NUS Module Review AY 2017/2018 Semester 1

Modules taken: EC4880A, EC4307, EC4352, EC4305, HY1101E

I deeply apologise for the delay in response in the previous semester reviews in this as I was away for awhile end of last year and I hope my replies will still prove useful! I'll be able to reply promptly this day on so feel free to comment or drop me an email :)

In every semester, I consistently complain about how difficult it is and how it is the hardest semester yet and I believe my final semester as an undergraduate was the most trying of them all. Balancing with job applications for full time career opportunities, battling major rejections and taking up multiple extra curricular commitments alongside taking an overloaded 24MC semester pushed me to my limits both mentally and emotionally. (I recommend you guys to overload in the first few semesters and not in the final year)

Yet, I would say I made really awesome friends and also pushed my boundaries in both my critical thinking alongside my communication skills. While I would not say that it was something I would like to experience again, but it was indeed an extremely meaningful semester to reflect on.

At least I ended it off okay, academically. Not super okay but okay. You'll see why as you read, spoiler alert: did pretty badly this semester but here's how to avoid Abigail's mistakes. Apologises in advance if the content and structure seems pretty scattered, did this as quickly as a could.

EC4880A: Topics in Economics: Economics of Careers

Lecturer Aloysius SIOW

This module at the point when I was takin was cramped up into 5 weeks of the semester occurring 3 times a week in the evening, which was pretty exhausting but a huge sigh of relief when it ended haha. If you're looking for a new perspective of economic theories while looking for relevancy of surviving in the corporate world, this module is for you. Prof. Siow teaches a lot on how we as students can do well in the corporate world and controversies of the current academic curriculum to the working world. In which was a very refreshing perspective. There was almost no math at all and the finals are in essay/ case study format. 4 questions, put your thoughts. Workload was light relative to other honours modules. Til today, I have no idea what Prof. Siow is really looking for in the module but I guess for an honours module, it's really pretty slackish and fun to take.

Grade B

EC4307: Issues in Macroeconomics

Lecturer JO In Hwan

Very easy to understand module and Prof. Jo's content is quite light. Pretty slackish honours module but I don't really have the grade to compensate for it and here's why: we had a midterm during this semester that only allowed us one hour to finish in which obviously everyone was frantically rushing through it. Plus it was so freaking difficult, not only I say one okay. Unfortunately for me, I'm someone who has extremely low aptitude for MCQs and was unable to finish the open ended question (yea left like 15 minutes to do 2 open ended questions worth around 40 marks? *cries*) So eventually I quite badly for the midterm that consisted of 40% of the overall semester grade, in which was also the only differentiating factor for the students because the rest of the components were project work. However, I did enjoy the group project work alot, partly because I liked my project group mates and our country was Singapore so it was very relevant to us. I would not deter you from taking this module because honestly, I'm not a good gauge when it comes economic MCQs because I feel I am an outlier when it comes to 100% right and 100% wrong questions.  

Grade B-

EC4352: Singapore Economy: Practice and Policy

Lecturer CHIA Ngee Choon

I took this module only because it is a compulsory for my batch's graduating requirement. There were alot of really SMART double degree students in my class that semester because most of them were year 5s who needed to clear the module as well (this module was only offered this semester) and everyday felt like a reality check for me because everyone was so proactive and smart, like even their answers to Prof Chia's questions sounded as if they gave a full lecture of EC1101E? HAHA okay I sound like I am exaggerating but I am really not! Students and competition aside, I must say I really really enjoyed this module and Prof. Chia's teachings to Singapore policies and the economic outlook on questions of why Singapore's direction is what it is today. Though it's really pro-Singapore, it did give me a good understanding of different government bodies in Singapore. Extremely applicable if you're planning to pursue a role in the government sector. Oh yes, project work for this module is super heavy and very difficult (super?!), had no idea how many times my group tried to crack a solution to our projects. But presentations are super fun because the class is so interactive! Would recommend the mod if you like a form of challenge and relevance to government related roles. 

Grade A-

EC4305: Applied Econometrics

Lecturer LI Bingjing

4305 was a decently alright. Full projects based I didn't do so much of stata on my part of the projects because my group mates took the initiative to do it, so I did most of writing which also required alot of application work and understanding of the econometric tools. If you're looking to take applied economics modules, especially EC4398, I highly recommend you to take this module first in order to have a quicker understanding of the very intensive amount of required readings lol. This module was quite a bane to me though I really like understanding the econometrics behind research papers (that's why I always enjoyed econometrics) but because of how I put my job applications at a higher priority lol. It was hard to be consistent. Well, thank God it's over but I would hope to make it a point to relook at the econometrics methods taught in this module.

Grade B

HY1101E: Asia and the Modern World

Lecturer John SOLOMON, Bruce LOCKHART

I am someone who never liked history. In fact, I dropped this exposure module on my first semester as an FASS student because history is just so boring to me. I ironically took this exposure module again this semester because amongst the other humanities module, this had the least workload. I didn't expect much from HY1101e, with regards to my lack of passion and interest in this subject, but Prof. Lockhart and Solomon really brought out this burning passion of history from me. I'm not discrediting Prof. Solomon (he was also a very funny guy especially during globalisation lecture), but Prof. Lockhart is seriously on another level, I really loved his lectures and his very accurate pronunciations of the Chinese Language. I actually read the entire required readings because it was interesting, which was also btw very relevant, you can't really study the lectures if you don't read history in a story form. Definitely take this module if these lecturers are teaching. 

I would love to take more history modules but it was my final sem in NUS :P

Here's a tip, join the tutorial groups in which the prof is the TA. There's something about the history department grad students who become teaching assistants (TA) that suck the interest of history out of undergrads while further giving you a underwhelming grade just to say "good effort". Seriously.

Grade B+

Overall

SEP: 3.7 (lowest grade I've gotten in my FASS undergrad life)

CAP: 4.04 (Distinction)

Yea done with this maintaining cap and worrying about it every semester life :P

NUS Module Review AY 2016/2017 Semester 2

Modules taken: EC4306, EC4398, EC4332, EC4394, GEK1049/GEH1051

I can't believe I'm now down to my final semester and retrospecting through my reviews over the past semesters (in which I missed one semester's review btw lol), it feels almost surreal to see how much I have grown since the first semester til now.

This semester had been a harsh one, from adapting from work life to academic, overloading my modules, NOT getting my modules because I could not bid for my honours modules, trying to secure an internship while feeling extremely demoralised and struggling to keep my mind sane. Yet, I am pleased to say I survived extremely bipolar semester on a good note, and with grades I haven't gotten for a while though I had initially planned to achieve something better.

EC4306: Applied Microeconomic Analysis

Lecturer Indranil Chakraborty

4306 was the one and only mod I managed to secure for my semester for the first two weeks. I was at first very apprehensive about taking this module because it was mathematics heavy but it was the best and most chill module I took for this semester. I took EC1101E under Indranil before and I knew he was someone who seemed stern on a first impression but turned out to be a really nice prof so I decided to stay on for the module. Indranil starts his semester with really hard mathematical theories of auction in which he only tests what he feels is reasonable, in which is really really manageable. The next half of the semester is like a breeze and you can really focus on other modules because there's no projects or class participation for this module. I strongly recommend students taking this class to go for consultation to ask more advice on how the papers would be like. 

Grade B+

EC4398: Economics of Inequality

Lecturer Ong Ee Cheng

4398 was one of the most memorial modules I took for my whole university life, with a very bittersweet process throughout the semester. Workload is extremely heavy and Ong Ee Cheng expects a lot from her students. I do enjoy her class and her engagement throughout the semester but I constantly question myself whether it was worth taking her class because of the readings. The readings she requires the class to read (in which you need to read 80% of the readings) was really technical and an extremely painful process for me. My advice for those taking this module is to focus your energy and time in answering the quiz questions and not so much of trying to understand the readings 100% because the truth is, the readings are tough and nobody ain't got time for that, at least for me lol. I admit I did not do well for her class was probably due to my final paper because I was frantically trying to volmit as much info as I could on each question and I didn't have sufficient time to finish the finals.. cries. But i guess the module was overall, a good and extremely tiring run.

Grade A-

EC4394: Behavioural Economics

Lecturer Zhong Songfa

I thoroughly enjoyed the contents for 4394. Song's principles are pretty much static but very comprehensive. I saw a 2010 version of his notes and it was exactly the same lecture notes I had during my semester so if you want a head start, my advice to get the lectures notes from your peers (or me lol). I initially had an extremely hard time trying to apply his concepts onto the assignments but I decided to use my application skills from my old level 3000 days and it worked tremendously lol. Project work was fine but time consuming like all other project works are but little Stata application is needed, actually no stata application is needed lol. Overall, this module was pretty enjoyable, debunking normal "rational" economic theories with psychology and redefining new methods of constructing economic equations were refreshing. 

Grade A

EC4332: Money and Banking

Lecturer Huang Ji

4332 was the toughest module out of all the modules I took this sem. I’m someone who has little or no finance knowledge, it was a challenge to pick up quite a lot of the terms and intuition. The project grade I got was a stunner because we (my group) thought we did a pretty good job doing up the report but we ended up being the only 5 groups that received a B grade for the semester, in which B was the lowest grade received for the project. If you’re considering what to be put into the project report, put a regression line by hook or by crook because my other classmate who didn’t put a regression line got a B as well. *cries on top of that my midterms was pretty screwed I only had a 5/10 out of the average of 7 which created a lot of uncertainty this module. I even had to calculate what my CAP would be like if I got a C for this module lol. Finals was a bitch, Huang Ji’s final had a lot of extra info in the paper that was quite irrelevant to the final answer.it really test your understanding of whether you fully grasp the concept of the module. Tough mod.

Grade B

GEK1049/GEH1051 Narrative

Lecturer Ismail S Talib

I took this module out of pure desperation because I needed a module to clear my GEM and because of the new system NUS had I was 100% out of luck of obtaining any general modules.. sad. I got this mod because a friend of mine recommended me the module and told me the prof was really nice which indeed he was. The beginning of the module was pretty boring but I slowly gained interest after the second half of the module. It’s a super artsy module talking about moving images (a.k.a. movies) and books, basically narrative. Very slack module with only one essay and MCQ finals. For students who want to talk this module, I strongly recommend them to participate fervently in class because I realized class part is 15% and I didn’t participate much lol. Anyway, I thought I would have ace-d this module in order to compensate for my money and banking but my grade turned out pretty gruesome I had to use my SU for this hahaha. Highly recommend this module if you want to use it to clear ur GEM because of how little the workload this module has.

Grade B- (my very first and last SU)

Overall

SEP: 4.25 

CAP: 4.13

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!

NUS Module Review AY 2014/2015 Semester 1

Modules taken: EC2104, EC2101, EC2102, LSM1301, SE1101E

EC2104: Quantitative Methods for Economic Analysis

Lecturers Roy Chen

Content Very calculus based that's similar to H2 Mathematics in JC. But there's a catch to it: Roy Chen loves to make things much more complicated then it already is and he is extremely tricky with his questions. Don't fret, though, his answers are usually just really tricky but it can be easily done if you are observant!

Workload Midterms and Final paper. I invested way too much time on this module, which primarily led me to burning out this whole semester. SO my greatest advice is.. don't spend so much time on this module, I believe Roy Chen has given enough work (consisting of tutorials and past year papers) to do!

Exam EXTREMELY TRICKY as said in the content, BUT EASILY DONE. Don't think so much, don't worry so much and you would find the papers extremely easy to do! I think the most worrying factor for both midterms and final paper is how it consists of 40% and 50% of your entire grade. The rest is your usual class participation and attendance which is negligible to talk about.

Personal Thoughts My midterm sucks so results came out pretty sucky! I suggest you guys to watch the webcast instead of attending the lectures because Roy Chen talks pretty slowly and there's a lot of extra stuff he teaches, after midterm especially, which is not really required in the exam.

Should you take this mod? It would an easy A if you have an apt for calculus and pure mathematics.

Grade B+

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EC2101: Microeconomic Analysis I

Lecturer Zhang Yang

Content Another very mathematical module. Simple calculus with even simpler math compared to EC2104. Zhang Yang gives all the required content in her slides and enough tutorial questions. It would be recommended to get a textbook if you have trouble understanding the slides, which you probably would not have trouble with.

Workload Not that heavy but there's homework to submit in the semester. Zhang Yang usually prepares her homework with lots of trick questions so think out of the box for them and ALWAYS discuss answers with your friends. I think workload really depends on how good you are at math! Most people would find it easy because really, the content is really quite simple!

Exam Midterms SUCKED for me. 25th percentile and I couldn't believe it! Main problems were time management really. I had no time to finish both papers and I was close to tears trying to finish my midterms, REALLY. Remember to study everything in the slides and you would be fine. There isn't time to check answers so remember to do those questions fast and precise — that includes both mid terms and finals.

Personal Thoughts Suckiest module grade for last semester. 'nough said.

Should you take this mod? Many statistical and engineering students took this module in my semester so you can probably gauge where you stand on the bell curve. But it's not impossible to get an A, time management in the exam would be extremely important. My grade isn't a good gauge for this module, so don't be too dishearten haha.

Grade B-, UGH!

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EC2102: Macroeconomics Analysis I

Lecturer Wong Wei Kang

Content Content is both abstract and interesting. A 180 degrees difference from what you are taught in JC, this module focuses more on the technicalities of economics - which, to me, makes the module more interesting. There may be a few difficulties understanding the content at the beginning, but you'll get the hang of it if you think more simply. Textbook was well used in this module.

Workload Tutorials may be quite tough to grasp in terms of intuition and understanding. If you managed to attain a sucky tutor like mine, PLEASE CHANGE YOUR TUTORIAL SLOTS. My tutor was so hard on mathematics soley that I had no intuition whatsoever on economics. I had a hard time trying to understand what it meant by "intuition" :( Overall workload was fine.

Exam I had MCQs for midterms which I thought I had done well for. Instead, I only had a below average grade.. suck balls. I'm generally not good at MCQs so I believe others had it alright. The final paper was the worst. It was so mind-blogging for everyone that the gauge for grades is so damn ambiguous. I couldn't do a lot of questions but I still managed to pull up my overall grade.. by slightly.

Personal Thoughts I generally enjoyed this module though it complicatedly everything in economics. I suggest drawing mind maps for this module because that helped me follow a trial of thought really well!

Should you take this mod? Not really, unless you want to minor in economics or you're an economics major. EC2101 would be the hot module to take for non-economics students but EC2102 is entirely different

Grade B

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LSM1301: General Biology

Lecturer Dr Seow Teck Keong, Dr Mary Rose Cervantes Posa

Content It's exactly H2 Biology from what I've heard but H2 Biology students are precluded! I don't have any biology background since JC so I was bait wearing about taking this. I took it anyway because I heard it was slack and easy! No textbook needed.

Workload Practical and lecture quizzes were quite the pain, but it was mainly because I didn't study at all and I kinda "checked" most of my answers with my friends who took this module, heh! Practicals are seemingly impossible to do well because they catch every nitty gritty stuff you missed out so that was quite a pain for me. Quizzes are tricky but not impossible to do so don't fret.

Exam It was an open book MCQ final paper done online and this paper was extremely tricky! The overall grading system was released to us via email and the average score was a 33/60 - barely a pass. I guess I can say I was quite thankful for this lol. I spent one and a half days labelling all the content of the lectures and reading through everything so I could remember where my answers were, I felt that it was a good strategy.

Personal Thoughts It was really interesting and can get pretty complicated with gene expression. I'm a bit lazy to really explain this module but overall, I felt like growing plants in my garden after the semester.

Should you take this mod? Yes, especially if you took H1 Biology.

Grade B+

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SE1101E: Southeast Asia: A Changing Region

Lecturer Johnson, Irving Chan

Content  You learn about the region and how fluid and ambiguous the whole region is. I learned new stuff I didn't know about SEA so I was pretty contented with this module :)

Workload One individual assignment which is a full 2000 word essay. That one was crazy. But the assignment given changes from semester to semester. Readings are one reading per week. blablablablabla

Exam Essay for both mid terms and finals. It was very doable.

Personal Thoughts I'M GETTING LAZY TO DO THIS LOL.

Should you take this mod? Yes! Readings are light and interesting, plus you get a general idea of the region around Singapore. I think it's good general knowledge that you can take. Plus, Irving makes his lectures really entertaining and slack.

Grade A-

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Overall

SEP: 3.8

CAP: 4.2

DANGGG! OH WELLS/ My primary problem was seeking out good grades and burning out just before midterm papers. I hope you won't make the same mistake as I did!

NUS Module Review AY 2013/2014 Semester 2

Modules taken: EC1101E, EC2303, FMA1206M, MKT1003X, NM1101E

EC1101: Introduction to Economic Analysis

Lecturers Dr Indranil Chakraborty, Dr Seet Ming Kok

Content Microeconomics and macroeconomics. It would be of an advantage if you took H2 economics in JC, 70% of what I was taught in JC was relevant here. Thus, content wasn't so much of a hassle. But my friends who did not have any econometrics background at all didn't have any problems understand the lectures or what not so no worries for that.

Workload Probably invested the least amount of time on this mod. Tutorials are unmarked and you would only have to present in class for your 10% class participation. Most of the time your friends in your tutorial would help you haha. and of course, Midterms and Final paper.

Exam Well, we were privileged to have two seperate papers for microeconomics and macroeconomics so contents were entirely separated so we didn't have to study the entire sem's worth of work hehe. Both were written papers. Midterms was honestly really just a copy-and-paste of tutorials thus I think everyone scored dam well and I kinda sucked LOL. Finals was pretty tough and tricky, but if your econs is solid, you shouldn't have a problems but read questions properly!

Personal Thoughts If you're taking this module in sem1, this review is probably not really an accurate gauge because as what I had heard of, 600 people took EC1101e in the first sem (since it's a required core for econs majors) and only estimated around 40 people took it during my[2nd] sem. PLUS, the lecturers were both different so exams and all that were entirely different from what people in semester 1 had taken so do take note of that.

Should you take this mod? I think everyone would recon H2 econs students to take this mod, so yea I do recommend it too! Just note that the bell curve is pretty steep.

Grade A-, honestly I had quite abit of careless mistakes here and there but I'm pretty contented with the results :)

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EC2303: Introduction to Econometrics 

Lecturer Dr Emily Beam

Content Very statistical and mathematical based. Thus,  JC students who have taken H1/H2 mathematics may be of an advantage. It doesn't mean poly students will be of disadvantage, really. Familiar JC stuff are hypothesis testing, permutations&combi, poisson blablabla.

Workload I think I spent quite a lot of time on this mod, around 50%? Since it's about math, this mod requires quite a lot of practice like any typical math paper. News problems, individual assignments, in-class quizzes(ICQ), mid-term and final paper. News problems are, what I feel, a waste of time really.. but heck, it's like 10% of the overall grade so just do. ICQs are quite sort of an "attendance" for lectures but I do suggest u just go for lectures rather than watching webcast la. For assignments, getting full marks is important since in math, there is either only right or wrong and everyone would check answers with their peers to get "free" marks. It's damn annoying part cause' you have to be kiasu.

Exam Midterms was set pretty tricky and abit tougher but like all math papers, if you had been practising, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Finals were easier but let me tell you that I had so many careless mistakes but I didn't finish the last part of my paper heh.. No time! okay but that's just my poor time management, most did!

Personal Thoughts Emily Beam was pretty comprehensive with her slides and explanations with chapter except the last few lectures, I dont know why haha. Resources given by her were really useful. Ahya, just practice really.

Should you take this mod? A requirement for economics majors. Competition is quite high and bell curve pretty steep since it's not super tough or anything.

Grade A, got an a- for mid terms so I guess finals was the one who pulled it up to an A, better than expected :)

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FMA1206M: Food Politics

Lecturer Matthew Lepori

Content Signed up for this module without knowing what it was, at all, except for the word food. So here's some head's up: it is about how food is "manufactured" from farms to your table and the many intricacies that happen along the way with governments and power, that affects the international trade of food i.e. politics. Ugh mouth full of words but you get the point. Think geography, sociology and politics.

Workload Lots of readings, there will be books that you need to purchase but you can also find in online in PDF files. I'm not super hardworking so I disregarded some of the readings... :( I feel bad. Class participation is considerable here since it's a seminar-based module, not something I'm entirely comfortable with. Presentation and RP which was done by a step-by-step basis. Slack.

Exam NO exams! Woohoo!

Personal Thoughts I generally do not have much knowledge on food or politics thus participation in class wasn't the best plus my presentation was kinda.. erm.. how should I put it, under the standard. hehe. I really enjoyed writing and researching on the essay though because you get to write an research paper(RP) about some food that interested you which related back to politics. I did an RP on fish! Our tutor was also kind enough to give up tips on writing a good essay which we were quite privileged to know of.

Should you take this mod? Yes, okay I think FMAs are generally interesting and thought provoking even though it is a freshmen mod. If you love talking, this is the mod for you! No bell curve since class is small (15 peeps max)

Grade A-, I was counting on an A considering I got an A for my RP but ah well, A- perhaps due to the participation in class.

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MKT1003X: Marketing

Lecturer Dr Ang Swee Hoon

Content Business stuff. What is marketing? concepts blabla. Basic stuff but don't be fooled because common sense is not so common. The 'X' in MKT1003X means it's for non-biz students in case you don't know.

Workload One individual assignment, one group assignment + presentation, subject pool stuff and Finals. Class participation consist of 10% but there isn't much time to speak up or anything so try your best to make some impression of your presence. All content for work can be found in the textbook. Syllabus covers 16 chapters in the text book and each chapter has like 20-30 pages? Cray. Unless you are a psych major maybe this is pretty okay for you... heh.

Exam Finals are 100 MCQs. Seriously, MCQs are no easy stuff. So don't be fooled to think it's easy. A lot of nitty gritty is being tested so I suggest reading the textbook word for word. I myself had a problem with answering the questions since it's really quite tricky.

Personal Thoughts I think I was really blessed to have a nice tutor and group. Everyone in my group was cooperative and not slack. We even have a mini celebratory outing after finals hehe <3 I enjoyed every single lecture and tutorial though they're not really useful for finals since you just have to somehow memorise the whole textbook. But hey, it's fun so you should go! Don't be such a boring mugger unless you're busy with cca or hall then maybe you can consider not to go haha. Subject pool is a burden so you should clear it asap.

Should you take this mod? Yes! If you like humorous and fun lectures, you should take this. Dr Ang usually teaches sem 2 marketing classes so do take note of that.

Grade A

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NM1101E:Communications, New Media and Society 

Lecturer Associate Professor Lonce Wyse

Content Common communication sense stuff put into technical terms. You learn about communication in offices, culture, individual. Content jumps from chapter to chapter and readings to readings which I can't really describe comprehensively because it's really just, everywhere. I suggest following closely to lecture content, slides and what chapter of the textbook is being taught that week.

Workload One individual assignment, two partnered assignment and finals. All 15% of overall grade each. I personally didn't like how our assignments were marked because it was quite messy and biased based on each tutor's strength. But I can't tell entirely for sure. They decided to waver off class participation because it would be somehow unfair if someone gets a hard question and unable to answer it..

Exam Finals are 74 MCQs. Weird number right? I have no idea why but it beats having to have short answer questions so I'm not complaining.

Personal Thoughts I think I was vexed by how arbitrary and ad hoc everything was. I suggest going for every lecture and study content word for word (yes, sigh). Questions for finals were not the clearest and I think quite a lot of people got screwed for not going to lectures, heh.

Should you take this mod? Not really. I don't know why people suggest taking it as a UE, I don't think it's really beneficial unless you just wanna S/U.

Grade B+, I was really glad I got a B plus. It was my first final paper then and I really didn't know what to expect.

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Overall

CAP: 4.6

Thank God for the decent results ^^ not sure if anyone would read this but you can leave a comment if you have queries about taking these mods :)