Module Review: MA1512 Differential Equations for Engineering

This module felt half-baked. It attempts to teach different techniques like dealing with first and second order ordinary differential equations and Laplace Transform to assist you in differentiating things you normally can't. It also awkwardly adds random topics like population modelling and half-life decay in an attempt to make your MA1512 life more ‘exciting’. The content of this module isn't difficult, but if you struggle with math or hate calculus, you will suffer. 

Materials and lesson format

Lessons are conducted in the flip classroom methodology, where you're supposed to watch some videos before coming to lectures. Similar to MA1511, some majors like EE, CEG have their lessons conducted in small group seminar style, while others have it in mass lectures. The official "notes" (it's already a discount calling it notes!) totalled hundreds of pages and felt like a storybook from hell. Less than 5% of characters are numbers! The instructors got lazy and re-used the notes from other modules. In fact, some pages still had "MA1506" printed on it. Tutorial questions are not relevant to the notes and the "math educational videos" you expect from MA1511 were just old lecture recordings of someone else teaching. Seniors warned that this module was terrible, and it turned out to be worse! Gave up doing tutorials and watching the stupid videos. The only saving grace was my tutor, where her own notes and solutions were miles ahead compared to the official ones. Attendance isn't graded, and there's no class tests unlike MA1511 and MA1508E, so feel free to AWOL as you wish. 

No time to waste

Given that this module is 2 MCs and compressed into six weeks of hell, there isn't much time to waste. As soon as I realised the official notes and tutorials weren't useful in prepping me for finals, I threw away everything and just spammed past year papers. This is a new module, so you need to look for alternative resources out there (hint: MA1506). Thankfully, written solutions for past year papers are readily available if you know where to look for them (unlike EE modules which refuses to provide solutions). 

Graded quiz and finals

There are two graded components. The first is an IVLE quiz (20%) which I had no clue on how to start. Thankfully, discussions are allowed, and it probably saved me. The average for the quiz was 3.77/4. Just one question wrong and 5% of your grade is wiped off. That's how intense it is. For finals, unlike MA1511, you do have ample time to finish the paper. It was five questions with two unrelated parts. (why can't they just make it 10 questions instead?). One A4 size cheat sheet allowed. The questions are predictable as it was similar to previous years.  Despite leaving one question blank and everyone saying how manageable the paper was, I somehow managed to get a pretty decent grade (best grade this sem). For the cheatsheet, a great tip will be to put the final formulas for the logistics regression/population models/half-life decay etc at easy place for reference as this are guaranteed "give-away" questions. Also put the MF15 trigonometry formulas down. During my final paper, there was this question that required some trigo manipulation. Those who left those formulas out basically forfeited the question even if they know the approach on how to solve it. 

Additional comments

I must add that although I did significantly better in MA1512 than MA1511 or MA1508E, the way this module was delivered was atrocious. Thankfully it's only 2 MCs and many of my friends wrote this module off midway. The good news is, there are many resources online, like Khan Academy that teaches better. One reason why it's easier to self-learn in MA1512 than MA1511 was because the content of this module isn't dense. You can afford to skip lectures and tutorials and still get away with it. However, the most important takeaway is practicing past year papers if you want to score! 

Fun fact: If you are bored, you can search “MA1512” on NUSwhispers, and see the wonderful comments on this module. Someone mentioned that this is a famous “badly taught mod”. Couldn't agree more. Hopefully they fix it soon. On my Instagram feed, I saw peers standing outside the exam hall proudly tearing the question paper after the exam ended. I guess the intense hate for this module wasn't just from me. 

Graded components:

IVLE quiz - 20%

Final exam - 80%

My rating:

Difficulty: 3/5

Workload: 2/5

Teaching staff: 2.5/5 

Overall: 2.5/5

Expected grade: B+

Final grade: above B+