After Year 1 Semester 2, I told myself I couldn't suffer through another 28-unit semester. But here I was this sem, with the same workload once again. This sem has been an interesting one, not only because I took more higher level courses but also because of my experience as a teaching assistant (TA) under the Undergraduate Teaching Opportunities Programme (UTOP). This was also my first sem taking courses that can't be S/Ued so it was even scarier. There's a lot of stuff to unpack here so without further ado, let's dive into Part 4 of my NUS Course Reviews.
Disclaimer 1: As a CHS student doing a double major in Communications and New Media (CNM) and Management, as well as a Minor in Korean Language Studies, my reviewed courses will be almost exclusively CNM, Business, CHS and Korean courses with very few exceptions if any.
Disclaimer 2: All of the following courses were taken in AY 22/23 Sem 2 and the structures of these courses MAY BE DIFFERENT in subsequent sems. All views expressed in this article are my own so please only take this review as an unofficial guide. More detailed information can be found in the links at the bottom of this article.
HS1501 - Artificial Intelligence and Society
Expected grade: B/B-
Actual grade: B+ (I was worried about this after ChatGPT failed me during the exam but somehow I beat the bell curve)
HSI2001 - Scientific Inquiry & Health: Good Science, Bad Science
Expected grade: A-/B+
Actual grade: A- (as expected, nothing much to say here)
NM2103 - Quantitative Research Methods
Lecturer: Prof Cho Hi-chang
Tutor: Zhu Zicheng
TLDR: Getting hands-on with surveys and data analysis.
Description of course
- One of the compulsory CNM courses, NM2103 (as its name suggests) aims to help students understand the ins and outs of quantitative research.
- Students will be introduced to research design, basic statistics concepts and data analysis, as well as the use of the R programming language. All this will be useful in the group project where students come up with their own research studies on a topic of their choice.
- Weekly tutorials from weeks 3-13 are 1 hour long and held on campus, with tutors recapping lecture content as well as providing questions for us to put what we've learned into practice.
Assessment
- In-person Tutorial Participation (20%)
- Midterm Quiz (30%)
- Research Participation (5%)
- Group Project (30%)
- Peer Evaluation (5%)
- R Test (10%)
Pros
NM2103 is a good introduction to the world of quantitative research, with the topics covered in lectures and tutorials being very relevant to all kinds of research. This ties in very well to the group project, where we are able to apply what we've learned to our own topics that we came up with. Overall, the workload for this course is also very manageable and assessment guidelines are made clear to students so that we're not completely lost when it comes to assessments.
Cons
While this might just be a problem specific to this particular iteration of NM2103 and not something that might have happened often, I think it was misguided for the teaching team to introduce an extra credit assignment so late in the semester when students are absolutely swamped with other deadlines.
This puts unnecessary pressure on students as those who didn't score as well for the R quiz would be incentivised to do the assignment for the sake of extra marks while also making it unfair by giving those who scored well for the quiz the opportunity to increase their marks even higher. In this situation, I think it would've been better if, from the very start, the weightage for the R quiz had been lower, since I think it's expected that NM2103 cohorts, primarily comprising FASS students, generally don't do so well for this component.
Personal thoughts
After my less-than-stellar experience with NM2104 last semester, I thought that I would surely suffer this semester through yet another research course, especially since I've known for a long time that I really dislike research for research's sake. Thankfully, that wasn't at all the case with NM2103. I generally liked what I was learning and I daresay I even had fun during classes. Ironically, I felt that fiddling around with R was the most fun part of the course and the amount of satisfaction that you get when your code runs properly is unparalleled.
Though my scores for this course's assessments may indicate otherwise, I actually think that NM2103 isn't very difficult. If you had learned statistics prior to matriculating and/or already completed GEA1000, a lot of what's taught in this course is very similar, albeit slightly more contextualised to communications. If you had an alright time with GEA1000 or are somewhat familiar with simple experimental statistics, you should be fine with NM2103.
Expected grade: B/B-
Actual grade: B (more or less what I expected after I failed the R quiz and didn't do the extra credit assignment, I'm glad that it can be S/Ued) (S/Ued)
NM2219 - Principles of Communication Management
Lecturer: Prof Jiang Shaohai
Tutor: Prof Elmie Nekmat
TLDR: An introduction to the field of public relations (PR).
Description of course
- As its name suggests, NM2219 serves as the introductory course to communications management. More commonly known as the "intro to PR" course, students will learn about the basics of PR and how they're applied by various organisations.
- Topics covered include the ethics of PR, crisis and issue management, and the effect of social media on public opinion.
- Weekly tutorials from weeks 3-13 are 1 hour long and held on campus, with tutors recapping lecture content and giving us time to work on our group projects, where students have to come up with their own PR campaign for an organisation of their choice and an issue that said organisation faces.
Assessment
- Individual Essay (30%)
- Final Exam (30%)
- Group Project (30%)
- Class Participation (10%)
Pros
Known as the introduction to public relations (PR) course, NM2219 provides a good first look at the basics of the industry. For someone like me who doesn't really know much about what PR and communications management entails, this course definitely served its purpose as a good introduction and I learned a lot from it. The assessments were also a good way for us to deepen our understanding of PR, as the individual essay required us to analyse an existing organisation's PR campaign while the group project required us to come up with something new to tackle an existing issue for an organisation. This was very hands-on and interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading more courses from this cluster in future.
Cons
While this isn't a problem unique to NM2219, I find that having weekly 1-hour tutorials isn't very conducive as the tutor is forced to speed through the entire tutorial and almost always overruns the timing. I understand that NM2219's tutorials are not meant for the tutor to teach but really for us to apply the lecture content to our group projects but even then, discussion time is minimal as there just isn't enough time for students to do much. Other iterations of NM2219 have fortnightly 2-hour tutorials and I think that would make more sense, so hopefully in future this can be the status quo for the course.
Another thing I don't like is that there is a final exam for NM2219. This isn't constant throughout all iterations of this course, as sometimes the exam is replaced with a second essay, but I find that the former doesn't test understanding of content as well as application. Having a closed book exam benefits those who are more inclined to simply mugging at the last minute or memorising content for the sake of it, which isn't a good indication of whether a student is actually in touch with what they've learned. Even though having the exam gives me one less CA to worry about over the semester's instructional period, I think an essay would have been much better.
Personal thoughts
NM2219 is the only Level-2000 NM-coded course that I chose to take, since PR and communication management is a career field that I'm interested to pursue in future. This wasn't my first time touching base with PR topics since NM1101E included elements of this but going more in-depth has definitely given me a greater understanding of the industry's tenets. Similarly, the group project was like a step-up from NM1101E's project and it was a good experience putting what we've learned into practice.
I find communication management to be something worthwhile and interesting, being able to communicate an organisation's intents and plans to both internal and external stakeholders is an important part of any organisation's functioning. NM2219 has only further cemented my belief that I want to expand my reach into this field and I think it'll be very useful to any relevant future internships I have. I foresee myself doing very badly after my abysmal performance during the final exam but I still learned a lot from NM2219 and I look forward to pursuing higher-level courses.
Expected grade: B-
Actual grade: B+ (I cannot believe that even after totally bombing my finals I can still get a B+ for this course, I am just thanking all my lucky stars that I don't have to use an S/U here)
MNO3703 - Leading in the 21st Century
Instructor: Usa Skulkerewathana
TLDR: What does modern leadership really look like in this dynamic world?
Description of course
- A compulsory course for Business students specialising in Leadership and Human Capital Management, MNO3703 provides a look at the nature of work, organisation and leadership in a current day context.
- Students will examine leadership through various lenses, including the impact of an external environment on an organisation and how the constantly changing way-of-work in the modern day has affected how people lead.
- Weekly sectionals are 3 hours long and held on campus, with the sectional instructor focusing less on teaching and instead on facilitating classroom discussion among students. Some sectionals will also be used by guest speakers sharing about their leadership experiences and for team presentations.
- Prerequisites: MNO1706(X) (Organisational Behavior) or PL3239 (Industrial and Organisational Psychology).
Assessment
- Individual Contributions (Self-Evaluation, Peer Review and Feedback for Other Teams) (20%)
- Team Learning Circle Assignment (20%)
- Team-based Presentation (30%)
- Individual Leadership Challenge (Self-Discovery and Leadership Development Plan) (30%)
Pros
After experiencing the "class part war" in MNO1706X, I was initially afraid of having to go through this again in MNO3703, anticipating it to be even worse with a class double the size. However, that wasn't the case at all. The class participation in MNO3703 never once felt mercenary and competitive, instead students were given ample chances to share their thoughts and opinions, and it genuinely felt more like opportunities for students to learn from one another rather than to simply get class participation points. I really appreciate this and I like that the instructor has made it clear from the start that our class participation grade won't be solely determined by how much we speak up in class.
In terms of course content, I think that MNO3703 is quite relevant to real life. Some of the stuff covered in this course is very similar to its prerequisite but is further built upon and I think it works very well in helping students to understand these concepts. Also, even though I refer to these as "concepts", they are by no means difficult for anyone to grasp, which means that students can easily relate what's being taught to their own experiences and allow us to share our thoughts well. Finally, while this course is quite project-heavy, with two group presentations throughout the semester, the overall workload is not high and students are given ample time to prepare for assessments.
Cons
At the same time, as many might think, MNO3703's course content is also a slight problem as leadership is not necessarily something that can be taught in a class. While other areas of management and organisation can be taught, leadership on its own is very fluid and not easy to teach conceptually. Though I said earlier that I found it good that much of what I learned in this course was taught in MNO1706X, it's a double-edged sword as I find that the prerequisite course kind of encompasses everything. While I enjoyed MNO3703 classes because of the healthy and fruitful discussions, I genuinely felt like I didn't learn much that I didn't already know or couldn't figure out through common sense.
Personal thoughts
I actually found MNO3703 a pretty enjoyable course to go through. With the exception of the presentations, classes didn't require that much preparation, with most of the class being very common sense-based or basing your points off someone else's. There's a lot of critical thinking used for this course and I found that to be very refreshing. Some of the activities that we did, like the Moon Landing Exercise or the Spaghetti and Eggs Exercise were really engaging and fun, making sectionals much more interesting. Moreover, though this is a Level-3000 course, it's not difficult and the workload is very manageable.
MNO3703 might be a course that's a little bit too similar to its prerequisite and may not seem very useful to some but I had a pretty good time with it. I have a small sense of regret that my interactions with my team felt very transactional and we didn't talk much outside of class-related matters, but apart from that, I think this course was a good experience overall.
Expected grade: A-/B+
Actual grade: A- (as expected, another course I couldn't S/U so I'm happy about this)
LAK4202 - Korean 6
Lecturer: Dr. Chi Seo-won
TLDR: Zero to one hundred real quick.
Description of course
- The second advanced Korean course, LAK4202 aims to improve students' proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening. Students are trained to have a deeper understanding of the language through exposure to media like news articles and interviews, with relevance to more authentic topics related to Korea's society, culture and history.
- Just like with any other Korean course, students must first watch pre-recorded videos that introduce us to that week's grammar and vocabulary, before attending biweekly lectures held on campus, where the lecturer will recap content, and have students participate in activities that improve our understanding of the nuances of the language.
- Take note that this course is only offered in the second semester of every AY so make sure you plan your schedules properly!
- Prerequisites: Passed LAK4201 (Korean 5) or by allocation after placement test. Students must not have read a higher level course than this.
Assessment
- Class Participation (5%)
- E-Portfolio & Reflection Note (15%)
- 2 Tests (50%)
- Oral Test (10%)
- Project Presentation (20%)
Pros
Beyond just covering more advanced grammar and vocabulary (just like any other Korean course), LAK4202 goes way more in-depth into Korean sociocultural issues than previous courses. This has been very helpful in allowing students to apply what they've learned when actually having conversations in Korean society. Likewise, our speaking abilities are massively built up since we have to apply them to not just relevant social scenarios but scenarios of greater "difficulty". You won't be talking about your favourite hobbies anymore but instead about Industry 4.0 or pollution, among other topics. Owing to the small and conducive classroom setting (there were only 12 people in my class), students were also given far more chances to practice our speech, further improving our command of the language.
The group project, which required students to present on a Korean societal topic of their choice and pore over newspaper articles relevant to said topic, summarising and writing down on your thoughts on them. This was a huge step-up from the previous course (LAK4201), where we still had to do research but not in such great detail, so this was really useful in training us to be capable of engaging in greater discourse with a native Korean speaker. Also, similar to LAK4201, LAK4202's weekly reflection notes had a similar format where we were just allowed to pen down our thoughts and learnings after each week's lectures. Again, this was a really good way for us to reflect on the classes and internalise content.
Finally, while the cohort is big enough for one, there is no bell curve for this course, so students can just do their best without worrying about needing to compete with their peers.
Cons
The jump from LAK4201 to LAK4202 is too big, to the extent that we were struggling to keep up many times. I find this very strange since both of these are the "advanced" level Korean courses. While I understand that this is inevitable considering that we need to improve in the language, I think that the increase in difficulty is not progressive. I don't think LAK4202 should be made much easier by any means since it'll reduce students' learning experience but perhaps something can be done about the progression between LAK4201 and LAK4202.
There were also times in the first half of the semester where class structure was a little disorganised and felt all over the place, which really stressed students out and there was almost no room to breathe. Thankfully, this got better after recess week once the lecturer took students' feedback into account so it made lessons better.
Personal thoughts
LAK4202 is without a doubt the most difficult course I have taken in my 4 semesters in NUS. While I had quite a number of classmates who got in through the placement test, I would strongly suggest against skipping the prerequisite (LAK4201) because the step-up in difficulty is HUGE. The entire class, even those who got in through the placement test, struggled a lot throughout, even after the lecturer streamlined the class structure. There were many times I thought of giving up throughout this course and that was the only reason I chose to do the group project alone instead of with a partner, so that if I dropped the course I wouldn't burden someone else.
Till the end, LAK4202 kept me on my toes and when I gave my presentation, I was told that my face was drained of colour. Nevertheless, this course continues the trend of Korean courses in NUS being extremely fun and probably my favourite courses to go through. I think our class was very bonded because we all suffered together and it made the learning process a little less painful than before. The small class size also made it easier to communicate with our lecturer, Dr. Chi, and it did feel like we engaged with her better. At the start, it was easy to get tired out by her energy but over time we got used to it and it definitely made classes more fun and engaging. I'm nearing the end of my Korean learning journey in NUS, with only the dangerous LAK4203 (Korean 7) left before I complete my Minor so I hope to end on a good note.
Expected grade: A/A-
Actual grade: A+ (my first ever A+ and maybe even the only A+ I'll ever get, but all hail Dr. Chi's non-bell curved course and it'll be a miracle if I get as good a grade in LAK4203)
UTOA2001NM - Undergraduate Teaching Opportunities Programme (UTOP)
Supervisor: Dr. Rosemary Overell
TLDR: Choose your own adventure, TA edition.
Description of course
- Offered by FASS, FOS and CDE, UTOP is a programme that trains students to become effective teachers by placing them in the roles of TAs for particular courses. Under the guidance of their supervisors, these student TAs will pick up the necessary teaching skills and learn how to reach out to those who require assistance.
- Take note that students will not get paid during UTOP, instead merely fulfilling another 4 units to their Unrestricted Electives (UEs).
- To be selected for UTOP, students must have a minimum GPA of 4.0, at least a B+ in whatever course they're applying to be TA for and also no disciplinary records.
- I was a TA for NM1101E (Communications, New Media and Society), the CNM exposure course that I took in Year 1 Sem 1.
Assessment
- Classroom Observation (75%)
- Journals (25%)
Pros
The specific tasks for each TA differs from course to course and even within the same course, different TAs can take on different roles, such as backend assessment creation or even tutoring your own class. This means that there're a plethora of skills for students to learn and improve on, so it's not a one-size-fits-all programme.
More specific to the course I TAed for, this programme was extremely lax. The TAs only had to assist the full-time tutors during tutorials and facilitate classroom discussion, so not much teaching was actually taking place. With this low workload, this is probably the easiest 4 units I'll ever get in NUS. Still, I think this was a good experience and it was quite interesting to see classes from the other side of the fence.
Cons
If you actually want to teach, UTOA2001NM isn't for you. Because there's (frankly) so little to do for this course, it sometimes feels as if I'm wasting my time and not learning much. For actual teaching opportunities, apply for other UTOP courses.
Personal thoughts
Initially, I was a little apprehensive about embarking on UTOP, as I feared it might take up too much of my time, especially since I was reading higher level courses this semester. Thankfully, that wasn't the case at all and the amount of time I spent on this course was negligible. I had experience with teaching and instruction before, both in the military as well as my pre-university CCA but this was still a very different ballgame.
Originally, I wanted to TA for GEI1001 (Computational Reasoning), a course I did well for in the previous semester, which would've actually allowed me to tutor my own class, but I was passed over by the lecturer. Looking back, I think it was a good idea I ended up in NM1101E's UTOP instead since my workload this semester was much higher and I would've been overworked if I did a tougher UTOP. Would I do this UTOP again? Again, easiest 4 units of my time in NUS, so yes I would sign up for UTOA2001NM again in a heartbeat.
Expected grade: CS
Actual grade: CS (nothing much to say here since I fulfilled completion requirements for this course)
Grade Point Average (GPA): 4.53 (without my S/U I would've fallen an Honours class but just managed to hang on by a thread with one S/U)
This was by far and away my toughest sem thus far and also the one that I had the least motivation for. The truth is, I'm not entirely sure why I just felt so unmotivated and burnt out, and none of my courses really sparked the same kind of interest that previous courses did. Even though I performed worse than I would've liked, I'm just glad I made it through and that I can still stay in this Honours class after my S/U. Moving forward, I hope I can pull up my GPA in Year 3 and 4 to so that I can comfortably maintain this Honours class.
For more information, please access the following links-
General Course Info: https://nusmods.com/modules?sem[0]=1&sem[1]=2&sem[2]=3&sem[3]=4, https://luminus.nus.edu.sg/module-search, https://canvas.nus.edu.sg/search/all_courses/
CHS Curriculum: https://chs.nus.edu.sg/programmes/
USP Courses: https://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/curriculum/academic-requirements/
NUSC Courses: https://nuscollege.nus.edu.sg/learn/critical-competencies/
SPS Courses: http://sps.nus.edu.sg/academic-programme/
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