Laptops / PDA
-to buy or not to buy?
When you first get into NUS you will be faced with an opportunity to purchase a laptop or a PDA during the NUSSU Matriculation Fair, at very good prices. You can even take an interest-free loan to purchase your electrical device! Before you jump into it let me take you into the use of such devices in Medicine.
For the first 2 years of Medicine, the average person would not need to use a laptop at all, unless you are planning to stay in a hostel, where a laptop would be most useful. However, if you are really insistent on getting the good deal, you might want to make the fullest use of your laptop by bringing it along to PBL sessions, to do research online while the others are brainstorming, or to even bring it along for lectures (to surf the net and ICQ when it gets boring). However you might find it a hassle having to lug your laptop around and ensuring its safety. A PDA at this point in time will also serve only as an electronic organizer and a web-surfing device.
However, upon reaching the clinical years, the popularity of a PDA picks up. This is due to several reasons, primarily because it’s more convenient to keep track of patients using a PDA compared to a paper notebook, and also several medical texts are available on PDA version. This way you would not require to carry large numbers of texts in your coat pocket. There’s also been an initiative to allow for the downloading of patients information onto the PDA, although I don’t know if it has really taken off yet.
The offers are valid as long as you are a student of the university, and personally I don’t see a need to rush into matters, especially those involving large sums of money!