Mod Review 14/15 Sem 2

PL3232
Should take this mod with PH1102E because there's quite a bit of overlap with the philo stuff and I'm sure it will help somehow for both mods. Take this mod with pl3236 too because overlaps with abnorm psych too (Isn't this the case for most psych mods though, haha) Won't say much about the lecturer - Derbyshire since he is no longer going to lecture this mod (hmm, maybe then the overlap with ph1102e will not be that great). As for my tutor (the guy) uhm sorry but I have to say he's the worst tutor I've ever had in my short two sems here. He's really boring and monotonous. There's no doubt he knows his stuff well but that's about all, doesn't help in him becoming a better tutor sadly. Tutorials were manageable not much preparation work required beforehand maybe just a bit of reading.

Will not talk much about this mod since it will be a different lecturer and teaching style and exam format may be different. Past year papers are avail on nus lib portal if relevant.

PL3236
Not sure if it is the content or just the lecturer..but the lectures are quite dry. (My lecturer: Collinson) However the occasional case study videos make it a little less dry. Tutorials are also quite dry, most preparation work is required is when your groups needs to present for that tutorial. For the other tutorials, you just need to read through the case study book (case study is reaaaally long like 5/6 A4 size pages of lines after lines of words) Tutor is also no longer going to be a tutor for 3236, so shall not elaborate on him. He took the whole cohort's tutorials though so that is really impressive!

Midterms - 100 mcqs, but the lecturer took really long to come back with the results - we only knew of the results after we took finals.
Finals - 75 mcqs (if I didn't remember wrongly) and 5 SAQ. Questions came from all the chapters we learnt since the start of the sem.

PL2132
Sim was my lecturer - awesome guy but really loves playing tricks in his paper so blur students (like me) will fall into them. >:( If you have great project group members (30% of grades) I guess 1/4 of the work is done, just need to do the indiv project report. I scored below average for that soooo I'm not sure how my results will turn out, sigh. Kinda disappointed cause I really spent a lot of time on that darn report. Oh well, we shall see how when the results are released on 2nd jun. (BTW, that is also my first day of work............means I have to get up early = see results early = ?? mood for the whole day)   Back to 2132, textbooks are not really needed, just need to make sure really understand and internalise what Sim is talking about during lectures. Really lucky to have got him as my tutor too :)
Tutorials are quite similar in style to that of pl2131, going through tutorials ws and SPSS.

PH1102E
Well, interesting mod. Never thought that I will take a philo mod one day cause at the start of sem 1 I was thinking to myself how these people that take philo are crazy. The lecturer - Pelzcar is really interesting and funny, his lectures are daebak. Even though I will love to show him some support by attending his lecturers, I was really lazy to wake up for his 10am lectures at U-town so I ended up watching all of them online, from the second one all the way till the last lecture. Summary assignments as per usual, and sometimes MCQ assignments. Just 5mcqs instead of a summary that week, and wow the 5 mcqs might seem little but they're mind-blowing.

No mid-terms which is really awesome, 20mcqs for finals as per usual too. Felt like it was okay but I always feel that way too for my summaries but sometimes the results are quite meh.

GEK1062
I'm part of the second batch taking this module. How fun the lectures are depends on who are the guest lecturers for that week. Basically just listen to the lecturer and take notes then do a reflection at the end. Sometimes the prof is really awesome and we didn't have to do reflections every week, esp when the guest lecturer talks too much and exceeds the pre-allocated timing given to him. So basically the whole LT will root for the guest lecturer to talk a lot = no reflection. No finals but there was a 'quiz' which is 5 choose 4 SAQ. Papers are provided with lines on only one side of the paper to prevent us from writing too much, but some kiasu people wrote a lot (flow over to the other side which is blank pfft).

Tutorials - Required to present every week. I had a shitty group member but the rest of us overcame it anyway. Quite boring when listening to each group presenting on almost the same thing, can just zone out during tutorials cause there is nothing much to absorb (i.e it doesn't really help with your grades for this mod). Do not skip the tutorials though cause attendance is taken.

For 14/15 Sem 1 review: click here
(pl1101e, pl2132, sn1101e, ec1101e, sc1101e)

Declaring major :(

Credits

Guess which blur person didn't know she had to declare her major till the stipulated time frame was over :( Promised myself to buck up and not be so blur and look what happened the next day. Argh.

I thought the time frame was for s/u declaration only and I did not know we had to declare our major. I wonder if there are any lost souls out there like me hahaha. This problem arises because those who plan to major in Psych can only declare after knowing if we meet the pre-requisites (i.e. B- in both PL1101E and PL2131). That means we have to wait till the results are released, and I did not know we have to declare 3 days within knowing our results :(

Sigh. Oh well, anyway the bidding points for the psych mods are like 1 point? Most likely it is because most psych mods were already pre-allocated to those who already declared their major (aka not me). Never mind, shall just declare it in Sem 2 then!

I have already sent an email to the student enquiry services and hopefully they will reply with some good news for me! -Crosses fingers-

P.s We had to declare through this GAPS thing and I didn't even know it existed till 1 hour past the deadline. Good job to me. Random, but just binged-ate lots of fries :(

The hard decision after release of results.

Credits

Results for my first Sem were finally released yesterday. I signed up for the sms push service and set my alarm at 8.15am to wake up just to check my phone cause I heard that the sms should come in before 8am! And indeed, it came in at 7.40am.

My CAP isn't that good, just 3.5 and after much calculation using the CAP calculator (Just because I'm from Arts doesn't mean I can't do Math okay hahaha), I decided to s/u two of my B- and my CAP should be raised to 3.82 if I didn't remember wrongly. I really need to buck up because my goal is second upper honours and at this rate, I can only make it in the second lower class. :( The bell curve is seriously a major factor in determining the results man.

On a brighter note, I'm really happy I manged to meet the prerequisites for psych and I'm gonna declare psych as my major! YAY. Hopefully I manage to get the mods I declared during MDE, can save some of my precious bidding points. My Precccioooussssss. :)

As for those for didn't manage to hit the prerequisite, it is fine! Can always take the placement test coming Jun. Personally though, I feel that the placement test(s) is quite a challenge (not that I have taken it before, but it's just my personal views).

 For PL1101E, the placement test requires students to study ALL the chapters tested from midterms to finals HOLY COW. We are only tested half the amount of chapters respectively for midterms and finals respectively and it feels like there is an infinite amount of resources to memorise already. I really respect my fellow course mates that are able to memorise that huge amount of information. Those people are simply walking external hard-drives. 

As for PL2131, for midterms and finals, we were allowed a cheat sheet and open book test respectively. However for the placement test, it will be closed-book! The qualitative stuff can actually be referred to from our notes, so for those taking the placement test, have no choice but to memorise everything. Once again, more memory needed. :(

But I believe, that with hard work and perseverance, anything is possible! :) So jiayou to those taking the placement test and to everyone too for the upcoming sem2! 

Mod review for 2014/2015 Sem1

Here goes my mod reviews for my very first semester.
I wanted to give back to 'society' because I find the mods review avail quite useful in my 'research' haha. By the way, I'm planning to major in Psych! -Crosses fingers-

PL1101E
Expected Grade: C+
Actual Grade: B

This module can be summarized in one word: MEMORIZE. As long as you have good memory, you are good to go! This is a mod that is necessary if you are planning to major in psych. The CAs were 75MCQS (Closed-bk, duh) and a take-home assignment of 5 short-essay questions. 

I screwed up the SEQs quite badly, I only had a score of 15/25 but the mean was 20/25..So I tried really hard to make up for the loss for my final exams, which consists of 75MCQS and 5 SEQs (closed-bk). And GUESS WHAT - It worked out! I was very sure I was in the back half of the bell curve but my finals must have really pulled me up to achieve a B in the end! :) John Elliot was the main lecturer and he is a really nice lecturer, but to be honest, the lecture content is just a regurgitation of what is in the textbook. However, there are times when he gives additional info that is not in the TB. Basically, I skipped most of the lectures BUT I watched the webcasts, so as not to miss out out on any additional info ;)

Tutorials take place once every 2weeks, and I have to say this mod's tutorials are my FAVOURITE. There is nothing to prepare, just be present to watch vids and do some simple discussions within our groups. Awesome or awesome? In fact, if you miss out tutorials, I guess it does not matter much because nearing the exams, the nice lecturers will send a summary of the main points of each tutorial, yay! :)


Pl2131
Expected Grade: B+
Actual Grade: B-

I have to start off by saying how FANTASTIC the lecturer, Dr Stephen Lim is!! He is indeed the best leturer out of all of my mods! I have no idea how, but he manages to find time to go find out the names of as many students as he can from the WHOLE LT and tries to remember each one indiv. How sweet! :) It is really lucky to be able to have him as my lecturer :)

The exams are open-book! Yay! Nothing much to memorise but it is important to know the concepts well. The bell curve is reaaally steep for this module! (What to do?)  This mod is more qualitative than quantitative and it is mainly focused on hypo testing. 

Tutorials are used to teach us how to use this SPSS programme and we have an assignment where we must use this programme. Just discuss it with friends and it won't be difficult to score well. (Which is also a problem in itself, bellcurve remember?)

On a side note, I missed out the last page of the exam paper  for finals. Argh, stupid me. The question was worth 15 marks and I believed if I have done it my grades would have went up. Thankfully I manged to scrape past and get a B- and I'm definitely going to s/u it. Such a waste :(

SC1101E
Expected Grade: B+
Actual Grade: B-

The content for this mod is really interesting, and even though the lecturers emphasise on how this mod is NOT like GP, I can't help but keep thinking if I knew all this info when I was taking GP in JC, I can definitely score better for GP, pfft. 

Personally, I regret taking this mod as I just can't view situations with a 'sociological perspective' which is required in this mod to score well. I just try my best to memorise all the theories from the lecture notes and TB. Oh, and the readings can range from very interesting to horribly-sleep-inducing, certain readings can be just skimmed through as I feel they did not aid me much in gaining that 'sociological perspective'. 

As for the tutorials, I think it is crucial that you speak up and just voice out your thoughts to gain class part. marks. However, I did not even speak  a single word in my tutorial hahahaha cause I really have nothing of value to add. Oh well. 

SN1101E
Expected Grade: A-
Actual Grade: B

Personally, I took this mod because the bidding points for SEA was too high, so I just opted for this mod to clear my Asian studies basket. Even though many people who take this mod claim it is the worst mod they have ever taken, I personally find this mod quite interesting cause I have really learnt a lot about South Asia! General knowledge whoooo.

There were two lecturers, Dr Jayati Bhattacharya & Dr Rahul Mukherji. Dr J is also my tutor! I find Dr J's lecture topics more interesting as Dr R's topics are economic-related which is really not my area of interest. Of course, it varies from indiv to indiv as I have friends who prefer Dr R's lecture topics. For mid-terms it was MCQs and a short note(close-bk). I guess it was okay, but I do not know how I fared amongst everyone else cause the mean was not revealed. As for finals, we have to write one essay and three short notes. I think it is possible to spot topics, cause it is really impossible to memorise EVERYTHING from all the topics. If you are able to do that though, good for you man. -applaud-

As for tutorials, different groups just took their turns to present on the various topics assigned to them. No offence but one word to describe tutorials: Boring. But attendance matters, so do not skip tutorials no matter what! Just one course pack is needed for this whole mod. It varies from year to year so I advise you to buy the one assigned for that specific sem and year.

I felt that I had included a lot of relevant content in my essays in the final exams and I was quite confident. In the end it didn't turned out as well as I thought it will be. :(

EC1101E
Expected Grade: B
Actual Grade: A-

Wow my first A! :) Even though it's technically less than an actual A, let's just make-do and be more generous yea haha.

The micro part of econs is 90% similar to H2 Econs in JC, and I heard from my poly friends who took biz in the past mentioned that the content is quite similar, just that we all had much more time in the past to absorb the same amount of content as compared to in uni. Those who take H1 Econs might be at a slight disadvantage since there is quite a lot of focus in the micro part on the various market structures. However, there are also people in the cohort who have had no economics background at all in the past (which I personally think is very courageous of them to take this mod! Haha kudos to them!).

As for the macro part, I would say from my POV that it is quite different from what we learnt in JC. In uni, there is less focus on the monetary and fiscal policies type, but more focus on stocks and bonds and the calculations. Definitely more quantitative than qualitative. But the good part is that there is no need to write essays (YAY), the exam format is more like short-answer questions. 

Lectures are webcasted but I still attended every single one of them because I don't think I can make myself sit through a 3hr lecture webcast. Yup, 3 hours! Technically it is 2hrs and 35mins of course, but does that 25 mins really make much difference? Hmm. As for tutorials, basically just present your answers on the board to get class part marks! Tutorials for this mod is one hour every week! 

The End (For my first sem, at least)

Introduction :)

Hello there!
My first semester of my uni life at NUS Arts has just ended, and I thought it would be good to just write down my thoughts (and share some module reviews which helped me a lot!) on how I am adapting to uni life.

I came from a JC and the 'mugging culture' I was forced to adapt to has helped me in some way in uni now, I guess?  Even though I jumped from Science stream in JC to Arts now, I personally do not feel a culture shock that I initially anticipated, so all is well. :) Many friends around me said that JC was much better, but I still prefer uni life as I think it takes a more self-initiated approach and it is more realistic to the worklife in a sense. Of course, the poly kids might be more attuned to this kind of education by now? I guess it differs for every individual, hahaha.

As an FASS student, the timetable is really awesome! Most of us usually have a 4-day work week or less and the feeling of not having to go to school and squeeze in the shuttle bus is really really great. One of the cons of being in Arts is that the fac is located farther away from KR mrt, and unless you are willing to walk in for at least 20minutes? (I have never tried it before), most people usually take the free shuttle bus which is horribly packed especially during peak hours. THE HORROR.

I'm just glad the first sem is over! :) Awaiting my results on 23rd Dec, hopefully everything will be alright! Shall update my mod reviews for the first sem when I receive my results. :)