My first module review! Modules include ST1131, MA1101R, MA1102R, EC1301, ES1541.
ST1131: Introduction to Statistics
Lecturer: Gan Fah Fatt
This module is really easy. The topics covered are mostly JC stuff with a few new chapters. Workload is seriously light, there are tutorials every week but they don't even check your work at all. Mid-term is MCQ and final consist of short questions. Helpsheets allowed.
Being a studious freshman, I diligently attended all the lectures and did the useless tutorial questions at the beginning. But soon I became lazy and realised that the textbook was sufficient enough. I stopped doing the tutorials and spaced out during lectures. The module is that easy. Just practise the past year papers and you should be fine. Learn how to calculate test statistics without your trusty graphing calculator, the calculators are allowed but no credit will be given if you just use them to get the answer.
Basically, if you did well for statistics during your JC time, then I would strongly recommend you to take this module since you can basically slack all the way. Don't be too confident and think you'll get that A though, the bell curve is super steep. I lost to the bell curve myself :(
MA1101R: Linear Algebra I
Lecturer: Victor Tan
I loved this module. It requires consistent work but the process was satisfying. I have to give credit to my lecturer, Prof Victor Tan, he makes the lectures really interesting.
Lectures had almost full attendance every time. Before you go "woah!", let me explain. We had lecture quizzes. Basically, you have to pair up with someone and share a "clicker", which is used to answer lecture quizzes posed throughout the lectures. I loved these quizzes. It gets the whole lecture theatre talking and the results will be shown immediately. I was really fortunate to have taken this module with one of my ex-classmate from JC, she was a great help.
The lecture notes for this module is the textbook, so buy it. The tutorial questions are also inside. You will also learn how to use MatLab during the lab sessions, please attend them as there will be a lab quiz at the end of the semester. Also, attendance gives you bonus marks for both the tutorials and labs :D
The beginning chapters were easy but they got progressively harder. You must put in effort to understand the concepts or you won't score well. I did fantastic for my mid-terms but I screwed up my finals, ending up with a lousy grade -.- Looks like those helpsheets weren't helpful enough.
MA1102R: Calculus
Lecturer: Wang Fei
Ouch. Up to now, I still don't understand some of the topics taught in this module. Functions, limits, differentiation, integration, differential equations.
I thought I had this in the bag. Functions was super easy, it was JC syllabus, so I thought I should do well. But limits were a killer for me. Even till now, I still do not know how to prove a limit using that epsilon-delta method. So as expected, I screwed up my mid-terms real bad. Lets just say the mean was around 35/65 and I scored below 20. -hides face-
Thankfully, I woke up and realised that I had to buck up. I practised and practised. I started scoring better for the homework assignments which I did by myself (there are 5 in total for 15%) and I did well for the lab quiz too, which uses Maple program.
What I have to say now is, practise really makes perfect. I thought I didn't do well for my finals and I kept praying to pass, but the bell curve must have been in my favour as I scored a B! So no worries, just practise and you should do well for this module. I learnt important life lessons from this module.
EC1301: Principles of Economics
Lecturer: Connie Chung Wee-Wee, Georgios Georgiou
This module is so slack. I can't believe such a module exists in university! Just a 3-hr lecture weekly and that's it!
There are online tutorials to do weekly which are MCQs, approximately 25-50qns every week, by my estimate. You need to log on to do the questions, and you have officially completed your work for the week. Lectures were just based on the textbook, so it's not necessary to attend. The attendance for every lecture was poor anyway. I attended as I did not want to watch the webcast.
I did not take H2 econs, but those who took told me that most of the topics covered were JC syllabus, so I guess that's the reason why people skip lectures. Mid-terms and finals were both MCQs, so do take this module if you need a slack module this term. But watch out for the bell curve since this is an easy module. I S/U-ed this module, must have lost out to the econs people.
ES1541: Exploring Science Communication Through Popular Science
Note: This module is only for science students admitted in AY2013/14 and after. It is compulsory for this group of students, and it is considered as a breadth module.
Attendance is compulsory for this module as there are a lot of in-class work to be done. There is a lot of groupwork for this module, but since it's new, the workload might change. What irritated me the most was that we only had around 3 days or so every time to submit our groupwork or individual work. I had to rush so many times and frankly, I hated this module.
The final part of this module requires you to write a 1800-2000 word essay based on 1 of the 5 books for the module and also give a 10-min oral presentation. I know this sounds shocking but you can always approach your tutor for help, there is also ample time given for you to finish your essay and prepare for the presentation.
Overall, I started looking forward to this module as time passed as the constant groupwork ensured that the whole class knew each other. It was the only tutorial where I had friends :)
