AY 2020/2021 YEAR 2 SEMESTER 1

HELLO its been a tiring and shag semester but Y2S1 is finally over 😀 This has been one heck of a semester on ZOOM university ( seriously though, all of my mods were conducted online… ), and learning online has never been as efficient as face-to-face learning :(. Sure, I appreciated the time saved from having to travel to school, but staring at my laptop screen for 5 days a week ( esp for back-to-back lessons or for 3-hours sectionals ) has taken a toll on my deteriorating eyesight and health HAHAHAHA

That aside, its been a really long time since I have last written a blog post on here. I’m always surprised at the number of people who visit my blog everyday, thank you for the support (esp for those who wrote in), your comments have been a great motivation and encouragement to continue writing and sharing my reviews :p

As compared to the past few semesters in Y1S1 and Y1S2, I’ve decided to take 6 modules (22MC) this semester. Initially, I had the intention to take STR2000 (my fellow biz students know that this is a compulsory career creation workshop, aka STR1000 2.0) since it was a 0MC module. Funnily enough, I bidded for STR2000 and actually managed to get it, but later got kicked out (yes, im serious. I even received an email from the module coordinator) because we were not supposed to be even bidding for it and it was supposed to be a pre-allocated module. (in my defense, there were 600 free slots for STR2000 on MODREG.) Oh wells, I guess I will only be doing STR2000 next semester.

Here are the six modules that I have taken in AY 2020/2021 in no specific order:

1. GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore (4MC)
2. GEQ1000 Asking Questions (4MC)
3. BSP2701 Global Economy (2MC)
4. DAO2703 Operations and Technology Management (4MC)
5. DAO2702 Programming for Business Analytics (4MC)
6. MNO2705B Leadership and Decision Making under Uncertainty (4MC)

Of which, GEQ1000 is a pre-allocated module (compulsory for all NUS students to be taken either in Year 1 or Year 2). BSP2701, DAO2702 and MNO2705B were also pre-allocated modules for BUSINESS students. As iterated earlier, this has been a really special semester, where ALL 6 of the above modules are conducted online, regardless of lectures, tutorials or sectionals (thanks covid!)

1. GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore (4MC)

As you should know by now, NUS students are supposed to complete the 5 modules under the General Education (GE) pillars. After having completed GET, GEH, GER (in previous semesters), I only had to fulfill two more modules (GEQ and GES) to finish my GE pillars.

Honestly, I have been contemplating a lot as to whether I should delay taking GES, because I really wanted to take GES1035: Singapore: Imagining the next 50 years. (However, bidding for that module is insane, almost a 2:1 ratio, which is pretty understandable given that it is a grade-free module, precisely why I wanted to take it) However, I heard that it is pretty difficult to get that module unless you are from year 3/4. I decided that the wait was not worth it, and seeing that I’ve been scoring very well for my past GE modules, I figured taking a graded GES might in fact benefit me by pulling my tragic CAP up instead. This is where GES1041 comes in. (** Edit 22/12/20 Writing this on results day > really patting myself on the shoulder for choosing GES1041 because I got my first A+ 😀 Glad I chose the correct GES yay! )

While browsing through other module reviews and reddit pages, I saw that many students were talking about how great GES1041 was and how much they have learnt from this module. I wasn’t too particularly choosy about GES, so I decided to just take a leap of faith and bid for this module with a friend. It was certainly quite a popular GES module, and I was a bit worried about not getting it since the popularity far exceed the vacancy. Thankfully though, my friend and I managed to get in (maybe cuz we were year 2 hohoho)

As this module was done completely online, the professor was not too strict on whether we attend his 8am lesson or watch the recorded lectures. As a result, I have not attended a single 8am lecture, but I have been disciplined enough to at least watch his recorded lectures ( though at 2x speed ). Somewhere in the middle of the semester, the professor has also converted his 8am lecture into a dialogue session with him and the TA instead. (also uploaded, so didn’t attend but watched it at my own convenience) Tutorial sessions were conducted every two weeks.

In terms of workload, I have to admit that GES has a lot more workload as compared to the other GET and GEH modules that I have taken in the past semesters.

Grade distribution:

1. Reading Quizzes (x4) 20%

There are four quizzes on LumiNUS every two weeks, each worth 5%. Quizzes are more theory-based and heavily dependent on the readings. No, there is no True or False questions. All the questions are tagged with the page numbers for easy reference. When doing my quizzes, I tend to split my screen between the specific reading and the quiz, just so that it will be easier to locate the answer. One has to be careful when doing the questions, as the quiz options do gets too confusing and tricky.

For e.g. most of the questions are structured like this:

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D : Option A and C

Option E: Option A and B

If you are someone who tends to overthink and overanalyze the questions, such quizzes can be super annoying. However, we are given like 2 hours to do a 5-question quiz, so I guess you can always take your time to read through each option carefully before locking in your answer.

2. Journal Entries (20%)

On weeks where there are no quizzes, you are expected to write a 500 word journal entry. There are four major topics to cover each week, mainly: Inequality, Meritocracy, Multiculturalism and Migration. Each journal is worth 5% each and the basis of your journal will be covered during tutorial sessions. ( we were expected to share our journal entries to our groupmates over breakout rooms in ZOOM) Honestly, this is one of the easiest component to score, and to be frank, either the TA is really lenient with the marking, or my journal is that great, because I have pretty much scored perfect scores for all my entries. For those who are taking this module, please try to treat this journal entry seriously as a platform for you to write your thoughts, because it really is an easy component to score.

3. Group report 10%

For the group component, your teammates are randomly determined by the tutorial group you are in. Typically, a group has about 3-5 members, depending on the size of your tutorial class. Usually, given that this is a 1k GE module, most people want to S/U this module and thereby don’t really try as hard as their other modules. FORTUNATELY, my groupmates all took the group project seriously and really went all out on the discussion and in choosing a topic. Basically, we were expected to choose a topic that has an interlink between two major topics ( Inequality x Meritocracy or Inequality x Migration etc), and we were supposed to use the moral clusters and other ethical toolbox to share our group analysis and conflicts. The professor and TA were also kind enough to share some of the past year examples, ranging from (Foreign workers in dormitories, SAP schools, Racial Banter, Crazy Rich Asians etc).

The group report was about ~1000 words and my group was able to get it done in 2 days. We got perfect score for this component. ( would like to thank my teammates for being such great people to work with HAHAHA)

4. Group presentation 20%

This was added on to the group report. Because of time constraints, we were just told to record our presentations and play it during class so that we will not overshoot on the timing. We only managed to record our slides on ZOOM one day before presentation (particularly because all of us were busy with other submissions). Criteria of the group presentation was pretty much the same as the group report, and we were expected to share our insights with the rest of the class in a 15 minutes presentation.

The professor was impressed with our presentation, that he later emailed us to get our permission to share our group presentation with the rest of the people taking the module. ( I think we were one of the ~10+ groups out there) We got a perfect score for this component. ( thankful for such great teammates!!!! )

5. Online Test 30%

Questions were similar to the quizzes. We were expected to do 20 questions in 2 hours (fairly decent!!) This means that we have around 6 minutes each per question to flip through our readings. When I did the exam, I had quite a fair bit of time left, but since backward navigation was turned off, we couldn’t go back to previous questions. Difficulty was similar to the quizzes!

Honestly, I enjoyed this module far more than I thought I would at the beginning of the semester. Despite complaining about the journal and quizzes, I realized how these two components actually played a crucial role in furthering my understanding of the various topics, and also helped me to draw interlinks into the Singapore society. The prof and TA has also been really helpful in guiding discussion, and in facilitating class discussions. I really enjoyed the vibe of the tutorial sessions, where we share our own journals, and also draw insights from our peers’ evaluations. From the bottom of my heart, I would really recommend this GES module despite the high workload and intense readings, because it was really a breath of fresh air from my usual biz core modules.

2. GEQ1000 : Asking Questions (4MC)

This was a pre-allocated module. I believe that GEQ1000 is a compulsory module for all NUS students, so you are likely to get this module either in Year 1 / 2. I have to admit that I have the least impression of GEQ1000 out of all the modules I have taken this semester. (perhaps fueled by the fact that GEQ1000 is an ungraded module, so I didn’t really spent a lot of time on this module ._. )

As per NUSMODs, GEQ1000 introduces various forms of questioning from the perspective of computational thinking, design thinking, engineering, philosophy, science, and social sciences. The format of GEQ1000 was conducted in the same manner as GER1000: whereby we were expected to watch the lecture videos at our own convenience, and attend a tutorial session once every two weeks. Not sure how they grouped us for the tutorial slots, because despite bidding with my friends for the same slot, we are constantly grouped in different tutorial sessions. ( perhaps they wanted us to mix around with different faculties )

I would say that the workload of GEQ1000 is one of the more manageable ones. There are a total of 6 quizzes, based on the different faculties, to be done every two weeks. Unlike GER1000 where we can have multiple attempts, the GEQ1000 quiz only allows for one submission, so please check your answers before submission. Personally, I didn’t really care if I got full marks for the quizzes particularly since it was a pass/fail module anyway. Additionally, there are two sections of forum posts, where we are expected to post our own thoughts, or comment on other posts for each faculty. Forum A was done in the first half of the semester, and we were expected to write at least 3 insightful posts. Forum B was up in the later half of the semester, graded on the same criteria. (personally, I did up the 6 posts asap, just so I can get it over and done with) The other grading component includes a reflection paper where we had to share how we have applied what we learnt in GEQ1000 in our lives/ schools/ workplace. I believe that class participation marks were also awarded for in-class participation and group discussion.

Pardon me for the brief review for GEQ1000, I didn’t think much had to be shared about this module given that many other people have also shared their insights for the same module. Additionally, I believe that the grading criteria and components have pretty much been retained and remained similar to the past few semesters, so the reviews are likely to still remain relevant.

3. BSP2701 Global Economy (2MC)

This is a pre-allocated core module that is compulsory for all biz students! I believe that this is an extension of the 1k Biz econs module that we had to take in Year 1 (remember BSP1703?) , just that the focus is drawn on macroeconomics rather than microeconomics. The same professor and tutor for BSP1703 taught BSP2701 as well, so it was kind of a deja-vu seeing (or hearing?) them again.

As this was a 2MC module, we only had 6 weeks of lessons and 3 tutorial sessions. (all completely online, of course!) Honestly, I didn’t attend any tutorial sessions because tutorial sessions were treated as consultation sessions instead. Lectures were also pre-recorded and uploaded on LumiNUS, so we didn’t have to attend lectures as well. There was no class participation or attendance for tutorial sessions , and the tutor mentioned that we could always crash other tutorial slots other than the one that we were allocated if we had any questions to ask. (else we can just forego tutorial since he uploads a video of him going through the tutorial questions at the end of the week) As this was a 2MC module, there is no project for this module and 100% of the grade is based on individual efforts.

Grade distributions:

1. Assignments 30%

Assignments were mostly ~20+ MCQ questions done on Examplify. I believe there are assignments in Week 3 and 6 respectively. Most of the questions were quite intuitive. Added on that we can always refer to our lecture notes, it is quite easy to score well for the assignments. The prof also releases the score of the assignments a few days after the dateline, and we can see the median and percentile. There was no time limit for the assignment, as long as we complete the quiz before the stipulated dateline.

2. Quiz 20%

The quiz was almost similar to the assignment, also conducted on Examplify. However, there is a time limit for the quiz and students are expected to finish the entire paper once they have started the quiz. Not much have to be said about the quiz because the difficulty level is around the same as the assignment.

2. Final Test 50%

The final exam was conducted on Examplify. It consists of around 50+ questions, some on the content side, while some are more math based (requires calculation).

The “finals” seemed more like a mid-terms, since it was conducted in Week 7 (right after recess week). Honestly, I can’t really remember much of the exam but I do remember that it was slightly harder than the quiz and the assignments. Because there was no backward tracking, I was so worried that I wasn’t able to finish the 50 MCQ in time, so I pretty much rushed through the entire paper, only to have 10 minutes left for the last MCQ question. (sigh, had to submit afterwards cuz we can’t check our previous answers)

I personally think that BSP2701 was a manageable module. Added on that it was only a 2MC module that took up only 6- 7 weeks, I had the whole of recess week to catch up on content and revise the topics. Sadly, there were a lack of practice papers for BSP2701 on the NUS BOX folder, so the only resources I had were to look through the assignments and quizzes, while also doing test banks from the textbook.

4. DAO2703 Operations and Technology Management (4MC)

I was only supposed to do this module in Semester 2, but I bidded for it via MODREG. This is probably the only S/U-able 2k Biz core module since it has no pre-requisites. The module was taught by two different professors for each half of the semester.

The first half of the semester was more focused on the “operations” part. I remembered having to do a lot of calculations and facing complex formulas such as the calculation of waiting time. There are also many other calculations involved, from flow time, flow rate, EOQ, Little’s Law, yada yada. Basically, the first half the semester was pretty maths-heavy.

The second half of the semester was taught by another prof, with focus on the “management” part, ranging from Quality, Scheduling, Revenue management, etc. It probably sounds more intimidating, but I felt that the second half of the semester were so much easier than the first half. Remember the horrors of having to use excel in DAO1704? Well, you will be actually using excel to work out the calculations. (remember those formula where you use = sumproduct , = norm.dist? )

There is a project component for DAO2703. We got to group together within our own tutorial session, and my friends and I were able to form a team of 5 for the project. Honestly though, the amount of effort put into the project was not worth the 10% of the grade distribution. This is probably one of the module I have taken with the least weightage attributed to the project. (8 pages of report for only 10%…?)

The other grade distributions were attributed to group assignments and tutorial work. We had to complete the tutorial questions before class and submit before 10am on Monday. During tutorial, the tutor will then go through some of the mistakes made by the groups, and end off the session with Q&A. Sometimes, the entire tutorial sessions were dedicated to group project discussion within our own breakout rooms. There is no class participation or attendance tracked, but everyone in my tutorial group were disciplined enough to attend class. (Probably because the lecturer is our tutor :p)

Exam-wise, there were both mid-terms and finals conducted on McGraw Hill portal and LumiNUS respectively. They were both open-book exams, but honestly there was not much flipping involved because most, if not all, the questions involve heavy calculations with little relevance to content. Some of the mid-term questions were recycled from the end-of-chapter practices on McGraw Hill, but the setter did modify some of the numbers used in the question. Finals was set differently and to be completed on LumiNUS. There was a mixture of true or false questions, MCQ questions and open-ended questions.

Truth to be told, I didn’t really do well for mid terms, and my score just brushed the median marks. (disappointed, but expected because I didnt even finish all the questions). Studied much harder for finals and found it comparably easier than mid-terms, but since the score wasn’t released, I guess I wouldn’t know until the grade is released on results day. **edit: I guess I really jinxed myself because results were released one day after I posted this blog. Score was so much better than mid-terms, above 75th percentile 😀 ) I would say that the DAO2703 content was more tedious in the first half of the semester, but becomes much better towards the end of the semester. (so if you are taking this mod/ plan to take this mod, jiayous and dont give up!)

5. DAO2702 Programming for Business Analytics (4MC)

As per the name of the module, DAO2702 is a programming core module that is compulsory for all BIZ students.

Despite having a bit of prior experience in coding (python), this module was still super tough and time-consuming for me. The first half of the semester was more focused on python coding and data visualization, while the second half of the semester was more focused on statistics. Lectures were recorded and uploaded on LumiNUS, so I didn’t attend a single lecture (except for the first introductory lecture). Additionally, I didn’t attend tutorials at all because tutorial classes were converted into consultation slots instead. The professor will upload a video of him explaining the tutorial questions at the end of the week for viewing.

There is a project component for DAO2702. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to group with people within the same tutorial group, so I had to randomly group with some strangers as none of my friends were in the same tutorial slot as me. The project involved a 8-page report and presentation on a particular business problem, and we were to apply data visualizations in the project. (yes, there is a lot of coding involved in the project) Honestly, prior to taking this module, I was also looking at other module review pages about DAO2702, and most of them describe the project as either smooth-sailing/ easy/ took only one week to do. I question the validity of the claims, because this has been the most stressful and time-consuming project I’ve done this semester. Half of my groupmates are not proficient in coding at all (and thus claimed that they will only help out more in the report and presentation), while the other half (incld me) had more experience in python. As a result, the burden of the coding component was distributed among the 3 of us. Personally, while I have tried to learn python through online courses, I have never really ventured into data visualization (using pandas, seaborn, plotly etc) However, because half of my groupmates couldn’t do the coding, the rest of us spent a lot of time researching on how to transform our dataset into beautiful visualizations. I am not really sure how the other 2 people who had to do the coding felt, but I personally felt super stressed out and burdened from the coding, and most of my weekends were spent on writing and fixing codes. However, I have to say that the amount of time spent on coding during the project helped me to be more familiar with the coding techniques and content. The 3 of us were able to create more than 10 visualizations and regression charts, ranging from waffle charts, treemap and sunburst chart using ploty etc.

There was also a 10% grade component for class participation. I am not particularly sure how the marks are calculated, but class participation was based on forum posts. You can either ask some questions on the forum, or be the one that reply to the threads. This was honestly quite stressful at first, because some people (who are obviously more experienced in coding) are super quick in answering forum questions. I always see the same old people posting on the forum page, and they also reply to others’ posts at an insane speed. One has to be quick in replying to forum posts, because the professor did not want to see duplicate answers or replies. I reckon this will be quite difficult, especially for coding beginners, who wouldn’t really know how to alter their codes. I was quite inactive in forum posts in the first half of the semester, but begun reply more to threads in the later half of the semester. Many people will post their queries during the reading week (in preparation for Finals), so it will also be great to leverage on the opportunity to get your class participation marks by replying to their thread.

Finals was conducted face-to-face for Zone C students. It consists of 6 questions, 20 marks each. We were told that we could choose to do only 5 questions, because the total marks for the exam was only 100 marks. For those who did 6 questions, only the highest marks for the 5 questions will be recorded. I felt super frustrated while doing the questions, mainly because my codes were full of errors (yikes), coupled with the panic felt from the poor time management. I don’t think I did well for the exam at all, but figured everyone is probably in the same state (or even worse) as me. The professor did mention that the bellcurve system will help us, and that as long as we tried to do the questions, we will not fail the module (i hope). Overall, I did not really enjoy this module at all, particularly from the stress endured from tanking the project and the amount of time spent on writing codes. ( However, this is just my personal opinion, perhaps I am just not a coding person at all. If you have to take this module/ are taking the module, you might have a completely different experience from me, so don’t be too traumatized by my own experiences. )

6. MNO2705B Leadership and Decision Making under Uncertainty (4MC)

If you have read my Y1S1 module reviews, you would have known that I did not have a pleasant experience in MNO1k. As a result, I was dreading MNO2705B when I was pre-allocated this module this semester. However, I have to say that MNO2705B was so much more fun and interesting as compared to MNO1k, perhaps because I had better group mates and better prof (who was actually fair in class participation!). This was a 3-hour sectionals, and as we were not allowed to have face-to-face lessons, MNO2705B was conducted in an asynchronous manner, with a mixture of live ZOOM lessons, to watching pre-recorded content.

There was a 15% grade weighted towards class participation. However, this had to be one of the largest class size I’ve ever been in, so not all of us will get the opportunity to speak up in class. As a result, the prof reassured us that class participation was not strictly restricted to speaking up on ZOOM, but also through forum discussions, peer feedback and reflections on Microsoft Teams.

There was also a 30% component weighted towards a group project. We were expected to find a relevant Asian problem (that has happened in the past 5 years) and write about the risk and uncertainty involved in decision making. Not surprisingly, many of the groups chose COVID-19 as their topic of choice, given that we have all been one way or another affected by the pandemic. We were expected to apply the concepts learnt in class: Consequentialism/ Deontology, Moral Disengagement Tools, CLT, etc into our project. Initially, we had to submit a 1 page draft detailing our brief project idea so that our topic will not overlap with others. Once the prof approves of the topic choice, we then delve into making our presentation slides and also recording our presentation. (There was no official report to be submitted) Thankfully, all of my groupmates were cooperative, and we were responsible enough to delegate our work and complete them without much nagging. All in all, the project went rather smoothly, and I was overall pretty satisfied with our group presentation and slides.

There was also a 20% component weighted towards a reflection paper. This was done in a pair of 2 students in the same tutorial slot. As this was a pre-allocated module at a rather odd timing, I didn’t manage to get into the same tutorial slots as any of my friends. As a result, I was randomly paired with a guy for the reflection paper. The reflection paper was quite simple, and we managed to do up the entire paper in just a day (and submit on the spot).

The last 35% of the grade distribution was dedicated to the e-quiz. For the examination, we were given a text containing certain dilemmas, and we were expected to apply 3 out of 5 topics in our analysis. I thought that the examination was quite simple (sigh steep bellcurve), probably because everybody will be pretty much writing the same thing and one’s answer has to be unique to really stand out from the rest. Somehow, the text in the exam was quite similar to the sample text posted in the BOX folder, so I guess I lucked out since I at least knew what I should write in the test. Not sure how well I fared, but the prof did upload some sample answers a few weeks after the test, and most of my answers thankfully matched the marking rubric.

….. and thats it! Thanks for reading my blog and see you guys next semester :p Happy holidays!!!!!

voez

24/11/2020