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Saturday, December 27
NUS AY14/15 Sem I Module Reviews
I got my results and I did better than I expected. I'm so happy!
Anyway, the modules I'll be reviewing are:

Files for these modules are here

CS2102 Database Systems
Final
60%
Midterm
15%
Project
15%
Quiz
10%

I've heard bad stuff about this module like it's hard to understand but I don't think it's that bad.

For the first half of the semester, we had Janice Lee as our lecturer for the more practical side of the module, like SQL. She's clear, has good notes, does example problems with us - one of the better lecturers I've encountered. You should not skip her lectures.

For the second half, we had Xu Hengtao, who taught us the more abstract, CS1231-ish portions. E.g. those that need logic - like finding keys, minimal cover and decompositions. I could not really comprehend what he was saying because of his heavy accent, and also because the material is too abstract to be learnt in a few hours. So I self-learned most of his portion.

The most important lecture would be the REVIEW LECTURE which covers everything so just make sure you don't miss this one

THESE ARE IMPORTANT... Exam questions resemble the tutorial handouts so I highly recommend you go for them, pay attention and take notes

You can find the project handout in the module files. Projects vary by semester but for us, we had to make a booking system. My group performed slightly lower than average because we were missing a few required functions ^^; Remember to populate all your tables and to show evidence of error checking in your system.

There was a lack of practice material for this module, so I couldn't do much to prep for midterms. Ended up scoring average marks, which was okay considering I got almost all my SQL statements wrong. You need to watch out for the "or" and "and" questions as they tend to be tricky.

For finals, I only had a day to study for it. I downloaded past year papers and did them with some friends. They must have helped me score highly in the finals because they bumped my cui grades to an overall A-. It was a pleasant surprise because I thoroughly expected a B.

PAST YEAR PAPERS WILLL SAVE YO ASS
Also, I think paying attention helps too


ST2334 Probability and Statistics


Midterm (open book)
25%
Final (open book)
75%
 
This was the only module I wanted A- and above for but I ended up getting a B+ (( ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ )) I guess I deserve it for not doing any tutorials and sleeping through lectures
.. Anyway I'll keep this short.

This is a very boring module. The lecturer tried his best but the content was just too boring. But he's very nice and quite articulate. Most of my friends and I go to lectures and try to take down whatever he says without falling asleep and hope that we can understand what we took down later. (๑´╹‸╹`๑)

For midterms and finals, my friends did the entire textbooks' problems (while I copied off them huehuehue) I'm pretty sure they did well coz our lecturer sets the exams based on these problems!

The tutorials are quite important, but I think it depends on your tutor. My tutor gave me topic summaries which I found useful.

You -could- skip lectures and try to do the textbook problems on your own while referencing the tutorial answers. Once again, everything is in the files link above.


NM3228 Interactive Sequential Art
I'm honestly not sure if I regret taking this module or not. It was really time consuming but I think it's because I didn't wanna half ass things. So I'm really glad I got an A.

There is gonna be a long rant later. Meanwhile, here's the breakdown.


Participation
·         Attendance
·         IVLE forum
·         Class exercises, quiz
·         Tutorial feedback/critique
10%
Journal
·         Assignment development process
·         Self-assessment report
·         Class exercises
·         Relevant articles
10%
4 Assignments
50%
Final group project
30%

Basically you have to do many comic assignments and blog about them.
Links to my assignments and blog (90% of the grades are in here):
  1. Assignment 1
  2. Assignment 2
  3. Assignment 3+4
  4. Final project
  5. Blog
I'm not happy with assignment 3 onwards lol.
I think our lecturer will generally give high marks to most people.

We have critique sessions for our assignment drafts which makes you stand in front of the class to present your work... I think it's just me but I get very sensitive when our lecturer asks the class 'Any complaints?' about our work... it's like we're putting it up there for people to pinpoint their dislikes. She is quite nitpicky too (and admits to it). OK, but I know not to take the things she says to heart. Some people will give constructive criticism. Just make a comic you are happy with! ^^

Sometimes these critique sessions are counterproductive because every student has their own ideas on how a comic should be, and they start shooting different suggestions at you. In the end I think you should go with what YOU want!
Lectures are fun and enjoyable. Of course, lots of comics to read :D I like our lecturer's taste in comics. Examples of our class exercises include identifying techniques used in comics, filling in speech bubbles and improving comics.

Sometimes at the start of lectures she quizzes you on the readings. I died a lot in those because I didn't do my readings.
(((rant start)))

The lecturer is very vocal about her many dislikes (she hates superheroes, she hates tumblr), which is scary because what if you draw something she dislikes?

I'm kinda conflicted about her. To be fair she is a pretty good lecturer but... very opinionated. Not to say that having opinions is a bad thing, but sometimes, there are thoughts you shouldn't voice to your students. 

Here's a post I made to my friends earlier on in the semester. It's about an opinion she had that I feel wasn't meant to be brought to a critique session.

For a final project we were tasked to critique a hollywood trope by spoofing the trope with a comic. We decided on the trope "The Chosen One".



Wanting to infuse some local flavour in the comic we made our protagonist an ordinary Singaporean-Chinese meepok hawker whose business isn't doing well. She gets "chosen" by a higher being, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who grants her a sacred sauce that only she can use. Main gist is that she goes on to win global cooking competitions with this sauce.

When we presented this, our teacher said this:

Teacher: I feel like spaghetti is too western. It feels like the protagonist is a starving black child reaching out his hand and is saved by a white savior.
Me: *stares blankly* But, this is a ball of pasta.
Teacher: Well... it's western, and your character is asian. I don't know, I'm anti-white.
Classmate: But, spaghetti is italian, not really 'white'.
Teacher: Italian is still western and white. Anyway, just something to consider.

 
We explained that FSM actually 'exists' in the real world as a deity/God. FSM was just a deity we chose and the fact that spaghetti is western has NOTHING to do with our critique and storyline.

Anyway, the joke is on her because my friend just told me that spaghetti originates from China and was brought to Italy in the Yuan dynasty by Marco Polo. So yeah, no more white imperialistic floating balls of noodles to "save" our poor asian protagonist.


IS1103 Computing and Society
Even though I got an A+ for this module, I have to be fair in this review. How I managed to get A+ in a module I had a terrible time in, I do not know.

My experience was made terrible by one of the professors in charge of this module.

More of that later. Here's the stuff you need to know.

quizzes and online exercise
25%
group discussion
20%
group assignment due w12
25%
final
30%

I think you'd probably have heard that since one of the professors loves to slack off, this module itself is very slacky. You'd also have heard that it's a bullshitting module, which I somewhat agree... to some extent.  However, I do believe there are some useful things learnt that I can apply to my future jobs, such as knowledge of copyright laws.

For the online quizzes, y'all just need to get your copy of the textbook and have CTRL+F on hand. All of the answers are in the textbook. No need to read it beforehand, just CTRL+F for the keywords.

For the group project, I had an awful time doing most of the work so I don't want to talk about it - just try to meet with with your mentor as much as possible.

For the final, I read the textbook for the first time. Don't buy it last minute coz it's most likely going to be sold out. I made notes from the textbook to help me remember. Go take some past year paper questions and get the professor to walk you through on how to answer 'em. From here you will know what technique they are looking for. Think bullshitting papers don't require preparation? Not true.

OKAIZ. RANT TIME!!!
So, one of the professors put us through THIS HELL:


I was so close to writing a dean's letter, and even took screenshots of the evidence but this isn't worth any more of my time.

On a more positive note, I made like four friends from this class. OK ending this review with something hilarious that happened with my other professor (the awesome one).


CS3283 Media Technology Project I


Peer review of requirements analysis
10%
Peer review of system design
10%
Project Progress Report 1
10%
Project Progress Report 2
10%
Project Deliverables + Progress Report 3
60% 

Not much to say about this module since this is a project module.
LOts of documentation and not much coding.

Peer reviews is basically making a powerpoint to talk shit about another group's report.  The professor can get really harsh for this one.

I think the professor likes my group a lot u_u I am kinda scared to disappoint him aaahgh.

One piece of advice is to keep consulting your professor and follow all his advice on what he wants your report to look like. If not he will be like "Hayy i told u dis" during the peer review.

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