Hello earth! I'm here to review the modules I've taken during my very first semester in NUS.
First thing first, I'm currently a Year 1 student in NUS, Faculty of Science and has declared to be a Statistics Major. :-) And don't judge why I have only one core module this semester and why I have so many unrelated modules lol I'll explain after I finish reviewing all the modules.
These are the modules I took in my first semester:
1) ST1131 Introduction to Statistics
2) GEK1537 The Search of Life on Other Worlds
3) ES1541 Exploring Science Communications through Popular Science
4) LAJ1201 Japanese 1
5) JS2228 Gender and Sexuality in Japan
Okay without further ado let's start on the review!
1) ST1131
This is one of my core modules for Year 1 Statistics Major students.
Content:
It is a little similar to statistics JC students have learnt for H2 Mathematics, but of course at a higher level with more/different key terms and it is more in depth. For me, I was able to understand most of the concepts and even if I didn't get what the lecturer was trying to say I would be able to understand most of it when I revise on my own. However, I would say just understanding the concepts is not enough, you would need practice. For me I skipped a lot of tutorials at the later part of the semester to cope with my other modules so I lacked practice and screwed up my finals.
Workload:
There are no graded assignments but there are exercises given for students to complete and later discuss during tutorials. For exams, there was mid-terms and finals. Mid-terms are MCQs and it was manageable. I got 15/20 (and I think it was considered quite bad though hahaha) and you just have to pray the bell curve isn't that bad. For finals I think it was quite bad for many people in general, just worse for me LOL so please please please practise. Oh yes, for both exams, cheatsheet is allowed so that's a plus (even though I didn't really use much of my cheatsheet tsk)
Teaching Staff:
Due to some circumstances (which I don't really wanna explain lol lame please), there were two lecturers for this modules this semester - Prof Gan Fah Fatt and Ms Chen Pei Yi. For me, I preferred Prof Gan, who taught me the first half of the semester. Coincidentally, my tutor is also Prof Gan and I was really enjoying the module until the second half of the semester came. Ms Chen replaced Prof Gan and I had issues following her lectures and tutorials even though she was a nice person. Just that her style doesn't suit me... (Yeah that's also kinda why I skipped tutorials)
Overall: 4/5
The content is very interesting (okay lah maybe because I am a Stats Major and I like stats). Just practise hard, pray hard that you get a good lecturer and tutor, hope that bell curve is in your favour and you'll be fine. :)
2) GEK1537
Content:
A mix of all three types of sciences - definitely not my cup of tea. Totally regretted taking this module since the first lecture I attended lol I really really <s>hate</s> suck at science. I didn't like how we are learning theories which might be untrue to such a great extent such as the Big Bang Theory etc (I am not a logic-based person and that just proves how much I don't like those theories). A lot of memorising has to be done for this module.
Workload:
No tutorials (probably the only good thing to rejoice about). But there's project and it was really hard to do it because you need to find group members from the lecture group and then do an essay and a presentation based on a research question you came up yourself. (Whut.) There's Q&A session for the presentation and let me tell you I couldn't answer anything at all thank god I have smart students in my group... Exams wise, one mid-terms one finals. Both similar format, 10 and 20 MCQs respectively and 3 short answer questions. Very hard lol coz my memorising skills sucks. I thought mid terms was okay then I ended up with 53/100 wts I felt I screwed up finals so maybe I will do even worse than 53/100 *throws confetti*
Teaching Staff:
I had difficulties concentrating and listening to Prof Tang Bor Luen's lectures because my hearing skills is kinda bad when it comes to English language (especially those with foreign accents e.g. american or weird accents) and he mumbles. And the pain of listening to science-related things makes it worse. AND the lecture theatre lighting... fml okay. *needs to calm down*
Overall: 2/5
For the friend made there and because I was acommpanied by my bestie Esther (to make it less bad). <s>Otherwise you give me $100 I also don't wanna take modules like this. </s> Okay lah $100 I will take LOL but aiyah you know what I mean.
3) ES1541
Compulsory module for all FoS students. Most people take it in their first year of university.
(Seminar style, no lectures, no tutorials)
Content:
You learn how to write summaries, argumentative essays and give presentations (related to science). You have to read the readings provided so you learn some things for each science subject (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Statistics, Math) which I thought was quite fun (though for subjects like Physics I totally went blur lol).
Workload:
About 7 (major) readings for the whole semester I think... can't remember. But that's still manageable as compared to any other arts module I guess. For the tutorial worksheets, most of them are just information which you have to read before attending the seminars and only a few requires you to do writings etc. When there are things to be completed on the worksheets, they're just simple tasks also. Since this module does not have any exams, almost every piece of assignment received is graded lol. Summaries, essays (including the drafts hor lol) and the presentations are all graded. Presentations include group and individual ones. Group presentations are always 3 minutes each (3 people per group so 1 minute per person) and individual presentations are usually about 1-3 minutes except for the final individual OP which is 10 minutes (the boss lol). Workload is quite big for the first half of the semester and better for the next half. (But who knows maybe after receiving our feedback they are gonna make this module even better woohoo)
Teaching Staff:
I bidded for the morning slot and didn't even regret because I got a damn awesome tutor hehehehe. Miss Serene Eng is very cheerful and you just wanna listen to her even though it's 8 in the morning and you probably just wanna sleep and dream. She's very encouraging and very good in giving comments for you to improve in your written assignments and presentations :-) A good teacher and even a good friend!
Overall: 4.5/5
Burden module turned out surprisingly entertaining and useful. You'll seriously learn a lot of things from this module so just take this when you're Year 1 (also to clear burden mod early lah hahaha oops). This module makes me wonder why they never teach us this earlier so we could fight GP lol.
4) LAJ1201
Content:
Basic Japanese which includes all hiragana, all katakana and some kanji. You'll have to purchase 4 books and we kinda only used 3 of them lol. Oh yes you need to purchase the student course packet as well, which is a booklet filled with practices and some appendixes.
Workload:
DAMN huge. 1 lecture 3 tutorials (2 two-hour tutorials, 1 one-hour) and besides that you really have to revise a lot outside class time. You have to prepare for tutorials by reading the textbooks diligently, study for vocabulary/listening quizzes and memorise dialogues for role plays (contributes to grades coz quizzes and role plays are graded). It was kinda hard to cope for me but still okay - never breakdown or what lol. There are mid-terms, oral test, listening test and finals for the more major graded exams. Oral was slightly difficult (done with a partner while the teacher listens), listening test was slightly difficult because I always couldn't catch what the people were saying (too fast), mid terms and finals were manageable with some difficult questions. Study and you'll be alright!
Teaching Staff:
Morita Sensei is a good lecturer and she tries to be interesting during lecture. (Pretty and cute sensei hehe) I heard Amazaki Sensei was better in explaining (heard it was because he had higher English proficiency) and I sort of agree after he came to our lecture group to explain the mid terms questions haha. But Morita Sensei wasn't bad to begin with. :)
I have three different tutors for my three tutorials (You might get same tutors for some of your tutorials, depends on the tutorial slots). Utsumi Sensei, Saito Sensei and Kojima Sensei. Utsumi Sensei was the most strict among the three in my opinion but she is a very nice teacher and sometimes she jokes also haha. Saito Sensei's lessons were the ones I enjoyed the most (also because the tutormates for that tutorial was more fun to be with haha) and she's really nice and interesting :-) The activities were fun and she joins in our jokes also lol!Like when we start to matchmake people or talk nonsense she will make some funny comments or show her disapproval which always end up making us laugh at her cuteness :p Kojima Sensei is very nice and funny also haha but a little strict. You know she can speak some chinese and even knows 'bochap' leh *inserts laugh cry emoji* She always make the dialogues harder at a later stage lol damn hard okay so I always pray I don't role-play towards the end haha. But then again it was these amendments to the dialogues that made the tutorial fun and challenging :)
Overall: 4.5/5
Enjoyed this module a lot despite the crazy workload. Made a lot of friends as well. I am even considering taking Japanese 2 (partly for the cert) if I get good grades for this module. :)
5) JS2228
Content:
Very very interesting contents about Japan gender issues. Some of the issues are slightly difficult and there are some which might be a little disturbing but that aside, I really enjoyed getting to know these issues happening/that has happened in Japan and how they are linked to gender inequality.
Workload:
1 lecture 1 one-hour tutorial. But MANY readings yeah many I almost wanted to cry from these readings. To be honest I didn't read all (but oi I read most). The readings are a must because you need to read them to be able to participate in the discussions during the tutorial. Yes, you guess it right, class participation graded. There is also one project (presentation only) and one essay (individual or you can do group one with reference to your project). The project includes presenting during lecture and conducting a 10 minutes tutorial. I was in-charge of the tutorial part with 2 of my group mates because the other 2 were doing very well for the lecture presentation (they took all the way up to Japanese 4 or 5 already I suppose? They searched for japanese sources leh how do we fight lol even the other two members have Japanese 3 and 2 respectively then me the pathetic Japanese 1 LOLOLOL). For essay, I chose to do individual essay because I think it's better to be accountable for your own self (right?). I spent about one whole day sitting in front of the laptop and completing it lol I was just suddenly having a lot of feels about my essay and had to finish it so I didn't work on it on different days haha (but of course you can start early and like write one paragraph a day teehee). There was no mid terms but there's finals. I think I did pretty well for finals (I hope). It's do-able, just memorise some key terms, make sure you read the readings, watched the films during lectures, listened to your tutor and lecturer.
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Liz Maclachlan was the lecturer and she's pretty good most of the time just that on some days she sounds uninterested. And sometimes I will fall asleep damn it lol. Itsuko Sensei was my tutor and she's very good and interesting. Discussions were fun with her around and she gives us a lot of information outside of lecture notes and sometimes talks about her own experiences. I enjoyed their lectures and tutorials a lot. :)
Overall: 4/5
Recommended module! Enjoyed this a lot and learned quite a lot too :-)
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Hope the review is helpful! :-)
Okay I promised I would explain how I ended up with these modules... basically out of the five modules I planned, I only managed to get ST1131 and ES1541. I got outbidded for the rest of the modules I wanted. Initially wanted to take Thai 1 but I lost the bid by 3 points wtf so I took up Japanese 1 instead, no regrets though (The language I really really wanna take is Korean, but I think I would have needed placement test which I didn't have time to take since I have to bid on the next day then). As for the other two modules, I got outbidded for another one of my core modules and one psychology module. I wanted to try out Psychology since my very first choice was Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and I really wanted to get into Psychology (even appealed for it sighpie). But oh well, I still got to try it out haha by sitting in one of the lectures and I didn't like the biology part of Psychology so perhaps it's good that I didn't get into FASS? I don't know, but I always think that there's always a reason why Buddha (God) wants me to go for another path instead.
This is yet another long post huh... now my palms are sticky from the palm sweat I've been getting lately. It's not even wet, just sticky and uncomfortable. This started only recently T_T Anybody knows why or how to cure this? It's such a burden since I am a clean freak when it comes to my body. Now I wash my hands even more often, and it really makes me wonder if I have obsessive OCD (omg how).
Before I go, let me just exclaim how happy I am after watching the newest episode of 'Pinocchio' in the morning. EPISODE 8! Daebak *screams*! Haha okay lol I promised myself not to blog like how I used to lol lol lol lol (inner kid exposed).
Good night everybody ^_^ I might update this post (or have a separate post?) after I get my final grades for these modules. Thanks for reading!
