NUS Almost Dropouts

NM4208/NM4208HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 2 Lecturer: Mr Tan Kai En Grading: 5% - Participation 30% - Integrated Communications Plan 65% - Final Project (Individual) 45% Magazine 20% Website 25% (HM ONLY) - Analysis and Critique Paper I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. In this module, you'll use advanced InDesign to create a 16-page magazine for your final project. You'll also be taught simple Figma and can use it (or WIX, or other site builders) to create a 5-page (or 5-section, scrollable) website. The magazine and website are both for an organisation of your choice, to achieve certain strategic goals. You will of course, start with the Integrated Communications Plan (ICP). Yes, I wrote about the assignments in backwards order. Basically, all the ...

NM4259/NM4259HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Dennis Ang Grading: 10% - Participation 40% - Project 1 (Group) 30% Group Grade 2 x 2.5% Weekly Milestones 10% Final Group Presentation 15% Final Group Report 10% Individual (4 x 2.5% individual reflections) 50% - Project 2 (Individual) 10% Initial Proposal 5% Low-Fi Wireframes 10% Mid-Fi prototype and Prototype evaluation report (5% each) 25% High-Fi prototype (10%) and overall design documentation (15%) I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. PS. Sorry for uploading this review a semester late. This module focuses on designing for mobile interaction. The focus is on mobility (obviously smartphones, but also smart...

NM4231/NM4231HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 1 Lecturer: Ivan Tan Grading: 20% - Participation 30% - Assignment 1: Media Zine (Group) 20% Group Grade 10% Individual Reflection 50% - Assignment 2: PSA Video (Individual) 5% Pitch 45% Video 25% - Reflection Essay (HM only) I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. Wahahah! I'd like to admit first-off that, I wasn't planning on taking this module. I didn't do so well for the prerequisite NM3230 and thought I'd certainly swore off videography. Well, I took this because there's a new lecturer taking this course for this AY, and my friend wanted me to take with them. So, I stuck around. I'll be frank. The difference between this and NM3230 is you'll be a little...

NM4238 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Taberez Neyazi Grading: 20% - Participation (in-seminar and forum posting) 20% - Individual Lead Discussion 30% - Individual Essay (Max 3000 words, week 8) 30% - Final Group Project (Designing an Inclusive Software) 20% Final Paper (Max 6000 words, reading week) 5% Week 13 Presentation 5% Peer Review This module is for discussion of software from a critical, humanities-based approach, which, I think might be much-needed in an era of tech-dominated solutions. You'll discuss software (such as AI and algorithms), and some topics could include the ethics of software in making decisions, the discourse around AI-generated art, how software shapes identity, etc. If that sounds like yo...

CS2113/T NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Akshay Narayan Tutor: Student TA Schedule: 2h Lecture 1h Lab Grading: 5% - Participation 20% - Individual Project (Week 1-8) 10% Implementation 5% Documentation 5% Project Management 45% - Team Project (Wk 6-13) 5% Design 10% Implementation 10% Documentation 10% Quality Assurance 10% Project Management 30% - Final Exam CS2113 is a software engineering module for students in CEG and certain other tracks. The T variant, to my knowledge, is the exact same module, but for students who have to take another accompanying module. The major learning objective of this module is software e...

NM4102 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Elmie Nekmat Schedule: 3h seminar-style Grading: 20% - Participation 20% - Class Project (Method Critique) 10% - Presentation 10% - Class Activity 25% - Individual Method Critique Paper 35% - Final Group Research Project 5% - Week 13 Presentation 20% - Final Report Note: Unsure about breakdown. These percentages were listed on the assignment guideline. This module is meant to support your Honours Thesis research by refreshing on research methods that were previously taught in NM2103 and NM2104 (respective reviews may be outdated). There is a greater focus on Quantitative meth...

CS4240 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Anand Bhojan Tutor: Student TAs Schedule: 2h Lecture in-person (some weeks no lecture, some weeks slot used for presentation/consultation) 2h Lab (week 2-6 only) Grading: 5% - Participation 5% - Analysis Blog Assignment 25% - 3 Lab Assignments 15% - Research Assignment 55% - VR/AR Final Project *Each item's breakdown a bit unclear. Participation was also stated to be "if applicable". I think it might've been removed as everything else adds up to 100%. This module is a way for you to explore creating Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications. It was originally just VR, but the module has recently introduced AR into its syllabus. It's ...

CS2030 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Henry Chia Tutor: (Student TA) Ben and Brian Schedule: 2h Lecture (Recorded or in-person) 1h Recitation 2h Lab Grading: 40% - Final Exam 15% - Individual Lab Project 4% - Other Lab Assignments 15% - Practical Assessment 1 (Week 7 Lab) 20% - Practical Assessment 2 (Week 13 Lab) 6% - Class Participation or Self-Learn activities * : 6% - CS2030 Wiki/Forum Posting 3% - Self-Learn Exercises * I believe this means you can get a max of 6% from the sum of both components. Labs and Self-learn exercises are all on CodeCrunch. Welcome to CS1010: Prepare to die edition . HAHA! Jokes aside, I took this module because I...

Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Suwichit Chaidaroon Tutor: Ho Wei Yang Grading: 10% Class participation 30% Online case discussion x2 30% Group project 30% Final project + Video presentation Funny story, I actually didn't plan to take this module - I bidded for NM2203 (some module on social media, I think the CNM department no longer offers it) and took this as a desperate last minute decision. I had planned on taking NM3219, which requires you to take either NM2219 or NM2220 as a prerequisite. At that time, I was already set on taking NM2220 as I was more interested in journalism. Well thank god everything worked out and I ended up taking this module, as it quickly became my favourite module of the semester. Dr Sean's teaching style is a breath of fresh air, imbuing many of his lectures with interactive activities and interesting real-life examples of PR campaigns. And as always, if you've read my NM2104 review, you would know that Wei Yang is the absolute best ...

Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer and tutor: Chin Chuan Fei / Daryl Ooi Grading:  20% Quiz x4 20% Journal entry x4 10% Group report 20% Group presentation 30% Finals This review is way overdue since I actually took it last semester but I have nothing but praises to sing for this module! Dr Chin has a really soothing voice (My friends and I often joked that he always sounds like he's recording a podcast) and it turns out that by chance, the other tutor for this module was my teacher from secondary school (he's now taking a PhD with NUS, not sure if he's still the tutor but he's a great teacher, definitely recommend taking a class under him!). If you can't afford (or lack) the patience to wait to bid for that one GES the whole school bids for because it's CS/CU, this is a great alternative to take. In fact I would even say that it doesn't take much to score an A for this - the concepts may seem a little obscure in the first few weeks but the examples Dr Ch...

Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Park Mihi Tutor: Euneee Ko Grading: 10% Class participation 25% Midterm quiz 25% Final quiz 10% Weekly review notes 7.5% Oral recording 7.5% Oral interview 15% Short essay x2 If you scroll back up to past module reviews on this blog, you may have noticed one for Korean 1. I took it in Y1S1, when I was still fresh to university and eager to perform well to every module (not that I'm not like that anymore... haha... but definitely less motivated now). Every semester after taking Korean 1, I bidded for Korean 2 but eventually dropped it before ModReg ended to take a different module. This semester, I finally took it, if not only for the CLS Language Certificate of Proficiency (You get a cert after passing every 2 levels of each language taught by CLS!)  Korean 2 has a relatively big jump in difficulty compared to Korean 1. My advice is: Don't be like me, and only take it three semesters after taking Korean 1. The best situation would be to ta...

LAB1201 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Ibu Emma Tutor: Ibu Elli Grading: 15% - Participation 15% - Oral Exam (Week 13) 15% - Lecture Quiz 15% - Written Homework (HW1, 2, and 4) 10% - Cultural Knowledge Participation + HW3 30% - Written Test 1 and 2 I had wanted to learn Malay, but my friend suggested I go for Indonesian instead. At a basic level, the languages have a lot of overlap. Anyway, this was a simple and lightweight module. I wish I had taken this in non-Covid semester as there was one cultural sharing activity done online which made it less interactive. In the past, it was in person which seems more engaging. As you may expect, this is a very basic level of Bahasa, but I enjoy that I can now understand certain simple conversations, even in Malay! The assessments aren't numerous and rela...

Very untrue to our name, I haven't quite dropped out of this school yet. Two years, and two years left, I'd like to reflect at the halfway point. In this post, I'll just be sharing my thoughts, what I'm grateful for, my regrets, and things I wish I knew earlier on. You don't have to read this haha this serves as a personal entry. Gratitudes The friends that have stuck with me two years in have mostly been made from orientation and CCA . Orientation, both as an OGL and OGC. They're also mostly from my major or faculty. If you're looking to make friends and connections, well, these are the obvious locations to look. Oh, and sometimes Discord/Telegram chats, but those are few and far between. On that note, I'm very glad to have joined a lot of CCAs. The first being NUS CNM Society, many of my good CNM friends were met there. I really wish we had more opportunity to do more but Covid really shafted a lot of our plans. I...

CS2040C Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Steven Halim (First half) and Dr Alan Cheng (Second half) Tutor: Audrey Grading: 3% - Tutorial Participation 16% - 6 Kattis Problem Sets PSET1 to PSET6 (2-3 weeks to complete), 3% each, PSET1 is 1%. 16% - VisuAlgo Quiz 4% Quiz 1 12% Quiz 2 10% - Midterm Test 15% - Practical Exam 40% - Final Exam This is a variant of the CS2040 module, taught using C++ instead of Java. While there will be slight differences in the teaching style between 2040, 2040C, and 2040S, concepts should remain the same. You'll learn about (as the name says) data structures and algorithms. Specifically, you'll learn about the following data structures: Array/List, Linked Lists, ...

NM3217 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Tan Kai En Tutor: Tan Kai En Grading: 10% - Participation 10% - 7 Lecture Assignments (All due week 13) 3x15% - Assignments 1-3 35% - Final Project (Brand Style Guide): 5% - Business Card 10% - Overall Brand Style Guide 10% - Logo 10% - Resume This is the design module that teaches you Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, in order of how often you'll use the software. After taking this module, I discovered how much of a gem InDesign is, and grew less scared of working with Vector Graphics. Actually, most of the assignments require you to use InDesign and mostly use vectors. I actually didn't use Photoshop in any of my assignments... The final project of this mod...

CS3240 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Bimlesh Wadhwa Grading: 20% - Participation 15% - Individual Design Exercise 25% - Final Test 40% - Group Project: 5% - G1: User Study 10% - G2: Wireframe and Prototyping (Individual) 25% - G3: Final Prototype, Evaluation, and Presentation I'll review this from a CNM-IMD student's perspective. It's a CS module that doesn't require coding, because it focuses on UI design. In short: This module is NM2213 on steroids. As you might expect, the module revolves around a large group project. In groups of 4, you will design a solution to a problem of your choosing. The scope of the project should be digital, like a mobile or desktop app. We are taught, and have to use Figma for the majority of the...

PH2224 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Prof John Holbo Grading: 25% - Participation 15% - Tutorial Participation 10% - Forum Participation 15% - Essay 1 20% - Essay 2 20% - Essay 3 20% - Essay 4 This module is for discussing film and philosophy, but mostly film (And the philosophy around film). This can include analysis of certain film techniques and interpretations of film. That, or even animation and silent film, and why sound/music are a core part of film, what makes animation different from live-action film, etc. The second half of the module was created on the spot. Prof Holbo asked us for suggestions on what to discuss, and from there the syllabus was built. For my semester, we decided on stuff like bad movies, adaptations, villains, thou...