EC1101E Introduction of
Economics
Lecturers: Dr Ong Ee
Cheng (Micro), Mr Chan Kok Hoe (Macro)
Dr Ong is not bad, she
teaches quickly yet she ensures that her students are responding to her while
she lectures. she includes videos during her lectures which makes it extra
interesting!
Mr Chan is friendly and
passionate about what he teaches. he provides extra fyi data that is good to
know but, it is still extra haha..
both of their notes are
clear and precise to the point.
i also heard that this
was mr chan's first time teaching ec1101e.
Weightage:
6% Pre-lecture Quizzes
9% Post-lecture Quizzes
10% Tutorials
25% Mid-terms
50% Finals
pre- and post-lecture
quizzes had unlimited trails, which was good! we were able to redo it over and
over until we got the correct answer for all.
Dr Ong's tutorials were
manageable while Mr Chan's were pretty challenging. we were split into groups
and each group had to send a representative to answer 1 question on the board
by presenting it. that was how each of us earned that 10% tutorial
participation. going up twice should be enough.
Exam format:
2 hours, closed-book
MCQ
Short-answer for both
mid-terms and finals
mid-terms and finals were
alright as long as you really understand the concept. there were quite a number
of calculations so practicing beforehand would be good!
Workload: 3/5 (5 being most
heavy)
the workload was manageable
- weekly tutorials and weekly readings.
it is good to read through
the assigned chapter before the weekly lectures, it gives you a head start and
it helped me to be less blur during lecture. weekly readings were so-called
compulsory. it did appear in 1 or 2 mcq questions but other than that, you
should be okay not reading it haha.
Tutorial Format:
we went through the weekly
homework during the tutorial. it is essential to go for the tutorial because
that was the time doubts were cleared and content was strengthened. we were
split into groups but we were able to choose our groupmates. as mentioned above,
each group had to present 1 question per tutorial and everyone in class is
required to present a question to earn that 10% participation mark. i enjoyed
my time during tutorial because my groupmates were amazing and helpful. my
tutor was also very good.
i think this module was pretty manageable because i had prior background in college. it would be a good module to take in the first semester while your college econs knowledge is still in there! there are quite a number of overlaps like micro, macro's market orientation, market failure. however, there were some new concepts such as banking & finance. and there is so much more math than theories, compared to college times! don't be fooled like me ha.
PL1101E Introduction to
Psychology
Lecturers: Prof
John Elliot, Ms Kaur Susheel
Prof John
is friendly and knowledgable. he taught all of the lectures except for social
psychology that was taught by ms kaur.
Weightage:
50%
Mid-Term test
50% Final
exam
Exam Format:
2 hours
for both, closed-book.
75
Multiple Choice Questions (25%)
5 Short
Questions (25%)
the short questions was not
very easy. i guess one should be very familiar with the content in order to
retrieve the relevant info quickly! time is pretty tight because 75 MCQs are
quite a number. some questions were quite common sense but many tested on our
concepts and application.
Workload: 4/5
this module is content
heavy and has heavy memorization but it is very interesting!! good brain food.
Tutorial Format:
tutorials were held
fortnightly. attendance was not counted but taken. we had discussions about the
topic taught over the 2 weeks and we watch a couple of interesting videos! i
did not learn anything new from the tutorial but it was a good time to apply
what we have learnt.
This sem's teaching mode has been very different. instead of the usual, we were given last year's recorded lectures. during lectures, prof either gave us extra fyi info, talked about a particular topic, or gave a brief overview of the chapter. the chapter reading is heavy, it took me at least 2 days to finish reading it (yes i could not finish reading in 1 go it has definitely more than 15 pages haha..). but the chapters are very interesting and relevant to real life! i kinda enjoyed the prep and revision. although, we have to memorize the examples used. they ask questions like which animal was used for the experiment, and who was the 'founder' of each genre of psychology. this module is heavy with memorization but it is worth it because the information you stuff into your brain is useful! i did not have prior experience with biology since sec 2 and pl1101e had much biology content in it. i did struggle at first, memorizing the different parts and functions of the brain but it was not that bad, don't fret non-bio people! also, it is good pay that $8+ for practice questions because there are not past year papers available. some questions even appeared during the exam so it is worth it! there were no projects nor presentations too, that's the best thing!
PL2131 Statistics for
Psychology I
Lecturer: Dr Tsai Fen-Fang
Dr Tsai has an interesting
sense of humor. although it was difficult to understand what she is saying at
times due to her accent, it was quite alright. she is very knowledgable about
what she teaches and she thoroughly goes through and explains the concepts.
frankly i quite enjoyed her lectures, never dozed off despite being a 10am
lecture!
Weightage:
30% Mid-term Test
20% Homework Assignments
50% Final exam
there was only 1 homework
assignment.
Exam Format:
2 hours, closed-book
mcq
short answer questions
Formula sheet is provided!
Workload: 3/5
we had 2 textbooks and it
is compulsory to have the textbooks. we just had to read through the upcoming
chapter taught during the lecture. there were sufficient practice questions at
the end of each chapter.
|
Tutorial format:
Tutorials were held fortnightly in a computer lab. They were an extension of the previous week’s lecture. "It’d be either discussing the relevant concepts in greater depth, or providing supplemental examples and practice on the topic, or demonstrating how to perform the analysis with SPSS." (from ivle) this module was surprising fun! but maybe it is because i enjoy math (as much as i am so bad at it). the first few chapters were pretty simple, basic key words and familiar z-test from college. we also learnt t-test, chi square-test, correlation & regression. practice is key for this module. it is not as scary as you think it is. practicing really builds your confidence! :) |
GEH1049 Public Health in
Action
Lecturers: Various.
there were guest lectures
every week so it makes the module pretty interesting!
Weightage:
There
is no exam for this module. It is assessed 100% by continual assessment.
CA:
10%
Individual Quiz
20%
Individual Assignment 1
40%
Individual Assignment 2
25%
Group work
5%
Group Participation during class discussions
the
quiz was held weekly during the first 10 minutes of the lecture. 5 MCQ
questions per quiz and it is about the reading assigned for the week. it was
pretty easy to score as we were allowed to refer to our readings and all we had
to do is control F the key words to find the answer! this quiz ensures that
people turn up for the class. and it was done through an sms system which is
pretty cool!
the
2 assignments were manageable. they were both essays about health and lifestyle
and solutions. lots of research on google scholar had to be done because the
topic is so broad but i had a nice time doing it because i definitely learnt a
few new stuff while researching on the topic! they were both homework
assignments.
group
work was held every week too. since it is a 3 hour slot, the first hour is a
lecture, the second hour is group work and the third hour is discussion. the
groups were preassigned and it consisted of people from various faculties
across years. thankfully my groupmates were cooperative and funny. group work
was the highlight of the 3 hour lecture each week for me :)
group
participation is important!! basically groups had to fight (raise our hands)
for the mic to answer the question asked by the guest lecturer. it was
interesting to listen to what other groups had to say about the group work and
some people can really think out of the box haha.
Workload:
1/5
the
readings were pretty short for certain weeks. there workload brought home was
nearly zero excluding the readings, except during our assignments.
overall,
i enjoyed this module and so thankful i manage to do it during the protected
bidding period because my groupmates whom were seniors had to bid high hundreds
for this module! highly recommend this module to be taken because it is very
eye opening to the various types of diseases worldwide. it opened up my eyes to
a world i have never seen before and knowing about the less fortunate people
from other countries broke my heart; there are so many people out there who
need proper healthcare and care itself. we should not take our comfortable life
and healthcare services for granted. hours of waiting at our local hospital is
nothing compared to the less fortunate. let's be thankful for our efficient and
modern healthcare we are blessed with today. :)
GEH1056 Understanding
Contemporary Cultures
Lecturer: Dr Ho Swee Lin
Dr Ho has so many life
experiences to share with us. she is a good lecturer. however, she gets pretty
distracted easily while lecturing and she does not go directly to the point.
she does not even teach according to the slides! we had to take notes down and
it was difficult because what she said is not reflected on the slides and every
sentence seems important to be noted down. admittedly, her lectures were not
very interesting and many people skipped it. no harm will be done upon you if
you missed her lecture, you will not miss anything important. i did not skip
any lecture but i don't know how i made it though 12 (kinda boring) lectures.
however, Dr Ho is very very good during tutorials when she gave personal
feedback to the presenting group personally. she goes straight to the point. i
think i learnt more during tutorials than during lectures!
Weightage:
10% Attendance
10% Tutorial Assignments
15% Group Presentation
15% Essay
50% Examination
tutorial attendance is
important, so go for tutorials. they are held fortnightly. we were allowed to choose
our own groups and each group had to do 1 presentation on 1 topic covered in
the syllabus. 1 presentation per tutorial.
there were tutorial
assignments for each tutorial. it was just a short answer question that we had
to submit regarding the assigned reading for the week. the questions were not
easy, i think they were trying to get us to think critically.
we had 1 homework essay
assignment and it was not easy. it was my first time doing a pseudo sociology
essay which required critical thinking and critical analyzing. many of us in
this batch were unable to think nor write critically, we wrote an average gp
essay. so all of us received an average grade..
Exam Format:
2 hours , closed-book
2 essays
there was no mid-term.
the exam will be manageable
if you really know what the topic is about and what is there to write. i doubt
i did well (results are not out yet) because i totally forgotten all i have
memorized while i was planning for my essay and i just went gp style. i was
really angry with myself after that but what is done, is done. 2 hours for 2
essays was quite a rush. the last time i handwritten an essay under timed
condition was last year during my geography a-level exam. so this exam did not
go so well for me..
Workload: 3/5
some readings for certain
weeks were pretty heavy. it can be as short as 16 pages or as long as 46 pages.
i was unable to understand reading which made me felt discouraged. i will not
say that the readings were interesting, but they were not that boring. the only
workload was just readings. there can be more than 1 reading per week so yes,
this is a reading module ha ha..
Tutorial Format:
group presentations were
held during tutorials. after each presentation, the presenting group would have
to ask each group 2 different questions each and vice versa. sometimes, the
tutor would go through whatever that was taught during the lecture. i enjoyed
tutorials because of the company of my groupmates. they are such lovely girls
and i am so thankful to be in this group :')
the topics covered were culture of cultures, coffee culture, digital media culture and culture of fear/money. i enjoyed coffee culture because it really opened up my eyes to the uneven distribution of income worldwide. i learnt about the coffee producers and how hard they work to earn less than a dollar each day, while intermediaries are earning profits at the expense of these hardworking producers. i learnt the most in coffee culture. digital media culture was interesting because it made me look at social networking sites in a different light. how it has improved yet ruined out lives and so on. we watch The Voice during lecture too! the culture of fear was more relevant to our daily lives. how our actions reflected fear and how money is controlling all of us. i have to admit, i enjoyed learning about the above topics (but definitely did not enjoy going through the readings). i would not highly recommend this module but if you would like to have a taste of what sociology is somewhat like, you can try this module! although, my sociology coursemates said that socio is a tad different from this module. try for yourself! :)
--
overall, i really enjoyed my first semester! my timetable was quite manageable and i had my friday off :) be sure to plan your timetable wisely - ensure that you have sufficient time to travel from one place to another if your lessons are back-to-back, and ensure that your exam schedule is not too hectic for yourself! i spaced my papers evenly, they were on alternate days. it really helped me to focus on my next paper and there was sufficient time for revision. i preferred morning or early afternoon papers because my anxiety builds up if my paper is at 6pm. i thank God for blessing me with different (new) friends to be with across the various modules, having friends really makes a difference!
God bless :)
