So I've finally finally FINALLY submitted my honours thesis that I've been labouring over for the past 10 months. I've never stopped thinking about my thesis ever since I asked my prof to supervise me, and I'm so glad to finally have it off my mind. :') Anyway, more on that next time! I realised I totally stopped doing module reviews and while clearing my NUS emails today, I decided to resume because the modules I took were really fun, and also modules reviews have really helped me. So here goes!
This particular semester was my best semester, and I think it's mainly because I took many low levels mods since I wanted to give myself some time to ease back into the grind of school after my exchange in Sweden! Or maybe taking a break from Singapore made me more relaxed and also somehow smarter, idk.
NM3233 Strategic Communications: Applications (A)
Took this because I wanted to do more campaign-planning/application-based stuff. No worries if you didn't take NM3232 Strategic Communications: Concepts, because it's not a prerequisite for this module although they use the same textbook. I didn't take NM3232 and was initially slightly worried, but turns out it didn't really matter haha the prof will treat it as a separate module and go through the important concepts that you need to know anyway!
It's a 3-hour seminar, similar to many NM Level 3 and 4k mods, and usually the prof will give a 1.5-2h lecture to go through the concepts and the examples. Then the rest of the seminar was spent on class activities/application questions/project discussion. If I remember correctly we had two individual concept papers, one was like a mid-term where we had to answer some application questions. The other concept paper was to do an analysis of a campaign of your choice, and I chose Pink Dot! I really enjoy doing papers like this because you can choose the topics that you are interested in :-) Then we also had a project where we had to choose a brand, come up with the problem statement, and create a campaign targeting that problem. I really like campaign-planning projects so I enjoyed this as well, plus I had a really awesome and efficient group!!! :') Good groupmates can really make or break the experience. And then we had project presentations as well and even though I lowkey dread presentations, I love seeing all the creative ideas and campaigns heh.
This was quite a small class so there's no official bellcurve, but the prof did say that there's always gonna be a natural bellcurve anyway. I was a bit worried because even though I did fairly well for my concept papers and the project, EVERYONE in the class was super good!!! I could tell from the comments during class part and also the presentations omg, these people were legit man HAHA. But thankfully I got an A, and I would say if you like planning campaigns or learning more about campaigns then you should take this mod :)
NM2212 Visual Design (A+)
I was feeling slightly more adventurous after doing well for NM3217 and decided to pick up another design module. Turns out this module was absolutely not about designing in itself, but more like theories and principles of visual design. Honestly this mod started off as the toughest mod of this sem because the lecturer is strict and slightly eccentric. But I grew to really really like him! I always like teachers that others don't really like, so there's that. We were not allowed to use our computers or phones during class (he's very strict about this), and there were weekly quizzes (both at home and in class - for attendance marks), readings, forum postings to do. He would also randomly ask people to answer questions during class. The quizzes and readings etc are short, but it means that you have to pay attention and study consistently. So if you just want to take a chill mod and slack throughout the semester, this is not it.
Initially I had a tough time grasping the concepts too, because some of these visual design concepts felt very counter-intuitive. But the prof was very huge on feedback, so we get to ask questions every week during our weekly online quizzes and he would always always address our concerns during class, which really helped! So I slowly got the hang of it and ended up thoroughly enjoying myself. To be very honest I was 200% shocked at the A+ grade, because I lowkey sucked at some of the quizzes LOL like 3/10 that kind of suck okay. BUT I think from my experience, it's the consistency that matters. As long as you do everything (quizzes, readings, forum postings), and you show that you made an effort (especially for forum postings! he's quite particular about this, so none of that reiteration of stuff kind of postings LOL), you'll do very well. Also cos I think many people didn't really bother doing all the things, so once you do them you sorta already have an advantage of the others who didn't even do HAHA. The prof repeatedly mentioned that over the years he realised that people who completed the work will get good results, so just do your work!!!
ALSO I made some really good friends from this mod so yay!!! OH and, no tutorials for this mod! Just a lecture every week hehe, which probably explains the relatively high workload. All in all, a rather challenging but super fulfilling mod. This mod made me look at things from different perspectives and I got to learn a lot. B-)
NM2101 Intercultural Communication (A)
Took this kind of for fun because I took too many level 3k mods and could afford to take some level 2k mods. Plus I've always wanted to take this mod since the name already sounds fun! PLUS I could take it with my friend since she's an NM minor and this mod is in the minor list. This mod is pretty chill tbh, I already knew some of the concepts (maybe because I took this in Y3 LOL). Some of the stuff are kinda common-sense-ish, but when you're writing your essay or whatever pls remember to add in the theories HAHA.
I loved the content of this mod because I enjoy exploring the differences between different cultures! We got to watch videos and also see interesting examples during class, so that was really cool. There was an individual essay which was pretty chill, and also a project which was also very chill. Tutorials were basically just some discussion questions, very chill as well. All in all I actually really enjoyed this module, it was chill but also interesting! So if you want a relatively easy mod to take I think this would be it. :-) Lots of exchange students and students from other faculties take this mod as their UEs etc too so I think if you put in a bit more effort than the others, you can do really well for this.
GEK1053 Chinese Music, Language and Literature (A)
YAS I love anything that has to do with music! Super glad I took this mod because I had so much fun, although I took this mod alone HAHA. The prof was very, very knowledgeable! She was very sweet but also had high standards, and I really enjoyed the lectures and tutorials. :-) I enjoy looking at pop culture from a more academic viewpoint, because it offers a really different perspective and takes into account the wider societal/political context of these cultural products. So this mod as a whole was right up my alley.
We also got to watch short video clips of films/tv dramas etc, and also music videos (YAY Jay Chou)!!! :D And then we also discussed about pop culture influences, viral videos like Gangnam Style and representation of celebrities etc etc during tutorials. If you're into topics like these then you should definitely take this mod :) Even though the module description makes it sound very Chinese-y, I don't think you need a very strong level of Chinese to do well for this mod! I mean cos the lectures were still in English and we discuss and write essays in English too. But we do need to understand and analyse Chinese song lyrics, so it'd be good if you have some Chinese background, though I don't think you need to be too worried about that.
There was a project where we had to analyse a Chinese song and identify the literary references in the song etc. A list of songs was given and my group chose 醉赤壁 by JJ Lin, and because of this I probably listened to 醉赤壁 50 times...... But I really enjoyed analysing it though! The literary references part was rather challenging but I liked it and went to the library to borrow a few books WHICH REALLY HELPED. So pls go make use of NUS Library!!!
I would say overall it's a pretty chill mod too, and lots of people take this just for fun, so likewise if you put a little bit more effort for this then you would be able to score well. :D
IT1001 Introduction to Computing (A-)
Took this for my breadth because I wanted to try something different and this sounded very cool. And I got to take this with my friend :-) I actually really enjoyed this as well! It sounds a bit intimidating but actually LOL not really most of it is quite basic computer stuff. But we also got to learn more software stuff but nothing too technical tbh, just need to understand it because it was an open book exam!!! There was an individual assignment which was to create a website introducing an app of our choice. I had experience of making a website with DreamWeaver (thank goodness for NM3217) so it wasn't a huge challenge for me. I chose to talk about Google Trips and I even got to talk a bit about my travel experiences, so it was really fun.
There's a project too and we had to present about some new technology thing (I don't remember the exact topic LOL) but it wasn't very hard, just a short 10-page report I think, and a presentation! This is a level 1k mod so everyone's pretty chill. Lectures were web-casted so I only went for like two lectures I think... and tutorials were just focused on going through answers of the tutorial worksheets heh. I do regret not speaking up more in class though (for the class part), because I think if I did I could have scored better haha. Sucks to be socially awkward :(
But overall, a chill and fun mod to take! Would recommend it for breadth/UE :)