PS2244 Public Administration in Singapore
Professor Shamsul Haque
Assessment: 20% Class Participation, 30% Term Paper, 50% Finals
Professor Haque conducts lectures in a very methodological way that makes the content easy to understand and absorb. Definitely a recommended module for those who have no interest in the PA subfield under PS but is just looking for a module to clear the requirement. The lectures are not webcasted but Prof Haque uploads his ppt slides before every lecture. The ppt slides are also clear and well organised, so even if you miss a lecture, there shouldn't be much problem catching up. However, attending lectures are definitely recommended as Prof does share some extra information and elaborates on the slides so it would be good to jot them down! Even if you have close to zero background knowledge in PA, Prof Haque gives a good overview of every topic before zooming in to the Singapore context so it won't be a problem.
As with other PS modules, there are 4 tutorial sessions throughout the semester and the tutorial questions are the essay questions so it is possible to start on your essay early. We had to answer a total of 3(can't really rmb) out of a possible 6/7 questions in 2hours for the final exam. A quick tip is to study the entire module together and link the various topics during revision! Exam questions were straightforward which might contribute to a steeper bellcurve. Studying is absolutely essential if you wish to do well - one cannot just 'wing it' for a PA exam - alot of information but manageable as long as you are consistent!
Overall I enjoyed this module. Prof Haque is a really humble and nice guy, but his accent makes it a bit hard to understand him at times. Sit at the front of lecture hall and the problem is solved! Could be a bit boring for some though!
PS2249 Government and Politics of Singapore
Professor Hussin Mutalib
Assessment: 20% Class Participation, 30% Term Paper, 50% Finals
I didn't really enjoy this module, to be honest. Prof Mutalib definitely has a comprehensive knowledge of the who's and whatnots of Singapore politics - but unfortunately every lecture was more of a trivia dumping session rather than a close examination of critical perspectives. The only saving grace(s) of this module were the rather engaging recommended reading list and the tutorial sessions. There were only 4 tutorial sessions throughout the semester, but I ended up learning much more from my classmates/tutor as compared to lecture sessions. Granted, my tutor was quite a bitch (unknown 3 would know), but I have to give it to him for asking us questions that prompted us to learn more. BUT STILL he could have turned down the 'sassy' a bit; a sentiment I share with my classmates.
There were some guiding questions that we could use for the Term paper, but my tutor was flexible and allowed us to work on the topic of our choice. Final exam was one compulsory essay question and one optional (chosen from 2 available). As it is with the nature of my major, essays are always subjective and dependent on your marker. That being said, it is still possible to score decently as long as you have done your fair share of readings and are able to apply wider generic concepts to Singapore's context.
LAJ2201 Japanese 2
Ms Kazuko Morita
Assessment: 70% Continual Assessment, 30% Final Exam
Much much more tiring than Jap 1 for sure, but also much more enjoyable! As luck would have it, I was very fortunately assigned to Morita sensei for ALL of my tutorials, and as she was my lecturer as well, I saw her 4 times every week - basically everyday that I had school. Morita sensei is a very effective teacher and is well-versed in the pedagogy of the Japanese language. In fact, all senseis that I have come across in the jap department are all very sweet and effective teachers. The other teacher for this module, Nagami sensei was also a very sweet and humble guy that really helped my group alot in revising our script for the skit presentation.
The tough part of this module is definitely the workload, as it is with every japanese language module. There was a marked increase in the amount of work as compared to Jap 1; we had to do a presentation of our hobby, come up with a skit for a commercial and present it to the class, and had a total of 3 writing assignments where the last one was a 1-1.5 page essay about a member of our own family. The upside of all these is that it really helps you to learn the language well, so be consistent!
Final exam was much tougher than the midterms as well as Jap 1 papers, but that also means that the bellcurve would be more gentle! Soooo just do your best and it shouldn't be too difficult to score decently as long as you have done all the practices. I will definitely continue to pursue Japanese next semester :)
EL1101E Introduction to Linguistics
Professor Yosuke Sato
Assessment: 10% Class participation, 10% Tutorial Presentation, 20% Group Project, 30% Midterms, 30% Finals
Overall an enjoyable module, and I was able to apply the concepts I learnt here to help me better appreciate Japanese - it helped that Prof Yosuke is a Japanese and hence used the Japanese language as an example several times to put across his point. Yosuke is really passionate about linguistics and also really funny, but I didn't feel that he was an exceptionally effective lecturer as there were some concepts that he was not able to explain clearly. However, I definitely have to give him props for maintaining his zest throughout the entire semester.
Some people might have the misconception that this mod is about essay writing and all that due to it being offered by the department of english, but that couldn't be further away from the truth. In fact, linguistics is definitely more of a science than an arts, in my opinion, and that's the beauty of it! You can find many non-arts students taking this module to clear their breadth requirements. Alot of data analysis is involved, so that might be an advantage for science students who are used to such assessment methods. The continual assessment was not too difficult, but it would definitely help if you had a good group so that the workload evens out. Thankfully, my groupmates were all very kind and helpful even though 2 of them were year 4s.
Overall an interesting module. Midterms and finals were both MCQ papers, but then again Yosuke won't be teaching this module anymore (if I heard correctly), so the assessment methods might change the following semester 2.
Monday 13 July 2015
Saturday 11 July 2015
AY14/15 Semester 1 Module Review (Unknown 3)
Module reviews for the following:
LAJ1201
PS1101E
SC1101E
SC2205
JS1101E
LAJ1201
Lecturers: Morita sensei! (Tutorial teachers vary across quite a few)
I studied Japanese for about a month before entering NUS, but since it was self-study, I started with the first module for the language (it has 6 modules/ levels). Most of the things we learnt in class, I already knew, though I was caught up in the nuances of which I did not really study for until finals. What came up as a result was a below average midterms, which I think pulled me down a lot because of the bellcurve. I think language module intros have lots of people, so a few marks here and there will affect your final grade greatly. The stress wasn't that huge however, because I could have easily s/u-ed it. I guess the stress level largely depends on how much you give a shit to this module relative to your other modules that semester? The workload was okay for me because I had background knowledge, but the actual writing and doing took up quite some time, especially since there was homework like 3 times a week. Being the extremely conscientious student I am, obviously I started doing the work while on the bus to school for the lesson(s) (which is a realllllly bad habit I have even till now, highly not recommended). But yeah, you get the point - lots of routine language work, you've probably been through enough grammar exercises in primary school to understand this right?
For the lecturers, it was slow for me, but generally for true beginners it's at a learning pace - that is, it's not too comfortable till you can just forget about your notes, but it's not that hard that you can't keep up in class (of course, assuming you follow through every class.... so....) Each tutorial builds up on the previous one, so it is strongly recommended that you attend each of them for best results! The teachers are really cute and you can tell they enjoy teaching the lessons themselves. They always ensure to call out the entire class so that no one gets to hide from them if they aren't working hard. Of course they don't flame you like in secondary school, and that's the best part - you make mistakes in class, you get corrected, and it has a larger impact on your long-term memory. So it's all good!
BUT if you don't have strong interest, this module is not recommended.
tl;dr
pros: consistency, reinforcement, actual learning, interactive, almost guaranteed to hit the standard set for the module, really passionate and enthusiastic teachers
cons: relatively heavy workload, steep bellcurve
PS1101E
Lecturer: Prof Yoshi
The professor was great, really sarcastic with reference to the infamous people examples in his slides (understandably so), so most students who take this mod usually do come for the lectures. Also, the lectures are jam-packed with information (I didn't even finish 1/4 of my readings I think) and the last lecture was just hints. Basically a list of things you need to memorise and study for, what you get for your finals is basically how much of the list you decided to cover. The professor also summarises most of the readings to help you digest them properly, which I think was helpful because it reinforces concepts and clears misunderstandings. His lecture notes are also quite organised so finding information is easy + you have all your points together in the same powerpoints. He uploads his slides after lectures though, that's one thing to note maybe?
No midterms but a paper which was due towards the end of the module. You get a list of questions to choose from. I did not do well for this because of the lack of research and flimsy arguments all around (I always did my papers last minute, and I swear this sentence will not appear again, but only from Yr 2 Sem 1 onwards because I did the same for Yr 1 Sem 2 fml?) If you spend sufficient time on it however, given the large number of people who take this mod (as it is an intro mod), you should be able to score quite okay. My tutor was really nice, and tried his best to facilitate classroom discussions, but there was always never enough time to finish everything. Oh yeah, the tutorials are like 2 hours every 2 weeks.
Content wise it was really interesting, like you gain a consciousness and an awareness of the reality you live in, especially given the nature of it. It will be a very enriching module for you which will see you start to consider matters from a political point of view, then realise that many things you had thought to be apolitical actually aren't so. I really enjoyed the module!
Highly recommended~ Unless of course you aren't into essay-writing. But even then, you can just S/U it.
tl;dr
pros: humorous lecturer, interesting as hell content, manageable workload!
cons: bellcurve, plus essay-heavy
SC1101E
Lecturers: Tan Ern Ser and Kevin Low
I took this with a friend (Unknown B) so it was fun; it's good to have a partner next to you to discuss what you learn in lectures, you get more examples and have deeper impressions of your lectures. Especially so for this module because it's really super interesting and everyone knows what the lecture's about because it is about us, about society, so yup! Tutorials were also quite fun, even though sometimes the discussion topics become really focused and narrow and you are actually forced to think in a very linear and concise way, something I grapple with because I like working with broad ideas. Also because so many things overlap with one another it's quite hard to draw the boundaries as to what should be written as topic A and what as topic B, it really just depends on how you write. Had one do at home essay, had one midterm essay, both were relatively easy to deal with if you follow lectures and tutorials~ You will get the hang of it by the time finals arrive so~
Not gonna do a tldr for this because I didn't write a lot for this.
SC2205
Lecturers: A/P Paulin Straughan and Dr Rose Liang
Tutor: Mindy
I took this with my senior and even though it was interesting, it was pretty technical, which I guess is pretty typical of 2000 level mods. Not sure why I decided to take this in my first semester but I did. I did shit for my first assignment and okay for my research one, but I expected those grades so. Lots of readings, some were quite interesting so it's okay; was very useful for me because I used some of those readings for my assignment in SC1101E hehe. It got boring towards the end because I was honestly only interested in one part out of many parts of the module so I guess I did regret taking it in the end. But oh well! At least had a glimpse of 2000 level work load so there were some rewards. The lecturers were really nice and knowledgeable (A/P Paulin Straughan was very sweet like think kind grandma level but that's why it could get pretty boring; Dr Liang came across as a very straightforward person, but she also seems to always talk as if she's in a debate, very passionate). I guess it can get really boring to do a 2000 level mod that's not your major so I would not recommend it to non-Sociology majors. If you do take sociology though, I think it would be a good choice.
Oh! For tutorials, we got this really pretty and cute TA who just came from the States and is a PhD student I think? She was really earnest and patient with us; she knew the direction in which she wanted the discussions to advance towards so I feel the tutorials were quite manageable and useful. Also, it was very fun to gain intimate insights on your classmates' familial life, given the nature of the course, I mean you can hardly get it anywhere else right? Seeing as you do not know any of them. Quite interesting.
tl;dr
pros: good if you are gonna major in sociology, good lecturers and tutor
cons: do not take it if you're not gonna, can get quite technical
JS1101E
Lecturers: Dr McMorran and Dr Amos
I had 2 lecturers and both were really cute and passionate about their work. Dr McMorran was more concise (well his content allowed him this) because I think he went through the more sociological side of Japanese studies. Dr Amos went through the more historical side so given that I do not like memorising stuff his slides were kinda off for me. Attending lectures and tutorials really do help though like for someone who doesn't really read notes and rely a lot on auditory recollection. Tutorials were really fast like 50 minutes? and you still have discussion aka super a lot of time taken up. Really fun, really useful when it comes to reiterating important stuff (and sometimes mundane facts) so attend it! About 2/3 forum components in which you write like. maybe 300~400 words of response to a topic that you choose yourself? Scored pretty decently for these with just a few hours of work so pretty chill imo! The project really sucked though.......... the project members matter A WHOLE damn lot. So...... pray hope. Be careful with the topic you choose because it will really determine the flow and pace of the project. My topic sucked because it was a very intangible topic. And nobody accepted my suggestion to change the topic so oooooh well. Almost failed it at like 17 or 16 out 30 and got like a B in the end, I think I s/u-ed it so... swore to never do anymore projects if I can help it because of this. Finals was mcq, studied about 2 hours before it, it was okay, memorise the positions of each of Japan's islands and just everything in general even the films shown. They will not screen a movie for you for leisure let's be real. Oh! Another tip is Japan is super similar to Singapore so they basically face the same developed country issues. Just remember that.
tl;dr
pros: really interesting content, really fun lecturers and some tutors, take it!
cons: history and mcq finals so bellcurve probably really steep
ALL THE BEST everyone!
LAJ1201
PS1101E
SC1101E
SC2205
JS1101E
LAJ1201
Lecturers: Morita sensei! (Tutorial teachers vary across quite a few)
I studied Japanese for about a month before entering NUS, but since it was self-study, I started with the first module for the language (it has 6 modules/ levels). Most of the things we learnt in class, I already knew, though I was caught up in the nuances of which I did not really study for until finals. What came up as a result was a below average midterms, which I think pulled me down a lot because of the bellcurve. I think language module intros have lots of people, so a few marks here and there will affect your final grade greatly. The stress wasn't that huge however, because I could have easily s/u-ed it. I guess the stress level largely depends on how much you give a shit to this module relative to your other modules that semester? The workload was okay for me because I had background knowledge, but the actual writing and doing took up quite some time, especially since there was homework like 3 times a week. Being the extremely conscientious student I am, obviously I started doing the work while on the bus to school for the lesson(s) (which is a realllllly bad habit I have even till now, highly not recommended). But yeah, you get the point - lots of routine language work, you've probably been through enough grammar exercises in primary school to understand this right?
For the lecturers, it was slow for me, but generally for true beginners it's at a learning pace - that is, it's not too comfortable till you can just forget about your notes, but it's not that hard that you can't keep up in class (of course, assuming you follow through every class.... so....) Each tutorial builds up on the previous one, so it is strongly recommended that you attend each of them for best results! The teachers are really cute and you can tell they enjoy teaching the lessons themselves. They always ensure to call out the entire class so that no one gets to hide from them if they aren't working hard. Of course they don't flame you like in secondary school, and that's the best part - you make mistakes in class, you get corrected, and it has a larger impact on your long-term memory. So it's all good!
BUT if you don't have strong interest, this module is not recommended.
tl;dr
pros: consistency, reinforcement, actual learning, interactive, almost guaranteed to hit the standard set for the module, really passionate and enthusiastic teachers
cons: relatively heavy workload, steep bellcurve
PS1101E
Lecturer: Prof Yoshi
The professor was great, really sarcastic with reference to the infamous people examples in his slides (understandably so), so most students who take this mod usually do come for the lectures. Also, the lectures are jam-packed with information (I didn't even finish 1/4 of my readings I think) and the last lecture was just hints. Basically a list of things you need to memorise and study for, what you get for your finals is basically how much of the list you decided to cover. The professor also summarises most of the readings to help you digest them properly, which I think was helpful because it reinforces concepts and clears misunderstandings. His lecture notes are also quite organised so finding information is easy + you have all your points together in the same powerpoints. He uploads his slides after lectures though, that's one thing to note maybe?
No midterms but a paper which was due towards the end of the module. You get a list of questions to choose from. I did not do well for this because of the lack of research and flimsy arguments all around (I always did my papers last minute, and I swear this sentence will not appear again, but only from Yr 2 Sem 1 onwards because I did the same for Yr 1 Sem 2 fml?) If you spend sufficient time on it however, given the large number of people who take this mod (as it is an intro mod), you should be able to score quite okay. My tutor was really nice, and tried his best to facilitate classroom discussions, but there was always never enough time to finish everything. Oh yeah, the tutorials are like 2 hours every 2 weeks.
Content wise it was really interesting, like you gain a consciousness and an awareness of the reality you live in, especially given the nature of it. It will be a very enriching module for you which will see you start to consider matters from a political point of view, then realise that many things you had thought to be apolitical actually aren't so. I really enjoyed the module!
Highly recommended~ Unless of course you aren't into essay-writing. But even then, you can just S/U it.
tl;dr
pros: humorous lecturer, interesting as hell content, manageable workload!
cons: bellcurve, plus essay-heavy
SC1101E
Lecturers: Tan Ern Ser and Kevin Low
I took this with a friend (Unknown B) so it was fun; it's good to have a partner next to you to discuss what you learn in lectures, you get more examples and have deeper impressions of your lectures. Especially so for this module because it's really super interesting and everyone knows what the lecture's about because it is about us, about society, so yup! Tutorials were also quite fun, even though sometimes the discussion topics become really focused and narrow and you are actually forced to think in a very linear and concise way, something I grapple with because I like working with broad ideas. Also because so many things overlap with one another it's quite hard to draw the boundaries as to what should be written as topic A and what as topic B, it really just depends on how you write. Had one do at home essay, had one midterm essay, both were relatively easy to deal with if you follow lectures and tutorials~ You will get the hang of it by the time finals arrive so~
Not gonna do a tldr for this because I didn't write a lot for this.
SC2205
Lecturers: A/P Paulin Straughan and Dr Rose Liang
Tutor: Mindy
I took this with my senior and even though it was interesting, it was pretty technical, which I guess is pretty typical of 2000 level mods. Not sure why I decided to take this in my first semester but I did. I did shit for my first assignment and okay for my research one, but I expected those grades so. Lots of readings, some were quite interesting so it's okay; was very useful for me because I used some of those readings for my assignment in SC1101E hehe. It got boring towards the end because I was honestly only interested in one part out of many parts of the module so I guess I did regret taking it in the end. But oh well! At least had a glimpse of 2000 level work load so there were some rewards. The lecturers were really nice and knowledgeable (A/P Paulin Straughan was very sweet like think kind grandma level but that's why it could get pretty boring; Dr Liang came across as a very straightforward person, but she also seems to always talk as if she's in a debate, very passionate). I guess it can get really boring to do a 2000 level mod that's not your major so I would not recommend it to non-Sociology majors. If you do take sociology though, I think it would be a good choice.
Oh! For tutorials, we got this really pretty and cute TA who just came from the States and is a PhD student I think? She was really earnest and patient with us; she knew the direction in which she wanted the discussions to advance towards so I feel the tutorials were quite manageable and useful. Also, it was very fun to gain intimate insights on your classmates' familial life, given the nature of the course, I mean you can hardly get it anywhere else right? Seeing as you do not know any of them. Quite interesting.
tl;dr
pros: good if you are gonna major in sociology, good lecturers and tutor
cons: do not take it if you're not gonna, can get quite technical
JS1101E
Lecturers: Dr McMorran and Dr Amos
I had 2 lecturers and both were really cute and passionate about their work. Dr McMorran was more concise (well his content allowed him this) because I think he went through the more sociological side of Japanese studies. Dr Amos went through the more historical side so given that I do not like memorising stuff his slides were kinda off for me. Attending lectures and tutorials really do help though like for someone who doesn't really read notes and rely a lot on auditory recollection. Tutorials were really fast like 50 minutes? and you still have discussion aka super a lot of time taken up. Really fun, really useful when it comes to reiterating important stuff (and sometimes mundane facts) so attend it! About 2/3 forum components in which you write like. maybe 300~400 words of response to a topic that you choose yourself? Scored pretty decently for these with just a few hours of work so pretty chill imo! The project really sucked though.......... the project members matter A WHOLE damn lot. So...... pray hope. Be careful with the topic you choose because it will really determine the flow and pace of the project. My topic sucked because it was a very intangible topic. And nobody accepted my suggestion to change the topic so oooooh well. Almost failed it at like 17 or 16 out 30 and got like a B in the end, I think I s/u-ed it so... swore to never do anymore projects if I can help it because of this. Finals was mcq, studied about 2 hours before it, it was okay, memorise the positions of each of Japan's islands and just everything in general even the films shown. They will not screen a movie for you for leisure let's be real. Oh! Another tip is Japan is super similar to Singapore so they basically face the same developed country issues. Just remember that.
tl;dr
pros: really interesting content, really fun lecturers and some tutors, take it!
cons: history and mcq finals so bellcurve probably really steep
ALL THE BEST everyone!
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