The Faculty Open House on Saturday 21st of May 2011 was a well-received event which saw about 500 visitors enquire about reading Psychology as an undergraduate degree at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore.

Manned by several sophomore undergraduates from the student NUS Psychology Society and supported by faculty members from the Department of Psychology including the Head of Department Prof George Bishop and the speaker for the Psychology talk A/P Sim Tick Ngee, the students and staff fielded questions from JC students and their families about career options and graduate studies following a Bachelors with Honours in Psychology.

Potential students sought information about the ‘O’ level Elementary Maths requirements to major in Psychology and the requirements for an Honours thesis, as well as clarifications about how to bid for modules and access “core” modules like Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social, and Abnormal Psychology, and Research Methods and Statistics I and II, which they would have to read in order to major in Psychology.

Important information, particularly the need for students to read PL1101E (Introduction to Psychology) and PL2131 (Research Methods and Statistics I) modules before being able to declare Psychology as their major, was part of the advice A/P Sim gave to potential students at his talk in LT 9, entitled “Psychology is for you, only if…”. Engaging conversations about positive psychology and the diversity of psychological research—from the application of industrial/organizational psychology to personnel selection to the utility of research design in evaluating rehabilitation programmes—were the highlights of the day, while issues about the need to study for examinations, do copious amounts of reading and writing, and understand statistical computations, were ostensibly the uppermost concerns of most future students.

Dr. Tan Seok Hui, Open House Coordinator