NUS Module Review AY 2015/2016 Semester 2

Modules taken: EC3102, EC3304, EC3332, GEK1520, SPH2104

UGH. I'm currently enduring an excruciating pain after my wisdom teeth extraction and I have be slogging around at home. I haven't caught up in writing my NUS module review and I thought hey since I'm not doing anything now I ought to write something more useful that could help people. 

Personal thoughts on this semester was that it was not an easy semester for me. Adjusting from being in student exchange frolicking around Europe back to the NUS rigour left me beaten during the first half of the semester, getting barely above the 25th percentile of the bell curve for every midterm (I had five midterms btw), not knowing how I'll fair overall in the module. Yet, so many perspectives were learned during my academic pitfall and I guess I'm glad I failed and tried. But enough of these personal and unnecessary regrets and gratitude, let's go to the review heh.

EC3102: Macroeconomic Analysis II

Lecturers Vu Thanh Hai Bethel

Content The content itself is understandable and Vu Thanh Hai's explanation has improved tremendously over the year when I was last taught by him in EC3303 (Econometrics I). I suggest listening word for word over the lecture. Attending the lecture is not exactly needed since there's webcast but I watched both webcast and attended lecture during the semester. I personally preferred watching the webcast because some things require a little more time to grasp!

Workload Midterms (MCQ) and Final paper (Written short answer). Tutorial participation and attendance.

Exam My MCQ midterm sucked, we didn't exactly know what's the mean but everyone scored like 20+/30 and I got a measly 18,  life. Vu Than Hai tends to test everything fairly in his finals, meaning all content consist of almost an equal percentage be it in the first half or the second half of the semester. The batch before mine was said to be easy/doable but I thought this semester's final paper was somewhat tricky. A good tip would be to read the question properly before answering and write point forms. I took quite bit of time to answer certain questions and I didn't study the first lecture so I had to think on the spot how to answer one of the questions (which was very doable) on the spot *cries*

Personal Thoughts I enjoyed this module since it required a lot of analysis and critical thinking. I suggest you guys to watch the webcast instead of attending the lectures because content is not that easy and reading the lecture notes whilst understanding the lecture is critical! If you're planning to study this before semester starts read the lecture notes, it's really comprehensive and gives you a good jumpstart.

Should you take this mod? Take it only if you're really interested in macroeconomics. It's not exactly the easiest module!

Grade B+

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EC3304: Econometrics II

Lecturer Eric Fesselmeyer

Content Very statistic related module. It's a build up on EC3303 and there are a lot of assumptions and considerations to take note whilst analysis the data. It's not a module that you can understand easily at all but you'll get the hang of it, probably during your recess week.

Workload Midterm and Final Paper with an optional assignment to do (which would include in the 20% tutorial participation), less workload than EC3303 but similar style. MCQs and short answer questions in both papers.

Exam Midterms sucked, again. 25th percentile was like 63 and I got 66 LOL. My heart sank when I heard the mid terms average was 72 and I calculated only having less than 50 for the paper. I even needed to muster the courage to collect my paper from the office lol. Main problems were not listening in class for the content. You'll probably end up not understanding the lecture notes and tutorials at all if you do not listen in lectures. I struggled through midterms which turned out to be so easy after re-watching the webcast and then redoing it, pft. Finals was alright but I felt so uncertain because of my midterms, haw.

Personal Thoughts Had very bittersweet moments with this module. I always liked econometrics but it was so sucky looking at my midterm results. Really pay attention and listen word for word to what Eric is saying!! I went through the painful process of re-watching to all his webcasts because I paid so little attention during lecture. His lecture notes are extremely vital more than anything else, be it your textbooks, internet whatever. Just listen word for word or better yet copy word for word if possible, can't emphasise this enough! Don't waste your time like me. Try to understand don't try to practise or memorise questions.

Should you take this mod? Many statistic majors took this module and from what I heard, it's to their advantage since it's pretty basic relative to what they learn. If not, maybe not heh!

Grade B+

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EC3332: Money and Banking I

Lecturer Seet Min Kok

Content Content wise, it's really understandable. Go for every lecture, Dr Seet usually writes a lot of extra content on top of the lecture notes! and there's no webcast! Mostly very world related issues about banks, financial crisis and monetary policy.

Workload Midterms (most MCQ +  2 Short answer) and Final Paper (Short Essay). 

Exam I thought I would have done well for mid terms but I didn't. Midterm requires you to read word for word in the lecture notes so don't neglect any small parts.His final paper is very JC-like with zero quantitative analysis but more of qualitative analysis, very very similar to how the tutorial questions are formed, just with different content, so it's vital that you do your tutorials. 

Personal Thoughts Thoroughly enjoyed this module. Dr Seet's explanations are clear and relatable and I found the content really useful upon reading financial news on various media platforms. Do tutorials as if you were doing the exam paper itself, it would help a lot in regards to your critical thinking.

Should you take this mod? Yes, I think most seniors would properly recommend this module and I would too! I took two mods under Dr Seet before and I do enjoy his lectures!

Grade B+

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GEK1520: Understanding the Universe

Lecturer Dr Cindy Ng

Content It's exactly what the module speaks of. Planets, Stars, Sun, moon history of how we humans discover the universe, aliens, parallel universes, eclipses, all that sorta of stuff.

Workload Weekly quizzes, a small individual project which includes a photography assignment and a personally written essay on your group project, group project, two 20% weightage midterm and final paper. Workload obviously already more than my economics modules, pft. No webcast and Cindy provides a password for the online quiz during lectures.

Exam I was super put off by my midterms, I think hit 25% percentile whilst checking which the statistic Cindy had put up. The bellcurve was super super steeep?! like you needa score 80% to hit the average. I only did average for my assignments but pretty well for my finals but I manage to score a B+! What I heard from a friend of mine is that this module is pretty generous with their B pluses? Not too sure but I'm happy with getting a B+

Personal Thoughts Dr Cindy Ng is very passionate about the universe that she even displayed an eclipse sweet on her showcase box beside her office. I love how she answers ridiculous questionSMS queries from various students in lectures. I enjoyed this module and studying with my fellow group mate Ben despite midterms feeling pretty sucky!

Should you take this mod? Yes, even as an arts student. Very little mathematical knowledge required and they're predominantly needed for tutorials only. I bid like 800 points in my general account for this so not sure if you wanna sacrifice so much for this hahaha.

Grade B+

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SPH2104: Public Health Nutrition

Lecturer There were so many recurring speakers I'm too lazy to go find them out and name them.

Content  Craziest amount of content I have ever seen in a single module. And the best part was they test every nitty gritty detail of the stupid content UGH. We were taught about macronutrients, micronutrients, obesity, old age, pregnancy and many health related issues that were prominent in the real world. Also research methodologies that I felt should be known but not memorised and tested in an examination

Workload Project work, surprise quizzes which I undoubtedly flunked because I wasn't listening (in fact, SLEEPING) in class at all, midterm and final paper. I think this UE has 10x more workload than my economics module. Webcast is available. I did watch the webcasts in the end.

Exam Mid term and final papers consisted of MCQ, short answer questions and match column to column questions. Read everything that was taught, lecture slides tend to be very messy and some are irrelevant so listen to what the lecturer points out.

Personal Thoughts Seriously, what torture did I decide to put myself into. Okay but on a positive note, it taught me to eat well what to take note of when I decide to get pregnant and also very good general knowledge to share with people but I hate the module. Please, if you really want to know how to be healthier, I'll gladly send you the notes. Don't put yourself through this torment as I did.. 

Should you take this mod? Take only if you're memory is super good and you're consistently reading your work and all that OMG worst module ever seriously despite learning so many life skills from this module.

Grade B+ Yea, super unexpected right cause' I complained about this mod LOL.

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Overall

SEP: 4.0 (I got B+ for everything, WHY NOT A)

CAP: 4.1 (CAP dropping like grapes)

Feel free to ask me for my notes if you wanna prep yourself over the summer/winter holidays!