Modular Overview of my Degree

Being in the final semester implies that the complete set of modules I've taken for my undergraduate degree is determined. For a B.Sc. (Hons.) I need 160 MCs worth of modules, or equivalently 40 modules (since all the modules I took are 4 MCs each), 35 of which is distributed to categories according to the requirement of my degree.

Roughly, this is a breakdown of the number of modules from each category I've taken.

GEM: 2 / 2
SS: 1 / 1
Breadth: 5 / 4 (+1)
Faculty: 9 / 4 (+5)
Major 1000: 4 / 4
Major 2000: 6 / 6
Major 3000: 8 / 6 (+2)
Major 4000: 8 / 8
Subtotal: 43/35 (+8)
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UEM: 1
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Total: 44/40 (+4)

I need an excess of 5 modules to fill up the slots in the unrestricted elective modules (UEM) category. There's already one there - my ISM - because a newly-designed ISM cannot be categorised anywhere, but clearly I have more than enough. Even my faculty modules alone overflowed enough to fill up the UEM category. The severe cramming of faculty modules is primarily due to my maths minor, which accounts for 6 of the modules.

I recall that when I was first year, this system is quite baffling, and took quite a serious amount of time to understand what the whole deal is about. And it does take a bit of proper accounting to ensure that the modules go into the correct categories and that I've taken enough and all.

It may be that NUS is striving to give students a wholesome education with at least general knowledge from all areas (and thus the GEM, Faculty and Breadth categories). However, this makes the entire structure pretty rigid. Comparing it with ANU's system (where I was under for one semester when on exchange), it seems that the system hardly gives the student much room to manoeuvre. A typical ANU student can choose to concentrate on his/her own major (save a few basic requirements), or branch out and reach for breadth, but a NUS student does not enjoy the luxury of this choice.

No way am I saying that the NUS system is inferior as compared to ANU's. I suppose it's more like a tradeoff: the ANU system gives more freedom, but the NUS degree guarantees breadth in its education.