NUS Module Review Semester 2 AY 11/12

Once again, I’m going to review the modules that I took this semester. 
If you have any questions, please send it to my email  atqhteo@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

The modules covered in this post:

PC1325/GEK1508 (Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness)

MKT1003X (Introduction to Marketing)
PL3252 (Social-Cognitive Perspectives of Emotion)
PL3234 (Developmental Psychology)
PH2211 (Philosophy of Religion)

I’ll answer 5 questions for each: What is it about? How’s the workload? How difficult is it? Any miscellaneous tips? Should you take it?

If you want to see previous reviews for

• GEk1519, SE1101E, PL3236, PL3233, PL3240, click this link.


• PL1101E, NM1101E, PH1102E, LAF1201, PL2131, click this link.


• For PL2132, PL3232, SSB2216 , PL3235, PH2110, click this link.

 Do note that modules do vary across semesters, depending on which professor is taking it, so I will include the name of the professor for your benefit.

PC1325/GEK1508 (Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness)

Prof: Dr Phil Chan

What is it about?

First half you will be learning about Einstein's Special and General Relativity, Blackholes and some stars/planets-related stuff.
Second half is about Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics.

How’s the workload?

There’s no textbook. No readings. Everything you need to know is in your lecture notes. Lectures are very important, you have to attend, because the lecturer gives explicit hints about what he's going to test and what is important. (e.g. "TAKE NOTE, this this that that blabla")

Assessment:

• Tutorial Quiz every tutorial (don't worry, the tutor goes through the answers and then asks you to do them, so as long as you have decent dictation skills you will get full marks for all of them LOL.)


• Star Gazing - 2 sessions - Simply go for two Friday night sessions of stargazing. If you can't be bothered just go and mark your attendance and you can leave.


• 2 / 3 person story project - write a 2000 (or 3000) word story, using concepts from the module


• Forum participation - just make 10 posts and you're fine. As long as you don't copy and paste or give one-liners, you get the full marks.


• One mid term test, one finals test. Both tests are MCQs, open book (just use lecture notes) (first test may have a short open ended short-answer question, which was a comprehension passage kind of thing for me)

Two 2h lecture per week, one 1h tutorial every fortnight

How difficult is it?

Are you a geek? If you are into complicated-sounding Physics stuff, this is for you. Issues such as traversing faster than the speed of light... quarks and leptons... etc may sound foreign and scary to an ordinary non-geek but the professor is actually pretty darn good in simplifying most things to an understandable level.

I have like, zero interest in these issues but I found most things fairly understandable. Plus the professor is one of the best lecturers I've had - he's witty (in a geeky way), entertaining, and explains things in the simplest ways. I enjoyed the lectures very much, even if I was confused/amazed/bewildered after many of them.

The quizzes are literally giveaways, you just need to turn up for class and copy down what the tutor says (often he won't give the answer explicitly but more or less guides you directly to the answer and stops short of just saying it out). Story-writing, well, is up to your creativity. The first quiz was HELL - I had no idea how to do more than half of the MCQs and was guessing most of them. The second quiz was A JOKE - many answers could be found directly from the notes, and it just felt really easy overall.

Miscalleneous Tips

Go for lectures and pay attention. He gives many tips so do note whatever he asks you to note.

Scientist's faces / names are important to note, he will test them in one or two questions in the first test at least (just be able to recognize them and roughly what they did. Shouldn't be that hard to remember Einstein's face, yes? And some others. It's open book anyway if you can't remember)

He gives many quotes during lectures too, and apparently in previous sems he tested 1/2 questions on them too, but not for my semester.

Should you take it?

I had an enjoyable experience overall, and some things that I learnt during this module are certainly paradigm-changing for me. I've never knew what 'Relativity' was until this module haha. There are many who take this module to S/U, so you can expect a wide bell curve (e.g. my first test which I guessed 75% of the questions, I got a B/B+ range score)

If you like learning about fascinating Physics stuff, and don't mind being confused abit, go for it. The lecturer is good, so you should enjoy the lectures.

Not much Physics background is needed.

MKT1003X : Introduction to Marketing

Prof: Dr Ang Swee hoon

What is it about?

The foundations of marketing - ranging from promotional tools to consumer decision process to intermediaries, etc etc. Very broad with many basic concepts.

How's the workload?

One individual assignment, one group project (with presentation and writeup), one MCQ closed book finals. Subject pool participation required (3 hours total)  (i.e. you sign up for experiments. You may get paid for some if you're lucky and choose the right ones)

The textbook has SO many chapters - 17 in the syllabus. No additional reading is required though. Everything is fairly intuitive, besides the theories and the models and terminology the textbook lays out. Lectures are once a week (2h), tutorials once a fortnight (2h)

How difficult is it?

You should be able to get a decent grade for your CA components as long as you have decent writing skills. Consult your tutor for advice if the question is unclear (my individual assignment was really unclear).

For Finals, it's basically memorize your whole textbook. She may test on the smallest things, like a particular sentence that you may overlook. Everything is important. It was negative marking in my semester too, so it made guessing in the MCQ exam difficult.

Any miscallaneous tips?

Clear your subject pool early, and cross your fingers for a good group. Do some past year practice papers, but make sure it's those semesters where the professor taught, because the other prof who takes this module uses a different textbook and conducts the module quite differently. She repeats quite a few MCQ questions.

Should you take it?

 The lecturer is very entertaining in an awkward humor way, and she does show many interesting video clips. Lectures felt useless though, seemed to just take everything from the textbook. Tutorials are totally useless - there's class participation but there's not much time to participate because there are 2 (sometimes 3) presentations each lesson.

Quite a simple and straightforward module, provided you have marketing common sense. Didn't really memorize much for the finals, not sure how well I'll do though :S

PL3252 (Social-Cognitive Perspectives of Emotion)

Prof: Dr Eddie Tong

What's it about?

Many factors/issues related to Emotions, with regards to the social-cognitive component. E.g. The role of appraisals in emotions, emotional expression, emotion and cognition, etc.

How's the workload?

One class presentation (2-3 man group), class participation, one mid term exam (1 essay qn), one finals (mcq + short answer)

Textbook is quite useless, talks about many things that seem totally irrelevant. Study his lecture notes well, and use the textbook as a supplement.

One 2 hr lecture every week, one 1 hour tutorial every week.

How difficult is it?

Content is relatively easy to understand, the class presentation/project may require some creativity (you're supposed to come up with a novel research question/hypothesis).

Finals were relatively easy MCQs, with some application kind open ended questions. The MCQs dont require much memorizing of stuff, just good understanding of concepts

Any miscellaneous tips?

Go for lectures - they are probably the crux of this module. I didn't find the textbook very useful (if even at all) for the finals, he tested almost exclusively from his notes.

One thing to note about the finals is that it's very application-based : You need to have a good understanding of all the concepts he covers in lectures and be able to recognize and apply the various concepts in different scenarios. Thus, study his lecture notes + any required journal article readings, those may be helpful. Read the textbook sparingly, if you have the time, but for things not covered in his lecture notes and is in the textbook, you probably don't have to touch.

Should you take it?

Eddie Tong is a very nice professor and is humorous as well. His lectures should be quite enjoyable, though he does make frequent pronunciation errors which may make grammar nazis cringe.

I like his style as he doesn't emphasize rote learning but encourages us to understand the material instead of memorizing it - for example he cites many studies to show certain points in his lectures but his description of the study is always very brief and succinct - he doesn't require you to remember the name of scientists, exact methods, etc, but just the variables and the results and what it shows - the gist of it.

One of the more enjoyable Psych modules out there, don't miss out on it :)

PL3234 - Developmental Psychology

Prof: Dr John Elliot

What's it about?

The development of an individual in the various domains such as emotions, moral reasoning, cognition, etc, from infant to adolescence.

How's the workload?

One mid term essay, one 'mid term' MCQ test (was in week 13), one essay finals (two sections, 6 choose 3 short answer and 3 choose 1 essay)

One 2 hour lecture weekly, one 2 hour tutorial fortnightly.

Textbook is  a typical Psych textbook, 40-60 pages a chapter a week. Some weeks 2 chapters.

How difficult is it?

Do you like memorizing things? If you do this is the module for you! Enjoy memorizing everything in the textbook as well as everything he says during lectures as well as everything in the tutorial.

Any miscellaneous tips?

Lectures are important - he tests things that he talks about during lectures and his lectures cover his areas of focus, which he is likely to test in the finals. (you probably still have to know everything for the MCQ though) This made spotting rather easy - all his past year questions are available (just look for the distinctive style of 6C3, 3C1 format) and he doesn't really repeat questions, so based on what he covers in lectures as well as what's been asked in the previous year (s), you can spot some topics that will be tested.

Tutorials are not worth any CA, but some things that you discuss during class is important. Just have a clear idea of how to argue for/against the prominent issues and be aware of the various points/studies that you can use.

He does test details, such as age of learning how to walk and whatever crap, in the MCQ, so... happy memorizing. Do also know the studies that he cites in his lectures, he tested quite a few questions on those too (not in textbook).

To sum up, memorize the textbook and his lectures, and when you revise for finals use his 'focus points' based on what he touches on in lectures to think more deeply about those topics so you can write stuff in the essay.

Should you take it?

It's a compulsory mod, so Psych majors don't really have a choice. John Elliot is like a super old fellow who has been around for ages, so if you're looking for a knowledgeable old man, he is the one. If you're looking for an entertaining lecturer... look elsewhere.

I didn't like it as it was very content heavy, but then again those with good memorization ability should be able to do well.

PH2211 - Philosophy of Religion

Prof:  Tagore

What's it about?

This is NOT a module about the different world religions. If you're looking for such an expository module, perhaps Introduction to World Religions is your choice.

This is a module about the various philosophical arguments involving religion, for example: Does God Exist? Why? If God exists, why is there evil in the world? Are miracles real? Does God have foreknowledge? If he does how can we have free will?

How's the workload?

One 15% group presentation (present an argument), one 15% individual essay, 10% class participation, final exam (open book essays)

One 2 hour lecture weekly, one two hour tutorial fortnightly.

How difficult is it?

Some people don't get philosophical arguments, some people do. The content is light in the sense that there's no reading of long articles - the textbook is a small, thin A5 sized book and each chapter is like only 10-15 pages. Some arguments may require several readings to understand, but overall if your comprehension skills are decent you shouldn't have any real problems.

Any miscellaneous tips?

Do speak up in class, and hope you don't have a crazy group member like me. The presentation may be something you're not used to - but I feel the best way is to really understand what you're talking about and speak without a script. And rehearse like mad. Only then will you sound coherent and not mechanical - you cannot sound mechanical when presenting a philosophical argument otherwise it sounds weird.

Lectures may not be entirely necessary IF you can fully understand the textbook. If you don't, he helps to clarify and explain some things.

The finals is open book... past year exams questions are available... what does that mean?

PREPARE YOUR ESSAYS!

I got a bit unlucky though as my semester was the first sem in which he switched things up abit as compared to the past 3-4 sems, and asked slightly different questions in a slightly different format. (instead of 4C2, it was 3C1, 2C1. And instead of asking a question about cosmo + ontological argument, he asked one question about cosmo, one question about onto, one question about design)

Regardless, preparing your answers in advance will help significantly as you don't have to waste time during the exam to think about how to string the points together.

 Should you take it?

As with the philo mods I've taken so far, (intro mod and logic) this is a pretty light module in terms of content. The difficult part may come in understanding the arguments. The topics discussed are really interesting so if you're religious and you've always been thinking about these issues... this module would be good to get a good understanding of the arguments for/against!

I'm also going to start a series of blog entries where I go through some of my favourite arguments in a simple-to-understand format, based on the textbook. So perhaps you can take a sample via those posts :) I'll update here with the links when they're done.

One of the more enjoyable and interesting modules I took this semester, and the professor is fairly humorous so his lectures are enjoyable.

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That's a wrap! Results are out on May 28 or 29th and I'll link them here, so you can determine how credible my words are. Hope this review helped!