NUS Modules Review

Year 1 Sem 1 (AY 2008/2009)

CS1105 – Computing and Society
This module is basically an introduction to the world of IT and ethics on it. No exam; one creative project that was supposed to be fun but was seriously quite headachy (Sorry, don’t mean to sound so negative). But it was nevertheless a great experience.

Tutorial participation was quite fun as well. Had many topics to discuss on that bordered along the grey area. My tutor was great (Ms Ng Ee Hong that I thought looked, talked, behaved like Twin Eve lol).

MA1301 – Introductory Mathematics
A Level Maths compressed for polytechnic graduates that need to learn maths. One of my biggest regrets leaving JC after first 3 months was not being able to continue with improving my maths and maths knowledge so I’d strived to do well for this module. Lecturer (Mr Ng Wee Seng) was great and I’d never once fallen asleep during lectures (his sense of humour is excellent too).

MNO1001 – Management and Organisation
Quite an interesting module. Lecturer was a psychologist actually so much of the work was learnt from a psychology point of view which seriously made me think of doing a psychology minor. But decided against it. Many theories are linked with CS2250 (see below). Video project was quite interesting as well:

Bad thing about this module for me is that, I didn’t know what the exam focus was. =/

CS2250 – Information Systems
2 Parts – part one is actually like MNO1001 but with more IT relevant topics; part two was more on the IS itself (MIS, TPS, DSS, EIS, SIS, etc).

The thing I didn’t like was the change of lecturers and tutors midway of the sem. It’s mentally annoying. Just as you got use to the tutor/lecturer they changed another one =/

CS2301 – Business and Technical Communication
I liked this module quite a lot, but it takes up a lot of time, so please make sure that your workload is manageable before taking it! Every 2 weeks there’s a presentation/CA. Other that the fact that doing so many presentations so often is quite unnerving, it’s an overall rather relaxing module. Exam’s open book.

Year 1 Sem 2 (AY 2008/2009)

Obviously, this semester I did more modules not from SoC and I paid badly for my CAP. It was a 0.2 drop overall. Will update this in a few days time.

CS2105 – Introduction to Computer Networking
I liked this module as it’s kind of like a course that adds on to what I’ve learnt in NYP.
The lecturer that we had (Anand), is a good lecturer, though he would often release projects later than he was supposed to and will definitely be late for lecturers. So just be careful about that!

BSP1004 – Legal Environment of Business
Enjoyed this module a lot! Brings out a new perspective to the things we do in life, when we buy things, etc. The law protects us, but we must learn how to protect ourselves as well. Learnt a lot about consumer law, company law and also tort of negligence. What constitudes a contract, do you know?

MKT1003 – Introduction to Marketing
My tutor’s a Japanese lady who’s very patient with the topics that she teaches. She took the time to answer all our queries and helped us in any way that she could.
Lecturer’s pretty engaging too. Attending his lectures were a joy (webcasts are boring compared to his lively lectures).
Group assignments and tutorial assignments are common too so be prepared to put in more time.

SC1101E – Introduction to Sociology
Lectures are interesting, though the way one must learn to think is pretty different and it scared me quite a bit to be honest.
Tutorials are a joy as our class will be engaged in discussions that really makes you think about life and your perspective on racism, religion, gender, etc.
RECOMMENDED MODULE

LAB1201 – Bahasa Indonesia 1
I took this mainly because I wanted to help my bf translate what his parents and relatives were talking about, but the funny thing that happened after I took this was that my bf knew how to speak and understand quite a few Indonesian words and phrases. -_-”

Nevertheless, this module was fun to take though it made my brain hurt (learning languages make my brain hurt anyway) and the most fun part was the project that we were involved in! I learnt the Kolintang for a month and made good friends with other girls in the same team. 🙂

Check out the project blog here: http://www.bahasaindonesia08092.blogspot.com/

RECOMMENDED MODULE: For learning a new language and having fun as you learn.

Year 1 Special Term (AY 2008/2009)

EC1301 – Introduction to Economics
Lecturer and tutor Dr Roland Cheo has a unique sense of humour. He teaches Econs in a very different way. Having gone through 2 other Econs classes (during PAE at SRJC and in Poly), this module is a tough one I would say. Many topics aren’t heard of before (at least for me).

Had a 40 MCQ exam (100% during Special Term) and got a C for the first time in 4 years which got me pretty upset (and pulled my CAP down). I would recommend this module during normal term. Special term’s pretty competitive.

Year 2 Sem 1 (AY 2009/2010)

Improved in CAP (0.05) overall. Guess I’m still better at CS modules after all 🙂

CS2261 – Enterprise Systems Development
To summarise, this module is mainly about EJB in Java. We get to learn the API, systems development life cycle and a little on security. Always looked forward to lessons for some reason. The project was a killer though. Took a lot of time to code but luckily I can do a bit of design and that pulled my CA grades up 😀

TR2202 – Technological Innovation
Okay. This module was taken at the very last minute because I realised that I had one module which I couldn’t bid for. Since I wanted to do this module (for the minor that I’m still trying to apply for), I decided to take it this semester. Classes fall on Saturday mornings (9am-12pm) so my lifestyle had to change a bit. We had 2 lecturers, Sarah Cheah and Eric Tachibana. Both lecturers were good at some ways and complement each other’s method of teaching.

We had presentations almost every other week. Spontaneous ones I have to say. We were given 45mins to prepare for a short presentation each time. Depending on the lecturer, you may or may not know if you will be presenting during that class. Things were exciting, but I must admit sometimes it can get terribly tiring.

However, the content for this module really opened my mind to the things one must take note of when working with both business and technology. I haven’t seen any other module with such in-depth content as this when it comes to both business and technology. So this compensated for the lack of sleep and hard work put in 😛

Be prepared for a killer exam paper though. About 50% of us couldn’t finish the paper on time.

LAB2201 – Bahasa Indonesia 2
Cohort was very small this semester – only 30 of us. Made lots of good friends again and learnt a whole load more Bahasa. BI1 was too basic. This made me use more bahasa and understand it better.

CS4260 – E-Commerce Business Models
Lectures were scary at first (no tutorials) but afterwards it got pretty alright once we realised that Professor Jack Jiang is a really nice person who jokes despite his stern and serious looks.

Content is interesting. This module provides us with the building blocks of the common E-commerce business models with the intention of allowing us to come up with newer models based on those models.

CS4266 – IT and CRM
To be honest, I wasn’t very interested in this module. 😡 After this module, I learnt that I shouldn’t take a module just because I wanted to work with my friends. It just doesn’t work this way. I didn’t like the lectures as it wasn’t my cup of tea, but thankfully the final exam was an open book exam. Had 1 overall presentation but weekly case studies to do (in groups). Also had a group term project to work on.

Year 2 Sem 2 (AY 2009/2010)

CS3240 – Human-Computer Interaction
This was taught by Dr Jack Jiang as well. I got this module rather late and the admin had to bankrupt my CORS bidding points just to put me in. See this and this on how things are handled around here.

The main thing that I wanted to learn was Adobe Flash and I FINALLY got the chance to do so after so many years. The tutor was really nice and patient in teaching us flash and Dr Jiang was still up to his teaching standards so all was okay.

CS3254 – Information Security Management
I really enjoyed this module a lot. Ms Ng Boon Yuan’s a really engaging lecturer and I also got to know a really good tutor Zhenbin (who still communicates with most of us through FB). Lessons were peppered with videos and stories. After I took CS3235 (the next sem), I felt that this was a much easier module than that. Tutorials were of much fun too. We were allowed to put up skits, do videos, etc for our projects.

CS4264 – E-Commerce: B2C Applications
Had to take this as it was a core module. The lecturer was new, and hence he didn’t know what his “debate” project was all about :S I believe that this module has changed it’s module code, name and format. I didn’t enjoy going for 9am classes every week though.

MKT3402B – Consumer Behaviour
I thought this was going to be psychology based, but it turned out to be theory and only a bit of psychology. However, the tutor was pretty good and nice and she’s really approachable in giving us feedback on how we could improved with regards to the module.

MNO3301 – Organisational Behaviour
I enjoyed Prof Vivian Lim’s class quite a bit, except for the part where we had to participate a lot. I got out of my shell only for that class to talk though. Pretty weird and still scary, but nevertheless a good experience. Topics are rather Psychology based and the workload’s pretty heavy with lots of readings.

Year 2 Special Term II(AY 2009/2010)

CS3235 – Introduction to Computer Security
This was a really tough module! But the fact is, it was taught by a really good lecturer, Prof Hugh Anderson. With his experience, he was really patient and would even stay back with us to explain tutorial questions until we understood. My classmates didn’t have maths when they took this module during normal semesters, but I felt that the maths here was a necessary evil. Without all these calculations, how could you understand what goes on behind all the security algorithms and hashings? I learnt to appreciate the beauty of primes from this and it’s awesome how when you past by Prof Anderson (or Hugh, as he likes us to call him), he still recognises you and asks “How are you?”

2010/2011 – Semester 1
GEK1502 Food: Security and Safety
IS4102 E-Business Capstone Project
IS4234 Control and Audit of Information Systems
MNO2311 Leadership In Organisations