NUS AY20/21 Semester 1

well hello there! didn't think i was gonna continue doing this anymore if i were to be honest but wow look at me !! i'm doing it!! so after exchange and internship and the introduction of covid, it was time to go back to the school that i've not been in for the past year. 

well-

technically i wasn't going back physically because, you know, covid (': but i was back to studying again! did i still know how to be a student? oh my gosh! 

iykyk

so it was finally time to take 4k mods!! something that i have been dreading because it just seems so hard and my grades are bad enough as it is to have something so significant drag it down even further. plsplsplspls let me keep my second upper plsplspls 

aaannyyywwaaayy overloaded again (what's new, really) but like i always (was it always? or just recently) say, the module i overload with is usually and language and i don't really view language as another module so i don't feel like i'm overloading. 

Year of Study: 4

MCs: 28

Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences 

Modules Taken:

• GEH1054 Names as Markers of Socio-cultural Identity 
• LAK4203 Korean 7
• NM3230 Digital Storytelling
• NM4230 Communication for Social Change
• NM4244 Sex in the Media
• NM4881A Topics in Media Studies: Social Media 

本小姐 (this lady) was basically being the communications and new media major that she is!! something that she has never done considering all the weirdass mods i've taken (esp if you look at y2s2 LOL)

GEH1054: Names as Markers of Socio-cultural Identity

Grade: A

Lecturer: Dr. Peter K W Tan

those who know me know that i'm someone who has been very interested in names since i was young. my grandfather always told me the meaning of my name and told me how important it is to think properly before giving a child a name because that name carries the hope you have for them (disclaimer: no shade for anyone who's name was randomly selected or given by a fortune teller). so naturally, this mod interested me. 

tbh, i wanted to take another geh mod that was about musical production but i think the logistics of that mod is real complicated so i never got the chance to take it sigh ): 

anyway, this mod was great! tbh it felt a bit history-ish and a lot of lecture basically which is something that i'm terrible with. i just can't pay attention in lectures (although i have since found a way which is to occupy my hands with mindless things like puzzle games haha) so i felt so bad to the prof for not really paying attention to his lectures ))): 

the prof is super knowledgeable though! and this definitely surpassed my expectations of simply learning about given names and my very shallow understanding of names being the hope of an ancestor for a descendant. we talked about different types of names, like names of products, places, etc. and there were a bit of philosophical debate here and there which was definitely daunting but nonetheless interesting to listen to ahahah. i can guarantee that i did not participate in any of it : D

Exam Format: so, keep in mind that this was done during covid times and the exams might change in time to come. we had midterms and finals, both were open book. we were given the questions in the morning and had to submit it by 6pm that day via email. rather than attaching a file, we literally just had to reply to his email of the paper and copy and paste wholesale our answers to his questions - no salutations or anything. so because of this, you can really go and scroll through all the lectures and refer, but it's better to write your own notes then ctrl f that ahaha. i also uh... almost couldn't submit my final on time because this lunatic only started it at like maybe 3 or 4pm : D there's also a group project where you have to find one thing you want to research on, do it, and present your findings. my group did about chinese names (ahahaha as suggested by me) and like the nm2103 one from ay18/19 s2, there were a few random and completely exaggerated conclusions but oh well, everything worked out! honestly did not expect to get an a for this mod HAHAH 

Recommend? it's not too bad a geh, really! i'm not too sure what other gehs are there out there but this was one of the most interesting ones i've seen when i was searching for mods! or it could be because of my interest in names ahaha. although do be prepared to go into a slightly more philosophical and complex discussion rather than simply being like "my name is xx! it means yy!! : DDD" 

LAK4203: Korean 7

Grade: A

Tutor: Ms Nuri Choi

wow i had no idea how much i missed learning korean until i stepped into class again!! i hadn't had a korean lesson in a year then and i wa honestly slightly worried that my korean has deteriorated and i'd be left confused and struggling in class. but hey not at all!! 

my first online korean lesson, taught by my first ever korean teacher! she used to be really scary to me (as seen here) but over the course of this sem, we really just got to chit chat and got closer! it was so much fun honestly. i looked forward to korean classes because it was just like some sort of break for me. where i can just gather with other people and chat with them. oftentimes, that's what class really is. we're just all korean speakers talking about a topic that we watched a video on during the week. of course, we're still learning new grammar and vocab, but it's not so strict like that in a classroom and rather really just feels like a get together session. 

although of course, we are learning korean and there were some challenging parts. 

first of all, the level of difficulty in the essays were SUPER upgraded. like it literally went from 😇what did you do last week end?😇 to 👿how has technology impacted consumerism👿 and lemme tell you i was hella shook when i received the prompt for my first essay (which was "how might we mitigate cultural clash?"). it really felt like i was in secondary school learning how to write argumentative or discursive essays yknow. start with a thesis statement, then use P-E-E-L. and because i only started learning korean properly quite late in my life, i was making a lot of simple grammatical mistakes to that i lamented to my teacher about also ahaha.

second of all, WE HAD TO DEBATE IN CLASS. wow this really felt like a return to secondary school OMG. like literally. we had two classes that was just purely for debating. first was about 홍길동 (Hong Gil-dong), the korean robin hood on whether his actions were right or wrong. and the second was about the minimum age of criminal responsibility on whether korea should be lowering or raising it. YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT. MINIMUM AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS THING EXISTED IN ENGLISH. korean really be teaching me so much about the world ahaha. and unluckily, for both times we debated, i was put on the team that i didn't agree with. e.g. if i agreed with 홍길동's actions, i'd be on the team that disagreed. if i felt that the minimum age of criminal responsibility should be lowered, i'd be on the team that feels like it shouldn't. so it was really difficult for me to come up with arguments because i myself was against what i was trying to fight for, you know? all in all, it's really just a fun session to talk, and there aren't any grades to it. so no need to be too stressed! 

and my last gripe would be something that's just me being petty maybe. so because it's on zoom, it's very easy to basically just tune out and not talk. of course not talking when the teacher is teaching is a good thing, but not talking when you're specifically put into breakout rooms to discuss???? ah, that is hell on earth. and i mean, when i write it like that, i'm sure if any of my korean class friends read this they'll know who i'm talking about (or if i'm talking about them) but it was so freaking annoying to try and start conversation and discussion with a small group and everyone just gives one word answers or the curtest replies. i'm just left going like.... what do you want me to do now...? especially during the first debate, i was trying my HARDEST to squeeze out some conversation or discussion so that we would acutally have points to talk about and all i got was along the lines of 네, 저도 그렇게 생각해요. 저도 동의하는데 반대 해야 돼서 아무것도 생각 못해요. (yes, i think so too. i too agree with his actions so I have nothing to say against it.)  and if i were to give a point? 어... 그거 좋을 것 같아요... (yeah... that's good...) like hello?????? literally????? we were given maybe 30 mins??????? yall barely talked for 30 seconds????????????? in the end i just gave up and developed my points on my own and did my own thing because what's the point if no one bothers to try and continue the conversation???? although of course there were a lot more who were super proactive and i really enjoyed the breakout room sessions with them! if only we could talk more ;-; 

Exam Format: pretty straightforward, midterms, finals, three essays and two oral exams during the term. the midterms and finals consist of MCQ (i can't remember if it's 40 or 70 or maybe both numbers are wrong LOL) and one essay. for the MCQs, the first 10 or so questions are listening. the good thing is that you can keep repeating the recording haha. but basically you'll be writing lots of essays HAHAHAHA but yeah, just mentally prepare yourself for the level of difficulty of the essays. the oral exams are based on the topics you've discussed in class so just familiarise yourself with it. other than that, it's just like having a chitchat with the teacher so it's really chill hahaha. my only gripe is that for the MCQ we weren't allowed to go back, so once you answer that's final already. apparently it's to prevent cheating but all of us were like hm.... i can still cheat if i really wanted.... LOL not that we did lah. but yeah it was a bit annoying bc yknow sometimes you're not too sure about your answer and you just mark it first then come back to it later? but this is all done during covid times so. 

Recommend? dude if you've already taken up to korean 6 what's stopping you from taking korean 7 man. just do it HAHA 

NM3230 Digital Storytelling

Grade: A-

Lecturer: Ms Sarah-Tabea Sammel 

Tutor: Ms Sarah-Tabea Sammel 

finally took a module that aligns with my interest in video production!!! i was actually deciding between 3230 and 3217 (principles of communication design) that will teach photoshop, illustrator all that and decided that since my interest lies more in video than in graphics, i should take 3230 instead. 

AND I LOVED IT. although what i didn't expect was the more theoretical and philosophical aspects of it haha. nevertheless, it was really fun and i enjoyed my lessons. the lectures itself were pretty simple, nothing too difficult from it. just note that it's not recorded so don't screw yourself over and not bother coming because it's really important!! although the joke is that in the first week i remembered my lesson time wrongly - i thought it was at 12 when it was at 10. so when i woke up at 11, i thought i still had more than enough time. but something felt odd and when i went to check i was like O SHIT. but because class ends at 11:35, it was basically too late for my already OTL 

the only lectures that were recorded are the first one (because it clashed with some public holiday) and the lesson on editing, so that we can go back to watch it. 

tutorials were really nice too! it's also really nice that ms sammel doesn't force everyone to turn on their cameras. no shade to teachers who do (i understand, really. it's damn weird to be talking to nobody and you can't even see their reactions to you) but i really appreciated being able to just attend lesson without having to care too much about how i look on camera (not in the sense that i'm vain but in the sense that sometimes i want to have my breakfast or multitask and i can do so without being wary of how i look on screen).

unfortunately, i don't remember too much about the tutorials, but i know that we had small tasks to complete, or discussions that helped our understanding of the class material. towards the end, we were given the time to work on our final videos during the tutorial and we would just turn the camera and mic on to ask ms sammel anything if we had any questions. 

she was super nice and helpful throughout it all! for the final video, we were linked up with a client called Urban Jungle Folks which is a permaculture farm and we were assigned a plant that we would have to make a video on. at first, they called the plant edibles. so when i got my plant, the peacock flower, i searched it up. only to find out that apparently it's poisonous and was used to induce miscarriage and diarrhoea. i was like... um... well... technically everything is edible. it's just a matter of how many times.... HAHAHAHAHAH 

but yeah so we usually would write a script or at least a guide for the video and she would read through it with us and offer us suggestions! i think on the creative direction she doesn't give any input (to be fair) but she will help with how a script is written and all. when i let her take a look at mine, she said ti looked a lot like a video for children from my tone of voice HAHAHA guess working in vsb has rubbed off on me (': so i did some edits to it. you can watch the video here! 

i also had this picture as my zoom bg then and after i turned my camera a few times she asked me about it!!! ahahhaha 

Exam Format: we have an MCQ for midterms that was done over kahoot which was kindda chaotic and stressful because you immediately see if your answers were right or wrong ahaha. although thankfully the speed of your answers don't matter. the midterms is 20% i think. then we have a photo essay that is 20% also that i very admittedly butchered. it was freaking terrible HAHAHHA i think i got a well-deserved 13/20 for that lul (': then the final video which is 40% i think? i think this really saved my grade HAHAHA cos i don't think i did that well for the midterms either. also, i was asked in one of my old posts on the weightage of each test and realised that i don't really pay a lot of attention to the weightage oops. so i don't always remember. sorry about that! especially if i made you read through this whole chunk only to find nothing useful (': i kindda just do my work as it is... and anyway the weightages change with time so. 

Recommend? the good thing about this module is that it assumed 0 knowledge of adobe premiere pro so they will really teach you from scratch. but of course, there will be people like me who know beforehand. i don't think it really matters because ms sammel is very fair in that she won't give you extra grades for doing complicated things like animations and all. i think what she's looking out for is how you piece your story together. so even if you audio is crap, she might still overlook it (especially during covid when we couldn't borrow equipment). i would say this module is good for anyone who wants to explore video production. it's not too heavy but also doesn't just leave you to your own devices. and you learn both theory and practical. 

NM4230 Communication for Social Change

Grade: B+

Lecturer: Dr. Asha Rathina Pandi

after doing my internship at VSB, this seemed like my natural next step HAHAH so of course i went for it. i mean, why not, right? and i could bring what i learnt in this class to VSB too. 

unfortunately, i didn't really learn that much that i didn't already know. if anything, the thing that was the most interesting to me is photojournalism or something like that. where partners/service users are given a camera and told to document their daily lives with it, and then we will sit down with them to discuss it. because it give us a better understanding of them, and lets us learn how they are in their daily lives when we aren't interacting. i thought that was really interesting. 

other than that, i feel like i've learnt most of the things in VSB already so it was just revision material, i guess haha. there isn't a final exam or anything though, so i found myself falling back on the readings quite quickly into the semester. especially when they were really really long (think 40-60 pages) and they all seemed so repetitive and weren't always fully discussed in depth during class either. i think it was the photojournalism one that really turned me off from this whole reading thing. because it was just three long ass case studies that basically said the exact same thing. like talking about why and how photojournalism is done, the benefits, yada yada. there were three to read and after the second one i was like yknow what this isn't worth the time and i stopped reading. 

another thing that stood out to me was during one of the sessions where we learnt about privilege. obviously as university students in singapore, we're very privileged and it was a session for us to be more cognisant of the kind of privilege we live in. of course, even amongst the privileged there are still some who are more privileged than others. so we had this bingo-esque thing where we had a few questions that we would answer yes or no to. and these questions supposedly tell of your privilege. but one of the question was really weird. if i remember correctly, one of the questions was something along the lines of "i have met a celebrity in person" and i'm like ???? how is that considered like some huge privileged thing???? lmao hahaha

but anyway, that was not what shocked me the most. so at the end of this whole "bingo" session, the prof would ask who had how many points out of 10. the higher the more privileged. so most people were between 4-6. then the prof asked who had like 3 or below or something like that. there were people who really had 3 and below. ironically, despite this session being a session to be aware of your own privilege, the prof literally went "HUH??? YOU'RE ONLY 2??? HOW CAN??? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE????" which honestly shocked me quite a lot because um.... you're literally telling us to be aware of our own privilege. how can you suddenly demean a student just because he's less privileged? who are you to question him and not believe him that this is the reality that he lives in? so yeah i was really a bit like er... after that. maybe it was a knee-jerk reaction, i'm not sure. but the situation was quite quickly glossed over and never addressed again so maybe she just didn't think much about it...

another small gripe i have about this was that there was quite a bit of inefficiency or also just lack of communication maybe. so we have to work in teams and in our teams, partner up with an organisation that works with a certain sector in society. how we were split is that we indicated our interests and were grouped from there. i think that's a really good thing, because there's no point randomly throwing people together then having all of them fight with each other on what sector to choose. however, the way it was done was quite... annoying. like basically she just went from person to person and asking and trying to allocate. but of course, everyone indicates more than one interest. so there were a lot of times when she'd call someone but then that person was already in the group. it was a bit tiring to just sit and stare at a screen while your teacher tries to work out the google doc or something haha. i feel like it was something that could've been done by the teacher after class, since everyone has already indicated their interest and will be fine with either sector that they're placed in. 

another thing is that the timelines were really weird. for our first report, we have to interview 10 people and submit it within like two weeks or something. so of course, everyone was scrambling to find interviewees. thankfully for my team, we were working with the elderly and VSB had HSH some time during that two weeks so we were able to chop chop curry pok get the interviews done. but for the other teams, they all started asking for extensions and explained their trouble with finding interviewees (completely valid). so we were granted the extension. BUT. my team finished before the original deadline and were expecting for our report to be returned to us earlier so that we can work on our second report sooner. BUT GUESS WHAT. we waited literally maybe 2-3 or even a month after the initial deadline to get our report back.................. idk if it's because you're supposed to be fair amongst all the teams or what but like um... our second report depends on the first report so uhh........... shouldn't we at least get it back as early as possible.......... our team scored 20/20 on the first report tho WHEEEEEE 

last grievance, and really more of a pet peeve but we all introduced ourselves on the first day so we knew how to call each other. but the prof always forgot and just decided to call us whatever she deemed was our first name from our names on zoom. say for example if my name on zoom is chen ling hui, and i introduced myself as ling hui on the first day, she would still continue to call me chen ling EVEN after my other friends address me as ling hui in class..... it's just my pet peeve about calling people the right name so yeah maybe just something small to most people. 

Exam Format: a strategic report, tactic report, two in-class presentations and one reflection paper. i can't remember which comes first: the strategic report or tactic report, but basically the first report you need to go out and interview 10 stakeholders. from there, develop an understanding of the situation on the ground, and then write what you plan to do. the second report is when you develop each solution and create mock-ups. one of the in-class presentations is about the module content. say for example the topic of the week is how performance is used in social change or something like that, then you're to present on this topic, both on the summary of readings and some examples and activities for the class to participate in. my group's was the performance one and i could use the recording of normal that i did back in y2s2 for it!!! ahahaha. then the other presentation is on our final project. the reflection paper comes at the end. 

Recommend? actually, not really tbh. i think there are better modules out there and you'll be able to learn more from them. but if you've never done much volunteering but want to start, go for it! you may be able to find something or even build some connections that can kickstart your volunteering journey. 

NM4244 Sex in the Media

Grade: B+

Lecturer: Dr. Shobha Avadhani 

ah, my super controversial module HAHAHAHAH because the moment i told someone the name of the module, i would get the w0t face because of its name LMAO. no, we do not only talk about the act of sex and how it's portrayed in the media for this module. we go far, far, far deeper than that. in fact, so deep that i think i'm too shallow for this module LOL either way, i enjoyed myself immensely. 

the amazing thing abt Dr. Avadhani is she's super open and understanding! for the first lesson, we were told to put our pronouns beside our names so that she knows how to address us. and yknow how most teachers want students to turn on their cameras in class? she does too, but has said time and time again that she completely understands if we're feeling a bit tired and just want to turn our video off. like for me when i'm really tired i'll probably be lying down and stuff like that so i really appreciated that i could turn my camera off for times like these. 

there were also so many different aspects to sex in the media that i never knew about!!! really, it's not just some feminism or equality kind of thing, but so many other aspects also! and i think we talked about hegemonic masculinity in the first session which was honestly really interesting to me because it's something that's so rampant in society but then you don't realise it because we're so used to it. things like how men are "big strong men". not every man needs to be big and strong, not every man needs to be 男子汉流血不流泪 (real men shed blood but not tears). i think it's something that's being addressed in society lately so that's a promising fact. 

we were often put into smaller groups to discuss that week's readings and there was so much to learn from everyone!! although i always felt like some idiot because i think i don't know enough about all this to really give proper input..? hahaha like my inputs are always very shallow. but everyone's super accepting and friendly so that made class time so much fun! 

one of my biggest takeaways in this class is also on how to learn better! it was from this class that i picked up a super helpful tool in my readings: writing a reflection/summary/note on the reading after you're done reading it. it truly helps in digesting what you've learnt and when you need to refer back to a specific reading, you can at least read your own summary to jog your memory on what it's about. especially for us university students who usually have a thousand and one readings to complete. this came about because for the first lesson, we were told to write our thoughts on the readings and put it on a padlet or something like that. and after doing that, i realised how helpful it was, because i had done my nm4230 readings quite early and ended up forgetting what it was about by the time it was needed for class. so it was super helpful and really helped me to internalise my readings too. i recommend!! 

so i once saw a picture like that online and now for the life of me i can't find it so i just drew one but pls if anyone knows where the actual picture is link me. because this drawing is hiDEOUS

why i used this picture? because i feel like Dr. Avadhani is like the therapist to me, but in organising my thoughts for the final paper. so for this module, we have to write a 6-page paper on anything that we observe is problematic in media. i think my thoughts were completely all over the place at first when i did it so i actually scored quite shit for the proposal which thankfully was like 5 or 10% or something hahaha. then during the consultation with her it felt like she completely sorted out my thoughts and guided me in the right place on how to work on my paper. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! ;A; although most likely she will never see this haha 

i wrote my paper about the legend of korra!! ahahahah. it was at that time that i managed to dive right into the whole atla and tlok universe so of course when it came to media i was like THE LEGEND OF KORRA AND THE FACT THAT KORRA AND ASAMI ARE BISEXUAL YAS HAHAHAHA. although now i wished i was playing wild rift then (don't think it was out yet tho) bc the other night eyjj and i were discussing about hegemony in games and holy moly there's so much to talk about it actually ahahha and it is problematic so it would've been really fun to write about. maybe i can just write the paper for the fun of it. ummmmmm i can write that down in my long term to-do list but i highly doubt that i'll actually go through with it LOL 

oh! it just suddenly came to mind that a segment of the class participation is to write some reflection/response or something to that week's topic in the forum by i think monday or the week of said class topic. you have to do this for any two weeks of your choosing. then you also have to comment on two forum posts on two different weeks (so in total four, and it can't be on the week you posted in the forum) to build on the ideas by your classmates by wednesday of that week of the topic or something like that. meaning if this week we're doing about cyberfeminism and class is on thursday, you should have your post up in the forum by monday of the week, and your friends should have responded to you on wednesday BEFORE class on thursday. i kept forgetting about it OTL but Dr. Avadhani was really kind to give me a bit of grace it in this aspect and let me comment on one of the older posts to fulfill all the requirements (':

Exam Format: it's completely individual work iirc. but if i'm not wrong, class participation has a rather heavy weightage (maybe 20-30%). it's not just turning up and talking, but sometimes there's pre-class activities that you'll have to complete also. then there's the final paper. you will be working on it throughout the semester and there're two checkpoints for you to consult with Dr. Avadhani if needed (i recommend to just do it man she's magic) 

Recommend? do it!! it's really something so different and interesting and it opens your eyes to the world around you. how gender, sex and things like that are perceived around you and if there are any problems or good things about it! Dr. Avadhani is also an angel hehe 

NM4881A Topics in Media Studies: Social Media

Grade: A

Lecturer: Dr. Kokil Jaidka

this is a research module. in class, you learn about the different types of research on social media and your final project with your group will be something related also. i mean, i guess it's obvious from the name that you won't be dealing with the more front-end things like social media strategies or how to design a suitable and aesthetic social media feed, but rather analysing the data collected through social media. for someone like me who hasn't fully delved into a research since nm2103, the group research project was honestly quite disorientating for me. 

the readings and lecturers weren't too bad, they were easy to understand and didn't feel too dry. another thing i really appreciated from the prof (til this day i still dk do i call her Dr. Kokil or Dr. Jaidka OTL) is that she also didn't require you to turn on your camera. and for night owl me in a 9am class, it was basically godsent HAHAH so many days i would lie on my bed and log into the zoom meeting and just attend class quite literally lying down. 

for the group project, you're free to choose your own teams. so for my team we were randomly assigned into a breakout room to like talk and maybe introduce ourselves or something on our first day and then we were like "yall got a team?" "no." "wna be a team?" "sure." HAHAHHAH so we were called The Breakouts. yes, we had to name our teams which was kindda cute hehe.

with your team, you will be working together throughout the semester, not only on the final report but in-class activities too. so one of the things you will have to do is that you and your team will have to choose two topics (aka weeks) to comment on. how this works is that every individual student will also have to choose two topics (can be the same as the topic their team chooses) to write a response about the readings/questions from the prof in the forum by saturday. the team will then have to give their response to at least one post in the forum by tuesday. class was on wednesday i think. each student also has to choose a topic where they will present additional material about in class, and the teams of the week is tasked to ask questions. 

it's kindda hectic if you ask me, or maybe i just had terrible time management haha. i was still learning about my learning habits then i think. 

i only remember that for the presentation i chose online journalism and then did my presentation on fake news which was pretty dumb of me because four weeks later the topic was fake news HAHAHHAHA but alls good it was accepted. 

for the group project, there are different things you can choose to do. you can do a social media campaign for any company of your choosing, a registered report, or something else that i can't remember. my team chose registered report and it was about how representation of different body types on social media affects the sales of athletic wear brands i think. something like that. AHHAHA I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER ANYMORE OOPS 

the report was honestly a pain for me, most likely because i haven't done actual research in so long that i don't know how to do it anymore. so i often found myself lost, confused, tired, and just done. ahah. i'm really thankful that i had groupmates who were working towards their honours thesis so they definitely knew their shit and really helped me through it!! (': sorry for being a burden friends. there was another guy in the group that's like me too but he seemed to be faring much better than me lol. we also had a lot of SUPER long calls like think 3-4 hour kind of calls that lasted until 1 and i was ready to conk out kind. i think that call was 5 hours even. but yeah, i mean, it was honestly quite terrible but at least i went through it and know that this is definitely something i'm not keen on doing !!! 

we also had to do a presentation for our report. we were allowed to record it so we did, because our presentation time clashed with some of our classes. 

so apart from the hell that i put myself through because i'm not someone who's academic-research-inclined, another one of the things that i really appreciated was how dedicated the prof was. like she would take the time to personally email you her comments on your presentation, your group's report and things like that. it's not even "ya great" or "um be more clear" she would completely break it down for you which is really amazing. and also i feel so bad because i was a bit overwhelmed then and didn't reply to any of her emails OOPS I'M SORRY PROF ;A; BUT PLS KNOW THAT I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT she also gave us extra time for our midterms because to her it was not a test on memorisation and regurgitation but application so she gave us some extra time to write our answers down. 

Exam Format: we had a midterms that was like a quiz. mcqs, short answers and essays. the short answers were like five sentences maybe? and the essays a page? this joker here got the dates of the exam wrong and thought it was a week earlier. so i stressed myself out to study and then entered class wondering why the exam hasn't started yet.... at least i mistook it to be earlier than later :'D i don't remember there being a final exam since we were probably caught up with our group projects. then it was all the different presentations and forum posts and response during class (usually through some google slides thing that you'll have to work on with your group) that likely counted to class participation.

Recommend? if you're someone like me who doesn't like academic research, i'd actually advise against it. it was interesting and all, but bruh if you haven't done academic research in a while, it's gonna be really tough on you. especially if you have to juggle other things as well. but if this is something you're interested in, like both the social media and academic research aspect, go for it! 

wowza look at me i made it! and i think this is faster than usual!! considering that i most likely started on this the ay18/19 sem 2 one which was posted on 23 april. so a little bit more than a month! it's almost as if the past three years didn't happen and i only started becoming a student this year HAHAH this is likely the best i've ever scored in my entire academic career. well, we'll have to wait until 1 june to find out how i did for the recent semester but :D am thankful. 

i think what made quite a big difference was the acquisition of a tablet. my dad got a tablet at the start of the sem that i colonised and used for my readings. somehow, it really helped me in keeping up with my readings, jotting down my thoughts, and organising my understanding so i'm really very very thankful for this. 

Hope™

DISCLAIMER: idk if i'm gonna kena anything for talking bad about teachers/modules over here. or if there will be changes to the modules in the future and people end up being misled for a module. but i'm here to say that all these are my opinions; they may not be right or accurate, but this is what i felt. and all information is correct as of the time i took the modules (i.e. Semester 1 of Academic Year 20/21 at the National University of Singapore).