(Updated) NUS AY15/16 Sem 1 Module Review

First posted on: December 30, 2015

Modules taken:

EC3322: Industrial Organisation

Lecture (2h) every week (not webcasted); Tutorials (1h) every week

Tutorial Attendance & Presentation.

Midterms. Finals.

Lecturer: Eric Fesselmeyer

This continues from the game theory aspects of EC3101 and covers them more in depth. New concepts are introduced, such as the Hotelling Model/Salop’s Circle, which may be challenging at first, but once the learning curve is overcome, I think that the content isn’t as hard as it seems. The module is slightly more mathematical and may be tedious at times as the lecturer will not really go through each and every mathematical step in the notes, so time needs to be spent to go through how the lecturer derived them. It may be confusing as the lecturer does skip steps in the notes, but most of the time the steps in-between can be derived.

Midterms were generally do-able, I think many were able to secure high marks for the papers. Finals, however, took things up to a higher level of difficulty.

Tutorials are conducted in the usual volunteer and present style – in Fesselmeyer’s case, a sheet comprising of the tutorial questions will be passed around prior to the start of tutorial so that every student gets a chance to circle the questions they want to present. Whether they get selected or not to present depends on who the tutor selects. While is it a fairer system, there is one disadvantage. If you arrive late for class, you would probably have missed the chance to circle the questions you want to present as the tutor has already selected who to present and thus have to wait for the next tutorials to do so.

EC3361: Labour Economics

Lecture (2h) every week (webcasted); Tutorials (1h) every week

Class Participation (10%)

Group Presentation & Paper (30%): Paper is an economics-based commentary on a selected topic with no economic graphs/equations required

4 Problem Sets (20%): To be completed as a group of 3-4 students

No midterms. Finals (40%)

Lecturer: Jessica Pan

Microeconomic concepts were applied to analyse labour market situations. The lectures are mainly labour supply, labour demand, labour market equilibrium and topics in labour economics. This module builds on from EC2101 where it touches on isocost curves, isoquants etc but also introduces new models such as the household production model. Even though EC3303 is a pre-requisite, there is almost no econometrics involved, except for conceptual understanding for differences-in-differences. I found topics in labour economics to be interesting, as economics is used to try to explain wage differentials (employee discrimination, employer discrimination) as well as the issue of human capital by viewing schooling as an investment and schooling as a signal.

The problem sets had a component that were true/false/uncertain, which was a bit tricky; sometimes it was easy to overthink or misunderstand what the statement was trying to say. However, as long as the explanations are correct, marks will still be awarded. Prof Pan is a really good lecturer, she tries her best to ensure that her explanations are clear and understood by everyone. She is really passionate about labour economics too.

For tutorials, students are to form into groups of 4-5 and volunteer to present the questions from the problem sets given every week. I think that there were sufficient questions for everyone in my tutorial slot to present at least twice. For the later half of the semester, the tutorials would be used for group presentations for the group paper. The sequence of group presentations is selected at random I believe, and for every group that will be presenting, there will be another non-presenting group who will have to give their feedback for the group that is presenting. Due to the short amount of time allocated for each group presentation, it is highly essential to extract out the most salient points of the group essay and ensure that the group’s research question is clear and easy to understand as well.

Finals had a mix of questions with varying difficulties, but their format are similar to the problem sets (in terms of question types and level of difficulty).

* Important note: Prof Ong Ee Cheng also teaches this module, and from what I know, the module content and focus is slightly different from Prof Pan’s!*

EC3373: ASEAN Economies

Lecture (2h) every week (not webcasted); Tutorials (1h) every week

Tutorial Attendance (5%)

Participation in Group Presentation (5%)

Project work (30%): Comprises of 2 group presentations and a 1500 word group paper based on the first presentation

Open book Midterms (30%) – 3 essays, based on content from the earlier half of the semester

Open book Finals (30%) – 4 essays, based on content from the later half of the semester

Lecturer: Shrestha, Omkal Lal

This is one of the non-quantitative economics modules offered. The content covered is quite broad as the lecturer wanted to expose the class to many issues. Apart from covering the brief background and the current state of the economies from the ASEAN region, concepts such as the Middle-Income Trap, Malthusian Theory of Population and Demographic Dividends were taught to help better understand the state of the ASEAN economies. This module also covers the major trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as well as the global efforts to tackle climate change i.e Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen etc. The later lectures also cover the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and 2008 Global Financial Crisis, why and how they occurred.

Midterms and finals were open-book, time management and fast writing speed is highly important since you would be transferring relevant lecture material to your answer script.

GEK1001/GE1101E: Intro to Geography

Lecture (2h) every week (webcasted); Tutorials (2h) odd/even weeks (2 human geo tutorials, 2 physical geog tutorials)

Project work (20%): Group essay that was due during the first half of the semester for human geog (relatively heavier than phy geog, had to go out and conduct fieldwork, but it was also an interesting experience to interact with interviewees from different walks of life)

Physical Geog assignments (x2, 10% each): Due one week after physical geog tutorials (relatively light, but also meant that everyone could score very high marks)

No midterms. Finals (60%), 3 essays.

Lecturers: T.C. Chang (human) , Winston Chow (physical)

Lectures were split into two components: first half – human geography, later half – physical geography

Human Geog: Prof Chang is a very humorous prof who never fails to keep his lectures interesting. He gives pretty good explanations for the various concepts covered in his lectures. I enjoyed the human geography section more than the physical geography section. Readings are manageable, about 3-4 per week.

Physical Geog: As I have never touched geography after lower secondary, I felt that the pace during lecture was slightly fast for me. Each sphere (Biosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Geosphere) is covered in a single lecture. However, the lecture notes are quite clear, but sometimes the notes need to be supplemented with the online textbook for deeper understanding. I also like how Prof Chow incorporates really interesting videos, such as short clips from movies or creative advertisements, during lectures to help facilitate learning. I found that the online textbook was a great help for me to fill in the missing gaps. Even though I lacked a decent foundation in physical geography and struggled a bit to understand and internalise the concepts, I nonetheless feel that the physical geography component gave me the opportunity to learn many geographical concepts that I would otherwise learn on my own, such as urban heat island and the different methods employed (mitigation/adaptation) to tackle climate change.

The physical geography part may be slightly more challenging, but on a whole, I learned how to examine the world from a geographer’s perspective and gained a better appreciation towards geography.

Finals were manageable for me, and it is also recommended to incorporate certain concepts from the readings (where relevant) to demonstrate greater understanding of the material covered in the semester.

SSA2219: South Asia In Singapore 

Lecture (2h) every week (webcasted); Tutorials (2h) odd/even weeks

Tutorial Presentation/participation (20%): Each group had to prepare a presentation on the given topic (related to lecture slides)

Project work (40%): Group essay that was due near the end of the semester. There were a range of topics given with guiding questions but groups could also choose to come up with their own topics.

There were no midterms. Finals (40%) were closed book, 3 essays.

This turned out to be a very interesting and informative module on South Asians in Singapore. This module provided me with an eye-opening experience and allowed me to learn a lot about the South Asian Community in Singapore. Although this module does cover the historical aspects (i.e experience of South Asians under the Japanese Occupation/During British Rule/Post-colonial Rule) of the South Asians, it was not very content heavy and rather easy to understand.

Generally, I think that the lecture notes are quite clear. However, there are readings, and some weeks may have heavier readings than the others.  Overall, it was a manageable module (workload 3/5) and I enjoyed the module very much. Proj Raj is a good professor, he really knows his stuff, and he also incorporates videos into lectures from time to time, which allows easier understanding of what he is teaching. Since lectures are conducted pretty late, webcasts were available as well.

Finals are also manageable, it is important to have enough memory space to remember the important facts and details for the topics.

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