AY2015/16 Semester 1 Modules Review

ST2132: Mathematical Statistics

Lecturer: Gan Fah Fatt

So I got taught by GFF again, and despite him claiming that he's "so excited!" to teach us, I'm not that fond of the 8am lectures. Without webcast. Apparently he doesn't like webcast, so we are all forced to wake up early. There's no avoiding this module anyway, since it is compulsory. Most stats majors will take this Year 2 Sem 1, with a few sprinkles of math majors.

The first half of this module is just ST2131 repeated, so it was easy at first, the new stuff comes after the midterms. There is a huge focus of estimation of parameters. Personally I feel that this is my hardest module ever, I couldn't do the tutorial questions at all for the new topics. There are 2 lectures and a 1-hour tutorial weekly. Workload is minimum, just do the tutorial questions. Midterm was MCQ and finals was short questions. Cheatsheets allowed. I doubt I will score well for this, but my advice would be to pay attention during lectures and do some practice questions. Well, I paid attention but still couldn't do the questions, I must be really dumb.

ST2137: Computer Aided Data Analysis

Lecturer: Lim Chingway

This module is also compulsory for stats majors. Basically we just learn how to use 3 statistical programs: SAS, R, SPSS. I would encourage students to finish up CS1010S before taking this as you may require some programming techniques.

The 3 programs used were vastly different and my cheatsheets were filled with tons and tons of code. R gives the most flexibility and you will still need some R knowledge in later modules, so please don't erase it from your memory. SAS is slightly more rigid, while SPSS is like an upgraded version of Microsoft Excel. Although we do learn some statistical stuff in this module, the midterms and finals tested mainly on coding, with a few T/F questions at the front. There is a weekly lab session where you just go to mark your attendance. Only R can be downloaded free onto your computer, so you would have to visit the lab often to practise your coding. SAS has a free University edition, but the interface is slightly different from the version used in the lab.

There is also a group project where each group has about 5 members. Basically, the group has to find a dataset (either online or go survey people) and perform some statistical analysis on it. The report is around 8 pages long, so that should give you an idea of the workload. Like most groups, my group only started the project after the midterms (despite me bugging them since the beginning), so it was pretty hectic. I would recommend for future groups to at least find a dataset and decide on a hypothesis before recess week, otherwise you might be swamped with work after the midterms, especially when everyone has other projects from other modules.

MA2311: Techniques in Advanced Calculus

Lecturer: Leung Man Chun

Definitely the most memorable lecturer I had this semester. Here's a tip to find people who have taken this module under this lecturer: just tell them that you need the "intuition" to solve the math problems and seeing the "simplicity" behind them is absolutely necessary. Seriously, these 2 words have become an inside joke for everyone. 


I... am rather wordless now for this module. I don't even know what I learned, so I'll just copy from the notes: Sequences, Series, Vectors, Differentiation, Integration. The lecturer likes to focus on the idea behind solving problems and not the actual techniques, plus he is the only one teaching the tutorials too, so I have no one else to consult, ugh. Lecture attendance was very very poor, I also started skipping lecture after recess week oops. His notes were horrible too, so many blank pages and he does not upload the full set of notes before the lecture. I would recommend students to just skip lectures, wait until he has finished a chapter, then watch the webcasts to copy notes in one shot. Midterms was open-book, and many people brought in last year's notes, including me, LOL. No surprise there. I screwed up my finals too, also no surprise there.

This module overall was super slack, but it was due to the lecturer. Every tutorial has only about 2-3 questions. So, if you trust your ability to self-study, you can try this module out under this lecturer. Keyword: "this lecturer". Oh yes, this module precludes all those math, applied math, QF people, so you'll only face competition from us stats majors! -gives an evil smirk-

MA3269: Mathematical Finance 1

Lecturer: Gong Zheng

I took this module because I can use it for my specialisation in finance and business statistics. My first ever level-3000 module! The cohort for this module mainly consists of math, applied math and stats majors. There are a lot of year 3 students with a minority of year 2 students.

I have conflicted feelings about this module. I love this module as the stuff we learned are practical and useful. We study the basics of cashflows, utility theory, portfolios, Capital Asset Pricing Model and options. I felt smarter after every lecture. However, the midterms and finals were super hard for me. There is a reason why this module is coded as MA and not FIN. All the math came out during the tests and I lost to those math people and all those seniors. I did so badly :( should have asked for supplementary questions to practise. Nevertheless, I do not regret taking this module.

Workload wise, there's only 1 lecture weekly, but it was in the evening at 7pm-10pm (the horrors!). There is also a 1-hour weekly tutorial which was just going through the solutions. I found those useless as the solutions will be posted up anyway, but at least the tutor was nice and tried to summarise the chapters for us every tutorial. There are also 2 assignments throughout the semester to do, we get about slightly over a week to do and hand in. Midterms and finals were hard, as mentioned previously, but copying some examples and proofs will help to answer the giveaway questions. Overall a recommended module, but will have to spend some bidding points.

GEK2003/SSA2209/PS2249: Government and Politics of Singapore

Lecturer: Bilveer Singh

Ok. I took this module because of my lack of bidding points, since I wanted to save up for next semester. I also took this because of the General Election, which was expected to happen during this semester. I think a lot of students took this module for the same reason, especially those who were voting for the first time.

I'm not really sure if this review will help, as I suspect that the focus every semester changes depending on Singapore's political situation. This semester, the focus was on GE2015 as well as the passing away of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Our essay assignment was on Mr Lee's demise, and the finals had 1 question for GE2015 and 1 question on Mr Lee, out of a total of 3 questions. So it's pretty obvious where the focus is. Nevertheless, we still covered a lot of generic stuff during the weekly lectures, which were kinda fun, I guess. I find the lecturer ok, and sometimes he will walk around the auditorium to ask students questions, eg. how do you find the performance of (insert minister name here) or do you think (insert party here) will win their constituency.

This module is slack too in terms of workload. There are no midterms, only finals which was choose 2 out of 3 questions. There are fortnightly tutorials when we just discuss about random topics and share our ideas, no need to prepare anything. I got some ideas for my essay from the tutorials. Also, an essay assignment which was around 2500 words, choose 1 out of 2 questions. I scored decently for that essay, despite not being a politics major. The essay questions would change focus every semester I suppose. Overall, a recommended module, since it has very little writing as compared to other arts modules. A good module to clear your SS or GEM or whatever.

AY2014/15 Semester 2 Modules Review

Annnnnnd... Another semester is over. I have officially completed the first year in my uni life. This semester was definitely more interesting than last semester due to my choice of modules. So here's the review which I did up in 15 mins. Hope it isn't too shabby. Well, the language is shabby. But whatever.

CS1010S: Programming Methodology

Lecturer: Leong Wai Kay

Compulsory module for Stats majors. No previous knowledge of programming needed. The module teaches Python programming, plus, NO BELL CURVE.

The homework was done over an online platform called Coursemology. So apparently there are missions, side quests, contests, trainings. And you get exp from completing them, which allows you to level up (sounds totally like a game, yeah?) Your final level on Coursemology determines your CA component. I’m pretty sure the game-style learning was the thing that motivated me to do the homework. But it was fun to do all those questions actually. Sure, the questions were hard, some super hard. But that sense of satisfaction when you finally managed to solve them? Priceless.

There’s a weekly lecture, as well as recitation (they go through the lecture stuff again) and tutorial (go for them to get participation exp). The tutors were mostly undergraduates. Since we’re all students, I felt more comfortable talking to them. Tutorials were like gatherings instead of a lesson. It depends on who you get as your tutor though. My friend apparently got a lousy tutor who was unresponsive outside lessons.

That aside, the workload for this module is super high. I mean it, seriously. The problem with programming is that if you know the answer, you can do it in 3 minutes. But if you don’t know, you can just stare at your computer for 3 hours and still make no progress. That was apparently what most of the tutors said during the first lecture. In fact, I spend more than half my homework time just doing this module. I had no time to do other modules! So I would advise potential students to balance it out by taking other modules with lower workloads.

ST2131/MA2216: Probability

Lecturer: Ho Man Wai

Probability is no longer just about permutations and combinations and whatever you have learnt in A-levels. Apparently, there's way more stuff to learn for a module with a deceivingly simple name.

Some people claim this is the hardest module in NUS. Well, I’m not sure about that but I guess they are close. The first 3 chapters were basically topics learnt already in H2 Maths, so I kind of skipped lectures and didn’t watch the webcasts. I guessed that was a bad move as it dragged on to the later chapters too, I did not understand how to do the tutorials. So I worked harder (when I wasn’t doing programming) and I read the textbook (the textbook is good), which helped me to understand much better than the lecture. Not that the lecturer is bad, I just can’t concentrate when he’s teaching.

I was really awesome at probability in JC, my friends used to approach me to solve problems, and I solved all of them. :D But I guessed that caused me to be complacent and assume that I can just skip past the first half of this module. Sigh. So my advice, please go for all the lectures and practice doing the problems. Oh, and buy the textbook too, there are tons of exercises inside.

PC1143: Physics III

Lecturer: Kenneth Hong Chong Ming

So... I realised that doing well and getting an A for A-level Physics is of no use at all for uni physics. This module covers electricity and magnetism, a core module for physics majors. I found it really interesting that people who ask me about taking this module all have the same responses. Basically the conversation will go something like this:

Person: ‘So what major are you?’

Me: ‘Stats major’

Person: ‘Whoa! Then why did you take this module?’

Me: ‘Faculty requirement?’

Person: ‘You took the wrong module… This module damn hard!’

Me: ‘I know. Everyone says that. Stop reminding me OMG!!!’

Yeah, so I guessed I made the wrong choice? Less than 10% of the people taking this were non-Physics majors. There was a lot of integration to do. And sadly, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but integration is a piece of cake as compared to the other parts of the module. I’m referring to solving the integral, not coming up with it.

We also had lecture quizzes where I had to use those clickers (Hi clickers! We meet again!), and tutorials were once every fortnight. The tutorial questions are crazy, apparently you are supposed to spend 3-4 hours on 1 question?! Even the physics majors cannot solve them. And we had online assignments on Masteringphysics, where I relived the horror of submitting answers online, sometimes I obviously got the answer correct but apparently the system wants the answer to be presented in another form… There are also 5 lab experiments and you have to hand in a lab report after each lab session. That is actually the easiest part, since the reports just require you to be tedious and spend some time on them. I usually just dedicate 1 afternoon to them.

GEK1062: Bridging East and West: Exploring Chinese Communication

Lecturer: Guest lecturers

I totally did not waste my bidding points on this module. Don’t be fooled by the scary-sounding module name!

So basically, every week you just read the reading provided. Then you attend the lecture and listen to the experts talk. Some of them are really prominent in their field. At the end of the lecture, you write a reflection and hand it in. Those reflections make up 50% of your final grade. Every fortnight there are tutorials which are just group presentations. But the tutorials are really slack. Eg. For the first tutorial, we just had to collect info of our parents’ and grandparents’ name in English and Chinese, then present on the trends found from the group members. Easy peasy.

You have to remember your Chinese though. Some of the guest lecturers talked in Chinese. So I was kind of surprised when I saw foreigners taking the module(in the end, they got people to buddy the foreigners and be their translators). So just remember your basic Chinese from school and you are all set to take this! I actually have nothing to write about this module other than it’s slack, so so slack.

SSA1201: Singapore Society

Lecturer: Rose Liang Yee Hing

I have no idea what to write for this. Basically, I would rename this module as Sociology of Singapore. And I still have no idea what sociology is.

The most important part of this review: if you see this lecturer, do NOT take this module. I don’t even know how I survived through her lectures. I dozed off a lot of times, and I had to bring in food everytime so I had something to keep me awake. The lecturer is horrible at explaining (proof: she cannot even explain the essay question for the midterms properly. In the end, our tutor had to step in to explain) and I don’t even know how she qualifies as a lecturer.

Tutorials are once a fortnight. I noticed that FASS modules seem to have less lesson hours as compared to FoS modules. Basically, just read the readings and turn up at the tutorials for the participation mark. I felt like I learned nothing from this module anyway. Ok, maybe a little from the tutorials. Oh my gosh, I just realised I DID learn everything from the tutorials. I don’t remember the lectures at all! Anyway, I ended up writing every essay like an A-level GP essay since I didn’t understand what sociology is. Lesson learnt: check which faculty is teaching the module before taking it. Oh, and also the lecturer too. Gotta remind myself not to make the same mistake.