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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

NM2220 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Wu Shangyuan Tutor: Ms Sim Ee Waun Grading: 20% - Participation 20% - Assignment 1: News Angle Pitches 35% - Assignment 2: Feature Story 25% - Assignment 3: Press Release NM2220 was scary to us, because some seniors complained it was hard to do well in, some made it out barely scraping by a B. Though, others seemed to get by just fine. Well, we took it anyway. This module covers a lot of aspects of media writing including print journalism (news), broadcasting (radio/TV), web, advertisement, media ethics and law, PR, etc. However, this module does not go deeply into many of the topics it covers, and the assignments have an emphasis on written work (News article, Press release). The assignments cover print/written ...

NM3216 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Alex Mitchell Tutor: Lee Junhui, Brandon Grading: 10% - Participation 30% - 10% x 3 Written Reflections (500 words each) 15% - Project 1 (Board Game, Wk 3-5) 5% Group 10% Individual 35% - Project 2 (Computer Game, Wk 6-13) 10% Week 13 Presentation 5% Group 20% Individual 10% - Weekly Tutorial Milestones (Wk 3 to 13) 1% x 3 - Project 1 Milestones 1% x 7 - Project 2 Milestones This module covers the fundamental theories of game design, including level design, types of players, fun, interaction, etc. A lot of theory behind what makes a game. The assessment is 100% CA, with an emphasis on group project work. This...

GES1029/GESS1021 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Edna Lim Tutor: Dr Edna Lim Grading: 20% - Participation 25% - Test 1 25% - Test 2 30% - Group Project This module explores aspects of Singapore Film, such as its history, the various types and genres, critical analysis, etc. There were no live lectures, but there is a film screening time slot. Some of the films cannot be found online (But can be found in libraries), so you should show up and pay attention, as you need knowledge of the films for the tests. Tutorials were held on even weeks. Week 4, 6, 8 tutorials discuss certain films and topics, and week 10 and 12 are for project presentations. Because there are no live lectures, the lecture timeslot is not used, save for an introduction on Week 1 and tests on Weeks 6 and 13. If you're looking for a GES, I think t...

GET1029 / GEX1015 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Michael W. Pelczar Tutor: Liu Jiachen Grading: 10% - Tutorial Participation 10% - Tutorial Attendance 40% - 10 Weekly Quizzes 40% - Final Exam This GET module is also the exposure module for Philosophy. Each week, you'll be briefly introduced to concepts in Philosophy, and there is a weekly quiz on each week's topic. Topics initially consist of morality (Right and wrong), but later weeks expand into God, existence, etc. Honestly, this module was a lot of fun with a super low workload. All you had to do was an MCQ quiz each week (You had 1 week to attempt it, and you're free to discuss) and tutorials are discussions of the week's topic. The web lecture was also OTOT and viewable in 2x speed. The readings help but some week's readings don't really add much. ...

NM2213 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Alex Mitchell Tutor: Dr Alex Mitchell Grading: 10% - Participation 20% - 10% x 2 Essay Assignment (1000 words each) 20% - Midterm Quiz 20% - Final Quiz 30% - Group Project comprising of: 20% Weekly Presentations (7 Presentations, 3min each) 5% Final Proposal 5% Individual Reflection (500 words) NM2213 is one of the more fun and "hands-on" modules in CNM. It dives into the basics of UX design, which if you've taken NM1101E, was briefly introduced in the interaction design segment (Recall the Don Norman reading). This is basically your gateway to the interactive media design (IMD) branch of CNM. This module covers the theory of interaction design in the first half of ...

Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Tabarez Ahmed Neyazi Tutor: Ozan Kuru Grading: 20% Class participation 20% Midterm quiz 20% Review of extra readings 5% Presentation  25% Final group report  5% Peer evaluation  5% Research participation (Extra credit) 3% SPSS quiz NM2103 is otherwise known as every CNM student's dreaded compulsory stats mod. Most seniors would advise against taking the three CNM core mods (NM2101, NM2103 and NM2104) together but I ended up having to that because ModReg refused to give me anything else. It turned out fine and I feel that they're  actually  quite complementary, because some content overlaps. All three have a week on ethics and the quantitative research mod mentions qualitative research and vice versa. What I would say is that you should definitely take NM2101 before, or at least at the same time as NM2103, as the project expects you to already have background knowledge on media theories in order to apply them to your project...

NM2101 Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Renyi Hong Tutor: Prof Subhayan Mukerjee Grading: 20% - Attendance and Participation 10% - 4 Online Quizzes 20% - 2 Application Essays (1000 words each) 25% - Midterm Essays (3500 words) 25% - Final Essays (3500 words) NM2101 is basically NM1101E's tougher cousin. Many of the theories covered were already taught before in NM1101E, but personally, as compared to Prof Nat's teaching, Prof Hong's explanations of the same theories were much clearer and understandable. However, in exchange for that, the workload for this module is much higher than the NM1101E. Given that this module was conducted fully online this semester, the module had a 100% CA format, which I would argue made the mod much heavier. For an essay only worth 10%, you are expected to write 1000 words of tying a theory to a real-life media/communication phenomena, which I found really difficult - and even more frustrating since my tutor didn...

Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Koh Khee Heong Tutor: Charles Wong Kian Hoe Grading: 18% Class participation 12% Tutorial short response (x4) 30% 35-50 minute-long presentation (20% group's overall performance, 10% individual performance) 40% Individual paper (2k words) I read many module reviews before taking this mod and they all said this was a really chill easy mod... Ok not that I totally disagree but I really didn't enjoy taking this mod much LOL. I'll have to admit that workload compared to other modules is pretty light since all you have to do is to watch two movies every week so that you can add in your own opinion during discussion but man... The movies were so boring... Idk I think I just cannot appreciate these old Chinese films :""") I'll stick to my sappy Taiwan feel-good movies thank you. Idk what I was expecting, I should've done more research before choosing to take it but oh wellz. I just know the first week I tried so hard to...

FAS1101 Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Tutor: Doreen Tan Grading: 15% - Participation 15% - Research Proposal 25% - Overview Essay 45% - Final Essay ZH:  Everyone in FASS has to take this module, so this isn't much of a module review, but just something that can prepare you for the module and what to expect. Basically, this module has you writing one essay (Max 1800 words) over the semester, along the way teaching you how to properly write an academic essay, especially how to do citations. You have to pick an essay topic based on several content packages, and typically they have some essay questions for you to answer. The content packages have topics from various FASS departments: ELL, Sociology, History, SEA Studies, CNM, CELC. I'm unsure if these packages will change but they remain largely the same over the years. I did the one under CELC on Same Sex marriages (Basically debate about 377A). After you pick a content package in the firs...