Academic Tips
Resources and tips to plan for S/U options and tutorial balloting.
Credits: NUS Provost, USP FASS UMP
Guide to S/U
Under the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) mechanism, students may choose to retain a letter grade or choose to exercise the S/U option on a module. If an S/U is used:
the letter grade will not be shown on the transcript
the letter grade will not be factored towards the computation of their CAP
an S grade is assigned for C grade or above, and a U grade is assigned otherwise
modules will bear credits towards the degree only if it assigned an S grade
modules with a U grade cannot be used to fulfil pre-requisites to other modules
both S and U grades will be reflected in the transcript issued
Students may exercise S/U option for up to 32 MCs in the first two regular semesters. If this is not fully utilised, the S/U option may still be exercised in subsequent semesters, for up to 12 MCs. Variations on the limit of S/U options that can be exercised may apply for specific groups of students. For more information, please refer to the Student Portal S/U Home Page
Module S/U Eligibility
With the exception of Law modules, S/U option is applicable to all eligible modules for Cohorts AY2016/17 and after.
All Level 1000 modules
(Including Yale-NUS modules read by NUS students)
Eligible
The following list of modules are not eligible:
CELC’s Level 1000 English language proficiency modules (0MC) (ES1000, ES1102, EM1001, EM1002, EM1201, EM1202)
YSTCM’s Level 1000 Major Study modules (MUA1101, MUA1161, MUA1162, MUA1190, MUA1191)
Level 2000 modules without NUS modules as pre-requisites
(Including Yale-NUS modules read by NUS students)
Eligible
The following list of modules are not eligible:
USP’s Writing and Critical Thinking modules (UWC2101%) and Quantitative Reasoning modules (UQF2101%)
Level 2000 modules with NUS modules as pre-requisites
(Including Yale-NUS modules read by NUS students)
Not Eligible
The following list of modules are eligible:
CELC’s Ideas & Exposition 2 modules (IEM2201%, UTW2001%)
CELC’s Level 2000 communications modules (CS2101, ES2002, ES2007D, ES2007S, ES2331, CS2301,IS2101)
FASS’ Level 2000 language modules
Yale-NUS’ Level 2000 language modules
GEK2508, GEM2509
Level 3000 and Level 4000 modules
(Including Yale-NUS modules read by NUS students)
Not Eligible
The following list of modules are eligible:
FASS’ Level 3000 and 4000 language modules
Yale-NUS’ Level 3000 and 4000 language modules
Modules assigned IC grade
Not Eligible
This rule applies regardless of the above-mentioned conditions
Modules withdrawn with ‘W’ or ‘F’ grade
Not Eligible
This rule applies regardless of the above-mentioned conditions
Modules where students are found to have committed plagiarism
Not Eligible
This rule applies regardless of the above-mentioned conditions
Modules where a grade has been prescribed by the Board of Discipline
Not Eligible
This rule applies regardless of the above-mentioned conditions
Module S/U Eligibility (USP-specific)
The S/U option applies to all Level 2000 USP modules with the exception of WCT and QRF modules
All WCT and QRF modules are not eligible for S/U
ISM is considered a Level 3000 module and hence not eligible for S/U
USP students must have at least six USP modules which are letter-graded
WCT, QR, USS are considered part of the six letter-graded modules
Deciding which modules to S/U
Here are some resources to help you decide whether to use an S/U. These resources are not meant to be exhaustive or instructive.
For advice on what to SU, it depends on your ultimate goal, whether you care more about your honours classification or your final CAP. Personally, I feel that anything that is B and below should be SU-ed.
For B+ it may seem like a difficult decision at first, but you can consider SU-ing it as well regardless of classification.
Scenario 1: You get/hope to get 1st class (x >= 4.5) Having a B+ will only hurt your chances as it would definitely pull your CAP down, you will need an A to cancel it out (SU it)
Scenario 2: You get/hope to get 2nd upper (4.0=< x < 4.5) A B+ doesn't really stop you from getting a second upper but then again it definitely doesn't help you get it either. In fact, it is actively hurting your chances of potentially getting 1st class. In terms of final CAP, it would most definitely lower it since your lower bound is 4.0 and a B+ is also worth 4.0. Hence, it will only help if you SU the B+. If you are somewhere above 4.25 I would definitely SU the B+ (if I am certain that I don't need the SU for anything else), but a 4.0-4.25 can consider SU-ing it too since your grades are volatile at this point anyway
Scenario 3: You get/hope to get 2nd lower (3.5<=x<4) This case is slightly different. However, what you need to keep in mind is that a B+ still wouldn't help you get a higher honour classification. This is because x<4, so a B+ will never pull it above 4. So if the only thing you care about is your honours classification, you will not be harmed by SU-ing a B+. However, if you care about your final CAP, you can consider keeping the B+ since it will increase your final CAP.
TLDR: from second lower to first class, a B+ will do nothing to help you change your honour classification. More often than not, you would want to SU your B+ UNLESS you are 100% sure that you will get a second lower or below and want to raise your average CAP.
Of course, there are other reasons not to SU your mods (maybe you want to keep a B+ for CS1010S to show that you have a decent capability to code) and do keep in mind that you only have 8 SUs in total. Try to keep your upper limit of SUs in your first year to 5 (since they will expire by the end of the year anyway). However, there are people who use more than 5 SUs in their first year and succeeded in scoring well in the later years, so do not limit yourself if you can see yourself doing well in the future.
2.
A blog post
SU1101: The Science (and Art) of the S/U Option by NUS Provost's Office
Note from UMP mentor: For the last para, you can request for the original letter grade from nus. They will give you a letter showing all the original letter grades. You can SU and still show your proficiency in the mod. Its just an additional letter, it won't affect your transcript
3.
Advice on S/U-ing an A-
Edit 1: This is NOT covered so I thought that it might be good to remind everyone that you need 6 letter-graded modules for USP. So if you are a DDP/Poly student who might also go for exchange, do count your modules carefully (and the appropriate way to do so is probably considering how many Bs you might get in the future that you want to S/U.) On the other hand, it doesn't matter if you were to get B+ for those mods in the future cause there is no downside to S/U-ing first as compared to later
Edit 2: Thought that I should also include a sub-point on whether one should S/U an A- if that's what anyone is thinking about. In general, I would say no for the following reasons
1. Even if an A- pulls down your CAP, it won't make you lose your first class
2. Even though you can request for a transcript with all your letter grades, there might be some that you would rather be reflected as an S. Hence, if you get the ones without all your grades, you won't want an employer to assume that it was a very bad grade when it was an A-
3. I know that it might be nice to see a higher CAP at the end of Y1 but it honestly doesn't matter much. Your internships at the end of Y2 will include your Y2 grades and I think that exchange/academic programmes in NUS look at your transcript before S/U, so no point pushing it closer to a 5 for this reason
4. Unless you are very certain that you will graduate with a 1st class, an A- can help to push your grade up
4.
A Reddit post (with a graphic on whether to S/U based on expected CAP)
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