Academics
Figure out the ins and outs of USP's academic requirements and how to survive ModReg.
Glossary
All information retrieved from NUS Registrar's Office and NUS University Scholars Programme, accurate as of 25 July 2021. Please refer to these websites for updated information.
Cumulative Grade Point (CAP) - Academic progress is tracked by the CAP, which is the weighted average grade point of all modules taken by a student. Therefore, a student's CAP is the sum of the module grade points multiplied by the number of MCs for the corresponding module, divided by the total number of MCs.
Foundation Tier - 3 compulsory modules in USP: Writing & Critical Thinking (WCT), Quantitative Reasoning (QR), and the University Scholars Seminar (USS). Students are highly encouraged to take these modules early in their USP career. More details can be found here.
GD - Graduate students from NUS.
General Education (GE) - NUS requires students to read different compulsory modules depending on your year of entry. USP students can read some of these compulsory modules in USP: for example, USP Singapore Studies modules would fulfill the general NUS Singapore Studies requirement. For more details, please refer to NUS General Education Requirements.
GLB - Graduate LL.B. Programme in the Faculty of Law.
Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS) - A domain in USP’s inquiry tier. Please refer to the module timetable for the updated list of inquiry modules offered in each semester.
Inquiry Tier - comprises 2 domains: Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS) and Sciences and Technologies (S&T). Please refer to the module timetable for the updated list of inquiry modules offered in each semester.
Major - the subject you specialise in. You will need to complete a certain number of MCs to graduate from your major, depending on your programme.
Minor - an optional programme in an area outside of your major, requiring fewer MCs than your major. As the number of MCs needed for minor programmes varies by year of entry, please visit the Registrar's Office's website for more details.
Modular credits (MC) - measurement of the effort needed for a module; a 2 MC module should theoretically need half the effort for a 4 MC module. In NUS, a 4 MC module is supposed to require 10 hours of work per week, including lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, assignments, and independent or group study. You can check out the workload breakdown for each module on NUSMODS.
Module code - a 2 or 3-letter prefix that usually denotes the discipline (e.g. HY - History, PS - Political Science) + 4 digits, of which the first usually indicates the level of the module (e.g., 1000 indicates a Level 1 module and 2000, a Level 2 module).
NG - non-graduating students from external institutions.
Preclusion - when 1 module has already been taken, a second module with similar content cannot be taken by the student and is thus precluded.
Pre-requisite - requirements that have to be met before particular modules can be taken. Usually, introductory-level modules will be designated as pre-requisites for higher-level modules on the same subject. You can view pre-requisites for each module on NUSMODS.
Quantitative Reasoning (QR) - Modules offered by USP. Every USP student must take QR to graduate from USP.
Sciences and Technologies (S&T) - A domain in USP’s inquiry tier. Please refer to the module timetable for the updated list of inquiry modules offered in each semester.
Specialisation - opportunities to learn more about a particular sub-discipline in their main discipline. These are offered by specific disciplines, so do check the relevant discipline pages to see if they offer these.
UG - Undergraduate students from NUS.
University Scholars Seminar (USS) - Module offered by USP to introduce students to different academic fields and multidisciplinary learning. Students will be automatically enrolled in it when it is their turn, usually during their first year.
Writing and Critical Thinking (WCT) - Modules offered by USP. Every USP student must take WCT to graduate from USP.
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