I was really impressed by courses' contents, the teaching methodology, the teachers and their expectations of us students and also how examinations were conducted.
For most of the courses I took, I was amazed by how much content we were taught and learnt over a short timespan. I felt we covered a wide breadth of sufficient depth that was just enough for us to know and stay relevant in the knowledge of biomedicine and as a future researcher.
For some courses, we had group seminars with tutors which really helped bridged the knowledge gaps or questions we had from the lectures. In addition, through explaining the concepts to our classmates, it also allowed us to learn better and cleared misconceptions.
I was also fortunate to have teachers who are not only good at their own research but could teach us in a clear and enlightening way. They do not impose on us to know everything but to takeaway the key concepts and information. In NUS, we often have to memorise huge amounts of content and sometimes I feel that not everything is useful or will become redundant in due time. KI does not expect students to be just purely rote learners which is a stark difference to what is expected in the education system in Singapore.
I also really like the fact that the exams were rather chill. For some courses, besides the final written examinations, we also had group oral exams (which is a rare form of assessment in NUS) which were more like group seminars where we each take turn to answer a question posed to each student. During the oral exam, even if we were unsure of the answer, we could clarify what we do not know and be given a "second chance" to answer another question that you are able to answer. So I felt this rather "forgiving" exam does not put down students who are slow learners/students that are preoccupied with many other commitments.
In addition, for our final written examinations we were given ample time from 9am to 1pm. I really like that we had sufficient time to think through and formulate our answers than simply just writing the first thing that comes to mind - a problem faced when we lack time in examinations in NUS.
Another difference between NUS and KI is that KI does not have webcasts for their lectures so if you missed a lecture, at best could only find out what was taught through classmates. It can be rather inconvenient if you had no choice to miss a lecture and can only catch up by borrowing notes from your classmates.