7 Feb was the 1st day for my DPA Polytechnic Preparatory Programme. I walked into Temasek Polytechnic feeling both excited and nervous at the same time. I was worried whether the people there will be easy going or difficult to get along with.
We gathered outside one of the Lecture Theatres collected our matriculation card and proceeded into the Lecture hall. There were DPA seniors over there who were trying to help us break the ice with other DPA students. Most of us were very shy initially and did not really respond.
On the 2nd day, We were divided into several groups and did many ice-breaking and bonding games. These activities help us opened up to some of the DPA students in 1 day. We were soon exchanging our contacts just after the 2nd day of the programme. This was the first time that I in such a short time manage to make so many friends and even get their contacts. This was one of my most memorable experience I had in DPA Polytechnic Preparatory Programme.
After a period of 2 Weeks, We started off with some Cross-Disciplinary Subjects ( CDS) . I took Japanese & Culture and Transnational Studies as my CDS-es. We were required to interact with other classmates in our class during Japanese classes and Transnational Studies so we also made many new friends.
Just after our CDS started, We had our residential stay. We were assigned to stay in Temasek Green( The hostel just beside Engine sch). Each apartment have roughly about 5 people staying. Transnational Residential Stay was the most memorable experience I had in my Preparatory Programme. Although we had a curfew where we are required to stay in our own apartment after 11pm, we still went to each other’s apartment. There will be around 20 people in one of the groups apartment and we will start playing games and bond with each other. The Residential Stay was very fun but the fun did not last long. We had to move out just after 2 weeks. Although, the residential Stay was very short , we had fostered a very strong relationship with many other DPA students.
The last programme we had for our Preparatory Programme was the School Discovery Programme. For students from IIT sch , we completed another CDS which is Effective Internet research. This CDS helped to teach us on how to obtain resources for research effectively. This CDS also taught us how to make us of the databases that are available in TP. Therefore , this programme was very useful.
Overall , DPA was a very memorable experience for me. I was able to create strong bonds with many people from different schools and take Cross disciplinary subject which helps in my graduation. I would advise anyone who have a passion in any course to apply for DPA.
