Should I take the honours degree?

For  students admitted before AY2021/2022, the NUS Bachelor of Science degree (Major in Statistics) actually gives you the freedom to exit after 3 years - This was actually one of the reasons I picked this degree. Interested students can continue to study 1 more year (4 years in total) for the honours degree. 

I was personally extremely conflicted about taking the honours degree as I was getting burnt out by the rigorous curriculum and wasn't sure how writing a thesis paper would help me with getting a job. Eventually, I chose to go with the honours because I wanted to read more data science modules and I wanted to write a thesis on Deep Learning. Thankfully all stars aligned for me and I actually got my topic and professor (!!!) 

I'll now list down the pros and cons of the honours degree for you: 

Pros

• If you don't know what you want to do/ Want to avoid working as soon as possible/ The job market is bad (I thought that graduating in 2019 was bad enough, then I realised how wrong I was, the job market just got worser every year)
• Having a 4 years degree provides you with the flexibility and option of going for a Masters degree further down the road (you never know)
• Writing your thesis on an interesting topic allows you to self-study extensively on the topic. If you choose a great topic and project, it might even help you with your job interviews 
• 1 more year to do whatever cool modules you are interested in. For me it was more data science modules 

Cons

• Stress. I was still taking on a lot of workload during my final year because I failed my modules during exchange semester. So there was A LOT of stress.
• 1 year of writing thesis + clearing modules might not be meaningful and value-add to you 
• 1 year less of work experience and money. 
• Personal thought: This is slightly negligible in my opinion. You will get to work for the next 40 years of your life so what kind of "damage" will that 1 year less of experience have on you? Furthermore, a fresh grad probably earns 3.5k on average so it's just 12 * 3.5k = 42k of salary that you are missing out. Don't forget about taxes and pension contributions (CPF, if you are a Singaporean). But please bear in mind that this is purely a personal opinion. You should decide for yourself what is more important!

I have friends who took the exit after Year 3. 

1. Some left because their grades were not good and they know that they don't want a statistics/data-related job (traumaaaaa) and so they left, switched career tracks and started getting real work experience and earn some money. 
2. There are also friends who left with good grades (>Cap 4.0) because they believed that having real work experience is more valuable than writing a thesis. 

Then I also have friends who continued with the honours in Year 4

1. Those really smart friends obviously continued with the honours 🤣
2. There are the average students just like me, who genuinely wanted to just learn more and wanted to keep all our options open 

Verdict: Did I regret my choice? 

Not at all, in fact I actually recommend people to do the honours if they know that they want to get a data analytics/statistics related job after graduate! 3 years of knowledge is not enough in my opinion. 

Myth debunk: Is it true that the grade for your thesis is capped based on your current NUS CAP?

There was a rumour during my times in university that there is a cap to the maximum grade that your thesis can earn and it depends on how high your NUS CAP is. For example if your CAP is below 4, then maybe the maximum grade your thesis can get is B+. I was actually quite terrified when I heard this. 

I can confidently tell you that it is simply not true! My CAP was below 4.0 but I got A- or A for my thesis (oops I can't remember hahaha). So just give it your all and it will all work out for you in the end. 

Afternote

Dear juniors, 

When I created this blog couple years ago, I genuinely wanted to provide proper, realistic module reviews coming from someone with very average level of intelligence. Throughout the years, the blog actually got really popular. I didn't even know that it was this popular until I somehow met a junior in Europe who is in the 'Data Science and Analytics' degree and she was so elated when she found out that I'm the person behind this random blog and told me that my reviews are viral 🤣

I got burnt out very badly in Year 4 and that's I had no time to write the review for the mods I took in Year 4. Maybe I can still talk about them briefly, if I even recall anything from it. Oh yes, probably t r a u m a : ) 

I'm writing on this blog again since the SEO ranking for this blog is pretty good and would just like to tap on the existing audience base to provide some insights and tips that are not just module related because well... your module grades can probably only define your success in school but it doesn't necessarily translate to success in the corporate world. Here's a non-exhaustive list of topics that I'm interested to write about: Should you take the honours degree? How to get your first data job in tech after graduation, How to get a job overseas etc. I have been working in the tech industry in Europe ever since graduation in 2019 and can help to provide a couple of insights there. 

Unfortunately, I cannot provide you tutorial answers or lecture notes as I'm too old now and so please do not ask me for them 🥲 

Until then,  study hard and remember to always take a break once in a while 🌹

YEAR 3 SEM 2 (AY17/18) MODULE REVIEW

This semester, I decided to take a plunge and took on the challenge of taking 6 modules.
Well, that's the worst mistake ever.

I cannot emphasise this more but PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!
It's really f*&^%ing crazy. Initially I thought that it wouldn't be that difficult since statistics modules should probably relate to each other. NAHHHHHHHHH!!!! My cap dropped 0.52 this semester but oh well , I'm still eligible for FYP.

So how does it feel like to take 6 stats mods?
Every week on average, I have 4 submissions.
Once I'm done with one project, I have another to do. Most of the time I'm just rushing countless of submissions/assignments... It feels like having shit falling on my face everyday, everywhere I go.
Plus I had cca commitments as well as 3 tuition students.. So you can probably imagine how dark my eye rings were after this extremely torturous semester. Do not even attempt.

Modules taken this semester:

1. ST4233 Linear Models

Lecturer: Zhang Jin Ting

Grade expected: C
Grade Obtained: D+  (first time getting a grade below B- , hmm..)
Module difficulty: 9/10
Webcast: Yes

About the lecturer: 
The prof's chinese accent is really one of a kind, took me months to get used to it.
So yes good luck to y'all because this module is compulsory.
I wouldn't take another module under him although he can be quite funny sometimes.

What you learn in this module: 
I don't know man.. Just irrelevant proofs without any numbers, there's just so many X and X transpose and X inverse...
Actually I got A- ST3131 Linear Regression so I thought that ST4233 wouldn't be a problem. Well, it turns out that these modules are really not that similar.
4233 is all about proving. MA1101 Linear Algebra is especially important in this module, which is really bad news for me because I can't remember anything from that module (think about linear independence, eigenvalues eigenvectors, decomposition idk what). Will be good if you can revise your LA in advance, or take this module together with friends so that y'all can help each other out for the assignments.

This module was really painful for me because I took it alone and there's actually weekly assignments which are the weekly tutorials. I only submitted them till week 6 and didn't bother anymore for week 7 onwards because I simply couldn't do them/ was too busy with my other 5 modules

2 x 2h lectures (inclusive of a 1h tutorial for the last hour of the week)

Edit: Great, 6 months later then I realised that the tutorial answers are actually re-used from past year tutorials. Can't believe that I really attempted (and failed) to do all the tutorials from scratch (sighs)

Exams difficulty:
His midterms are doable, his finals is probably doable..? Got a shock when he asked us to calculate all the SSR SST SSE, MSR MSE stuff when 100% of his tutorials were just cheem proving questions. Obviously I died there because I forgot the formulas hahahaha

2. DSA4212 Optimisation for large-scale data-driven inference

Lecturer: Prof Alex

Grade expected: B-
Grade Obtained: F (wow)
Module difficulty: 10/10
Webcast: Yes
Hidden/untold pre-requisite (this is just my personal opinion): ST4240

Another super super painful module this semester, the F here caused my cap score to drop so much, so I actually had to go down to school to pay $10 for results appeal/review.

Paying $10 to review your script 
I'll talk about this since I realised that other new module reviewers out there are all too smart/lucky to not kena this shit. Basically, after the release of results, you have to chiong/rush down to school to fill up a form and pay $10/module you wish to appeal or review. The funny thing is that usually it's the smart people (who score A- B+) who are doing the appeals HAHAHA

After losing your $10, you need to wait for an email from the faculty to tell you how's the review going etc. For my case, they just told me that my marks are all correctly counted.. Just wanna let you guys know that actually the $10 that you pay for review is almost as good as a donation to the faculty, because you will never get to see your paper.

"Walao I paid $10 leh, can they at least see my shitty script or not!?"
- No they won't. Told you it's a donation already......

Then you must be wondering "huh, then I pay the $10 for what!?!!?" In return for your $10 kind donation, DSAP/Stats department will send you an email to notify you that your script has been checked and counted correctly, that's all. So far I've never heard of any successful appeal cases.


Alright back to the review:
Initially I took this elective module as a form of enrichment, to find out more about the D word that everyone's going crazy over now - DATA SCIENCE. I'm really interested in pursuing a career in the data science/analytics field, plus I thought that by scoring A- for my CS1010S, this module might not kill me that badly..? So I took it with a few friends. Worst decision ever.

It is the first time that this module is being offered and I've read soooo many good reviews on how Prof Alex is an extremely good lecturer, so I was really pretty excited for this mod. Well he is surely a good lecturer, explains concepts and theorems very well. However, he doesn't return your mid-term scripts, neither does he go through the paper with you. The rationale behind this is probably because the learning process is more important than the results, which I definitely agree. But from a dumb/average student point of view, I actually never got to know what went wrong and what should have been the correct answers instead, so that's quite sad for me.

This module is also very heavy on linear algebra (eigenvalues, eigenvectors, diagonalisation, spectral decomposition, singular value decomposition) and also Hessian Matrix... I need to warn you that the learning curve for this module can be quite steep at the start, so all the best & work very hard.

Mod format:
15% Project
25% - Mid terms
60% Finals
Both exams are closed book no cheatsheet.

I died so bad for this module because of the no cheatsheet regulation. I understand that it's to ensure that we memorise everything but sometimes there's seriously too many formulas to memorise and considering the fact that I have 5 other modules worth of formulas to memorise, man.... I really wanted to die.

Oh and the project/assignments... There's 2 of them in total, but we have no idea what is the weightage for each. They are on really interesting topics such as recommendation model, image recognition (? sorry I forgot already, bad memories).
Basically my group members and I spent a lot, A LOT of time on these 2 assignments. These are the most time consuming stats projects I've ever done in NUS. They're difficult because the prof wouldn't really spoon-feed you/take much about them during lectures, therefore you really need to google your way out. The easiest way to score well for your projects would be to just group with the smartypants/tankers. The tankers will tank the project for you, so you can still score well without knowing any shit about the project (this is very true :))

All the coding is done in Python but we do it on Jupyter notebook/Anaconda instead of IDLE.
The painful part of the project is that one epoch/ one run of the entire assignment code takes 1h+ on average, and if you're like me (who has a very laggy computer), it'll take a few hours... My group mates and I spent days running the code (initially our code took 6 hours to run) I definitely recommend you to run the code on a PC because all our MacBooks took at least 4hrs for one epoch (oh gosh).

Did I regret taking this module?  Actually if I ignore the 'F', I definitely wouldn't regret because Prof Alex is a good lecturer + the theorems and concepts which are being taught in the class are all super useful in real life, if you wish to do data science analytics in the future (logistic regression, matrix/recommendation system, backtracking, singular value decomposition, image blurring etc). But I don't really understand how the F happened considering that I spent the most time on this module but scored the worst. FYI, my other group mates scored C, D+, D+ respectively. I feel that all of us got really bad grades as there probably isn't any bell curve to bolster the 'losers' in the lecture group of 50+ people.

Some other essential things that are taught in this module (not an exhaustive list):
Naive/Stochastic/Proximal Gradient Descent, Backtracking approach, Logistic Regression, Ridge Regression, Penalisation etc

Gradient descent is really important and in fact, it's being taught in Data Mining ST4240.
I personally feel that it really might be better to take 4240 first before taking DSA4212...

Edit: Now that I'm almost done with ST4240, i really advise you guys to take ST4240 first. The speed that Alex goes for ST4240 is so much more manageable than DSA4212. Plus, I feel that DSA4212 is really a much more higher level module of ST4240. It'll be good for you to build your foundation with ST4240 first and not just suicide by diving into DSA4212 straight.
I need to warn you all that the people who are reading DSA are really smart people (class size 50+) but the people who are reading 4240 are more of your 'normal' people...

How to do better for this module: 
1. Revise your linear algebra
2. Go and read up on common optimisation techniques/ideas/examples (logistic regression, gradient descent, backtracking, image recognition, recommendations) I'll recommend you to check out Andrew Ng's Coursera course on 'Machine Learning'. He explains really well and gives you a sneak peek as to what is to come if you ever take DSA4212.
3. If you don't understand what was being taught for that lecture, faster get it settled. Don't let it roll because it's not funny to let your questions accumulate for this module
4. If Prof Alex asks you "have you learnt this before??" during the lecture, and if it's some chim thing that you've really never heard of, please just raise your hand for your own sake. Because if you don't, he will skip through that and go through the rest of the content at lightning speed, the next moment you'll realise that you're screwed for the exams.
5. Go and learn about MLE, he will test it, and he will make sure that he tells you that he will test it (hahahaha but I still couldn't solve it anyway)
6. Pair up with smartypants. There are many ppl who group with them and get really good grades for their assignments. My group mates and I, we are just a bunch of average stats major who struggled really bad with his assignments.
7. Will recommend you to take this module only after taking ST4240 Data Mining (but you can just take directly if you're already well-versed in Machine learning/big data stuff). Prof Alex also teaches the fundamental Machine learning concepts in 4240, but he goes through much slower in 4240 since it's a bigger cohort, so yeah.

Overall: 
I'm extremely traumatised by this module and I wouldn't recommend unless you're a smartypants/ you believe that the learning process is more important than the results. However i believe that I did really badly because of bad timetable planning too. I know there are a few people who have gotten A. You've got this :)! Friendly suggestion: Take ST4240 first.

3. ST3240 Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Lecturer: Prof Loh Wei Liem

Grade expected: B+
Grade Obtained: B (I'm happy enough!!!)
Module difficulty: 3/10
Webcast: Yes

Topics that are taught in this module: Cluster Analysis, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Categorising/Classification

Prof Loh WL is mah man.

He explains everything so well and I'm just super thankful to have him for the sem/mod lah really. He's super chill and lax and he makes me laugh because he's too chill. It's good, we all need a chill slack mod like this. His voice is very soothing toooooooo

Studied for the module in 24 hours time and I got a B. WHATTTTT!?
24 hours because I was really tortured by the other modules. My exam schedule for this sem was thurs, friday, saturday, monday, tuesday, thursday (non-stop)

Tutorial attendance was counted, you just need to write your name.
Group Project was really easy because it's always on the fisher's iris data set (he's so nice!!!)
Finals was really quite easy/manageable. The best part? It's open book and you can bring in as many tutorials and notes as you want (HE'S THE BEST, HE'S MAH MAN!!!)

Frankly speaking, I barely spent much time on this module (energy channelled to the wrong modules - look above). I only did Tutorial 1... (sorry prof ily) but I did manage to rush through all his webcasts /lecture notes within 1 day - damn godlike)

Awesome mod to take, but an even more awesome prof.
If it's being taught by some other profs, I wouldn't advise you to take this module, because the mod can be quite difficult if the lecturer is not mah man.

I'm pretty sure that I would have gotten B+ at least if given more time for this module.

4. ST3233 Applied Time Series Analysis

Lecturer: Vik Gopal

Grade expected: B
Grade Obtained: B-
Module difficulty: 7/10
Webcast: Yes

Super. Freaking. Lucky. That. Vik. Was. Teaching. This. Mod.

I mean, Vik is really probably the best lecturer in DSAP (imo) - so caring, knowledgeable, patient, and speak such good english.....!!?!?!!?!

Anyway, I didn't do that well for this module because I scored below average for midterms.
His marking is really quite strict + the whole idea of doing it on the computer was just so weird so I didn't check the time and ended up not finishing the paper. Finals was manageable I guess.
Mid terms was more on coding/application but finals was purely theoretical so do expect more theoretical stuff, e.g. proving of covariance/independence

Assignments were easy - 2 data camp courses + a 8 pages max report on time series of your interest.
I didn't do well for the report because I only had 4 hours to rush it out (ha ha ha was doing DSA project because it  was due that day too. Oh, did I mention that I actually had 4 assignment deadlines on that day? Don't take 6 cores please)
If you have more time/planned your timetable well, it'll be easy to get B for this module. :-)

It's a useful mod to take because it teaches you random walk (with drift), AR models etc.
But if it's under vik, just. take. it.  (even though my experience with vik is usually a 'B' grade)

5. ST3246 Statistical Models for Actuarial Science

Ah-ha, that rare thing that is only offered every 2 years --> CHIONG AH JUST TAKE

Lecturer: Prof Lim Tiong Wee

Grade expected: D
Grade Obtained: C (holyguacamole)
Module difficulty: 8.5/10
Webcast: No

Prof lim is a good lecturer, he explains things well just that this module is problematic on its own.
Just a word of caution, there is NO webcast for this module.

And frankly speaking, I initially thought that this module would be easy.
Damn, turns out to be really difficult. I couldn't keep up with lectures as there wasn't any webcast. The theorems are really quite difficult to understand within a single sitting. And the best thing is that the lecture content is just constantly jumping around- maybe the first lecture of the week he might be doing pg 20-30 then the second lecture of the week he'll just focus on page 15-20? I don't know man, it was really really hard to keep up with the lectures.

Probably wouldn't score this bad if there's webcasts :-(

C was a huge surprise for me because I thought that I would be failing this module... I couldn't do anything for the finals. Yes I know it's crazy but I really didn't write anything for the first 15mins and felt like leaving after 30mins. Never submitted such an empty script in NUS before so it's really crazy how it's a C and how I scored a F for DSA (LOL).

I couldn't really put in much time for this module as I was too busy with ST4233 and DSA4212. :(

The assignments really saved my life/grade.

Theorems and calculations are too complicated.
Wished that I had time to do the tutorials because frankly speaking, I think I only did one or two tutorials at most.

His finals wasn't very doable, but I think that the person who sat beside me during finals just kept writing and writing... But I know that in general, most people couldn't do it. I have a friend who didn't finish the paper but scored 'A' for this module. HAHA

Will I recommend this module?
Actually, NO. Retreat if possible. Unless you tell me you're really super into actuarial/actuarial is your cup of tea, then I guess it'll be a good module for you to thrash the people who can't be bothered with actuarial (like me). Basically in this module you really just learn about how to do calculations such as expectation cost of an insured holder, how much you should price the premium... Personally, I really just found it boring and unnecessarily hard hahaha

6. ST3236 Stochastic Analysis I

Heard so much bad stuffs about this module that's why I cleared it so late.

Lecturer: Prof Subhro Ghosh (Math department)

Grade expected: C
Grade Obtained: B- (o m g)
Module difficulty: 8.5/10
Webcast: Yes

I'm super lucky to take this module under Subhro, seriously.
It was really bad to take under Prof Ajay (stats department) so I took it under math department - best decision of the sem!!

He really explains everything so well and I can't believe that I can actually understand all the markov chain shit.  He only has a mid term, a finals paper and 4 assignments.

I didn't do well for his midterm because once again I had 3 other midterms to settle zz
But his MT paper is really easy and they're exactly the same as the tutorials/assignments wtfff
His finals paper was a joke because it was almost 95% similar to the mock finals paper that he gave us + went through with us during lecture. I think 80% of the people left the exam venue by the 1.5h mark hahahahah!! Someone even left after 47minutes.

I think it's really great that he emphasises so much on the understanding of pivotal theorems and concepts instead of just blasting us questions on all the super abstract theorems etc. He actually didn't test all the super abstract theorems and I think he only focused on 3-4 theorems.

Definitely highly recommend you to take this mod under him :-)
Do all his tutorials, assignments and mock papers and you'll pass with flying colours.

YEAR 2 SEM 2 (AY15/16) MODULE REVIEW

Modules taken this semester:

1. DSC2006 Operations Management

Grade expected: B+
Actual grade: B- / S

I took this module when it was still super slack. Heard that now there's weekly assignments or idk what.

This module was really popular with engineering students hahah.

Definitely a easy relaxing module but the bellcurve was insane. I got a B- so I SU-ed it away.
Quite an interesting module as you get to learn about lean system and six sigma (which I think are pretty cool stuffs to know about).

But I'm more of a marketing person, ops really bores me.

The lecturer is fine :-)

2. GEM1536 Darwin and evolution B

Expected grade: B+
Actual grade: B

Super humorous prof, love how relaxing this module is.

If you used to be a bio student, then welcome back to this whole 'evolution' thing again, yeap..

Frankly speaking I really don't like bio and evolution, so I found this module boring.
I'm not interested in the life of Charles Darwin, neither am I interested in his letters, his friends, his enemies, his school, his family, his life...

But it's definitely a relaxing module for you to overload because there is only one finals MCQ paper + prof is funny and knowledgeable - so why not?

3. MKT2401A Asian Markets and Marketing Management 

Grade expected: A-
Actual grade: B+

I really enjoy marketing modules and this is definitely a great lvl 2k module to take, after MKT1003X. :-)

Case studies were all very interesting and I find the midterms/finals quite easy to score as they're all just logical questions + calculation questions. Felt like I've learnt a lot about marketing in asian markets through this mod. Awesome mod! Project might be a little time consuming but it's worth it.

4. ST3131 Regression Analysis 

Lecturer: Wang Jun Shan

Grade expected: B-
Actual grade: A-

It was the prof's first time lecturing in NUS.
She sighs into the mike and shakes her head all the time (yeah girl, I feel your pain too)
It was quite hard to understand because she mutters into the mike + there's an accent too. She don't explain theorems, she will only be writing down calculations for you.  Sorry, I didn't learn anything much from her, I self-learnt many of the things from PSU online/google, yeap.

Do well for the project and do all the tutorials and you'll be fine.

5. ST3247 Simulation 

Lecturer: Vik Gopal

Vik is awesome lah, really.

Grade expected : B+
Actual grade : B

Studied hard for this module as it was the only challenging mod for this sem but I think I still fell short. This module is all about simulating stuff in R.

Is it useful..?? Actually, I don't know man. O_O Is generating random numbers a useful skill?? I have no idea hahaha but it's vik, so I just took it. Plus, it sounded cool.

You might be happy to know that this compulsory module ST4231 is a continuation of ST3247 so I think it's better for you to take this module :-)

YEAR 2 SEM 1 (AY 15/16) MODULE REVIEW

Modules taken this semester:

1. ACC1002X Financial Accounting B

Lecturer: Ma Guang

Actually I really don't recommend taking under this prof, because it's quite tortuous to take it under him... accent might take some time to get used to but he's ok, really. His project is quite torturous to do and there's also lecture quizzes...eeeewwww

But I had a really A* tutor, so I'm really thankful for her (she's 10000x better than the lecturer).

Take this mod under aimee instead, I really think you'll enjoy it more.

This module teaches you how to read financial statements- quite cool!
And you finally realise what is this whole debit credit, assets liability equity thing is all about.
I'm so glad that I didn't do accounting as my major.

2. CFG1001 Headstart Module CS

Useless boring module, super huge waste of time. The school wants us to be more vocal but I really don't think this module works, sorry.
I used the time during this mod to create my linkedin profile, yeah, that's the biggest takeaway from this module.

3. MA2311 Techniques in Advanced Calculus

Lecturer: Leung Man Chun

Expected grade: B-
Actual grade: B+

The lecturer is really a very cute person.
He plays classical music before lecture and during lecture breaks. I only went for the first lecture and din't attend anymore.

His notes are very empty, so he fills them up by drawing ribbons and scissors (finding the limit of a sequence or idk what). The only thing I learnt from this module was how to draw a ribbon and a scissors (I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING OK)

You'll be laughing at how cute he is from week 1 till week 12, when you suddenly realise that you're screwed for finals because you've learnt absolutely nothing from this module, other than drawing ribbons and scissors (uh-oh). I started freaking out because I really couldn't understand the lagrange multiplier nonsense (yes I still don't know anything about it up till now). Google will be your best friend.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from him :

• *draw 2 perpendicular lines and a right angle* "You see... something so simple but so profound!!!* 
• "What is your intuition?"
• "You draw the scissors and the ribbon and you cut!"
• "I N T U I T I O N"
• "Don't keep korpi korpi, you won't understand if you jut korpi!" 
• *opens umbrella during tutorial and starts swaying it around* 

He is very generous with his marking, or is because I really, by some stroke of luck, know how to differentiate/integrate something??

For those questions that I didn't know how to do during his finals, I either drew a ribbon and a scissors, or I just wrote "By intuition... *draw something*"

Goodluck!

4. PC1322 Understanding the universe B+

Lecturer: Dr. Cindy

Expected grade: A
Actual grade: B+

This is definitely the BEST module I've take in NUS.
I probably cannot express enough my love for this module and for prof cindy, but I really feel that everyone needs to take this mod.

Took it to clear the science fac requirement/basket.

The prof is soooo funny.
I never skipped a single lecture!!! Many people love to use the lecture sms system to ask her weird funny questions haha.

Frankly speaking, I really score very well for both midterms and finals, but I'm quite shocked that it was a B+ instead of A-. Dayummmm the bell curve is steep for this mod!! But i know that my other friend who didn't score as well for both papers also got a B+, so yes it's a good mod to take lah really

I love astronomy & NASA.


5. ST2132 Mathematical Statistics B


6. ST2137 Computer Aided data analysis B

YEAR 1 SEM 2 (AY14/15) MODULE REVIEW

Modules taken this semester:

Semester in summary:
2nd semester and I finally decided to start some serious studying since there's no more free SUs.
I've also decided to pursue a minor in Business Management because I was really interested in marketing.

1. CS1010S Programming Methodology A-

Lecturer: Prof Leong Wai Kay

Grade expected: B- or C
Grade Obtained: A-
Module difficulty: 8.5/10

This is a compulsory module for all stats majors, the 'S' at the back is coded for science students. 'E' is for engineering students. Normal CS majors take CS1010 (yay!!).The programming language that was being taught in this module was Python, which is actually an essential language for stats students who are interested in analytics or data science in the future.

Lectures were conducted by Prof Leong who speaks really fast but he's also funny, most of the time in a sarcastic tone but he's still really quite funny and teaches well (as compared to most of the chinese stats lecturers who cannot teach at all.

Got to say that I was really quite excited initially to learn about coding and programming because it looks cool and whatever but... ugh seriously? This module was bloody difficult.The entire module was just so damn stressful considering that I have ZERO prior knowledge in coding. Furthermore, my brain doesn't seem to code very well...

The Coursemology quizzes and assignments made me so stress but at the same time I know that this whole game style quiz/assignment did help to spice things up and motivated me to be more eager in clearing my quizzes, tutorials and assignments. But I really died towards the end because it's just never ending. After a lecture, you get quiz/tutorial. Before you even finish the current assignment, the next assignment is already up on Coursemology and every time there's just those few chiong sua people who are competing to be at the top of the honour roll??? So it's really damn stressful to see those people submitting the next assignment when you've barely figured out how to do the current assignment.

The lab practical was a nightmare.
Debugging code is a pain in the ass.

I really put in a lot of time and effort for this module and felt very discouraged many times throughout the semester. And no, I did not reach the maximum level in Coursemology... I think the max was lvl 25 during my sem and I stopped at lvl 22 or 23. My midterms score was just mehhhh so I didn't really have high hopes for this module..

On a very fateful night, friends texted me to tell me that the final marks are out on IVLE. So I went to IVLE and I saw 86/100 (!!?!??!?!) Average was 68/100..?  I think I wasn't supposed to see it because it was removed the next day. Okay, now i finally know how I got that A-. My finals saved me.

How to get A- as a hopeless JC girl who have zero coding knowledge:
1. Be consistent - try to attend lectures as much as possible. Tutorials are extremely helpful (because I got a good tutor hehe).
2. Ask more questions, go for consultations!
3. Practice all the past year papers! This helped me the most
4. Do all your coursemology stuffs. No don't bother doing the extra practices if you don't have time for it. Do the minimum tutorials, quizzes and assignments will do :-)

Is it an easy module?? I have a friend scoring A but I've also got friend scoring C. So yeah.
Update: Ok I realise that many people scored C. But I do have a friend who scored A- :)

Definitely a very time consuming module so be prepared!!!!

2. ST2131 Probability 

Lecturer: Dr. Lim Ching Hway & 2 other profs

Grade expected: B
Grade Obtained: B-
Module difficulty: 8.5/10

I personally hated 2131 a lot.
I couldn't get the first part right - pdf, pdf, cdf... bloody confusing to me at that point of time.
I basically flunked this module and felt super disgusted with the content hahahahaha

Kept switching profs because there were 3 profs teaching this module at that time (what on earth) and ended up wasting a lot of time trying to digest all 3 different sets of notes hahaha

How to do well for 2131: Be consistent. If you don't get any balls about pdf, pmf, cdf, QUICKLY SEEK HELP. It's the freaking foundation for this module. I still couldn't understand this before finals, which explains why it's a B-.

You need to learn this module because it's going to set the foundation for another compulsory module ST2132 Mathematical Statistics (killer module).

3. BSP1004FC Legal Environment Of Business A-

Grade expected: B+
Grade Obtained: A-
Module difficulty: 4/10

Flipped Classroom module, which explains the code FC.
What is Flipped Classroom? It basically means that you watch the pre-recorded lectures webcast at home :-) I love FC because I'm not the kind of person who goes for webcasts unless the prof is especially nice/interesting.

For this module, we learn new content through the webcasts. The professor (a very nice gentle lady) then goes through case studies on how to apply the acts/laws that were taught through the webcast. Definitely found the lectures and in-depth case studies very helpful. Go for tutorials too, they're useful too.

I definitely recommend you to get the textbook for this module because everything is from there and it's cheap, probably $10-$15 on carousell? The textbook also has many useful examples + further elaboration of all the laws mentioned in class.

Finals was just 2 essays :-)

A pretty light and enjoyable module for me! Really enjoyed the module content too. A- was quite an unexpected pleasant surprise (thanks prof heh)

4. LSM1302 Genes and Society B

Lecturer:

Grade expected: A-
Grade Obtained: B?
Module difficulty: 4/10

5. MKT1003X Principles of Marketing B-

Lecturer:

Grade expected: B
Grade Obtained: B- /S
Module difficulty: 4.5/10

YEAR 1 SEM 1 (AY14/15) MODULE REVIEW

Semester in summary:
Freshie year, Freshie Sem...!! Exciting...! We were also the pioneer batch for the SU system (even more exciting). I pretty much wasn't in the mood to study for this entire semester which explains why I actually SU-ed 4 modules.

Modules taken this semester:

1. ES1541 Exploring Science Communication Through Popular Science 

Grade expected: B-/B
Grade Obtained: B+
Module difficulty: 3/10 (anything that is not stats or math, is easy to me)

Tutorial/seminar style module, no lectures at all.

This module was pure torture, from the start till the end. There were just many assignments every week and as a science student who doesn't have a flair in writing... Damn, ES1541 posed as a huge pain for me. The worst part of this module for me was the readings... To be exact, I'm totally not a science SCIENCE person. So the moment when they made me to read about chemistry, physics (Stephen Hawking was good though!), biology (Oh my god the whole GM corn/food thing again...).

I chose the Biology reading on GM food for my final presentation as I used to do H2 Bio in JC.

Overall, albeit a little torturous with the mundane readings and weekly assignments, this module was bearable because I made new friends through this module and also because the entire class hated the module together too (unity brings out positive strength).

Ironically, this was the only module that I kept/ didn't SU for the semester, even though I thought that I'd have to SU this. Definitely a easy module to score.

2. MA1101R Linear Algebra I

Lecturer: Prof Victor Tan

Grade expected: B+
Grade Obtained: B or B- (couldn't remember) /S
Module difficulty: 6/10 (actually I don't have much recollection of how difficult the mod was.. but it definitely wasn't easy because LA is just....... I really hate vectors fyi)

Prof Victor Tan is the best math prof that anyone can ever dream of having... He was so patient, so approachable, so humorous and so darn good at teaching and explaining theorems and concepts. His slides are fantastic! We mostly used the Linear Algebra textbook for lectures (it's a must to get the textbook, but it's worth it because the textbook is really useful and well-written). I had a friend who took the module under Prof Ma Siu Lun, and said that he wasn't as good..

Take this module under VT and you definitely wouldn't regret!

I thought that I could do math well because I did well for H2 math in JC, but nah.. Uni math is just a whole new different level *winks*

Sorry but I really cannot remember much from this module... You know, the brain tend to have zero retain rate when it comes to uni math *cough*.

3. MA1102R Calculus

Lecturer: Prof Goh Say Song

Grade expected: B
Grade Obtained: B or B- (couldn't remember)/S
Module difficulty: 6/10 (actually I don't have much recollection of how difficult the mod was.. but it definitely wasn't easy because Uni calculus is just disgusting..??)

Once again, I was super lucky to take this mod under Prof Goh. He's such a cute and jovial lecturer! Sooooo patient and just such a joy to hear him explain the theorems with that burning passion for math (which I still cannot comprehend after 3.5 years of being in stats) :')

There were assignments and I remembered that I really couldn't care less about them.. Furthermore, my calculus wasn't exactly very strong. Calculus in University is just very... hard to digest.

Too bad it's still a core module for you my beloved stats majors, so definitely do it during your first sem (SU it if you screw it up)!

4. ST1131 Introduction to Statistics

Lecturer: Prof Gan Fah Fatt (First half of the sem) / Wong Yean Ling (second half of the sem)

Grade expected: A-
Grade Obtained: B? Couldn't remember/S
Module difficulty: 3.5/10

Prof Gan is my first favourite stats prof in NUS. He's just so damn funny to the extent that I realise that I'm attending the lectures just to laugh at his jokes. However, he only taught for the first half of the semester. The remaining half of the semester was taught by Ms Wong, who is unfortunately, a drastic difference from Prof Gan. She definitely did try to be engaging however her voice spectrum range was just so insane to the extent that it made it really difficult for students to make out what she's saying... I tried attending 2 of her lectures and gave up after that because my ears hurt whenever I go for lectures, so self-studying seem like a better option.

The content is definitely extremely easy and manageable for this module. However I didn't do well in it because the 'difficult' part came in during the 2nd half of the semester (which I actively skipped all of the lectures and tutorials). But nonetheless, definitely a easy module lahhhhhhh. You definitely can do well if you study your notes, tutorials and go for lectures and tutorials consistently. Warning, bell curve might be steep, thanks to the fellow ISE peeps.

5. GEM2901 Reporting statistics in the media

(module not offered anymore)

Lecturer: Prof Chua Tin Chiu

Grade expected: A-
Grade Obtained: B (but I SU-ed it anyway)

This module is no longer offered and I believe that it's been replaced with the compulsory module - Quantitative Reasoning.

Took this module under Prof Chua. It's basically a fluffy GEM mod that talks about how statistics is being reported in media and how we should be critical of them, et cetera.

There were 2 assignments and my group actually scored A- and A for both so I really thought that I'd score really well for this module. I think I probably screwed my finals then hahaha. Don't even know how I died for this module - it'll always remain as a mystery.