Here's a module review for myself for year 1 semester 1 of my NUS. Being a freshie and perhaps like most other freshies, it'll either be to study very hard or play and play, and play. I had a goal and made a pact with FF that we would all achieve first class honours at the end of our 4 years.
Well easier said than done, especially with my 1st semester being lower than what I expected. Wrong mods? Slacked towards the end? These seem like petty excuses to me yet somehow on hindsight, I find the cause of my 'poor' results was due to me slacking at the reading week. Nonetheless, here's a module review of my past semester

Year 1 Semester 1. 6 Modules

EC1101E - Introduction to Economic Analysis (B+)

Content: Nothing too heavy. Coming from a H2 econs background and being my major in FASS, this seem like a pretty easy module to me. At the back of my mind I was like gahh sure can ace this module one. People say that the bell curve for EC1101E is STEEP, and yes is freaking steep. Overconfidence got me a 24/30 for my mid terms which is 30%. I thought that was good, until i found out that the average was 22.75/30. At the back of my mind, I was like damn, 24/30 would probably get me a B+ even if I ace the finals. And well, that looks to be the case. Should not have underestimated this module.

Workload: Nothing too heavy on the micro but learnt quite alot more stuff on the macro side. Attend all tutorials to get the 10% class participation. No projects just tutorials. Present answers every lesson and tutors were quite good in answering questions.

Exams: MCQ but hmmm MCQ has the downside of it being very content related and people tend to score well in MCQ. Bell curve tend to be very steep so yup, severe underestimation of the exam.

SE1101E - Southeast Asia: A Changing Region (B+)
Content: As usual, another reading module which means having weekly readings. The breakdown was pretty spreadout, in the sense that it's 20% for mid terms, 30% for group project and 10% for class participation. With a stroke of luck, I manage to get A- for the mid terms, group project and I'm pretty sure i participated in class. So then came the finals with my overconfident self thinking I'll ace it. Looks like it turned out the exact opposite.

Workload: Discussions during tutorial. I had a super cui tutor so tutorials were a bore for me. Group project takes some effort though.

Exams: Essays. And for those who love writing essays. This is a pretty good module to take.

PC1325 - Einstein's Universe and Quantum Weirdness (B+)

Content: Took this as a bredth module and I'm pretty satisfied with my grade tbh. The prof was @!$#&^%)(& good in his lectures and he drops hints regularly so be sure to listen in lecture. In class assignments, star gazing etc. Pretty easy components to score esp with forums post and all that. I really liked this module towards the end when the lectures were about sky nomenclature and quantum stuff. Group project was a story writing and writing with my buds was freaking awesome. Took more time then my SE1101 Module though.

Workload: Just listen in lectures and it'll be fine.

Exams: MCQ open book. Yet another open book, good and bad, but in this case, ITS GOOD. I would have died if I didn't have the book.

PH1102E - Introduction to Philosophy (B)

Content: I had second thoughts when I first took this module. Couldn't decide between this or history but philosophy seemed to very interested and sure it was! I enjoyed the readings, at least the moral philosophy part but not the computer portion which is the later half of the semesters. A summary has to be submitted every week which is kinda difficult because the text itself is HARD. Google it and you should be fine. I had a strict marker and made certain misintepretations along the summary which pulled my overall grade down. Didn't listen in lectures, was always playing fun run or talking crap with friends around me. Oh well, expected better.

Workload: Just keep reading I guess.

Exams: MCQ no open book. Average is prolly about 10/20 so yea you get the idea. It's crazy tricky and makes you think so much you just wanna get it over and done with.

SC1101E - Making Sense of Society (B-)

Content: ALOT OF READINGS. And I gave up reading the course pack halfway cause it was pretty hard to understand. No project just a short term assignment. Dun spend so much time on it cause unless you put in alot of effort and nailed it, prolly end up with a B or B+. Midterms was 4 choose 1 and what I studied did not come out. Yup, i spot topics. Skipped many lectures because there were webcasts. I REALLY REGRET TAKING THIS MODULE.

Workload: Prepare before tutorial and come in with something to say. Here's where i regret the most in this module, not participating in class. Probably that's what explained my B-.

Exams: 6 choose 2. I thought I got it. It was pretty do-able compared to the previous semesters. Well I guess the bell curve this semester was insane.

ES1102 - English for Academic Purpose (B)

Content: Teaches you how to cite and write a proper uni level essay. It really helped me alot and I feel blessed i failed my QET. Tutorials are rather painful because it's 4 hours per week. But I really learnt alot and made friends in ES1102. This felt more like a class over any other classes.

Workload: Insane. There are so many assignments! And so many close deadlines and overall it's really a chore meeting each one of them. Seriously most bothersome and troublesome module in my semester.

Exams: Essay. I left early for this one. Was rushing to go out. Just had to pass and I'm pretty sure my other assignments already made this module a pass for me.




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The day was spent idling at home and watching shows as per normal till evening.
Of all day it had to rain today and I REALLY hate driving in the rain. I can't see so well and that wiper is just so irritating. But I felt motivated to drive yesterday! And why so, cause I finally get to meet 4 of the most important people in my life. It should have been 5, but 1 of them is not in Singapore.

We had kombi rocks for dinner. Great dinner, good atmosphere (Vintage) & lovely catchups. Went over to hp's house after getting some cakes from bakerzin. Well they got the cakes, I was too full to even put a scoop of such a sweet treat into my mouth.
We spent prolly like an hour and a half at hp's swimming pool talking about everything under the sun. It was soothing, quiet and times likes these I really enjoy. It takes my mind off things for a while, and even if it's just for that little while, it really felt good after that. Pouring and ranting what has been in me for quite sometime since I last saw them.
369 days to a countdown to 2015 together. Shit that's some SUPER early planning.

That prolly sums my day up. Stay home Sunday tmr. Last sunday of  2013. Months fly.


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And for the first time in my 21years of my life, I really felt how it was like to have a splitting headache which really caused me so much pain I feel like tearing my brains apart. Argg.

Today was a great day, apart from the headache that I had in the afternoon. Baked some M&M cookies with dearest and my sister and well, the first batch was kinda successful while the 2nd batch was just bad. We innovate it though. By pushing everything into a rectangular kind of box we decided to make it like the crust of "jelly hearts". Well hopefully it turns out well. The oven we bought was great really and the mixer was simply useful. No more manual stirring!

On the other hand, calculated some cap with dearest in the evening and realised that to pull my cap above, next sem I need to have like all A- to get it above 4 eh - more exact - 4.1. That's insane. Consistent studying is the way to go next semester. Overconfidence is not ganna get in the way.
My new bestfriend is ganna be...
Consistency.


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It's the festive season with lights everywhere and shopping malls keeping Christmas songs on a rewind. It's the season of giving, season of feeling blessed and exchanging of presents.
Dun get me wrong, I truly feel blessed with such a loving family and a loving girlfriend, blessed that I have great buddies alongside me that I've made for the past 21-6 years of my life.

But perhaps if there was a restart button somewhere in my life (stop lying to yourself you dun wanna restart some part of your life. Really, stop those politically correct answers), I would really love to redo some parts of it. And here as cliche as it sounds, some things happen to make us stronger than who we are before.

I can't say that I'm feeling all too happy right now. Just got back my results for Semester 1. Kinda disappointed that I did not achieve what I set out to - at least a CAP 4.0 for my 1st semester which is really somewhat demoralizing to me. Yet, I cannot really blame anyone or perhaps I might seem like I'm now giving some sort of excuse to account for my 'poor' results but on hindsight, I haven't really been studying smart/hard enough for the past sem and towards the end, all I can really say is over-confidence self destruction. Maybe self explosion will be a better metaphor. Damn it man. Sigh.

Here's a physical, not mental, physical note to myself - Remember your CAP 4.0 and the pact with FF. Better achieve what I want.

It just doesn't feel like Christmas somehow. =/


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