The 5 pillars are:
Human and Cultures(GEH),
Thinking and Expression(GET),
Quantitative Reasoning(GER),
Singapore Studies(GES),
Asking Questions(GEQ).
However, the GEQ module is not yet ready to launch so only AY1617 (and after) freshmen will take a GEQ module. For my batch, the 5th GEM should be a module from GEH, GET or GES.
Here are the GEMs that I have taken:
GER1000 Quantitative Reasoning (AY1516 Sem 1)
This is the only GER module so ALL year 1 students will have to take it. About 2500 students took it in sem 1. It is pre-allocated.
Assessment Components:
15% tutorial participation and online quiz
25% mid term (all MCQs, closed-book)
30% group project
30% final exam (all MCQs, closed-book)
Lecturer(s):
There are no physical lectures, all are webcasts on IVLE. There are a few lecturers, each in charge of one chapter.
Grade obtained: A+
This is a quite slacking and easy module for me. It is in fact a statistics module judging from its content. All the lecturers and tutors are from maths/stats.
There is a lesson plan on IVLE so we just need to follow the timeline, downloading lecture slides, scripts and watching webcasts. And remember to do the weekly online quiz, it's graded (though only a very small percentage). Since there are lecture scripts, many people just read the scripts without watching the videos. There are 6 chapters in total.
-Projection and Scenario planning (deal with population projection, teach some excel skills but not tested)
-Design of studies (deal with confounders, providing some examples of studies, like testing a vaccine)
-Association (correlation doesn't imply causation :P)
-Sampling
-Uncertainty (deal with probability)
-Networks (quite interesting concept, you may have heard about "six degrees separation")
The project is to find a research paper and do some analysis using the data in the paper.
Mid-term: 14 MCQs, 1 hour. There was really more than enough time for this test.
Final Exam: All are MCQs (I forgot how many questions). Also more than enough time. In both mid term and final, the questions are more like comprehension, so read everything carefully.
This module is very easy for people who are comfortable with maths. But I heard that many arts students find it difficult as the contents do not make sense to them.
GES1002 Global Economic Dimensions of Singapore (AY1516 Sem 1)
Please note that this module is offered in both semesters but the content is almost completely different, the lecturers are different as well. The one I took (in sem 1) is about government policies etc after 1965 and the final exam is closed-book. The one my friend took (in sem 2) is mainly about the economy of Singapore during the colonial times, like the Dutch, the British, etc. The final exam is open-book.
Assessment Components:
15% group project 1
25% group project 2
10% tutorial attendance
50% final exam (3 essays, closed-book)
Lecturer(s):
Dr Connie Chung
Grade obtained: A
I heard that Singapore Studies modules are in general a burden so I decided to finish it in year 1 sem 1 which has free S/Us. I used to take H2 Econs in JC so I guess taking an SS mod offered by econs department would be easier for me. However, GES1002 is the ONLY SS module offered by econs department, most SS mods are taught by history department. The bidding points for GES1002 were very high, luckily year 1 students have some protection but it still cost me 248 G account points (I only have 250 G points in total lol).
The workload of this module can be considered light. The weekly 1.5 hour lecture covers topics such as interventionist policies, productivity and innovation, etc. The weekly 1 hour tutorial is for group presentations (the tutor is just the lecturer). There are 8 questions given, 4 for project 1 and 4 for the second. Each question is assigned to two groups, one being agreeing with the question statement and the other being against it. The groups are also assigned by the lecturer and each group has three students. The group for project 1 is different from that for project 2.
For both projects, we need to write a group report on that question and give a group presentation of 15-20 minutes. Both reports are graded but only project 2 presentation is graded. (This is why project 2 is 10% heavier than project 1.) During each tutorial, the two groups on the same question will present and the rest just need to listen (lepak actually lol). In short, you only need to be prepared for two tutorials when it is your turn to present.
Final Exam: The final exam has 5 questions and we need to choose 3. The lecturer did not have any specific requirement on the essays so I just followed A-level economics essay-writing formats. It is closed-book but it is not really a problem because this mod does not have any solid content to memorize. You just need to have relevant background knowledge (or just commonsense) and formulate your arguments. Personally I dislike writing essays due to my slow writing but I think it is inevitable to write essays in SS mod exams.
In general, this module was neither difficult nor demanding. It is definitely a good module for those who always pay attention to government economic initiatives and policies. It does not require any econs knowledge but having econs background will make you more confident.
GEH1027 Einstein's Universe & Quantum Weirdness (AY1516 Sem 2)
Assessment Components:
35% CA
-15% class assignments
-10% tutorial attendance
-5% IVLE forum posts
-5% star-gazing sessions
20% Test 1 (MCQs + about 5 short questions, open-book)
25% term paper (a story or a book review)
20% Test 2 (MCQs + about 10 short questions, open-book)
Lecturer(s):
Prof Phil Chan
Grade obtained: A-
I didn't want to take this module as I really disliked modern physics during JC, but my friend asked me to take it with her...- -|| To be honest, after taking this module, I feel that learning about modern physics is very meaningful. Concepts like black holes, gravitational waves are hot topics today, so you can have some understanding about them after this mod.
The prof always prepared quite long slides. The contents seem to be a lot but only some key concepts are important.
For the term paper, my group did a book review, regarding science and religion. We didn't read a lot but just did some rephrasing. Anyway I guess the paper wasn't bad haha, otherwise I would not get A- (my friend even got A).
Test 1: Cover the first half of the module: relativity.
Test 2: Cover only the second half of the module: quantum physics. For both tests, you really need to know the contents despite being open book. I could not really understand modern physics, so for many questions I could only guess an answer. For people who do understand modern physics, the questions are definitely very easy.
I would recommend this module to people who are interested in modern physics AND have considerably good modern physics background (like you took Physics in JC or you have taken physics mods related to modern physics in NUS).
GET1018 The Mathematics of Games (AY1516 Sem 2)
Assessment Components:
20% mid term (open-book)
80% final exam (one double-sided helpsheet)
Lecturer(s):
Prof Leung
Grade obtained: B+
This is in fact a Maths module. It is quite a slacking module, because it does not have any CA, all the lectures are webcasted and attendance in tutorial is not graded. So the majority actually do not go for lectures (the timing is bad, 6-8pm every monday and thursday) and not many go for tutorials because all the answers will be uploaded.
The topics include basic PnC and probability calculation (but discussed in various applications like Craps, Roulette and some other casino games), Game theory and Nash equilibrium.
The prof is a bit weird...His teaching was not very structured so my mind always wandered off......He kept emphasizing learning all those concepts by intuition and said that "you do not need to be quick and have strong maths background in this module". However, I am sure that people who scored well in this module are those who have strong maths background.
Mid-term: Two questions, 20 marks.
The mid term questions were actually not difficult (about derivations of the formula from the pattern) but I made some careless mistakes so I only got 14/20. The average was 12/20.
Final Exam: 4 questions, 100 marks in total.
I could do almost all the questions and didn't feel anything very uncertain or wrong, so I guess I did not bad for the final. I was expecting something like A- but...apparently I underestimated others...>.<
I would recommend this module to two groups of people. 1) People who want a slacking GET module and have a free S/U for it; 2) People who are strong at statistics.
GEH1032 Modern Technology in Medicine and Health (AY1617 Sem 1)
Assessment Components:
10% tutorial attendance
20% test 1 (closed-book)
20% test 2 (closed-book)
50% final exam (closed-book)
Lecturer(s):
Dr Chan Taw Kuei
Grade obtained: B+
This module is content heavy, but not too deep. It involves both biology and physics knowledge. It covers a lot of information on chronic diseases (diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, dementia, etc) and diagnosis and treatment technology. I would say all these are closely related to our daily life as we always hear those terms like MRI, CT scan, radiation therapy but we may not really know what are these things doing. I really felt that I learnt something useful from this module.
The lecturer is specialized in medical physics and he is quite knowledgeable in medical technology. The notes he prepared are very comprehensible and I can understand the not-so-easy concept after reading the notes. He is very interesting and engaging during the lectures and always shows videos to help us understand. He said that he purposely made all the tests closed book (no webcast as well) so we could be forced to study properly and really learn something after this module. I would say...he is correct...but memorizing so much stuff is tiring, time consuming and painful...
Test 1: 20 marks, 10 MCQs (10 marks) and a few structure questions (10 marks)
It covers chapter 0 to 3. The MCQs have long questions and options so you need to be familiar with the details of the content. There are some calculations in both MCQs and structure questions, but they are not difficult (at least for people who were science students in JC).
Test 2: (same as test 1, but covers chapter 0 to 5, so more difficult than test 1)
Final Exam: 10 structure questions, 5 marks each, 50 marks in total.
It's almost impossible to properly finish all the questions because each question requires a long answer (unless some people can give very concise answers). It's like an essay test because I kept writing and writing. The last question was mainly calculations but the calculations would be long as well and I didn't have time to do it... I was expecting an A-, but I guess the bell curve is quite steep. :(((
I would recommend this module to people who do not mind memorizing a lot of content (not deep, just the amount). I really want to say it's necessary for us to have some medical knowledge so I definitely do not regret taking this mod.
