AY 2019/2020 YEAR 1 SEMESTER 1

These are the modules that I have taken in Year 1 Semester 1:

1. ACC1701 Accounting for Decision Makers
2. BSP1702 Legal Environment of Business
3. DAO1704 Decision Analytics using Spreadsheets
4. MNO1706 Organizational Behaviour
5. GET1023 Thinking Like an Economist
6. STR1000 Career Creation Starter Workshop
7. BPM1701 Calculus and Statistics
8. BPM1702 Microsoft Excel Skills For Business
9. BPM1705 Understanding How Business Works.

As you can tell, it was a rather hectic semester. Not sure if i remembered correctly but STR1000, BPM1701, BPM1702 and BPM1705 were 0 MC modules required by Year 1 Business students. The rest are core modules while GET1023 was a GE module.

1. ACC1701 Accounting for Decision Makers

This was a compulsory core module for Business students and i was allocated this module in Semester 1. ACC1701 was held in a lecture and tutorial style rather than the typical 3-hours seminar. Not sure how class participation was actually calculated, since we were not required to put out our name tags in tutorial and I am pretty sure the tutor don’t even recognize all of us.

If you like doing calculations, ACC1701 is the module for you. The content involves heavy calculations and the different chapters are interlinked. This means that knowing your content well is very important in scoring well for your mid terms and finals. If you have done your pre-readings and textbook reading before attending the lecture, you are likely to have a better understanding of the topics.

Like any other biz modules, there is also a short groupwork for ACC, where you will work together with your group to present a particular tutorial question set to the rest of the class. Each group will be given the opportunity to present on a particular week. (~15 minutes per group) Not sure if this was consistent among all tutors but I was actually paired together with this girl whom I was sitting next to in class. Not sure how we managed to scrape through the questions because we were both just confused and lost all the time yikes.

***** Mid-terms was a short 25 MCQ questions which was around 1 hours long*****

Personally, I felt that the MCQ questions were rather manageable if you have studied and attempted enough questions before the exam. I personally felt that I did decently after getting back my marks, but the bellcurve for ACC1701 was really insane. I suppose that a large majority of the cohort actually scored close to full marks, because the medium of the test was considerably high. If you are going to be taking ACC1701, I’ll advise you to do as many test banks as you can. (You can find the test banks in the ACC1701 Telegram Group / Business BOX folder) Make sure you understand all the calculations and definitions required.

**** Finals consisted of 4 questions in 2 hours*****

Pretty sure I screwed up Finals. I had DAO1704 finals right after ACC1701 finals and pretty much spent the entire week revising for the former opps. From what I actually remember, I don’t think I even managed to balance all the balance sheets, income statements etc. I also did not managed to finish all the questions because I spent too much time trying to find out where I went wrong. I would personally say that the finals was pretty traumatizing to me lol. In fact, I was prepared to have to retake this mod next semester because finals was a whopping 60% and I was sure that I bombed it. Oh no.

(Heard from my friends who took ACC1701 in Semester 2 that their finals were in MCQ format…. Wished I took ACC1701 in Sem 2 instead…)

Surprisingly I borderline scrapped through ACC1701 with one of the lowest grade I’ve received for the semester and immediately S/U-ed it. For students who are intending to take this module, I’ll advise you to really study hard for this module, especially if you do not have any prior knowledge of accounting, else you will really get lost with the calculations.

2. BSP1702 Legal Environment of Business

This was a core module which I bidded for to meet the 20 MC requirement. BSP1702, aka BLAW, was really, really fun. My prof was certainly very entertaining, he will often bring in his guitar and sing for us. He was also considerate in the sense that, he makes sure that every single individual participates in class every week. I remembered one time he asked us for an example and all i mentioned was ‘Singapore’ and I was awarded the class participation mark for the week yay. Very often, the Luminus announcement page is bombarded with links to interesting news articles, to which he intricately links to blaw concepts. He makes sure we read our article by throwing out discussion questions which we can easily answer for class participation marks. Because of this, I think the entire class scored pretty well for class participation, because we will on average get 2-3 chances per person to answer questions. (thats pretty amazing with such a large class size and only 3 hours seminar.)

In class, we are expected to sit with our group mates, for after-class quizzes and also for the project. The quizzes are random, where he will use the visualizer to show a particular news article. Within a short period of time (5 – 10 minutes or so), we are expected to answer 1-2 short questions from our understanding of BLAW concepts (like contract formation, mitigation etc) Some of my group members actually carried the team so we consistently scored close to full marks or full marks for almost all the quizzes. The project was like a replica of the tutorial questions, just that we have to submit it right before class discussion. They actually reused the questions from the previous batches, and the questions that we had were exactly the same. We scored very well for this, to the extent that he wrote ‘Excellent’ on every single part of the questions yay.

**** Finals were 3 short questions, done on Examplify in 2 hours****

Finals was really easy too, added on to the fact that it was open book, we could actually look through the textbook and notes for answers and definitions if needed. From what I remember, some of the questions were taken from real-life scenarios. (The question was about the case where a toddler died after standing in front of the mirror at Jewel Changi Airport and whether the family could sue for negligence). Can’t really remember what I wrote but it was 10 marks per question so my explanations were quite lengthy.

Would totally recommend this module if you intend to take this up as an elective/ or you have to take it anyway because you are a Biz student. Really fun module with great takeaways. I had the most class participation marks in this module too and the prof was one of the best in making his lessons entertaining and engaging.

3. DAO1704 Decision Analytics using Spreadsheet

This is a compulsory core mod for Business students. Quite a difficult module, the in-class discussions were worse. Content will be uploaded on Luminus on a weekly basis and we are expected to revise the content before attending the class. Before class begins, there will be 15 minutes allocated to a short e-quiz on Luminus. The quiz mainly covers what was gone through in the recordings uploaded on Luminus, so make sure you actually do your readings and studying before attempting the quiz in class.

Despite reading up my notes and going through the recording before lessons, I have always felt very confused and lost in seminars. The in-class questions were most of the time not discussed in the recordings and were much harder and more in-depth calculations. While we were allowed to work in a group, my team and I were consistently lost in the calculations. My class participation marks for this module was very low because I was simply much slower in doing the calculations and and couldn’t understand all the excel formulas and in-class discussion. yikes. While there were opportunities for group marks, we often lose out to the other faster teams because we really had no idea what was going on…

We were expected to do up a simulation for the project. I have never felt so useless in a team before haha. Most of the time, I had no clue what was going on in the simulation. While I tried to help out with the formulas in the excel document, I think I was actually making things worse because the simulation couldn’t run. I offered to do up the majority of the report instead. I think we actually bonded pretty well, meeting up almost any time we are free to do the simulations and report. However, there was a freeloader in our team, we shall call this person ‘H’ . ‘H’ was just completely missing during the entire group project. ‘H’ only showed up to do the e-presentation and contributed absolutely nothing to the report and slides. ‘H’ was also missing during lessons and did not bother to show up for group meetings, whether skype or after-class. This was really annoying because our team was already struggling with the project and could have used an additional helping hand. Not sure what happened to him afterwards because we peer-evaluated him.

*****Finals was a written paper that is 2 hours long*****

I felt that the paper was quite manageable. Squeezed in as many calculations and formulas as I could in that one sheet of paper but I don’t think I even glanced at the cheat sheet throughout the entire exam. Not sure if I was burnt out from the ACC1701 paper in the morning but I felt that the paper was unexpectedly okay-ish to do and just wanted to get it over and done with. The questions that I predicted would come out were asked during the paper, such as the excel formulas, decision trees etc. As long as you have done enough practice and did the practise paper, you are definitely good to go.

During the first few weeks of class, the prof will advise the students to buy the textbook. My advice is to not even bother to purchase it, because you will not need it. While the notes may not suffice in explanations, I feel that you can find the necessary content and information by researching online, rather than relying on the textbook. While there are practice questions in the textbook, there are no answers so you won’t know if you are doing it right or wrong either way. Also, if you insist on buying the textbook, I’ll advise the e-book version (if there is) instead because the physical textbook is quite expensive and does not come attached with the excel files needed to do the questions.

For students who have DAO1704 in the upcoming semester, stay strong. The initial chapters may be quite challenging at times but the later chapters are quite doable. Even though my class part for this module is quite pathetic, I think I was able to redeem myself in the finals and attain a rather reasonable final grade.

Will not recommend this module unless you want to challenge yourself and spend long hours working with excel formulas and simulations.

4. MNO1706 Organizational Behaviour

This is a compulsory core mod for Business students. I personally did not enjoy this module at all. The professor does not give a lot of class participation opportunities. It was to the extent that throughout the 3-hour seminar, only about 5 questions were posed. He particularly liked calling people sitting in his point of view (front row), which made us lose out to class participation opportunities. Additionally, I personally felt that the content was rather straight-forward and boring. I was not engaged at all during the seminar and was not the only one who found the seminar somewhat uninteresting.

I think what made the MNO experience worse was that I was once again grouped with person ‘H’. This was a double blow to me because he was also MIA in the 2 projects. ‘H’ did not bother to open up the google documents, and he was late for presentation as well. Not sure if he was let off by the prof because we did not hear any news after doing the peer evaluation.

****Finals was 3 open essay questions where we can choose 2 to complete ****

Nothing much to be said about the essay questions because they were really straightforward. A case scenario is given for each question and we are expected to use MNO concepts to answer the questions posed. Added on that it was an open book test so I was just frantically flipping through my MNO textbook and regurgitating the content. Some people actually left pretty early in the midst of the examination, so I guess the paper was quite doable. (It was on a Saturday morning so I wasn’t surprised that people wanted to get it over and done with haha)

Usually I will have some key takeaways from the modules, but i didn’t get any from MNO… opps. Well, we did feedback to the professor at the end of the semester, that he should try to make his lessons more engaging and give more opportunities for class participation in future batches. Would not recommend this module under this professor. However, if you are good at fluffing discussion questions, do go ahead.

5. GET1023 Thinking Like an Economist

A friend actually recommended this GE module and I figure that this sounded like an interesting econs module where I can score. A LOT of readings have to be done in this module. However, the readings are nice to read and relevant to your content. It is very important for you to be well-versed in the reading and know how to link your readings to the content because these may appear as essay questions in your mid terms/ finals.

The prof likes to walk around the lecture hall and call on students. He is quite associated with foreign students/ exchangers for some reason and likes to call them out during lectures to answer questions. Personally, I felt that his method of teaching was pretty interesting, though he can be scary at times when he raise his voice. (He said that he did it often to make sure that nobody is sleeping in his lectures haha) This module do not require you to pre-read before lectures, because the prof says that learning is more conducive on-the-spot. Attendance is tracked through random in-lecture quizzes. (not graded and usually no right or wrong answers.)

Bidded for the tutorial slot that is directly after the lecture. TA was pretty helpful in guiding discussion questions. No fixed seating, but since I did not manage to bid the same tutorial slot as my friends, I was quite lonely at times and was always changing my seat and grouping with different people every week. In every tutorial session, you are expected to complete a set of discussion questions before class begins because they will be the topic of discussion for that 45 mins lesson. Attendance is tracked but there is no class participation like in biz, speaking up is on your own initiative but TA likes to call out on people to answer questions as well.

*****Mid-terms was around 4 essay questions on Examplify*****

The prof would have given a sample guiding essay questions that you will expect for your mid terms. IMO, as long as you have done your readings and prepared sufficiently for the test, you are good to go. Most often, essay questions are mainly crafted from the readings, for instance, for my batch, one of the essay topics were about Mexican prostitutes ( which can be found in your readings.) Make sure that you are familiar with the readings because mid-term was almost like a regurgitation of content. Total marks for the mid-terms was 30, and the medium score was around 22.

***** Finals included 5 essay questions in 2 hours *****

Essay were the same format as mid-terms. Good thing about finals were that the topics tested in mid-terms will not re-appear again. However, I did feel that the later topics were significantly harder (Ricardo, Karl Marx etc) especially because readings become 30+ pages per topic. However, the finals questions were a bit unexpected because questions that I did not foresee will come out actually did come out. For instance there was a 12 marks question on social media and happiness. (This appeared in a very very small portion of the readings and while I remembered the specific example and context, it was quite difficult for me to formulate 12 marks worth of paragraphs for this question) Not sure how well I fared for finals but I think I scored better than mid-terms.

My overall grade was an A. This was only possible because I have always been consistent with my readings and was one of the few people who actually do up notes and summaries of the readings. This meant that I need not reread all the books when revising for finals, but only needed to glance through my notes and recall examples and content. This was extremely helpful and saves a lot of time, because I have friends that complained that they were unable to finish their readings in time for finals. Would only recommend this module for students who have a keen interest in econs and are not afraid of the number of readings. (You are expected to read up to max 4 books per week for each chapters. phew)

6. STR1000 Career Creation Starter Workshop

This was a pre-allocated module in Year 1. You have to take this module if you are a biz student, because this is a prerequisite to STR2000. (that you can take in year 2) STR1000 is a career starter workshop, which is similar to CFG for students in other faculties.

While this workshop only lasted for 6 weeks, you can get quite a few takeaways, such as networking and resume writing. At the end of the workshop, you are expected to craft your resume for grading, so its important that you attend Lessons 4/5 because you will be taught the skills needed to write your resume.

This was a 3-hours seminar conducted every week. While the instructor shares quite a lot of personal motivating stories which I found interesting, my friends said that STR is pretty boring because it was too dry. However, attendance was tracked so they could not miss lessons. (I do know of a few who ask their friends to sign in and out for them though..) This was an S/U module with 0 MC, which i suppose was one of the reason why they did not feel like attending all the lessons.

My advice for future batches is to bid for this module and take it in week 1-6 rather than week 7-12. Since tutorial starts in Week 3 for almost all modules, I’ll advise you to quickly clear STR1000 and get it out of the way. If you choose to take it in Week 7 – 12 ( in my case, I had no choice because I was pre-allocated and didn’t know who to swap the slot with ), you are likely to be more stressed out because of mid-terms, project submission and finals preparation etc. While you technically are not stopped from skipping a few STR lessons, I’ll advise you against it because attendance is 10% per lesson. Also, the resume grading scheme is not as easy as it seems. While I scored decently at around 34/50, majority of my friends actually borderline passed/ failed to attain a passing grade. Not sure what happened but I think they had to do a follow-up after STR ended.

****If you did not get pre-allocated this module in Year 1 Sem 1, you are likely to do it in Year 1 Sem 2. ****

7. BPM1701 Calculus and Statistics

This was an entry level module for biz students. From what i remember from the biz orientation briefing, you are expected to complete this module by recess week. This means that you can actually start completing this module before the semester even started. (I actually finished it in July before school started.)

Not a very difficult module. Basically what you have learnt in JC. For students who did not learn Calculus and Statistics prior to university, there are lecture notes and videos that will guide you through the module. Personally, I was a bit unhappy with the lecture slides because there was a lot of tiny mistakes that were overlooked (Suppose the question asked for integration –> slides showed differentiation) In fact, I remembered feeling so confused when doing the question that I had ask my JC friends (who also agreed that the lecture slides were definitely wrong) Not sure if they have realized the mistakes but hopefully they had revamped their slides for future batches.

To pass this module (0 MC), you have to complete a 15 question quiz. To motivate students to finish up the quiz, i remember that there were prizes for the first few students who pass the module. (From what I remember, it was a tablet) Quiz is relatively easy. If you have paid attention on the lecture videos/ already have prior knowledge in JC, you can pass this quiz on the first try. (Got full marks on the first try yay). If i remember correctly, the passing score was actually 9/15, you do not actually have to aim for full marks because there is no grade for this module and is an S/U module.

You will automatically be pre-allocated this module if you are a biz student. No bidding required.

8. BPM1702 Microsoft Excel Skills For Business

This was also an entry level compulsory module for Business students. This was a nightmare.

Can’t remember how many times it took me to pass this module but it definitely required more time as compared to BPM1702. From what i remember, you have to actually pass the white and black belt for Excel and Yellow belt for Powerpoint slides. You are given access to the website which is found on Luminus and are expected to complete this before recess week as well. You can actually do this module before the new semester begins.

The Powerpoint slides were quite a breeze. As long as you have read through the instructions and notes, you are good and ready to go. Yellow Belt is quite easy to score and pass, and there are not a lot of steps needed. However, Black Belt Excel was… really difficult to pass. You actually needed at least 54/60 to pass this module, and one wrong click and you are screwed. The system actually tracks where you click on the excel document, if you do not actually follow the steps that they have taught you to navigate the excel sheet, you are instantaneously marked wrong, no mercy. This is especially annoying, because there were far too many instances where I just accidentally missed a spot on the excel sheet and lost the point for that particular question. It was also frustrating because even if you decide to intentionally fail and redo the excel sheet, the questions are jumbled up and most of the time not the same. While you can actually google the questions, most of the time, the answers are not found online.

Redoing each excel sheet takes 1 hour alone, and I was sure that I redid the entire exercise 9 times to finally get my black belt. (My average score was always around 44/60…) This module definitely stressed me out too many times and made me dread DAO1704 because there are just so many excel formulas and steps. If you have friends who are great at Excel, you can try to do with them ( though the questions are not the same ). On the bright side, the department gives a maximum of 99 tries for you to pass the module.

This is also a 0 MC module that is pre-allocated to biz students, therefore no bidding is required because it will automatically appear on Luminus.

9. BPM1705 Understanding How Business Works.

This is also a compulsory module for biz students. Can’t remember much about the briefing but it is like a short introductory module, similar to project work for students. You are expected to work with people you do not know (based on your surnames) over a course of a few weeks.

You are given access to a particular website and you have to make decisions within the team. We are competing against other groups, and are role-playing as a certain company selling cars. As a team, we have to decide the best appropriate selling strategy to:

1. Price the Car
2. Decide on the quantity to produce
3. Decide on the quantity of employees to hire and their employee benefits
4. Advertising and marketing
5. Many more, but I can’t really remember

You are given a data sheet to guide you through the best selling strategy. The twist is that since you are competing against the other groups, you do not really know what their strategies are. There are 4 different quarters where you can choose to change the figures (1-5) to win over more customers. While we did pretty good on the first 2 rounds ( scored 2nd place ), other teams quickly figured out our selling strategies and were able to modify their own strategies after our own. We did not retain our 2nd place on the last 2 quarters haha.

This is a 0 MC module that is an S/U module. My team did not meet up once throughout the project duration and did not seem to care a lot about the project. Because of that, there were many instances where I had to randomly place random figures onto the website and decide on my own because they were simply not responsive enough. Since this does not really count to our grades, I guess it did not bother me as much as the other biz mods.

Do note that before the project begins, you are expected to go through several chapters and quizzes on your own and are required to pass them. ( you will learn about sole proprietorship, business examples etc)

Since this is a compulsory module, you will be pre-allocated this module before uni begins. Therefore, you do not have to worry about having to bid for this module in Mod-reg.

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Thank you for reading this post. I hope this post has offered you enough insights into choosing your modules and my experiences have been helpful in guiding you through your first semester in NUS. Wishing you all the best on the first sem in university, you can do it!

voez

5 May 2020