Summer 2020

Hello! Just want to apologise for the extremely late posting. I feel bad for posting the summer review when fall had already passed!

** Do note that this semester was online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Assessment structures may change in the future when physical classes resume.

Tips for Summer semester:

For newer UB students that have yet experienced a Summer semester, I can assure you that it is PACKED. The Summer semester is split into two parts: Summer 1 and Summer 2 (sometimes known as Summer 3 also). During each part, you will go through different modules. For instance, in my case, I had MTH 122 and ECO 205 for Summer 1 and ECO 405 and ECO 407 for Summer 2.

With the semester broken into two parts, you will experience more classes per week for a single module than for other semesters. For all of my modules, I had two times the amount of classes each week. As a result, more content will be covered per week and you will face exams quicker.

I highly, highly recommend cutting down on any external commitments you may have (Summer is also the perfect time to take a break from your extra/co-curricular!). Even if you believe that you can cope, I suggest first going through Summer 1 with fewer external commitments to experience what it is like.

Many students have complained of having their GPA heavily affected as a result of Summer, so I would caution students to approach Summer with care.

MTH 122 – Survey of Calculus and Its Applications II

Instructor: Mr Arthur Cho Weng Wee

Introduction: Again, I feel that there is little to be said about this module. If you have taken MTH 115 and MTH 121 (which I am guessing you should have to even be taking this class), then you should be fairly familiar as to how Mr Cho grades and conducts his classes. With the semester being online, Mr Cho conducts his lessons asynchronously (he records his lessons and you can watch it whenever you please). 

Assessment:

In the 6 weeks that you have per Summer half, you will get one homework assignment due every Friday. Also, something that Mr Cho has introduced to his assignments are reflection questions. These questions may involve videos (mainly TEDx ones) regarding math/arithmetic and will involve you reflecting as to how math/arithmetic/material learnt in class can be applied to actual life.

An advice from the heart would be: as you watch the videos, look through the assignment to see what you are able to answer! This will also give you some time to troubleshoot your queries with Mr Cho and so that you will not have to rush through the assignment (some questions take hours to complete!).

Instructor: Like always, Mr Cho still is an incredibly friendly and approachable instructor. If you ever need any clarification or further explanation, just drop him an email or drop in to his weekly Zoom sessions! You will make his day by doing so. Ever since the pandemic, he is starting to show a lot of care towards the actual learning process rather than your capability in grasping the various concepts. I would think that this is because there is a lack of interaction between instructor and student and he wonders if we will actually take something out of his course. And for that, he is a very noble lad!

Doing well: Mr Cho has expressed to the class that he has been under a lot of fire from the school because of how often he gives his students A’s. As a result of this, he marks stricter, and especially since this is the ‘advanced’ calculus class. I would advise students to not get complacent regardless of how easy the class seems. Treat your assignments with care because this is a class where an ‘A’ is immensely possible. This would mean doing your assignments early. Losing a few marks in a single assignment can heavily impact your chances of getting an ‘A’. An advice I would give would be to check your answers against your friends’ as the assignments that you get would most likely be similar. Another advice would be to watch all of his videos! Even if the videos seem to be repetitive (as he often answers more than one question of the same concept), there will always be something to learn. Don’t get complacent, my friend!

ECO 205 – Money and Banking

Instructor: Dr Sandeep Bhaskar

Introduction: Surprisingly, after three semesters, this was my first Economics-related module. For those that have taken introductory economic modules in UB, what you learn will surely overlap, though not to a huge extent. Overall, the class was manageable even as a student with little to no background on Economics. A substantial number of students in this class chose this module as a free elective and were able to do well. Just to let you know, this module is more macro-Econs than it is micro-Econs, and there isn’t a lot of graphs in this module relative to the other Econs mods. What you expect to learn would largely be of the following: Financial Securities/ Markets/ Intermediaries, Interest Rates, Stocks and Stock Markets, Central Banking and Money.

Assessment:

Instructor: Sandeep is an amazing teacher. I found his class to be absolutely intriguing and interesting. He often uses real-life examples to explain his points and a lot of his personal stories are entertaining! Sandeep can be a chill professor and is able to joke around in class (once he is comfortable with the class), and this makes his classes fun. He likes to share his past student life as well! He is immensely patient in explaining his points so do not be afraid to ask him questions and clear your doubts. Overall, Sandeep is an experienced and capable professor, and his classes are an absolute joy.

Just to give you a heads up, Sandeep does not believe in the effectiveness of PowerPoint slides. He conducts his lessons without slides at all and would only type stuff onto the Zoom chat whenever he says something important that you need to take down. So, get used to going through the class without any visual aid! Apart from this, the only kind of notes he gives out are notes in a written essay format (word document), though his notes are detailed and easy to understand. These notes will be uploaded to UB Blackboard one week before examination. (Update: In a physical setting, Sandeep writes down notes on the whiteboard but still does not use slides. Though, this is a major improvement than over Zoom lessons!).

The only qualm that students have with him is that he has a tendency to speak too fast. Make sure you pay attention in class and feel free to ask when you need him to repeat something (he doesn’t mind to!).

Doing well: Personally, I feel that you should not spend too much time on the textbook because he generally tests what he covers in class and on his notes. If you need further clarification, I would highly recommend reaching out to him for explanations OR referring to pages on the textbook that he had specifically pointed out as to be tested for the exams. The textbook has an extensive set of examples. His exam questions tend to be very straightforward and there is little trickery to the questions (You could be better off familiarising yourself to the various topics than to be an expert in one).

Quizzes are done in the first 10 minutes of class and will mainly cover material that has already been covered in past classes. This being said, make sure you turn up early to class AND spend some time quickly revising what was discussed previously. There were a total of 8 quizzes, so there will be days that you will not have a quiz. Don’t get complacent because 15% is a substantial figure.

Also, when writing your essay, do your absolute best to incorporate materials covered in class. Though it is good to do include external research, you stand a higher chance of misunderstanding such material. What I can recommend is running through your topic and points by him before beginning work. He will gladly help you identify pitfalls that you will encounter and provide other point of views!

ECO 405 – Microeconomic Theory 1 // ECO 407 – Macroeconomic Theory 1

Instructor: Dr Aisling Winston

Introduction (for ECO 405 and ECO 407): Dr Sandeep was supposed to teach ECO 405 and ECO 407 but he felt overwhelmed from Summer 1 and requested another professor take over. Dr Aisling is a professor from UB’s main campus and was expected to fly from the States to Singapore had COVID did not happen. As such, the class was conducted remotely. Dr Aisling would pre-record videos and upload it on Blackboard on lesson days. Between ECO 405 and 407, ECO 405 (Microeconomic Theory) proved to be more complex/difficult for my friends and I.

ECO 405 Microeconomic covers: Introduction to Microeconomics, Demand-Supply Model, Price Controls, Price Elasticity, Consumer Theory, Producer Theory, Market Theory, Government Intervention.

ECO 407 Macroeconomic covers: Introduction to Macroeconomics, Classical Theory, Monetary Systems, Business Cycle Theory, Dynamic Models of Short-run/Long-run, Financial Crisis, Other Consumption/Investment Theories.

Assessment:

Both ECO 405 and ECO 407 have the exact same assessment structure.

In-lecture problem-solving and participation (10%): This mainly involves quizzes during/after the video lessons uploaded on Blackboard’s Panopto. They usually are fill-in-the-blanks or MCQ questions. The questions are not very hard as you can always refer back to what was discussed in the video to answer them. If your answer is right but you expressed it in a manner not recognised by Panopto (because it ain’t intuitive like that), you will have to write an email to Aisling so that you can get rewarded for the question. She is more than happy to help you out! Since the questions are relatively doable, the quizzes are an area that you can do well in. Mak sure you answer them properly! It may be somewhat tedious but it is definitely worth it.

Problem sets (40%): There are four problem sets for each module. You can view problem sets as weekly homework assignments – you have a problem set due every Friday except for exam weeks. Again, very hard to go wrong for these assignments because you have one week to complete them, and it is open book.

Exam 1/2 (50%): The exam papers were released on Blackboard and you had 2 hours to complete and submit your answers. Aisling also gave us an additional 15 minutes to scan our answers and for any other troubleshooting matters. When revising for the exam, I would highly recommend going through your problem sets as the questions were similar.

Instructor: Aisling is an amazing professor! She is young, engaging, and very considerate about the wellbeing of her students. She is the kind of professor that values hard work and the learning process more than the end result. It is also evident that she tries her absolute best to give us credit as long as there is effort put in (so to say that she marks leniently!). Aisling also has a great sense of humour and is able to joke around with the class. You are fortunate to have her for any of your classes.

Doing well: Aisling’s lessons are rather comprehensive so you should be able to do fairly well just by being attentive to her classes. There is not really a need to read the textbook but then again, it does not hurt to do so. Also, as mentioned before, Aisling places a large emphasis on effort. If you are unsure of a question (be it for the problem sets or exam), show some workings/formulas regardless. That could grant you a few extra marks.