Course Exemption

ELIGIBILITY

GCE ‘A’ Level, IB & NUSHS Qualifications

Students with outstanding Singapore GCE ‘A’ Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) and NUS High School Diploma (NUSHS) results may be eligible for exemptions for up to 3 selected first year courses in Table 1 below.

• GCE 'A' Level: Grade ‘A’ for a H2 subject relevant to the course to be exempted.
• IB: Grade ‘7’ for a HL subject relevant to the course to be exempted.
• NUSHS Diploma: Major Cap of 4.7 for a subject relevant to the course to be exempted. 

Poly Qualifications
Course exemption for top local polytechnic students may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, depending on the diploma and courses that students have taken in their respective polytechnic institutions, and if they have satisfy the requirements/conditions set by the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Generally, students with an Advanced Certificate, Diploma Plus certificate and/or Certificate of Merit or Distinction may be considered for exemption of up to 4 courses or 12 AU for Year 2 students; up to 2 courses or 6 AU for Year 1 students , depending on the relevance of the polytechnic courses taken and the grades obtained

* : Students who plan to take Materials and AI specialization are strongly encouraged to take MS1008 to lay a strong foundation for the specialization

AY2023-24 Course Exemption Timeline:

Important Notes:
a) Course exemption is only applicable to Freshmen admitted in that particular Academic Year. The exercise will only be conducted in Semester 1.

b) Course exemption is not compulsory. Students have a choice if they wish to participate in the course exemption exercise.

c) Students are strongly encouraged to visit the School’s website to understand the course content coverage for the courses which they wish to apply for exemption. The MSE Course Summary is available here.

d) Students who are granted course exemptions are considered to have earned the credits awarded to the course. However, the exempted courses do not carry grades and hence would not be included in the computation of students’ GPA. Since a student who qualifies for exemption in a particular course is likely to get a good grade for the course if he/she is to read it, being exempted from it would mean that more efforts are required to obtain a good GPA based on higher level courses. On the other hand, exemptions enable students to proceed to advance courses sooner, which in turn may allow them to graduate in a shorter time.

e) Students who are considering course exemptions must ensure that they are truly proficient in those courses, and there are no serious gaps in their knowledge that might affect their learning in other courses. In other words, course exemptions should not come at the expense of the students’ performance to tackle more advance courses during their candidature.

f) In granting exemption of courses on the basis of the students’ relevant certificate/diploma (e.g. A Level or polytechnic diploma), students may wish to take note of the following conditions for the award of the Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering) degree:

2. In addition to the above, students in the Bachelor of Engineering programmes must also ensure that the following minimum number of AU from their Core Courses and Major Prescribed Electives (excluding ICC and BDE) are graded, as set out in the table below:

Academic (Undergraduate) Coordinator