y2s2 (ay24/25) module review
a semester that blew by ... lowkey just went through the motions for 15 weeks as the world whirled around me...
modules taken: DMA1401L02, GEN2061, GEC1032, HS1501, HS2911, PL3103, PL3106, PL3551
(taken on GEC1032 field trip!)
DMA1401L02: Spoken Hokkien
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 1/5
difficulty: 1/5
this is a DYOC mod and such mods are seriously hidden gems for people looking to clear UEs like me. first, they are pass/fail so you don't even require an s/u on them. but more importantly, they are super fun and useful — imagine coming to uni to learn something out of curiosity and having it not affect your gpa hahaha.
i have taken the other version of this module (DMA1401L01: Spoken Cantonese) and both mods are equally fun and follow the same course structure! there are 3 main assignments: a song remix, a recorded interview, and a reflection. simple as that.
by taking these two DYOC mods, i have maxed out the limit for DYOC modules and can safely say that these have been the best two modules in my entire nus journey thus far :)
expected & actual grade: CS
GEN2061: Support Healthy AgeingSG
enjoyability: 4/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 2/5
this is a module which i took to fulfil the community engagement pillar of CHS and is a two-semester long module — i started in y2s2 and will finish it by the end of y3s1. so for now the grade will just be IP (in progress) until then.
while i can't speak for the grading, the assignment workload is generally light as you just need to complete reflections. more often what comes as the tiring part is the actual process of volunteering, which, in the case of this mod, comes in the form of completing 60-80 hours of door-to-door engagement with seniors.
there are many cool things about this module. for one, you get $10 for each senior you've engaged LOL. but more than that, it is truly an incredibly rewarding experience being able to engage with seniors whom—from my own observations at least—seem to be rather lonely and neglected. so when you do engage them, you can really see that you brightened their day just a bit more, and also you are doing a good thing by checking up on them!
i can't say for certain what i might feel by the end of the actual module yet as i am only about 1/3 into the total hours required, but i can say that if you have a soft spot for helping old folks, don't think twice and take this mod to make a difference.
EDIT* just got back my grades and i expected A but i got A- so i guess pls write ur reflections properly hahahaha shucks man wasted
actual grade: A-
GEC1032: Home
enjoyability: 0/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 2/5
expected grade: B+
actual grade: A-
HS1501: Artificial Intelligence and Society
enjoyability: 4/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 3/5
i took this this module to fulfil the artificial intelligence pillar of CHS, but i understand that you are able to take others such as HS1502 as well. for this mod, there was a weekly quiz, a midterm, a final exam, and a group project (proposal + report).
i think this was such a fun mod to take, despite hearing tons of complaints about it from others before me. i also believe that this is a very important and relevant mod to take especially in this day and age. and on a broader note, AI is something that is here to stay for the foreseeable future, so even though this mod's contents is not relevant to FASS much at all, i do believe that FASS kids like myself do need to be exposed to, or at least have an understanding of AI and its uses in society.
granted yes, you don't need an entire mod to achieve this outcome, but im willing to bet that the majority of FASS people might be unwilling to take the time out of their schedules to read up about something that is seemingly so distant from our course of study. and i think this mod provides sufficient understanding of the very very basics and rudimentary concepts of AI such that it is accessible to anyone, even those of us with no AI background whatsoever.
ok enough rambling... the mod's content itself is quite common sense (except all the technical jargon on neural networks) which makes the exams (midterms and finals) have a very steep bell curve. so perhaps what determines your grade is the group project, which you are able to group with friends. so that's a plus i guess. take this mod with friends or you might be at a disadvantage i cant lie... but ya overall this was a great mod to take and call me crazy, but as someone who was initially opposed to CHS mods, i kinda see why they designed the common mods in this way LOL
expected grade: A
actual grade: A+
HS2911: Social Media and Mental Health
enjoyability: 2/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
i took this module to fulfil 1 out of the 2 interdisciplinary pillars for CHS and picked it because i saw "mental health" and thought "oh! this is so psych-coded! gna be a fun time!" and er.... not the most fun i would say...
the content was kinda okay... but wasn't anything thaaat cool which i had hoped for. but that's on me because it's a CHS module and it's not supposed to get into too technical aspects of psych to keep the barriers to entry low for non-psych majors who choose to take this module (though there were a ton of psych people here hahah)... just a very average and at times boring module to be frank. and no one goes lectures but everyone's lecture attendance will likely still get "recorded" because the qr code for lecture attendance will get passed around. basically there is a general atmosphere of no one really cares about this module, which is a shame because the teaching staff are all pretty nice.
and one more thing is that no marks for anything were released, other than one quiz (20%). everything else was opaque. but i think im likely getting B+ cause my quiz was bad and my project was worse. probably going to su this lmao.
expected grade: B+
actual grade: A (no idea how)
PL3103: Cognitive Psychology
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
thank god for this sem i lucked out with prof stephen lim as the lecturer. he made the final open book as his teaching style went in a different route from many other cog psych lecturers who may reward pure rote memorisation in exams. from the various critical thinking assignments to even the final exam, students had complete freedom to approach it in whatever way they liked. for example, the final required us to choose 1 experiment from each cog psych lecture/topic and improve upon them, while analysing how this might value add to our lives. it was truly that open-ended, and pure memorisation wouldn't be beneficial because it was already open book + it wont help u in such an application-based question.
i have no idea when he teaches pl3103 usually because he typically teaches the higher level cognitive psych mods and lab, but ya overall great experience!
expected grade: A-
actual grade: A
PL3106: Mental Health and Distress
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 2/5
this sem the lecturer was prof kean hsu and he was at least half the reason why i enjoyed this module so much. not to glaze too hard, but he is an incredibly intelligent, animated and genuine prof to have so do try to take this mod if hes teaching!
in the first few weeks. this mod covers the very fundamentals of abnormal psych, such as conceptualising what psychopathology even is, as well as some assessment and diagnosis stuff. then by week 5, we then start to delve into the specific disorders in more detail, but were honestly pretty brief overall. the types of disorders covered were: anxiety, mood disorders, ocd and related, childhood/ neurodevelopment disorders, psychosis, ptsd, eating disorders. this is a core psych mod so every psych major has to take it, but ya for my budding clinical psychologists out there, you'll definitely enjoy this mod!
grading wise, there was a midterm (25%), an individual project (25%) as well as a final exam (40%). i honestly messed up the midterms so im hoping finals can pull me up to a shade of A hahaha. if not i will be q sad :/
expected grade: A-
actual grade: A+
PL3551: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
UROP! woohoo what a fun mod this was. cant really give a review because your experience largely depends on the professor and lab you are working with but mine was great! not gna say it here cause idw to get doxxed hahaha. but the deliverables for UROP are helping out with research for a set number of hours each week, a reflection journal of your UROP experience, and a research paper.
highly recommended mod because the experience is like no other. and you can make some cool like-minded friends along the way as well ;)
expected grade: A
actual grade: A
DMA1401L02: Spoken Hokkien
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 1/5
difficulty: 1/5
this is a DYOC mod and such mods are seriously hidden gems for people looking to clear UEs like me. first, they are pass/fail so you don't even require an s/u on them. but more importantly, they are super fun and useful — imagine coming to uni to learn something out of curiosity and having it not affect your gpa hahaha.
i have taken the other version of this module (DMA1401L01: Spoken Cantonese) and both mods are equally fun and follow the same course structure! there are 3 main assignments: a song remix, a recorded interview, and a reflection. simple as that.
by taking these two DYOC mods, i have maxed out the limit for DYOC modules and can safely say that these have been the best two modules in my entire nus journey thus far :)
expected & actual grade: CS
GEN2061: Support Healthy AgeingSG
enjoyability: 4/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 2/5
this is a module which i took to fulfil the community engagement pillar of CHS and is a two-semester long module — i started in y2s2 and will finish it by the end of y3s1. so for now the grade will just be IP (in progress) until then.
while i can't speak for the grading, the assignment workload is generally light as you just need to complete reflections. more often what comes as the tiring part is the actual process of volunteering, which, in the case of this mod, comes in the form of completing 60-80 hours of door-to-door engagement with seniors.
there are many cool things about this module. for one, you get $10 for each senior you've engaged LOL. but more than that, it is truly an incredibly rewarding experience being able to engage with seniors whom—from my own observations at least—seem to be rather lonely and neglected. so when you do engage them, you can really see that you brightened their day just a bit more, and also you are doing a good thing by checking up on them!
i can't say for certain what i might feel by the end of the actual module yet as i am only about 1/3 into the total hours required, but i can say that if you have a soft spot for helping old folks, don't think twice and take this mod to make a difference.
EDIT* just got back my grades and i expected A but i got A- so i guess pls write ur reflections properly hahahaha shucks man wasted
actual grade: A-
GEC1032: Home
enjoyability: 0/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 2/5
expected grade: B+
actual grade: A-
HS1501: Artificial Intelligence and Society
enjoyability: 4/5
workload: 3/5
difficulty: 3/5
i took this this module to fulfil the artificial intelligence pillar of CHS, but i understand that you are able to take others such as HS1502 as well. for this mod, there was a weekly quiz, a midterm, a final exam, and a group project (proposal + report).
i think this was such a fun mod to take, despite hearing tons of complaints about it from others before me. i also believe that this is a very important and relevant mod to take especially in this day and age. and on a broader note, AI is something that is here to stay for the foreseeable future, so even though this mod's contents is not relevant to FASS much at all, i do believe that FASS kids like myself do need to be exposed to, or at least have an understanding of AI and its uses in society.
granted yes, you don't need an entire mod to achieve this outcome, but im willing to bet that the majority of FASS people might be unwilling to take the time out of their schedules to read up about something that is seemingly so distant from our course of study. and i think this mod provides sufficient understanding of the very very basics and rudimentary concepts of AI such that it is accessible to anyone, even those of us with no AI background whatsoever.
ok enough rambling... the mod's content itself is quite common sense (except all the technical jargon on neural networks) which makes the exams (midterms and finals) have a very steep bell curve. so perhaps what determines your grade is the group project, which you are able to group with friends. so that's a plus i guess. take this mod with friends or you might be at a disadvantage i cant lie... but ya overall this was a great mod to take and call me crazy, but as someone who was initially opposed to CHS mods, i kinda see why they designed the common mods in this way LOL
expected grade: A
actual grade: A+
HS2911: Social Media and Mental Health
enjoyability: 2/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
i took this module to fulfil 1 out of the 2 interdisciplinary pillars for CHS and picked it because i saw "mental health" and thought "oh! this is so psych-coded! gna be a fun time!" and er.... not the most fun i would say...
the content was kinda okay... but wasn't anything thaaat cool which i had hoped for. but that's on me because it's a CHS module and it's not supposed to get into too technical aspects of psych to keep the barriers to entry low for non-psych majors who choose to take this module (though there were a ton of psych people here hahah)... just a very average and at times boring module to be frank. and no one goes lectures but everyone's lecture attendance will likely still get "recorded" because the qr code for lecture attendance will get passed around. basically there is a general atmosphere of no one really cares about this module, which is a shame because the teaching staff are all pretty nice.
and one more thing is that no marks for anything were released, other than one quiz (20%). everything else was opaque. but i think im likely getting B+ cause my quiz was bad and my project was worse. probably going to su this lmao.
expected grade: B+
actual grade: A (no idea how)
PL3103: Cognitive Psychology
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
thank god for this sem i lucked out with prof stephen lim as the lecturer. he made the final open book as his teaching style went in a different route from many other cog psych lecturers who may reward pure rote memorisation in exams. from the various critical thinking assignments to even the final exam, students had complete freedom to approach it in whatever way they liked. for example, the final required us to choose 1 experiment from each cog psych lecture/topic and improve upon them, while analysing how this might value add to our lives. it was truly that open-ended, and pure memorisation wouldn't be beneficial because it was already open book + it wont help u in such an application-based question.
i have no idea when he teaches pl3103 usually because he typically teaches the higher level cognitive psych mods and lab, but ya overall great experience!
expected grade: A-
actual grade: A
PL3106: Mental Health and Distress
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 2/5
this sem the lecturer was prof kean hsu and he was at least half the reason why i enjoyed this module so much. not to glaze too hard, but he is an incredibly intelligent, animated and genuine prof to have so do try to take this mod if hes teaching!
in the first few weeks. this mod covers the very fundamentals of abnormal psych, such as conceptualising what psychopathology even is, as well as some assessment and diagnosis stuff. then by week 5, we then start to delve into the specific disorders in more detail, but were honestly pretty brief overall. the types of disorders covered were: anxiety, mood disorders, ocd and related, childhood/ neurodevelopment disorders, psychosis, ptsd, eating disorders. this is a core psych mod so every psych major has to take it, but ya for my budding clinical psychologists out there, you'll definitely enjoy this mod!
grading wise, there was a midterm (25%), an individual project (25%) as well as a final exam (40%). i honestly messed up the midterms so im hoping finals can pull me up to a shade of A hahaha. if not i will be q sad :/
expected grade: A-
actual grade: A+
PL3551: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme
enjoyability: 5/5
workload: 2/5
difficulty: 3/5
UROP! woohoo what a fun mod this was. cant really give a review because your experience largely depends on the professor and lab you are working with but mine was great! not gna say it here cause idw to get doxxed hahaha. but the deliverables for UROP are helping out with research for a set number of hours each week, a reflection journal of your UROP experience, and a research paper.
highly recommended mod because the experience is like no other. and you can make some cool like-minded friends along the way as well ;)
expected grade: A
actual grade: A
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