Musings from someone bored

Introduction  

This is one module I can honestly said I screwed up badly. It's the first time I gotten below B for a core module and cried for the next 12 days after seeing my CAP nose dive because of it. 😂

This is essentially a repeat of statistical portion in H2 Maths (which I also didn't do well). Permutations and combinations, probability distributions, hypothesis testing; that sort of rubbish. Maybe it's just me, but I hate these kind of statistical stuff and prefer calculus type of math you know??? 

Because it's considered 'easy', the bell curve is very steep every year. So please tread carefully and don't be a casualty of the bell curve! One thing I don't get is the existence of this module. The ECE department should have outsourced this module to the Department of Mathematics or something. This module isn't recognised by anyone else in NUS, hence cannot fulfil any prerequisite from the mainstream ststs modules the rest of NUS takes! From AY19/20, it will be re-coded as EE2012A with a reduction to 3 MCs. My guess the syllabus will remain largely similar. 

There are two lectures and one tutorial every week. The lessons are extremely boring, but are recorded. However, there are graded lecture quizzes after every chapter, so be careful. Remember, I suck at statistics and literally had no idea what the lecturer was talking about. For the first half, he was just describing PowerPoint slides instead of teaching!!! Seriously, no annotating, examples or anything. I think even I can teach better!! 

This module is graded in very odd ways. You have 1% for participation, 2% for tutorials and another 2% for lecture quizzes. Honestly I have no clue how these were graded. I did not attend tutorials but according to my friends who did, attendance was not taken. You also have to complete a pair software project using Matlab to simulate an exponential distribution function, which can be completed in less than an hour. This is worth 15%. Again, marks wasn't released and I have no clue how I did for anything which was annoying!! Midterm is 20% and was ridiculously easy. The questions were something like "if John flipped a coin ten times, what's the probability of head". I got full marks and so did almost half the cohort. The finals (60%) was also considered 'easy' but somehow I got wrecked real hard. 🤔

After getting full marks for midterms, I totally shutdown from this module. If you ask any EE students, year 2 sem 1 will probably be the craziest year because you will be occupied with mad EE2028 and EE2027. Not helping was EE2028's final exam was scheduled the next day after EE2012. So the choice was fairly obvious after weighing whether to concentrate on this (which I got full marks for midterm) or fail the crazy EE2028 thing. 

The worse thing is this shit cannot be S/U-ed as well. Felt really 'sia suay' when I saw the results hence I did not write anything about this module until now. But for the large majority, an A- or a B+ is very common. Don't be like me. :(

This is an introductory module of various evicting electronic components and semiconductors like PN junctions, BJTs, MOSFETs, diodes and operational amplifiers. It also goes into the nitty gritty details of how these works and the "science" behind it. (yes, the periodic table will reappear here!!)... 

The module has many CA components, including one midterm (20%), two labs (10%) and four graded homework (15%). Majority will get close to full marks for the labs and homework so do aim for that. The main variation comes from the midterm and finals. While answer keys were provided for midterms, they were not given for finals. However, many questions from the finals are repeated in tutorial questions, so you can practice from there. 

One annoying thing about these tests are the 10 marks worth of true/false questions, that deduct marks for wrong answers (probably to punish students who guesses). No cheat sheets are allowed but an extensive formula list are provided. Some "shortcut" formulas that make calculations a little easier are not provided, so some memory work is needed. 

The lessons are conducted seminar style, i.e. there are no fixed tutorial or lecture lessons. It's dependent on the class pace. However, when the lesson is a tutorial class, there will be graded homework that needs to be submitted. There are also two lab sessions, which wasn't too difficult. For the second lab, you will be issued with a toolbox with resistors, opamp, multimeter etc  and you're expected to build the circuit yourself and compare the results with a circuit simulator (LTspice).

 

You will do well if you put in effort in digesting the concepts. I did the "rote-learning" style and struggled, especially during exams. If you're someone like me who likes to slap a formula, manipulate the math and derive the final answer, you find this module indifferent... This module is.. How would I put??... Your typical, average EE module.. The typical electrical engineering type of stuff that your friend from FASS envision you're doing everyday.. You know that EE stereotype? Yup, that's EE2027 in a nutshell.

This isn't the worse module out there and being consistent in lessons will go a long way. The finals was a surprise with some unexpected questions for me. The most difficult questions are the one relating to opamps and the prof says it's the easiest to mark as many students left it blank. I did average for the midterms and I presume, the same for finals. The final grade I got was also average, which wasn't surprising. My personal opinion is if I have put in a little more effort understanding what's going on, I will probably get at least A-... As my circle of friends (many who I think is in my calibre in terms of academics have gotten A- and above..)...

The first hell module EE students will encounter (surprise surprise, PC2020 is the other). Don't just take my words for it, go Google for past reviews on EE2028/EE2024 (old module code). Your base board from EE2026 will be upsized into something of monstrosity. Big, bulky and with many accessories. There are two graded assignments, both pair work. Start searching for project partners early because you don't want to be randomly paired with the leftovers for obvious reasons 🤔. For Assignment 1 (20%), you will start with assembly language, which will be taught in lectures and has a simple syntax. But the assignment isn't as simple due to complicated requirements, which was to implement a circular buffer for my cohort. My suggestion is to start early and ask around if you are stuck. There's no time to waste. For Assignment 2 (30%), you will use C language to interface with various peripherals on the main board to create a device based on the project requirements. My year was to detect movement and temperature changes in a simulated environment. In between assignments are labs, where the GAs will give hints so that you're a familiar with controlling the board. 

Saw some recent reviewers sharing that EE2028 isn't as bad as what others are saying, but just want to emphasize that they took the module during Covid where everything was open book, open computer. With things reverting back, I am not so sure it will be that simple again. A large bulk of (my) suffering was cramming for the closed book, no cheatsheet finals. Cheers and have fun! 

Project demonstrations and written reports are expected for both assignments. The most annoying part are the Q&A by the GAs during the demonstrations, where random questions are asked, sometimes with no relevance to the project. My guess is these are to ensure you're not blindly coding and know the fundamentals behind what you're doing. They also asked seemingly simple questions that many of us got stuck. Questions like where is the temperature sensor, or microphone etc located on the board . My experience with the demonstration wasn't positive. I got assessed by a GA who does not understand simple English and got into an argument with him. To mask his language deficiency, he started raising his voice which probably cost me some marks. Anyways, I wasn't the only student who has issues with him. Just pray you've a good assessor. I did slightly below average for both assignments and they won't tell you why, which was another annoying part. 

While the projects are time-consuming, you do not have midterms to contend with. I'm not sure if that's a good thing because I was lost throughout this module and it was a mad rush catching up for finals and not helping were other difficult core modules like EE2027 that took a lot of time as well. 

And when think you're done with the module after the crazy project and its demonstration, you suddenly remember you have the final paper, with all the wonderful theory you've been neglecting since week 1!!! :') 

This module is dense in content as there are many interfacing protocols to memorise. The instructors always claim no memory work is needed to do well. But they forgotten to mention they have been repetitively doing the same thing for many years, of course they have it committed to memory while we barely have 12 weeks to digest everything. Past year papers are provided, but no solutions are given. The biggest nonsense is the ban on cheatsheet. They are inconsistent with the reason on this. Sometimes they claim there's nothing to memorise. Other times will say all the required information will be provided. 

There are not many resources publicly available and sadly those who can memorise content will do significantly better. However, there's a Prof who goes through past year exams for his class. So make friends with students from his class to take advantage of that. 

During finals, I basically vomited everything I memorised. I think I did more writing than any other modules I have taken so far, which is sad given that this is an EE module. I was writing so much till the point that I have no idea what I was doing or whether the "story" I wrote had relation to the question!!!  I just threw everything I got hoping to score some marks. 

What I can say is this. Many of my friends struggled in the module, so please do not panic if you're in the same predicament. The most important tip to survive this hellish module is to be resourceful. Ask around for videos, tutorial answers and help if you're stuck. There's even a complication of exam solutions screenshoted from these videos, turned into a PDF which was very helpful for me. 

Right after finals ended, the EE cohort chat group was buzzing with students looking for lab partners for the next semester because they are certain they will fail. But one effect of everyone struggling is the bell curve. Despite doing so-so in lab assignments, having back-to-back exams for three straight days, and skipping some questions during the exam, I got a pretty decent grade, which I am satisfied with. 

My rating: Difficulty: 5/5 Workload: 5/5 Teaching staff: 3/5 Overall: 2/5

Graded components: Assignment 1: 20% Assignment 2: 30% Finals: 50%

Expected grade: B+  Final grade: Higher than B+

 

GEH1049 is probably the easiest module I have taken in this semester. I mean, no tests, no exams, no quizzes... and the list goes on... What more can I ask for? Every week, random guests from the healthcare field will give a talk on their area of speciality. Most of the talks are downright boring and you will find me dozing off or starting to prep for our weekly graded reflection. Something I am proud of is the efficiency of group in writing our reflections. While many groups will take notes or summaries of the content of the lectures (which frankly, a big waste of time), we will just whack and start writing our reflection and by the time we disperse, we are probably 80% done for this week's work. Because of how efficient we are, we tend to leave the lecture theatre very very early and you can see the intrigued stare of others as we gracefully exit the LT. Not only are we fast, the quality of our work speaks volumes as we are getting full marks for the reflections (in comparison, my friend in another group gets around 3 or 4 out of 5 weekly). Before every lecture, we are supposed to read the "required readings" which I am confident nobody bothers about it. 

While there are no exams/tests/quizzes, there are two written, take home assignments and we are given more than enough time complete those. Nothing too difficult, it is just your typical argumentative essay. The key is to follow the marking rubrics carefully. For my cohort, the mean for assignment 1 was 68 and I got close to 90. No marks were released for the assignment 2 but I guess I did well because I got a pretty decent grade. 

And those who think you can pon the lectures, the answer is NO and you need to scan a QR code every week to account for your presence. They are also pretty strict with late coming and the grace period is only 5 minutes before the QR code closes. But if you are smart enough, you will know how to game the system. :)

In summary, I love this module a lot because of the minimal workload and more importantly, zero tests. But I heard they are changing it from AY19/20 Sem 2, so it's better to check before locking on to this module.  

Difficulty: 2/5

Workload: 2/5

Teaching staff: 1/5 (freaking boring, non-engaging lecturers)

Overall: 4/5 (I recommend students who are looking for GEH with a good, low effort to good grades ratio)

Individual Assignment 1: 25%

Individual Assignment 2: 40%

Weekly Reflection: 30%

Attendance: 5%