AY2020/21 Semester 1 Module Ramblings

posted: 03/07/21 (last edited: 25/12/20)

My essay on cats got me an A? Interesting.

 

CP2106 Independent Software Development Project (Orbital)

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: CS

Actual Grade: CS

Workload: As much as you want, as much as you are willing to be a burden.

This is a pass/fail independent pair-work project module available for first year computing students. It is done during summer break, and you are free to create any software you want for this module. It is very much self-study with negligible guidance. As such, learning varies as well. If you just want to get free MCs, it really isn’t much work at all.

My partner and I decided to make a game in Unity. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected, and I couldn’t grasp how to use the tech stack even till the end. Which meant that I was pretty much deadweight for most of the project. So, this also means that your friendship may suffer depending on who you choose to pair up with.

It has “software” in the name but after this module I still have no clue what software development or software engineering is. And this understanding won’t happen until I take CS2103T. Imo, CS2103T prepares you for CP2106. Taking CP2106 before CS2103T is like being a caveman looking at shadows on the wall and thinking that he knows everything about the world. But if you have already taken CS2103T, in all likeliness, you will neither qualify for nor want to take CP2106.

It was…an experience, I guess. I wouldn’t consider it a good experience. But it was an experience, nonetheless.

 

CS2100 Computer Organisation

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: A

Actual Grade: A+

Workload: Light to moderate, depending on how fast you can understand concepts.

The hardware-ish side of Computing. Uses C and MIPS assembly, covers concepts such as memory, caching, processors, digital circuits, etc. Tbh, I am not too sure what is covered in this module, I don’t even know how I managed to get an A+.

This module has weekly labs which will take a longer time if you don’t understand the concepts or are not familiar with the languages used. Otherwise, it is quite straightforward, and labs are basically free reign to discuss with friends, so it is expected that most people will score full marks for it. It might have been much more fun has I taken this module in real life instead of online.

This is the first (and probably the last) A+ ive gotten for a CS-coded module. Quite happy, I guess.

 

CS2101 Effective Communication for Computing Professionals

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: B+/A-

Actual Grade: A-

Workload: Mostly light workload, with high workload nearing presentations.

Basically, just communication, in terms of writing, speaking, as well as how to work in a team. Much of it is common sense.

THIS MODULE HAS 15% CLASS PARTICIPATION GOD BLESS. It is a huge headache trying to participate at least once during each class. Especially for an 8am class. I failed but I guess I tried my best. Made worse because my tutor has a kinda passive aggressive (or maybe just aggressive) attitude for an 8am class. And my class was filled with overachievers. So in conclusion God bless.

It was very anxiety inducing even for an online class. I am not sure if it will be better or worse if it weren’t online. Likely the presentations were made easier because I could refer to the script instead of memorising it.

I don’t like this module, and I won’t be taking it again. Sad to say, I still need to take ES2660.

 

CS2103T Software Engineering

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: A-

Actual Grade: A

Workload: Very high lol especially near the milestones.

This module is just difficult lol. A lot of self-study when reading the textbook and doing the quizzes. Provides sufficient guidance for how to complete a software engineering project individually and as a group of 5. Uses Git, Java, GitHub, IntelliJ.

The projects become extremely infuriating when I have to spend long hours debugging on a codebase that I do not even understand. Some of my groupmates were last minute workers and did subpar work. That isn’t fantastic at all. And merge conflicts are the worst. I once spent an entire Sunday crying at my desk because there was a merge conflict with a groupmate who merged his part before mine, and we were editing all the same files. There were like, 40 or 50 merge conflicts and I was traumatized. And I was trying to fix the merge conflicts through all the tears I have no fucking clue lol.

Practical exam was worse, it is LITERALLY a dog-eat-dog war of bug-finding. A zero-sum game where either the developer or the tester gets the point but not both. Which means that you try to bash the product of the team you are reviewing.

Do I feel prepared for internship? Not really. Do I feel prepared to deal with the upcoming bs that I will deal with in my future modules? Kinda.

 

GEQ1000 Asking Questions

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: CS

Actual Grade: CS

Workload: Almost none, but I may have spent too much time on this because the content is quite interesting.

Interesting content, I would have been more focused on it if it weren’t a pass/fail module. But because it is almost a guarantee pass, I was able to spend less time on it and focus instead on my 6 other modules. Which is a blessing, I guess.

Quizzes are fun to do and think about but towards the end it was becoming prohibitively hard to do. Tutorials were kinda anxiety induing because 36% class participation and some people keep speaking up. The biz kids mainly. I guess. Not sure.

Covers abit of 6 different fields of study. I don’t know why it is called “asking questions”. It is more like modes of thinking and the methodology of the field. I think it is just a placeholder for “module that covers abit of everything but with no depth”.

My final paper was a rant on veganism and in my opinion barely related to the module and only because I can get away with it. I had too much fun with it, honestly. Should have spent more time on my other modules instead.

 

PH2211 Philosophy of Religion

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: A before the module, B- after getting back my term paper.

Actual Grade: B+

Workload: Moderate, lots of readings, 3 written assignments.

This might be the only module where I knew what I was getting into and where it is actually accurate. Covers the main arguments for and against the existence of God, and then some topics related to religion like magic and stuff.

The textbook is a rather interesting read, and it is something that I would read for leisure. In my opinion, the lectures and tutorials don’t add much value because it was pretty much just free flow discussion and question and answer with no plan.

Before and of the assessments, I had expected that I would do quite well for this module, because there was no class participation, and there was a rather large class of 100 students, so I was thinking I may get some help from the bell curve. But as it turns out, after getting back my term paper where I got a B- for, I wasn’t so sure. I am taking this module alone, so I’m not sure if this is the usual grade for philosophy modules or if I am just bad at writing. But in all likeliness, that is probably because Prof did not like my side of the argument? Because understand that philosophy, especially religion, tends to be opinionated and I may have leaked biases into my essay. Or someone else is biased. Or maybe its God.

This is a module with interesting content and quite eye-opening. If anything, it helps me to better understand what those atheist youtubers like Cosmic Skeptic are saying.

 

PH2243 Epistemology

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: A-

Actual Grade: A

Workload: Moderate, readings are difficult to understand but not too lengthy.

I had no idea what Epistemology was before taking this module. I just knew (or thought / believed?) that it was in some way related to KI at A levels. I ModReg-ed for this module as a backup plan and planned to drop it if I successfully appealed for PH2211. But I am glad I did not drop this because it is really fun to learn.

This module covers skepticism and the arguments against skepticism, the theories of knowledge and beliefs, and a last section on graded belief. Which I believe most students didn’t really study because it was the last topic and likely not an essay topic and had no tutorials and all. I do wish there was more time for this topic because I found it quite interesting because of the use of probability and statistics and it was more math-y than the other topics.

There were weekly discussion questions for writing practice and to discuss with our discussion groups. But I gotta admit I felt kinda intimidated by the others’ FASS writing prowess. They would write pages in answer of one question, while I could only think of a short paragraph. Tutorials were anxiety inducing too, lol. Because class participation, and because I think most FASS students are more eloquent and can find the words easier. I don’t even know. Anyways tutorial discussions were fruitful in terms of discussion, but it made me so anxious to speak up lol.

For both the first and second papers I managed to turn it into a story about cats. I think I had way too much fun with this as well. About cats and brains in vats and evil demons.

 

ST2334 Probability and Statistics

MCs: 4

Expected Grade: A/A+

Actual Grade: A

Workload: Low to moderate.

It’s just math, I guess. The section on probability is pretty much A level math, which means that it is quite easy. The later sections are newer with some probability distributions that were difficult to understand and which I didn’t need to understand as I can simply plug it into the Excel formula. Hypothesis testing was quite similar to A levels except that I had forgotten most of this

It’s math, so I expect an A or A+. I guess this time I wasn’t good enough for the +.

 

Conclusions

Getting a B+. it is quite a dilemma as to whether or not to S/U it. Another dilemma is whether or not to apply for DDP. Having the lowest grade be a B+ does improve my chances compared to a B. But it isn’t as good as an A or A-. I guess I meet all the other requirements in terms of CAP and MCs completed. But having to email to apply is kinda a wall to climb because I hate social interaction :/ .

I am likely to be taking 6 modules next semester. If all goes well, and I successfully apply for DDP too, I will only need to overload for 2 more semesters according to my study plan. But if I do not end up doing a DDP, I don’t know why I am taking so many modules. Haha.

I think I am dealing with imposter syndrome when it comes to academics. I am in the midst of deciding what modules to take, and I will wonder what the workload is, whether I will be able to cope with the workload. And all too often, I find myself doubting that I will be able to cope with the workload.

Despite having taken 28 MCs in the past semester, I find myself questioning whether it was actually a heavy workload, or if I were just faking my way through the past semester with little effort, hiding behind a façade of incompetency. I find myself asking, If I take 24MCs the next semester, will I die? Will my CAP die thoroughly? In reality I know that I have had successful experiences dealing with such workload. And this time round, it wasn’t even just me leeching off my friends for lab answers and backstabbing them in online quizzes. And yet the thought creeps into my mind: this semester wasn’t difficult at all. “You took like 6 modules that had fairly light workload (looking at you, everything but CS2103T). How can you claim to have successfully conquered a 28MC semester?” As can be said for Y1S2. “You were taking 3 GEs! How can you even claim to be overloading?” It certainly didn’t feel like I was slacking off during the semester. I was consistently studying, keeping up with my tutorials and readings, watching lectures on the week it is scheduled…everything. I know I was working hard. And apart from some periods where I was too depressed to study, I was keeping up with my work. How can my brain, now, come and claim that it was an easy semester, claiming that I am an incapable idiot? We have a fucking constant conjunction here, alright, there is no reason to believe otherwise. And there’s this creeping thought that, next semester where I won’t be taking such “easy modules”, I will suffer. And such is my worry.