narrativesofzi

[narrativesofzi]

AY22/23 Semester 1 (Y1S1)

hello! just a brief background regarding this semester, i dropped out of school the week right before finals, as i had been struggling with mental health and ended up hospitalised, hence the reviews of the modules would not be complete ><

my first semester was very stressful and honestly, i was so distracted and overwhelmed that looking back, i did not learn anything at all haha

i had to take an LOA and apply for Special Consideration (SC) for the modules that i did not take the finals for, but the process was rather smooth

but anyways! here's my experience as a Business Analytics student for Y1S1!

modules taken:

CS1010S Programming Methodology

BT1101 Introduction to Business Analytics

MA2001 Linear Algebra I

IS1108 Digital Ethics and Data Privacy

LAK1201 Korean 1

CS1010S Programming Methodology

Professor: Leong Wai Kay

Exams:

28 Sept (Mid-Term)

12 Nov (Practical Exam)

22 Nov (Finals)

Language: Python

Weightage:

Coursemology - 25%

Participation - 5 %

Mid-Term - 15%

Practical Exam - 15%

Finals - 40%

please note that i did not take the finals for this module ><

having no background in coding, this was definitely the killer module as it had the highest workload and toughest concepts to grasp. after every lecture, there would be a lecture quiz regarding what was taught in class, followed by tutorials and missions, and recitations (optional!). in order to secure 25% for Coursemology, we had to reach level 50 by earning XPs through completing tutorials and missions (too much work for me... ).

i would spend my whole day trying to figure out how the code works, find its bugs and generally struggle to keep up. i even ended up having nightmares about coding because of how much time i spend on trying to code.

unfortunately, i did not have the greatest help from my TA and it got really demoralising to the point where i was reluctant to start on any tasks because i knew i would get stuck and spend hours and hours but to no avail.

regarding the weightage for mid-terms and finals, they introduced progressive scoring, where you have a chance to redeem yourself (if you messed up your mid-terms) because your finals results could potentially fully overwrite your mid-terms results.

Prof Leong was pretty chill, i would say. i was not exactly able to always catch up with his content but there were online videos to refer to, so probably not that big of a problem.

Note:

Be prepared for the intensity of this module

Cheatsheets are allowed

Mid-terms was conducted in pen and paper

BT1101 Introduction to Business Analytics

Professor: Sharon Tan, Zhai Yingda

Exams:

18 Oct (Mid-Terms)

24 Nov (Finals)

Language: R

Weightage:

Online Quiz & Datacamp Assignments - 15%

Tutorials (best 6 out of 9) - 24%

Lab - 6%

Mid-Terms - 15%

Finals - 40%

please note that i did not take the finals for this module ><

the module is split equally by the two Professors, with Sharon teaching the first half of the semester and Zhai teaching the second half of the semester.

the general workload of each week includes watching lectures and completing online self-learning activities, completing tutorials and lab sessions. it was still manageable, though R can be quite confusing as it is not very intuitive for me.

for tutorials, they do not really provide you with the model answers so you cannot exactly refer to the codes to do your assignments... but other than that, i do not really have any comments regarding this module.

regarding the mid-terms, it was held online on Examplify where there will be no access to the internet. it was a combination of MCQs and long answer questions where you will have to provide your own code as the solution.

Note:

Cheatsheets are allowed

Would recommend you to build your own code bank for reference during exams

MA2001 Linear Algebra I

Professor: Dilip Raghavan, Ma Siu Lun

Exams:

23 Nov (Finals)

Weightage:

Online Quiz - 15%

Homework Assignments - 20%

Lab - 5%

Finals - 60%

please note that i did not take the finals for this module ><

this module was more of H2 Further Mathematics, so if you have experience in that, good for you. we were learning about matrices but on steroids.

the general workload for each week includes watching lectures, completing tutorials and occasionally assignments. lectures are all recorded (thank god), and you can pretty much self study for it.

everyone basically got full marks for online quiz, homework assignments and lab because there was a Telegram chat where everyone would discuss answers and learn from each other. the killer questions were proving, and that would pretty much be the separation between the As and Bs.

i freaking loved Professor Chan Heng Huat's teaching and he was very passionate about teaching the subject. i attended his tutorials and every session was just like WOWWWW (but i still struggled a lot haha).

Note:

Cheatsheets are allowed

IS1108 Digital Ethics and Data Privacy

Professor: Lee Boon Kee

Weightage:

Tutorial Attendance - 10%

Case Scenario - 20%

Quiz - 30%

Reflections - 10%

Project - 30%

at the end of the course, i do not think that i have learnt anything new or useful. this module is basically fluff and actually reminded me of PW in JC. did not watch any lectures and still managed to get a good grade.

tutorials were 2 hours long to analyse case scenarios based on a given framework and give a short presentation to the class. the TAs will then give feedback based on the presentation.

as for the final project, just treat it as another PW - look for problems, analyse stakeholders, provide solutions, evaluate pros and cons. as long as people in the group pulled their weight, it should be fine. if not, i guess you just gotta suck thumb.

Note:

Take it with your friends

LAK1201 Korean 1

Professor: Bae So Hee

Weightages:

Quiz - 10%

Written Test - 50%

Oral Test - 15%

Writing Assignment - 15%

Participation - 10%

Exams:

24 Aug (Online Quiz)

31 Aug (Online Quiz)

15 Sept (Mid-Terms)

27 Oct (Oral)

8 Nov (Finals)

i took this module just to spoil market because i already kinda knew how to read and write korean letters so i did not think that i needed to put in much effort to do well. i got complacent and realised (late) that everyone had the same thinking...

learning a new language is always hard but i guess having the face to face tutorials help as it provides a space where everyone is able to learn how to speak the language. but languages being languages, i got very confused with how the grammar works, sentence structures etc.

in general, it was a pretty fun and interesting module and we even learnt how to fold a hanbok for our last session! would recommend this module if you are interested in Korean!

Final Thoughts

it was definitely a shame that i only dropped out the week before finals, but looking back, it was necessary because i knew that i could not perform up to my standards and would be disappointed in my results. it was a leap of faith to take up the LOA and further take a gap semester to heal, and i am glad that i took that step. there were many considerations -- forfeiting the school fees for the semester, lagging behind my peers, explaining to my peers regarding my mental health.

if you are struggling with your mental health, please do not push yourself too hard. if you need a break, please take one.

i hope that this would provide some insights to the life of an average BZA student :)

peace <3