THOUGHTS ABOUT GER1000 QUANTITATIVE REASONING

Hi I’m back with another module review: GER1000. I took this module in AY 19/20 Year 1 Semester 2.

As usual, I have extracted the module description from NUSmods here:

This module aims to equip undergraduates with basic reasoning skills on using data to address real world issues. What are some potential complications to keep in mind as we plan what data to collect and how to use them to address our particular issue? When two things are related (e.g. smoking and cancer), how can we tell whether the relationship is causal (e.g. smoking causes cancer)? How can quantitative reasoning help us deal with uncertainty or elucidate complex relationships? These and other questions will be discussed using real world examples.

I have been looking through NUS reddit these few days and thought it will be good to address some questions about GER1000.

1. Why can’t I bid for GER1000 during MODREG?

While GE modules are usually available in MODREG round 2, GER1000 is a pre-allocated module that is not open for bidding. While you can try to appeal for GER1000 during the add/drop round/ email the department to request for allocation, you are technically not guaranteed a slot.

Back in Year 1 Sem 1, I only had 16MC by the third round of MODREG. My friends living in hall/RC were pre-allocated GER1000 and I thought I could easily get in as long as I appealed with the reason that “I was unable to hit the minimum 18 MC required per semester”. Well, unfortunately, I was not allocated GER1000 and thus decided to take GET instead.

This is for fellow BBA students:

Legend:

X: the module will be pre-allocated in the module indicated

O: the module will be pre-allocated on a random basis over the Semesters indicated

If you are a BBA student, you can see that BBA students under UTCP will only be pre-allocated GER1000 in Semester 2. Meanwhile, students who do not live on-campus/ not part of UTCP will be randomly pre-allocated GER1000 in either Semester 1/2.

IMO, you do not have to worry about not getting GER1000 in your first semester. GER1000 have to be completed in Year 1 anyway. If you did not get GER1000 in Semester 1, you are going to get it in Semester 2. (I was pre-allocated GER1000 in Y1S2)

2. Where can I find resources for GER1000?

There are soooooo many GER1000 resources on the NUS BOX folder. Years of test banks/ lecture notes from different years and different semesters can be found on the BOX folder.

BOX is a place where students upload their lecture notes/test banks/ slides/ past year resources. There are different BOX folders for students from different faculties (NUS Business School, NUS General Education, NUS FASS, etc etc) It is unofficial, but is super helpful if you are looking for past year test banks and exam questions. Ask your seniors/ reddit for access to this BOX folder.

Alternatively, if you don’t have access to this BOX folder, you can join the GER1000 group. It is unofficial as well, but students can take advantage of the platform to discuss quiz questions. For GER1000, there will be weekly quizzes on LumiNUS comprising of around 5-7 questions. You can do the quiz as many times as you want, but your quiz score for that particular week will only be shown after Sunday 2359. Some students like to discuss quiz questions in the telegram group. However, there are some students in the group who may be “snakes” and give wrong answers for the quiz questions. ( Personally, I will not 100% trust the information on the group. As GER1000 quizzes are giveaway marks, the bell curve may not be in your favor. One wrong answer for a quiz may already puts you well below the average. I am speaking from personal experience because I have friends who have scored full marks for all 10 quizzes… what a beast)

3. I have GER1000 pre-allocated but I do not have a timeslot shown on MODREG?

You have to bid for a GER1000 timeslot on MODREG during the Select Tutorial/Labs round. There are no physical lectures for GER1000 because resources are uploaded online and you are expected to self-learn before going for your tutorials. Personally, I dislike watching webcasts (?), because the audio quality is not that great. I have not watched a single GER1000 webcast on LumiNUS because I prefer reading the lecture notes + transcript instead. (The department uploads the video transcript of the webcast in a PDF file) (ps this is just my preferred learning style, watch the webcast if you feel that the former is better)

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Personally, I did not think of GER1000 as a difficult module. ( I got an A despite not really spending too much time on it) While it involves a couple of calculation questions/maths, quizzes and finals are in MCQ format anyway. I also had a pretty solid project group (unlike in BIZ where i was surrounded by a couple of snakes yikes) with students from FASS/ Science/ BIZ faculties who were quite onz about the project. Presentations and Q&A is pretty easy especially if you are from BIZ ( you would have suffered through many many presentations and Q&A for your core mods that it makes GER1000 presentation manageable ) Tutorial participation marks are also pretty easy to get. Just go for every GER sessions, discuss the tutorial questions within your group and present 1 or 2 questions to the class and you are good to go!!

I don’t think I’ll be uploading any GER1000 resources because… well, everything is really on the BOX folder, so get it from there!

thanks for reading my post 🙂

voez

30/07/2020