My first semester will probaIbly be the lightest semester that I have across my four years. As a CHS major, you’ll normally be covering your Common Modules during your first year so those were the modules that took up most of my timetable. I’ll be rating my modules based on enjoyability, workload and difficulty.
!! I’m currently a Psychology major but was a Data Science and Analytics Major
HSA1000 Asian Interconnections
| Assignment | Weightage |
| Discussion Group (DG) Attendance and Class Participation | 15% |
| Group Presentation in DG (ONE per semester) | 15% |
| Individual Assignment (Week 6) | 30% |
| Field-Based Project (Week 13) | 40% |
Topics Covered:
1. Migration and Diaspora
2. Race and Ethnicity
3. Religion and social change
4. Social Inequalities.
Overall out of all of the Common Curriculum modules this would probably be my least enjoyable module. This module would definately be more for those that have an interest towards political science, religion, culture, history etc. I personally found the content rather dry and out of my interest zone. Hence, I felt like I wasn’t able to contribute much to discussions. You can get away without watching the lectures but do at least glance through the slides and attempt to do some of the readings for discussion purposes.
Individual Assingment: For the Individual Assignment we were required to write an essay sharing our ‘personal history’ through interviewing others like family, or anyone knowledgeable about your roots. The guidelines for this weren’t very clear and were quite arbitary in my opinion. I kind of fluffed my way through this essay, I know that many people struggled more with this component than I did. Something I feel that might help is asking your TA for feedback since they’ll be the ones grading your essay.
Field-Based Project: This was the most fun out of all the components of this module. For my group, we went to Tiong Bahru to explore the relavance of Migration and Diaspora to the area. I feel that my group got rather lucky with our topic since it is quite straight forward. The end goal of this field trip was to make a poster to share with our classmates. Since I have an interest towards designing and photography this part was rather fun 🙂
Group Presentation: I think that this was the component that prevented me from getting a better grade. Similarly to the Individual Assignment, the guidelines for the presentation were not very clear. What didn’t help was that my group was the second group to present which meant we didn’t have much basis of comparison and time. Although I think that my group did what we could do with what little information was provided, I think that we didn’t meet the requisites that my TA had in mind. Hopefully in future semesters the teaching team will work on having more clear guidelines.
Enjoyability 2/5
Workload 3/5
Difficulty 2/5
Hopefully the teaching team will work on having more clear guidelines for future semesters.
HSH1000 The Human Condition
Readings Covered:
1. Omelas
2. Gilgamesh
3. Hind Swaraj
4. Xunzi 5. No Exit 6. A Number 7. Sexual Politics of Meat
I think that the group that you’re assigned to for this module really affects your experience. I remember being very scared at first because I was grouped with a full group of guys but they were all so nice! I’d pick the same group if I had to choose again :’)
Readings: I personally enjoyed Omelas, Gilgamesh, and No Exit since they were rather digestable and were fictional. However, Hind Swaraj and Xunzi were tough to digest. They were rather long which made me lose interest and philosophical. (I read summaries for those two) Didn’t read A Number and Sexual Politics of Meat.
Group Competition: We had to create a meme relating to any of the readings. My groupmates and I weren’t really an expert in the meme field so we just did the bare minimum since we knew we wouldn’t win.
HAHAHA everyone gets a 4.1/5 automatically just for submitting the meme and those who were the most voted get 5/5. Wouldn’t worry too much about this component 🙂
Group Discussion Summaries x5: In our groups we’d have to submit a summary after every tutorial answering a question prompt that was posted in class. My group was very efficient with this compared to my friends. (In my opinion) I was blessed to be grouped with political sci and sociology majors which are known for being good at these kind of topics so we’d be able to finish out summary within 30minutes through zoom call. My other friends on the other hand weren’t so lucky. I witnessed one of them calling for 2hrs in silence (no idea how they communicated but they got things done?), and my other friend had just one group member tanking the whole things. Your experience with this component really depends on your group.
Online Quizzes + Final Quiz: WERE TOUGH I was so lost because all the options seemed either all right or all wrong? You get three attempts and they keep your best score. Don’t fully trust the poll but following the poll should get you around median. One of my friends were quite good at the poll so I got quite lucky that I managed to score around median to upper quartile for most of the quizzes (besides one). I did get upper quartile for my final quiz which I think helped my grade.
Final Reflective Essay: It’s not really an essay essay, it’s more like two reflective short writings (400 words). You will be given some prompts and you have to choose two to respond to. I don’t remember exactly what the prompts I chose were but I remember writing about Gilgamesh (About Life and Death) and Xunzi. Something that helped me tons was my Group’s Discussion Summaries. I feel like it was a good referance point for me and I wouldn’t have been able to write my Xunzi reflection without it.
Enjoyability 3.5/5
Workload 2.5/5
Difficulty 2/5
HSI1000 How Science Works
| Assignment | Weightage |
| Weekly Quizzes x10 | 10% |
| 2 Exploratorium Sessions | 10% |
| 3 Workshop Assignments | 30% |
| Midterms | 15% |
| Finals | 35% |
Module Content: 1. The Scientific Method 2. Climate Change 3. Biodiversity in Singapore
I don’t know why but this was my favourite module for this semester. I think it was probably got to do with the fact that my TAs were very nice and friendly and I liked them so much. I found the lab components quite interesting as well since they were quite hands on and the tutorials interactive too. My tutorial class was quite vocal so the whole vibe of the class was very warm 🙂
Weekly Quizzes: You get 10 attempts to get full which is a t o n so this component should be a free 10%. You can even check on Examplify which questions in particular you got wrong so you can attempt pressing the other options.
Exploratorium Sessions: You’ll have to attend 2 lab sessions which involves doing hands on science experiments. I had alot of fun because my group mates were really fun to talk to and my TA was very engaging. Time flew by really quickly for me. At the end of both sessions you’ll have to turn in a poster with your reflections/what you learnt as a group. (Each submission is 5%)
Workshop Assignments:
- Individual Report: Wasn’t a long report. We had to select a news article and apply the Baloney Detection Test Kit. As long as you follow the guidelines you should be able to get full or close to full marks.
- Group Proposal: In groups, you’ll be required to write a report proposing about ways to slow down climate change. My group was quite efficient so we were able to settle the report over an 1hr 30min zoom call.
- Self-Organized Field Trip: You’ll be required to visit one out of the selected nature reserver/parks listed and take pictures noting down wildlife and plant species. After that you’ll need to write a short report comparing the difference between a reserve and park. This was assigned quite close to the end of the semester.
Midterm & Finals: Open book MCQ for both hence the curve was quite steep. I think I performed around median for midterms but I found finals way better. I had like 20 tabs of pdfs open and was just cntl+f ing my whole way through HAHAHA. Quite fun.
Enjoyability 4/5
Workload 2/5
Difficulty 1/5
MA1301 Introductory Mathematics
| Assignment | Weightage |
| Assignments | 20% |
| Midterm | 30% |
| Finals | 30% |
Since I applied with an international qualification, my math wasn’t equilavent to H2 standard. Hence, I had to take this module. (Since I declared to major in Data Science and Analytics my first year)
Module was honestly very useless. I felt like it didn’t do a good job at bridging the gap for subsequent modules? There were two assignments which were 10% each which are questions you’re supposed to do. For Midterms I scored around median and finals (according to my friends) was easy. You’re allowed to use a graphing calculator which makes the whole module way more doable haha.
Enjoyability 1/5
Workload 1/5
Difficulty 2/5
EC1101E Introduction Economic Analysis
| Assignment | Weightage |
| LumiNUS Quizzes | 10% |
| Problem Set Submissions | 5% |
| Tutorial Attendance and Participation | 10% |
| Midterms | 25% |
| Finals | 50% |
This module caused me so much mental breakdowns and tears.
I had a little Economics background having had taken AP Microeconomics (Y1 College Level equilavent Economics in America) in highschool. However, this module was on a whole different level.
At first, I found the content quite similar to what I had learnt before (In Semester 1 you’ll be covering Microeconomics, and in Semester 2 Macroeconomics). For the first few lectures things were fine until things weren’t fine anymore. My whole semester of Economics was covered within three lectures and from then on it was like a race. The content covered was covered so fast I was struggling to keep up. I feel like the main issue for me was that I wasn’t UNDERSTANDING but was MEMORIZING. This eventually led to me doing really badly for midterms. It didn’t help that midterms were mostly MRQ (multiple response question) and that you had to click all or nothing to get the mark for the question.
I’m really greatful for my friends who encouraged me through this module and patiently explained to me concepts I had a hard time understanding. To be honest without them I would have probably failed the module haha…
I was initially going to second major in Economics but after this module, I decided against it :’) Unless you’re an Economics major or REALLY passionate/good at Economics, I wouldn’t recommned you to take this module as a UE.
Enjoyability 1/5
Workload 2/5 (In terms of Assignments) for effort and time to grasp the concepts personally for me would be a 5/5 since I struggled alot 😦
Difficulty 4.5/5
Hopefully this was helpful and gives you an insight 🙂 Do take note that each person’s individual experience differs so take my point of view with a grain of salt! ^^
Click here to read my Year 1 Semester 2 ay 22-23 review
ujiru 