A Final Year Project is not a bigger version of a TMA. At NUS School of Computing it runs across two full semesters, roughly 400 hours of work, the equivalent of three regular courses. At SUTD, the same slot in the calendar is called Capstone instead, and it is not even an individual project.
This guide breaks down what an FYP or Capstone actually involves at NUS, NTU and SUTD, how each one is graded, what the oral defence demands, and where guidance genuinely helps without crossing into work someone else will present as their own. If your school uses a different name for the same milestone, the underlying structure below still applies.
FYP vs Capstone: What’s Actually Different
Quick Answer: An FYP is usually an individual, supervisor-led research project over two semesters, common at NUS and NTU. A Capstone, the SUTD model, is a team-based design project of five to seven students from different degree programmes solving a real industry problem. Both sit in the final year and both carry significant weight toward your degree.
At NUS School of Computing, students become eligible for FYP once they have completed 70% of their degree’s total Units and meet the GPA threshold set by their chosen project. The project itself runs for two semesters, carries 12 Units, and is scoped at roughly 400 hours of work, about 15 hours a week on top of a normal course load.
NTU runs its FYP model similarly: one or two academic supervisors, a project spanning both semesters of the final year, ending in a written report, a poster, and an oral presentation.
SUTD’s Capstone Programme is a different structure entirely. It pulls together five to seven students across at least two of SUTD’s five degree programmes into one team, working on an industry-sourced design challenge through to Term 8. There is no individual thesis defence in the SUTD model. The unit of assessment is the team’s design outcome and each member’s documented individual contribution to it.
Polytechnic capstone projects follow a lighter version of the same idea, typically team-based and shorter in duration, but the core expectation carries across all of them: you need to be able to explain and defend your specific contribution, not just the finished output.
How FYP Grading Actually Works at NUS and NTU
Grading breakdowns differ by school, and getting yours wrong wastes effort on the parts that count less.
At NUS School of Computing, Continuous Assessment makes up 30% of the final FYP grade, split 15% from your project supervisor and 15% from an assigned Main Evaluator who tracks your progress independently. An interim report is due around week 12 of the first semester and is assessed by both the supervisor and the Main Evaluator before the second semester even begins.
For students targeting Highest Distinction, the bar sits well above a pass. NUS Computing students in most tracks need a GPA of 4.50 or higher and must pass the CP4101 dissertation module to graduate with that classification, a threshold set long before the final semester’s grading happens.
At NTU, the written report is graded by your supervisor and then moderated by a panel of three faculty staff, a second layer of scrutiny most students do not expect. The oral presentation is graded separately by an appointed examiner. Presentation length varies by school, commonly a 15 to 30 minute slot that includes both your talk and a question period.
The Oral Defence: Why This Part Cannot Be Outsourced
Every FYP and Capstone model ends the same way. You stand in front of examiners and answer questions about your own project, live, with no script to fall back on.
At NTU, that is a formal oral examination, a seminar-style presentation followed by direct questioning from faculty examiners who already read your report and know exactly where to press. At NUS, the Main Evaluator role exists specifically to track your progress independently across two semesters, so by the time you present, the evaluator already has a clear sense of what you actually did versus what the report claims.
This is the structural reason an FYP or Capstone cannot be quietly handed off to someone else the way a shorter assignment sometimes gets attempted. A paper someone else wrote can pass a first read. It cannot survive twenty minutes of an examiner asking why you chose one method over another, or what you would change given more time. Fabricated understanding falls apart under direct questioning in a way fabricated prose does not.
That is also why FYP guidance sits closer to genuine mentorship than any other assignment category ACE covers. If you cannot explain your own project in the room, no amount of preparation on the page will save the defence.
Where Guidance Actually Helps on an FYP or Capstone
Guidance has a real, defined role here, and it is narrower than for a standard essay or TMA, on purpose.
Scoping a research question that is achievable in two semesters is a common early mistake, students pick a project too broad for the 400-hour budget and spend the first semester recovering from it. A second pair of eyes on your proposal before you commit to a supervisor catches this early.
Literature review structure is another place guidance earns its keep, mapping what the existing research agrees and disagrees on, and where your project’s gap actually sits, rather than listing sources one after another.
Methodology feedback, checking whether your approach actually answers your research question before you spend a semester building it, and report structure review against your specific school’s format are both places a rubric-literate second reader helps without touching your research itself.
What guidance will not do is build your prototype, run your experiments, or write your defence answers for you. Those have to be yours, because you are the only person who will be standing in that room when the questions start. Our essay and report guidance covers structure and methodology feedback for exactly this stage. See current pricing and reviews to see if it fits your timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an FYP and a Capstone project?
An FYP is typically an individual, supervisor-led project, the model used at NUS and NTU. A Capstone, SUTD’s version, is a team-based design project of five to seven students from different degree programmes solving a real industry challenge, assessed on both the team outcome and each member’s documented contribution.
How many hours does an NUS FYP actually require?
NUS School of Computing scopes its FYP at roughly 400 hours across two semesters, about 15 hours a week, equivalent in workload to three standard courses and carrying 12 Units. Students need 70% of their degree’s Units completed and a qualifying GPA before starting.
Do I have to defend my FYP in person?
Yes. NTU requires a formal oral presentation graded by an appointed examiner, alongside a report and poster. NUS assigns an independent Main Evaluator who tracks your progress across both semesters, so the final presentation is checked against work they have already observed firsthand.
Can guidance help with an FYP without it becoming ghostwriting?
Yes, when it stays at the scoping, literature review structure, and methodology feedback level. The research, the build, and the oral defence have to be yours, because you are the one answering examiner questions live. That is also the built-in safeguard: an FYP cannot be outsourced the way a shorter assignment sometimes gets attempted, since fabricated understanding does not survive direct questioning.
Scope It Right the First Time
Three things decide most FYP and Capstone outcomes. Know which model your school actually runs, individual FYP or team Capstone, because the grading and the defence format differ. Respect the GPA and Unit thresholds early, they are set before your final semester starts. And build genuine understanding of your own project, because the oral defence is the one part of this process nobody else can sit through for you.
If you want a second opinion on your proposal scope, literature review structure, or report format before you commit a semester to it, message ACE Academic Services on WhatsApp at wa.me/6584243326 with your project brief and timeline.
ACE guidance team | Academic Guidance | Singapore Last updated: 31 July 2026
