IA students

Friday was the last day for the IA student under my charge. There would be one every half year, and this was the third consecutive ones. All happened to be from the same course which I did in NTU, so effectively they are my juniors who would graduate a decade after me. I dun think there would be one next semester, i heard an electrical student would come instead.

Though it was quite a "chore" to mentor the students it was quite a learning experience. The most tedious part was to find sth to keep them occupied, and i dun getting them to do filing or typing. It must be sth meaningful which they could relate with their studies. Sometimes they could be of gd help, but it really depends on individuals. Overall the three of them were quite ok.

The first was the most hardworking. Typical "A" level student who got reasonable good results throughout so she could apply those equations and got results w/o much guidance. The second, a guy who came through the diploma path and entered the course on second year. He is ok too, streetwise because of his prior working experience and was a police inspector during NS. He was more adapt to fabrication stuff and not so good with analysis. However, this chap din rest enuf cos he was working part-time as a pizza delivery man and most of the time you could see him dozing off when i passed him sth to read. His grades were not too good, as one could him to sleep during lectures and he would have no time for tutorial. I hope he had done ok for the recent exams.

The most recent one was a chap from Malaysia. Rather naive and not so good with people skills. Not that he quarrelled with me, but he was to frank with his words, and we had tried to correct him with some advice here and there. There was this occasion in which I asked him to wear safety boots before we left for the workshop to check out the trains, and later he asked me "you din wear hah?" and for that he kanna some "scolding" from me and another colleague. How could you doubt your supervisor when he passed an instruction to you? I believed he had learnt from there. But he is ok, and is quite willing to work.

Three batches mean a year and a half had passed by. It only reminds you how old I am. So shld i look forward to see more? I dun think so.