NUS FASS (AY2016/2017 Semester 1 & Semester 2) Modules Review

Hello!

I'll be beginning my journey as a Year 2 student in FASS once school re-opens in a few weeks. Since it's going to be bidding season soon, thought I should finally get round to giving reviews of the modules I've taken so far! Since I took them some time back, I'm not going to be giving super detailed reviews, but hopefully they're adequate enough for you to help you make your decisions as to which modules to take :)

AY2016/2017 Year 1 Semester 1

FMA1204C (Saving Face: Freshmen Seminar) 

Super enjoyed this module. Protip, freshmen seminars can be taken to replace FAS1101 as a module, and I've heard dreary/very sian reviews about FAS1101. I think freshmen seminars are so much more worth it-- no tutorials because all you have are 3 hour long seminars every week. TBH, I much rather have seminars than do the usual lecture-tutorial style, because seminars feel much more intimate and relaxed. My seminar only had 10 students (including me) in it, so meeting every week made us get to know each other pretty well over the semester. My tutor was Ms Judy, who is suuuper cute and bubbly and lively and sooo fun to have discussions with. One of our seminar sessions even had her taking us out on a lunch date to The Royals Bistro in UTown where we exchanged our essay drafts with our peers over lunch and gave comments while we ate our lunch. And yes, the lunch was free!!! HAHAHA.

Anyway, the concepts were easy to understand, and very interesting. I was initially skeptical of how interesting the content could be because "saving face" as an idea sounded so abstract and out-there to me, but then I realised that it actually was very applicable in everyday life. Plus, we study how people of different cultures/backgrounds interact with different "face-saving" techniques, and it really helped me understand why sometimes misunderstandings occurred due to miscommunication.

Oh yeah, and this module has no exam, just small tasks e.g. forum postings to be completed every other week. Despite the almost weekly tasks though, I never felt they were a chore at all. So the whole module to me was very chill and enjoyable. I quickly recommended my friends to take Freshmen Seminars, after this experience -- I think you'd enjoy taking a seminar over FAS1101 any day. Plus, it's only available to freshmen for a reason! The tutors all know we are freshmen so they take care to ease us into uni life :)

Final Grade: A-
I believe I did well in all my components except for the final essay we had to submit, in which I believe I got something like... 69? Due to the way I structured it. I was rather disappointed with my final essay result, but I got to learn and improve from it anyway.
Workload: Very manageable.
Verdict: Would take again if I needed it to clear another requirement, highly recommend.

GES1028 (Singapore Society) 

I still have no idea why I chose to take this GES over the other GESes (which, now looking at them, they seem so much more interesting) but I guess I saw that this Singapore Society mod was offered by the Sociology department so I thought it'd be more relevant to my major. TBH, lectures were pretty dry, and the prof (Adelyn Lim) just read off the slides, so you could have survived not attending any lecture at all. I still went for every one though, because I study easier when I've sat through a lecture on it. Also, I happened to be taking SC1101E this semester, and the topics they taught in these 2 mods every week were largely the same. E.g. if this week they were talking about Race in Singapore Society, they were also teaching about Race in SC1101E lecture that week. Idk why they were so similar but that really helped re-enforce concepts for me, haha. Also made studying a whole lot easier. But because this was a GES mod, they didn't make the content too sociological. So it was all quite factual to me, like studying from a social studies textbook or something (we learned about programmes the government put in place to help with e.g. encouraging birth rate and such)

The mod was quite chill to me, just one mid-term (closed book, timed) essay, one pair/group presentation, and final closed book examinations (they give you a few essay qns, you have to choose 2 to write on type). I did relatively well for my mid-terms and pair presentation (I think I got A+ for both of these components) but I mis-read one of the essay questions for my final closed book examinations and I believe that jeopardised my eventual A+.

My tutor was Shane Pereira and I really enjoyed his tutorials! Basically we just sat around and discussed the tutorial qns and... that was it. Just really fruitful tutorial discussions, no whiteboard, no nothing. Except for the fact that I got an 8am tutorial slot because I had no other choices, so... yeah, that sucked. Still, I made it for every tutorial except for one time where I woke up late and came in at 8.30.

Final Grade: B+
Workload: Manageable.
Verdict: Take if you're interested in studying Singapore society from a sociological perspective. Quite dry TBH, but I guess very do-able, and I guess my 8am tutorials didn't help. I think there are better/far more interesting GES mods out there, plus there are ones out there with no examinations at all. But I think it was relatively easy to score in this mod if you're good with essays and pure memory work. I'm still quite sad over ruining my finals :(

SC1101E (Making Sense of Society)

I wanted to major in Sociology, so of course I had to take this module hahaha. Everyone around me (including friends who wanted to/are majoring in Sociology) mutually agreed that the intro mod for Sociology sucks. Like, it turns you right off from Sociology... or to even consider it as a major. No offence to the profs. Saroja and Lou were the two lecturers for this sem, they were both pretty interesting individually (Saroja liked to give personal recounts, Lou liked to crack lame jokes that had the entire lecture hall go deadpan and cricket lol). Still, I think the intro mod serves to give you a basic idea of what Sociology is about, so if you find yourself not interested in the lectures, you probably shouldn't major in Sociology, haha.

My tutor was Ms Ritz (short for Ritsuko), a Japanese masters student who was sooo cute. I really enjoyed her tutorials, she gave Japanese perspectives of every topic we discussed about. We were expected to do readings beforehand and discuss tutorial questions in class, so we would get into groups and share our opinions etc. Ms Ritz was really helpful and answered whatever questions we had after class too.

Mid-term was fairly easy, just short answer questions. Other than that, we had to submit a response piece on a piece of literature we read, and then we had final closed book examinations. Sociology exams are always just verbal diarrhoea to be honest. As long as you can form concrete arguments with all the memorising you did, you'll do fine.

Final Grade: A+
Workload: Manageable.
Verdict: Possible to score well if you put effort in studying. Helps if you have an actual interest in Sociology, otherwise I've seen friends who did poorly in the mod just because it bored them and they were still trying to decide on their majors. Take if you want to know what majoring in Sociology might be like.

SC2101 (Methods of Social Research)

A required mod to take if you want to major in Soci. Despite that, it's one of my fav mods to take this sem even though I'm not a mathematical person. At all. But Dr Feng is possibly one of my most fav profs ever. He taught this mod with Dr Tan, who is interesting in his own right, but Dr Feng really takes the cake lol. He's sooo funny and always tells us over and over again, "Many students tell me, 'Dr Feng, I don't understand why it's calculated like this'. But it's fine if you don't understand this calculation. You don't have to force yourself to. Just blindly memorise and do it like this". Hahaha. I love his cute China accent when he speaks in English too, so endearing!

I took a research method mod back in poly in Mass Comm and I hated it, but this mod was infinitely better and was sooo much easier. We had to use the SPSS program in the computer labs (again, I learned it back in Mass Comm too) but Dr Feng guided us every step of the way and so even though I felt lost a few times, he always answered our questions promptly and helped us through it :)

Final Grade: A-
Workload: Super manageable. The first assignment was critiquing a literature review, followed by a qualitative interview on someone you find interesting (I did it on my own dad haha), and then a quantitative assignment on two areas you found interesting (I think I did on Gender & Politics?).
Verdict: If you're not a math person, make sure to ask many questions! I somehow managed to attain an A- even though I think I did the least studying for this mod (I uh, failed to plan my studying schedule properly and left the least time for this mod, oops. Probably because it was half math?). I'd like to believe that Dr Feng inspired me to try my best for finals even though I didn't particularly enjoy statistics haha. Having a good prof really works miracles. He did make sure to emphasise that he didn't want to turn any of us off from statistics this early on in our academic life lol.

GER1000 (Quantitative Reasoning)

A required stats mod for all NUS students. I had no choice in this. ;( This was totally different from the Soci stats mod above, and I didn't enjoy GER1000 very much because... to put it plainly... I am not a math person. I got lost quite a bit, it always takes me a while to understand mathematical concepts. I believe I tried my best but for mid-terms I just passed with a 7/14 LOL. I didn't even understand where I went wrong because I thought my calculations were right! So I was freaking out about my finals, but I heard that the group project REALLY helps to pull up your grade. I was even googling about the possibility of having to re-take GER1000 coz I was THAT scared, lmao!!!

My group project was relatively smooth, thanks to good groupmates. I took my GER1000 at an Engineering block (all because my friend said that it'd be good to take it with Engineering people wtf) sooo it helped that 3 of my groupmates were Engineering students? The other 1 was majoring in Architecture, haha. Anyway, just coz I wasn't good at stats doesn't mean I didn't contribute, ok. I did help contribute 1/3 of the questions we submitted + I stepped up to design the poster, lololol. (desperately wants to feel useful for this stats mod)

Final Grade: B- (but I S/Ued it)
Workload: Manageable in the sense that if you understand the concepts then the tutorials shouldn't be hard for you, I guess. LOL. I was pretty much lost a lot of the times so the tutorials were really difficult for me?
Verdict: We have no choice in this matter but to take it, sooo... suck it up and try to understand as much as possible. Do well for your group project, usually tutors will help us with our group project score to give us a higher grade overall :)


AY2016/2017 Year 1 Semester 2

EN1101E (Intro to Literary Studies)

I really liked this module, though I only took it to clear my FASS basket. I've always had a keen interest in Literature in secondary school despite never taking it as an O level subject (I chose Pure History instead). I enjoyed analysing the poems they chose for us to read in this mod, as well as The Great Gatsby text that we had to read. TGG is really simple and full of symbolism to analyse, sooo. I didn't particularly enjoy the other two books (Waiting for Godot and An Artist of the Floating World), but I get that they wanted to expose us to different types of texts/authors.

I also really enjoyed my tutorials, my tutor was Mr Tan (Teck Heng) and he really tried to make the most out of our 45 tutorials every week :) It was usually just tutorial group discussions based on the questions he prepared for us. I enjoyed his enthusiasm and helpfulness!

Final Grade: A+
I actually ran out of time in my finals and missed out on answering a 4m short answered question, wtf. Finals was MCQ + short answer + 1 essay qn. Still, I think my A+ for my timed mid-term essay + my paper done on TGG (I wrote about the emancipation of women in the 1920s) helped salvage that.
Workload: Manageable. I actually read the books pretty late and I never actually finished reading Waiting for Godot, but as long as you have a good idea of what it's about I guess you're good to go? I read a lot of sparks notes equivalent type of websites haha.
Verdict: You'll do well if you have an interest in literature.

GET1035 (Critical Perspectives in Advertising)

Easiest mod ever. Maybe it's because I came from a media background and interned at an advertising agency before, so I was pretty much used to all the media concepts and terms. Plus, since this was a GET, they didn't even use that much technical terms, and made things very easy to understand in layman terms. Ms Dazzelyn (she was my tutor also) was really cute, she's so animated and always tries to get the class participating in discussions. There were 2 industrial talks where she invited industry professionals to speak on their experiences, and I thought those were really helpful.

Tutorials were just watching a lot of advertisements (since everyone took turns to share their favourite advertisements), so that was fun. Try to participate in class because I think Ms Dazzelyn appreciates that - my class was damn quiet so I ended up speaking up a lot every other week haha. I think she noticed coz all of us had participation cards where we had to grade our participation for every class, and when I gave myself three stars she would often add two more stars and be like, "thanks for participating!!!" Hahaha so cute.

Final Grade: A
Mid-term was electronic MCQ + short ans quiz, I think I was the first one to finish the quiz lol. I was even wondering why no one was leaving the lecture theatre yet because we had an hour+ to do it but I think I took like half an hour? Anyway, I think I scored pretty well for it in the end.
There was also individual presentation (present on your favourite advertisement and why) + group project/presentation (you guys have to choose another favourite advertisement related to the topic you chose... mine was Globalisation and New Media). My groupmates were really chill, they knew everyone had their own commitments and I think we finished our project in less than a week, hahaha. Granted, we're only given about 1-2 weeks to prepare for our group project from the moment it is announced.
The final exam was electronic MCQ + short ans + 1 essay qn. Very do-able as long as you study/memorise the relevant concepts and apply them accordingly to the advertisements given to you.
Workload: Super manageable. I never had to prepare anything for class! I didn't even do my readings, haha.
Verdict: Take this if you want a chill GET. Plus you get to sit in an air-conditioned room and watch advertisements for 45 minutes each week lol.

JS1101E (Introduction to Japanese Studies)

Took this to clear my basket, but ended up enjoying it so much I actually chose to minor in Japanese Studies after this! I heard that the Sem 1 lecturer was better, but I got Dr. Hislop in Sem 2 and I was pretty happy with his lectures anyway. I enjoyed every lecture I went to, because he always is so animated in his teachings and he's sooo enthusiastic -- you can tell this man really is passionate about what he teaches. He gives lecture slides but ONLY on the Saturday of the week of the lecture, so that means you get no notes beforehand. His lecture slides are also very sparse and empty, which means you often have to take down notes/whatever he's saying. Many times I felt like I was just transcribing whatever he said every lecture lol. But yeah, that's why every lecture is important, because he doesn't give very detailed lecture slides. If you missed a lecture, you might be confused as to what is going on re: the topic.

This mod heavily relies on self-study, I think. I often had to piece together information and come up with my own notes (through the readings + what he talked about in lecture and tutorial) and I studied from my own notes. Very different from pure memory work. You have to understand what is going on.

BTW, this intro mod covers heavily on the history of Japan (all the way from the beginning of human civilisation) and the wars, etc. Many times I felt like I was studying history. I didn't mind though, it was really interesting. He did touch upon topics like feminism in Japan, but those were just 1-2 topics on their own and quite short.

Tutorials were alright, just group discussions based on the 3 tutorial qns he would upload each week. What I found quite infuriating about tutorials was that he never really gave a resolution to our discussions, and often left us hanging in the air. I get that academia never has a concrete answer, but I guess I got so used to having definite answers in general that his discussions always left me... wanting for more? Or just wanting some sort of resolution/idea lol. We would often have group discussions for 30 mins (out of our 45 minutes tutorial), discuss with the class/him for about 5-10 minutes, and then that was it. Sometimes the things he talked about didn't have relevance to our tutorial questions either, which frustrated me even more, lol.

Final Grade: A
I was actually quite surprised about this, I even entertained the thought of S/Uing this mod just incase LOL.
Workload: Quite time-consuming. You're expected to do weekly forum postings (uh, I didn't... I think I posted twice at the start of the semester and then I did 4 more in the last week of the semester). You can't just chapalang write nonsense also, must have substantial content to write about and you're expected to use sources in your forum postings. Dr. Hislop always said that those who didn't put in effort in forum postings would suffer grades-wise, so I was damn scared lol. Readings were also quite heavy tbh, I often procrastinated on them and skimmed through the non-important ones :S The group project is important too, 1000 words per member so if you're in a 4 member group you have to churn out 4000 words. It's quite heavy so every member has to play their part. My group wasn't so bad, but I wouldn't say we were very coordinated either. We ran into a couple of mishaps and so I didn't hold much hope on doing well for the group project (we eventually got graded 20/30 for it. Quite surprising because I think the average mark was 21/30 for most people).
The final exam is closed book MCQ, but as long as you've been attending every lecture and doing up your own notes, you should be fine. I was quite clear on what was the correct answer and what was not because I was so familiar with my own notes. The MCQ was not that easy though, and I was still unsure for a few questions. Dr. Hislop made sure to emphasise that no one has ever scored full marks for MCQ before, the most was 45 or 46? And even then, he said not to waste our time trying to score full marks, and instead use that effort to do forum postings or tutorial participation. I think I participated quite a bit in tutorials too and always had nice chats with Dr. Hislop before class, so I guess my participation helped me clinch an A?
Verdict: Don't take this IF you simply want to clear your basket. Honestly it has way too heavy of a workload, don't bother if you have no interest in Japanese studies (or even just slight interest). For your exams, you really have to study a shit load of content it's no joke lol. But, if you're interested in Japanese culture, then you'll probably really enjoy this module. Helps that the prof is so passionate and it's always fun to watch passionate profs conduct their lectures. Be prepared to be diligent in your readings/forum postings/tutorial participation though.

SC2217 (Sociology of Tourism)

Pretty dry. Content was interesting, but I'd say I'm rather disappointed with module overall. I don't particular enjoy the prof's style of teaching (Dr. Maribeth) because her slides are basically just literature reviews and she discusses them during the lecture. I felt that much of the information was also outdated with regards to tourism, since we are now living in an era of technology and Airbnb etc. I didn't particularly enjoy my tutor's classes either, because I felt the tutorials were not properly structured and were quite messy. Also, instructions for assignments were definitely not clear. I felt some of the grades/feedback I received on assignments were unjustified because they never specified in instructions they were looking for so-and-so, and had stated something else instead. I also gave a ton of feedback at the end of the module, hoping they'd inject more interesting elements into the tourism module e.g. field trips to touristic places in SG. For our first assignment, we had to do a response piece/reflection on two tourism-related films we watched during lecture, and me and my friends agreed that though they were interesting, perhaps a field trip out in SG would have been much more relevant/less dated/interesting?

Final Grade: B+ (I S/Ued this)
Workload: Pretty manageable. Just a reflection, a pair/group essay + presentation, and final closed book exams.
Exams were quite easy to study for. IIRC you can spot topics because she will tell you largely what topics will be coming out. Since you're only required to do 2 essay qns out of the 6, you can easily just study 2 or 3 (to be safe) topics in-depth to write your essays.
Verdict: I was quite disappointed with the mod, thankfully I was taking it with friends so at least they made lectures/tutorials more interesting and something to look forward to. I wouldn't say this mod is easy to score in, though. Think my friends got B+s as well.

FAS1102 (Public Writing and Communication)

It's a compulsory mod, so not much for me to talk about. Really. There is nothing for me to talk about lol. It's OK, pretty interesting that we got to work on our interests in our final project (My group did on marital rape which was my idea so I was pretty interested in it).

Final Grade: A-

Hope these reviews help somehow, and do let me know if you have any questions :)

Tips on NUS Appeal Essay for Undergraduate Admission

Hey there!

I'm still trying to work on blogging more actively on here, but I've realised that I'm only really that motivated if I have a purpose/goal when blogging. In this case, I just thought I would offer some tips on trying to write an appeal "essay" of sorts, if you get rejected on your first try by the big three (local universities): NUS/NTU/SMU.

I've recently started school at NUS FASS, which is a dream faculty of mine to be in, since I've always been more interested in the Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences-- and many of my lecturers/advisors back in poly have always recommended NUS' regime for such type of uni education.

So, a little background: I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Mass Communication (MCM) earlier this year, and was awarded with Diploma with Merit upon graduation. I won't be revealing my cumulative final GPA on here, but if you're really interested in it, do ask me personally if you're a poly student who is concerned over your standing/chances on getting into NUS FASS as well. :)

Obviously, my GPA wasn't outstanding *enough* to be admitted into NUS FASS on my first try (otherwise I wouldn't be making this post to offer tips on appeal essays), but I do also think that local universities tend to give priority to the JC students, thus in the first round they may have allocated more spaces to JC kids, and in the second round they may have realised they've more space than they thought they would've (due to people freeing up their spots and choosing other unis etc)! I've been frequenting forums and realised that this year's A levels results have been said to be verrry outstanding, much more so than the previous years, so I was paranoid for a bit. NUS FASS sent out rejection emails to plenty of people (including JC students) quite early on in the application process-- I think from early May onwards! So a lot of people were worried that the standards were upp-ed quite a bit this year (2016).

However, towards end May/early June, NUS FASS started retracting a lot of those rejection emails and sent acceptance emails out to those they rejected before instead. So perhaps the available spaces > demand, and people were much more interested in other faculties this year. It all varies from year to year, so this is just the pattern I noticed for this year!

Unfortunately for me, and another friend of mine (from NP MCM as well), we didn't get "retraction of rejection" letters. (I had the slightest inkling it's 'cause we were poly kids...) But since our GPAs were within the range of NUS FASS' 2015/2016 intake, we still went ahead to appeal anyway in the second round.

I understand that different universities have different appeal essay word limits, and NTU's one is much shorter than NUS's, so perhaps this may not be as applicable for NTU kids! (by the way, I also had an offer for NTU Sociology which I was prepared to take up in the end if I did not get my NUS FASS placing.)

I also understand a lot of people's strategy is to keep their appeal essays short and simple, and to just request for an interview in their appeal essay, but frankly (in my opinion) that's a waste of one extra sentence and space. If they're keen on you, they will ask you for an interview of their own accord. You don't have to "show your initiative" in a way and use a sentence to *have* to request for it. Use the space given to you wisely and maximise every inch of it to "show off" your credentials.

This is my appeal essay:

Having graduated with a Diploma with Merit from Mass Communication, I have always had a great passion for writing and designing. My fondness for mass media in secondary school translated into an award for topping my school cohort for GCE O Level subject 'Media Studies'. With internship experience from multi-national media group Dentsu Aegis Network under my belt, I assumed the role as a media planner and worked with clients such as Resorts World Sentosa and National Heritage Board for many of their advertising campaigns. If given a chance to enter FASS, I intend to read Sociology. In today's rapidly changing society, I believe a sociological perspective and strong data literacy will further equip me for a career in the media industry. Studying at FASS will provide me with a comprehensive education unattainable elsewhere. I am confident that I have the aptitude and drive necessary to strive in FASS' environment and would greatly appreciate an opportunity to study in FASS.

What I did basically was to highlight:

- The merit I graduated with in poly (my previous education institution)

- My passion for [particular subject]. In this case: media (supported and evidenced by an award for topping my cohort)
- Internship experience (very valuable!) + highlighted the clients of government associations like RWS, NHB etc that I thought would be appropriate for NUS' attention
- What I intend to read in NUS, and why. This shows you already have good head on your shoulders and a goal in mind! You're not just wandering into the faculty with no idea what you're doing. (Even if you really have no idea what you're doing, wayang a bit la. I'm also not 100% sure on Soci being my major, but I can say my interest in it is pretty high. So if you don't have a major you're set on yet, try to zoom in on a major that perks your interest, and give credible reasons for your interest in it. Chances are, it makes you look like you really know what you're doing and not some ~wishy-washy~ individual etc)
- Also, it'd be great if you already had a career goal in mind. To be honest, I'm also not 100% sure I will venture into the media industry after graduating from uni (because who can be 100% sure of everything in their life, right?) But showing that you have well-thought out a pathway for yourself in life, have goals and am seeking to achieve it, really speaks a lot about you in the little space you're allocated to write your appeal essay. :)
- Try to say that you're confident of being able to cope with NUS' environment as well, since I think they want to see you're really keen on education to have the drive to cope with it.

Disclaimer: I don't think my appeal essay is 100% bulletproof, and I don't think it's the BEST appeal essay out there. Perhaps it didn't even factor in much when it came to my admission and maybe there was just nice an empty slot for me in the second round, lol. But still, when it comes down to you and another person with the very same GPA fighting for that one last spot, they'll give it to someone they have more confidence in excelling in their uni education, right? :) So don't take your chances hor! Do put in effort in your essay! But also at the end of the day, your grades do still matter and are the uni's first priority la. But luck also plays a small part in it lol (see if your cohort in that year has a huge arts/social science demand or not!).

By the way, I was offered admission without needing an interview (as was my friend who appealed in the second round too!).

So if you feel that you are well within the range of NUS FASS (or any other faculty)'s IGP, and just need the *extra push* which is your appeal essay for the profs at NUS to grant you admission, then I do hope these tips help you at least a bit in trying to craft an appeal essay!

I wanted to do this post because I frantically googled tips on trying to craft appeal essays when applying for local universities, but there are really only quite few posts out there. I know how nerve-wrecking this whole process is, don't worry!

Also don't worry about your GPA-- it doesn't necessarily have to HIT the 10th percentile of the uni's IGP for them to consider you. As long as your GPA is 0.03+/- of the 10th percentile, give or take, I'd say you stand a chance of getting in. :) Of course this is for the verrry borderline cases la, like for e.g. if you're a 3.71 and the IGP is 3.74 for 10th percentile, I'd say you still stand a chance! Just try appealing! In the first round of uni offers being sent out, many people would have freed up their spots in your ideal uni, by choosing another uni instead. I'm pretty sure everyone will have applied to three, if not TWO, universities at the very least. So, in the next round, there will definitely be emptied spots for people like us who just need an extra push to get into our ideal universities.

Don't give up hope on your dream universities!

If anyone needs help with anything, do let me know :D