AY18/19 Y1S1 Review

My results for this semester is not out yet, but I will just try to summarise what each module has to offer and what to take note of. I can be quite long-winded though :') I took 6 modules, 21AU in total. I will edit this again after my overall results are released.

Edit: Results are out and it is much better than I have expected! I am hoping to maintain my GPA next sem!

CM1021 - Basic Inorganic Chemistry with Laboratory | CORE | 4AU | A-

Midterm CA1 (15%): 10/10 (average: 8. 27/10)

Midterm CA2 (15%): 13/15 (average: 12.25/15)

Lab (20%)

Finals (50%)

This module is basically like JC H2 Chemistry with some new content like Molecular Orbital Theory, which is easy once you get the hang of it, practice makes perfect. I did not quite understand it during lectures but going for tutorials certainly helped. For midterms, doing past year papers (PYP) will help familiarize yourself with the format of the exam, as they do not vary that much. Also, since it is a relatively easy module, to score and be better than your peers, really understanding and knowing the details is important. Being careless is not an option here. CA1 is fully MCQs. CA2 are short answer questions. There were 2 lecturers for this module and they are really nice and made lectures fun. One of the lecturers is Japanese and he kept pronouncing Boron as 'Moron' and the entire lecture theatre starting laughing, which I felt was kind of mean. 

Labs are done in pairs with a total of 5 sessions. Lab reports are to be handed in by the following Monday 10 am. Try not to leave it to the last minute as you may forget what you have done in the lab. I always finished mine within 2 days after my lab session. 

Finals was manageable and many left the exam hall early, but I would suggest you stay for the entire duration and check your work, making sure no careless mistakes were made. However, when doing PYPs, we had to refer to the answers provided by other students in the SPMS Club, of which some I do not agree with their answers, but do not know if I'm wrong or they are wrong. The professors said they would not be uploading the model answers. I think the point of this to do sieve out the better students so that the bell curve would be more spread out.

Things I should have done instead: Having gotten full marks for CA1, I was slightly complacent and thought that CA2 would be super easy and did not study that hard for it, so I ended up making careless mistakes. Though I was above average, most of my friends actually scored full marks or only got 1 wrong. I need to be more consistent.

CM1031 - Basic Organic Chemistry with Laboratory | CORE | 4AU | A-

Midterm CA1 (10%): 8/12 (average: 7.43/12)

Midterm CA2 (15%): 31/40 (average: 25/40)

Online Quiz + Elearning (5%)

Lab (20%): 17.192/20

Finals (50%)

This module started off with somewhat basic content like H2 Chemistry but very soon starting on new topics with various new mechanisms and reactions. Before uni began, seniors have told me this module had reactions we needed to know 5 times more than that in JC. However, I was sceptical and thought that it would not be as bad as humanities subject where the content to remember is crazy. It is essential that you attend lectures as although lectures are recorded, the professor would sometimes make hand gestures or bring his molecular kit for demonstrations which may not be captured by the video camera. Although, he may teach at a relatively fast speed and you may prefer to watch the recorded lectures at home where you can pause the video, but I feel that attending lectures is better. If there are parts you do not understand, make a note in your notes and watch the lectures again at home to reinforce learning. Attendance for tutorials are not taken, but you should really attend all tutorials as they are really helpful. I was lucky to get a really nice TA, he created a WhatsApp group for our tutorial class, so the group was always buzzing before every exam because he encourages peer learning. He would not entertain any questions that people pm him. He will only answer questions posted in the WhatsApp group.

CA1 was all MCQs and relatively manageable if you do the PYPs and study hard for it, as the contents tested are not too overwhelming, but I was careless... I could have gotten 10/12 but oh wells. CA2 was a mixture of MCQs and drawing of mechanisms, which was a killer paper in my opinion. After the paper, I was thoroughly demoralised, the answers were released after the test on the day itself, and upon checking my answers, I got the products of the mechanisms all wrong, which sucked big time. I was relying on my MCQs to pull my grade up. However, the results I got shocked me. Apparently, my product was wrong, but the overall mechanism had no issues so I did not lose a lot of marks for that. But, it was enough to wake me up and realise I need to buck up for finals as it is not going to be easy.

Our year was the first year they introduced the ChemDraw platform, which had 2 graded assignments amounting to 2%, I hated this platform, and for an assignment worth 1% I would end up spending hours on it, redo-ing it countless times because I somehow could not upload up answers and the answers I did would just disappear. However, I end up getting 9/10 for it but due to technical issues, the professor decided not to grade the assignments. So, the 5% was used for chapters that were taught entirely online (flipped classroom), with quizzes at the end of the video.

Labs are, again, done in pairs, with a total of 5 lab sessions. Submission of lab reports is the same as CM1021. I was very lucky to get fun and friendly lab TAs, the professor would also keep emphasizing the importance of enjoying each lab session, which I did. I remember clearly my last lab session had a 30- minute waiting time (for the reaction to undergo completion) and my lab-mates and the TAs, just sat down, talked and joked with one another, really fun times 😊

To study for the finals, I spent close to 5 days (inclusive of distraction) making notes for every single chapter, which was super time-consuming considering I only had a week of study break, with other modules to study for as well. That stressed me out quite a bit because everyone knew CM1031 was going to be really tough and if you are not well prepared for the exam, you are not going to know how to do any of the questions in the finals which is super scary if you ask me. I did all 5 past year papers that were uploaded for us, rushing through the last few papers because I just had not enough time! The exam timetable was planned quite well in our favour, as we had a day off before CM1031 finals. I used that day to write a summary of all reactions and mechanisms to refresh my memory as this was the 3rd final paper I have out of the 5 modules. Making that summary helped tremendously. I also looked through all the tutorials, especially the last few tutorials which I had trouble doing initially. So, the finals were okay to me, as I felt I was quite well prepared for it, though after the paper I knew I had some careless mistakes I thought it was not too bad. There was a 10-mark question I had no clue how to do turned out to be a question most people cannot do as well, which comforted me slightly. Very few left the exam hall early, however, there was this girl sitting quite near me, she left the exam hall in 1.5hrs which was really impressive 👍

MH1802 - Calculus for the Sciences | CORE | 4AU | A-

Midterm (35%): 29.9/35

5 tutorial assignment (15%): 14.93/15

Finals (50%)

Math, math, math. One of my least favourite subjects of all time just because I cannot do it since young LOL. But, I started improving drastically since I was in JC, I just practised and practised, which is key when it comes to math. This module teaches content similar to JC, but more in-depth. By that I mean, when we were in secondary school/JC, we were just given the formula and taught how to apply them, but in Uni, we were taught to prove the formula (though it is not necessarily tested but good to know). JC students should find it easy to grasp as we have learnt it before, but poly students need not worry, just more practice and consult your friends/TA when in doubt. 

There were 5 assignments (to be done in a group of 2-3) that we needed to submit throughout the whole 13wks of school. Each worth 20marks. We are given the chance to do corrections during the tutorial itself if we did not get full marks for it. And your final score would be the average of both. So, let say during your first try you get 19/20, and after the corrections, you get 20 marks. Your score would be recorded as 19.5/20. Assignments are not difficult, just make sure to check your work thoroughly. What my group did was that all 3 of us did the assignment ourselves at home, then meet up during lunch, and spent about 45mins discussing the answers. And any questions we have, we ask and explain to one another. We took turns submitting our work. The person submitting either has to rewrite the whole assignment to the way we want to present the answers or just submit their current copy if little adjustments need to be made.

This midterm has a 35% weightage which is a lot compared to the other midterms we had. We were allowed to bring an A4 helpsheet (both sides). It lasted 1.5hr and had us writing till the very last minute (or maybe just my friends and I). I studied for this by looking through all the lecture slides and tutorials (attempting most but not all again). Since this module is only in its second year, we only had one PYP to do. The PYP was considerably easy which threw many of us off guard. We were stunned when we saw the paper, the difficulty in level soared. However, the helpsheet really helped. Tips when doing your helpsheet: do not just blindly copy from the slides (everyone has access to the slides so what difference does that make right). You should write steps of how to apply the formulas, very useful.

For the finals, we can bring 2 A4 helpsheets (both sides, 4pages). Again, I studied all lecture slides, but paying lesser attention to tutorials this time due to poor time management, as I spent way too long on CM1031. Also, the tutorial answers uploaded had quite a few errors which wasted some of my time. In the beginning, the lecturer said she would not be uploading the answers to the PYP, so I got my friend to do the paper and discussed our answers during the study break. On the day before our math paper, the professor suddenly changed her mind and sent us the model answers ._. Time management is important during the finals because the paper was a difficult one as compared to the PYP. Tougher questions are placed in front while the straightforward questions are at the back, so one must know how to skip the tougher questions and move on, otherwise, the consequences are "fatal".

Points to note: I attended the lectures every week for slightly more than a month then started skipping them because, in my opinion, the professor teaches quite slowly so it would save me time if I watch recorded lectures at 2 times the speed(2hr lecture becomes 1hr!). I only recommend this to people who think they are quite good at math. But please attend the first few lectures to see if you find her teaching slow. Some of my friends actually said her teaching is really fast, so it really depends. Also, although attendance for tutorials is taken, I do not think it is not graded.

PH1801 - Foundations of Physics I | CORE | 3AU | Pass

Tutorial Assignments (10%): 10/10

MasteringPhysics (10%): 9.99/10

Midterm (30%): 80/90

Finals (50%)

This is a pass/fail module and requires only 40% to pass. As long as you submit weekly tutorial assignments, do the online MCQ quiz (MasteringPhysics) after every lecture, you will be more than prepared to tackle the midterm. I did not take Physics in JC, the only physics background I had was at the O levels, but even then I hated physics to the core. However, I could still pass it. The content taught started with basic O level content, then moved on a bit to H2 Physics content and additional new content. H2 Physics peeps would find this a piece of cake. Tutorial assignments and MasteringPhysics have its fair share of easy and tricky questions but the professors are nice to just take the best 3 scores. Attendance for tutorials is not taken. Most of us already passed the module even without taking the Finals. We just turned up for it because we felt it was morally wrong not to 😅 Most people left the 2.5hr exam as soon as the 1hr mark was reached. The format of the midterm and finals are a mixture of MCQs and short answer questions.

PS0001 - Introduction to Computational Thinking | Ger-CORE | 3AU | A+

CA1 (25%): 11/15 [MCQ], 9/10 [Hands-on]

CA2 (25%): 11/15 [MCQ], 8.5/10 [Hands-on]

LAMS Quiz (20%): 2400/2400

Project (30%): 10/10

This is a new course introduced in our year. It is essentially learning the basics of the Python Language and the 4 steps of computational thinking (you can google what are the 4). So if you have some prior programming knowledge, it will be good. But, if you are like me with zero knowledge, it is fine. The course outline caters to people with zero knowledge. Every week we are to watch an online LAMS video and a graded quiz follows. You are allowed to attempt the quiz again if you did not score full marks so you get the free 20%. There are tutorial and lab sessions every week (3hrs in total) in a computer lab. The tutorial questions will be based on the LAMS video that week, so without watching the video, you would most probably be unable to solve the questions and waste your time at tutorials and lab. Some concepts are really easy to grasp but some require more time in trying to understand it. Tutorial and lab sessions are there for you to consult the TAs if you do not understand anything, but you need to ask them. Sitting there being quiet, no one would know what you need. Also, they would not check if you are doing the tutorial/lab questions or not, so discipline is important to do well in this module. Attendance is not taken.

The format for CA1 and CA2 are the same. One is held before recess week and the other is held in the last teaching week. It comprises of a quiz (15 MCQs) and a hands-on quiz. As this is the first year this course is introduced, we do not have any PYPs and had no idea what kind of questions will be tested so it was really difficult, most people hated this module but it is our CORE ._. We did not know if they will test on definitions so for CA1 we actually memorised definitions, which was quite a lot. But, no definition questions were tested so I did not memorise any for CA2. The MCQs are actually manageable if you understand every single tutorial and lecture and do not be careless. The hands-on is slightly more difficult as it requires you to write a code that would give a certain output. Because it is open-ended, it is very easy to make mistakes. But, perhaps this is the first year of implementation, it was not that difficult if you know your stuff that is.

Now for the "fun" part, the project. You can choose to do it alone, in pairs, or in threes. I did mine in threes. My groupmates are my OG mates and we have the same timetable so it was easier to find free time together to do. We were given about 6 weeks for this project. It was to code a Connect4 game with many requirements. My group did nothing in the 1st week as we had no idea what to do. Then we started panicking earlier than other groups and the TAs cannot really answer our questions so we booked a consultation with the professor who created the project during the 4th or 5th week. That consultation highlighted some of the misunderstandings we had about the project and knew how to move on from there. But, having only 1-2 weeks before submission left us really stressed out. Thankfully for my group, we managed to finish fulfilling every requirement and submitted on time. There were groups who just gave up certain more difficult requirements towards the end and just submitted. There were also groups who went online and found someone to do it for them and paid them. I do not suggest you do that because the professor has his way of checking if the code was done by you and you should not copy other groups' code and change certain parts because he will find out too, some groups got zero because of that. Your groupmates are really important in this, it's best if there is someone who has prior programming knowledge in your group and that there are no freeloaders as the project really requires all hands on deck. Meeting up face to face and doing the project is more effective. You can download Spyder (Anaconda) on your computer to work on the code without using the school computers.

Something extra: During the course of the project, our group got really angry at the difficulty of the project, it is easily 100 times more difficult than the quizzes. We actually talked about coming up with a petition to abolish the module entirely for chemistry students HAHAH. Also, during our consultation with the prof, he said the point of the project is to make us struggle, only then we will learn better. I agree with him but I still find it too difficult.

CM8002 - Forensic Science | GER-STS | 3AU | A

Midterm (20%): 18/25

Finals (80%)

This is one of the most interesting modules almost everyone wants to take and luckily for CBC students, it is automatically assigned to us. The waiting list for this module can go up to 1000+ people I heard. The scheme of work is as such: 1 introductory lecture, about 9 online lectures every week and 5 guest lectures. The introductory lectures and guest lectures are those you need to physically be in the LT as guest lectures are not recorded. There are quizzes after each online lecture but they are not graded, the MCQ midterm questions will be of a similar style to the online lecture quizzes. To do well for this module, blindly memorising everything is not going to work (at least for me), the professor emphasizes the importance of understanding the concept and how forensic experts approach/solve cases. How I studied: Get a notebook and write down key pointers + case studies taught during each lecture (online & guest). Do this diligently every week, do not wait till before finals to start doing your notes, the content is too heavy and you are likely to not have time to finish making your notes. If you do this diligently every week, you already have your notes before finals and all that is left to do is read your notes and go back to the online lectures and doing PYPs.

No PYP for midterms will be made available so my advice is to really understand key concepts and pay attention to guest lectures, also make sure you know what points each case study shows. The MCQs will test on specific case studies, giving you the names of the victim/perpetrator and asking questions on them. The midterm is conducted in the LT, flashing each question for 40s and we answer on the OMR sheet. Then the questions will be flashed for the 2nd time for 30s to allow us to check our answers. The professor is quite funny in setting the midterm, the last question asked was: "What blood type of people are the most romantic? (P.S your lecturer is blood type O)". The whole lecture theatre started laughing upon seeing that HAHAH 😂

Finals comprise of a 40-mark case study and 40 MCQs(each worth 1.5marks). The MCQs are of a similar style to the midterm. The case study will contain an extract giving you information on a case and witness accounts and evidence (includes pictures). You will then need to deduce who is the most probable murderer and support your answer with relevant evidence. Tip: read the extract very very carefully, it is slightly longer than one page so people tend to ignore certain information which is bad.

Okay, I think that is all. Till next time, all the best! :)