BSP3701B is a compulsory core module for all business students. This was not pre-allocated, so you can try to bid for it after you have cleared all your BBA core level 1000 & 2000 modules.
I’ve actually heard horror stories of BSP3701B and how it was a CAP killer module and I can really truly relate to them.🥲 This module was truly an introvert’s nightmare and I stressed about having to class part (+ read the 10-20 pages of case study) one day before class (for the entire 13 weeks). This was also the only class that I took that had an overwhelming number of exchange students who were very very proactive in class.
Class Participation (30%)
Class participation is highly valued in BSP3701B, evident from the high weightage associated with participating actively in class.
If you are unaware, BSP3701B is a case-oriented class. This means that you will be assigned one case reading per class, and the sectionals will be dedicated towards case discussions and their associated readings. Every week, we are expected to download the case readings from Harvard Business Reviews Store (HBR), and we will be assigned study questions (typically around 3-6 qns) that we have to go over prior to going to class.
Here were some of the cases that we went through in BSP3701B:
Apple Inc in 2012
Walmart
Eli Lilly and Company: Drug Development Strategy
Toyota Motor Corporation: Launching Prius
Hebei Dawu Group
Bosch India’s Starter Motor and Generator Division
Mahindra and Mahindra
Linear Air: Creating the Air Taxi Industry
We were expected to read and prepare the day’s case, and also prepare the answers to the study questions. This involves applying the necessary frameworks established in the readings into the respective cases, wherever appropriate.
Perhaps to give you a brief idea of what happens in a typical BSP3701B Class:
Attendance taking (duh)
A short introduction on the framework of the week (~20 mins)
Jumping right into the case study questions (rest of the time)
I have also extracted what the prof have mentioned during the first day of BSP3701B class:
Most of our business classes so far has been somewhat of an individual learning experience; aka:
Your Prof assigns you things to learn
You repeat these concepts to your prof on your graded assignments/exams
Your grade depends on how accurately you repeat whatever your professor has relayed to you in class.
In BSP3701B classes, it will be a collective learning experience
There won’t be a ‘lecture’ on strategy, instead just a short introduction to the frameworks and concepts. You are responsible for your own readings and case preparation
Prof will facilitate the discussion
Prof will challenge and question your statements and analyses (good luck if you are trying to fluff your way out of the case discussions)
Expect pushback and challenges from the Prof and your classmates, so you have to be responsible for what you say.
As quoted “If you enter the arena of discussion, you consent to your analyses and statements being questioned and challenged by everyone else in the class”
Like I mentioned, this module was truly an introvert’s nightmare, and raising my hand in class has never felt more intimidating AHAHAA. I guess it was a bit more reassuring that I took this module with my friends, so we can encourage each other to class part but… oh well 🥲
Strategic Critique Paper (30%)
The strategic critique paper is a 6-8 paged double-spaced paper, where we were tasked to critique one strategy framework covered in class. We were expected to:
Critique one framework
Analyze its shortcomings and assumptions
Give a real-life company example to illustrate your theoretical critique
Give recommendations of how the framework can be improved on.
Here are some of the frameworks that can be worked on:
Classical frameworks of strategic management:
Porter’s 5 Forces Framework
Generic Strategy
Resource-Based View
“Meso-level” Strategic Problems
Agency Theory
Transactions-Cost Economics (TCE)
Frameworks for innovation driven markets and entrepreneurial firms
Products & ecosystems
Simple rules
While the strategy critique paper submission dateline was in Week 13, we were highly encouraged to submit the paper before Week 7, for a supposedly less stringent marking. While I was truly motivated to do the critique paper in Recess Week, I decided it was more worth it to prepare for my 3 mid-terms and thus only submitted the critique paper in Week 12. The grading for the critique paper was never released. P.S. Seems like Porter’s 5 Forces was a popular framework for most students.
Company Video Presentation (40%)
This was essentially the group project component. The group project involves putting ourselves in the shoes of management consultants to help real-world firms (SME or branch/subsidiary of a large company) analyse their current strategic challenges and propose solutions.
In a 10-12 minutes video, we had to include:
The strategic challenge using the frameworks covered in class.
Proposing solutions to the challenge using the frameworks.
If you are curious about what this company video presentation is about, you can easily go to Youtube and search for BSP3701 group project videos. Some of the groups actually uploaded their videos on Youtube as it will be played in class. (yes there wasn’t a live presentation, we were expected to film the video and play the video in class). This means that we were given the creativity and freedom to compose the video, whether its through a skit, drawing, vlog-style etc). We were not required to do up a report for this project.
In Week 10, the prof will arrange for consultation hours, so we could get feedback on our project ideas. While not compulsory, I highly encourage all groups to book a consultation slot. (thank gosh my group did, cuz the idea that we wanted to pursue was completely rejected, and we scrambled in that last 2-3 weeks to work on a new topic lol)
Part of this 40% component involves peer-evaluation as well. As we were given the freedom to form our own teammates, I highly encourage you to take this module with your friends or group up with people that you know + will do their work. As my group did not hit the group size limit, we took in 3 other students. One of them was an exchange student, who was strangely unmotivated + not involved in the entire project at all. Not one word was spoken by her during our zoom group discussions despite our teams effort to include everyone in the discussion, we even went into the extent of cold calling her in the zoom call for 5 consecutive times and was met with complete silence lol. 🥲
Thoughts:
If you are a business student, it is compulsory for you to take this module. (unless you choose to map it on your SEP, then good for you 🥲) If you do end up taking this module, I highly encourage you to take it with your friends so you can do the project together. Also, I thought I wouldn’t do too well for BSP3701B ( I didn’t really class part a lot relative to other students + i only submitted the critique paper in Week 12 = so no lenient grading + the group project was… disastrous), but I ended up with an A- yay😎
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👋
Hello!! I suppose that viewers who visit this post are likely to be freshies about to matriculate at NUS, hence allow me to first offer my warmest welcome: Welcome to NUS! Looking back on when I first matriculated, I remembered feeling confused about many things, in particular: bidding for modules. Therefore, I have decided to type up this post, hoping to offer a comprehensive view of how to bid for modules/tutorials at NUS and go through some important websites that NUS students should be well-versed in.
** Disclaimer: The following information is my way of bidding for modules, and may not be 100% accurate. Additionally, the MODREG system is constantly upgrading (this page was written in 2020 and thus follow the information back in 2020), thus some of the information may get outdated. Therefore, please exercise caution and always check the official website for more accurate information.
Let’s first introduce you to the various websites we use at NUS and its relevance to bidding:
LumiNUS: Basically a platform where you can access your module materials, lecture videos, forum posts. Additionally, I personally use LumiNUS to look at module descriptions when deciding on the module to bid for. Let me give you an example:
Firstly, login into LumiNUS with your account details. Once you managed to log in successfully, click on the “Module Search” tab and type in your respective module code. In this example, I would be using [EC2101].
Check for the respective term that you will be taking this module in and click on the correct module title. Subsequently, click on the module description and read all the information there. This is extremely important, as you can check out the module syllabus, as well as important dates for mid-terms and final exams. (Make sure the dates do not clash with any other modules!!)
2. NUSMODS:A platform where you can plan your timetable and schedule! Additionally, you can also check out the module description under the ‘Modules’ tab. Let me give you an example:
Let’s continue using EC2101 as an example.
After you checked out the module description of EC2101 on LumiNUS, you may still feel unsure about the module itself and may wish to look for more information and reviews. You can proceed to NUSMODS > [Modules], and type in [EC2101] in the search box
Click on the correct module code and you will see this page:
Scroll down further and you will see many useful information, such as the pre-requisites required for the module, the timetable listing all the available lecture and tutorial slots you can choose from, and even a portion where students can leave their reviews and discussions.
NUSMODs is a very convenient website for NUS students, because this is where we plan our timetable and ensure that there are no clashes when planning our modules. Make sure that you get yourself familiar with the interface because you will most likely be referring to this when bidding for your modules.
3. EDUREC: This is where you do your bidding and module registration (MODREG@EDUREC) . Usually, the school will mass send an email informing undergraduates of the MODREG period, so be sure to check your Outlook email often for details.
Now that we have gone through the following websites, we can now proceed into a step-by-step guide on how to bid for modules! Once again, these are steps I take for module bidding, and may not be representative for all NUS students. You can just take this as a miniguide and modify/skip the steps as you wish!
PART 1: Bidding for Modules
Step 1: Check your Outlook school email. You should have received an email notifying you of the MODREG exercise. READ THE EMAIL CAREFULLY, DO NOT MISS THE DATE OF REGISTRATION. (This was the email I received from the Registrar’s Communications informing me of the (new) Round 0 registration this year):
Step 2: Do your Academic Plan Declaration! As stated in your email, you have to do your academic plan declaration 24 hours before participating in the MODREG exercise. To do so:
Log into your EDUREC account and you should be directed to the Homepage.
Click [Academic]
Click [Acad Plan Appln/ Declaration]
Click [Declare Academic Plan] > [Undergraduate] and declare it accordingly.
How do I know what to declare?
In case you are unaware, the Academic Plan Declaration allows students to declare their majors, specializations, minors, 2nd major etc.
You can only do this once: This means that you are not allowed to change your declarations within the same semester once it has been declared.
You want to declare your specialization/2nd major so that you will be given priority for a particular module.
In my case, I was admitted into the Business Administration with 2nd major in Economics program. Therefore for the first 3 semesters, I registered under the BBA with 2nd Major [Econs]. I only declared my specialization in the 4th semester (Y2S2). However, I’m not too sure how this works for other faculties, and its also fine if you wish to select your specialization as early as the 1st semester.
BTW, if you decided to declare BBA Finance with a 2nd Major in Econs in your 1st semester, you can only wait until the next semester’s Acad Plan Declaration if you wish to change into another specialization: [BBA Marketing with a 2nd Major in Econs.] *On the assumption that you are not taking special term.
Else, you can also be kiasu and put double specializations: BBA Finance + BBA MKT + 2nd Major in Econs, if you wish.
Step 3: Now that you are done with your Acad Declaration, you can now chill before the start of the official round of MODREG! There used to be only 3 rounds [Round 1, Round 2, Round 3], but there appears to be a new [Round 0] for Year 2s, 3s and 4s, so if you are a freshie, you do not have to participate in Round 0. (Edit: Apparently If you are in Y1S2 you can bid in round 0?? Im not very sure about this but if yall fall under this batch u can see if modreg works during Round 0 bidding)
Step 4: A day before the start of Round 0 of MODREG, I like to check if I have any pre-allocated modules. If you are a BBA student, you are likely to get pre-allocated CORE modules in Year 1 and 2, and its crucial that you know which basket you belong to. To do so:
Login into EDUREC and you will be directed to the homepage.
Select the term that you want to see, usually found on the topmost tab.
You should see a list of pre-allocated modules that the school has assigned for you. (This was the case for me as a BBA student)
If you can’t see, try [Academics] > [Academic Records] > [View Classes].
If you still can’t see, try [Academics] > [Module Registration] > [View My Classes @MODREG]. *Though this might not be available before the start of MODREG.
If you still can’t see…. (which was the case for me this semester welp), perhaps it means that you don’t have any pre-allocated modules? (but don’t quote me on this lol, I’m not 100% certain)
Step 4: After checking your pre-allocated modules, time to put them into NUSMODS so that you have a rough gauge of what your timetable looks like.
Go to NUSMODS. Click [Timetable].
Type in the module code for your pre-allocated modules.
For example, lets take some of my Y1S1 pre-allocated modules as an example. Hmm.. Maybe ACC1701, MNO1706 and DAO1704?
Just type the module codes into the box
Notice that when you click the coloured boxes, you can actually choose the sectionals and timing that you are pre-allocated.
Don’t know which sectionals/lecture that you are pre-allocated? Check EDUREC [Academics] > [Academic Records] > [View Classes]
For instance, the default MNO1706A tab is assigned to SEC[A1] on Monday 8.30am. However, EDUREC tells me that I was pre-allocated MNO1706A at SEC[A2] on Tuesday 8.30am.
Just click on the MNO1706A coloured tab and choose the correct sectional accordingly!
When bidding for your modules, also make sure that there are no overlapping classes/ modules that are conducted on the same day same time.
For example: MNO1706A and ACC1701 appears to clash on Tuesday (see below)
But in the case of pre-allocated modules, the modules are very unlikely to clash.
Step 5: After checking all your pre-allocated modules, you can check how many MCs you need to hit the minimum 18MC workload. If you have yet to reach the 18MC workload, congratz, you will have to participate in the module registration.
For instance, let’s reuse the previous example:
I was pre-allocated 3 modules: [ACC1701] , [MNO1706], [DAO1704], which constitutes 4MC each.
Therefore, I only have 12 MC pre-allocated modules, and I have yet to hit the 18MC minimum workload.
As a result, I have to bid for at least 2 more 4MC modules.
Next, you may ask… What should I bid for then?
You can bid for modules that do not require any pre-requisites. (assuming that you are a freshie!) For instance, I chose to bid for BSP1702, which was one of my core business module and GET1023, to clear the GE pillars. (I realized that GET1023 is not offered this semester so let’s take it that I chose to take BSP1702 and GET1020 so I can illustrate in the picture below)
However, that was only for my batch. I understand that there’s new GE pillars for the new batch of freshies. There’s a difference between the old and new module prefixes, for example:
We used to read GET, GES, GEH, GER, GEQ
But the new GEM syllabus includes: GEC, GEX,GEA, GEI, GESS, GEN
I think this means that you can only bid for the modules with the new prefixes to clear your GEM pillars? I’m not too sure on this, so be sure to do your own research because this is an entirely new thing introduced to the AY 2021/2022 batch.
Before I bid for the 2 modules, I will go to NUSMODS and type these module codes into my timetable. Once again, you can click on the tab to choose the timing and slot you want.
Lets take it that this is the timetable that I wish to have for semester 1.
However, as a freshie, you may have the lowest priority during MODREG. This means that if there is an oversubscription for a module [Perhaps: GET1020], the balloting may not be in your favor.
Therefore, to be safe than sorry, always have some backup plans in mind. If you can’t take GET1020, what other modules can you take? This is when you start being kiasu and come up with many versions of your timetable. For instance:
Version 1:Taking GET1016 instead of GET1020.
Version 2: Taking ES2002 instead of GET1020
Version 3: Taking LAK1201instead of GET1020
Yep, you get the point, so try to play around with NUSMODS and all the modules. Take down all the modules that you are interested to bid in so you won’t panic during the actual MODREG period. Fr, you can bid for anything you want, from your CORE modules, to your GEM modules, to your UEs. Just make sure that there are no hidden pre-requisites especially if you are a freshie. This is the time for you to have fun and experiment since you have 8 S/Us available. While many people usually recommend freshies to overload and take more modules in their first year of school, I believe that freshies are only allowed to bid for maximum 23MC on their first semester, and would only be allowed to overload (>23MC) in their second semester. *Though I’m not sure if this applies to double degree students so please check on your own.
Step 6: After playing around with NUSMODS and choosing your slots, you can now proceed with the actual bidding! (P.s. The pictures below are taken from the MODREG student user guide, since the MODREG period is actually over at the time of writing this post, so I can’t screenshot from my own portal. All credits to the NUS MODREG student user guide!)
ROUND 1
Let’s assume that this is MODREG ROUND 1: (I’m assuming that readers are likely to be freshies, so i’m skipping ROUND 0.)
Go to EDUREC > [Academics] > [Module Registration] > [Select Modules]
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide.
Type in the number of MCs you would like to enroll in the round. I always put in the maximum MCs available. For instance, if I had 3 pre-allocated modules (4MC each), and 23 MC is the maximum MCs needed to meet the minimum workload, I would have 23MC – ( 4MC * 3) = 11 MC that can only be taken in Round 1. I’ll key in MC = 11.
Honestly, this step doesn’t matter because you can always change it to whatever MC you need depending on the modules you are planning to bid for.
For instance, you can also just put 4MC if you only plan to bid for a 4 MC module in Round 1.
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
Type in the modules that you wish to bid for. You only need to fill in the first box [Subject: BSP1702] and click search.
Make sure that you choose the correct sectional for the module.
You may want to bid for [GET1020] at this stage as well. BUT WAIT, this is only round 1!
If you are unaware, students are only allowed to bid for their core/ specialization/ major modules in ROUND 1.
If you try to bid for GET1020, it will not show in Round 1. You have to wait for Round 2 and 3 to bid for it.
But for the sake of this miniguide, let’s assume that you decide to bid for 2 core modules. You can rank these modules using the filtering tool:
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
Additionally, beside the rank section, you will notice another column indicating [Reserve Classes]
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
As mentioned earlier, if you were kiasu enough to come up with many versions of your timetable, you would have in mind some of the back-up modules that you would take if your first choice option is oversubscribed.
You can typically add up to 2 reserve classes.
For example, you can add ES2002 or any other modules you have in mind as back-ups. (except GEM modules, these are for round 2 and 3)
There’s no ‘Submit’ button after you chose your modules, so you can just leave the page after you are done with your selection. Typically, a Round lasts a range of 2-4 days? So you have this duration to change your rank, module codes, reserve classes as you wish.
Step 7: Congratz! You have done your first round of bidding! Now you wait for a few days for the release of the [Round 1] Selection results to see if you have gotten your module. You will likely be informed by a mass email sent from the Registrar’s office. The steps to check your modules are the same as above:
[Academics] > [Academic Records] > [View Modules]
If you can’t see, try [Academics] > [Academic Records] > [View Classes].
If you still can’t see, try [Academics] > [Module Registration] > [View My Classes @MODREG].
When you check your modules and confirmed that you have successfully been registered into the class, let’s say that you have gotten BSP1702. You can now proceed to update your timetable on NUSMODs.
Congratz, you have now completed ROUND 1 of MODREG.
Round 2
Let’s say after Round 1, you have gotten a total of 4 modules and keyed them into NUSMODS and chose the correct sectionals/lecture slots allocated to you.
ACC1701 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
MNO1706 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
DAO1704 (4MC)> Pre-allocated
BSP1702 (4MC) > Successful bid in Round 1
That’s a total of 16 MC, which has yet to hit the 18MC minimum required for the upcoming semester. As a result, you have to participate in Round 2 of MODREG and bid for at least 1 more module.
Round 2 is the same as Round 1, with the exception that you can now bid for a greater variety of modules, such as the GEMs. Previously, if you had wanted to bid for a GEM, [Perhaps: GET1020], MODREG will generate an error stating that the module code is not found. That is normal in Round 1, as most of you should only be able to start bidding for GEMs in Round 2 onwards.
Let’s continue with the example above and assume that you want to bid for a GEM module [Perhaps: GET1020] in Round 2. The steps are the same as above!
Go to EDUREC > [Academics] > [Module Registration] > [Select Modules]
You should see this page again. Follow the above steps and key in the number of MCs that you would like to enroll in Round 2.
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide.
Key in the module code for the module that you want to bid for. Perhaps [Subject: GET1020]
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
Add in your reserve classes. As iterated earlier, the reserve class function acts as a buffer, in case you do not get the main module that you bid for. Remember that you are only Year 1, you have the lowest priority and higher chance of not getting the modules you bid for, as you will be fighting with seniors with higher priority.
For instance, the main class that you bid for can be GET1020
You can add 2 reserve classes, for instance LAK1201 and GET1016
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
BTW, just a fun fact, if you are a Year 1 and looking to bid for GES1035/GESS1025 Singapore: Imagining the next 50 years, don’t even bother to try. (Edit: 2022, ok apparently its easier for the Year 1 to get this module now haisss lucky u… I’m on my fourth year and i still can’t get this module) This module is often oversubscribed (which is not surprising given that students want to take a pass/fail module) I think this module is often allocated to Year 3/4 students with higher priority.
I personally bidded for GES1035 for 3 consecutive semesters, but failed to get it. In the end, I gave up and took another GES module instead. (I highly recommend GES1041/ GESS1029)
Likewise, after keying in the module that you wish to bid for, take note that there is no ‘Submit’ button for you to confirm your selection, and you can just exit the page accordingly. You can edit your choices as you wish during the duration of the Round 2.
Congratz, you are now done with the second round of bidding! 😀
Round 3
Let’s say after Round 2, you have gotten a total of 5 modules and keyed them into NUSMODS and chose the correct sectionals/lecture slots allocated to you.
ACC1701 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
MNO1706 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
DAO1704 (4MC)> Pre-allocated
BSP1702 (4MC) > Successful bid in Round 1
GET1020 (4MC) > Successful bid in Round 2
Hey, you reached the minimum 18MC requirement for the semester, and have a total of 5 modules constituting of 4MC each = so you are doing 20MC for the upcoming semester. Well, since you are a freshie facing a maximum 23MC workload, it is not possible to bid for another 4MC module and ‘overload’. Some may try to contact the school to waive this requirement, but most are often unsuccessful, given that this is your first semester at university, and NUS may not want you to overload and eventually crash & burn. Therefore, you can only bid for a maximum of <= 3MC module, or simply stop bidding since you have reached the minimum workload eitherway. Once again, I’m not sure if this is the same for double degree students, so do contact your home faculty to ask them for more information.
If you only wish to take 20MC for the upcoming semester:
(which was the case I did in Semester 1 Y1S1),
You do not have to participate in Round 3 of MODREG, since you have already successfully gotten all the 5 modules that you want.
If you still wish to take more modules, albeit only <= 3MC modules
OR the case where you wish to drop 1 of the module pre-allocated to you, causing you to fall below the min 18MC workload requirement:
You have to participate in Round 3 of MODREG, following the same steps above. Proceed with the same steps of bidding, ranking, and keying in your reserve classes. Some of the <=3 MC modules you can take are:
PLS8001/ PLS8002/ PLS8003 / PLS8004/ PLS8005
CFG1002
There used to be ALS1010 and ALS1020, but I can’t seem to find them on NUSMODs now, perhaps they are not available for the upcoming semesters.
But tbh, if you are a BBA student, there’s no need for you to take CFG1002 since it is the equivalent of your STR1000 and STR2000 (which will be pre-allocated to you in Year 1 and Year 2 respectively.) I guess you can try to bid for the 8k modules? (can’t say much about them, since i have not personally taken them)
Congratz!! You are now done with Round 3 of MODREG, wait a few days for the results to come out, then subsequently update your timetable on NUSMODs as necessary! If you did not manage to get the modules you need (causing you to fall below the minimum workload required), you will have to send in an appeal on EDUREC. (However, I am not able to advice on this, because I’ve been lucky enough to get all my modules, and didn’t have the need to use this function ><)
Tutorial Select Round 1
From here on, I am going to now assume that you have met the minimum workload required for the semester. These are the examples that I am going to use:
ACC1701 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
MNO1706 (4MC) > Pre-allocated
DAO1704 (4MC)> Pre-allocated
BSP1702 (4MC) > Successful bid in Round 1
GET1020 (4MC) > Successful bid in Round 2
FYI, that’s a total of 20MC, and I have hit the minimum required 18MC workload. (Take note that even though the maximum workload is 23MC, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do exactly 23MC, you can do less than that, as long as you hit the minimum workload required for the semester.)
If you look at your NUSMODs timetable, you will be able to identify if the modules are conducted in the lecture/tutorial format, or sectionals. (I believe there are labs for some particular courses, but I am unable to advice on that as a BBA student, so please do your own research!) Let’s take a look at this timetable as an example, containing all the 5 modules that I have previously used as an example:
Take note of the prefixes under the module codes:
[SEC] > Sectionals, typically 3-hours long, but usually ends in 2.5 hours (subjective to the respective professors/lecturers)
[LEC] > Lecture, typically 2-hours long, but usually ends in 1.5 hours (subjective to the respective professors/lecturers)
[TUT] > Tutorial, there are 1-hour long tutorials that will be conducted every week (from week 3 onwards – week 13), but usually ends in 45 minutes. There are also tutorial slots that are conducted on a biweekly basis (Weeks 3/5/7/9/11/13 and Week 4/6/8/10/12), but they are typically 2 hours long and usually ends in 1.5 hours. If you are wondering why the odd weeks have more sessions that even weeks, there’s actually no difference, because the tutor will tend to cancel one tutorial session (usually in Week 7, which is the mid-term week). To check the duration of your tutorial slots (if any), you should always look at NUSMODs.
[LAB] > Laboratory sessions? Honestly I’m not too sure on this because all of my modules have been tutorial/lecture/ sectionals format. Please do your own research instead.
From the timetable above, you will be able to see that I have 3 sectionals [BSP1702, DAO1704, MNO1706), 1 lecture/tutorial [ACC1701] and 1 lecture/lecture [GET1020] format. I haven’t taken Darwin [GET1020] before, so I will just ignore this, since there’s no tutorial bidding required for GET1020 either way.
If you click on the small tutorial [ACC1701] block, you will see the different timings and slots available for bidding. Likewise, choose the slot that does not clash with any other sectionals/ lectures slot. It is your own responsibility to make sure that there are no clashes in your timetable, and to always be careful when bidding, because if you fail to get a tutorial slot, you may be forced to drop the module (and I believe that none of you want to go through the process of appealing, especially since the module bidding rounds have ended) Here is an example:
From above, there are many tutorial slots I can choose for ACC1701. I have crossed out the clashing slots to better illustrate this:
Additionally, please be smart on your planning. If I am the one planning this timetable, I wouldn’t want to bid my ACC1701 slot on a Thursday, where I have no other lectures/sectionals. Would you want to travel to school for a 45 minutes tutorial? (Well, not me for sure. But if you stay at hall/RC, you can do as you please) Therefore, the Thursday tutorial slots will likely rank LOW when bidding for my tutorials. This is also the same for Wednesday slots, because GET1020 appears to be an e-learning lecture, which means that the lectures are likely to be pre-recorded, and you wouldn’t have to go to school.
As you can see above, if I am the one bidding for my tutorial slots, I would likely rank the Monday and Friday slots as priority, while the Wednesday and Thursday slots will be the “back-up” slots in case I do not get my desired slots. For instance, this may be the order I decide:
Rank 1: ACC1701 [TUT V12]
Rank 2: ACC1701 [TUT V13]
Rank 3: ACC1701 [TUT V08]
Rank 4: ACC1701 [TUT V07]
Rank 5: ACC1701 [TUTV04]
…
I think you can only bid for a maximum of 20 tutorial slots per round. But personally, the maximum I ever went for was 17 tutorial slots (last semester, when I had to bid for tutorial slots for 4 different modules
After planning your tutorial slots on NUSMODS, you are ready to proceed with your tutorial bidding! I will be using the MODREG Student User Guide pictures as reference, since it is not the MODREG season and I don’t have access to it (until coming August)
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
Expand the ACC1701 tab, then check (tick) all your desired tutorials slots, following the order as I have given above as an example. When you press ‘Continue’ to proceed, it is likely that the order is not the way you want it to be so you have to rank the correct tutorial slots accordingly. Once again, I unfortunately do not have access to MODREG, and I can’t bid for ACC1701 tutorial slots since I have already taken this in ACC1701 in Y1S1. Therefore, please make do with the pictures below as an illustration, taken from the official student user guide by NUS MODREG. I highly encourage students to read their guide for a better illustration of module bidding.
Credits to the MODREG Student User Guide
After doing the above steps, I believe there is no ‘Submit’ button, and you can just leave the page accordingly. In the course of the Round 1 Tutorial/Lab Selection, you can login to EDUREC to edit your ranking accordingly.
Congratz, you are now done with Round 1 Select Tutorial rounds! Btw, I find it especially annoying that MODREG Select Tutorial Round 1 starts in Week 1, when school has officially started. Additionally, the rounds last way shorter than the module bidding rounds so I remembered having to stress about ranking my tutorial slots during my sectional classes. Thankfully, they managed to add in the (new) Round 0 module and tutorial bidding rounds for seniors, which allow us to finalize our timetable as early as June. Unfortunately, freshies only have access in Round 1 onwards, so you have to bid for your tutorials in Round 1 onwards, which begins officially in August (welp)
Tutorial Select Round 2
If you managed to get your desired tutorial slots in Round 1:
You can officially update your NUSMODs to get your finalized timetable. (Print it out, memorize it, Make sure you know how to go to all the venues, you can even set this as your lock screen wallpaper or smth haha) This means that you won’t have to participate in Round 2 of Select Tutorial Round and can ignore this segment completely.
If you are super suay and didn’t get any slots in Round 1:
Well, you have to participate in Round 2 of Select Tutorial Round, or send in an appeal. The steps are the same as above, so I won’t repeat the whole thing again.
I’ve actually heard of students who didn’t manage to get any tutorial slots in both Round 1 and 2, and sending an appeal didn’t work out successfully. As a result, some of them had to drop the module, and appeal for another module completely. If you do not want this to happen to you, especially when it’s your first time bidding, please plan your timetable properly.
Congratz, you are now officially done with your module and tutorial bidding!!!!
…
well, not really, you still have to do this every semester, until graduation. It may seem confusing at times, especially if this is your first time bidding for modules, but I can guarantee that it will get easier and you will eventually breeze through the steps, without even have to look at the MODREG user guide.
Using the example I used above, this would have been my finalized timetable, which I will be following for 13 weeks in the upcoming semester.
Other additional tips:
Back when there were no online classes (pre-covid periods), venues were ALL physical and all lectures are not pre-recorded. Like all students, the flexibility to plan timetables meant that we can squeeze most lessons in a day/ over a span of a few days. I was able to enjoy a 3 days school week for 2 consecutive semesters. I’ve heard of students managing to get a 2-days school week timetable. This may not seem important, but if you do not stay in hall and live far away from school, such arrangements can benefit you.
Always check the venues of your modules. Back when I was a noob freshie, I had to travel from BIZ2 > UTOWN > BIZ2 > UTOWN in one day, which ngl, was kind of tiring and time-consuming. BIZ2 and UTOWN are not exactly walking distance away, which meant that I have to take the bus to the correct venue. I DO NOT RECOMMEND this form of arrangement, so please take precaution when bidding for your modules and make sure that your lessons are at least walking distance away. ( I remembered having 15 minutes to rush from BIZ2>UTOWN, and I was always late for the next class, which thankfully was just a lecture)
Thank You for reading my miniguide and I hope this has been helpful in illustrating how to bid for your modules and tutorials at NUS. Once again, these information may not be 100% accurate, but these are the usual steps I take when bidding for my modules. For more accurate details, one should always look at the official NUS MODREG User Guide for reference, since they tend to be more updated.
P.S. (Edited: December 2022) Someone wrote in and asked whether he/she has to plan his/her timetable every week and the answer is that this timetable planning is for you to plan your modules for the entire semester (the entire 13 weeks for a normal sem). If you have gotten your modules, you just need to follow that schedule that you have planned for the 13 weeks.
WEEEEW HEY GUYS IM BACKKK!! Can’t believe that I survived yet another semi-zoom university and I’ll be going into Year 3 soon….. Time really flies huh :”)
Before I begin, let me first express my gratitude to all my fellow readers out there~ thanks for reading and supporting my posts!! When I started this blog back in May 2020 (out of sheer boredom haha), I wouldn’t have imagined my blog to reach out to so many people/students out there (kinda scary ngl). I am extremely grateful and happy that I could help you guys out with my reviews, and I hope that in one-way-or-another, these blogposts have helped with your module planning at NUS! Additionally, with more viewers and visitors, there has also been an influx of requests…. (for notes, access to BOX folders, past year papers, tutorial answers, personal notes, yada yada) These requests go straight into my personal inbox, which can get a tad bit overwhelming at time. (which was why I closed off the contact form on the blog) As mentioned in one of my earlier updates, I have decided to not entertain these requests anymore, since I do not feel that it is part of my obligation to collate and send my materials to you. From today onwards, I would like to keep voeznusbiz as a module review website. (please find your coursework materials on CAROUSELL/ seniors instead!) Therefore, please be understanding if I do not entertain to your notes requests or comments!
With that, let’s jump right into the module reviews!
Here are the modules I have taken for Y2S2 AY2020/2021: (fyi, these are not ranked according to my preference, it’s just whatever modules that came into mind while typing up this post :p )
STR2000 Career Creation Starter Clinic (0MC)
FIN2704 Finance(4MC)
MKT3702Consumer Behaviour (4MC)
EC2101 Microeconomics Analysis I(4MC)
EC2102 Macroeconomics Analysis II(4MC)
EC2303 Foundations for Econometrics(4MC)
I know what you are thinking… “Huh, why did you take Econs modules when you are a biz student????” or like “Huh omg why you take 3 Econs modules together??”
Not sure if you guys read my “About” page, but hi I’m currently double majoring in BBA and Economics! Technically, I should have taken EC2k coded modules since Y2S1, but back then I was still hesitant about my double major and had thoughts of dropping my Economics second major. Initially, my plan was to specialize in Finance, which complements nicely with Economics, which was why I accepted the double major offer at the time of admission. However, after coming into university, I found out that I didn’t particularly enjoy modules like Accounting (ACC1701) or even when taking Finance (FIN2704) this semester. Since I no longer intend to specialize in Finance, it got me to thinking whether I should continue pursuing a Economics second major, or drop it and bid for some UEs instead. Clearly, I had decided to stick with the former and have decided to continue my second major in Economics, though I may have plans to downgrade it into a minor in the future if I can’t meet the 46MCs requirement in the upcoming semesters.
Enough for now, lets get started with the actual module reviews:
STR2000 Career Creation Starter Clinic (0MC)
Remember STR1000? STR2000 is just an upgraded version of STR1000, with an actual resume group critique session and a mock interview session with a career advisor! If you read my module review in AY2020/2021 Y2S1, I tried to bid for STR2000. (I got in, but received an email telling me to take it in Y2S2 instead…) For biz students, please just wait for STR2000 to be pre-allocated to you, so you won’t have to go through the process of redrawing from the class haha.
Even though I couldn’t take this module last semester, all’s fine because I was pre-allocated STR2000 this semester. TBH, STR2000 was more stressful than STR1000, since your resume and interviewing skills will be critique by an actual career advisor in a 1 hour zoom call. There will usually be around 5 students and 1 career advisor in the zoom call, and we will have to critique each other’s resume and interview answers and even give recommendations of how one can improve/do better. Even though STR2000 was more stressful, it was also more useful than STR1000, because instead of having to sit in a 3 hour seminar and listening to the instructor talk about what kind of vocabs/words to use in our resume, the career advisor for STR2000 will properly critique your own personalized resume (that you have typed up in STR1000) and give solid advise on how you can improve on it. Even for the mock interview sessions, the career advisor will ask 2 questions to each student, and give feedback on how one can improve his/ her interview skills or even how to prepare for similar questions in the future.
Personally, I wasn’t nervous at all for the group resume critique session, but I was extremely nervous for the group interviewing session. (who wouldn’t?! There’s just something nerve-wrecking about not knowing how to answer a question haha) The day before the mock interview, I spent a long-time looking at the sample mock interview questions uploaded on LumiNUS and prepared some mock answers for some of the questions…. and I was super lucky to have the career advisor ask 2 questions which I was fully prepared for (HAH, ngl I was secretly relieved for preparing for the session) Nerve-wrecking as it seems, I still appreciated going through the full process of the mock interview and knowing that I still had areas of improvement that I should work on. Despite it being a 0MC module, I felt like this was one of the most (if not the most) useful module I have taken this semester.
2. FIN2704 Finance(4MC)
FIN2704 builds up on some of the ACC1701 knowledge that you have learnt in Year 1. (not surprising, since ACC1701 is a pre-requisite for ACC1701). This was a pre-allocated core biz module that is compulsory for all business students to take in Year 2. Thanks to FIN2704, I get to travel to school for a 45-minutes tutorial session on a 9am morning before heading home to watch my online lectures ( sigh ) Honestly, I appreciated the concept of having physical lessons at school (face to face interaction > zoom interactions ). However, I’m not sure how effective the FIN2704 physical lessons were, when we were expected to go to school to attend ZOOM lessons on our laptop???? (yes you saw this right, imagine going to school to have “physical lessons”, but haha sike you have to attend lessons on ZOOM at the physical venue… huh???) To be honest, I was really confused when I saw the announcement for this “physical arrangement”, like… for reals… might as well let us attend classes at home? It wasn’t an option to skip physical lessons as well because there was tutorial attendance, so I had to drag myself to school for FIN2704 tutorial lessons every week. Every week, there will also be a presenting group for the tutorial questions, and we were expected to present our solutions to the class. (For class participation points) Honestly, the FIN2704 tutorial questions have been reused so many times over the past few semesters, and one could easily solve the questions if they have the past-year tutorial solutions. Because of this, I believe that every single group presented the correct answers for all the tutorial questions, so I wonder how the tutor is grading our class presentation points?
On the bright side, FIN2704 lectures were online and uploaded the weekend before the actual lecture slot. We were expected to finish watching the lecture videos before attending the lecture slot (which has attendance tracking…), where she will clarify some of the lecture content materials for the week and also do our weekly (ungraded) lecture quizzes. (which she also uses to track our attendance) Many FIN2704 students attended the online ZOOM FIN2704 lectures to get the lecture attendance points, but since we don’t have to turn on our mic/ video, some of my friends just entered the zoom meeting for the attendance points and went back to sleep/ do other stuff haha. (eh, not encouraging you to do the same, I for once paid close attention to her lectures!!)
Grading component wise for FIN2704: there are 3 quizzes (though best 2 out of 3 quizzes are taken), Mid-terms and Finals. Good news: all of these are in MCQ format and open-book (which does not necessarily makes it easier, but MCQ is still better than open-ended questions right…)
Quiz: Only best 2 out of 3 quizzes are taken. Usually 3-4 chapters are tested per quiz, with around 5 MCQ questions for 15 minutes. Questions were a mix of descriptions, definitions and calculations. (no, there is no true or false questions) Despite studying hard for the quizzes, I found the quiz questions to be quite tough. I personally flunked the first quiz, and had to make up for the rest of the 2 quizzes. However, my scores were mediocre at best (yikes).
Mid-term: Was done on ZOOM during our lecture slot. Since there were 2 different lecture slots, this meant that there were two different versions of the FIN2704 mid term paper. I can only personally speak for the afternoon session, and boy did I struggle through the mid-term questions. The mid term questions were quite tricky, added with the lack of backward navigation, which meant that I couldn’t even skip the questions I didn’t know and come back to it later. I got really anxious nearing 10 minutes to the paper with like around 5-6 questions left to attempt. Needless to say that I struggled with the calculations (and with the keying of the values into the financial calculator) , so I randomly guessed the last few questions for the paper. (and haha there was a 20% probability of getting the correct option, but when I checked my mid-term report, I guessed everything wrongly :’D ) Unsurprisingly, on my own standards, I didn’t do well for the mid-term paper, but when comparing against the cohort, I was just a little bit over the median score, so I guess many struggled with finishing the paper on time too so wew thank you bell-curve!
Finals: TBH, I just ended my Finance finals today (At the time of writing this blogpost), and oh my, wtf was that paper??? 36 questions in 1.5 hours WAS DEFINITELY NOT ENOUGH for us to do all the calculations. Finals was cumulative, meaning that chapters 1-12 were tested. Sure, it’s open-book and in MCQ format, but the amount of intense calculations needed for a single question and also looking through all the options for the definition/true-false/ which of these options are correct/ incorrect TAKES TIME too. Additionally, there was no backward navigation (despite it being a physical exam, where it would have been so unlikely for one to even cheat/communicate???), which was really gg for me, since I got heavy calculation questions in the beginning of the exam (Screw you random question generator), and every time i arrive at an answer, that answer is not even in one of the option. It wasn’t the case where I could REDO the entire question again and repeat all the crazy calculations, because i still have 35 other questions to do and time was a serious constraint. Anyway, it was really gg for me and I just gave up and chose the closest option just so i can move on…. only to be met with another calculation question and the cycle goes on… hahahaa…… Honestly, I was feeling quite demoralized after the paper, because I felt like I guessed almost half the paper (yep, really). It wasn’t that I couldn’t do the paper, but it was the time-pressure that made me more susceptible to careless mistakes. (excuses… but hey saying this makes me feel better LOL) I feel that if given more time to do the paper, I could have at least gotten some of the questions right but yeah it’s too late for me to complain now. I obviously didn’t finish the paper, and was at Q33 when the timer just ran out and submitted the paper for me haha thanks Examplify. However, I wasn’t the only person who couldn’t finish the paper, I heard many didn’t get to finish the paper too so yk… hopefully the bellcurve will save us all
For an intro-finance module, the content of FIN2704 is really interesting, giving insights on PV, FV, stocks, bonds, coupons etc. However, I did not enjoy the heavy calculations needed for this module, though I understand that it was necessary since its “Finance” afterall. Those taking this module, (sadly for biz, this is a compulsory core mod), good luck man. But hey, if you have the passion and have some prior knowledge, you can do well!
3. MKT3702Consumer Behaviour (4MC)
This is my first biz 3k module at NUS! It was done physically so we had to go to school to attend a 3-hours seminar. I am not sure what is the standard for a usual 3k module, but there were 2 presentations and 2 reports that we had to write in MKT3702.
LIT Presentation: So we had to draw lots among a range of 8 topics and give a 20 minutes presentation followed by some Q&A questions. Quite an informal presentation, and prof said that we could refer to our phone/ cue cards if we wished to. Additionally, not everyone has to present (though everyone in my group did for fairness) 2 groups will present every week, so for almost every week, 1.5 hours of the lessons were dedicated to group presentations, and all we had to do is to sit there and listen ( or stone ) if we are not presenting. Quite shiok ah, I felt like I was having a 1.5 hours break time because all we had to do was sit there and listen. I love it.
Final Presentation: A more formal presentation, about lifestyle habits during COVID-19. So we had to choose a topic that has gotten popular during the pandemic, but this time, we have to write a formal report and slides. Additionally, all of us had to present as our presentations are individually graded. My groupmates were quite cooperative, so we worked quite well with each and split the work equally. During the presentation day, we also went through our speech clearly and concisely (even though we didn’t even rehearse face-to-face), and the prof didn’t even ask us any Q&A questions (unlike the other groups, so I guess our slides were well done yay!) Thank you prof!!!!
Report: So there were two reports to be written. One was on our hobby (yep, legit write about your hobby), and then linking it into a brand. Another topic was on the hot topic of “cancel culture” (Prof mentioned that it was a coincidence that the same topic got viral on Straits Times), which I particularly enjoyed writing as well. We had one week to do each report, and I managed to throw quite a fair bit of marketing content and examples into my report. Not sure how well I fared, but I was sitting nicely around the median for the first report so all’s good!
We even ended off MKT3702 with a bang – an impromptu skit by each group (how fun!!). NGL, it was quite stressful having to come up with slides and a skit with only 40-minutes, but this is perhaps the charm of a 3k marketing module haha. I love how the professor incorporated elements of fun into her class, so we won’t just be bombarded with lecture content and materials (that I honestly can’t even remember now), and the skit was a perfect way to end off the semester. I have such a great impression of the professor, that I even hope that I will have lessons under her again :). ABSOLUTELY 100/10 will recommend bidding for this module!
4. EC2101 Microeconomics Analysis I(4MC)
EC2101 is a Economics core module required for students clearing the 2nd major in Economic program. However, this was not pre-allocated since my home faculty is under BBA, so I had to bid for during MODREG. Since this was a pre-requisite for many higher level 3k economics module, there tend to many slots available for students, even for those who are only keen to clear it as an UE. For students who want to take EC2101, I believe that are pre-requisites such as EC1101E or BSP1703, so make sure to clear either one of these modules to be eligible for bidding!
This was my first time taking a Economics module at FASS. (except for GET1023: Thinking Like an Economist, but hey that’s just a GE module) Since FASS has all their lessons/tutorials/lectures online, this was a fully online module and we didn’t have to travel to school to attend physical lessons.
As a biz student who have taken BSP1703 (aka the biz version of econs), EC2101 was on a completely different scale and difficulty level. To be honest, modules at business faculties are less maths-focused, and even BSP1703 was more focused on economics theory with little emphasis on mathematics deduction. EC2101 however, was extremely maths-heavy and involve heavy calculations, and there was an introduction of different graphs, mathematical formulas, optimization problems and differentiation questions. Having not touched differentiation since BPM1701, it took me quite a while to recall how to do basic differentiation questions and how to do Lagrange multiplier problems. However, the EC2101 department were helpful enough to upload differentiation videos and guides on how to solve these problems using mathematical analysis, so do not worry if you find yourself getting rusty/ forgetting how to do differentiation, because there will be a brief recap as the beginning of the semester. Likewise, it was also recommended that students take EC2101 and EC2104 together, since they do contain overlapping content and materials learnt in EC2104 may supposedly help with EC2101. ( Disclaimer: I personally didn’t take EC2101 and EC2104 together, but heard these from my friends!) Also, take caution that this cannot be S/U-ed (argh), and be wary of the insane bellcurve for this module.
My personal opinion for EC2101 is that there is just too much workload. With weekly quizzes and weekly problem set submissions, EC2101 took up most of time. However, I guess that is one way for the department to ensure that we keep up with the EC2101 content, especially since this was a fully-online module which means that we may be less-disciplined (?) to watch the weekly content. Personally, EC2101 was my favourite Economics modules for the first half of the semester, but as the content got more complicated and confusing, I started to dread EC2101 near the end of the semester. With the introduction of so many graphs almost every single week, the content got more and more confusing (at least for me). Additionally, supposedly some of these later chapters were already covered in EC1101E, but I have personally taken BSP1703 and not EC1101E, and I felt like I was missing out on the content because they were not really covered in BSP1703? Therefore, while other students who have taken EC1101E may have some prior knowledge about the cost curve graphs, it wasn’t the same for me as I had to start from the beginning. However, that it not to say that you will lose out to other students, because these graphs will be quite easy to derive once you understand the concept behind them. (so one just has to work harder lol)
Grading wise for EC2101, there are various components such as Quiz, Problem Sets, Class Participation, Mid Terms and Finals.
Quiz: As mentioned earlier, there are weekly quizzes consisting of around 5-6 questions on LumiNUS. Everything is in MCQ format, and the department will take the top score out of the 3 tries. Honestly, because there’s at least 3 tries for the weekly quizzes, one can just keep redoing the quiz until he/she has gotten the full marks, so I think everyone pretty much gotten full marks for this component. Personally, I also redid all the 12 quizzes until I have gotten full marks for all of them.
Problem Sets: In a group of 2-3, we have to submit problem sets for each topic every week. There are about 4-5 questions per week, but if we split them within the group, one only has to do 1-2 questions per week. I managed to bid for the same tutorial slot with a friend, and we were grouped into the same problem set group, so it was quite shiok to do the problem sets together without worrying about snakes or freeloaders within the team. Not sure how the problem sets were graded, but the department claims that the marks were not given based on the “rights” or “wrongs”, but rather the work we put into deriving the answers.
Class Participation: Just go to tutorial classes every week and answer the tutor’s questions to get free class participation marks! I pretty much class participated every single week. (It was a small class size, and the tutor always had enough questions to go around: aka if you don’t speak, the tutor will call your name :’D) Some of the class participation questions involve lecture content and problem set questions, so we can easily answer these questions as long as we have revised the materials before class.
Mid-terms: A mixture of MCQ questions and open-ended questions. Unlike Biz modules where examinations tend to be open book (so shiok!), EC2101 was sadly not open book. Thankfully, since it was an online examination, we did not have to draw graphs (else gg) but just had to know how to do the mathematical questions and content questions. MCQ were a shockingly high weightage of 5-6 marks each, and the open-ended questions were quite similar to the problem set questions, though some appeared to be quite challenging and tricky. I can’t remember how the cohort scored but I believe the 75th percentile was around 70-80 marks? Apparently the professor mentioned that it was considered quite low as compared to previous few cohorts yikes. (I can’t imagine how bad the bellcurve must have been for the previous semesters)
Finals: Similar format to mid-terms but it was a 2 hours paper, so there were significantly more questions. Since the finals questions were cumulative, the exam tested content from chapter 1 – 12, closed-book of course. I felt that the open-ended questions were manageable, but I personally found the MCQ questions and short-answer questions to be the toughest?? Additionally, these MCQ questions and short-answer questions have an average of around 5-6 marks each, so it can be quite painful to get these questions wrong. I felt that it was a little harder than mid-terms (to be expected), and I faced technical difficulty during the exam (super suay, my examplify crashed in the middle of the exam. I still got the full duration of the paper, but the panic and anxiety I got from contacting the invigilator and CIT for help (while others are still doing their paper) were embedded within me even after the problem was fixed hais), so I don’t think I did well for the finals at all….. (So yall, please remember to disable your anti-virus before starting your Examplify Exam, dont be like me!)
Overall, after getting a first taste of taking an econs module, I admit that I am having second thoughts of continuing this second major LOL. I guess I have gotten too used to the seminar style business classes, and I personally did not really appreciate the heavy mathematics used in economics. However, it is still early to decide now, so I’ll have to look at my final grades before making a decision yikes. EC2101 content can also get really dry throughout the semester, so if you are looking to take this module, good luck and jiayous!
4. EC2102 Macroeconomics Analysis II(4MC)
EC2102 is a Economics core module required for students clearing the 2nd major in Economic program. However, this was not pre-allocated since my home faculty is under BBA, so I had to bid for during MODREG. I took it under Prof Wang, who is known to focus more on the mathematical side of macroeconomics. And true enough, I was horrified at the mathematics in EC2102, as they were on a truly different scale from EC2101. Especially since we had to know how to derive the equations algebraically, added on with my lack of familiarity with macroeconomics ( I took H1 Economics, and I faintly remember only the micro portion of economics rip), meant that I struggled a lot with EC2102. In fact, I dreaded every new chapter of EC2102, because the confusion just piles up repeatedly. However, Prof Wang is really great at explaining even the most complex graphs and equations into simpler economic terms, which I truly appreciate. Since he uploads his lecture materials and zoom recording on LumiNUS, I also found myself replaying his videos and re-watching the lecture multiple times to grasp the concepts.
Perhaps one thing that helped me get through EC2102 was the fact that I took BSP2701 Global Economy last semester, which is a compulsory 2MC core module that biz students have to take. BSP2701 actually covers a small portion of EC2102, and there were a few repeating content about the Savings-Investment, Full-Employment Line, Production Functions etc, which really helped lighten my workload. Perhaps it would be good for biz students to take BSP2701 before taking EC2102, or take them concurrently because there are often overlapping content. (BSP2701 is only 2MC btw, so the workload isn’t too much)
Workload wise, EC2102 only has Class Participation, Mid-terms and Finals.
Class Participation: Each student will have to volunteer to present questions during the tutorial slots. On average, each student presents 2-3 times during the semester. We weren’t able to “chope” the questions, so one has to be quick in unmuting his/her mic to present before others take the questions lol. Personally, I was in quite a small class (around ~10 students), so we had our fair share of presentations. If you are taking EC2102, please present your questions asap, because the tutorial questions get significantly harder in the middle of the semester, and the tutor will just call your name if you haven’t presented haha. That aside, the amount of time i spent on each tutorial problem sets were insane? It wasn’t the fact that there were many questions, but some of the questions involve mathematical derivations, which I struggled a lot in, and it wasn’t like I could refer to the slides and extract the answers. I found myself being unable to solve some of the questions in the middle of the semester, that I just gave up doing some of the questions. Eventually, I was despo enough to even search the net hoping for past year answers on Coursehero, but there weren’t any. (and I did not know any friends/ seniors taking this module.. ) However, all’s good since we do not have to submit the tutorial questions anyway, and I did try to class-participate for questions that I knew.
Mid-terms: Mid-terms were just MCQ questions and some short-answer questions on Examplify. (Closed-book) While a lot of mathematical questions were introduced in the lectures and in tutorials, the mid-term questions somehow focused more on the content and the explanations instead. However, that doesn’t mean that it was easier, as we saw that the median marks was only around 18/35 LOL. However, Prof Wang was nice enough to moderate the marks and be more lenient with his markings, giving additional 2.25 marks for each student. I personally benefited with a +4.5 marks after moderation and sat nicely at around the 75th percentile 🙂 (thanks prof!!) TBH, I think I only did well because we were not tested too heavily on the mathematical derivations, else I would have been destroyed by the bell curve haha.
Finals: Finals were a mix of MCQ questions and handwritten questions that we had to upload on LumiNUS. It was an absolute disaster. I obviously had not learnt my lesson with EC2101 and still failed to turn off my anti-virus software, so my Examplify crashed once again in the middle of the exam (sigh 100% my fault). Panic messaged the invigilator and asked for help, and was quickly attended to. I didn’t lose any time from the examination, but once again, the panic and anxiety were rooted within me as I continued doing the paper, so my mind was pretty blank while writing out my answers. Not only that, I struggled with this 10 marks question and was already stuck at a), which meant that I couldn’t continue doing questions b) – e), so I pretty much submitted a blank piece of paper for that question. ( ISTG i have never seen that type of question in our tutorial and lecture before, it was like a modified question of a 2-consumer 2-period optimization problem, like ?????) And it wasn’t like I could ask anyone if they struggled too cuz I don’t know anyone taking EC2102 with me, so hopefully the bellcurve can just help us all. :’)
Overall, to give a fair and honest review, I did not really enjoy EC2102 but I strongly feel that it was due to my preference for microeconomics rather than macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is just too foreign and abstract to understand for me, and I struggled a lot with the mathematical analysis during classes. And lmao I can’t imagine having to take EC3102 when I am already struggling this much with EC2102. However, I think the reason I am feeling this way is because it was my first actual exposure to macroeconomics, and I just needed more time to grasp the concept. This is just my opinion, but perhaps for students who are more passionate about macroeconomics will enjoy EC2102 (at least more than me :’D)
5. EC2303 Foundations for Econometrics(4MC)
EC2303 is one of those econs module where you think that you can get a solid chance of getting an A (at the beginning of the semester), before getting siked by the content near the end of the semester and the report questions.
Here is an accurate representation of my feelings towards EC2303:
(First half of the semester) Wah so shiok! I already learnt CDF, PDF, PMF in DAO1704, everything’s gonna be ezpz!
(Mid term report) Wah even the report questions were manageable, I can do almost all the questions! (PS: author got destroyed by the bellcurve)
(Second half of the semester: Week 7 – 9) Hmmm, things are getting more complicated now! But nvm, I have already learnt Covariance, Correlation in FIN2704 Finance and also CLT in GER1000!
(Second half of the semester: Week 10-12) wtf is going on? What is this Chebyshev Inequality? Huh how to derive and proof this sia? Huh what is regression and OLS??? (PS: author has learnt regression and OLS in DAO2702 Python Programming, but only knows how to do it on Jupyter Notebook but not mathematically)
(Final report) ??????????????? (PS: it was a 24-hours report, but author still couldn’t solve the questions)
EC2303 was just one-hell of a rollercoaster ride for me, and I am still feeling demoralized after the report questions that I can’t imagine how I am going to take handle EC3303 in future semesters. Kudos to all Economics students who have to go through these for almost all their modules… I now appreciate doing projects and presentations at biz instead.
TLDR, I just feel like there was a huge contrast between what was taught in lectures and problem sets, to what was actually tested in the report? It also clearly doesn’t help that this was a 24-hours report, and even though there was no collaboration allowed, there wasn’t any proctoring involved to actually ensure that one does not discuss with friends. I was absolutely destroyed by the bell curve for the mid-term report, and I don’t even want to imagine how badly the scores for my final report will be. It is times like this where I am extremely grateful for the S/U system in place for me to S/U away this module, because there was absolutely no way that I can even get a good grade. Disclaimer that these are my personal experiences taking this module, so maybe I am just bad with Econometrics, so it may not be applicable to you. Overall, I enjoyed the beginning part of EC2303, BUT not the EC2303 content at the end of the semester. I also wish that there were most consistency between what was actually taught in lectures and classes and report questions, because the difference between what was taught and what was tested were imo extremely different. I rather be exposed to more difficult questions in lectures, just so I can be better prepared for examinations, instead of being siked by the lecture content and be so demoralize with the report questions.
….and THATS IT!!!
Thanks for reading my module review for AY2020/2021 Semester 2, and wow it blows my mind how I’ll be Year 3 next year and it feels like just yesterday when I stepped into NUS feeling all confused and lost about how things work. Of course, it absolutely sucks that I spent my Year 2 having zoom university, but I cant even imagine how it must feel to be a Year 1, who probably may not even have the chance to have physical lessons at school. I hope things get better in the next few months, and things will go back to normal. For now, continue pressing on, and have fun for your summer break!!!
P.s. This blogpost is unedited at the time of posting. Sorry for all the grammar mistakes and errors, will find the time to check when I am free. Just wanted to make this post available first since I have been inactive for a while 🙂
Having prior completed GET1023 and GEH1056, I have decided to bid for GES1041 to complete my last GE (S) pillar.
As per NUSMods, GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore is a philosophy module taught by Dr Chin:
This module examines the ethical dimensions of everyday life in Singapore. It focuses on moral dilemmas that arise in the nation’s pursuit of ‘happiness, prosperity, and progress’. We will explore how moral reasoning from multiple perspectives applies to local concerns such as equality, meritocracy, multiculturalism, immigration, and marriage. This will challenge us to identify moral problems created by social and technological changes, combine ethical principles with practical constraints, and balance the interests of individuals and communities. We will also consider how moral dialogue can be cultivated in Singapore’s multicultural society, so as to manage diverse traditions and divergent values
Due to the Covid-19 situation, all the lessons and tutorials were conducted online. Dr Chin habitually uploads his presentation slides and video a day before the actual lecture slot, so that a moral dialogue session can be conducted (live on ZOOM) instead. This allows him to go through some of the questions posed on PollEv, and also go through some of the bi-weekly MCQ quizzes. However, I have not personally attended any of the moral dialogue sessions, and instead chose to watch the recorded sessions at 2x speed during Reading Week instead.
As this was a philosophy module, I was initially worried about writing long essays and having to compete with FASS students taking this module (whose standards sure surpass my QET abilities). Additionally, if this module was anything like the Philosophy section taught in GEQ1000, I for sure will be feeling super lost and confused. Thankfully though, this module was quite manageable and I was still able to understand the readings and lecture slides. While we were expected to write journal entries bi-weekly, the marking scheme was more focused on sharing our personal experiences and drawing links to the readings and topic of the week rather than our English abilities.
For the journals, we were expected to write no less than 500 words, with regards to a moral value or conflict in our readings based on the topic of the week. There will be suggested topics to work on, but we do not have to follow them strictly. Personally, I do like to frame my journal entry around my personal examples, so I didn’t really follow the suggested topics given. While most people struggled to write 500 words, I had the tendency to overwrite to ~700 words for most of the journal entries ( I tended to overshare my personal experiences), but the Prof was okay with it as long as we kept it to a maximum of 800 words per entry.
Below are the grading criteria for the journal entry ( 5 marks ):
Ethical meaning
Singapore context
Personal Perspective
Social Perspective
Bonus
From what I have heard from my seniors and friends, the Prof is quite lenient with his marking as long as you hit the relevant points above. Most students hit an average of 4 out of 5 marks for each journal entry. The Bonus marks however were harder to attain, as they were only given to a selected few students who use a more original and creative approach in writing their journal entries. This means that your journal entry should not be too predictable. I was able to get the bonus points for three out of the four journal entries by sharing my internship/work/school/family experiences. Thereby, my advice will be to use a more personal approach to write your journal entry, perhaps by embedding your personal examples or life experiences to make the topic more illuminating. Additionally, sharing your personal experiences will for sure make sharing your journal entries in class more exciting 😀
For weeks where there were no journal entries, we were expected to do quizzes on LumiNUS. For more details about the MCQ, I have already shared them under my Year 2 Sem 1 Reviews. Don’t feel too stressed out for not scoring well for your quizzes. Personally, I only scored 3/5 marks for the first 2 quizzes, but later on managed to score full marks for the last 2 quizzes. This does not mean that the quizzes got easier, but rather we got more familiarized with the answering techniques and knowing how to interpret and spotting trick questions.
There was also a project component, comprising of a report submission and project presentation. More details have also been shared under my Year 2 Sem 1 Reviews. We were able to see our marks and grading distribution under the Gradebook a few days after submission. The median marks for the group report was 8/10, while the group presentation was 16/20. My group scored perfect scores for the group report and presentation (10/10 and 20/20). Perhaps some advice for those who are taking/intending to take this module will be to read the marking scheme carefully, and also making sure your topic connects to at least two module themes. Use the ethical toolbox learnt in class, such as the Moral Clusters to draw out your arguments. Additionally, don’t choose conventional topics and try to be more unique. ( I heard many groups did their topics on the migrant workers’ dormitories during the pandemic. Try to avoid doing this topic if you don’t want to compete with others for the same points.)
The last component was the finals. Format was the same as the four MCQ quizzes conducted throughout the semester. One tip to prepare for Finals is to download all the readings and place them all in one file/ print them out for easy reference. I did a 3-page cheat sheet containing all the lecture materials and important sentences within the readings as well. There is no point memorizing the content in the readings, but rather, understanding what the author is trying to draw across. Sadly, the finals grades wasn’t released, so I didn’t really know how well I scored. Overall though, I have attained a solid A+ for this module :D.
Last thoughts about GES1041:
Honestly, I really did had the intention to S/U GES1041 this semester because I was struggling with my biz core modules. Additionally, I was getting dispirited from the high workload per week, from readings to quizzes and journal entries. However, things were only rough at the beginning of the semester. In the later half of the semester, more focus was allocated to the project tips and also MCQ clinics, which meant that there were lesser readings in the second half of the semester. Since there were no mid-terms, I only briefly read through the readings in preparation for tutorial and quizzes. It was only during Reading Week that I sat down and really read through the readings thoroughly, highlighting the important points, make cheat sheets. Getting high marks for the project also boosted my morale and encouraged me to study harder for finals 🙂 If you are looking for a GES module to take, do consider taking this module (GES1041)!
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:
GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore (4MC)
GEQ1000 Asking Questions (4MC)
BSP2701 Global Economy (2MC)
DAO2703 Operations and Technology Management (4MC)
DAO2702 Programming for Business Analytics (4MC)
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!)
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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!)
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. )
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!!!!!
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.
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)
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!
I have previously taken this module back in AY2019/2020 Semester 2 and wanted to share my thoughts
GEH1056: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World
I have extracted the module description from NUSMODS below:
This GE module introduces the diversity of human cultural experience in the contemporary world. It offers an anthropological lens for understanding cultural diversity with concrete cases. We will read articles and analyse ethnographic films on kula exchange, cannibalism, oracle, feud, animism, sacrifice, initiation, incest, spirit-possession, statelessness, potlatch, genocide, and so on, found in Melanesia, Amazonia, sub-Sahara, Siberia, Zomia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. We will gain a sensitivity toward stereotypes and ethnocentrism, understand the connections and processes that shape social life at different levels, and learn the skills to appreciate and analyse differences in the changing world.
If you are keen on sociology and are not afraid of large numbers of readings, do consider bidding for this module. However, do note of the small module size! (There were only 20 students taking this module that particular semester). While some may argue that the small class size meant that the bell-curve will be steeper, I personally felt that the bell-curve was actually in our favor as long as we put in an effort to upload weekly forums and focus on our term project. (My friend and I bidded together and got an A- )
I have uploaded the syllabus document for AY2019/2020 Semester 2. However, information in the document were subjected to many changes due to the pandemic and transitioning into online classes.
For instance, Finals (Originally 50%) was cancelled. The final distribution of grades were:
60% Project on any topic of interest.
We were allowed to work in groups of 2 or individually. Since I bidded for this module with my friend, we did up a research paper by studying the receptiveness of the Millennials and Baby Boomers towards the LGBTQ+ community in Singapore. (by exploring the use of social media as a tool of resistance)
To my knowledge, there were other students who did their research paper on topics such as K-pop, Drag Queens, Bubble Tea, etc) There was really no restrictions on the topic that we could choose for this particular project.
40%Forum Chair and Posts
Every individual will become the forum chair for a particular week and has to guide the forum discussions.
Forum Chairs are expected to reply to at least 5 forum posts and contribute to discussions online. Additionally, everyone is expected to participate actively in forum discussions every week.
Forum Chairs were also expected to generate summary of the readings for the assigned week.
EDIT (26/7/20):
I am very shooked to see the spike in the number of visitors to my blog, specifically on this particular post. Since MODREG is currently ongoing, let me help you decide if you should take this module:
Pros:
I have checked the syllabus document for AY20/21 Semester 1 and there appears to be no finals for the new semester as well. Here are the grades distributions:
20% Participation ( Class Discussion on ZOOM: imo this is rather fluff, sometimes you don’t even need the readings to talk about your views)
30% Reading Response (x5) ( Last semester, this was called “Forum participation”, I guess this is like a reflection on the readings)
30% MCQ Quizzes (x2)
20% Book Review
2. Small class size = Easier to be involved in class discussion. (Easier to secure your 20%) Last semester, there were only 6 other students in the same tutorial group, which made it easier for me to share my thoughts and also to consult about my project. (ps im only putting this here because my fellow biz students know how stressful biz class participation is, having to compete with 50+ students in sectionals :”) The small class size in this GE was a breath of fresh air for me)
3. Ngl, I spent waaaay less effort for this module as compared to my “more important” biz core mods but still managed to do decently for this module. I think many students took this module with the intention of S/U-ing it, and it showed from their lack of participation in forums and also their lack of interest in the project.
In fact, the contrast in effort was sooooooo obvious, here i quote my professor: “We have seen a diverse range of performances in participation/attendance, say, for instance, 0 – 32 posts in total among our students (in addition to the quality of your posts). “
I like to think that this module is almost like a free A for students who are willing to put in the effort to understand the readings and contribute to class discussions. (IMO,) How difficult is it to just type up your reflections?
CONS:
As if not re-iterated many times before, the readings scare me. The readings are long and difficult to understand. (ps this is coming from someone who had to take QET so perhaps my poor English played a part) For the first reading, we had to read a 10-page reflection on cultural relativism and mind you, this was merely the abstract:
This article explores the ethics of the current “War on Terrorism,” asking whether anthropology, the discipline devoted to understanding and dealing with cultural difference, can provide us with critical purchase on the justifications made for American intervention in Afghanistan in terms of liberating, or saving, Afghan women. I look first at the dangers of reifying culture, apparent in the tendencies to plaster neat cultural icons like the Muslim woman over messy historical and political dynamics. Then, calling attention to the resonances of contemporary discourses on equality, freedom, and rights with earlier colonial and missionary rhetoric on Muslim women, I argue that we need to develop, instead, a serious appreciation of differences among women in the world-as products of different histories, expressions of different circumstances, and manifestations of differently structured desires. Further, I argue that rather than seeking to “save” others (with the superiority it implies and the violences it would entail) we might better think in terms of (1) working with them in situations that we recognize as always subject to historical transformation and (2) considering our own larger responsibilities to address the forms of global injustice that are powerful shapers of the worlds in which they find themselves. I develop many of these arguments about the limits of “cultural relativism” through a consideration of the burqa and the many meanings of veil ing in the Muslim world. [Keywords: cultural relativism, Muslim women, Afghanistan war, freedom, global injustice, colonialism]
^ps, I was already lost beyond the second sentence.
But hey, you can always find summary of the readings online instead of reading the whole document, which was what I did.
Can’t think of any other cons for now, but the readings were the only pain i had taking this GE.
adiós and happy bidding!
***EDIT (31/07/2020): Removed my notes from this post. I will no longer entertain replies seeking for personal notes. Please read the announcement for more information.
These are the modules that I have taken in Semester 2:
ES2002 Business Communications for Leaders (BBA)
BSP1703 Managerial Economics
MKT1003B Principles of Marketing
GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
GEH1056 Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World
The first 3 modules are compulsory business core modules that have to be taken by all business students. Quantitative Reasoning (GER1000) is also a compulsory module that have to be taken by Year 1. I bidded for Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (GEH1056) to fulfill the General Education Modules required by all students.
ES2002 Business Communications for Leaders (BBA)
This is a compulsory core module for Business students. I have to say that I really dreaded taking this module this semester because the program appears to be very content-heavy. Simply put, ES2002 is a shortened 13-weeks version of H1 Project Work in JC. ( aka PW 2.0 )
Not sure if this was consistent among all facilitators, but make sure to choose a good seat on the first day of class! I remembered being placed in a team with people who sat on the same row as me, so try to sit with people/friends who are going to do their work seriously! ( my experiences with slackers and freeloaders in the team were never pleasant…)
Don’t be surprised if you are taking this module, because in the second week alone, you will be expected to draft and pitch your ideas to the whole class. This was ungraded but will help in choosing your ideas for the project proposal. Take note that you are only given around 1.5 weeks to draft out an entire 2800-word report (PW-style) proposal, so time management is very important.
Personally, I would say that I did not have a good experience writing the proposal because while I was in a relatively “okay” 4-person team, not everyone was motivated in writing the report. ( One of them mentioned that she was going to S/U the module even before the writing begun.. hais..) Additionally, it was hard to meet up with my team or even skype because everyone had different commitments and other projects to rush for.
In the end, we only met up once to discuss about our ideas and then distributed roles so that we can do our part of the report. This was our downfall. While I’ve tried my best to salvage the report and sent reminders and datelines, my team was a bit… last minute per se. In the end, not only was the submission late, we also did not manage to cut down our word count. This came as a surprise for me, because I had actually vetted the report the day before the submission. ( Turns out one of my teammates wanted to add more content into the report at 9pm on the day of submission and she only told us at like 11.30++pm to help her cut down content… IMO, it was a bit too late and I wished i had just submitted the old draft of the report and not listened to her yikes…) We later had a conference with our facilitator online, who mentioned that she was “surprised that we had submitted late” and asked us what happened because this was not up to her expectations… Oh no. Somehow my team wasn’t too bothered, i think all of us wanted to S/U this module by now.
This was followed by the Pitching and Q&A segment. Initially, there were concerns that the pandemic may actually cause the pitching to be done online but we thankfully managed to do our pitching physically in class. I think this segment went relatively smoothly and we managed to impress our facilitator with our prototype. Q&A segment was also rather standard, where the audience (your classmates) will actually have to ask questions about your project. Do ask question when other groups are presenting! This contributes to your class engagement (aka class part) marks. Also, be prepared for unexpected questions by your peers! Take turns and give your teammates the chance to speak up for Q&A segment. Don’t try to hog all the questions on your own.
The following few weeks were alternating between online ZOOM sessions and physical lessons because of growing concerns about the virus situation. The final assessment, Negotiation, was actually done on ZOOM. The facilitator decided to regroup us into different teams for this assessment to allow us to work with different people ( Even though I only worked with this group for 2 weeks to prepare for negotiation, i actually liked this group better than the previous group haha). Negotiation is like a debate session where we will face off another team and we are tasked to reach upon a common consensus within a stipulated time period. Personally, I felt that this segment was the most enjoyable one , because there were free flow of ideas and there really is no right-and-wrong in the discussion. Do participate in the negotiation, whether it is through active listening or body language! Also, do make full use of the 10 minutes discussion prior to the actual negotiation to properly discuss your team strategy. We actually anticipated what the other team will debate about and was able to conclude the negotiation within the time limit. I think my group did pretty well for negotiation.
*****Thankfully this was a 100% CA mod with no final examinations.*****
25 % – CA1 “Persuade in Writing: A Concept Proposal”
30% – CA2 “Pitch it Right and Think on Your Feet”
20% – CA3 “Negotiation”
10% – CA4 “Documentation of My Growth”
15% – Community Engagement
To conclude, ES2002 was not how i imagined it to be. I had a lot of key takeaways from this module, and most of the techniques that we learn in this course is very applicable in other modules, and in other presentations. While I actually took this module in Sem 2, i kind of wished I was pre-allocated this module in Sem 1 because of how useful it is. Additionally, the lack of final examination means not a lot of studying have to be done , but of course, that time have to be better spent on doing up your proposal and pitching.
2.BSP1703 Managerial Economics
This is another compulsory core module for Business students. Because of the covid-19 situation, we only had one physical tutorial lesson and I had only physically attended 5 lectures before everything was converted to e-learning.
Like any other business modules, we are grouped together to complete assignments every two weeks and also to prepare for our case presentations. Not sure if the virus situation was a bleak period, or that my group felt that online learning is not as conducive as physical ones, most of my group mates wanted to S/U this module too. (hais) I personally felt that it was a waste, as JC students who took H1 economics already had a slight advantage over the others. The first 5 chapters were just a repeat of what was learnt in JC, but with more in-depth thinking and calculations.
My team was one of the first few teams to do the presentation. Because it was an e-presentation, we were given the leeway to just do voice and slide recording, which certainly made the whole process much smoother. Technically, it was getting a bit difficult to meet up in school because of new safe distancing rules. The overall presentation was okay-ish, though I am not sure how well we did because there was simply no marking scheme and Q&A.
There are also a total of 4 assignments that have to done by the entire group. Honestly, I felt that this team was a bit like ES2002, where everyone just did their own portion and we just submitted the work without discussing about the questions. Also a pretty last minute team which required pushing and reminders. I was usually the one creating the document and formatting the questions. At one point in time, I was so frustrated that one of the members was not doing her part of the work even though she acknowledged the reminder. In the end, I had to do in her place. (In her defense, she probably did not know how to do the question? Not sure about that though.)
*****Final Examination was an open book 2 hours 50-MCQ questions******
Finals was…. a mess. The MCQ questions were particularly tricky. Additionally, the examination was done online with no backward navigation, meaning that we cannot go back to the questions that we have attempted. (Regardless, I did spend the entire 2 hours for all the 50 MCQ questions so I wouldn’t have the time to check anyway). Not sure if they had intentionally made the questions harder to prevent collusion and cheating, but I struggled through almost half the questions despite studying really hard for it. Ironically, it appears that I would have to S/U this module too.
One mistake I made was to take this module in Semester 2. I was not aware that this module is actually a pre-requisite module for other econs module ( which i could have cleared for my second major). My intention was to actually overload in Semester 2, but the bidding system did not allow me to bid for FASS mods simultaneously until I have completed BSP1703… This was actually quite wasteful, especially since I have 5 S/U left for Semester 2, which will expire soon in Year 2. Make sure to do your research and to find out your pre-requisite modules before bidding for your modules!!
3. MKT1003B Principles of Marketing
MKT1003B was a pre-allocated core module for Year 1 Business Students. This was also another module that I dreaded in Semester 2. Most of my friends actually took this module back in Semester 1 and spoke horrors about it. Like any other business mods, we were grouped together to do up a report and presentation. This was where my horrors begun.
Previously in my other 2 modules, I was grouped together with ‘H’. I was once again grouped with ‘H’ for Marketing (They need to stop grouping us according to our names…) ‘H’ left a lasting impression on me for the previous 2 modules, because he was a freeloader who does not contribute to work and projects. Previously in those modules, he goes MIA for the report writing process and just show up for final presentations. (‘H’ does not even open up the google docs :/) Not sure what was done to him after we peer-evaluated him for those two modules, but I had really hoped that he turned over a new leaf in Sem 2. Turns out he was still his same old self and still failed to show up for group meetings and to do his part of the report. We had to work with one less person in our team which was really upsetting because this team was one of the only few teams that I had that actually wanted to do well for MKT and not S/U it. That aside, upon finishing the presentation and submitting the report, we went straight into peer-evaluating him. Honestly, I really hope that there is no next time and that I won’t be grouped with him again because this is getting really awkward and frustrating.
This was also the only class that I had that required actual class participation. Since we were given discussion questions every week, we technically were able to prepare for class participation because we can just read out what we have researched. Questions were actually pretty interesting, integrating marketing terms with BTS, Avengers etc. However, it was a rather large class so it was difficult to get called by the professor. Nevertheless, there are always other chance for other class discussions (though it was hard to anticipate her questions…)
***** Finals were 80 MCQ questions in 1 Hour*****
With around 40 seconds per question there is really no time to check your work. In fact, I struggled to finish the entire paper and pretty much guessed some of the questions to finish the paper on time. Didn’t do very well for the paper, and was probably tanking the bell curve…. I only had myself to blame because the test was very heavily concentrated on textbook content and I was more focused on the prof notes.
To conclude, I think Marketing still remains as one of the more interesting modules that I have taken this semester. It just feels more relatable and relevant, especially when examples of familiar companies, like Apple, Samsung, L’Oreal are used in class. Additionally, the class participation questions were rather interesting and more applicable to our everyday lives which i felt was able to enhance my understanding of the concept taught. Its fun to learn about interesting facts about companies, and also to hear the whole class share their views on how BTS was able to become so successful and why Avengers is so popular…
Would recommend this module for non-biz students to clear your electives as well.
4. GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning
This was a compulsory module for all Year 1 NUS students across all faculties. You will be pre-allocated this module either in Sem 1 or Sem 2. Prior to taking this mod, I have heard from my friends who took this module in Sem 1 that the bellcurve is insane and can actually give students from non-biz faculties an advantage.
This module is more of an e-learning style. The facilitators will upload online materials and recorded lectures rather than having to attend physical lectures. The fort-weekly tutorial sessions were there to help us clarify our thoughts and also to discuss some tutorial questions. From there, the tutors will also randomly assign you into groups for in-class group discussions and also to do up a project.
This year, the overall project weightage was increased because of the covid-19 situation. (As a result, the final examination had a lower weightage as compared to other semesters). However, this means that more time have to be spent on the project, which was actually split into two different parts. Project Part (I) was a simple 8 questions report-style paper, and we are given the freedom to choose our topics from the different articles on the list. Project Part (II) was a continuation of Part (I), with more in-depth questions where we are expected to come up with a presentation for. Personally, I felt that the questions were more-of-less straightforward, however, I am not sure how the marking will go because pretty much everyone i knew chose the same (easiest?) article to expound on. (80% of the groups in my tutorial class alone chose the same article for the project) Honestly, it would have been great if our group chose another topic so it would have felt less stressful to compete with others. This year, the presentation was done online on ZOOM, and we were thrown several Q&A questions right after our presentation. From my personal experience and what my friends mentioned, the Q&A questions mainly focused on testing your understanding on the news article and whether you understand the GER concepts. (Sampling, Hypothesis Testing etc) Would be good to read up on your GER notes before presenting!
There is also a standard GER quiz every week. While the quiz can be done multiple times, the results of your quiz will only be shown only after the quiz dateline, taking your last quiz score as your final score. If you are in the GER telegram group, you can actually discuss the quiz questions with others in the group. Personally, I would not 100% trust the answers given in the GER group. The instances where some of the people will actually give the “wrong” answers or mislead the discussion were quite frequent, so it would be better if you discuss with your friends/ attempt the quiz on your own instead. Because of the platform for discussion, most people actually score full marks and obtain the full weightage for the quiz section itself. This makes it harder to score well for GER because the finals and the project will be the differentiating factor.
***** Finals was 14 MCQ questions in 1 Hour*****
Finals were quite manageable. If you had been doing your weekly revision and attempting past year papers, the questions will be easier to attempt. Despite it being an 1-hour paper, I actually finished the entire paper in 30 minutes because I did not really follow the recommended 4-minutes per question guideline. In my defense, there were no backward navigation and I was worried that the later questions were more difficult than the initial few questions. Also, since more than 3000 students were taking the paper at the same time, I was afraid that there would be unforeseeable technical difficulty when submitting the paper.
Not sure if the Online Support IT team actually anticipated the large number of students taking the paper at the same time but a significant number of students could not even download the exam paper and had to sit for the exam on another scheduled date. I had also faced technical difficulty when submitting the paper and panicked when I couldn’t upload the paper despite spamming the submit button. Thankfully, I was not the only person who faced the same problem but others (in the GER group) also faced similar issues. This was the only paper that I had on Examplify that faced so many issues and problems. Not sure if the department actually revised the entire exam paper for the second batch of students or whether the same questions were being used, but honestly, it is kind of unfair for the rest because they had simply more time to study for the paper.
Either way, GER1000 is a relatively entry level module for Year 1 students, while the concepts taught may be easy, it may be hard to score because of the bellcurve.
5. GEH1056 Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World
Found this module on NUSMods while deciding what GE module to take. I would say that I was cat fished by the module description, because it was made to sound interesting:
“We will read articles and analyse ethnographic films on kula exchange, cannibalism, oracle, feud, animism, sacrifice, initiation, incest, spirit-possession, statelessness, potlatch, genocide, and so on, found in Melanesia, Amazonia, sub-Sahara, Siberia, Zomia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.“
I bidded for this module with my friend because it really sounded very interesting and unlike other typical modules out there and i was siked… The entire module cohort was one of the lowest, with around 20 students taking the module together. The lectures and readings were not what the outline entailed. Readings were hard to fathom and difficult to understand, and the journals were pretty long. In the first few weeks, I had actually put in the effort to do up notes and summaries of the readings, but afterwards neglected them after finals were cancelled. Since there were no examinations and the weightage for this module was merely 60% Project Work and 40% Forum posts, the other lectures were actually not necessary.
Perhaps one good thing about this module will be that 40% of the grade weightage was on Forum posts and attendance alone. This is extremely easy to score, because we are just expected to share our views and opinions on a certain topic on a weekly basis. Each of us are given the opportunity to be the Forum Chair for the week, where we are expected to give a brief overview of what we have learnt on a particular topic and to give a brief summary of the readings. Personally, I do not particularly enjoy writing on the Forum posts because I had no idea what was going on, and writing just a simple paragraph often took an hour of research and extra readings. However, I would say that I’ve really tried my best to do well for forum posts because this was really giveaway marks and a platform for us to read what the others feel about a certain topic.
My friend and I agreed that the readings were simply too hard to digest and confusing to read. Thankfully, we were given the opportunity to work together for the project and with the help of our TA, we were able to rather smoothly write out a research paper. TBH, not sure how we fared for the research paper because the format is totally different from a typical report paper that we do in biz modules. But I would say that we tried our best despite struggling to understand what was going on in the lecture lol.
****** Finals was cancelled in view of the pandemic*****
Honestly, my friend and I had thoughts of dropping this module from just attending the first lecture alone. (Others clearly had the same thought because the module size dropped from 30+ students to 20+ students haha) While the professor clearly tried his best to make the lectures entertaining by showing us videos and films, we just really struggled with the content and the readings. During the first lecture, the prof himself even mentioned that other people feedbacked that this did not seem like a 1000-mod, which i totally agree with because this appears to be a more advanced mod for sociology students. Additionally, the small lecture size meant that we are competing with fewer students, and competition will be much more intense because of the bell curve.
Would not recommend this module unless you want to try something new and think you can handle the readings and forum posts. Don’t regret if you do……
Thank you for reading my first blog post. While the Covid-19 situation has shortened interactions and physical lessons, this semester was IMO a much more fulfilling one than in semester 1, when i was still struggling to adjust to the new system and new environment.
NUS MODULE REVIEWS 