NUS AY2016/2017 Sem 2 Module Review (Yr1)

It was a tough yet fufilling semester, fighting with the notorious bellcurve in NUS. This was the sem I realised graduating with second upper (4.0-4.49) would be good enough for me. I think that comparing with others makes this whole education a really tiring journey, so from today onwards I am aiming to do well for myself! Since this is a late post I shall post what I remember about 1 year ago!

ACC1002X
My lecturer was Aimee Shih and trust me if she teaches you, you are in good hands. She really go into every single detail that sometimes she teaches me things I already known, I still get that enlightenment like why didn't I think of approaching the problem in this manner. But sometimes, no matter how good the lecturer, being bombarded with too many info in 1 session can make you want to sleep cos your brain is getting fried AHHAH! She is really best lecturer till the end cos I remember getting a box of polar and puff bakery at the last lec, and yes she bribed my heart with that 1 box of bakery ahahah!

I have taken Principle of Accounting during O levels and the first few chapters is just a repeat of debit and credit. Knowing how to debit and credit can really allow you to derive many formulas in the back end chapter rather than pure memorising but if memorising formulas is your forte do what works best for you!

I remember doing pretty well for midterms but the bellcurve is quite high! But I guess finals I was so damn confused about LIFO and FIFO and there was like 5 questions on that I think i freaked out then I couldn't balance the statement of cash flows I think I was about to explode from stress ahahhaah!

Midterm(30%) - 28/35 (75 percentile -30m)
Project(20%) - 78/100 (Median - 80)
Finals(40%)
Class Participation(10%)

Expected Grade: A-
Final Grade : B+ (Thanks to LIFO & FIFO)

CFG1010
This mod is v relaxing but slightly waste of time ahhahaha! But take the free 2 MCs! Because this mod is really hard to fail and use it to clear your UE together with CFG2001 (2 MCs) ! Literally they ask you to breath in breath out then close your eyes (PS: I really close it for a nap AHAHAH) ! But 1 thing really irritating is that the videos that are watched at homes are super lag 1hr to load a 10 min video because of the school VPN. But relax yourself and if you have this mod please overload cos you only have 2 live session with them! PLUS my batch was quiz every week BUT I HEARD they change it to quiz nearing recess week and reading week which is quite sad for my batch ahahah!

Expected Grade: CS
Final Grade: CS

GET1028
This mod I would say is a mix of english "riddle" and simple mathematical proving. The prof is Dr Lee Wang Yen and he is really boring ahahahah! Okay, maybe its cos I don't like "english" mods just makes me want to fall asleep bad. But I think many of the students feel that way too since the crowd from first lec vanishes from every row almost filled to every row 3-5 students max. But the shocking thing is during quiz (held in LT) the whole LT will be filled with people I seen for the first time in my life ahahah! This mod is not difficult to score as long as you do logic cola diligently or even last minute cos its that simple. Just have to abbreviate the whole sentence in a letter S Cs etc then you have words like "and" you just have to put a symbol to it and solve this whole logical equations through simple proving(very systematic).

Quiz 1: 17.05%/20% (Median 19.something from my excel computation as prof uploads the whole score into excel)
Quiz3: 18%/20% (Median 17.something)
There was supposed to be 3 quizzes whereby the prof takes best 2 out of 3 but he changes it halfway through the sem into best 1 out of 2. Abit sad because I screwed up my first and I wanted to salavage it.
Class Participation(10%) - 10% (Everyone got full 10% as long as they attend all the odd/even week tut, marks is published)
Logic Cola(20%) - 20% (As long as you completed all the assignment listed in the requirement you get full 20%)
Finals (50%) - At least 85% of the cohort scored 90% and above

Expected Grade: B-
Final Grade : A- (YAY)

LAK2201
The bellcurve for this level was manageable compared to level 1000. The workload was okay! But most importantly, Han Ji Won songseongnim was my teacher. She taught me really well since you guys remember my level 1000 was really crap midterm 50(median 80) LOL. I decided to take level 2000 since I think I should give myself one last chance on my only interest in NUS. Lucky I did that because I am taking level 4000 right now! I wouldn't say I'm an A student but I am happy I still took it! Han Ji Won always makes jokes like her name is similar to this actress name Ha Ji Won except for the surname and yes, she did that with that actress face on the slide LOL. But her jokes sometimes was quite awkward that have some cold breeze but its quite funny at this moment cos everyone realise they didn't put in enough reaction and reacts seconds later ahahhaah. Overall a fun lesson except for the Video assignment( 2 people conversing based on the script in 1 take) and ORAL terrrorrr. I remember a lot of NG for the video because the particle is wrong or the word is pronounced wrongly or I just blanked out. The oral was worse cos the pause was so bloody awkward because its me and her only in the classroom and THEY SHOULD REMOVE THE TIMER IT STRESSES ME OUT esp when I stare at how much time I have left ahahhaah! HW assignment is writing long essays, I used naver translate to check if my middle grammar is correct ahahah! The end of the sentence just end with i-eh-yo/si-mi-da something like that which is quite systematic. because I always mix up my yi/ka with eul/leul.

Midterm(30%) - 69/100 (Median 73)
HW Assignment 1(7%) - 5.5/7
HW Assignment 2(8%) - 6.5/8
Oral(15%)
Finals(30%)
Class Participation(10%)

Expected Grade - B+
Final Grade - B+

MA1101R
This mod is taught by Dr Wang Fei and Dr Victor Tan. As usual Dr Wang Fei does not breathe and everything is easy for him 😅  . I would say this is the mod I was ready to SU cos stats major don't have linear algebra 2 nor any mods related to it except using simple matrix, gaussian elimination and inverse matrix which is the easy kind like 3 by 3 matrix rarely 4 by 4 matrix. On the other hand, this mod's prof like to give you 5 by 6 Matrix or 6 by 5 matrix for you to slowly do gaussian elimination, I think I was about to cry a pool of tears during the exam cos it was so tedious and stressful. I would say this mod is definitely easier and more fun than MA1102R but I still do not really enjoy ahahah!
Dr Victor Tan on the other hand encourages you to do lec quiz and promises to add 1% to your midterm out of 20% if you answer a certain amount of questions correctly throughout his next half of the lecturer which i think really encouraged people to attend his lec. Plus, his speaking pace is about 3 times slower than wang fei and his anaologies to approach a math problem is really useful and interesting. Of course the way he solve the problem is very simple compared to what I would expect.

HW Assignment 1(3%) - 49/50
HW Assignment 2(3%) - 47/50
HW Assignment 3(3%) - 44/50
HW Assignment 4(3%) - 50/50
Yes the assignment is a lot and it comes every 3 weeks, and also yes, I spent CNY doing MA1101R ahahahah! So glad I got this cleared.
Midterms(20%) - 24/40 (Median - 30)
Matlab(8%) - 15/20 (Median - 17)
Finals(60%)
I just copied the entire notes into my cheatsheet and just went to the exam without much revision because I knew I could pass but know I couldn't get more than B ahahahah.

Expected Grade - B
Final Grade - B-/S

ST2131
This mod is seriously the hardest mod for statistics I ever taken! Trust me, clear this and nothing will faze you anymore! All the proving in statistics was too hard to read, too hard to write out, too hard to even understand. Its like a bunch of alien codes ahahah! I was in like deep shit cos I can feel myself drowning in the ocean already. Prof vik with his distinctive swag shiny bald head is seriously a great lecturer with brilliant brain of course!Its like a package that he is smart and I can see that because there was no hair obstructing that shape of intelligent brain. And he really bring out this bald head fashion like Vin Diesel in fast and furious. Its like you can't imagine him with hair. He teaches well even though this content was so difficult. But the tutors are no go because 1.they talk to themselves, 2.i dono what they are saying because they explain in such a chim manner like making it harder to understand when it already is hard. 3. I give up on attending tutorial since I really learn nothing from it and learn more from the answer key when he upload them.

Assignment(10%) - 10%
(The assignment answers was all over google which makes it pretty unfair for people for try on their own)
5 Quizzes(10%) -10%
(This Quiz allows you to attempt until you get full marks 5/5)
Midterms(30%) - 7/30 (median - 13)
(Never in my life I saw a median in NUS is a fail, but never in my life had I failed a test in NUS too ahahah, I did so badly that I think I have no eyes to see anymore)
Finals(50%)

Expected Grade - B-
Final Grade - B+ 
(They say never give up, yes, I didn't. In fact, I couldn't cos I couldn't S/U this. Glad I did better than expected, didnt waste my effort to redo all tut before finals to make sure I understand this alien language)

NUS AY2016/2017 Sem 1 Module Review (Yr1)

Modules Taken
- ST1131
- MA1102R
- CS1010S
- LAK1201
- GER1000

I'm a freshie in NUS, a stats major, the first sem has honestly taken a toll on me to the extent I just want to graduate ASAP. To me all the modules I have taken especially MA1102R and CS1010S, the difficulty level is so high, my head cracks apart when I try to solve them. I'm not the typical genius, so if you are a genius this blog may not be your struggles.

Note: This is a S/U sem for me, so my grade expectations is not v high
New Note: I did better than expected, my finals pull up my grades:)
Overall Cap: 4.0


Reviews:

ST1131 - Introduction to statistics
Prof : Wang Jun Shan

This is basically an introductory module to statistics, whereby you will learn from sampling method to z-test/t-test for various type of sampling.
NO ASSIGNMENTS OR PROJECTS , ONLY EXAMS to determine your grades

For my sem specifically: (May not apply to later sem)

Chapter 1  Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data

Chapter 2  Exploring Data with Graphs and Numerical Summaries

Chapter 3  Association: Contingency, Correlation, and Regression

Chapter 4  Gathering Data

Chapter 5  Probability in our Daily Lives

Chapter 6  Probability Distributions

Chapter 7  Sampling Distributions

Chapter 8  Statistical Inference: Confidence Intervals

Chapter 9  Statistical Inference: Significance Tests About Hypotheses

Chapter10   Comparing Two Groups

Chapter 12   Analyzing the Association Between Quantitative Variables: Regression Analysis

#dontaskmewhereis #chap11 #thereisnochap11

About the prof:

So to give you a heads up, the prof is hard to understand, explains slow but repeatedly repeats the same thing throughout the chapter which can be simply simplified in many ways. AKA she beats around the bush. She speaks with an accent although she is nice when you approach her with questions. Sadly to say, she is really not helpful because she repeats the same words to you from the slides which I don't understand the slides in the first place. Her lecture is really empty. Try to ask her in chinese, she seem to really explain really well in chinese, added advantage for china students. sigh.

Don't ever get complacent to think this mod is so easy, because I thought that way, skipped her lec, webcast speed 2X BUT only spent less than 30min weekly on the tut for first half of the sem and I got punished in my own way. This was my worst mod for mid-terms.

Midterms: (30%)

• 2 Page cheat sheet
• tested from chap 1 - 5
• 10m - open ended, 20m - mcq
• the whole paper was tricky esp the mcq.
• Median - 22/23 out of 30m
• My grade - 12/30 (25th percentile RED ZONE) :(((

Finals: (70%)

• 4 Page cheat Sheet
• tested - EVERYTHING
• 10m - mcq, 60m - open ended
• mcq heavily weighted on chap 1-5 except 2 qns on chap 6 onwards (1 of them on calculating correlation r)
• 60m - 12m on type I and II error(how to calculate)
•         - all the z/t-test for binomial/matched pair designs/independence/one-sided/two-sided test
•         - minor ones on probability independence

(I think I study so hard for this, I can S this:))

Expected - C

Final Grade - B (S/u)

MA1102R - Calculus

Prof - Wang Fei (SO much better)/Li Wei(not recommended)

I was from Li Wei Lecture and I really don't understand from her lec notes to teaching style. Her lec notes full of english and super messy, another lecturer that beats around the bush. Math notes why full of english essays omg. 

So I jumped to Wang Fei Lec(just crash only), thankfully his webcast can be watched from my account hehehe! His notes is really neat and only the main points and all mathematical formulas. Just that I hope he can breathe sometimes in lec cos he talk non-stop and got no time-out to process LOL. Thanks to him I start to grasps in time before mid-term. But why he set killer paper for finals SIGH.

My tutor Wang Liu Quan, was quite a good tutor to me. In nus, tutors don't really teach, they are just not obliged to do so. They are undergrads pursuing masters or year 3/4 students which tutoring is their side thing and your learning has no impact on them.

He provided chapter summaries and exam tips, really useful after you read the lec notes and you read his notes again as recap. Plus although he writes down answer, you can ask him and he can answer you out of those answers, which is quite a good quality tutor.

Content:

Chapter 0: Functions

Chapter 1: Limits

Chapter 2: Continuous Functions

Chapter 3: Derivatives + Applications of Differentiation

Chapter 4: Integrals

Chapter 5: Transcendental Functions

Chapter 6: Techniques of Integration

Chapter 7: Applications of Integration

Chapter 8: First-Order Differential Equations

Grading component:

•  3 assignments (5% each)
•  Maple (5%) ->computer mathematics, key into maple to get ans.
•  Midterms (20%)
•  Finals (60%)

My grades:

Assignment 1 - 47/70 , median - 62/63

Assignment 2 - 70/70 , median - 68

Assignment 3 - 70/70 , median - 68

(Trick to getting full marks, discuss with your friends, where to get friends?! - SOW camp/SCAMP)

Maple - 12/20 , median - 15

Midterms - 80/100 , median - 78

Finals - UNKNOWN, so hard many leave the exam hall hoping to pass including me:(

Expected - A- at first, after finals I hope I can at least get a C to S it.

Final Grade - B+

CS1010S - Programming Methodology

Prof - Leong Wai Kay

The software you will be learning is Phyton, the "easiest" software to code. Which as a beginner I struggle A LOT, you won't know how much tears I had to shed just to pass this mod minimally. There is REALLY HIDDEN PEOPLE WHO DID COMPUTING IN THEIR LIFE AND ITS SO EASY FOR THEM. Basically, computing is not something you can just memorise from theory, anyhow bomb 1 ans and get correct. It comes with a lot of practice, sitting in front of the computer for 1 full day trying to pass your test-case is what you are likely to face. Be prepared about sacrificing your weekend life, those who is giving tuition(like me), grit your teeth and survive this sem well! 

For me, I spend about 2-3 full days a week just to solve 1 mission("weekly assignment"), you still have hw for tut and recitation, after lec hw to put into practice what the prof has taught. 

ALL IN ALL, a super big burden, this mod takes up so much time I THOUGHT THIS WAS AT LEAST 3 MOD COMBINED WORKLOAD. Really glad its over man.

FYI,I was going through so much struggle with tuition(demanding parents and took 3 tuition - crazy me) and school work , I really died and JUST QUIT TUITION after 1 full year. I do not intend to teach anymore either, money doesn't feel good as you see your own grades crashing.

Grading component:

• Coursemology (25%) - mission/tut/recitation/lec exp goes here, hit level 50 to get full 25%

• Midterms (15%) 

writing iterative/recursive code mainly,master that you can score,higher order functions abit harder to score, free 25-30m for Q1 to solve the code by stating what phyton will print, get tricked, you still get 2-4m for almost correct ans. Amazingly people scored like 80+ to 90+ in my tut, I felt v insignificant.

• Practical (15%)

3 "mission", quite a fight against time, practice enough and you will do okay. Because the qns format is quite the same throughout the years. How you solve the qns for Q2,3 is really about the same. Q1 is more subject to changes but it is just simpler iterative/recursive solution compared to Q2.

• Participation - 5% (attend tut/discuss ans in class-not so aggressive like biz)
• Finals (60%)

Questions rather unpredictable, but the story for Q4 based on trends including my year, uses midterm last qns story hahahha! To me not v useful but at least you don't waste time understanding the idea. But main idea is Q1 quite the same like midterms Q1, Q2 and Q3 is dictionary/list qns, Q4 uses OOP. Q5 is free 4m to pour out your emotions about the module(prep this on your cheat sheet, pour your emotions before the exam okay, no time to be emotional when you only have 2hr)

My grades: (re-test is given for midterms and practical if you fall below median,but there is a max/cap even if you get full marks, your marks is the cap)

Coursemology - 25% , median 25%

Midterms - 52/100 , re-midterms 60/100(capped at 60,LUCKY MAX) , median 64

Participation - 3.5% , median 3.5%

Practical - 17/30, re-practical 24/30(capped at 20) , median 22

Finals - 69/100 , median - 73

Overall - 75%

Expected -  B+

Final Grades - B+

LAK1201 - Korean level 1
Prof - Lee Mi Sun

This mod is super fun to me, like legit, the only time I smile in NUS during lec. The prof to me is super prepared and engaging, like you wouldn't fall asleep in class. On top of that, your peers are also super interested in the lesson further motivating you to really learn. Funny thing is hearing your friend speak with an accent, and you have to control your major laughter. Because my prof just have that classy feels, I just feel shy to LOL.

If you have the bid points/YOU WANNA JOIN LPP, please do so if you have the passion to learn a new language specifically korean. Worth your time!!

But the bellcurve is really steep, so PREP YOUR S/Us.

FYI: I'm in LPP program, stay tune if you would like to know about korean immersion(confirm go) /SEP(I might go SEP)

Component:

1. written test(60%) - Mid- terms + Finals 
2. Assignments(15%) - 2 Assignment - 1 page essay about hometown, weekend activity
3. Class Participation(10%) - just be more active during lessons, plus the lessons is quite fun like pre-school style, got small games within friends, and the teacher engages you in her lesson.
4. Oral(15%) - 1 recording, 1 face-to-face oral

Midterms:

• 1h30min
• Fight against time, better know all the words, how to write them
• Note your grammar, spelling even 1 minor mistakes say goodbye to 2 marks each qns
• Listening component(some they repeat twice) - 27min
• 40 qns in 1h BE FAST AND QUICK, I didnt know about listening until half-way through the paper, I looked up and saw the timing for listening LOL. I knew I was major screwed.

Oral:

• I think I read the passage 50 times to record within 2 min HAHAH! Good luck if you are doing that.
• As for the oral it was the most stressful thing I have ever taken in nus, my lec teacher placed 2 timer in front of me and even used her phone to record the convo, OMG super stressed out. 
• 1st component - interview style, asked about my name etc
• 2nd component - BETTER HAVE SOME LUCK, she places out 3pic and you choose 1 without seeing the pic. I was lucky and got mountains and I get to describe quite a bit BUT I FORGOT TO USE PAST TENSE SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:((((((

Finals:

• 1h15min
• This time listening component about 40/100 , SO better open up your ears man
• The written component is an increased difficulty from midterms
• NOTE THAT THEY TEST HEAVILY ON THE BEHIND CHAPTERS 
• By the time its finals you should already know mid-terms grammar cos its really quite straightforward
• Major fight against time
• BUT THIS TIME IM SUPER PREP and didnt screw up

My grades:

Mid-term - 50/100 median 80 (HOW COME THEY SO SMART - fake dono/never learn before)

Assignment 1 - C

Assignment 2 - B

Rest of the grades are not published.

Expected - C

Final Grade - B- (S/U)




GER1000 - Quantitative Reasoning
Prof - Chua Tin Chiu

Tutorials held every even/odd weeks, its a pre-allocated mod to clear the 5 pillars(new thing). Basically this mod is a repetition for chap 1-4 from ST1131, but I dono this mod so much better to score than ST1131. The bellcurve quite spread out, about 3000+ students.

You have weekly quiz, takes up 5%, try to find someone who always get full marks to share their ans AFTER YOU DONE YOURS. DON'T ever blindly copy. After first 2 weeks I got full marks for the rest of the quizzes thanks to the full marks guy, but I only change 1 or 2 ans weekly. This quiz is v useful BECAUSE THIS IS A MCQ MOD. I LOVE MCQ MOD. But the qns difficulty is high and tricky, so be prepared if stats is not your thing.

Component:

• Midterm(20%)
• Project(25%)
• Weekly Quiz(5%)
• Finals(40%)
• Class Participation(10%)

My grades:
Midterm - 9/15
Project - A/A+ -prof has no qns, no qns = high marks for my prof case.
quiz - 4.6%
Finals - unknown

Expected - A-
Final Grade - B+ (So sad omg)