AY16/17 Y2S1 module reviews

AY16/17 Y2S1 module reviews

The modules I took this sem are:
1. LSM2103 (pre-allocated)
2. LSM2191 (pre-allocated)
3. LSM1306
4. LSM2212
5. LAJ1201

*Note to self: never take 4 LSM modules + language mod in a sem, I almost got killed by info overload.

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LSM2103 – Cell Biology

EDIT: This module is re-coded to LSM2233 in AY17/18.

This module was taught by 4 lecturers: Prof Thilo (Cell Signalling, Apoptosis), Mr Simon Chu (Actin Cytoskeleton, Microtubules), Dr Sudhakar Jha (Protein Trafficking), Dr Chen Ee Sin (Cell Cycle).

Personally, this module demands high order critical thinking, even though all the assignments and exams are open book. Here’s a breakdown of the assignments, quizzes and other stuff counted as part of your final grade:

Introductory assignment (2%) – participation marks given, Prof Thilo asked us to write about our career aspirations etc.
Quizzes (16%) – best 4 out of 7 of them will be counted (open book)
Take home quiz on Parkinson’s disease (5%)
Mid-term (10%) – participation marks given, paper not graded (open book)
Video assignment (15%) – Prof Thilo’s assignment
Poster assignment (10%) – Dr Sudhakar Jha’s assignment
Finals (42%) – everything taught will have a chance of being tested, super difficult, no time to finish all the questions (open-book)

Let me say again, this module is super difficult. You have to THINK. THINK. Really. It’s not your typical memorise all the life science facts and regurgitate them out mod. No more year 1 style okay. I started to get the hang of this mod only after a few quizzes, which is considered quite late since I screwed up like 3 quizzes alr? LOL. But I quite enjoy the lectures and the contents taught actually, and the lecturers did their best to make this mod less content heavy and less stressful by introducing various assignments untypical of LSM mods (video and poster assignments).

But uh, I screwed finals up, it is really difficult. Plus I think for certain lecturer’s part of the finals, it’s quite unfair because he did not talk about the effects of one of the three chemicals he tested (don’t wish to complain but I must say it out, it’s really unfair). It seems to me that he did consultations with other students and probably talked about it with them, because of something I saw in the exam hall. (I don’t wish to elaborate much further.)

Do try to understand the principles behind various lab techniques, like fluorescent imaging (GFP), live-cell imaging, SDS-PAGE, Western Blotting etc. Very important. In fact, because LSM2103 and LSM2191 were both allocated to me this sem, I can combine what I learnt in both mods for lab techniques and its really helpful for me.

Webcasted.

Grade expected: B+
Actual grade: B+ (Expected.)

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LSM2191 – Lab Techniques for Life Sciences

This module was taught by 2 lecturers: Dr Wu Jinlu (DNA part), Dr Lu Gan (protein part).

The good thing about this mod is that you get to choose your own groupmates for the lab. So do choose wisely (choose friends whom you think you can work with and discuss the lab techniques with). Honestly I find this mod alright, though the workload can be heavy whenever the report deadline is near haha. Don’t rush the report last minute, I finished like 80% of my report 1 on the deadline itself, and trust me, its crazy. NEVER DO IT. Hahaha.

For this mod, do not worry if you cannot get good results for your report. What is important is the principles behind the techniques. If you cannot get the expected result, it is alright, in fact, you have more things to talk about in your report. As long as you provide logical reasons why the observed result and expected result differ with credible references, you should be fine.

Dr Wu was really friendly. I was assigned to the LSM labs and he was in-charge of the labs there. He would walk around the labs and ask us if we have any trouble with the lab work and stuff. I think coz my labmates went to visit him for consultation before, so he dropped by often to talk to them haha. (And you have me being an awkward turtle there.) But honestly I almost fell asleep in his lectures. (I think partly coz it was a 10am lecture and my old body cannot keep up with waking up early for school.) So I stick to webcast after a while.

What irritates me the most was the lack of lecture notes for the protein portion of the mod. Dr Lu Gan dumped us with zipped files of many protein chromatography technique handbooks. And expected us to read them. Each handbook had like 100-200+ pages? He said: all materials provided on IVLE are a fair game. Okay, so yeah you need to find time to read them, at least the principles behind each chromatography techniques. He doesn’t teach like a typical lecturer – he uses the whiteboard a lot and calls students up to assist him. So uh, I didn’t go for his lectures, and instead stick to webcasts since calling students up would’ve taken quite a bit of my time zzzz.

Anyways the components to your final grade:
CA1 (25%) + Report 1 (25%) – DNA
CA2 (25%) + Report 2 (25%) – Protein

Do take note of your plagiarism score. They take that really seriously. (If I’m not wrong, it shouldn’t be above 20-25%)

Webcasted.

Expected grade: B+
Actual grade: A- (okay slightly better?)

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LSM1306 – Forensic Science

Okay uh those who searched for mod reviews about LSM1306/GEK1542, you probably already know what was taught, so I shall not elaborate further.

Similarly to most seniors who reviewed about this mod, I love this mod so much. It is worth the bidding points (1000pts) and my Friday nights (7-10pm). This mod gave a brief overview of what forensic science entails, the various fields in forensic science and the laws etc. However, do be prepared for quite a bit of memorisation (its re-coded as a LSM mod for a reason).

The practical exam was fun, you get to do fingerprinting, finding out which samples under the microscope were the human hair and matching fingerprints. However, I think the lifting fingerprint portion of the exam is heavily dependent on your luck lol. Some people’s fingers do not have very clear ridges and some do not have enough oil for them to dust a good fingerprint. In addition, we have to work within 40mins to finish dusting 30 fingerprints and lift 3 fingerprints (total 33, not counting those you re-do). The time constraint is real. And some people managed to dust good fingerprints in just one try. (While I take so many tries LOL end up still don’t do well for exam… Sighs.)

Grading components:
Practical exam (20%) – fingerprint dusting +lifting, matching fingerprint, identify human hair under microscope
Mid-terms (30%) – lecture 1-6, short answer questions
Finals (50%) – 100 MCQs, everything tested

The bell curve for this mod is super high. All of us who were in this mod love forensic science, and therefore some ppl may already have some background knowledge about it. In addition, some may also been actively reading up about forensic science, which made this mod really competitive. All in all, I enjoyed this mod despite the competition.

Not webcasted. No photography and videography allowed due to confidential materials shown.

Expected grade: B+
Actual grade: A-

Note: I would like to do some myth-busting here after reading a review on nusmods. Most ppl interested in minoring Forensic Science thought they require at least an A to be selected. However, let me share a good news to those who really want to take up the minor: I got in with my grade. Yes, with A-. So do not be disheartened when you don’t do very very well in LSM1306. Just apply for it no matter what, don’t care about those who said that you need to score A/A+ to get into the minor. They do not only accept students with A/A+ as they don’t just look at your grade for LSM1306. However, I do think that if you score B+, the probability of getting in may be lower. Not sure as the entry requirements change every year depending on the applicants. Just apply!!

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LSM2212 – Human Anatomy

Hahahahahaha. Okay this mod is a killer. Esp for someone like me who doesn’t like memory work. TONS of content every week to memorise. TONS of names to memorise. TONS of functions to memorise. I love anatomy (actually I love nervous system and circulatory system only), but I wasn’t expecting such a huge content to memorise actually. If you are looking at taking this mod, be prepared for lots of memorisation. Its no joke. Up till now I still question myself why I took this mod.

I enjoy the lab sessions and museum trips (though I skipped a few since thats the only lesson I have on Wed). You get to learn the histology and gross anatomy of various body parts. The lecturers are really friendly and nice, I remember that I didn’t bring my lab coat, and one of them help me with wearing the disposable one XD

Contents taught were:
Cells, Tissues and Systems
Musculoskeletal
Respiratory
Circulatory
Digestive
Blood
Urinary
Reproductive
Immune
Endocrine
Nervous

Grading components:
Mid-term (40%) – 20 MCQs + 1 modified essay question
Finals (60%) – 60 MCQs

Webcasted.

Expected grade: B+
Actual grade: B

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LAJ1201 – Japanese 1

Okay those who know me well, I am an almost-obsessed KPOP fan. So why did I take Japanese?! In fact I have friends who were shocked that I bid for this mod HAHAHA. Long story short, I took placement test for Korean hoping to be placed in Korean 3 (offered in sem 1), but I got Korean 4 instead (offered in sem 2). So my initial timetable planning was screwed up. I urgently need a mod to fit in my rigid timetable (due to LSM mods =_=) and hence got myself Jap since I started liking anime and manga. Yeap.

And I must say, this is the mod I enjoyed the most. And my only non-LSM mod this sem. I do not regret taking this mod despite the huge workload demand for a lv1000 mod – 6 hrs per week, 1 lecture, 2 tutorials. There are vocab quizzes and dialogue performance almost every week, and sensei expects you to be able to use the new grammar patterns and vocabs well in each tutorial. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself a lot and had fun with my tutorial classmates.

If you want my personal experience: I long knew Jap has 3 very different writing systems – hiragana, katakana and kanji. Good thing about kanji is that I can guess the meaning since it’s similar to Chinese. But really hiragana and katakana almost killed me. Its different from how I studied Korean so I had a pretty hard time memorising the characters (I took 3 weeks for each writing system). Vocab has always been my weakness (for all 4 languages I have learnt in my life), and is my weakness in Jap so I made it a point to memorise the words religiously. I even resorted to memorising the number of characters in each word (coz Jap has long vowels and the small tsu and more stuff to memorise). Katakana has always been my very critical weakness as I don’t do well in katakana quiz. But I think ever since I went to Japan for a vacation, my katakana improved coz they use a lot of katakana there. Hehehe.

Yes, the harsh reality of the highly skewed bell curve still exist amidst all the fun. But I survived. Hahaha. The thing about Jap is that if you have background for Jap but you didn’t pass the placement test, they will still put you in Jap 1. Which is quite unfair since lv 1000 mods are supposed to be for those completely without background. (For Korean, they will fail you and not allocate any mods to you.) Hence this explains why the bell curve is steep. Not to mention, you have peers who are big anime and manga fans, or JPOP/J-Rock fans. So they do know a little bit of Jap already. And people who obviously don’t belong in Jap 1 but somehow manage to bluff their way through for an easy A.

Grading components (% not known):
Attendance
Class participation
Mid-term – written and listening
Quizzes – vocab, listening, hiragana quiz, katakana quiz
Oral
Final – written and listening

Just saying: I love my sensei!! Hahaha they are really cute!

I did fairly well for my mid terms and finals, though for the final’s listening component I only scored 5/10… Did fairly well for the quizzes too and participated in class diligently, memorise the dialogues for the dialogue performance. Overall, I did fairly constant and well I guess.

My personal takeaway: I think its amazing how I can now read a bit of Jap (it was still foreign to me 4 months ago) and even understand basic Jap now. Really cool and I am actually considering to take Jap in NUS again if I ever have the time and bid points.

Expected grade: B
Actual grade: A- (super happy since the bell curve is crazy)

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That’s all for my mod review for Y2S1! Sorry if I said lots of irrelevant stuff but I feel like I should input my experiences for the mods XD I think I did pretty badly this sem, considering that I got As/A+s in my Y1. That means I have to work even harder next sem and hope I won’t be distracted (by anime HAHAHA whoops).

The mods I am planning to take next sem are: LSM2101, LSM2102, GET1020, GEH1019 and LAK3202. My last sem in NUS before my exchange to Korea~!