what sets your soul on fire?
i'm sure it's not grades.
chase after what makes you truly happy.
GET1038 Communication in Small Groups
Lecturer: Dr Debelina Dutta
Dr Debelina was very enthusiastic and friendly, she makes monday morning lectures so much better! her lessons are filled with videos and food (sometimes). videos can be as lame as The Office but it is so applicable too! her slides are clean and concise, which made revision easier. she set up study groups during reading week so that we can consult her, she even gave us her handphone number so that we can text her questions! she insisted to meet every group before our group presentations and i really appreciate her dedication to this module. i'm really impressed by the extra effort she puts in for her students and i really enjoyed going for her lectures :)
Dr Debelina was very enthusiastic and friendly, she makes monday morning lectures so much better! her lessons are filled with videos and food (sometimes). videos can be as lame as The Office but it is so applicable too! her slides are clean and concise, which made revision easier. she set up study groups during reading week so that we can consult her, she even gave us her handphone number so that we can text her questions! she insisted to meet every group before our group presentations and i really appreciate her dedication to this module. i'm really impressed by the extra effort she puts in for her students and i really enjoyed going for her lectures :)
Weightage:
10% participation
25% mid-term
30% group project
35% final exam
the group project was broken down into multiple components. there was a group contract, group paper, individual paper, presentation and peer-review. i admit that there was quite a bit to do for the group project. but because Dr Debs provided the guidelines, deadlines and all required materials early in the semester, we were able to finish it pretty early! So it wasn’t too much of a hassle for us.
The group project was a task to critically evaluate a communication tool.
Exam format: close book, MCQ, SAQ
Mid term was an open book, online exam on McQ and saq. It was my first time doing an exam online so that was quite and experience! It was very manageable to the point that Dr debs decided to do away with McQ in finals bcos everyone did too well in it :o
Finals was closed book and just saq. You’d think that a gem exam would be short and essay but no! I legitimately had arm ache the following day for the whole day o.o and very few people left early and many of us finished writing our ‘short’ answer questions just on the dot! It was a mad rush that caught me off guard lol. But the questions were prettt straightforward and memory based so it was okay :-) hopefully the bell curve won’t be too steep.
Workload: 3.75/5
As mentioned earlier, Dr Debs told us the deadlines for our submissions very early in the semester, and even extended it towards the end! so we had ample time to complete our submissions which included a group contract, individual reflection, peer review and a group paper. although it seems like a lot of things to submit, they were easy to complete in a short period of time as Dr Debs gave us very clear guidelines to follow for submission! we were really held by the hand throughout the whole module and we liked it hehe.
Textbook readings were manageable because the content was very understandable and commonsensical. The ebook version can be found online and my friend and I printed it out instead of buying the physical textbook :)
Tutorial Format:
Tutorials were super chill! Raksha was my tutor and she is very patient and understanding and friendly :-) we had different activities throughout the semester! Best tutorial was when we were tasked to build the tallest tower using recycled material. My group went around utown to collect all the cupboards we could find and our tower touched the ceiling of the tutorial room haha! Other tutorials were quite boring tbh it was just going through concepts and there were long breaks in between so I guess it was paced well.
overall, I enjoyed this module mainly because I took it with a friend! :) the content is quite applicable to real life and relatable too. It’s a handy module to increase your general knowledge of communication heh. I’d recommend it because of the applicable content!
HY2249 Art & History
Lecturer: Maurizio Peleggi
My first Italian lecturer haha. He was pretty chill and very knowledgeable! Classes were nice because he’d ‘take’ us to the place using google maps and he’d tell us stories about his experiences with the art irl. There were definitely many moments I couldn’t understand his accent tho..
Weightage: 100% CA
5 x 20% in-class quiz
‘Very easy very easy!’ says the lecturer but I got detiorating grades :(( so there is a 30 written quiz during every fortnight tutorial where we’re supposed to memorize all the paintings and it’s formal + content analysis, and Peleggi would flash 1 painting on the screen and we have to write all about it. I thought it was easy and manageable until I got back my paper each week..
The final test was about the past 13 weeks’ work where Peleggi would select 3 art works from 10 lectures and we’d have to prep for it. I can’t believe I actually memeorized 30 art pieces lol it was a lot.
Workload: 3.5/5
There were readings and tho they were compulsory, I don’t think it’d have value added to the tests, just your general knowledge. I wish I had knew earlier so that I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time in rbr and photocopying the content which was a lot of pages!
Having to prepare for a week every fortnight was also quite troublesome.. but I actually enjoyed it! I learnt so much about th painting and art is truly so beautiful and meaningful. Artists are great people :) if I could have the chance to study art leisurely, I totally would!!
Tutorial Format:
overall, I really enjoyed this module! Despite my very poor grades throughout the sem, I actually enjoyed this module the most among my 5 mods this sem :-) its so interesting and the content is something you will only get if you go to the museum itself and get a tour guide :) or voluntarily google it up haha. While preparing for the tests, I’d google about the art to learn more about it, hoping that it’ll add some brownie points into my quiz answer (but I guess it didn’t) and I learnt so much from it!
Oh yes, apparently 0 history background is needed for this module :-) the last time I touched history as in lower secondary haha. But I must say that this module is to the advantage of true art students who can write well and analyze well, otherwise you’ll struggle like me haha. I’m not fluent in my writing so I guess that’s why I didn’t do well for my quizzes. But I’d definitely recommend this module! More than the GEM mentioned above hehe!
PL3240 Group Dynamics
Weightage:
20% mid term
22% group project (12% presentation, 10% report)
8% critical thinking assignment
50% finals
Exam format: close book, MCQ, FITB, 2C1 SAQ, Case Study
Workload: 5/5
Tutorial Format:
overall, i like this module only because of the content. it was very interesting to learn about how groups work. unfortunately this interest did not supersede the fact that it was SO time consuming and content heavy. there was no practice bank floating around so i had to google for practice questions which were time consuming too. written notes for each chapter in an a4 notebook could take up to 8 pages... i would recommend this module for its content if you're interested in people, but maybe not under Dr Cha, or this textbook, bcos there is seriously too much content to be memorized and i wouldn't want anyone to go through what we did..
PL3242 Health Psychology
Weightage:
Workload: 3/5
i'd say that the workload for this module is the lightest among the 3 PL mods i took this sem. the presentation did not take up too much time as the content to be presented was only released 1 week before our presentation. revising for this module was quick too as there was not too much content to remember and many of the chapters linked up to each other so it was easier to understand the content.
Tutorial Format:
Zher Wen was my tutor and tutorials were held every fortnight. there will be 1 group presenting each tutorial and can take up to 45 minutes, excluding Q&A! the tutor asked most of the questions. he mumbles quite a bit and it was hard to listen and understand what he was saying, especially if you're in the audience listening and not presenting. that was about all we did for the tutorial haha..
PL3240 Group Dynamics
Lecturer: Dr Cha Yeow Siah
Dr Cha is nice :-) although he speaks fast in class, he makes lecture enjoyable by playing songs before lecture starts and puts case studies into every lecture to make the content more applicable. And these real life events made me realize how big and scary the world is: while we were in a comfortable lecture theatre learning, there are others trying to escape from being shot by people who are against their race :-(
Dr cha’s slides are pretty clean and straightforward! He summarized the textbook well, which was useful because the textbook we used as SO messy and it was difficult to study it.
He also posted longgg post-lecture announcements which were like debriefs for what we learnt.
Weightage:
20% mid term
22% group project (12% presentation, 10% report)
8% critical thinking assignment
50% finals
The group project was really fun! We were tasked to make a video of ANY content. I love the creativity freedom! We were randomly sorted into our groups. I thought it’d be a time consuming project but we took lesser time than expected! We only took 1 day out of recess week to come up w the script, film and edit the video. Really thankful that I’ve got groupmates who were familiar w filmmaking so it made the process smoother :)
The presentation was just having to show our video and share what were our take aways within 15 minutes. It was the most chill presentation I’ve ever had haha.
The report was an individual reflection essay where we had to apply the concepts we have learnt into our project.
The critical thinking assignment was a tough one for me because I’m not a good critical thinker. We were given 5 different topics to choose from, each topic released every 2 weeks and due 1 week after its release. Thank goodness Dr cha gave us the option of redoing the assignment (but on another topic) if we didn’t do well previously. I did it twice lol.
Exam format: close book, MCQ, FITB, 2C1 SAQ, Case Study
Mid term was closed book, McQ and FITB. The questions were super application based! And Dr cha tested us on things like “in the song played during lecture ... which concept did it apply?” Or he’d ask us about the details in the case studies in lectures. So it’s important to go for lecture!
Finals were closed book and all of the above. there was so much content to memorized, i have not felt so stressed over an exam since PL3239.
Workload: 5/5
The workload was the heaviest because there was just TOO MUCH content to remmeber and TOO MANY keywords to memorize. My friends and I were struggling so badly. It was to the point where I couldn’t recall what to write for the saq during finals because there was too much in my brain already. Finals was not funny. I didn’t feel confident over it either.
Tutorial Format:
overall, i like this module only because of the content. it was very interesting to learn about how groups work. unfortunately this interest did not supersede the fact that it was SO time consuming and content heavy. there was no practice bank floating around so i had to google for practice questions which were time consuming too. written notes for each chapter in an a4 notebook could take up to 8 pages... i would recommend this module for its content if you're interested in people, but maybe not under Dr Cha, or this textbook, bcos there is seriously too much content to be memorized and i wouldn't want anyone to go through what we did..
PL3242 Health Psychology
Lecturers: Dr Tsai Fen Fang
this was my second time having a module under Dr Tsai! i have grown to enjoy her lectures and her teaching. she has her own sense of humor and bubbliness i enjoy! although there were still some moments when i could not understand her accent, her teaching is quite clear and straightforward. she does not mumble or say too many extra stuff that is not mentioned in the lecture slides. her slides are very clean and short too, neatly summarizing the entire chapter for us.
i heard that the previous lecturers for this module made the workload harder bcos students had to do some health brochure assignment, a reason why i didn't take this mod earlier. so when i saw that it was dr tsai teaching this mod, i jumped for it hahaha! also because i saw that the grading was different as well.
this was my second time having a module under Dr Tsai! i have grown to enjoy her lectures and her teaching. she has her own sense of humor and bubbliness i enjoy! although there were still some moments when i could not understand her accent, her teaching is quite clear and straightforward. she does not mumble or say too many extra stuff that is not mentioned in the lecture slides. her slides are very clean and short too, neatly summarizing the entire chapter for us.
i heard that the previous lecturers for this module made the workload harder bcos students had to do some health brochure assignment, a reason why i didn't take this mod earlier. so when i saw that it was dr tsai teaching this mod, i jumped for it hahaha! also because i saw that the grading was different as well.
Weightage:
30% tutorial (15% presentation, 10% reflection paper, 5% tutorial attendance & participation)
30% mid term
40% finals
we were allowed to form our own groups to present on one of the 4 topics that the tutor will give us. the presentation was based on 2 readings. the reflection paper was an individual assignment that we have to write about regarding one of the topic's 2 readings.
Exam format: close book, MCQ, 5 SAQ, 1 Essay
mid terms only consisted of MCQ. unfortunately, there was no question bank floating around for this module and i had to google for practice questions too. for mid term, Dr Tsai mainly tested application questions of the key words we use. many people left within 30 minutes although the test was 1 hour haha.. the test was manageable if you study because it's quite commonsensical too. i think that's why the bell curve was SO steep and getting 5 marks below average got me in the 25th percentile already..
finals had all of the above and included our tutorial readings. for the mcq, Dr Tsai tested a lot on the tutorial reading's result section, so take note of that! i was taken aback because i only memorized the gitz of the study and not the exact results which she asked for.. there was only 1 essay which made it scarier because if we did not study that portion in depth, we'd be doom! i have a feel that the bell curve will be equally steep for finals...
30% mid term
40% finals
we were allowed to form our own groups to present on one of the 4 topics that the tutor will give us. the presentation was based on 2 readings. the reflection paper was an individual assignment that we have to write about regarding one of the topic's 2 readings.
Exam format: close book, MCQ, 5 SAQ, 1 Essay
mid terms only consisted of MCQ. unfortunately, there was no question bank floating around for this module and i had to google for practice questions too. for mid term, Dr Tsai mainly tested application questions of the key words we use. many people left within 30 minutes although the test was 1 hour haha.. the test was manageable if you study because it's quite commonsensical too. i think that's why the bell curve was SO steep and getting 5 marks below average got me in the 25th percentile already..
finals had all of the above and included our tutorial readings. for the mcq, Dr Tsai tested a lot on the tutorial reading's result section, so take note of that! i was taken aback because i only memorized the gitz of the study and not the exact results which she asked for.. there was only 1 essay which made it scarier because if we did not study that portion in depth, we'd be doom! i have a feel that the bell curve will be equally steep for finals...
Workload: 3/5
i'd say that the workload for this module is the lightest among the 3 PL mods i took this sem. the presentation did not take up too much time as the content to be presented was only released 1 week before our presentation. revising for this module was quick too as there was not too much content to remember and many of the chapters linked up to each other so it was easier to understand the content.
Tutorial Format:
Zher Wen was my tutor and tutorials were held every fortnight. there will be 1 group presenting each tutorial and can take up to 45 minutes, excluding Q&A! the tutor asked most of the questions. he mumbles quite a bit and it was hard to listen and understand what he was saying, especially if you're in the audience listening and not presenting. that was about all we did for the tutorial haha..
overall, i actually enjoyed this module although i took it alone :) i enjoyed the content because it's so relatable to real life situations and it raised my interest in the healthcare sector. the content is the lightest among all the psych mods i took this sem, and the content was easy to understand too! i'd recommend this module if you're looking for a lightweighted module :)
(ps, if you'd like to purchase the pdf textbook, do leave a comment! would gladly help ya out hehe)
PL3244 Adolescent Psychology
Exam format: close book, 4C2 SAQ, 2C1 Essay
there was no mid terms for this module, mid term week's lecture was replaced with a mass group project meeting for our project. this really helped to give us more time to discuss because the project wasn't the easiest.
final's content was all 12 weeks of content. it was crazy to memorize it! but not as crazy as pl3240. for the first time ever, i actually enjoyed doing the exam paper haha.
thankfully, there were past year papers released on the nus library, which helped me so much in my revision! there was also a question bank available so that was great :)
(ps, if you'd like to purchase the qn bank & the pdf textbook, do leave a comment! would gladly help ya out hehe)
Workload: 4/5
i'd say that the workload is slightly heavier than PL3242 because of the semester-long project and the 12 weeks' worth of content we had to memorize for finals. start your revision early, it'll really help!
Tutorial Format:
overall, i thinkkk i kinda enjoyed this module. i really dreaded it initially because i'm not interested in the developmental aspect of psychology. but the more i study about it, the more interesting it gets! and it let me reflect on my teenage years (trolol im not that old tho) and see if it really applied to my life as well. the project was interesting and i enjoyed it too! really glad that the written component was a group effort, otherwise my grades would be so affected as usual.
--
yeap! this concludes my first half of year 3. i can't believe i'm even halfway done with y3 already! still accidentally introducing myself as a year 2 haha. time really flies, treasure every day and every lecture you go for!
for me, this semester was really different. most of my friends were on exchange and i took more modules, than usual, alone. it really affected my overall mood and i was also less involved in my dance group. despite the lack of activities, i've learnt so much during the journey.
God revealed to me in the book of Ecclesiastes that work is a gift from Him. a blessing, a joy! and every thing we have, first comes from God. the whole idea that work, aka studying for finals, is a gift from God, really gave me a new perspective and attitude towards studying. i asked Him how can i honor Him and involve Him in my studies, and not just only think of Him when i do my bible reading every morning. through a friend, i learnt how to do so! i learnt to be more aware of what i am studying and how it relates to God's creation. i'm studying psychology, people, after all! and it's so amazing how we are all uniquely created, yet so similar at the same time. we're similar in the processes we go through, in the general life experience we go through, etc. and that just reflects God's greatness and vastness in knowledge about creation! so amazing :') i really found a renewed sense of joy and hope throughout this exam period, which was a first to me.
studying is more than just getting the grade. but it also shows how God has blessed all of us with the opportunity to gain knowledge of our majors and UEs! not everyone has this privilege, even if they had the ability to get into a tertiary institution. i believe the God has opened my eyes towards my tertiary education to see it more as a gift and a blessing from Him, than a chore and a grade-driven race i am on. because ultimately, He holds my, and your, future in His hands! this is the hope i stand for; one that brings me joy, comfort, peace and confidence :-) you may or may not believe in Jesus, but He knows your future and He has the best interest in mind for you. if only you'd call out to Him with an open and sincere heart, i assure you that He will answer you because He loves you too! <3
i hope that you had a great semester in school too :-) have a splendid winter vacation!
God bless!
(ps, if you'd like to purchase the pdf textbook, do leave a comment! would gladly help ya out hehe)
PL3244 Adolescent Psychology
Lecturer: Dr Lee Li Neng
i've heard so many good things about Dr Lee and it's all true! Dr Lee is the most engaging psych lecturer i've ever had and i really enjoyed going for his lectures or listening to them over webcasts. YES, there was webcast for this module! it's so rare to come across a psych mod with webcast haha. Dr Lee conducted his lectures differently. at the end of each lecture, he'd make us fill up a short form online to ask questions about the week's content. he'd then gather the qns, answer them and put them nicely into slides, which were the first things to be addressed in the following week's lectures. and he takes in all types of questions! i like this approach as it helps me clarify my concepts. then, he starts teaching that week's content. he doesn't cover the entire chapter, nor give a brief summary of it like the other modules, but he picks up the more important concepts and focuses on it.
Weightage:
25% group proposal
25% project proposal presentation
50% finals
we were tasked to either come up with a study or implement a solution to any specific problem that adolescents are facing today. it was a good precursor for ado lab haha. my group decided to implement a solution!
there was so much discussion and meetings involved in this project, the most i have ever had i think! it was a very independent project and feedback was only given to us through our already-graded group proposal. but i'm very thankful that i had a proactive group and everyone was on the balls of their feet for this project, giving 100% attention and effort! most productive and efficient group ever, i admit hehe. we did pretty well for our group proposal so i hope that will save some of my grade!
Weightage:
25% group proposal
25% project proposal presentation
50% finals
we were tasked to either come up with a study or implement a solution to any specific problem that adolescents are facing today. it was a good precursor for ado lab haha. my group decided to implement a solution!
there was so much discussion and meetings involved in this project, the most i have ever had i think! it was a very independent project and feedback was only given to us through our already-graded group proposal. but i'm very thankful that i had a proactive group and everyone was on the balls of their feet for this project, giving 100% attention and effort! most productive and efficient group ever, i admit hehe. we did pretty well for our group proposal so i hope that will save some of my grade!
Exam format: close book, 4C2 SAQ, 2C1 Essay
there was no mid terms for this module, mid term week's lecture was replaced with a mass group project meeting for our project. this really helped to give us more time to discuss because the project wasn't the easiest.
final's content was all 12 weeks of content. it was crazy to memorize it! but not as crazy as pl3240. for the first time ever, i actually enjoyed doing the exam paper haha.
thankfully, there were past year papers released on the nus library, which helped me so much in my revision! there was also a question bank available so that was great :)
(ps, if you'd like to purchase the qn bank & the pdf textbook, do leave a comment! would gladly help ya out hehe)
Workload: 4/5
i'd say that the workload is slightly heavier than PL3242 because of the semester-long project and the 12 weeks' worth of content we had to memorize for finals. start your revision early, it'll really help!
Tutorial Format:
overall, i thinkkk i kinda enjoyed this module. i really dreaded it initially because i'm not interested in the developmental aspect of psychology. but the more i study about it, the more interesting it gets! and it let me reflect on my teenage years (trolol im not that old tho) and see if it really applied to my life as well. the project was interesting and i enjoyed it too! really glad that the written component was a group effort, otherwise my grades would be so affected as usual.
--
yeap! this concludes my first half of year 3. i can't believe i'm even halfway done with y3 already! still accidentally introducing myself as a year 2 haha. time really flies, treasure every day and every lecture you go for!
for me, this semester was really different. most of my friends were on exchange and i took more modules, than usual, alone. it really affected my overall mood and i was also less involved in my dance group. despite the lack of activities, i've learnt so much during the journey.
God revealed to me in the book of Ecclesiastes that work is a gift from Him. a blessing, a joy! and every thing we have, first comes from God. the whole idea that work, aka studying for finals, is a gift from God, really gave me a new perspective and attitude towards studying. i asked Him how can i honor Him and involve Him in my studies, and not just only think of Him when i do my bible reading every morning. through a friend, i learnt how to do so! i learnt to be more aware of what i am studying and how it relates to God's creation. i'm studying psychology, people, after all! and it's so amazing how we are all uniquely created, yet so similar at the same time. we're similar in the processes we go through, in the general life experience we go through, etc. and that just reflects God's greatness and vastness in knowledge about creation! so amazing :') i really found a renewed sense of joy and hope throughout this exam period, which was a first to me.
studying is more than just getting the grade. but it also shows how God has blessed all of us with the opportunity to gain knowledge of our majors and UEs! not everyone has this privilege, even if they had the ability to get into a tertiary institution. i believe the God has opened my eyes towards my tertiary education to see it more as a gift and a blessing from Him, than a chore and a grade-driven race i am on. because ultimately, He holds my, and your, future in His hands! this is the hope i stand for; one that brings me joy, comfort, peace and confidence :-) you may or may not believe in Jesus, but He knows your future and He has the best interest in mind for you. if only you'd call out to Him with an open and sincere heart, i assure you that He will answer you because He loves you too! <3
i hope that you had a great semester in school too :-) have a splendid winter vacation!
God bless!
