This is a compulsory core module for BBA students pursuing the Honours Year. I decided to take it in Y4S1, so that I can have a more chill semester in Y4S2. [P.S. Yes, you can take it in Y3S2 too, provided that you have met the requisites!! Please refer to the guidelines provided by CJD, I believe you have to clear at least 11 out of 13 core modules.]
To protect my identity (so my groupmates, company, prof won’t hunt me down LOOOOOL), I shall not disclose my allocated FSP4003 company and allocated supervisor, but I’ll give a brief walkthrough of my experience doing a 1-semester project, starting from the very beginning:
Forming a team
Before you can even sign up for a project on the FSP portal, you need to form a team. During my batch, we were only allowed to form up to 4 people a team. However, from the latest email by CJD (Mr Chew), I heard that the minimum group members for FSP4003 has increased to 5… [I’m not sure which batch is affected by this announcement… but YALL ARE SO LUCKY :’) ]
If you don’t already know yet, FSP4003 is an 8MC module. I cannot fail to emphasise the importance of finding good groupmates!!! If you don’t want to get allocated to a (bad) team with random groupmates, just reach out to your friends and form a group [P.S. If you really don’t have any friends to group with, on the FSP portal, when you submit your project application, you can tick a box that says that “you need help finding a team” or smth like that. But… I highly discourage this because I’ve heard + I myself have experienced really bad members in a randomized team]
I managed to form a team of 3, and one of my friends invited another dude to join the team, so we managed to get a 4-person team. Anyway, the rest of us didn’t really know the 4th person too well, so we all went to grab a meal even before starting on the project LOL (#teambonding)
2. Signing up for a project on the FSP portal
Now that you have formed a team, appoint someone to be the temporary “leader”. This person will be in charge of applying for a FSP project on the FSP portal on behalf of the entire team. What the leader needs to do is to:
a) Collate everyone’s resumes
b) Do a short write-up that describes your team (ok la, everyone in the team can do this, but I remembered I ended up writing it on behalf of the team cuz nobody knows what we were supposed to write lmaooo)
c) Merge (a) and (b) together into ONE SINGLE PDF, and then upload it on the FSP portal when the leader apply for the projects (on behalf of the team).
And oh ya, do take note that the project application for Semester 1 begins as early as June/July! I’m not so sure about Semester 2, but I believe that CJD do send reminders about the opening of the FSP portal so just keep a look out in your Outlook inbox.
For further clarification:
a) Resume – Should contain YOUR LATEST CAP (out of 5). Everyone in the team have to disclose your CAP in your resume. It’s no surprise that the higher your CAP, the easier for you to source (and get accepted) a project. What I do is that when merging the resumes, I put the resumes in descending CAP order.
b) Write Up – Basically like a cover letter, placed on the very FIRST page (before all the resumes). What I wrote on behalf of my team was:
Introduce ourselves and our various specializations (fluff abit, say why our different specialization will help in the projects = We are a versatile team, can provided all-rounded analysis yada yada)
Talk about our various skill sets (yet another fluff, basically we joined case competitions together yada yada, got experience analyzing business case studies)
Sign off with our names, emails and contact numbers (to say that the company can contact us to discuss our suitability for the project)
This write-up is a generic, standardized cover letter. We did not mention any company names, or express any interest in any available projects. The purpose of this write-up was just to introduce ourselves, and if any company is interested to take us onto the project, they can contact any of us for further discussions.
In case you are not aware, the FSP portal is open for many iterations. There are many, many rounds of applications, and CJD updates the portal with new company projects. Therefore, don’t be frustrated when you don’t get any projects in the first round of application. My team took 3 rounds before we got our project. As mentioned above, companies tend to look at the the CAP of all members when deciding to take up a group. In fact, I heard from my friends, that some groups even have to go for interviews, with the company, to see if they are suitable for the project.
Getting a company project for FSP4003 is more competitive than you think. Therefore, don’t be dejected if you fail your application for the first few rounds! JUST KEEP APPLYING when the portal opens 😀 And yes, when you apply again, you just need to submit the SAME merged documents above (c), that’s why its good to write a generic write-up (b), so you don’t need to tailor it to a specific company!
And oh ya, when you apply on the FSP portal, with the merged PDF file, you can choose your top 3 projects! More information of the projects can be seen on the FSP portal (but walao, its so hard to see the project description, and honestly, when my team and I read it, the project briefs are all so VAGUE LOL). My team and I ended up just going with our gut feel and choosing projects that we think we can all do haha. And after you choose your top 3 projects, since the leader is signing up on behalf of the team, please get your group members MATRIC NUMBER (Starts with A…….) so the system knows that you alr have a group!
To sum up, to sign up for a project, you need
a) a merged PDF containing all group members resumes (with CAP) + a short, generic write-up
b) Go the the FSP portal, uploading this merged PDF.
c) Choose your Top 3 projects (and rank them 1, 2, 3)
d) Write your groupmates matric numbers (to sign up as a team, if dh, tick the box that says you need help finding a team)
e) Submit and you wait to see if you get any of the project. (Basically, you will get a “congrats” email from CJD, and then u (or whoever applied on the team’s behalf) need to go back to the FSP portal to accept the project.
f) If you failed to get any (you will get an “unsuccessful application” email from CJD). Don’t FRET!! Repeat from a), when the FPS portal opens and apply for other projects.
P.S. I personally applied for all 1-semester projects, because I didn’t want to do FSP for 2 semesters (over december? no way).
3. After getting a project
Now that you and your team have gotten a project, congratz!! CJD will send the entire team an email, basically instructions on what you should do going forward. This is where my memory starts getting really hazy but I’m honestly too lazy to check my email, so I’ll just try my very best to recount what I remember:
a) Sign your LOU and COI forms. Basically, some Confidentiality & Non-Disclosure documents, to promise that you won’t reveal any confidential company information after the project has concluded (which is also why i can’t reveal much about my project :p ) Get everyone in the team to sign and acknowledge, then email everything to CJD.
b) Get a supervisor. (If you know any professor to supervise your team, this is when you start reaching out, get his/her approval, and let CJD know). But honestly not a very big deal if you don’t know any prof, as CJD will allocate one to you accordingly. BUT the bad thing about allocating is that my group only got our supervisor in Week 3….. so we only started our project in Week 4 :’D. (and oh thats not even the worst part of my project experience LOL read on to find out more).
c) After you get a supervisor, then you can arrange for a first-meeting with the company. This first meeting is to set expectations, for the company to provide a debrief on the project, and for you and your team to ask any questions. Like I mentioned earlier, as our team only got allocated a professor in Week 3, we couldn’t really reach out to the company (without the prof) so everything was delayed. I vividly remembered only meeting the company and the professor TOGETHER, for the first-meeting, in Week 4 :’D That was stressful.
But in the interval between getting a project, and having our first meeting with the company, here are some things that you and your team CAN do.
a) RESEARCH (secondary) for the project. Find out more about your company, what your project topic is about, questions to ask the company, ANYTHING. (P.s., my group really skipped this part, because there wasn’t a lot of information on the internet about our company and our topic were rather niched and specific to the company (so there was no information on the internet… cries)
b) Read all the documents that CJD send. I remember receiving some tips on the project, some documents on Issue Tree, Work Proposal Sample. It’s good if you and your team can attempt to fill up the Work Proposal Sample before your first meeting. Some components, such as the project budget, and timeline can be left blank, bc these are things that you need to discuss with your company. BTW, you don’t really need to submit the work proposal sample, but just to make sure everyone is on the same page, and also to avoid a potentially awkward first meeting, you can use this work proposal sample to kick start the discussion.
I remembered the entire team and I were so nervous during our first meeting with the company. It was on zoom, but we managed to get Prof to join the call too, so when all of us were very quiet (cuz got nothing to say mah), Prof ended up helping us to ask questions LOOOL. But I think most importantly, you and your team really need to set expectations for what your project is going to be about, timeline (if you intend to set up regular meetings with the company – ours is otot), budget (if any – we had no budget… ).
For us, we were really lucky that the company was a chill one, so it was quite “on-demand”, if we wanted to arrange a meeting with the in-charge, we just have to send him an email, so there wasn’t a fixed meeting timeline. We were also really lucky bc our supervisor was really supportive, and was very chill, in fact, haha we only consulted him once in the entire project ooof. I think this really depends on your own project and supervisor, the experience varies :D. But this goes to show how FSP4003 is really an independent project, you and your team really need to set expectations within the team so that nobody falls behind n you can smoothly complete the project (on time!!!)
4. Recess Week
This is really subjective, and depends on your team progress. But typically, Week 6/ Recess Week is when everyone starts focusing on the PRIMARY RESEARCH. If you are a BBA student, you will notice an influx of emails from CJD, who helps students send out FSP surveys.
I wish I could provide some advice on how this works, but due to the nature of our project, our target audience were not really students, but specific to the company employees. Therefore, we had to send our primary survey to the company in-charge, who helped us disseminate the survey to the company employees.
For my group, we realized that having a primary online survey was not very helpful and couldn’t really provide a lot of analysis to our project. Therefore, we arranged for Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with the company employees. (cuz why not). Also, this was when I CAUGHT COVID OPPS so we had to hold the FGDs online. (which in hindsight, was such a terrible idea, bc the zoom audio really sucked, and we couldn’t really hear what the participants were saying) Anyway, this was like our first time holding FGDs, and honestly, now that I reflect about it, we did a really good job preparing the questions, but we probably sucked at being the FGDs moderators (so there were a lot of awkward silence HAHAHAHAH). But oh well, I hope we do get extra points for all the effort.
5. Weeks leading up to Presentation Day
After all the primary research, we ceased meetings with the company, and instead, held lots and lots of internal meeting where the team allocate work to do, and meet up to discuss and track progress. What we did was that we choped a specific day of the week, and made sure that we met up every single week, so that we can go through all components together and discuss ideas. Thinking back now, I think we were all relatively productive??? We finished the entire report (without vetting) by Week 12, and already started on the slides on Week 13.
P.S. did you know that the final submission date stated by CJD is not really final? My group and I were so fixated on the 14th November dateline and literally chiong our project, only to realize that the final project submission (incld your ppt, report, reflection journal, peer eval) date was up to our professor. So make sure that you email your supervisor and find out when he/she wants your entire project to be done! I shall not forget getting ghosted by CJD when I tried to check with him lol.. sad..
P.S. did you also know that the recommended pages for the report is also up to your supervisor? it’s ok to not stick with the suggested 30 pages, in fact, my group really exceeded this page limit cuz we had so many things to write. I think we ended up with around 140+ pages (ok la, most of it was appendix, but I think our content took up around 32-34 pages!)
P.S. When you are done with the report, pls send an e-copy to CJD.
P.S. Its not really over til its over, don’t forget to write your reflection journal (5-10 pages) too. This reflection journey just details your fsp journey, and is a literal journal where you reflect what went right and what went wrong, and for the latter, you can throw in suggestions of how it could have been improved. For myself, I made sure that I tracked down the team progress, so that i won’t miss out the details, and made sure to update my journal every week. Honestly, I wrote like 8 pages of fluff, and I felt like I was in primary school again when i was writing my 笔记本 loool . But if yall need ideas on what to write i basically sectioned my journal into
a) Introduction
b) Key takeaways
c) Working as a team
d) Working with Company [name]
e) Conclusion
And throughout I just outlined all the struggles that I (+ my team) faced
P.S. This is a formal presentation (+ to a legit company), pls don’t use slidesgo like we typically do for other mods LOL. Please go look at CBS Case library on how to design ppt:
I think I was quite particular about the slides design for my group, and couldn’t stand the (oops) ugly slides, so I ended up redoing all the slides design by referring to above 😀
6. D-Day
Please try to arrange for a presentation at least 1-2 weeks in advance!! For my team, we had to find a day where our supervising prof and the company ppl can make it. D-Day was less(?) scary that I thought it will be, cuz initially, we were told that the company CEO, CFO, and all relevant employees will be joining the zoom call, so we were all petrified…… However, on D-Day, we were told during the zoom call that the CEO and CFO weren’t able to make it (phew — opps, I meant oh no!). And yes, my presentation was held online over zoom, because we weren’t able to head down to the physical office on the presentation day.
Our presentation lasted over ~50 mins ( and omg, I had like 15mins worth of non-stop script, istg my lungs almost failed on me halfway through) and we had like over ~50 pages of slides excluding appendix and references. Q&A was supposedly after the presentation, and I think my group was just lucky because on the company side, they were quite satisfied with our project ideas, and only had one question to raise, which was coincidentally my part… so i had to answer :D. Our supervising professor did not raise any questions during the Q&A too so yayy
Conclusion
It probably sounds like my FSP journey has been quite smooth sailing, but it wasn’t. Is this where I start… ranting??? I think that were many instances where my team and I had been very frustrated, because there were many changes in the project scope and direction. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, our team had to change our project scope in the middle of the semester, so we essentially had to chiong the entire fsp components in like 7 weeks… Even though this was quite inevitable, and was beyond our control, it still felt super confusing and frustrating (and annoying :’D) as the dateline draws near, and the company just added more and more criteria to the project loool. I think it was because of this that some of us ended up being so unmotivated near week 8/9, and we just wanna yeet this project away :’D.
But nevertheless, FSP was truly a memorable (!you can interpret it however u want it to) experience and 8MC is a true representation of its workload cuz my team and I really spent many hours a week meeting, discussing and writing. The happiest day of the semester was really when we concluded our fsp presentation, and my team just went out for dinner huzzah!!!
Whoever is reading this right now, all the best for your fsp journey jiayou manz!
Others
Lecturer: NIL, have your own NUS supervisor.
Readings: Depends on your own project topic, and how heavily you want to rely on secondary research and literature reviews.
Content: Depends on your own project scope and discussion with the company.
Recommend?: if you are reading this, you don’t have a choice (unless u wanna do dissertation) 🤡 hi biz honours kids. (edit: 20 dec, btw got an A+ for FSP HUAT AH)
Hey everyone, I’m finally back with another semester review! Time really flies, I felt like I’ve just written a blog for the last semester and here I am ending off with yet another end-semester blog :’)
Once again, before I start off with my module reviews, do take note that I have removed the contact form for this blog. If you wish to reach out to me, you can reply to the blogpost directly and I will try my very best to reply to your comment. Additionally, I am no longer entertaining BOX folder/ notes request. It is just too time consuming for me to find all my notes, more so for modules that I have taken 2/3 years ago. Additionally, I will not be sharing lecture notes prepared by the module coordinator, as I’ll like to respect PDPA matters. Therefore, I will ignore any of the above requests. Instead, I advice you to source your own notes or purchase them from others instead.
*Disclaimer that this module review page is my personal reflection of the module that I have taken in the past semester. Therefore, do take this blogpost with a pinch of salt, as the information recorded here may not apply for the future semesters. After all, the syllabus/ teaching style may differevery semester, and may depend on who your individual profs are. Additionally, I apologise if I offend anyone in this post. Please be assured that I have no malicious intent, and I am sincerely offering my personal reflections about these modules, such that future batches can have a deeper understanding about the respective modules. Thank you!*
*Additionally, this post is still unedited at the time of posting, I apologise for any errors!*
These are the modules I have taken in AY 2020/2021 Year 3 Semester 1:
(in no particular order)
EC2104 Quantitative Methods for Economic Analysis
EC3303 Econometrics I
EC3342 International Trade I
MKT3711 Services Marketing
MKT3701B Marketing Strategy: Analysis and Practice
Initially, I wanted to overload this semester with an DOS module, as I have thoughts of double specialising in Supply Chain operations as well. Thankfully I didn’t, else I would have suffered from the workload (3K modules are really on a whole different level from 2K modules….) Nevertheless, let’s begin with the module reviews~
EC2104 Quantitative Methods for Economic Analysis
This was the only 2K S/U-able Economics module I took this semester. (Yet, I spent the most time studying for EC2104 🤡🤡🤡) For a 2K module, the workload of EC2104 seems to replicate a typical 3K Econs module, and I was constantly overwhelmed by its content every week. True to its title, EC2104 is quite a maths-heavy module, with the typical differentiation, integration topics carried over from JC days. It doesn’t help that this module gets progressively harder and more foreign in the second half of the semester, with mind-boggling topics, such as matrices, multi-variable optimisation, Kuhn Tucker etc. Every week, EC2104 content covers around 1 to 2 chapters of the textbook, so you can perhaps imagine learning ~10 chapters of content squeezed into 6 weeks 🤡🤡. ( Though, I have never read a single page of the textbook opps, the lecture notes should suffice.) However, it does help that the first few chapters were merely recapping the concepts that you have learnt in JC, so you will not be learning entirely new concepts (at least not until the second half of the semester).
EC2104 is a completely online module, with both lectures and tutorials conducted over zoom. I was disciplined to attend most of the lectures at the stipulated lecture time slot, instead of watching the recorded lectures. Tutorials were conducted by the TA.
Heres the breakdown of EC2104 assessment criteria:
Tutorial Participation (10%)
Just like any other Economics module, there is a fixed 10% component allocated to tutorial participation. 5% for attending all tutorial classes, and another 5% for class participation. We were only expected to participate 4 times in our tutorial classes. In my case, since tutorials were conducted by the TA, we had a fair class participation system where we could ‘chope’ our question, so that we can present the questions during tutorial. One can easily clear the class participation component, as students are not allowed to participate more than 4 times to give chance to others who have yet to participated.
This is the easiest component to score, I’m pretty sure everyone scored full marks for this component. Class participation is also quite typical, as long as you have read the lecture notes and attempt the tutorial questions, you are able to get full marks as well. Please don’t be afraid of class participation, it doesn’t matter if your answers are right or wrong, as long as you have showed effort, you are awarded the point accordingly!
2. Online Quiz (10%)
Random quizzes are given out during the semester. There were a total 5 quizzes given on random weeks throughout the semester, and we were given 2-3 days to complete the quiz. Only the top 4 quizzes with your best score will be recorded. This is done on the LumiNUS quiz, and usually tests students on the lecture content (similar to your tutorial questions but in MCQ format)
I scored full marks for all the quizzes. I think it really helps that there is no time limit for the quizzes, as I found myself spending 1 to 2 hours on a 7-marks quiz (opps). Additionally, I’m pretty sure that some students actually discussed the questions together, so I believe that most people should score perfect marks for this component as well.
On the other hand, you now know why the bellcurve for EC2104 is so steep 🤡🤡🤡
3. Mid Terms (30%)
EC2104 Mid terms was conducted on Examplify, via Zoom proctoring. If you have read my previous semester reviews, I had so much trouble with Examplify crashing during my exams, but thankfully everything went well. (🤡 Honestly such a clownery because other students were worried about failing the midterms but I was more concerned about my laptop failing me…)
Mid terms was a 25 marks MCQ, with no backward navigation. There were a series of true/false questions, but majority of the questions involve mathematical calculations, similar to questions given during tutorials. Miraculously, I was able to solve all the 25 questions on time, and somehow attained full marks for the midterms. (… my first… full marks…. for an exam at NUS) The midterm percentile was quite high though, with around 21/25 being the median. To be honest, this is not really surprising, as I felt that this semesters’ midterm paper was easier than the previous semesters. I have done around ~8 mid term practice papers found in the BOX folder, and found them to be significantly harder. Nevertheless, I’m still quite thankful that I did well, and my marks actually encouraged me to work even harder for the second half of the module.
Once again, you now know why the bellcurve for EC2104 is so steep…..
4. Mini Project (10%)
Mini project topic was only released in the second last week of the semester, at Week 12. As a group, we were tasked to come up with a project involving unconstrained/ constrained optimisation problems, and showcase how we solve them + limitations. We were given the freedom to decide how we want to set our question, and the type of questions we want to present during tutorials.
Groups were assigned randomly, and we were able to churn out our topic in just one meeting. The marks for the mini project was not released, but I think everyone should also score decently for this component, as it is (really) just a simple project.
5. Final Project (40%)
Finals was conduct physically. With the trauma of Examplify, I really appreciated having physical exams, even more so, a pen-and-paper exam. However, I have to admit I was concerned about finding the venue, as it was at some random classroom in FASS, and as a BIZ student, the only time I stepped into FASS was to eat at the Deck 🤡. Despite it being an early morning 9am exam, I reached the venue at 7.50am (specially just to find the venue, but found it easily because its just beside the Deck…. once again, being a clown 🤡) Nevertheless, I was able to spend the excess time recapping EC2104. (I didn’t study much for EC2104 the previous day, as I literally had EC3303 exam the previous day, which ended at 6pm….. btw am I the only one who gets super drained after one exam???? I literally went to sleep after dinner and woke up for EC2104 Finals 🥴)
Finals were open ended questions, and not in the same MCQ format as Midterms. Because there was a lack of time, all I did for Finals were read my lecture notes and tutorial questions, as I simply had no time to do the practise papers. Regardless, I am still quite confident for finals because the paper was really very manageable. I felt like I lucked out taking EC2104 this semester because the exam papers were easier than previous semesters. I swear, it’s not just me, I saw some dude left the 2-hour paperjust 1 hour into the exam. I would have done it too, but I ended up spending the extra time checking my paper…
If you are taking EC2104, I believe that you need to spend more time to work on this module, because the content is really quite heavy. As described in the earlier paragraphs, EC2104 can be quite intimidating, especially for those who are weak in mathematical derivations. I think it really helped that I took EC2101, EC2102, EC2104 earlier, because some of the concepts, such as Lagrangian were already familiar to me.
However, I’ll just like to give a warning for those second majoring in Economics, to not take EC2104 in Year 3, like me. I realized too late that some 3K Economics module require EC2104 as a pre-requisite. (totally my fault) As a result, I had fewer selections of 3K Economics module I could take. I recommend taking EC2104 in your Year 1 and 2. It worked out in the end for me, because I could instead bring forward my study plan and take biz modules.
Funny enough, I feel more like an economics student than a business student this semester, but hey thats a story for another day.🧐 If you are taking EC2104, please do your best for this module, I really think its potentially a module you can score well in with enough practise, and some students enrolled in EC2104 with the intention to SU (and thereby not work as hard). With enough dedication, you can score well with EC2104!
2. EC3303 Econometrics I
I was so afraid of this module. Not exactly the best impression was made during EC2303 Foundations of Econometrics. I did so terribly for EC2303, that I had in fact, SU-ed that module away. In fact, I was so sure that I will do terribly for EC3303 as well. This turned out true, but for an entirely different reason.
To start off, the focus in EC3303 was quite different from EC2303. In EC2303, we learnt more about the cdf, pdf, Chebyshev etc, but in EC3303, we were more focused on regressions (linear, non-linear, LSA etc). This module introduced me to STATA, a software that we use for data analysis. (However, not to worry, STATA codes are not really tested, I will elaborated further in the assessment criteria)
EC3303 was taught by Prof Seah, who was the most impressionable economics professor, out of all the econs module I’ve taken thus far. Despite it being a completely online module, his (recorded) lectures are quite engaging, and he uses lots of examples to get the concepts across. I believe he had recorded his physical econometrics lectures (before covid), and showed us small clips of the interactions he had with the earlier econometric batches. (Makes me quite envious of the previous batches, I wished I was able to attend his physical lectures) Quite a humorous prof as well, and I appreciated how he was able to explain the concepts in a super simple and easy-to-understand manner.
Let me dive right into the assessment criteria:
Homework 1 (15%)
One word: TERRIBLE. Homework 1 was released in Week 7, where I was busy with mid-terms for my economics modules and project submission. But to be fair, we had 4 days to do this homework, and we did not have to submit this immediately. There was also no time limit, so we could come in to do the homework when we are free.
I’m pretty sure everyone colluded for this Homework. Yes, even though he did not explicitly say that we cannot discuss the homework with our peers, I have to say its really unfair for those who did did the homework by themselves ( me 😡) I thought I scored decently, not full marks, but it really sucks to see the median at like 19-20 points and see myself falling at like 5% percentile just because i got a few questions wrong zzzzzz. It felt really unfair and I really hope that in the future, homework can be perhaps timed/ done in a manner that prevents students from discussing. This was super demoralising.
Ok, but to be fair, I could have done better by myself if I studied harder for the homework, but I think I am just generally bad at Econometrics and STATA. I remembered like around 10 questions on STATA, but I had a hard time deciphering the numbers and I don’t think I completely understood the topic on binary variables well. However, this was the rude awakening I needed for EC3303, and I swear I put in 200% effort for the E-Mid Term test that was conducted the following week.
2. E-Mid Term Test (20%)
Mid terms was conducted on LumiNUS quiz, and we did not have to use STATA to generate the regression as they were kindly provided in the question paper. There were 25 MCQ questions.
First off, I disliked having exams on LumiNUS. I’ve spent so much time scrolling up and down the page, and it didn’t help that there were ~10 questions in one section, and the regression table was at the top of the page. I felt really dizzy scrolling up and down the page to solve all the questions.
Secondly, the tutorial questions were not an accurate representation of mid terms at all. I will elaborate more later.
Despite my numerous complains, I did well for Mid terms, scoring above the median. I think I was just super traumatised by my Homework 1 percentile that I really mugged through the EC3303 materials. Sadly, there were a lack of practise papers, so I think I redid the Homework 1 like ~5 times 🤡.
3. Homework 2 (15%)
YET ANOTHER TERRIBLE COMPONENT. Once again, I’m like 1000000% sure that majority discussed the paper (how can?!) Now I’m getting a bit FOMO, not having anyone to discuss the Homework with 😦
Similar to Homework 1, involved regression analysis, and simple use of STATA. Once again, I put in 200% of my best effort into Homework 2, since we were able to open Homework 2 with unlimited attempts with no time limit, I think I opened the paper ~20 times NO JOKE. Funny enough, I was already struggling with the first question, and I opened the paper so many times because I kept staring at the first question on non-linear regression with completely no idea how to solve it. Can you believe that the regression equation was so long, it took 3 lines on my foolscap paper????? Every single time I keyed the values into my calculators, I kept getting different values🤡 It’s so tragic having to rekey everything into the calculator so many times 🤡 But alls good, because I managed to solve them when I submitted the paper. However, inevitably, his paper is really tricky, and I sadly lost 2 marks.
And you may wonder, hey 18/20 is really good too! Indeed, I felt that I did well, until I saw the median at around 19-20 marks. This was really traumatising, imagine getting a nice score but still sitting at like 10% percentile…. I was so disappointed.😡
4. Tutorial participation (10%)
The slackest tutorials for all my econs module. Really. I did not speak once during tutorial. Tutorial was just the TA going through the questions. Tutorials were held biweekly, but it seems really passive, I felt like there was no meaning to attend the tutorials, other than to get the participation marks. The TA showed us the participation marks on the last class, and everyone had full marks.
During the tutorial sessions, the TA went through the tutorial questions. The tutorial questions were like a super watered down version of homework/ exam. I really think that prof should at least make the tutorial as difficult as the assignments, so we can be more prepared for the graded components. Difficulty of tutorial questions was like a 1/10, but homework/midterm was at least a 9/10 (and far more tricky as well). The contrast in questions were alarming.
The TA went through the STATA commands as well. Though, I felt like I learnt the STATA commands better on my own rather than hearing the TA list out the command during tutorial….
However, to be fair, I don’t know why I decided that having morning tutorial class was a good idea. I think I was dozing off from the passive lesson + usual tiredness from staying up past midnight to prepare for my biz sectionals and CCA the next day.. 🤡 I think I preferred EC2104’s style of Class participation, where students present their workings in class. At least this makes sure that students actually do their tutorial work, rather than attend class with zero effort.
5. E-Finals (40%)
Once again, an online LumiNUS finals. 1 hour, 20 hybrid MCQ + Short answer question.
I really dislike having exams on LumiNUS. I felt really dizzy scrolling up and down the LumiNUS page. I have astigmatism, and I swear I had blurred vision from staring at the decimal points in the STATA picture.
Doesn’t help that the regression equation was as long as the one in Homework 2 (or even longer). By the time I keyed the regression in the calculator I have already lost so much time. It also doesn’t help that my answers are not part of the options, and I often have to rekey the equation at least twice before arriving at the ‘correct’ (at least, I hope its correct) option. Imagine having to use that same regression for the subsequent questions…. Theoretically, 3 minutes per question should sound quite manageable, but it wasn’t for me, and I believe others struggled as well (lol, saw that post on Reddit where someone complained about the long regression equation, like ikr)
There wasn’t backward navigation as well, so it wasn’t like I could skip the questions I didn’t know and move on. When I reached the short answer questions, I was already dying off, and just wanted to get the paper over and done with. The short answer questions were really tough????? Like we had to choose the correct option and had the correct explanation else we won’t get the mark. Please, I don’t even know the correct option how can I even explain the option that I chose…😭
In conclusion, it was a terrible finals paper 🤡. Really such a pity, since I spent so much time studying for EC3303 (that I ditched EC2104). I really hope that the bellcurve will work in my favour….
Btw…. I was so drained after the EC3303 paper that I just ate dinner and slept all the way until my EC2104 exam the next morning. 😮💨
To sum up, I understood the content in EC3303 far better than in EC2303. Yet, I still suffered in this module for another entirely different reason, thanks to Homework 1 and 2. I still get super annoyed when I think about the hard work I’ve put in solo-ing through the homework, but getting such a low percentile because others were discussing the homework.
Nevertheless, I’m just glad the module is over, while I disliked the assignment components, I still enjoyed Prof’s lectures, and hope I can learn under him again (though idts, because econometrics just scares me)
3. EC3342 International Trade I
I had no choice but to take this module this semester as EC2104 was a prerequisite for most EC 3K modules, and this was the only EC3K module that did not have the requirement. Honestly, I don’t think that I would have considered this module at all ( I tend to shy away from macroeconomics modules), if I wasn’t out of option. Why is this module so underrated? It had the smallest module size ever, at around ~50 students. But ok, now that I reflect about it, I guess its bc the content is suppeeerrr dry and the lecturer is quite monotonous rip.
I actually enjoyed this module. I attended ALL lectures, seriously took down notes during lecture time, and even pre-read all lecture content before attending Prof Liu Chen’s class. Tutorials were conducted by a student TA. Given that we were a small module size, many chose to attend the morning tutorial slots, but since I had EC2104 lectures, I had no choice but to attend the afternoon session (with lesser students).
While I enjoyed the module, do note that the content can be quite tough! As its name suggest, this module talks all about international trade, from the typical neoclassical trade (Ricardian, Specific Factor, Heckscher-Ohlin) to new trade theories (Krugman, Melitz) There were quite a lot of mathematical derivation, but its mainly using the same formula over and over again, so its actually quite manageable once you understand it!
Let’s jump right into the assessment criteria.
Homework (10%)
There were 2 homework, one given in Week 5 and in Week 12. Its similar to the tutorial questions, and there are no MCQs.
The prof encouraged us to discuss the homework questions with our peers, but we were supposed to submit our individual script. Nevertheless, I didn’t know anyone taking EC3342 (sad…..) but managed to score perfect scores for both components by myself.
Both homework were quite manageable, and once again, as long as you understand the tutorial questions, you will be able to do the Homework questions as well. I wouldn’t say that the Homework questions were very difficult? But there were some questions which were quite tricky. However, its only 5% each, so even if you get some questions wrong, it wouldn’t really impact your grades much.
But I think since everyone was able to discuss, I can more or less guess that everyone got close to perfect score for this component 🤐
2. Attendance and participation (20%)
My tutorial class was conducted by the TA. As reiterated earlier, I was in a small class with only around ~10 students. This means that I participated a lot during tutorials, and there were also many opportunities for students to speak up. An easy component to score, so not much has to be written for this component. We just had to do our tutorial questions to prepare for class participation.
3. Group presentation (10%)
The prof uploaded many articles at the start of the semester, and we were allowed to present a short topic individually, or as a group. There was a name-list where we could sign up for presentation, and I was so thankful that I managed to be grouped instead of having to do it individually. It certainly decreases the workload, especially since this was during a hectic week, where I was already overwhelmed with assignments and presentations for other modules. It also helps that my group worked well together, with the delegation of roles and also in polishing up our slides.
Quite simple component, we just had to prepare 8 slides to summarise the article and find a short conclusion. During presentation, we were also subjected to a short 5 minutes Q&A, mainly for the TA to clarify about things within the slides but its manageable if you know the article well.
4. Mid terms (25%)
This added on to another reason why I hated zoom proctoring. This was an e-midterm, where questions were uploaded on LumiNUS and we had to write out answers in pen and paper and scan our workings at the end of the exam.
I’m not sure why, but my iPad was muted (Thinking back now, I suspect it might have been connected to my Airpod), so I couldn’t hear instructions over zoom. In fact, 5 minutes into the supposedly start time, I was wondering why Prof haven’t released the instructions, only to realise that everyone has started doing the paper, and I didn’t catch the instructions because there was no audio) I panic messaged the Prof, to be told that the questions were uploaded in one of the files in LumiNUS, and belatedly started the paper. Doesn’t help that he expects us to use part of our exam time to SCAN and upload the paper, so I pretty much had 15 minutes less time to do the paper.
I really zoooooomed through the questions. It helped that I studied quite hard for EC3342, so the answer just came to me when I looked at the questions. I felt like I completed the Short-Answer Questions portion at record speed and moved on super quickly to Section 2 about HO model. With just 5 minutes to spare, I whipped out my phone to scan my workings and uploaded it into LumiNUS. I didn’t even bother checking my workings because I was so afraid the LumiNUS folder would be closed.
I actually scored super well for mid terms LOL. I think I was in the 90th+ percentile (based on my estimation, since he did not release the actual percentile but merely the median, average and highest score) despite the numerous hiccups during the actual exam.
5. Finals (35%)
Yet another zoom proctoring e-exam. I have learnt my lesson this time, and used my old laptop for zoom proctoring instead. THANKFULLY, had no issues with the zoom audio wise, though the laptop fan was disturbing loud and distracting LOL.
Similar format to midterms, where we were expected to upload our workings on LumiNUS. However, Prof has taken our feedback seriously, and understood the stress we felt from having to upload our workings on time, so he fairly gave us the 1hr 30 minutes to do our finals paper, and upload it at the end, along with some buffer time if we faced any error uploading the paper (thanks prof!!)
Funny enough, prof mentioned that we would find the finals paper easier than the mid terms paper, which, I would respectfully disagree. I struggled with the Melitz questions, and was appalled at Section 3, where the entire question was algebraic derivation. In particular, there was one portion which was worth 9 marks, which clearly, I did not know how to do. Doesn’t matter that it was open book, because the lecture notes did not help at all, but only for the initial short answer questions.
In conclusion, I’m not sure why this module is underrated, but I enjoyed EC3342, and the insights it has brought me about international trade. I am not a macroeconomics person, but I sincerely enjoyed learning about the different trade models. However, do be wary about the mathematical and algebraic derivations you have to do in this module, because it can get quite overwhelming at times. However, with enough practise, I believe that the working will come you naturally. Take this module if you are looking for an EC3K module to clear your major requirements ! 🙂
4. MKT3711 Services Marketing
This was a 3-hours sectional class, and a 3K module that I bided for to clear my specialization requirements. MKT3711, as its name suggests, is a module that mainly surrounds the topic of services marketing. This felt like an add-on to the MKT1705 Module I took in Year 1, but with more emphasis on the services industries. You can expect a variety of topics, ranging from managing service people, service relationships and loyalty, service quality, loyalty etc etc)
Due to the pandemic crisis, lessons were conducted in a hybrid format, where half the class are able to attend zoom lessons, while the other half attend the live classes. Quite a fair arrangement, though sometimes I felt like I was listening to a lecture instead of being in a sectional class (more so when I had to attend lessons on zoom), as Prof’s attention was largely situated towards the students in class. Nevertheless, I think Prof Lilian still did a great job monitoring the zoom chat and answering queries on zoom given the constraints.
At the time of writing this post, I could no longer see the module description on LumiNUS 😦 Therefore, these are the assessment criteria that I remember, though I am not completely sure whether the percentage allocation is correct (sorry!):
Individual Assignment (50%)
This was an individual assignment that was released as early as Week 1. We were expected to write around ~2000 words regarding any service industry, and apply the concepts learnt in Weeks 1-6. Submission was due a week after Recess Week, so everyone had plenty of time to do the assignment. Likewise, I procrastinated until Recess Week before starting on my first draft.
This was quite a manageable portion, as we were given the freedom to choose any industries, as long as it was a service industry. (and that it was not the aviation/ medical service industry) Scarily enough, this has a 50% weightage, so it did took me several drafts before I submitted my paper.
2. Class Participation (20%)
I love the fair class participation system in MKT3711. Due to the hybrid situation, Prof Lilian gave us multiple options for class participation, either through zoom chat, in-class, or posts on padlet. While the posts on padlet were optional, I think many ended up writing a post on padlet to get some class participation marks. We could comment on others posts, asks questions, or even reflect about what we have learnt in class for that particular week.
I did feel like this was quite an interesting approach, and also makes learning in class more enjoyable, because I was personally less stressed out from in-class participation, since I could just do up an individual post at home. It was also generally easier to ask questions on padlet, as other students could chime in and add value to the discussions as well.
3. Group Project (30%)
This was a group project, and there were only 2 topics to choose from – aviation services or medical services. This was like any typical marketing report, we had to write a general overview of the industry, choose a company specific to the industry, conduct primary research ( surveys, interviews), and give our recommendations to the company.
I knew some people in the module, so we easily formed a group. As we lacked a member, someone joined our group in the last minute as well. I personally think our team worked well together with the distribution of roles and research, though the other student (that we did not know) was quite unresponsive and contributed little to the group project. Sadly, there was no peer evaluation for this module, else we would have feed-backed about it :(.
Nevertheless, many students ended up doing the medical services industry (or more specifically, about telemedicine) , though there were pleasantly a variety of different companies chosen for the project, from TCM services to physiotherapy.
After writing the report, we were expected to have a 20 minutes presentation and Q&A. Presentation was initially done in class, but thanks to NUS Well-Being Day🎉, it was later changed to a e-presentation. Prof Lilian then allowed us to come at specific time-slots on zoom, and we could leave after our presentation. I did feel like it was a pity, since creativity was valued for presentations, and my group prepared skits and outfits that we felt could have added more value if it was a live presentation. Nevertheless, having an e-presentation relieved our nerves and I was actually quite thankful since I was also swarmed with presentations that week and had many assignments due in Week 12/13.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed MKT3711, and it was the more chill marketing module that I have taken this semester. I think Prof Lilian did a great job with the class arrangement as well, given the restrictions and changes brought about by covid, and even more so since I believe this was her first time teaching at NUS as an adjunct professor.
5. MKT3701B Marketing Strategy: Analysis and Practice
Where should I begin? This has got to be the most stressful MKT NUS module I have taken in my five semesters at NUS. Apparently, MKT3701A and MKT3701B were taught by different profs. I had my class under Prof Kum, who had the smaller (but still comfy) class size.
Sectionals were conducted in the Lecture Theatre. To cater to students who were on zoom, we had to login into our zoom accounts during sectionals and unmute ourselves whenever we class participated.
These are the assessment criteria:
Class Participation (20%)
Like any typical sectional classes, a portion of our grade is dedicated to class participation. Somehow, class participation in this class seems a lot more intimidating, and I felt like I lost confidence in the later half of the semester due to my lack of marketing knowledge. Marketing is not as fluff as it may seem, and taking this module made me realize the urgent need for me to brush up my marketing concepts and to learn more about the relevant industries and their marketing strategies as well.
Though she did not reveal the class participation distribution curve, I was still a bit disappointed with how I fared, and will therefore be brushing up on marketing over winter. 💪🤡
2. Individual Assignment (20%)
I’m not sure why this was termed individual assignment, because it seemed more like two marketing quizzes that were given in the later half of the semester. In fact, I had no idea this component existed, until Prof randomly sent an email informing us of a surprise quiz in class and to brush up our MKT1705 (yes, the marketing module that biz students all took in Year 1) concepts. I had to dig out all my MKT1705 notes and prep for the quiz, only to end up being scammed as it ended up being a take home quiz instead LOL. Oh wells, since I studied for the quiz either-way, I ended up not referring much to my notes for the home quiz so that’s great.🤡
3. Individual Presentation (10%)
We were graded on our individual presentation performance. As we were in a group of 8, 4 of us presented the Group Case, while the other 4 presented the P&G case. I suppose we were graded on our individual performance based on the case we were responsible for.
4.P&G Case Presentation (20%)
Initially, we had an exam component for MKT3701B. However, near Week 3, Prof released an exciting announcement about a collaboration with P&G.
Near recess week, the P&G Case study was released, which revolves a case decision about their DYNAMO product line. The case study is rather long, therefore I’ll just give a brief summary: All groups were to make a decision on how to make DYNAMO the no 1 laundry detergent in the Singapore market, while expounding on our new formulas, along with our recommendations and marketing strategies.
I have participated in the P&G CEO Challenge for 2021, and this seemed like a similar concept. At Week 13, real judges from P&G actually came down to observe the presentations, though due to time constraints, only the top 2 groups were chosen to present. The rest of the groups were thereby graded on their video presentation instead.
Overall, this was a really interesting and unique experience. It felt like I was doing an actual case competition but in a classroom setting instead. I felt like I learnt the most from my peers, who all had very interesting ideas and marketing strategies, and it was truly humbling to see how a case study can generate so many brilliant suggestions.
5. Group Case Analysis (30%)
Each group were assigned different case studies to analyse. (Crescent Pure, Drink-works, Clearwater Seafoods, d.Light Designs, Brannigan Foods) I think these case studies are largely Harvard Case studies. We were expected to present our case study insights in class for the ones we were assigned. For case study that were not assigned to our group, we were still expected to read it, as Prof will call students to explain about the case study. Therefore, this pretty much means we have to analysis and read all case study either way, which really added to the workload…😢
Honestly, the case study were really intimidating. Additionally, there was the concern of time constraint was well, as the case study was only released 2 weeks before our presentation, and it was so difficult to schedule a meeting where all 8 members could meet and discuss together at a common time.
Each case study contained lots of case facts as well, that we even had to calculate the financials and budgets, aside from the usual case analysis. Honestly, this was as overwhelming as the P&G Case Challenge, and my group was generally lost throughout the group discussion. Nevertheless, we met up regularly during the two weeks to settle the discussion, and miraculously finished everything on time (after burning several midnight oils… )
Nevertheless, this was truly a unique and value-adding module. We were exposed to so many different case studies, and the P&G Case Study, though stressful, really trained my case analysis techniques.
With that, I hope everyone have a great winter ahead and wish you guys all the best for the upcoming modreg! See ya next semester👋
NUS MODULE REVIEWS 