| CORS Guide by The_Davis |
|
Originally posted in hardwarezone forums by The_Davis. Many thanks to him for allowing us to post this here: Well all freshies will have to face the monster known as CORS (Can only rely on skill? haha). Here's a low down on what to expect. (No pictures though, sorry) A) Bidding Rounds Rd 0 Rd 0 is for you to see the modules you can bid for, and for people to bid for modules in advance. If you are going for holidays or cannot bid for certain rounds, please use this feature (you can do advance bidding in other rounds also). There are several rounds namely, 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B. Mainly you should be worried during rounds 1A, 2A and 3A because this is the period modules would open up for bidding. Newbies will only get to bid during round 1C (the semester they enter, usually sem 1) because round 1A and 1B happens before that (to protect the seniors from a rush of newbies too). Round 1: Bid for core essentials... i.e. modules you need to fulfill core requirements => points come from programme account. (protection from cross faculty, ie certain quota for your faculty/course e.g. 50) Round 2: Breadth/GEM/SS - you are able to bid for modules to fulfill breadth, gem (general modules) or SS (Singapore studies) requirements. Still able to bid for modules you didn't manage to bid from in round 1. In this round breadth, core modules => (protection from cross faculty, ie certain quota for your faculty/course eg. 50), SS=> (compete with whole NUS for the modules). During this round you will most probably be using a LOT of general account points. Round 3: Floodgate opens. Able to bid for all modules and will be competing against whole NUS. Able to bid for over your MC limit (eg. previously can only take 20MC, now able to add up to 28 MC). B) Bidding You are allocated 300 general points, 700 programme points every semester....extras for filling up the course feedback at the end of every semester (i think around 30 extra points). [addition: every student will have 1000 points, of which the composition will vary among the faculties.] example: engineering - 750 (P), 250 (G) ] [credit: Bidding Part 2 I) Dropping modules Once allocated a module, you have a choice of either keeping a module or dropping it. Be care of this though as there are several things to note here: a) Dropping a module during bidding period will not have any effects on your grade (or CAP) whatsoever, however, you do lose up to half the points you "won" the module at. E.g. if you got the module at 100 pts, 50 points will be refunded. Modules gotten at 1 pt will have no refund. b) Dropping a module after bidding period has ended (After round 3), will lead to either: - a W grade: if you withdraw before a few weeks into the semester, or worse: an F grade: if you withdraw more than the cut-off period for the W grade. Try not to get into the second situation as a F grade is VERY DAMAGING on your CAP. II) Module Management One very important aspect of CORS bidding is module management. For SOC students, we are usually capped at 22MCs (Modular credits) during the first two rounds of bidding. So typically, that means around 5 modules. For those who wish to overload to 6 or 7 modules (max is seven, i believe), you would have to wait until round 3. So do try to bid for modules that you really need during the first 2 rounds, unless you are really confident of obtaining the them during the third round. Use the appeal system only as a last resort! C) Results The results of your bidding will be known a few hours after the end of bidding. An email will be sent to your NUS exchange email account. So do keep a lookout for that important email! D) Appeal Sometimes if for some circumstances you cant get the module you NEED, you can appeal to get into them (provided there is vacancy). If you play your cards right, you could end up spending less points then others. Anyway, CORS bidding is like a RTS game, you need to do your homework, and keep a constant lookout of the modules you are bidding for. Blatant spending of points means the resources you have for the next semesters depletes. So plan, prioritise and get the modules you want! [Update] For some faculties, like the FASS, there's a pre-allocation round for you to indicate modules to take. These modules will be allocated for you automatically [TIPS] 1. Getting a hot module Sometimes you might have the tendency to try to bid with others for a module with limited vacancies. However are you sure you want to give up those valuable points? Do check whether there will be further quota allocated in other rounds for [new students] or [returning students] or [nus students]. Sometimes the modules will be left with much more vacancies in round 3A, you could probably get it for 1 point. However even if you had gotten it for a much higher point in the earlier round, you could drop [For a refund of half the points] and bid again to get it at the lower bid amount, thereby recovering quite a fair bit of points. 2. Try not to overload your last sems For those taking HYP/FYP (Ranging from 8 MCs - 16 MCs) depending on faculty, you will be automatically allocated half the MCs each sem. This means you will not be able to bid for as much modules as you can compared to previous semesters. E.g. For SOC, 6 MC will be allocated for HYP each semester. Thus, during the first 2 round of bidding, you can only bid for 16mc (with 22MC as the CAP). Therefore, it is imperative for you to properly plan what modules you want to have in the final semester. Remember there's the option to: - overload modules during earlier semesters to reduce workload. - taking modules during special semester. - extending your stay in NUS (of course have to pay for the extra period). |
