6. Words and settings

Glossary

Word	Meaning
Academic year	A year of postings from block 1 in July to block 12 in June, named by its two calendar years, such as AY 26/27.
Admission cohort	The intake year a resident was admitted in. It decides their Curriculum version for the whole residency.
Any year	Curriculum blocks that may be done in any year of the residency, in practice by the end of R3.
Autosave	A draft as last changed, kept at every change. While it differs from the saved version, Load previous draft shows it as a row ending - autosave.
Band (manpower band)	The least and most residents a department takes in every block, shown as, for example, Manpower: 5 to 6.
Band rule	Your own rule setting a department's band for some blocks. Always a Must, it takes the place of the usual band there.
Block	One of the year's twelve columns, with its own start and end dates. Never called a month.
Block zoom	The page of one block of a draft: each department's count against its band, and everyone in that block.
Box	One resident's one block on a table: empty, a posting, Leave or Left.
Boxes already in the table	Every filled box when a solve starts. They are kept as they are, and are free of the rules.
Breach	A broken Must. It can only come from boxes already in the table.
Built-in rules	The rules every draft carries without your adding them (see The built-in rules).
Changed-since line	The line Residents / Curriculum / Department data changed since this draft was made, shown when the programme differs from a draft's photo.
Completed, pending compulsory, pending elective	The blocks of postings done, the compulsory blocks still owed, and the elective blocks still owed, over the whole residency. A posting marked Failed is not done.
Compulsory, elective	Compulsory blocks are the ones the Curriculum requires. Electives are the rest of the 36 blocks, within each specialty's Most allowed.
Cross-cluster, home cluster	A hospital's cluster. NUH and NHG start as cross-cluster. One DIM block, best done in R2, must be at a cross-cluster hospital.
Curriculum	What a resident must complete over the residency: one row per specialty, with five numbers, R1, R2, R3, Any year and Most allowed. The R1, R2 and R3 numbers say the year each part is best done in.
Curriculum version	The Curriculum for residents admitted from an intake year on, such as From AY 2025.
Database	Every resident's twelve boxes for every year it holds, and the Home tile that shows them. A past year is corrected there and nowhere else.
Demo	A second planner with made-up residents, shared by everyone signed in. Reset the demo starts it afresh for everyone.
Department	A specialty at a hospital, with its band and the posting lengths it takes.
Draft	A working table for one academic year, made by Plan a new year. Several drafts of one year can sit side by side.
Duplicate	A new draft made from another, with a fresh photo of the programme.
Duration	The posting lengths a department takes: 1, 2 or 3 blocks.
Edit history	A Database year's list of every filing, save, delete and correction, newest first.
Entered	A Database year that came in by Paste past postings, not by filing.
Expected	A figure or change that comes from blocks after today's, so it has not happened yet.
Failed	A mark on a posting in the Database: the resident must do it again. It counts for nothing, and the posting is owed again. The box keeps its code and hospital, with a red edge, a red hatch and the word Failed.
Fairness	The scoring number for how hard the solver evens out wish points within each year group.
Filing, filed	Writing a draft's filled rows into the Database as its academic year. The draft then shows Filed and the date.
Graduated	Out of the programme after completing every required posting, the electives, and 36 blocks.
Hospital	A place where postings are done, known by its short code, such as SGH.
Hospital avoid	A wish to avoid a hospital in a period. It is paid by the share of blocks clear of that hospital.
Lag line	The line a draft shows when the year before its year is missing from the Database, with File it or Enter it.
Leave	A box for a block on leave. It counts for nothing and lowers nothing.
Left	A box meaning the resident left the programme, or graduated early, from that block. Nothing after it counts.
Look only	A draft's last saved version, shown but not pressable, while the draft has unsaved changes.
Manual, Automatic	Manual is a year group set by hand from a chosen year and block, shown with the tag manual. Automatic is the planner's own answer.
Member, admin	A colleague on the planner. An admin can also add admins, remove colleagues and open Admin.
Milestone	One of the wish round's five dates: First invitation, First, Second and Third reminder, and Deadline.
Most allowed	The most blocks of a specialty one resident may do over the whole residency.
Must, Prefer	A Must is never broken. A Prefer is scored: a Penalty when missed, a Reward when met.
Paint	A way of placing boxes: each press puts the chosen department, Leave or Left into a box.
Photo of the programme	What a draft keeps from the moment it was made: the residents, their year groups, the departments, hospitals and Curriculum. Duplicate takes a fresh one.
Placed by hand	A box you filled yourself, shown with a small corner mark. The solver keeps it.
Planning deadline	This manual's name for the date your programme must send out next year's postings.
Posting	A run of boxes at one department.
Preferences	The scoring number for how much your Prefer rules count.
Preview	A result shown on the table in dashed boxes, before you use it.
R0	A doctor matched into residency whose R1 begins next July.
R1 start	The year and block a resident's R1 began. It is fixed once the Database holds a year for them. In a residents paste, an admission cohort earlier than the year group implies sets it.
Record	A resident's years as the Database holds them. The screens sometimes call the whole Database the record.
Replied	A resident whose list for the round's year holds at least one wish, whoever typed it.
Resident	A doctor in the programme. A resident signs in to their own page only.
Result	One of a solve's up to five filled tables, shown as a card under Latest solve.
Saved version	A draft as of its last Save.
Score	One number per result: Wishes times wish points paid, minus Fairness times unevenness, plus Preferences times the Prefer rules' rewards less their penalties.
Settings	The panel holding a draft's rules and its scoring numbers.
Solve	One pass of the solver over a draft's empty boxes, giving up to five results.
Specialty	One of the seventeen fixed specialties, each with a code such as CVM.
Table	One academic year's grid: residents down the side, Block 1 to Block 12 across.
This year, the running year	The academic year today falls in. It turns over on 1 July.
Today's block	The block today falls in, read from this year's dates in the Database, or else from the calendar month.
Undo, Redo	Steps back and forward through changes to a draft's boxes, up to 100 steps.
Use this solution	Putting a previewed result's postings into the table's empty boxes.
Wish	One sentence on a resident's ranked list: a request for a posting, an avoid of a specialty, or an avoid of a hospital.
Wish points	The points a resident's granted wishes earn, worked out from the Database and counted once each year ends. A resident's page shows them, such as Wish points: 183 so far, 50 expected for AY 26/27.
Wish round	The once-a-year collection of wishes for one academic year, with its five milestones and its emails.
Wishes	The scoring number for how hard the solver chases wish points. Also the wish round's page.
Year group	R0, R1, R2, R3, Graduated or Left: where a resident stands, worked out from the Database.

The year groups

Year group	What it means
R0	Matched into residency; R1 begins next July. Owes nothing yet. Not in this year's drafts or round; in next year's as R1.
R1, R2, R3	The year of residency, worked out from the Database (see How year groups are worked out).
Graduated	Completed every required posting, the electives and 36 blocks. Out of later drafts, rounds and counts.
Left	Left the programme, or graduated early, from a Left box. Out of later drafts, rounds and counts; the record stays.
manual (tag)	A year group set by hand, from a chosen year and block.

The Curriculum as it comes

Each row gives R1, R2, R3, Any year and Most allowed, as the planner starts. The two versions differ only in DIM.

Row	From AY 2025	Before AY 2025
Cardiology	3, 0, 0, 0, 3	the same
Respiratory Medicine	3, 0, 0, 0, 3	the same
Neurology	3, 0, 0, 0, 3	the same
DIM	3, 1, 3, 0, 8	3, 2, 3, 0, 9
DIM (cross-cluster)	0, 1, 0, 0, 1	the same
Gastroenterology	0, 0, 0, 2, 3	the same
Renal Medicine	0, 0, 0, 2, 3	the same
Haematology or Medical Oncology	0, 0, 0, 2, 3 (Most allowed 3 for each)	the same
Critical Care	0, 3, 0, 0, 3	the same
Geriatric Medicine	0, 0, 0, 1, 3	the same
Emergency Medicine	0, 0, 0, 0, 1	the same

So from AY 2025 the compulsory blocks are 27, with 9 electives; before AY 2025, 28, with 8. A specialty not on the grid may be done for up to 3 blocks.

The built-in rules

Every draft carries these. Settings, under Rules, words them from the draft's photo.

The rule as Settings words it	What it means
Curriculum quotas, such as 3 blocks of Cardiology, best done in R1	One rule for each Curriculum number. With the Curriculum as it comes there are 13. The R1 and R2 numbers earn the two rewards below; what an R3 still owes is a Must.
Manpower bands, such as Cardiology at NHC holds 10 to 12 residents every block	One rule for each department's band. A band rule of your own takes over in its blocks.
A posting is never split	Within a year, a resident's blocks at one department form one unbroken run, of a length the department takes.
Runs of exactly 3 blocks start only in block 1, 4, 7 or 10	A three-block posting sits inside one quarter.
Electives: at most 9 blocks over the residency	No resident does more electives than their Curriculum version allows: 9 from AY 2025, 8 before.
A resident's home DIM includes at least 3 blocks at each of two different hospitals	In any pieces, counting the Database and the table together, and leaving the cross-cluster block out. It binds only a resident who ends the year in R3.
R1 core postings in R1	A built-in Prefer: a reward for each core posting of the R1 column that a resident ending the year in R1 does whole that year. Its reward is set under Scoring.
R2 compulsory postings in R2	A built-in Prefer: a reward for each compulsory posting a resident ending the year in R2 does whole that year: what is left of the R1 and R2 columns, and the Any year rows. Its reward is set under Scoring.

What each resident owes in a year: an R1 and an R2 owe nothing as a Must. What they do of their columns earns the two rewards instead (see The score). An R3 owes every row in full, Any year included, as far as the year's open blocks hold it. A row that does not fit waits for the next year, and the residency runs on.
The DIM (cross-cluster) block is cleared only by DIM at a hospital that was cross-cluster in that block. More cross-cluster DIM counts as home DIM.
Haematology and Medical Oncology share their 2 compulsory blocks in any mix, each up to 3.
The bands, no split and the quarter rule are Musts on the solver's own placements. A box placed by hand is free of them; a breach it makes is named in the result, never refused when you place it.

Your own rules

Add a rule offers seven sentences. Fill each blank from its list.

The sentence	Starts as
If a resident does [specialty] more than once, successive blocks are at least [gap] blocks apart	Prefer
[department] holds between [least] and [most] residents during blocks [a] to [b]	Must, always (the band rule)
Every [year group] has done at least [n] blocks of [specialty] by the end of block [c]	Must
[resident] is [placed in or kept out of] [hospital or specialty] during blocks [a] to [b]	Prefer (a Must is allowed)
No resident starts [specialty] in the block right after [specialty] ends	Prefer
[department] takes residents only during blocks [a] to [b]	Must
No resident is in [hospital or specialty] during block [a] and in [hospital or specialty] during block [b]	Prefer, always

The blanks offer:
- specialties that have a department, and departments, as the draft was made with them;
- the draft's residents, and placed in or kept out of;
- hospitals, then specialties;
- year groups R1 to R3;
- a gap of 1 to 11 blocks, a least and most of 0 to 30, and blocks 1 to 12.
The last sentence penalises a table that puts a resident in one place in one block and in another place in a later block. To penalise any resident at SGH in block 5 who is at either of two other hospitals in block 11, add two rules: SGH in block 5 and SKH in block 11, then SGH in block 5 and the other hospital in block 11. The number is the Penalty for each resident caught. It names blocks, not months: see the draft's block dates for when each falls.
A Prefer's Penalty or Reward is a whole number from 1 to 100,000. It starts at 10.
A draft holds up to 200 rules of your own. A rule that repeats a built-in one is accepted and marked already built in; a band rule is marked overrides Departments.

The scoring numbers

Number	Range	Starts at	What it changes
Wishes	0 to 100	5	How hard the solver chases wish points. 0 ignores wishes.
Fairness	0 to 100	5	How hard it evens out wish points within each year group, counting earlier years. 0 ignores it.
Preferences	0 to 100	5	How much your Prefer rules count: each rule's Penalty or Reward is multiplied by it. 0 ignores every Prefer.
R1 core postings in R1, reward	0 to 1,000	200	The reward for each core posting an R1 does whole in R1, multiplied by Preferences. 0 ignores it.
R2 compulsory postings in R2, reward	0 to 1,000	25	The reward for each compulsory posting an R2 does whole in R2, multiplied by Preferences. 0 ignores it.

The first draft starts at 5, 5, 5, 200 and 25. Every later draft starts at the numbers last saved on any draft. Drafts made earlier keep their own; one made before the R1 reward existed reads it as 200.

The paste templates

Each paste offers Download the template. The residents and past postings pastes read up to 2,000 rows each. They split columns at tabs only, so copy the rows from a spreadsheet.

Paste	Columns	What it accepts
Paste residents	Name, Year group, Work email, Admission cohort	Year group as `1`, `R1`, `Year 1`, `Y1`, `PGY1`, `first` or `1st year` (likewise 2 and 3), or `0`, `R0` or `Year 0` for R0. Cohort as a four-digit year, the year R1 began; one earlier than the year group implies sets the R1 start. A heading row sets the column pickers.
Paste past postings	Name, Academic year, Block 1 to Block 12	Earlier years and this year, never a year still to come. Year as `AY 25/26`, `25/26`, `2025/26`, `2025-2026` or `2025`. A posting as `CVM NHC`, `RES-SGH` or `Cardiology at NHC`. Leave as `Leave`, `AL`, `MC`, `ML`, `NPL`, `L`, `LV`, `on leave` or `annual leave`. `Left` or `Graduated` for Left. Blank or `-` for empty.
Paste departments	Specialty, Hospital, Min manpower, Max manpower, Duration	Tabs or commas. Specialty by code or name. Duration as `1 3`, `1, 3`, `1-3` or `1 to 3`; blank means 1. Blank Min means 0, blank Max means 1.

The export formats

Format	What you get
PDF	The browser's print of the draft's table, whole, without the buttons, palette or banners. Save it as a PDF from the print window.
CSV	A file named after the draft. Its columns are Resident, Year group, and Block 1 to Block 12. It has one row per resident per year group, as the table draws them. Boxes read as on the table, such as `CVM NHC`, `Leave` or `Left`, and grey boxes are blank.

The specialties and their codes

The seventeen specialties are fixed.

Code	Specialty	Code	Specialty
CVM	Cardiology	INF	Infectious Diseases
RES	Respiratory Medicine	DER	Dermatology
NEM	Neurology	RMD	Rehabilitation Medicine
DIM	named in full in the planner	RHI	Rheumatology
GAS	Gastroenterology	ICU	Critical Care
REN	Renal Medicine	GER	Geriatric Medicine
HAE	Haematology	END	Endocrinology
DMO	Medical Oncology	EMD	Emergency Medicine
PLM	Palliative Medicine

The hospitals as they come

Seven in the home cluster, among them SGH, SKH, KKH, NHC, NNI and NCC; NUH and NHG in the cross-cluster. A hospital is known by its short code and cannot be renamed.

The emails the planner sends

Email	From	When	What it says
Sign-in code	roster.sg sign-in	At each sign-in	The six-digit code, valid for 10 minutes.
Added to the planner	roster.sg sign-in	When a colleague adds you on People, or changes your role	Who added you, and how to sign in: go to roster.sg, type this email address, enter the code.
Wish invitation	roster.sg rotation wishes	On the First invitation date, or by Send email	The wishes for the year are open. Go to roster.sg and sign in with this address. Make them by the deadline, and change them until then.
Wish reminder	roster.sg rotation wishes	On each reminder date, only to residents with no wishes yet	The wishes are due, and none have come in yet.
Round closed	roster.sg rotation wishes	When the Deadline passes, or on Close the round	The round has closed; the wishes as they stand are the ones used; for a change, contact the coordinator.

No email carries a resident's name, and no wish email carries a link. In the demo, no email is sent.

Limits

What	Limit
Rows in one residents or past postings paste	2,000
A draft's name	80 characters, not blank, and unique within its academic year
A name or email typed into a form	200 characters
Years a draft may be for	four, moving on each 1 January: in 2026, AY 24/25 to AY 27/28
Undo steps	100 on a draft, while the planner stays open in that tab; 100 in a Database year's Edit
Your own rules on one draft	200
A Prefer's Penalty or Reward	a whole number from 1 to 100,000
A band rule's least and most	0 to 30
Curriculum numbers	whole numbers from 0 to 99
Posting lengths	1, 2 or 3 blocks
Results per solve	up to 5; only the newest solve is kept on a draft
A solve's time	up to 15 minutes, 2 in the demo
Wish rounds open at once	1, for this year or next year only
Round emails a day	90, sent at 09:00 Singapore time; any more go the next day
Sign-in codes	valid 10 minutes; 5 wrong tries; 3 codes an address in 15 minutes; 60 seconds between sends
Year group changes set by hand on one resident	12