When July comes, it is time for yet another STAR Wars. Whether you are a starry-eyed freshie or a STARS veteran, I’m sure you are eager to quickly achieve your ideal timetable for the upcoming semester. You may be aiming for morning classes, a 3-day week, or even an overloaded semester to meet certain requirements. Whatever your goals are this semester, I hope this quick guide helps!

Pre-registration checklist

1. Review your 4-year study plan. 

• I’d recommend Year 1s to refer to their majors’ suggested study plans. For most majors, you can search “ntu <insert major> study plan”, but if you still can’t find it, do approach your seniors, assigned academic advisors, or academic offices for guidance.
• Years 2- 4 might have to adjust accordingly as unexpected things happen, including underload/overload/change of programme/exchange etc.
• Plan out your courses on a spreadsheet or document. Make sure you meet promotion requirements, FYP requirements, exchange requirements (if you wish to). Here is a sample sociology spreadsheet. (do note that the author of this post transferred course, so it may not be fully reflective of a typical plan)

2. Check what “year” you are in: You can check your degree audit to see what year you are classified under. The number of AUs you have fulfilled affects what year you are in, which affects your assigned timeslot to register for courses on STARS.

3. Familiarise yourself with the course outlines of available courses for the semester. This has helped me make informed decisions on which classes to register for (e.g. topics I’m interested in, type of assignments, day of finals paper).

4. Check that you’ve met the prerequisites for the courses you’re registering for to avoid errors.

Planning

Use the STARS timetable planner to organise your course timetable. (Just Google NTU STARS and log in.)

Pro-tip: You can also use NTUstars.com, an unofficial user-friendly platform for planning.

• On the official STARS platform, you can create up to three different plans. Below is what I think the three plans can be used for:
  • Plan A: the ideal schedule with class timings I am comfortable with and courses I am interested in and fulfil my degree requirements
  • Plan B: the next best timetable with a different combination of classes in case one of my desired classes has too few slots.
  • Plan C: a backup timetable that allows me to clear BDE requirements (including less popular ones) 

Registration

• Be ready 15-30 minutes before your assigned slot. 
• Test the site for lags. Prevent lags by clearing your browser cache (e.g. Google Chrome/Windows), closing other windows and apps, and avoiding the refresh button.
• Click on “register” about a minute before registration time, as a final test. Some courses’ slots may be available slightly earlier or later than expected, so always be ready.
• Use time.is. Students have shared that this timer aligns with the STARS system’s time settings.
• Types of courses:
  • Cores: usually preregistered by your school
  • MPEs: first come first serve
  • BDEs: rank 5 BDEs you are interested in, and list some with many vacancies to maximise your chances of getting a BDE. If you intend to declare a minor or second major later on, remember to start clearing electives in those programmes early! I declared a minor around Y2 Semester 1 to be granted priority in registering for courses in my minor programme.

Post-registration

• Waitlist: You may still be on waitlists for MPEs and BDEs, but you can also appeal for electives
• Add-drop period: In the first two weeks of the semester, you can add and drop courses or change time slots. During this period, keep trying for your preferred timeslots or courses if you didn’t manage to get them! You never know when more vacancies and tutorial slots are created, and when others are dropping certain courses. In Year 2 Sem 1, I managed to go home 2 hours earlier on Fridays because of this.
• Swap with other students. Other students would usually ask for mutual swaps in batch or school group chats. For example, I swapped a tutorial slot for a later one for a longer lunchtime, while my earlier slot benefited my batchmate! However, remember that swaps can only be made within colleges (e.g. COHASS, COS).

FAQs

1. What if I’m overseas during STARS? Make sure to check your timeslot according to your timezone and ensure you have stable wifi.
2. What if there are any errors on STARS? I typically contact my school office for any enquiries. Once, my core courses were not registered for me, but were done for my batchmates. I called the office in charge of my major, and the office got it resolved within a few days.

 

Good luck to everyone! May the fastest fingers win STAR WARs. 

 

Written by: Nurul Huda Husein

Edited by: Tyra Ang