EC4401 Honours Thesis

Till today, this remains as the module which I'm most disappointed with the grade I got. Maybe I shall start from the very beginning when I was still contemplating on the topic for my thesis. It first started off as a very difficult decision as to when I should do my thesis. I had to choose between Semester 1 and Semester 2. Most people would do their thesis in Semester 2 and I do understand from my friends who took their thesis in Semester 2 that the graders decided to be very generous and would give out at least an A- to everyone who's doing thesis, much to my disappointment though. Anyway, I decided to do my thesis in Semester 1 after very much contemplation, mainly because I wanted to do a full-time internship in Semester 2 so I really needed to overload heavily in Semester 1. That's how my 30MCs came about. Next to decide on was the topic. All along, I had wanted to do a thesis on international trade preferably with Davin Chor. But because of my impromptu decision, I did not manage to take EC4341 International Trade II (that's how it was named back then) in Semester 2 of my third year. In fact, the only EC module I was taking in that semester was EC4332 Money and Banking II. During the start of the semester, I still wasn't enticed into switching my topic. I didn't really like EC4332 in the beginning cos it was too theoretical and I couldn't see the application of it. But gradually, as we moved into Week 7 or so, the material Martin Bodenstein was teaching became very interesting. It was starting to get very policy-related. Then I decided, he's the one who's gonna be my thesis supervisor. I think it really makes things easier when your supervisor knows you personally beforehand. Also, his style and way of thinking is really something I admire. Eventually, this all seem to fall rightly into place as I was told that I was the highest scorer for the finals. The A+ also came to me as a sort of reaffirmation of my decision. At that point in time, I wasn't thinking about doing an empirical thesis at all perhaps because I've gotten enough exposure from Dr Song while I was working as an RA for him and I really wanted to try something different. That's why I decided to do a theoretical thesis with Martin Bodenstein, analyzing the effectiveness of monetary policy using a New Keynesian Model. I must say that the process was painful, very painful in fact. Nonetheless, being able to survive through this arduous process is still something I derive great satisfaction from. I really underestimated the difficulty of coding up a model that runs through 72 equations. Making sure everything equilibrates wasn't an easy feat. Prof. Bodenstein had warned me how difficult this process would be. To think I even wanted to come up with such a model on my own. I am really thankful for all his patience and guidance while I was trying to get past obstacles after obstacles. Even he and the assessors themselves acknowledged that such a thesis could only be done at graduate level. However, it remains that I didn't manage to impress one of the assessors enough (as much as I don't wish to reveal too much details of this). Indeed, as I was told later on after I got my grade, it just takes one assessor's grading to be off the mark and there goes the A. Yeap, so I ended up with an A-. I was truly disappointed with it. I really enjoyed every bit of my thesis but the final grade failed me. As much as I don't regret doing a model that is difficult to get it up and running in the first place, I wished I had more time to work on my thesis. I could have done a much more robust analysis if I was given more time. Back then, I really pondered hard over whether it was a rash decision to have cleared 30MCs. Really, it was gonna be fine if there wasn't the irritating EC4103. But I guess the old saying that every cloud has a silver lining is true. Had I not overloaded in Semester 1, I couldn't have been able to do a full-time internship in Semester 2 and secured a job so easily. Yet at that point in time, I was really planning on doing a Master's or PhD especially after Prof. Bodenstein had strongly recommended me to do so. Apparently, he was very impressed with me and was thus quite taken aback as well that I didn't get an A but he emphasized that what's important about thesis is what I learnt from it not so much of the result itself. Indeed, I can't deny that I gained a hell lot of knowledge and skills through working with him over the three or four months. His advice has really opened me up to a whole lot of new perspectives. Then again, now that I think back, I also blame it on my writing skills. It really matters as to how the entire thesis is presented. I think I could have done a lot better in that aspect and until now, I'm still trying to improve on this weakness of mine. All I can say is for those who are looking to score an A or above, you don't have to be adventurous and do something that is very challenging like what I did. Rather, a simple technique is enough to get you to an A. I think this is the misconception that many have; that we all must apply those very difficult stuff in order to get the A. But this is really not the case. I know of people who did very simple econometrics techniques and still got away with an A or even A+. If you really wanna work on difficult stuff, it's your choice to boost your knowledge even further and it remains that there are still people who manage to get the best of both worlds: do something challenging and still score well. Personally, as much as I'm truly disappointed by the result, I still never regretted working on the topic that I did. It was really an eye-opener and I got exposed to something very different from the usual things I had been learning. I've become so interested in monetary policy ever since then, so much so that I'm beginning to question myself right now whether there's a chance I'll go back to do what I love most.

After collecting my degree scroll last Monday, it now feels like I've really officially graduated. And last Monday was probably my last time stepping foot into NUS. It felt a little out of place to be back in NUS though maybe cos I've not been attending school in my final semester. Right now, it also does feel a little strange that I'm not preparing for a new semester and not gonna be attending classes this week. Graduation marks the end of almost 20 years of education, but it also marks the start to a new stage of my life. So far, I've been using quite a bit of my econometrics knowledge at work and I'm appreciative of that. Nonetheless, I still don't deny that it is not easy to look for a job that allows us to apply wholly what we've learnt in school (referring specifically to my major). Well, maybe you might be able to if you go to places involving actual economics research perhaps like MTI ES (one of the organizations which always comes down to give us talks). But man, I feel thankful that my job exposes me to quite a lot of areas that I've never come across in school. Very often, I have to read papers and it almost feels like self-enrichment rather than work itself. Unfortunately, I think many see their job as just something to get through perhaps bcos of the scope of work too. Anyway, I guess to end off well, I'll put up my final module review as well as a separate post on my thesis soon, both of which are quite overdue.