These are the modules that I have taken in Semester 2:
- ES2002 Business Communications for Leaders (BBA)
- BSP1703 Managerial Economics
- MKT1003B Principles of Marketing
- GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
- GEH1056 Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World
The first 3 modules are compulsory business core modules that have to be taken by all business students. Quantitative Reasoning (GER1000) is also a compulsory module that have to be taken by Year 1. I bidded for Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (GEH1056) to fulfill the General Education Modules required by all students.
- ES2002 Business Communications for Leaders (BBA)
This is a compulsory core module for Business students. I have to say that I really dreaded taking this module this semester because the program appears to be very content-heavy. Simply put, ES2002 is a shortened 13-weeks version of H1 Project Work in JC. ( aka PW 2.0 )
Not sure if this was consistent among all facilitators, but make sure to choose a good seat on the first day of class! I remembered being placed in a team with people who sat on the same row as me, so try to sit with people/friends who are going to do their work seriously! ( my experiences with slackers and freeloaders in the team were never pleasant…)
Don’t be surprised if you are taking this module, because in the second week alone, you will be expected to draft and pitch your ideas to the whole class. This was ungraded but will help in choosing your ideas for the project proposal. Take note that you are only given around 1.5 weeks to draft out an entire 2800-word report (PW-style) proposal, so time management is very important.
Personally, I would say that I did not have a good experience writing the proposal because while I was in a relatively “okay” 4-person team, not everyone was motivated in writing the report. ( One of them mentioned that she was going to S/U the module even before the writing begun.. hais..) Additionally, it was hard to meet up with my team or even skype because everyone had different commitments and other projects to rush for.
In the end, we only met up once to discuss about our ideas and then distributed roles so that we can do our part of the report. This was our downfall. While I’ve tried my best to salvage the report and sent reminders and datelines, my team was a bit… last minute per se. In the end, not only was the submission late, we also did not manage to cut down our word count. This came as a surprise for me, because I had actually vetted the report the day before the submission. ( Turns out one of my teammates wanted to add more content into the report at 9pm on the day of submission and she only told us at like 11.30++pm to help her cut down content… IMO, it was a bit too late and I wished i had just submitted the old draft of the report and not listened to her yikes…) We later had a conference with our facilitator online, who mentioned that she was “surprised that we had submitted late” and asked us what happened because this was not up to her expectations… Oh no. Somehow my team wasn’t too bothered, i think all of us wanted to S/U this module by now.
This was followed by the Pitching and Q&A segment. Initially, there were concerns that the pandemic may actually cause the pitching to be done online but we thankfully managed to do our pitching physically in class. I think this segment went relatively smoothly and we managed to impress our facilitator with our prototype. Q&A segment was also rather standard, where the audience (your classmates) will actually have to ask questions about your project. Do ask question when other groups are presenting! This contributes to your class engagement (aka class part) marks. Also, be prepared for unexpected questions by your peers! Take turns and give your teammates the chance to speak up for Q&A segment. Don’t try to hog all the questions on your own.
The following few weeks were alternating between online ZOOM sessions and physical lessons because of growing concerns about the virus situation. The final assessment, Negotiation, was actually done on ZOOM. The facilitator decided to regroup us into different teams for this assessment to allow us to work with different people ( Even though I only worked with this group for 2 weeks to prepare for negotiation, i actually liked this group better than the previous group haha). Negotiation is like a debate session where we will face off another team and we are tasked to reach upon a common consensus within a stipulated time period. Personally, I felt that this segment was the most enjoyable one , because there were free flow of ideas and there really is no right-and-wrong in the discussion. Do participate in the negotiation, whether it is through active listening or body language! Also, do make full use of the 10 minutes discussion prior to the actual negotiation to properly discuss your team strategy. We actually anticipated what the other team will debate about and was able to conclude the negotiation within the time limit. I think my group did pretty well for negotiation.
*****Thankfully this was a 100% CA mod with no final examinations.*****
25 % – CA1 “Persuade in Writing: A Concept Proposal”
30% – CA2 “Pitch it Right and Think on Your Feet”
20% – CA3 “Negotiation”
10% – CA4 “Documentation of My Growth”
15% – Community Engagement
To conclude, ES2002 was not how i imagined it to be. I had a lot of key takeaways from this module, and most of the techniques that we learn in this course is very applicable in other modules, and in other presentations. While I actually took this module in Sem 2, i kind of wished I was pre-allocated this module in Sem 1 because of how useful it is. Additionally, the lack of final examination means not a lot of studying have to be done , but of course, that time have to be better spent on doing up your proposal and pitching.
2. BSP1703 Managerial Economics
This is another compulsory core module for Business students. Because of the covid-19 situation, we only had one physical tutorial lesson and I had only physically attended 5 lectures before everything was converted to e-learning.
Like any other business modules, we are grouped together to complete assignments every two weeks and also to prepare for our case presentations. Not sure if the virus situation was a bleak period, or that my group felt that online learning is not as conducive as physical ones, most of my group mates wanted to S/U this module too. (hais) I personally felt that it was a waste, as JC students who took H1 economics already had a slight advantage over the others. The first 5 chapters were just a repeat of what was learnt in JC, but with more in-depth thinking and calculations.
My team was one of the first few teams to do the presentation. Because it was an e-presentation, we were given the leeway to just do voice and slide recording, which certainly made the whole process much smoother. Technically, it was getting a bit difficult to meet up in school because of new safe distancing rules. The overall presentation was okay-ish, though I am not sure how well we did because there was simply no marking scheme and Q&A.
There are also a total of 4 assignments that have to done by the entire group. Honestly, I felt that this team was a bit like ES2002, where everyone just did their own portion and we just submitted the work without discussing about the questions. Also a pretty last minute team which required pushing and reminders. I was usually the one creating the document and formatting the questions. At one point in time, I was so frustrated that one of the members was not doing her part of the work even though she acknowledged the reminder. In the end, I had to do in her place. (In her defense, she probably did not know how to do the question? Not sure about that though.)
*****Final Examination was an open book 2 hours 50-MCQ questions******
Finals was…. a mess. The MCQ questions were particularly tricky. Additionally, the examination was done online with no backward navigation, meaning that we cannot go back to the questions that we have attempted. (Regardless, I did spend the entire 2 hours for all the 50 MCQ questions so I wouldn’t have the time to check anyway). Not sure if they had intentionally made the questions harder to prevent collusion and cheating, but I struggled through almost half the questions despite studying really hard for it. Ironically, it appears that I would have to S/U this module too.
One mistake I made was to take this module in Semester 2. I was not aware that this module is actually a pre-requisite module for other econs module ( which i could have cleared for my second major). My intention was to actually overload in Semester 2, but the bidding system did not allow me to bid for FASS mods simultaneously until I have completed BSP1703… This was actually quite wasteful, especially since I have 5 S/U left for Semester 2, which will expire soon in Year 2. Make sure to do your research and to find out your pre-requisite modules before bidding for your modules!!
3. MKT1003B Principles of Marketing
MKT1003B was a pre-allocated core module for Year 1 Business Students. This was also another module that I dreaded in Semester 2. Most of my friends actually took this module back in Semester 1 and spoke horrors about it. Like any other business mods, we were grouped together to do up a report and presentation. This was where my horrors begun.
Previously in my other 2 modules, I was grouped together with ‘H’. I was once again grouped with ‘H’ for Marketing (They need to stop grouping us according to our names…) ‘H’ left a lasting impression on me for the previous 2 modules, because he was a freeloader who does not contribute to work and projects. Previously in those modules, he goes MIA for the report writing process and just show up for final presentations. (‘H’ does not even open up the google docs :/) Not sure what was done to him after we peer-evaluated him for those two modules, but I had really hoped that he turned over a new leaf in Sem 2. Turns out he was still his same old self and still failed to show up for group meetings and to do his part of the report. We had to work with one less person in our team which was really upsetting because this team was one of the only few teams that I had that actually wanted to do well for MKT and not S/U it. That aside, upon finishing the presentation and submitting the report, we went straight into peer-evaluating him. Honestly, I really hope that there is no next time and that I won’t be grouped with him again because this is getting really awkward and frustrating.
This was also the only class that I had that required actual class participation. Since we were given discussion questions every week, we technically were able to prepare for class participation because we can just read out what we have researched. Questions were actually pretty interesting, integrating marketing terms with BTS, Avengers etc. However, it was a rather large class so it was difficult to get called by the professor. Nevertheless, there are always other chance for other class discussions (though it was hard to anticipate her questions…)
***** Finals were 80 MCQ questions in 1 Hour*****
With around 40 seconds per question there is really no time to check your work. In fact, I struggled to finish the entire paper and pretty much guessed some of the questions to finish the paper on time. Didn’t do very well for the paper, and was probably tanking the bell curve…. I only had myself to blame because the test was very heavily concentrated on textbook content and I was more focused on the prof notes.
To conclude, I think Marketing still remains as one of the more interesting modules that I have taken this semester. It just feels more relatable and relevant, especially when examples of familiar companies, like Apple, Samsung, L’Oreal are used in class. Additionally, the class participation questions were rather interesting and more applicable to our everyday lives which i felt was able to enhance my understanding of the concept taught. Its fun to learn about interesting facts about companies, and also to hear the whole class share their views on how BTS was able to become so successful and why Avengers is so popular…
Would recommend this module for non-biz students to clear your electives as well.
4. GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
This was a compulsory module for all Year 1 NUS students across all faculties. You will be pre-allocated this module either in Sem 1 or Sem 2. Prior to taking this mod, I have heard from my friends who took this module in Sem 1 that the bellcurve is insane and can actually give students from non-biz faculties an advantage.
This module is more of an e-learning style. The facilitators will upload online materials and recorded lectures rather than having to attend physical lectures. The fort-weekly tutorial sessions were there to help us clarify our thoughts and also to discuss some tutorial questions. From there, the tutors will also randomly assign you into groups for in-class group discussions and also to do up a project.
This year, the overall project weightage was increased because of the covid-19 situation. (As a result, the final examination had a lower weightage as compared to other semesters). However, this means that more time have to be spent on the project, which was actually split into two different parts. Project Part (I) was a simple 8 questions report-style paper, and we are given the freedom to choose our topics from the different articles on the list. Project Part (II) was a continuation of Part (I), with more in-depth questions where we are expected to come up with a presentation for. Personally, I felt that the questions were more-of-less straightforward, however, I am not sure how the marking will go because pretty much everyone i knew chose the same (easiest?) article to expound on. (80% of the groups in my tutorial class alone chose the same article for the project) Honestly, it would have been great if our group chose another topic so it would have felt less stressful to compete with others. This year, the presentation was done online on ZOOM, and we were thrown several Q&A questions right after our presentation. From my personal experience and what my friends mentioned, the Q&A questions mainly focused on testing your understanding on the news article and whether you understand the GER concepts. (Sampling, Hypothesis Testing etc) Would be good to read up on your GER notes before presenting!
There is also a standard GER quiz every week. While the quiz can be done multiple times, the results of your quiz will only be shown only after the quiz dateline, taking your last quiz score as your final score. If you are in the GER telegram group, you can actually discuss the quiz questions with others in the group. Personally, I would not 100% trust the answers given in the GER group. The instances where some of the people will actually give the “wrong” answers or mislead the discussion were quite frequent, so it would be better if you discuss with your friends/ attempt the quiz on your own instead. Because of the platform for discussion, most people actually score full marks and obtain the full weightage for the quiz section itself. This makes it harder to score well for GER because the finals and the project will be the differentiating factor.
***** Finals was 14 MCQ questions in 1 Hour*****
Finals were quite manageable. If you had been doing your weekly revision and attempting past year papers, the questions will be easier to attempt. Despite it being an 1-hour paper, I actually finished the entire paper in 30 minutes because I did not really follow the recommended 4-minutes per question guideline. In my defense, there were no backward navigation and I was worried that the later questions were more difficult than the initial few questions. Also, since more than 3000 students were taking the paper at the same time, I was afraid that there would be unforeseeable technical difficulty when submitting the paper.
Not sure if the Online Support IT team actually anticipated the large number of students taking the paper at the same time but a significant number of students could not even download the exam paper and had to sit for the exam on another scheduled date. I had also faced technical difficulty when submitting the paper and panicked when I couldn’t upload the paper despite spamming the submit button. Thankfully, I was not the only person who faced the same problem but others (in the GER group) also faced similar issues. This was the only paper that I had on Examplify that faced so many issues and problems. Not sure if the department actually revised the entire exam paper for the second batch of students or whether the same questions were being used, but honestly, it is kind of unfair for the rest because they had simply more time to study for the paper.
Either way, GER1000 is a relatively entry level module for Year 1 students, while the concepts taught may be easy, it may be hard to score because of the bellcurve.
5. GEH1056 Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World
Found this module on NUSMods while deciding what GE module to take. I would say that I was cat fished by the module description, because it was made to sound interesting:
“We will read articles and analyse ethnographic films on kula exchange, cannibalism, oracle, feud, animism, sacrifice, initiation, incest, spirit-possession, statelessness, potlatch, genocide, and so on, found in Melanesia, Amazonia, sub-Sahara, Siberia, Zomia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.“
I bidded for this module with my friend because it really sounded very interesting and unlike other typical modules out there and i was siked… The entire module cohort was one of the lowest, with around 20 students taking the module together. The lectures and readings were not what the outline entailed. Readings were hard to fathom and difficult to understand, and the journals were pretty long. In the first few weeks, I had actually put in the effort to do up notes and summaries of the readings, but afterwards neglected them after finals were cancelled. Since there were no examinations and the weightage for this module was merely 60% Project Work and 40% Forum posts, the other lectures were actually not necessary.
Perhaps one good thing about this module will be that 40% of the grade weightage was on Forum posts and attendance alone. This is extremely easy to score, because we are just expected to share our views and opinions on a certain topic on a weekly basis. Each of us are given the opportunity to be the Forum Chair for the week, where we are expected to give a brief overview of what we have learnt on a particular topic and to give a brief summary of the readings. Personally, I do not particularly enjoy writing on the Forum posts because I had no idea what was going on, and writing just a simple paragraph often took an hour of research and extra readings. However, I would say that I’ve really tried my best to do well for forum posts because this was really giveaway marks and a platform for us to read what the others feel about a certain topic.
My friend and I agreed that the readings were simply too hard to digest and confusing to read. Thankfully, we were given the opportunity to work together for the project and with the help of our TA, we were able to rather smoothly write out a research paper. TBH, not sure how we fared for the research paper because the format is totally different from a typical report paper that we do in biz modules. But I would say that we tried our best despite struggling to understand what was going on in the lecture lol.
****** Finals was cancelled in view of the pandemic*****
Honestly, my friend and I had thoughts of dropping this module from just attending the first lecture alone. (Others clearly had the same thought because the module size dropped from 30+ students to 20+ students haha) While the professor clearly tried his best to make the lectures entertaining by showing us videos and films, we just really struggled with the content and the readings. During the first lecture, the prof himself even mentioned that other people feedbacked that this did not seem like a 1000-mod, which i totally agree with because this appears to be a more advanced mod for sociology students. Additionally, the small lecture size meant that we are competing with fewer students, and competition will be much more intense because of the bell curve.
Would not recommend this module unless you want to try something new and think you can handle the readings and forum posts. Don’t regret if you do……
Thank you for reading my first blog post. While the Covid-19 situation has shortened interactions and physical lessons, this semester was IMO a much more fulfilling one than in semester 1, when i was still struggling to adjust to the new system and new environment.
Year 1 done and dusted!!
voez
4 May 2020
Year 1 Semester 2, Business Administration NUS
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