PL2132 Research and Statistical Methods II
Lecturers: Prof Melvin J. Yap
Prof Melvin was a nice lecturer. i guess he was pretty clear in his teaching and he ensures that his students understand what's going on during lecture. he also tries to engage us during lectures by asking us questions and giving us real life situations like the regression equation for our CAP and module marks haha. but his slides were pretty windy and long and it took forever to revise the slides for exams. there was no webcast.
Weightage:
5% Module Participation
25% Midterms
30% Empirical project
40% Finals
Module participation was just attendance i think! we had to go up to present our answers but sarah (my tutor) was really nice and she helped us through. having midterms and finals to be opened book really made it less stressful! the project took up much of my time because we had to come up with a topic from scratch, create our own experimental media, settle the timeline for the project and the data collection, cleaning up the data because there were errors by participants, deciding whether to accept the errors, etc. it was quite tiring but it was a good experience. at least we got to choose our groups and i grouped with my friends! finals was also open book and being able to refer helped so muc. the format was the same as midterms.
25% Midterms
30% Empirical project
40% Finals
Module participation was just attendance i think! we had to go up to present our answers but sarah (my tutor) was really nice and she helped us through. having midterms and finals to be opened book really made it less stressful! the project took up much of my time because we had to come up with a topic from scratch, create our own experimental media, settle the timeline for the project and the data collection, cleaning up the data because there were errors by participants, deciding whether to accept the errors, etc. it was quite tiring but it was a good experience. at least we got to choose our groups and i grouped with my friends! finals was also open book and being able to refer helped so muc. the format was the same as midterms.
Exam format:
2 hours, opened-book
MCQ
Short-answer for both mid-terms and finals
MCQ was a mixture of both theory and practical calculations. there were some mcq worth 4 marks during mid terms! the short answers were questions about calculations but they are pretty manageable because calculations were not from scratch and most of it were provided. we just had to do 1 or 2 more formulas to get the answers. we had 1 SAQ for midterms and 2 for finals - 1 about ANOVA and another about Regression. however, do note that this is one of the first mcq stats paper after consecutive years; the past year papers were all open ended. so i guess it really depends on the lecturer.
MCQ was a mixture of both theory and practical calculations. there were some mcq worth 4 marks during mid terms! the short answers were questions about calculations but they are pretty manageable because calculations were not from scratch and most of it were provided. we just had to do 1 or 2 more formulas to get the answers. we had 1 SAQ for midterms and 2 for finals - 1 about ANOVA and another about Regression. however, do note that this is one of the first mcq stats paper after consecutive years; the past year papers were all open ended. so i guess it really depends on the lecturer.
Workload: 4/5 (5 being most heavy)
the content was not too much. there was just ANOVA, regression and correlation. the workload came from the project that was time-consuming. if you have good groupmates that do their portions on time, you should be able to handle the workload :) i just put a 4 because it was time-consuming. the open book exams saved a lot of time studying because we just needed to tag our books and refer when necessary. the lab worksheets to be completed before every tutorial did not take up too much time, at most 1 hour. we did not have any readings for this module, we just had to read up the relevant chapters before going for class. this shouldn't take up more than an hour as well.
the content was not too much. there was just ANOVA, regression and correlation. the workload came from the project that was time-consuming. if you have good groupmates that do their portions on time, you should be able to handle the workload :) i just put a 4 because it was time-consuming. the open book exams saved a lot of time studying because we just needed to tag our books and refer when necessary. the lab worksheets to be completed before every tutorial did not take up too much time, at most 1 hour. we did not have any readings for this module, we just had to read up the relevant chapters before going for class. this shouldn't take up more than an hour as well.
Tutorial Format:
tutorials were held weekly. my tutor was Sarah and she was a very nice tutor! she's really friendly and kind. she was so understanding; she allowed me to leave tutorial earlier for my GER presentation that was at utown. really appreciated it otherwise i would have been late for my presentation! tutorials were all in as7 com labs and we just had simple lab worksheets to do before each tutorial. during the tutorial, sarah will go through the questions and also go teach us how to navigate around SPSS with examples. it was really a time of application of what we have learnt.
overall, i actually kinda enjoyed this mod! i guess it's because it was math and i enjoy doing math plus math exams are less stressful because it's just application of formulas haha. i just didn't really enjoy the project because it was so time-consuming. we had 2 textbooks - 1 for stats and another for reserach methods. the research methods textbook was well used but the stats textbook was a total waste of money because everything is in the slides.. it'd be good if you can get your textbooks second hand instead.
overall, i actually kinda enjoyed this mod! i guess it's because it was math and i enjoy doing math plus math exams are less stressful because it's just application of formulas haha. i just didn't really enjoy the project because it was so time-consuming. we had 2 textbooks - 1 for stats and another for reserach methods. the research methods textbook was well used but the stats textbook was a total waste of money because everything is in the slides.. it'd be good if you can get your textbooks second hand instead.
PL3233 Cognitive Psychology
Lecturers: Prof Chua Fok Kee
Prof Chua is a really different prof, he was rather eccentric and funny haha. his personality made the lecture more interesting and bearable. he didn't really use slides. he did upload the chapter slides but he did not use it. rather, he had his own set of slides that he did not upload so we had to be alert to take down notes! most of the notes were actually from the chapter slides already actually. there was no webcast for this module too but missing it actually does not make much of a difference haha.
Weightage:
15% Class Test 1
15% Class Test 2
20% Online Labwork & Tutorial Participation
50% Finals
Class tests were all during lecture timings. the online labwork was easy to fufil, we just had to do some experiments online every week. it was kinda a waste of time because there were some experiments that had as much as 160 trials lol. but i guess it was an eye opener because you were really doing the experiments that researchers did in the past. tutorial participation was taken seriously, they gave grades based on how much you talked during tutorial! so don't skip it and just keep talking haha.
15% Class Test 2
20% Online Labwork & Tutorial Participation
50% Finals
Class tests were all during lecture timings. the online labwork was easy to fufil, we just had to do some experiments online every week. it was kinda a waste of time because there were some experiments that had as much as 160 trials lol. but i guess it was an eye opener because you were really doing the experiments that researchers did in the past. tutorial participation was taken seriously, they gave grades based on how much you talked during tutorial! so don't skip it and just keep talking haha.
Exam format:
2 hours
Essays
Opened book for test 1, closed book for test 2 and finals
Opened book for test 1, closed book for test 2 and finals
Each class test covered 4 chapters from the textbook. the first test was opened book and it really made it less stressful because we could refer to it! but the second class test and finals were closed book. for the class tests, there were 10 questions worth 5 marks each. he liked to test applications and 'why' questions for experiments so remember them. he also asked quite a number of graph-drawing & explain questions so it is important to note the reasons behind the results. finals were "write short notes" from 6 questions out of 8. the questions were literally just "implicit learning" or "memory errors in eye-witness testimonies". it was so vague, i didn't know what to write! there was no format nor instructions so i just wrote causes and solutions haha.. the other section was 1 essay worth 40 marks on 1 chapter of our choice. it was the best time to verbal diarrhea the entire chapter. time was rather tight too so write fast!
Workload: 3.5/5 (5 being most heavy)
i would say that the content was heaviest among all my modules i've taken this sem. the exam was most nerve-wreaking because there was so much to remember, so many concepts and experiments to remember. my friends and i were pretty much freaking out outside the exam hall beforehand haha. however, the learning was alright; the concepts are easy to grasp so don't have to be intimidated by 'cognition'! we covered memory, perception, attention, problem solving, judgement and a few other cognitive-related topics. some of the content were covered in PL1101e so not everything is brand new info. the content was slightly interesting, like how we sort our memories, how we perceive problems etc, but at the same time it was also a bit commonsensical haha. like, why are experts experts - because they spend a lot of time in their field of specializaation (duh). it's just that there is a lot to remember (and i was told that dev psych is even heavier lol). but there was no individual assignment nor project at all so this module really focused on teaching and testing. i guess that's good because i have 1 less assignment/project to do. the textbook was v
Tutorial Format:
My tutor wasn't local and to be honest i had a tough time understanding his accent. he kinda mumbles and i can't catch what he is saying at times.. we had to do the online experiments and answer easily 10 short questions as a prep for tutorial. these questions are gone through during tutorial. we were split into groups and assigned 2-3 questions to discuss at a time and then share our answers after that. it was quite an open discussion, anyone could just voice their opinions and questions. tutorials were held fortnightly and attendance was taken! as mentioned above, grades are actually given for how much you talk during the discussion times so talk more!
EL1101e The Nature of Language
Lecturers: Dr Leslie Lee
Dr Lee was alright, i guess. he just kept coughing into the mic every few words he says and it gets a bit annoying after awhile oops.. but he is pretty funny, he laughs at his own jokes and mistakes and that makes the whole lecture hall laugh haha. he gives examples for every concept in each topic and his slides are pretty simple and it summarize a lot! there were no webcasts.
Dr Lee was alright, i guess. he just kept coughing into the mic every few words he says and it gets a bit annoying after awhile oops.. but he is pretty funny, he laughs at his own jokes and mistakes and that makes the whole lecture hall laugh haha. he gives examples for every concept in each topic and his slides are pretty simple and it summarize a lot! there were no webcasts.
Weightage:
10% Reading Quizzes
20% Participation
10% Presentation
30% Midterm
30% Final
reading quizzes are 5 mcq questions at the start of every lecture about the readings for the week! they are closed book but everyone pretty much refers to it HAHA. we were all given 'clickers' at the start of the sem so we were able to participate in the practice questions mcq during the lecture itself. it's a pretty cool system bcos we get to see everyone's answer within seconds. that's where the 20% participation came from! it's not graded according to how much you got correct, rather, how often you participated in it. Dr Lee said he manually keyed in our grades for our participation marks on ivle wowow dedication. the presentation was just a quick and relaxed one. each group took 1 tutorial slot. we just had to present our answers to our tutorial questions to the class and the tutor would let us know if we were correct. prepping for the presentation was not very time-consuming, discussion can be done online. the presentation also took at most 15 minutes.
reading quizzes are 5 mcq questions at the start of every lecture about the readings for the week! they are closed book but everyone pretty much refers to it HAHA. we were all given 'clickers' at the start of the sem so we were able to participate in the practice questions mcq during the lecture itself. it's a pretty cool system bcos we get to see everyone's answer within seconds. that's where the 20% participation came from! it's not graded according to how much you got correct, rather, how often you participated in it. Dr Lee said he manually keyed in our grades for our participation marks on ivle wowow dedication. the presentation was just a quick and relaxed one. each group took 1 tutorial slot. we just had to present our answers to our tutorial questions to the class and the tutor would let us know if we were correct. prepping for the presentation was not very time-consuming, discussion can be done online. the presentation also took at most 15 minutes.
Exam format:
2 hours, closed-book
MCQ for both midterm and finals
midterms and finals were non-accumulative (thank God!) and both were mcq. it was pretty manageable if you study and remember just the few definitions. most people left before the 2 hour mark haha.
midterms and finals were non-accumulative (thank God!) and both were mcq. it was pretty manageable if you study and remember just the few definitions. most people left before the 2 hour mark haha.
Workload: 2.5/5 (5 being most heavy)
The workload was pretty manageable! there were weekly readings but the readings should take less than an hour to finish. the tutorial questions were very short, there were about 2-3 questions per worksheet. it should also take less than an hour! preparation for exams were not very time-consuming either, the content was just right.Tutorial Format:
jia wen was my tutor and she was absolutely lovely. she is understanding and tutorials were more fun with her :) she makes summary slides for us (although she doesn't upload them so we have to take a picture of it) and it was really helpful! tutorials were 1 hour each and during each tutorial, we would go through 1 problem set. it would initially be presented by a group and then jia wen would go through it with us and ask if we have any questions.
i had a good time throughout this mod. we learnt about phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, language acquisition and a few more. it was interesting to see how our language is actually being constructed, i felt like i was back in primary school learning phonics all over again haha. it was confusing initially but after a few rounds of reading the notes, the concepts were quite easy to understand. after all, it's an intro mod haha. i made some new friends in my group too and it was so cool how 2 of them are in econs and another 2 of us are in psych! they made classes and lectures much more bearable and we knew we could turn to each other when in doubt (which is most of the time haha) :')
i had a good time throughout this mod. we learnt about phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, language acquisition and a few more. it was interesting to see how our language is actually being constructed, i felt like i was back in primary school learning phonics all over again haha. it was confusing initially but after a few rounds of reading the notes, the concepts were quite easy to understand. after all, it's an intro mod haha. i made some new friends in my group too and it was so cool how 2 of them are in econs and another 2 of us are in psych! they made classes and lectures much more bearable and we knew we could turn to each other when in doubt (which is most of the time haha) :')
GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
Lecturers: Many!
Weightage:
5% IVLE Quizzes
10% Tutorial Participation
25% Group Project
20% Midterm
40% Finals
The answers were not given right away for the IVLE quizzes, they were given at the end of the week when everyone is done. there were about 4-5 questions per quiz weekly about the chapter we learnt online. tutorial participation was based on a random generator from the tutor and he would call random names! he didn't call my name throughout the entire semester i don't know how i'm going to get that 10% haha oh dear. the group project was slightly time consuming because we had to come up with our own topic and research for data and statistics. we also had to meet up to confirm the proposal, executive summary and poster. depending on how efficient your group mates are, i guess your experience will be different!
10% Tutorial Participation
25% Group Project
20% Midterm
40% Finals
The answers were not given right away for the IVLE quizzes, they were given at the end of the week when everyone is done. there were about 4-5 questions per quiz weekly about the chapter we learnt online. tutorial participation was based on a random generator from the tutor and he would call random names! he didn't call my name throughout the entire semester i don't know how i'm going to get that 10% haha oh dear. the group project was slightly time consuming because we had to come up with our own topic and research for data and statistics. we also had to meet up to confirm the proposal, executive summary and poster. depending on how efficient your group mates are, i guess your experience will be different!
Exam format:
2 hours, closed-book
MCQ
Midterms were only on 2 chapters so it was pretty managable! there were about 14 questions only and the bellcurve is very very steep. Finals were accumulative but it was not too bad! i guess it's because we have learnt some of the content in college and it also overlapped with my stats mod. minor calculations were required but the formulas to remember were pretty easy to remember! many people left after the 1st hour mark.
Midterms were only on 2 chapters so it was pretty managable! there were about 14 questions only and the bellcurve is very very steep. Finals were accumulative but it was not too bad! i guess it's because we have learnt some of the content in college and it also overlapped with my stats mod. minor calculations were required but the formulas to remember were pretty easy to remember! many people left after the 1st hour mark.
Workload: 3.5/5 (5 being most heavy)
because every chapter is taught online, we had to set aside our own time to listen to the online lecture. scripts and slides were given so that we could follow along when we watched the pre-uploaded online lectures. some of the lecturers talked really slowly and you can't adjust the speed of the video so i just skipped certain parts and read from the uploaded script haha. it takes at most 2 hours to complete a week's worth of lesson (online lecture + tutorial + quiz). the project is most time consuming among the online lessons, quizzes and tutorial prep. but as long as you start early, you should be okay!
because every chapter is taught online, we had to set aside our own time to listen to the online lecture. scripts and slides were given so that we could follow along when we watched the pre-uploaded online lectures. some of the lecturers talked really slowly and you can't adjust the speed of the video so i just skipped certain parts and read from the uploaded script haha. it takes at most 2 hours to complete a week's worth of lesson (online lecture + tutorial + quiz). the project is most time consuming among the online lessons, quizzes and tutorial prep. but as long as you start early, you should be okay!
Tutorial Format:
Samuel was my tutor and by far, he is the best tutor i've had for my modules! he's kind, funny, and he makes lesson v enjoyable by making things lighthearted. he puts in effort for his slides too and makes it relatable by putting cartoons to illustrate the content. thoroughly enjoyed every tutorial i had with him haha, he made GER much more bearable. we discussed the questions in our groups before Sam randomly choses people to answer the question. it was not stressful and the atmosphere was pretty light, which is good :) attendance is taken so don't skip your tutorials!
i kinda dreaded this compulsory module because it was another stats module but it was surprisingly manageable. it was not too much content nor formulas to remember. my group wasn't the best i've had but they were cooperative. the poster presentation was alright too, although we had to wait 2 hours for our turn lol. we just had to present our poster and our tutor would ask us questions regarding the poster. we got to keep the poster after that. it's an S/U-able mod but i guess i put in more effort into it because i hoped it'd pull my cap up since the mod was pretty manageable haha. i hope it was all worth it.
i kinda dreaded this compulsory module because it was another stats module but it was surprisingly manageable. it was not too much content nor formulas to remember. my group wasn't the best i've had but they were cooperative. the poster presentation was alright too, although we had to wait 2 hours for our turn lol. we just had to present our poster and our tutor would ask us questions regarding the poster. we got to keep the poster after that. it's an S/U-able mod but i guess i put in more effort into it because i hoped it'd pull my cap up since the mod was pretty manageable haha. i hope it was all worth it.
GET1002 Bridging East and West: Exploring Chinese Communication
Lecturers: Prof Lee Cher Leng
Prof Lee is a dedicated prof, passionate about chinese language and the importance of learning and appreciating the language. actually, there were guest speakers every week as the topic changes every week. we covered chinese social media, chinese newspapers, chinese movies, chinese architecture, and many more! the module revolved a lot around china and chinese language. the guest speakers were from external companies such as mediacorp, which makes it extra interesting! there were also webcasts for some of the lectures.
Prof Lee is a dedicated prof, passionate about chinese language and the importance of learning and appreciating the language. actually, there were guest speakers every week as the topic changes every week. we covered chinese social media, chinese newspapers, chinese movies, chinese architecture, and many more! the module revolved a lot around china and chinese language. the guest speakers were from external companies such as mediacorp, which makes it extra interesting! there were also webcasts for some of the lectures.
Weightage:
45% Lecture Reflections
30% Tutorials
25% Quiz
there were lecture reflections at the end of almost every lecture. we would spend the last 15 minutes answering just 1 reflection question. it was kind of a dread for everyone but i think it was a good chance to really think about what we just learnt and apply it to singapore context. the questions were mainly about how the topic is related to singapore and what else can we do to improve it etc. you just need 1 piece of foolscap so it's not that bad. the tutorials were based on our presentations (mentioned more below). the quiz was still important despite having the lowest weightage (also mentioned more below).
30% Tutorials
25% Quiz
there were lecture reflections at the end of almost every lecture. we would spend the last 15 minutes answering just 1 reflection question. it was kind of a dread for everyone but i think it was a good chance to really think about what we just learnt and apply it to singapore context. the questions were mainly about how the topic is related to singapore and what else can we do to improve it etc. you just need 1 piece of foolscap so it's not that bad. the tutorials were based on our presentations (mentioned more below). the quiz was still important despite having the lowest weightage (also mentioned more below).
Exam format: Quiz
4 choose 3 SAQ
there were no notes for this module, we had to take down our own notes from the lectures. we had to answer 3 out of 4 questions regarding selected topics from what we had learnt and the question format was very alike to our reflection questions. it was not too intimidating either because even if you did not study, you could still use some common sense into your answers! answers were only 1 page long as the given space was only 1 page worth of lines.
there were no notes for this module, we had to take down our own notes from the lectures. we had to answer 3 out of 4 questions regarding selected topics from what we had learnt and the question format was very alike to our reflection questions. it was not too intimidating either because even if you did not study, you could still use some common sense into your answers! answers were only 1 page long as the given space was only 1 page worth of lines.
Workload: 2/5 (5 being most heavy)
in my opinion, this module has the lowest workload among all my modules! yes, we had readings weekly but the readings were actually interesting and not too long, hence not too time consuming. the preparation for group presentations can be done either fully online or offline, depending on your group. my group decided to meet offline but we only took about 2 hours each time we met! my friend's group did all of their presentation prep on google slides so they did not meet up at all. preparing for the quiz was not too bad either because it's about general knowledge and you don't necessarily have to memorize examples (although it would be good if you did!).
in my opinion, this module has the lowest workload among all my modules! yes, we had readings weekly but the readings were actually interesting and not too long, hence not too time consuming. the preparation for group presentations can be done either fully online or offline, depending on your group. my group decided to meet offline but we only took about 2 hours each time we met! my friend's group did all of their presentation prep on google slides so they did not meet up at all. preparing for the quiz was not too bad either because it's about general knowledge and you don't necessarily have to memorize examples (although it would be good if you did!).
Tutorial Format:
Tutorials were fortnightly and there were 4 tutorials altogether. we were preassigned groups and had 1 presentation every tutorial. but fret not! the group presentations are actually really fun. i enjoyed preparing for it because it was about interesting topics like chinese family names, chinese companies, things said during cny, and traditional chinese stuff like coffeeshops! we had to do some prep such as collecting our info but it was real fun listening out for cny convos, looking for traditional coffeeshops and asking my family about the different chinese names of my relatives. the groups were big too so the amount of talking per person is at most 2 minutes! my group had 7 people so there were some moments where one of us just had to do an intro and content and that's it haha. the entire tutorial duration was spent listening to other group's presentation and presenting our's too.
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this semester has been great, in fact even better than sem 1! i had another 4 day work week free friday timetable and a spaced-out exam schedule. my exams were not as bad because 3/4 of my papers were mcq. so i really thank God for a good timetable and exam schedule that is manageable, giving me enough time for school, church and family. i was involved in CAC+US too for the first 6 weeks of school and i was honestly worried that i'd struggle with my studies. but it was not as bad as i thought. thankfully, my mid terms were mostly after the concert. i was definitely more involved in my cca and i learnt how to juggle my time between dance, church and studies. i still cannot believe that i'm done with year 1, this entire experience has been so surreal. it still has not sunk in that i am a university student. for those incoming freshman, my advice would be take modules that you enjoy, they make so much of a difference! and take it with your friends if you can. join a cca, something that you enjoy doing. try new things; don't be afraid. and be open to new experiences. i had a wonderful year 1 and i hope you had a great year too! :) here's to completing another year in uni and making it through the different storms in life (cheers!). i thank God for seeing me through this rough, busy yet enjoyable semester; all Glory to Him :-)
God bless!
