ranking them in better positions to stand a chance, or deciding that it’s too competitive and it’s better to jump straight to your next-best option as your best ranked course). For students in some faculties, you’d see that you have a choice of tutorials in odd weeks or even weeks. In this case, some students would prefer to split these (have some tutorials on even, some on odd) such that you have a more balanced workload across all weeks. (Alternatively, some students prefer to have more “free days” and thus prefer to have as many tutorials happening on the same day as possible) If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

🚨 Tutorial Registration Round 1 opens on August 11, 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m. Unlike CourseReg, the window for tutorial registration is much shorter — ending at 5 p.m. the same day. —- Re-sharing this: Below is a message on the balloting process that has been passed down by various NUS seniors! Note that “courses” used to be referred to as “mods”: “Balloting process How to ballot like a senior (by sam chan) First, here is how the balloting works: - you rank up to 20 tutorial slots according to your preference, with the slots you want more ranked higher - you do not have to use all 20, and in fact you can just put one tutorial slot per mod - the system looks at your first choice, checks the tutorial class, and if there are vacancies, you're in! - the process then repeats for your second, third choice etc. until you have tutorials for all your mods, or you have no viable options left (i.e. all your preferred tutorials are full) - it's quite by luck in the sense that if you're the 26th person the system sees for a 25-person class, you don't get it, even if you put it as first choice. hence the term balloting. IT IS NOT FIRST COME FIRST SERVE! Now that you know how balloting roughly works, here are some pointers! 1. Plan for multiple timetables - needless to say we all have that one tutorial slot we want (for free day, with friends, both, etc.), however it would be terribly unwise to not have any backup plans/tutorial slots. having three choices per mod is a safe number, although you can go up to 4 per mod (equal distribution among 5 mods) or any number really (unequal distribution) 2. Know your preferences - even among your first choice tutorial slots for your modules, it's good to know which are the ones you want the most - generally you get your first three choices, while anything after that is more risky, so you need to priorities which are the ones you diedie must get, and hence rank first 3. Know that certain tutorial slots are more popular - generally tutorial slots from 10-4 are the more popular ones - likewise for those on the same day as the lecture for that mod - you might want to rank these slots higher - this is more for your knowledge, but if you plan to take this tutorial with say >5 friends, some of you might not get it Keeping these pointers in mind, you ballot! And here's now: (note: you don't have to follow this method but I find it really helpful. also, it's based on the assumption that one has 5 mods to ballot for) 1) Note down the tutorial slots you want on a piece of paper (virtual or otherwise) according to your modules, while ranking them at the same time. - you should have 5 columns of 4 tutorial slots each (assuming equal distribution), already in order of preference 2) Double check the timings and the tutorial number (eg. D3, E5, etc.) 3) Rank all your tutorial slots in a flop-table style (MOST IMPORTANT STEP). This might require some explanation, so bear with me. Let's say your 5 mods are called 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and it's according to the mod which first-choice tutorial slot you want the most Each mod has 4 tutorial slots, called A, B, C, and D according to your preference. Here's how your ranking would look like then: 1A 2A 3A 4A 5A 5B 4B 3B 2B 1B 1C 2C 3C 4C 5C 5D 4D 3D 2D 1D Basically you "reflect" your mods. Since you're quite likely to get your choices for 1, 2, and 3, but less so for 4, and 5, your sixth and seventh choices should be the second-choice for mods 4 and 5 to increase your chances of getting what you want. 4) Finally, don't panic if you don't have any tutorial slots! There is always add/drop and online swaps, and worst case manual registration. It's all part of student life! But if you follow the above, it's less likely to happen (: “ —- Also, wishing everyone a happy national day! 🇸🇬 If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Round 3 CourseReg results are out! What happens if I still do not secure courses I need? You may begin appealing to your course's host department through CourseReg@EduRec (“Submit Appeals/Inquiries”). Limited reasons are accepted for appeals. You may attempt this if you have any extenuating circumstances. If a course is required for graduation, and you are about to graduate, then that may increase your chances of a successful appeal (even if the course does not have vacancies). It would presumably be easier to appeal into courses that still have vacancies. If you are below the usual workload/behind in fulfilling requirements, you may have a better chance of appeals. It is unclear what other reasons of appeal would be successful. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

CourseReg Round 3 opens at 9 a.m. (tomorrow, 3 Aug) and closes 12 p.m. the following day. For seniors, you will be able to overload—this means taking more units than the usual workload. Some may consider bidding for courses in excess and then dropping specific courses later on. (E.g. you may already be at the usual 20 units workload, but if there is another course you prefer but could not get, you can bid for that and if you successfully get it then you can drop the less preferable course afterwards). Freshmen are generally not allowed to overload unless you have the limit specially waived by appealing. Why some people overload: It may sometimes be strategic to overload extra courses you are unsure of, then narrowing down to which courses you really want to take after trying them out. This is because if you drop a course by week 3, it won't show up in your transcript / or if you drop a module before recess week, it would only show up as a 'W' grade with no effect on GPA. This way, you may be able to opt to keep only the courses you expect to do well (which you may have a better sense of by that point in time) and be more likely to get stronger GPA. (that said, it may also be unstrategic to do this if it means you can't cope in the first few weeks) Of course, a more common reason to overload is because you may want to have an easier workload in your final years in uni! In fact, if you are able to overload enough across multiple semesters, you would be able to finish your degree earlier, i.e. graduate earlier. This can mean major savings in school fees and time, e.g. paying a semester less of school fees. However, overloading is not always recommended and is ultimately a personal decision that requires you to balance various pros and cons and what you’re personally able to have on your plate in a semester. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

CourseReg Round 2 results are mostly out! Head to Edurec > Academics > Academic Records > View Classes. There is still a slight chance of allocation until the official release time, 9 a.m. tomorrow, though most courses are usually fully allocated by this time. Round 3 starts on 3 August, 9 a.m. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

CourseReg Round 2 opens at 9 a.m.! You may view the demand and allocation report from the last round here; this lets you know the vacancies left and a sense of how in demand a course is. Noting that the ranking of courses does affect your priority for allocation (as rank preference is part of the formula), this can help you plan strategically as to how you would rank your courses. Generally: Priority Score = Program Requirements × Student Seniority × Rank Preference [the more so it is a program requirement (e.g. major vs minor), the higher your student seniority, and the better the ranking you give the course, then the higher your priority score] For instance, one view may be that if you really want a course a lot and it is of high demand with few vacancies left, it may make sense to give it a better rank so you stand a better chance of getting it. Another view may be that if a course is too competitive to bid for, and you are not actually that interested/in need of it, then you might consider whether it is even worth bidding for when you could use the better rank preference score for other courses you have a more realistic chance of getting. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

The NUS shirt sales are closing tonight instead of 31 July! They have to end sales early because of high demand. (This is an official fundraiser by KEVII — refer to @nusshirts for more info!) If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

CourseReg Round 1 results are out for most! Head to Edurec > Academics > Academic Records > View Classes. There is still a slight chance of allocation until the official release time, 9 a.m. tomorrow, though most courses are usually fully allocated by this time. Round 2 starts on 28 July 9 a.m.; this is no longer the protected round, so there are courses you can now bid for that you previously could not. If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Reminder that CourseReg closes in less than an hour (12 p.m.) today! If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Also, various group chats are used for swapping tutorial slots etc.! P.S. we have also edited to add on a CDE group chat link we missed earlier. If you have pre-allocated courses, you may view these at Edurec > Academics > View Courses. (For the coursereg tomorrow, head to Academics > Course Registration > Select Courses) If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

CourseReg Round 1 opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow and closes at 12 p.m. on 21 July (ie the next day). It is not first-come-first-serve. Round 1 is a protected round. Students will be able to select courses (subject to meeting course pre-requisite, co-requisite and preclusion rules) in this round if the courses can be used towards: (i) Programme (Faculty, Major, Specialisation) requirements (ii) Second Major requirements (iii) Direct admission/restricted Minor requirements (iv) Prescribed English requirements (i.e. courses offered by CELC) Students will vie for a spot in the course within the available places allotted to their student category (e.g. separate numbers for UG and GD). Note: if you had done what we suggested previously, you may have declared the major associated with e.g. UEs you want to clear as a “second major”. This would then already allow you to bid for them in Round 1. In this round and future rounds, having declared it as such would also give priority (as part of the priority scoring rubrics) against someone else who did not do so. Ranking of courses does matter (a better rank gives more points for bidding). You can find past year demand/allocation info at https://courserekt.vercel.app/ which may be helpful when you want to strategise your course preferences! (typically, courses which often have excess vacancies don’t have to be as heavily prioritised during bidding—one may be able to afford to rank this lower). If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

ThisCounted’s Apple partnership — offering bonus rewards on top of Apple’s Back to School Sales — is back! This time, its arrangement with Apple gives cashback of up to $60 for products like the iPad and iPad Mini when you use ThisCounted’s link. It is also noteworthy that this time, Apple isn’t offering free AirPods or Apple Pencils (you’d need to top-up) for Pro/Air purchases like it normally does, offering only AirTags instead. This could make the non-Pro/Air devices a better choice this time. Do view their FAQ @ThisCounted if you are unsure how this works. (Note that you have to use their tracking link and follow the steps, and this remains safely on the official Apple website albeit with a tracking cookie). We will post our thoughts on which device to get later today! If you found these useful, do share our channel @NUSguide with your friends/juniors — we share uni tips/hacks throughout the year! 🙌🏻

Apple Store Online’s Back to School Offer (with ThisCounted Exclusive Bonus) 📱🖥️ 🟢 Maximise your student benefits with ThisCounted’s exclusive link — Get bonus cash if you purchase a product that does not already come with Apple’s bonus accessory. (T&C apply) 📒 Purchases must be through our unique link ( bit.ly/ThisCounted ) and follow the tracking steps below. 📘  Bonus up to $60 is provided based on the items you purchase 🍪 Steps for successful tracking: 1.⁠ ⁠Ensure that you’re using ThisCounted’s link ( bit.ly/ThisCounted ) when making your purchase; you will need to enter this again when actually checking out (Step 2). Your browser should allow cookies to be tracked. 2.⁠ ⁠After student/staff status verification, enter bit.ly/ThisCounted again on the same tab 🚨(UNiDAYS may redirect you incorrectly, so just re-enter our link after student/staff status verification). i.e. Re-enter bit.ly/ThisCounted again on the same tab when you reach the final check-out page; your cart should still be saved. 📘 T&C apply (refer to ThisCounted T&C and Apple’s T&C) 🔴 Bonus cash is only for those who make verified purchases through ThisCounted’s link from now till 31 July. Fill this claim form after your purchase: https://forms.gle/M8hQCdYiPzUTqtXb7 Questions? Reach out to us at ThisCountedBiz@gmail.com , @ThisCountedSupportBot or message the @ThisCounted channel directly ——— FAQ and more student deals: @ThisCounted