Course Review NTU SPMS - Electives
This portion is for the electives!
======== PE / UE ========
BU8301 - Fundamentals of Business Law (Y2S1/3AU/BM) [S/U]
Lecturer/Tutor: Mr Ram A Ganapathy
Class Participation, Presentation (20%) - Grade: A-
Finals (80%)
Overall Grade: S
A 1.5hr lecture and a 1.5hr seminar weekly. Seminar attendance taken. The 20% CA consists of a tutorial presentation, and that's about it! The rest is just class participation. The finals is a 2.5h, open-book exam.
If you are a person who dislike maths, don't wanna take BU8201 like the others, wanna clear Business PE or just want to have an open book exam, then this mod is for you! This module doesn't require memorising, since the exam is open book, but you will have to know how to apply the case laws and application. I find them rather applicable in real life, such as laws in purchasing items, and signing contracts which most of us will encounter in the future. Some basic knowledge is not bad. :)
The difficult part comes when you have to write. Sometimes, there are quite a lot of alternatives for a particular scenario, and you will have to judge which one is more applicable. For example, if a shopkeeper doesn't state the exemption clause explicitly, then can one claim damages? It will be good to have your own side notes, so that tough decisions like these can become clearer in future. :D
The presentation, 5 minutes per person, on a tutorial. The tutorial which you get is by luck, so pray hard you get an interesting one. The seminar is pretty standard, a short summary of the topic, a presentation by 1 of the groups, and some past exam questions to try to wrap up the day. Well, be prepared for the seminars, you never know when he is going to ask you random questions about the topic, so hmm...
As stated, the finals is open-book, 2.5 hours. The paper is very rushed! If you haven't study or you are not familiar with the concepts, chances are you will be flipping your way through the notes, sometimes the textbook, and your own handwritten notes if you have even made some. There's just simply not enough time to flip too much stuff, so be sure about the concepts to save time!
So why did I S/U? Well, actually that's because I chose to S/U any business module I take, since all these business stuff is none of my business. =P This is how I studied for this course, with a S/U mindset of course. Every week, read the readings stated at the end of the lecture slides (textbook), set 1.5 hours aside to the tutorial, go for the seminar. Repeat this process for the weeks in the semester. Before finals, try 1 paper for the feel of how is it like in the actual day. Then, do the paper during the finals. You realise that there is no part stating "revise, make your own notes and print the tutorial presentation slides". That's for me, I feel that constant revision beats last minute revision, not that it's impossible of course. But, if you have more time in the finals period to study for your other cores, why not? :)
The lecturer is Mr.Ram(?), and I can say his lectures are rather interesting, at least more interesting than the maths modules. ~.~
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CE1003 - Introduction to Computational Thinking (Y3S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturers: Dr. Phillip Fu/Dr. Shen Zhiqi
Quiz 1 (10%) - 8/10
Quiz 2 (10%) - 10/10
Assignment 1 (5%) - A
Assignment 2 (5%) - A
Finals (70%)
Overall Grade: A+
2 1-hour lectures and 1 hour tutorial weekly. No attendance taken for lectures and tutorials. 5 fortnight labs, attendance taken (even though I don't think it is graded). 2 in-lab quizzes (3rd and 5th), and 2 assignments with 1-month deadline. 1 final exam, closed-book.
I think this course is relatively simple if you already have programming experience. :) The difficulty of this course is way lower than C++/Java, so for those non-SCE student, try taking this course if you want to learn some programming in another language. :) I did not spend much time on this course, but still practice is still quite important as different languages have different syntax.
I find composite types the most difficult, that is lists, sets, tuples and dictionaries. References when combined with these data structures can be quite non-intuitive, especially when changing an element in a list can actually affect another list due to referencing problem. So if you are used to C++ and Java programming, this could be a problem. Well again, practice is the key! Other than that, I don't find other parts particularly difficult. =D
The quizzes and exams do test on concepts, such as identifying the best data structures, the reasoning behind different errors, etc. Thus, it will be good (and relatively simple) to understand those concepts, otherwise you will be smoking through the questions. The quizzes are MCQ, but can be quite tricky sometimes. The assignments are manageable! I spent around 3 hours per assignment, so a 1-month deadline is quite good ya? =P
Recommended as a UE? To those people who like programming, or a beginner to programming, this course is good! =D
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CE1007 - Data Structures (Y3S2/3AU/UE)
Lecturer: Assoc. Prof Hui / Dr.Owen
Lab Head: Asst. Prof Fan Rui
Lab test (30%) - 100/100
Assignment (20%) - ?
Finals (50%)
Overall Grade: A+
2 1-hour lectures, 1 hour lab and 1 hour tutorial weekly. The lab hour is usually a quiet work hour, with people doing their own labs and work with no discussion, and a tutorial follows immediately. There is attendance, but I don't think it is graded. A lab test, an assignment and a finals.
The pace of this course is VERY fast. I am simply thankful that I have some background in C++ before, otherwise I will be quite lost especially before the recess week where the whole C syllabus is squeezed into 7 weeks. But if you are ok in programming, then this part should be handled fairly alright. The assignment nearing to the end of the semester is rather reasonable, except for the last question. I think it's easy to pass this course.
The difficult part will be pointers. C programming has a lot of pointers, and after recess week it's going to be linked lists and pointers all the way. So the pointers concept is obviously one of the most important ones in the course. Practice will be good, but understanding is more essential. Although this part is difficult, I actually this part of the lectures the best. They seem to link quite well, I don't know why. =P
Before the lab test on week 8, a list of 30 questions spread across 5 sections will be released, and 1 question from each section will come out from the lab test. So if you can do all by yourself, it is a guaranteed 100 marks test, not bad eh? The CA is a must score for everybody. The finals is a super rush paper. I think I did the finals much faster than how I usually do the tutorial and lab questions, and left with only 20 seconds before the time stops. It is important to be extremely familiar with concepts, as there will be no time to think during the finals. =/
Recommended as an UE? Well, unless you have strong programming background or intend to S/U the mod, if not I don't think this is a good course to gain experience in programming/to score. It is fun, you learn something interesting, but there is a need to dedicate some time to study this course. Taking CE1003 (Python) or CE9001 (Java) to learn programming seems to be a better choice in my opinion. =) Oh yeah, Prof. Fan Rui is VERY clear in his tutorials! He gives lots of good examples and explains stuff clearly. Perfect for noobs like me. XD
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CE9001 - Java and the Internet (Y2S2/3AU/UE)
Lecturer/Lab Head: Dr. Li Fang
Quizzes (40%) - 38/40
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: A+
A weekly lecture, tutorial and lab squeezed into a 4-hour period. 2 quizzes, and a finals. The 4-hour period has no compulsory attendance, but the activities are not recorded too, since they are conducted in a computer lab.
If you have some background in C/C++, then this course will be relatively easy. The syntax is quite similar, the ideas are somewhat the same, and it is safe to start working hard for this module only from week 9/10. ^^
The difficult part? Well, I will say is the concepts involving classes and exceptions. (Even though they are not really that hard) You will really have to understand those and not just memorise. For example, you will have to know that a ; after an if statement will not cause a compilation error, but rather just a logical error. Things like these will have to be noted.
The quizzes are 20 minutes each, and can be quite tricky! There is plenty of time to do those, so just read the questions carefully and do them. There is no big code-writing segments in these quizzes, and thus manageable. The finals is alright too, except that now code-writing is now tested. Standard, manageable questions, and the past year papers are about the same standard. Again, a few tricky parts, some of which I detected and some I missed. Overall ok though! I did not rush through the paper, and still had about 5-10 minutes to check my work. :)
So, if you are a person interested to learn programming, or just want to learn another programming language, then this course is recommended! ^^ I mean, this course is an introduction to programming for people who are interested to pursue a minor degree, and it is rather well taught! Oh, this course is named "Java and the Internet", however more than 95% of the time is spent on JAVA. If your main interest is on the Internet aspect, then try another course instead. =P
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CE9002 - How Computers Work (Y2S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturer/Lab Head: Dr. Li Fang
Best 2 quizzes (40%) - 39/40
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: A
A 2 hour lecture weekly, and 5 labs (2 to 3 hours) in the whole semester. 3 quizzes in total, with the best 2 being counted, and the finals. The lectures and labs have no attendance. :)
If you have a interest to know some basic stuff about computers, and simply lazy to research online the stuff (just as simple hardware and networking), take this course! It's not a tiring course, even though there is still a substantial amount of content. The main aim of CE9002 is to let people have a brief knowledge about computers, so even if you almost nothing about computers, it's perfectly fine! I came from a almost no knowledge background, and still survived the course. :D
The difficult part... the notes can be sometimes too brief, especially the calculations part of the course. So to get a better understanding about calculating hit rates, transmission rates, submasks, etc, it will be wise to look online for some tips, or simply consult Dr.Li Fang. She is very nice! Her explanations are rather understandable, and I can clear most of my doubts after a consultation with her. The labs... Well, be prepared for the labs, otherwise one can be very lost (me la) when assembling computers and networks. Even though the labs have no attendance, it will be an experience to have some hands on, instead of 100% theory all the way. =/
The quizzes are 20 minutes each, and they consist of only MCQ, T/F and calculation questions. It's definitely better to understand the things being taught, instead of purely memorising (even though it's ok too). It's not difficult to score in the quizzes, unless you did not study the calculation questions and have very bad luck in guessing stuff. =P My cohort finals is more difficult than the previous years! T.T Oh well, the paper can be a bit rush, but it is possible to score full marks if you studied really really hard, and know the details of the notes very well. No trick questions there.
This course is highly recommended as UE! It's interesting for a computer beginner, and I think it's a better course compared to a lot of electives/math modules I took. Oh, this course has no programming stuff, so all those who hate C++ can still take this course without worrying. :)
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CM8012 - Introduction to Forensic Science (Y2T1/2AU/UE) [P/F]
3 sets of graded MCQ (75%) - 45/45
Case study 1 (5%) - 10/18
Case study 2 (15%) - 13/27
5 opinion polls (5%) - 5/5
Overall: P
This is a MOOC online course, and offered during the first special term. It is a pre-requisite to CM8022 (Applications of Forensic Science, 1AU). So, people who wants to study forensic, but does not want so many AUs to be graded can take this course first. 3 sets of MCQ, 2 case studies, and 5 opinions polls spread out across 8 weeks.
I will say the content is quite interesting. You learn about estimating the time of death, bullets, drugs, methods of confirming who is the guilty person, etc. Having some knowledge of chemistry will be good, but is not essential as a pre-requisite as the videos cover the concepts needed (E.g. Chromatography, IR spectrum). The MCQs are easy too! As long as you listen to the lecture videos properly, and read the given handouts, the MCQ will be a breeze. 2 attempts are given, with the intention of giving another shot at the question if you get it wrong. Very kind ya? =P
The difficult parts, well maybe the atomic structure part gets a bit too boring and difficult to understand. However it is only a small part, not that significant. :) Assignments wise, I think the case studies are the most difficult. I don't think I really get the logic of how the different evidence fit into a bit picture, thus my scores for the 2 case studies are kinda cui. =/ About 1 to 2 sentences answers for every question, and there will be about 7 to 10 questions per case study. Not that bad for those who like to investigate crime scenes.
This course is recommended as a UE, as you can learn this for fun. :) However, if you want to take this as a STS PE, I will say it is not really worth the effort as during Semester 1, you will have to take CM8022 (mentioned above) and their timetable is exactly the same as CM8002! So this means an extra 8 weeks of courses for almost nothing, as you are going to redo everything again. :( It's up to personal preference anyway! :)
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CZ1005 - Digital Logic (Y3S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturer: Dr. Chan Syin/Dr. Lam Siew Kei
Lab quizzes (25%) - 26/32
Online tasks (5%) - 1200/1200
Finals (70%)
Overall Grade: A
4 lab quizzes and 1 finals, with some online in-video tasks to complete before the recess week ends. The lab quizzes are 10 minutes each, testing on topics that were taught about 1 to 2 weeks ago.
I find this an interesting mod! The first half teaches truth tables, logic gates and how someone can form boolean expressions easily using various techniques. The second half teaches how to implement these logic in a hardware description language called Verilog. Not much hands on to Verilog, but I think it is a good tool to learn before a SCE goes to Year 2 and takes digital systems design.
The hardest part (even though it's not really hard) should be implement verilog code. If you have previous programming language, this messes up with your knowledge easily, and there are times where you will mix up the order and stuff like that. For me, I kept on wondering why there was on "else if" statement, but I lived with it. =P
The lab quizzes are a bit rush, so it will be important to study the content before taking the quiz. It's open book, but a lack of time usually makes often referring as a fatal move. The finals is closed book, and the format is extremely close to the previous year finals! So, it will be super recommended to try the past few semester papers before attempting the actual finals. :)
Recommended as a UE? Well, if you like logical stuff, then this course is suitable! I didn't spend a lot of time studying this course, but the final still seems very reasonable, or rather, very logical. =P
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CZ4042 - Neural Networks (Y4S1/3AU/UE) [S/U]
Lecturer: Prof. Jagath Rajapakse
Tutorial Presentation (5%) - 90/100
Individual project (20%) - 76/100
Pair project (20%) - 68/100
Finals (55%)
Overall Grade: S
2 1-hour lectures and an hour of tutorial weekly held in the LT. All sessions recorded, no attendance. 1 individual project, 1 pair project and 1 open-book finals. Around 4 weeks is given to do each project. There is also a tutorial participation where every pair has to present 1 tutorial question during the course. You can choose your partner and the question. The partner is important as that will be the person you work with for the tutorial and the pair project.
There is quite a lot of math in this course, and thus some familarity of multi-variate calculus and linear algebra will be good to understand certain concepts such as the backpropagation algorithm / self-org feature maps. Naturally I find those easier to understand since I am a math major. XD A good thing about this course is that since the project and tests are open book, there is no need to memorise stuff, but rather the emphasis is on whether you understand why do the things work as they are described.
The difficult part comes in the understanding of the larger concepts. The prof does explain rather clearly on the correctness of the algorithms presented in the notes. However, there is not much explanation on how the algorithms are being derived. So if you are one of those who cannot accept things without a proper understanding, then you are in for a rough time. I find that there are many times where I will just have to accept without understanding. =/
The finals is kind of a rushed paper in my opinion. If you have done your tutorials with decent understanding of the notes, you should be able to do the conceptual questions (e.g. description of algorithms) and some computation questions. However if you intend to start reading the topic only in the exam, then you are practically dead as there will definitely not be enough time to learn the concept and replicate it instantly. =P I remembered spending 1 hour + on a tutorial question, and that came out for the exam (which I spent only 20 minutes since I directly copied the technique I did from the tutorials). =D
I feel that the tutorials are like small labs with a bit of coding required, while the projects are basically just bigger labs, where you have to do a lot of experimentations and hand in a report of the results and analysis. It will be good to try out the questions on your own, after all you will have an impression of what you did and that will help you in the exam. :) Why did I S/U this module? Well, it is my final registered module in NTU, and I have 1 more S/U left. Let's not put it to waste ya? =P That being said, this is an interesting module to learn, but definitely not easy. If you are into machine learning, it may be better to take the machine learning course instead of just Neural Networks by itself.
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EE8065 - Managing Your Money (Y1S2/3AU/LS) [S/U]
Lecturer: Dr.Patrick Chan/Dr. Simon Wong
Integrated case study (15%) - ?
Investment game (15%) - ?
Reflection? (10%) - ?
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: S
No midterms course. There are 2 group projects, the integrated case study and the investment game, both lasting for more than a month. There is also a personal reflection, but I have no impression of doing it, except for a very small one on the discussion forums...
The course content is actually very related to our everyday lives, even though it is not really evident now. More on retirement planning, investments, have better financial planning, taxes, etc. That sounds just like the kind of things my parents would have to know, so taking this course is a good way to understand these schemes. :) It's possible to study the content through government website FAQ sections, and that sorts of cover about half the course on wealth guarding and giving.
The course does not have much difficulty in it. However, I chose to S/U the course because I have simply no interest in stocks and investments. This becomes a obstacle when doing the investment game project. Thankfully, my group members are awesome, and they know a lot about stocks. In contrast, I tried to do the case study all by myself, which I find it a good way to understand financial planning. :)
If you study and really understand the content, it's possible to get full marks for the exam. Well, I didn't study much for the paper, and so I won't do well for the paper. =/ Oh well! There is plenty of time to do the paper though. 25MCQ, 3 structured (short ones). Many people left the exam hall before 1h30mins. This is one of the exams which I could really relax and do. =P
If you are interested in managing your personal finance, the government schemes or just want to know a bit about investments and trading, take this course! The prof said need to buy the book, I think that's for background reading.
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HY8002 - Logic & Critical Thinking (Y1S1/3AU/AHSS)
Lecturer: Asst.Prof Preston Greene
Clicker quiz (15%) - 12.5/15
Participation (10%) - ?
Finals (75%)
Overall Grade: B+
3h lecture per week, no tutorials. There are 3 clicker quizzes during the whole duration, and the best 2 quizzes will be graded. :) I have no idea what the participation is (since it's a Lecture).
Any MAS student should take this course, since half of it is just truth tables, logic argument forms, probability! (Easy to score full marks for this half) The second half is more on the humanities side, with a bit of philosophy and psychology in it. Heuristics, anchors, psycho bias, System 1/2... If you happen to like both of these segments, then take the course! :D Since I have taken this course together with FOM on the same semester, it's sort of like revising the same topics simultaneously, efficient right? =P
The bad side of this course is that you must take your own notes, otherwise you would have to look through the full textbook chapters to really revise what is going on (not that it's impossible). Another major thing is the clicker device. It's important to press the answer correctly, otherwise you may not even realise that you have actually not answered anything within the 30 seconds timeframe.
The final exam is a rushed paper (is this the nature of all humanities paper?). 6 questions choose 5, so I did everything except the psychological bias part. As mentioned earlier, half the paper is based on maths stuff, so that should be easy. There is not much time to slowly think about what to write, so it's essential to memorise all the definitions / applications / terminologies to the question so that you won't have to think like "eh what to write ah" in the exam.
Definitely recommended as a humanities PE for maths students! This professor is great! I enjoyed his lessons! During the AY2014/15 S1, he taught for 1 lecture as a guest lecturer, and my friends somewhat enjoyed his lecture (and understood the concepts) better than any other lectures. If he is the instructor for future courses, that's awesome! :D
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LM9001 - Malay Language Level 1 (Y3S1/3AU/UE) [S/U]
Tutor: Mr Sahri Bin Md Salleh
Vocab quiz (10%) - 35/50
Listening (15%) - 20/20
Grammar,compre test (25%) - 73/100
Composition (15%) - ?
Oral test (25%) - ?
Participation (10%) - ?
Overall Grade: S
No finals course! 1 quiz, 1 listening, 1 grammar/comprehension written test, 1 reading oral test, 1 role play oral test. 2 sessions of 1.5 hours tutorial per week, attendance taken.
Strangely, the easy part comes at the end of the course. Probably maybe because I S/U the course, so that's why I don't feel the stress after recess week as compared to the first few weeks before recess. Towards the end, the teacher will let the class practise / brush up on the components that will be tested instead of giving new content. That helps to consolidate in learning, and even though I am quite bad in languages, I still scored quite decently for the first few tests (even though I am still below average LOL).
So the difficult part comes before the recess week. A typical lesson will be like teaching new words, learning how to form sentences (head-and-modifier) with proper syntax and order, learning prefixes and getting confused by them, etc. For me, I was very lost in learning new words, and had to resort to an online translator to find the meaning of words. Those are allowed, but if you are going to translate every word you see in the text ($9), damn, that takes up a lot of time! I find forming sentences the most confusing, as the order sometimes change a lot, and you have no idea which comes first or which comes last.
The vocab quiz is alright, 50 words, 30 minutes, translate them, straightforward. The grammar compre test is decent, it tests you on prefixes (MCQ), filling in suitable words to complete sentences, graphic stimulus, normal compre and translation of sentences. The composition is descriptive, just write something about your life, your weekend, etc. The reading oral is standard. The role play is rather interesting. In groups of 4, every group is given a random topic, and 15 minutes to prepare for the role play. 10 minutes to act out, which I think most groups used less than 5 minutes. It is important to do well for the last role play as I think that will be the component that determines your grade. The bell curve for the rest of the tests are rather steep.
Oh yeah, so I mentioned about my learning of languages and words being quite jialat. So here's what I did before the quiz in week 7. I created a MATLAB program that acts as a self-test system, along with an excel sheet for storing the words. Seems helpful to me, and a few of my friends too! If you are not so good in learning words too, try to make a program yourself too! I guarantee that it will be more fun that pure mundane memorising from the book. And why did I S/U the mod? Well, I am not good in languages, and my test scores are like all below average, so I think it is best to S/U to prevent myself from getting a B or B- ya? =P
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MH4901 - Industrial Internship (Y3ST/8AU/UE) [P/F]
Internship organisation: DSO National Laboratories
NTU Supervisor: Asst. Prof Thomas Peyrin
Progress report (0%): ?
Final report (30%): ?
Oral Presentation (20%): ?
Organisation assessment (50%): ?
Overall Grade: P
A progress report (max 10 pages) to be handed in by week 6 of the internship, a final report to be handed in by week 12 of the internship, and a presentation to the NTU supervisor. These are the rough deadlines, but the exact deadline will be determined by the NTU supervisor, it could be earlier. This internship clears 8AU, and is on a pass fail basis. If FYP is also taken, then the internship will be cleared as a UE instead.
I cleared my Internship in DSO, under the supervision of Mr. Sum Yuan Hao and Miss. Ramanathan Umaiyal. Ok, the work is decent. Did some neural networks and signal/image processing. Quite lost, as everything taught in school is somehow super irrelevant to the course of work. Even the Fourier Transform is new! O_O So for MAS people, adaptability is much more important than trying to apply whatever you learnt in the courses. I think this applies even to stats people, not many people had actually used their knowledge in their course of work.
The difficult part is probably juggling the deadlines. Even though the organisation gives you work, it is also important to do the NTU reports earlier, otherwise you will be panicking on chionging a theoretical report within a short time frame. Once again, learning to adapt to the working environment is very important.
The oral presentation is alright. Prof. Thomas is kinda chill and looks more for presentation skills instead of the content. Some questions may be asked in the middle of the presentation, which I found them rather engaging too. =) I was kinda nervous at first, but I think the questions made me more relaxed (ironically). I think the NTU assessment may be asking more for personal opinions and the way the interns answer them instead of testing of technical content.
Overall the DSO internship experience is rather decent. If you want to try some research work, this could be a good place for a short experience. The interns have their own intern room, which is a separate room from the supervisors (as their work is even more confidential). :)
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MH8300 - It's a Discreetly Discrete World (Y1S1/3AU/STS)
Tutor: Assoc.Prof Bernhard Schmidt
In-video exercises (5%) - 746.7/800
Online assignments (15%) - 470/500
Midterm (30%) - 63/100
Finals (50%)
Overall Grade: A-
"Hi there, welcome to the world of Discrete Mathematics!" This is basically what the course content is all about, an intro to some Discrete Maths topics including Graph theory, coding theory, Cryptography, TSP and Probability, all viewed online (free time!) and having only 1 1h tutorial per week. Spending only 1 hour in school for a 3AU course is actually rather worth it. ^^
There would be online assignments and in-video questions to do in the online course, and they are easy! Even if you don't find the questions easy, you can still ask friends / discuss (even though by right it's not allowed?).
The exam questions are not as easy as the online course questions, so it's really essential to try out past exam papers for the proper questions... A bit like calculus I, the concepts are easy to understand, but applications require a deeper understanding and so it can be a headache to do exam questions. Fortunately the MCQ questions of the Finals are not very hard. The coding theory and Euler's Theorem of Cryptography gave quite a bit of headache, but generally still ok once I have understood the different proofs. =/
Quite a fun course! Strongly recommended for anybody who wants to clear their PE(STS). :) Note the bell curve can be slightly steep though (avg 70+?)
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MH9200 - Advanced Investigations in Linear Algebra I (Y1S1/1AU/UE)
Tutor: Mr. Yair Zick
Homework (70%) - 352/500
Class Participation (30%) - ?
Overall Grade: A
5 homework assignments given fortnightly, and to be done 1 week after the assignment is given. 2h tutorial weekly. That's about it! No exams, no tests!
Sounds like an easy course? Don't be mistaken! Even if you have a very strong foundation of Linear Algebra I (maybe even II), the application concepts can make an average person (me la) confused / totally lost in every lesson. The course covers Eigenvalues/eigenvectors (LA II), graph theory, markov chains, and applications in economic game theories. What has all these got to do with Linear Algebra? No idea. =/
Passing the qualifying test is a necessary condition to enter the course. 35% is the passing mark for that test, and only 14 got qualified, ending with only 6 people taking the full course. Ah, the super small class size is also the cause of the absolute grading. Finally not a bell-curve marking course! =D
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MS800M - Beauty, form & function: An exploration of symmetry (Y1S2/3AU/UE) [P/F]
4 sets of MCQ (80%) - 80/80
Field Exercise (8%) - 18/18
Writing Exercise (10%) - 17/18
Learning Log (2%) - ?
Overall Grade: P
This is a pure online course with no compulsory face-to-face meetings. This course is free for matriculated NTU students, but has a small course fee for non-NTU students. Every 2 weeks, there is a graded MCQ set to be done. In addition, there will be a field exercise / writing exercise in the fortnight interval too. The exercises can be done anytime, and the work done are to be submitted online before the deadline.
Online lectures: As the name suggest, view them.
Field exercises: Take photos of common everyday objects (can be on the streets), edit the photos by adding symmetry operators, and identify the objects using symmetry terms. Not difficult! :)
Writing exercises: Read an article, and post views and personal examples based on content of the article. No. of words are about 1000 for both exercises. The articles are given.
For all the exercises, there will be online videos that show how different people mark other people work based on the rubrics given, and there are also sample exercises for reference purposes. So, if you have no clue on how to do the exercise, refer to the samples, get some inspiration, and get the work done. After the deadline, there is a peer marking section, and you get to grade other people's work, and the marks are counted in their score! Thus, it's important to give a fair mark that matches the standard of the work.
Even though the course suggested having maths background, it's actually much more important to have a chemistry background. The first half of the course is relatively simple, since it's rather intuitive, and not difficult to understand the basic symmetry operators and diagrams. The second half of the course requires a lot of chemistry and understand of crystal structures (esp. section 4). I find section 3 the hardest, since i have some chemistry background. :)
It's better to take this course with as many friends as possible. In this way, you can discuss, do the field exercises together, help evaluate whether the diagrams are appropriate or not, discuss tips on writing exercises, or well, it's just good to have more friends. :D
This is a P/F course with no finals! A good way to clear you STS PE or UE!
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PH1802 - Foundations of Physics 2 (Y3S2/3AU/UE) [P/F]
Midterm (20%) - 33/40
Homework (20%) - 172/200
Finals (60%)
Overall: P
A 2-hour lecture, and a 1-hour tutorial weekly. The lecture is recorded but not the tutorial. This course involves other china scholars who are taking this course as a bridging physics module. A midterm, homeworks to be submitted weekly, and a 2.5 hours finals. 40 marks to pass.
Basic electricity (DC circuits) concepts is the easiest part of this course, for me at least. Every week there is this set of tutorials with 10 questions each. These questions are from the Pearson textbook, and you will find that a lot of answers can be found online since people worldwide do share their thoughts on tackling the questions.
Well, other than that the difficulty level is generally quite high. The most insane topics should be the first and last (E field and superposition), with me and my friends not understanding whatever we are reading. -.- The homework sets can take around 4+ hours per week to finish. So be prepared for some work if you want this mod.
Although the homework can be rather difficult, the midterm and finals are surprisingly reasonable. I studied really hard for the midterm and scored very decently (finals can slack). For the finals, I studied AC and waves, and that's about it. It turns out I can only do 2 out of the 7 questions as I didn't study hard, but even that is not bad. Sufficient to pass. =)
Recommended as a UE? No! I know this is on a pass/fail basis, but unless you have extremely great interest in this module, if not it is really better to take something you like and then S/U it. But oh well, that is left as an exercise to other people. =P
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PS901U - Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus (Y2S1-Y2T1/4AU/UE) [P/F]
1 page assignment (10%) - ?
Poster (20%) - ?
Research paper (30%) - ?
Instructor's evaluation (40%) - ?
Overall: P
This is the 11 months URECA project, with the course code varying across different schools. Since I am from SPMS, thus the course code will be PS901U, labelled as 'Undergraduate Research' in the degree audit. A small 1-page literature review/project planning assignment to be handed in on mid-December, a poster due on end Jan, and a paper due on end June. That's it, 3 assignments only, and the course is graded on a Pass-fail basis! :)
Research is never easy, and this course is definitely not an exception! Since the project content varies between different people, I will just share my experience on doing the assignments, and the time on doing the project.
1-page assignment
This is actually a very easy assignment. All you have to do is just to write out some literature review relating to your project, what you have understood and the future work (Planned research going to be carried out after December). There are small guidelines on the URECA website, but it should come to you naturally as the objectives should have been known since the acceptance of the project. =D
The poster
The first major assignment, and a new experience for me! It's emphasis is to present your project and its future work in a graphical way, such that it is interesting to people who are not experts in that field. The poster is done on a 1 slide powerpoint presentation, and I find it to be the most difficult assignment out of the three. It will be good to give some serious thought on how to organise the poster, how to present the content properly and make sure it is not too boring. I had some trouble with that, and thankfully that was fixed 2 days right before the deadline. :) Submission also has to be done at the URECA office, and they will give you a nice yearbook. ^_^ I spent around 30 hours on the poster.
The paper
The second major assignment, a research paper. The URECA online website said that the length is 6 pages long, but the limit was pushed to 12 pages for my cohort. (yay) There is no minimum length, but you have to throw in everything (content, abstract, appendix, references, etc) all into 12 pages. This is not too difficult, if you have the content and some decent language skills. I don't know the grading rubrics for the paper, but it is essential to do your best as other people may use your paper in future, and surely you won't want to give wrong information ya? =P I was lucky enough to have taken HW0203 (Research writing in SPMS) in the same year as my URECA project, so some of the writing techniques have been taken from there. (Around 10 to 15%, the rest of the HW0203 stuff is quite useless, such as hedging) SPMS students from AY14/15 onwards should be taking Scientific Comm 1 and 2 instead, so I don't think HW0203 will be relevant...
I wrote around 4300 words, displayed 8(?) figures. Single-spaced, each page split into 2 columns, and that's about 8 pages. Quite decent in my opinion! :) Oh, I spent around 50 hours on the paper.
Time spent and other stuff
Other than the assignments, there is a 40% instructor's evaluation. That's something you cannot do about it, other than showing good performance in daily work. For me, my 40% included submitting the MATLAB scripts which I have created, organisation of work and learning experience. I spent a total of around 270 hours on the project, including the assignments. Majority of the time is spent on MATLAB, which was quite fun in my opinion. =D
Oh, URECA has quite a lot of stuff which I didn't try. For instance, there is this URECA poster competition, which I didn't participate as just don't really like it. I heard it's a good experience to showcase your project though, and you can win prizes! There is also funding for conferences, project experiments, etc. If you would want an enriching experience, try these features! Also there is this thing about AU vs stipends. If you are receiving >=$3000 bursary/scholarship, then 4AU is the only route you can choose, otherwise it's $10/hour payment! :)
So that's about it! I will say that if your YEAR workload isn't too heavy, and you have a YGPA of 4.5 and above for the previous year, why not take on this project? It is not a good course to clear your AU, but it is a good platform to see if research will be a path for you! At least, you can be mentally prepared for future research work, or you can take this chance to know that it will be better to avoid future research paths should you have a choice. (Pass-Fail anyway XD) You will probably burn quite some time during the holidays, but I think it is not a bad choice! :)
Just for memory, here is a short log which I have written :)
http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2014/08/ureca-log.html
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======== Exempted ========
CM1021 (4AU/UE)
CM1031 (4AU/UE)
CM1041 (4AU/UE)
CM8001 (3AU/STS)
~~~~~
That's about it for the course review!
======== PE / UE ========
BU8301 - Fundamentals of Business Law (Y2S1/3AU/BM) [S/U]
Lecturer/Tutor: Mr Ram A Ganapathy
Class Participation, Presentation (20%) - Grade: A-
Finals (80%)
Overall Grade: S
A 1.5hr lecture and a 1.5hr seminar weekly. Seminar attendance taken. The 20% CA consists of a tutorial presentation, and that's about it! The rest is just class participation. The finals is a 2.5h, open-book exam.
If you are a person who dislike maths, don't wanna take BU8201 like the others, wanna clear Business PE or just want to have an open book exam, then this mod is for you! This module doesn't require memorising, since the exam is open book, but you will have to know how to apply the case laws and application. I find them rather applicable in real life, such as laws in purchasing items, and signing contracts which most of us will encounter in the future. Some basic knowledge is not bad. :)
The difficult part comes when you have to write. Sometimes, there are quite a lot of alternatives for a particular scenario, and you will have to judge which one is more applicable. For example, if a shopkeeper doesn't state the exemption clause explicitly, then can one claim damages? It will be good to have your own side notes, so that tough decisions like these can become clearer in future. :D
The presentation, 5 minutes per person, on a tutorial. The tutorial which you get is by luck, so pray hard you get an interesting one. The seminar is pretty standard, a short summary of the topic, a presentation by 1 of the groups, and some past exam questions to try to wrap up the day. Well, be prepared for the seminars, you never know when he is going to ask you random questions about the topic, so hmm...
As stated, the finals is open-book, 2.5 hours. The paper is very rushed! If you haven't study or you are not familiar with the concepts, chances are you will be flipping your way through the notes, sometimes the textbook, and your own handwritten notes if you have even made some. There's just simply not enough time to flip too much stuff, so be sure about the concepts to save time!
So why did I S/U? Well, actually that's because I chose to S/U any business module I take, since all these business stuff is none of my business. =P This is how I studied for this course, with a S/U mindset of course. Every week, read the readings stated at the end of the lecture slides (textbook), set 1.5 hours aside to the tutorial, go for the seminar. Repeat this process for the weeks in the semester. Before finals, try 1 paper for the feel of how is it like in the actual day. Then, do the paper during the finals. You realise that there is no part stating "revise, make your own notes and print the tutorial presentation slides". That's for me, I feel that constant revision beats last minute revision, not that it's impossible of course. But, if you have more time in the finals period to study for your other cores, why not? :)
The lecturer is Mr.Ram(?), and I can say his lectures are rather interesting, at least more interesting than the maths modules. ~.~
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CE1003 - Introduction to Computational Thinking (Y3S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturers: Dr. Phillip Fu/Dr. Shen Zhiqi
Quiz 1 (10%) - 8/10
Quiz 2 (10%) - 10/10
Assignment 1 (5%) - A
Assignment 2 (5%) - A
Finals (70%)
Overall Grade: A+
2 1-hour lectures and 1 hour tutorial weekly. No attendance taken for lectures and tutorials. 5 fortnight labs, attendance taken (even though I don't think it is graded). 2 in-lab quizzes (3rd and 5th), and 2 assignments with 1-month deadline. 1 final exam, closed-book.
I think this course is relatively simple if you already have programming experience. :) The difficulty of this course is way lower than C++/Java, so for those non-SCE student, try taking this course if you want to learn some programming in another language. :) I did not spend much time on this course, but still practice is still quite important as different languages have different syntax.
I find composite types the most difficult, that is lists, sets, tuples and dictionaries. References when combined with these data structures can be quite non-intuitive, especially when changing an element in a list can actually affect another list due to referencing problem. So if you are used to C++ and Java programming, this could be a problem. Well again, practice is the key! Other than that, I don't find other parts particularly difficult. =D
The quizzes and exams do test on concepts, such as identifying the best data structures, the reasoning behind different errors, etc. Thus, it will be good (and relatively simple) to understand those concepts, otherwise you will be smoking through the questions. The quizzes are MCQ, but can be quite tricky sometimes. The assignments are manageable! I spent around 3 hours per assignment, so a 1-month deadline is quite good ya? =P
Recommended as a UE? To those people who like programming, or a beginner to programming, this course is good! =D
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CE1007 - Data Structures (Y3S2/3AU/UE)
Lecturer: Assoc. Prof Hui / Dr.Owen
Lab Head: Asst. Prof Fan Rui
Lab test (30%) - 100/100
Assignment (20%) - ?
Finals (50%)
Overall Grade: A+
2 1-hour lectures, 1 hour lab and 1 hour tutorial weekly. The lab hour is usually a quiet work hour, with people doing their own labs and work with no discussion, and a tutorial follows immediately. There is attendance, but I don't think it is graded. A lab test, an assignment and a finals.
The pace of this course is VERY fast. I am simply thankful that I have some background in C++ before, otherwise I will be quite lost especially before the recess week where the whole C syllabus is squeezed into 7 weeks. But if you are ok in programming, then this part should be handled fairly alright. The assignment nearing to the end of the semester is rather reasonable, except for the last question. I think it's easy to pass this course.
The difficult part will be pointers. C programming has a lot of pointers, and after recess week it's going to be linked lists and pointers all the way. So the pointers concept is obviously one of the most important ones in the course. Practice will be good, but understanding is more essential. Although this part is difficult, I actually this part of the lectures the best. They seem to link quite well, I don't know why. =P
Before the lab test on week 8, a list of 30 questions spread across 5 sections will be released, and 1 question from each section will come out from the lab test. So if you can do all by yourself, it is a guaranteed 100 marks test, not bad eh? The CA is a must score for everybody. The finals is a super rush paper. I think I did the finals much faster than how I usually do the tutorial and lab questions, and left with only 20 seconds before the time stops. It is important to be extremely familiar with concepts, as there will be no time to think during the finals. =/
Recommended as an UE? Well, unless you have strong programming background or intend to S/U the mod, if not I don't think this is a good course to gain experience in programming/to score. It is fun, you learn something interesting, but there is a need to dedicate some time to study this course. Taking CE1003 (Python) or CE9001 (Java) to learn programming seems to be a better choice in my opinion. =) Oh yeah, Prof. Fan Rui is VERY clear in his tutorials! He gives lots of good examples and explains stuff clearly. Perfect for noobs like me. XD
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CE9001 - Java and the Internet (Y2S2/3AU/UE)
Lecturer/Lab Head: Dr. Li Fang
Quizzes (40%) - 38/40
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: A+
A weekly lecture, tutorial and lab squeezed into a 4-hour period. 2 quizzes, and a finals. The 4-hour period has no compulsory attendance, but the activities are not recorded too, since they are conducted in a computer lab.
If you have some background in C/C++, then this course will be relatively easy. The syntax is quite similar, the ideas are somewhat the same, and it is safe to start working hard for this module only from week 9/10. ^^
The difficult part? Well, I will say is the concepts involving classes and exceptions. (Even though they are not really that hard) You will really have to understand those and not just memorise. For example, you will have to know that a ; after an if statement will not cause a compilation error, but rather just a logical error. Things like these will have to be noted.
The quizzes are 20 minutes each, and can be quite tricky! There is plenty of time to do those, so just read the questions carefully and do them. There is no big code-writing segments in these quizzes, and thus manageable. The finals is alright too, except that now code-writing is now tested. Standard, manageable questions, and the past year papers are about the same standard. Again, a few tricky parts, some of which I detected and some I missed. Overall ok though! I did not rush through the paper, and still had about 5-10 minutes to check my work. :)
So, if you are a person interested to learn programming, or just want to learn another programming language, then this course is recommended! ^^ I mean, this course is an introduction to programming for people who are interested to pursue a minor degree, and it is rather well taught! Oh, this course is named "Java and the Internet", however more than 95% of the time is spent on JAVA. If your main interest is on the Internet aspect, then try another course instead. =P
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CE9002 - How Computers Work (Y2S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturer/Lab Head: Dr. Li Fang
Best 2 quizzes (40%) - 39/40
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: A
A 2 hour lecture weekly, and 5 labs (2 to 3 hours) in the whole semester. 3 quizzes in total, with the best 2 being counted, and the finals. The lectures and labs have no attendance. :)
If you have a interest to know some basic stuff about computers, and simply lazy to research online the stuff (just as simple hardware and networking), take this course! It's not a tiring course, even though there is still a substantial amount of content. The main aim of CE9002 is to let people have a brief knowledge about computers, so even if you almost nothing about computers, it's perfectly fine! I came from a almost no knowledge background, and still survived the course. :D
The difficult part... the notes can be sometimes too brief, especially the calculations part of the course. So to get a better understanding about calculating hit rates, transmission rates, submasks, etc, it will be wise to look online for some tips, or simply consult Dr.Li Fang. She is very nice! Her explanations are rather understandable, and I can clear most of my doubts after a consultation with her. The labs... Well, be prepared for the labs, otherwise one can be very lost (me la) when assembling computers and networks. Even though the labs have no attendance, it will be an experience to have some hands on, instead of 100% theory all the way. =/
The quizzes are 20 minutes each, and they consist of only MCQ, T/F and calculation questions. It's definitely better to understand the things being taught, instead of purely memorising (even though it's ok too). It's not difficult to score in the quizzes, unless you did not study the calculation questions and have very bad luck in guessing stuff. =P My cohort finals is more difficult than the previous years! T.T Oh well, the paper can be a bit rush, but it is possible to score full marks if you studied really really hard, and know the details of the notes very well. No trick questions there.
This course is highly recommended as UE! It's interesting for a computer beginner, and I think it's a better course compared to a lot of electives/math modules I took. Oh, this course has no programming stuff, so all those who hate C++ can still take this course without worrying. :)
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CM8012 - Introduction to Forensic Science (Y2T1/2AU/UE) [P/F]
3 sets of graded MCQ (75%) - 45/45
Case study 1 (5%) - 10/18
Case study 2 (15%) - 13/27
5 opinion polls (5%) - 5/5
Overall: P
This is a MOOC online course, and offered during the first special term. It is a pre-requisite to CM8022 (Applications of Forensic Science, 1AU). So, people who wants to study forensic, but does not want so many AUs to be graded can take this course first. 3 sets of MCQ, 2 case studies, and 5 opinions polls spread out across 8 weeks.
I will say the content is quite interesting. You learn about estimating the time of death, bullets, drugs, methods of confirming who is the guilty person, etc. Having some knowledge of chemistry will be good, but is not essential as a pre-requisite as the videos cover the concepts needed (E.g. Chromatography, IR spectrum). The MCQs are easy too! As long as you listen to the lecture videos properly, and read the given handouts, the MCQ will be a breeze. 2 attempts are given, with the intention of giving another shot at the question if you get it wrong. Very kind ya? =P
The difficult parts, well maybe the atomic structure part gets a bit too boring and difficult to understand. However it is only a small part, not that significant. :) Assignments wise, I think the case studies are the most difficult. I don't think I really get the logic of how the different evidence fit into a bit picture, thus my scores for the 2 case studies are kinda cui. =/ About 1 to 2 sentences answers for every question, and there will be about 7 to 10 questions per case study. Not that bad for those who like to investigate crime scenes.
This course is recommended as a UE, as you can learn this for fun. :) However, if you want to take this as a STS PE, I will say it is not really worth the effort as during Semester 1, you will have to take CM8022 (mentioned above) and their timetable is exactly the same as CM8002! So this means an extra 8 weeks of courses for almost nothing, as you are going to redo everything again. :( It's up to personal preference anyway! :)
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CZ1005 - Digital Logic (Y3S1/3AU/UE)
Lecturer: Dr. Chan Syin/Dr. Lam Siew Kei
Lab quizzes (25%) - 26/32
Online tasks (5%) - 1200/1200
Finals (70%)
Overall Grade: A
4 lab quizzes and 1 finals, with some online in-video tasks to complete before the recess week ends. The lab quizzes are 10 minutes each, testing on topics that were taught about 1 to 2 weeks ago.
I find this an interesting mod! The first half teaches truth tables, logic gates and how someone can form boolean expressions easily using various techniques. The second half teaches how to implement these logic in a hardware description language called Verilog. Not much hands on to Verilog, but I think it is a good tool to learn before a SCE goes to Year 2 and takes digital systems design.
The hardest part (even though it's not really hard) should be implement verilog code. If you have previous programming language, this messes up with your knowledge easily, and there are times where you will mix up the order and stuff like that. For me, I kept on wondering why there was on "else if" statement, but I lived with it. =P
The lab quizzes are a bit rush, so it will be important to study the content before taking the quiz. It's open book, but a lack of time usually makes often referring as a fatal move. The finals is closed book, and the format is extremely close to the previous year finals! So, it will be super recommended to try the past few semester papers before attempting the actual finals. :)
Recommended as a UE? Well, if you like logical stuff, then this course is suitable! I didn't spend a lot of time studying this course, but the final still seems very reasonable, or rather, very logical. =P
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CZ4042 - Neural Networks (Y4S1/3AU/UE) [S/U]
Lecturer: Prof. Jagath Rajapakse
Tutorial Presentation (5%) - 90/100
Individual project (20%) - 76/100
Pair project (20%) - 68/100
Finals (55%)
Overall Grade: S
2 1-hour lectures and an hour of tutorial weekly held in the LT. All sessions recorded, no attendance. 1 individual project, 1 pair project and 1 open-book finals. Around 4 weeks is given to do each project. There is also a tutorial participation where every pair has to present 1 tutorial question during the course. You can choose your partner and the question. The partner is important as that will be the person you work with for the tutorial and the pair project.
There is quite a lot of math in this course, and thus some familarity of multi-variate calculus and linear algebra will be good to understand certain concepts such as the backpropagation algorithm / self-org feature maps. Naturally I find those easier to understand since I am a math major. XD A good thing about this course is that since the project and tests are open book, there is no need to memorise stuff, but rather the emphasis is on whether you understand why do the things work as they are described.
The difficult part comes in the understanding of the larger concepts. The prof does explain rather clearly on the correctness of the algorithms presented in the notes. However, there is not much explanation on how the algorithms are being derived. So if you are one of those who cannot accept things without a proper understanding, then you are in for a rough time. I find that there are many times where I will just have to accept without understanding. =/
The finals is kind of a rushed paper in my opinion. If you have done your tutorials with decent understanding of the notes, you should be able to do the conceptual questions (e.g. description of algorithms) and some computation questions. However if you intend to start reading the topic only in the exam, then you are practically dead as there will definitely not be enough time to learn the concept and replicate it instantly. =P I remembered spending 1 hour + on a tutorial question, and that came out for the exam (which I spent only 20 minutes since I directly copied the technique I did from the tutorials). =D
I feel that the tutorials are like small labs with a bit of coding required, while the projects are basically just bigger labs, where you have to do a lot of experimentations and hand in a report of the results and analysis. It will be good to try out the questions on your own, after all you will have an impression of what you did and that will help you in the exam. :) Why did I S/U this module? Well, it is my final registered module in NTU, and I have 1 more S/U left. Let's not put it to waste ya? =P That being said, this is an interesting module to learn, but definitely not easy. If you are into machine learning, it may be better to take the machine learning course instead of just Neural Networks by itself.
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EE8065 - Managing Your Money (Y1S2/3AU/LS) [S/U]
Lecturer: Dr.Patrick Chan/Dr. Simon Wong
Integrated case study (15%) - ?
Investment game (15%) - ?
Reflection? (10%) - ?
Finals (60%)
Overall Grade: S
No midterms course. There are 2 group projects, the integrated case study and the investment game, both lasting for more than a month. There is also a personal reflection, but I have no impression of doing it, except for a very small one on the discussion forums...
The course content is actually very related to our everyday lives, even though it is not really evident now. More on retirement planning, investments, have better financial planning, taxes, etc. That sounds just like the kind of things my parents would have to know, so taking this course is a good way to understand these schemes. :) It's possible to study the content through government website FAQ sections, and that sorts of cover about half the course on wealth guarding and giving.
The course does not have much difficulty in it. However, I chose to S/U the course because I have simply no interest in stocks and investments. This becomes a obstacle when doing the investment game project. Thankfully, my group members are awesome, and they know a lot about stocks. In contrast, I tried to do the case study all by myself, which I find it a good way to understand financial planning. :)
If you study and really understand the content, it's possible to get full marks for the exam. Well, I didn't study much for the paper, and so I won't do well for the paper. =/ Oh well! There is plenty of time to do the paper though. 25MCQ, 3 structured (short ones). Many people left the exam hall before 1h30mins. This is one of the exams which I could really relax and do. =P
If you are interested in managing your personal finance, the government schemes or just want to know a bit about investments and trading, take this course! The prof said need to buy the book, I think that's for background reading.
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HY8002 - Logic & Critical Thinking (Y1S1/3AU/AHSS)
Lecturer: Asst.Prof Preston Greene
Clicker quiz (15%) - 12.5/15
Participation (10%) - ?
Finals (75%)
Overall Grade: B+
3h lecture per week, no tutorials. There are 3 clicker quizzes during the whole duration, and the best 2 quizzes will be graded. :) I have no idea what the participation is (since it's a Lecture).
Any MAS student should take this course, since half of it is just truth tables, logic argument forms, probability! (Easy to score full marks for this half) The second half is more on the humanities side, with a bit of philosophy and psychology in it. Heuristics, anchors, psycho bias, System 1/2... If you happen to like both of these segments, then take the course! :D Since I have taken this course together with FOM on the same semester, it's sort of like revising the same topics simultaneously, efficient right? =P
The bad side of this course is that you must take your own notes, otherwise you would have to look through the full textbook chapters to really revise what is going on (not that it's impossible). Another major thing is the clicker device. It's important to press the answer correctly, otherwise you may not even realise that you have actually not answered anything within the 30 seconds timeframe.
The final exam is a rushed paper (is this the nature of all humanities paper?). 6 questions choose 5, so I did everything except the psychological bias part. As mentioned earlier, half the paper is based on maths stuff, so that should be easy. There is not much time to slowly think about what to write, so it's essential to memorise all the definitions / applications / terminologies to the question so that you won't have to think like "eh what to write ah" in the exam.
Definitely recommended as a humanities PE for maths students! This professor is great! I enjoyed his lessons! During the AY2014/15 S1, he taught for 1 lecture as a guest lecturer, and my friends somewhat enjoyed his lecture (and understood the concepts) better than any other lectures. If he is the instructor for future courses, that's awesome! :D
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LM9001 - Malay Language Level 1 (Y3S1/3AU/UE) [S/U]
Tutor: Mr Sahri Bin Md Salleh
Vocab quiz (10%) - 35/50
Listening (15%) - 20/20
Grammar,compre test (25%) - 73/100
Composition (15%) - ?
Oral test (25%) - ?
Participation (10%) - ?
Overall Grade: S
No finals course! 1 quiz, 1 listening, 1 grammar/comprehension written test, 1 reading oral test, 1 role play oral test. 2 sessions of 1.5 hours tutorial per week, attendance taken.
Strangely, the easy part comes at the end of the course. Probably maybe because I S/U the course, so that's why I don't feel the stress after recess week as compared to the first few weeks before recess. Towards the end, the teacher will let the class practise / brush up on the components that will be tested instead of giving new content. That helps to consolidate in learning, and even though I am quite bad in languages, I still scored quite decently for the first few tests (even though I am still below average LOL).
So the difficult part comes before the recess week. A typical lesson will be like teaching new words, learning how to form sentences (head-and-modifier) with proper syntax and order, learning prefixes and getting confused by them, etc. For me, I was very lost in learning new words, and had to resort to an online translator to find the meaning of words. Those are allowed, but if you are going to translate every word you see in the text ($9), damn, that takes up a lot of time! I find forming sentences the most confusing, as the order sometimes change a lot, and you have no idea which comes first or which comes last.
The vocab quiz is alright, 50 words, 30 minutes, translate them, straightforward. The grammar compre test is decent, it tests you on prefixes (MCQ), filling in suitable words to complete sentences, graphic stimulus, normal compre and translation of sentences. The composition is descriptive, just write something about your life, your weekend, etc. The reading oral is standard. The role play is rather interesting. In groups of 4, every group is given a random topic, and 15 minutes to prepare for the role play. 10 minutes to act out, which I think most groups used less than 5 minutes. It is important to do well for the last role play as I think that will be the component that determines your grade. The bell curve for the rest of the tests are rather steep.
Oh yeah, so I mentioned about my learning of languages and words being quite jialat. So here's what I did before the quiz in week 7. I created a MATLAB program that acts as a self-test system, along with an excel sheet for storing the words. Seems helpful to me, and a few of my friends too! If you are not so good in learning words too, try to make a program yourself too! I guarantee that it will be more fun that pure mundane memorising from the book. And why did I S/U the mod? Well, I am not good in languages, and my test scores are like all below average, so I think it is best to S/U to prevent myself from getting a B or B- ya? =P
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MH4901 - Industrial Internship (Y3ST/8AU/UE) [P/F]
Internship organisation: DSO National Laboratories
NTU Supervisor: Asst. Prof Thomas Peyrin
Progress report (0%): ?
Final report (30%): ?
Oral Presentation (20%): ?
Organisation assessment (50%): ?
Overall Grade: P
A progress report (max 10 pages) to be handed in by week 6 of the internship, a final report to be handed in by week 12 of the internship, and a presentation to the NTU supervisor. These are the rough deadlines, but the exact deadline will be determined by the NTU supervisor, it could be earlier. This internship clears 8AU, and is on a pass fail basis. If FYP is also taken, then the internship will be cleared as a UE instead.
I cleared my Internship in DSO, under the supervision of Mr. Sum Yuan Hao and Miss. Ramanathan Umaiyal. Ok, the work is decent. Did some neural networks and signal/image processing. Quite lost, as everything taught in school is somehow super irrelevant to the course of work. Even the Fourier Transform is new! O_O So for MAS people, adaptability is much more important than trying to apply whatever you learnt in the courses. I think this applies even to stats people, not many people had actually used their knowledge in their course of work.
The difficult part is probably juggling the deadlines. Even though the organisation gives you work, it is also important to do the NTU reports earlier, otherwise you will be panicking on chionging a theoretical report within a short time frame. Once again, learning to adapt to the working environment is very important.
The oral presentation is alright. Prof. Thomas is kinda chill and looks more for presentation skills instead of the content. Some questions may be asked in the middle of the presentation, which I found them rather engaging too. =) I was kinda nervous at first, but I think the questions made me more relaxed (ironically). I think the NTU assessment may be asking more for personal opinions and the way the interns answer them instead of testing of technical content.
Overall the DSO internship experience is rather decent. If you want to try some research work, this could be a good place for a short experience. The interns have their own intern room, which is a separate room from the supervisors (as their work is even more confidential). :)
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MH8300 - It's a Discreetly Discrete World (Y1S1/3AU/STS)
Tutor: Assoc.Prof Bernhard Schmidt
In-video exercises (5%) - 746.7/800
Online assignments (15%) - 470/500
Midterm (30%) - 63/100
Finals (50%)
Overall Grade: A-
"Hi there, welcome to the world of Discrete Mathematics!" This is basically what the course content is all about, an intro to some Discrete Maths topics including Graph theory, coding theory, Cryptography, TSP and Probability, all viewed online (free time!) and having only 1 1h tutorial per week. Spending only 1 hour in school for a 3AU course is actually rather worth it. ^^
There would be online assignments and in-video questions to do in the online course, and they are easy! Even if you don't find the questions easy, you can still ask friends / discuss (even though by right it's not allowed?).
The exam questions are not as easy as the online course questions, so it's really essential to try out past exam papers for the proper questions... A bit like calculus I, the concepts are easy to understand, but applications require a deeper understanding and so it can be a headache to do exam questions. Fortunately the MCQ questions of the Finals are not very hard. The coding theory and Euler's Theorem of Cryptography gave quite a bit of headache, but generally still ok once I have understood the different proofs. =/
Quite a fun course! Strongly recommended for anybody who wants to clear their PE(STS). :) Note the bell curve can be slightly steep though (avg 70+?)
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MH9200 - Advanced Investigations in Linear Algebra I (Y1S1/1AU/UE)
Tutor: Mr. Yair Zick
Homework (70%) - 352/500
Class Participation (30%) - ?
Overall Grade: A
5 homework assignments given fortnightly, and to be done 1 week after the assignment is given. 2h tutorial weekly. That's about it! No exams, no tests!
Sounds like an easy course? Don't be mistaken! Even if you have a very strong foundation of Linear Algebra I (maybe even II), the application concepts can make an average person (me la) confused / totally lost in every lesson. The course covers Eigenvalues/eigenvectors (LA II), graph theory, markov chains, and applications in economic game theories. What has all these got to do with Linear Algebra? No idea. =/
Passing the qualifying test is a necessary condition to enter the course. 35% is the passing mark for that test, and only 14 got qualified, ending with only 6 people taking the full course. Ah, the super small class size is also the cause of the absolute grading. Finally not a bell-curve marking course! =D
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MS800M - Beauty, form & function: An exploration of symmetry (Y1S2/3AU/UE) [P/F]
4 sets of MCQ (80%) - 80/80
Field Exercise (8%) - 18/18
Writing Exercise (10%) - 17/18
Learning Log (2%) - ?
Overall Grade: P
This is a pure online course with no compulsory face-to-face meetings. This course is free for matriculated NTU students, but has a small course fee for non-NTU students. Every 2 weeks, there is a graded MCQ set to be done. In addition, there will be a field exercise / writing exercise in the fortnight interval too. The exercises can be done anytime, and the work done are to be submitted online before the deadline.
Online lectures: As the name suggest, view them.
Field exercises: Take photos of common everyday objects (can be on the streets), edit the photos by adding symmetry operators, and identify the objects using symmetry terms. Not difficult! :)
Writing exercises: Read an article, and post views and personal examples based on content of the article. No. of words are about 1000 for both exercises. The articles are given.
For all the exercises, there will be online videos that show how different people mark other people work based on the rubrics given, and there are also sample exercises for reference purposes. So, if you have no clue on how to do the exercise, refer to the samples, get some inspiration, and get the work done. After the deadline, there is a peer marking section, and you get to grade other people's work, and the marks are counted in their score! Thus, it's important to give a fair mark that matches the standard of the work.
Even though the course suggested having maths background, it's actually much more important to have a chemistry background. The first half of the course is relatively simple, since it's rather intuitive, and not difficult to understand the basic symmetry operators and diagrams. The second half of the course requires a lot of chemistry and understand of crystal structures (esp. section 4). I find section 3 the hardest, since i have some chemistry background. :)
It's better to take this course with as many friends as possible. In this way, you can discuss, do the field exercises together, help evaluate whether the diagrams are appropriate or not, discuss tips on writing exercises, or well, it's just good to have more friends. :D
This is a P/F course with no finals! A good way to clear you STS PE or UE!
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PH1802 - Foundations of Physics 2 (Y3S2/3AU/UE) [P/F]
Midterm (20%) - 33/40
Homework (20%) - 172/200
Finals (60%)
Overall: P
A 2-hour lecture, and a 1-hour tutorial weekly. The lecture is recorded but not the tutorial. This course involves other china scholars who are taking this course as a bridging physics module. A midterm, homeworks to be submitted weekly, and a 2.5 hours finals. 40 marks to pass.
Basic electricity (DC circuits) concepts is the easiest part of this course, for me at least. Every week there is this set of tutorials with 10 questions each. These questions are from the Pearson textbook, and you will find that a lot of answers can be found online since people worldwide do share their thoughts on tackling the questions.
Well, other than that the difficulty level is generally quite high. The most insane topics should be the first and last (E field and superposition), with me and my friends not understanding whatever we are reading. -.- The homework sets can take around 4+ hours per week to finish. So be prepared for some work if you want this mod.
Although the homework can be rather difficult, the midterm and finals are surprisingly reasonable. I studied really hard for the midterm and scored very decently (finals can slack). For the finals, I studied AC and waves, and that's about it. It turns out I can only do 2 out of the 7 questions as I didn't study hard, but even that is not bad. Sufficient to pass. =)
Recommended as a UE? No! I know this is on a pass/fail basis, but unless you have extremely great interest in this module, if not it is really better to take something you like and then S/U it. But oh well, that is left as an exercise to other people. =P
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PS901U - Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus (Y2S1-Y2T1/4AU/UE) [P/F]
1 page assignment (10%) - ?
Poster (20%) - ?
Research paper (30%) - ?
Instructor's evaluation (40%) - ?
Overall: P
This is the 11 months URECA project, with the course code varying across different schools. Since I am from SPMS, thus the course code will be PS901U, labelled as 'Undergraduate Research' in the degree audit. A small 1-page literature review/project planning assignment to be handed in on mid-December, a poster due on end Jan, and a paper due on end June. That's it, 3 assignments only, and the course is graded on a Pass-fail basis! :)
Research is never easy, and this course is definitely not an exception! Since the project content varies between different people, I will just share my experience on doing the assignments, and the time on doing the project.
1-page assignment
This is actually a very easy assignment. All you have to do is just to write out some literature review relating to your project, what you have understood and the future work (Planned research going to be carried out after December). There are small guidelines on the URECA website, but it should come to you naturally as the objectives should have been known since the acceptance of the project. =D
The poster
The first major assignment, and a new experience for me! It's emphasis is to present your project and its future work in a graphical way, such that it is interesting to people who are not experts in that field. The poster is done on a 1 slide powerpoint presentation, and I find it to be the most difficult assignment out of the three. It will be good to give some serious thought on how to organise the poster, how to present the content properly and make sure it is not too boring. I had some trouble with that, and thankfully that was fixed 2 days right before the deadline. :) Submission also has to be done at the URECA office, and they will give you a nice yearbook. ^_^ I spent around 30 hours on the poster.
The paper
The second major assignment, a research paper. The URECA online website said that the length is 6 pages long, but the limit was pushed to 12 pages for my cohort. (yay) There is no minimum length, but you have to throw in everything (content, abstract, appendix, references, etc) all into 12 pages. This is not too difficult, if you have the content and some decent language skills. I don't know the grading rubrics for the paper, but it is essential to do your best as other people may use your paper in future, and surely you won't want to give wrong information ya? =P I was lucky enough to have taken HW0203 (Research writing in SPMS) in the same year as my URECA project, so some of the writing techniques have been taken from there. (Around 10 to 15%, the rest of the HW0203 stuff is quite useless, such as hedging) SPMS students from AY14/15 onwards should be taking Scientific Comm 1 and 2 instead, so I don't think HW0203 will be relevant...
I wrote around 4300 words, displayed 8(?) figures. Single-spaced, each page split into 2 columns, and that's about 8 pages. Quite decent in my opinion! :) Oh, I spent around 50 hours on the paper.
Time spent and other stuff
Other than the assignments, there is a 40% instructor's evaluation. That's something you cannot do about it, other than showing good performance in daily work. For me, my 40% included submitting the MATLAB scripts which I have created, organisation of work and learning experience. I spent a total of around 270 hours on the project, including the assignments. Majority of the time is spent on MATLAB, which was quite fun in my opinion. =D
Oh, URECA has quite a lot of stuff which I didn't try. For instance, there is this URECA poster competition, which I didn't participate as just don't really like it. I heard it's a good experience to showcase your project though, and you can win prizes! There is also funding for conferences, project experiments, etc. If you would want an enriching experience, try these features! Also there is this thing about AU vs stipends. If you are receiving >=$3000 bursary/scholarship, then 4AU is the only route you can choose, otherwise it's $10/hour payment! :)
So that's about it! I will say that if your YEAR workload isn't too heavy, and you have a YGPA of 4.5 and above for the previous year, why not take on this project? It is not a good course to clear your AU, but it is a good platform to see if research will be a path for you! At least, you can be mentally prepared for future research work, or you can take this chance to know that it will be better to avoid future research paths should you have a choice. (Pass-Fail anyway XD) You will probably burn quite some time during the holidays, but I think it is not a bad choice! :)
Just for memory, here is a short log which I have written :)
http://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.sg/2014/08/ureca-log.html
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======== Exempted ========
CM1021 (4AU/UE)
CM1031 (4AU/UE)
CM1041 (4AU/UE)
CM8001 (3AU/STS)
~~~~~
That's about it for the course review!
Comments
CE1003 and CZ1005 -> Not necessary to read up extensively before the modules.
CE1007 -> Good to read up some C programming before hand, as the pace is quite fast.
In general, if you want to take computing as UEs, it will be beneficial to have some very basic programming experience so that you can catch the content faster especially for 1000+ modules. You can definitely survive without reading up beforehand, but it is just that having some basic knowledge helps in the learning processing.
For higher level modules, you are assumed to know how to program stuff. Good to read up though! :)