Review on FASS introductory modules

First posted on: 13 May 2016

Since I have taken several introductory modules (either by choice or circumstance), I felt it would be helpful to have a general comparison for the modules. Please note that the content taught by lecturers may differ with each semester.

These are the introductory modules I have taken:

Year 1

• EC1101E (Economics)

• EN1101E/GEK1000 (English Literature)

• GL1101E (Global Studies)

• SE1101E (Southeast Asian Studies)

• SC1101E (Sociology)

Year 3

• GE1101e/GEK1001 (Geography)

• JS1101E (Japanese Studies)

Modules with no readings

• EC1101E

• EN1101E (3 main texts and poetry)
  

Modules with manageable readings (i.e have articles that are generally easier to understand)

• SE1101E

• SC1101E (especially the textbook)

• GE1101E (mostly human geography readings)

Modules with readings that may be more challenging (i.e sometimes you read it once and don't understand; may require multiple readings)

• GL1101E

• JS1101E

The top three modules I found to be interesting (content-wise) were:

- GL1101E 

As mentioned in my previous post, the lecture material was interesting and I felt that I had learnt a lot. But the readings are pretty heavy for this module and the assessments are quite tedious in the sense that we had to do 2 journal entries, write a group report, do a group presentation, write our own individual term paper and then go for finals. *I feel that this is one of the most tedious and demanding introductory modules.

However, this is one of the modules in my freshmen year that I learned a lot. So If you have the interest for it and are ready to take the plunge to learn, go for it.

- SE1101E 

This is a pretty slack module and I enjoyed the lectures and tutorials. Tutorials are quite fun and chill, I remember there were videos shown and group presentations were also quite chill. Readings are quite heavy, but not as heavy as GL1101E. And some readings cover on rather interesting topics so it would be easier to understand and digest.

Group project was on a group paper, and it was manageable.

- GE1101E 

I enjoyed the human geography component of the module, but physical geography was more demanding and challenging for me as a non-geography student. Nonetheless, I did gain a lot of new knowledge and information that I would not have known if it were not for this module.

The group project for this module may be the most time-consuming one, as we have to go and conduct interviews with tourists for our projects (and transcribe), then figure out what the data tells us in relation to the effectiveness of our 'tourist slogan'. For my semester, this project was due after the first half of the semester, so it can be said that there was more time to clear this project as many assignments/projects are usually due later in the semester. The two physical geography projects are just lab assignments that can be completed on the day of the lab itself actually.

The modules I would advise you to consider carefully would be:

- JS1101E (*I took this under Dr Hislop)

For JS1101E, it has a known reputation for being one of the most challenging modules amongst all introductory modules.

Personally, I feel that the content can be rather dry at times, particularly the Japanese history which spans about half of the semester's lectures. It doesn't help when the lecture slides barely contain much content and you have to rely mainly on what is said during lectures and take notes. I think the delivery of the lecture was okay but can become quite boring at times too, due to the content taught.

There are a considerable amount of readings as well, but most are pretty informative and help supplement the material in lecture.

For the group project, it was more demanding than the other introductory modules I have taken due to stricter requirements. I consider it to be one of the most challenging projects for a level 1000 module because our projects had to be on a new idea/topic that has not been covered by previous research before. As such, this made the research process more challenging and frustrating at times because it may be harder to find relevant information related to the project topic. My tutor was rather strict about the minute details of the project report, down to the bibliography.

Tutorials were pretty okay, and I think participation marks are awarded fully as long as you spoke up at least once during lesson time. However, one problem with tutorials is that it is only 45 minutes per week and I think tutorials will be better if it were 2h instead, so that more content can be covered during the tutorials.

Perhaps the MCQ finals have drawn your attention to the modules, but in all honesty, it is not easy. However, having said that, I believe that if you really have the love and passion for Japanese history and start revision early, it would be an okay paper. For me, I struggled trying to remember and differentiate all the Japanese names in history and it took me a long time to familiarise myself with them. It is very important to remember the different periods and their order of sequence.

Nonetheless, I have gained a greater appreciation of Japanese history and how it has shaped modern Japan today and also better understand their society from the contemporary issues that were taught.

- EN1101E (*I took this under Prof Turner) 

I took this module because I had taken 'A' Levels literature so I figured that it would be easier to score. I will not advise anyone to take this module without having a real passion and interest for literature, because the lecture pace may be very fast and a lot of self-reading and learning is required if you really have no background/interest in literature. As the poetry that was more or less covered during my JC times revolved more around poetry in the more contemporary times, I remember that I struggled to understand the more medieval poems in tutorial. But the midterms had contemporary/Singaporean poetry, so it was not that bad.

Texts-wise, as mentioned in the earlier post, the lecturer covered the texts pretty quickly so you really need to read and understand the texts within a short period of time. (And spend time re-reading and remembering important scenes or quotes).

In conclusion, there is a lot of self-studying/reading/understanding that needs to be done, so more time really needs to be channelled for this module in that regard.