BCG - Year 4 Semester 1 (in a pandemic)

I mean... yes I have finally risen after months (legit because I don't know what else to write in my blog other than my course review). I will spare all the same ol' disclaimers that I am a disorganised writer, not very diligent with lectures etc. Something for a change right? Well as of the semester that I am in, we are still dealing with COVID-19. Not really high number of cases per se, but definitely having to change quite a bit in how we study. Maybe I can spare a bonus section on how I have been coping in school in general other than course-specific reviews.

The new 'normal'

This will surely be a longer section than most of my "General" section. Hmm, key academic changes are basically shift to online classes and can't really have finals so all the flavourful substitutes come out. So MAJOR disclaimer: my assessment format will be different from future batches reading this, y'all will get your finals back please. For me, online classes didn't have any impact on someone who still doesn't attend online live lectures. Thing is for the modules that I have taken this semester, they still kept physical tutorials (with social distancing as much as possible of course). I didn't really have physical labs but I think it was the nature of the mods and not COVID-19 change once again. I will elaborate on the alternative assessments later. My general workload is actually, legitimately quite relaxed for for the first 10 weeks and then all the courses decide to start dropping late assignment and quizzes occupying me all the way to week 16 or so. As I am writing this I still have quizzes and assignments but I really needed a break, hence the choice to start writing earlier. So the later part of my semester to summarise in a picture (you can thank SuA once again)...

Not my blog without a meme I know the thumbnail will be scary but BRACE YOURSELF!

All that being said, I appreciated the luxury of getting to stay home for 2 more days every week. Partly to not travel like a rogue in this period but also I really only have 2 days that I legitimately needed to go to school (+1 because I want to) so 10/10 cost savings 👍. (Let's not talk about the fact that I have spent A LOT on my Kpop deets never mind that shh shh 🤫) I won't say my FYP progress is ideal but it's at least better than "I have not done anything, sprint everything in sem 2". Maybe I will be much busier in sem 2 as a result, but appreciated the breathing space for most of sem 1. Anyway also to note that NTU do not necessarily restrict us from going to school (I've heard about the zone thingy from NUS and I think SMU does alternative week) so basically NTU operates like any other public areas still. Which is nice if I needed the productivity boost (I tell you, school air different from home air really) but I don't pull those "stay in school til 11pm or come to school on Sunday" stunts anymore. 

On a very not school related note, I didn't exactly use my break time to freelance or join CTF as I promised myself to, but generally I got to go out with different social circles on 80% of weekends so.. I just really appreciated the welfare 😊. Heck there was a day where I went out on my own to cafe and food hop, purely self-healing. My wallet cried but I just really enjoyed that day~ I have pictures but I don't know how to make a blog post out of it so I just put that good day on my Insta hahah! But I think having a bit more of a social circle as my new normal (before COVID-19 I am peak homebody and almost never hang out with friends sad) is a positive change~

CZ3005 - Artificial Intelligence

Course coordinator: Assoc Prof Bo An (first half), Asst Prof Yu Han + Assoc Prof Quek Hiok Chai (second half)

Tutor: Assoc Prof Sinno Jialin Pan

(Alternative) Assessment format: 4 * 25% lab assignments (yes fully lab)

Basically the new assessment format made this the chillest mod in my whole uni life, I mean... IDK if I can say this but I didn't even need to study for any lectures. But anyway I actually did for the first half. There is actually a change in syllabus, and also opening up AI as an elective. So I feel like the first half is kinda taught in a more... idiotproof manner? I think Prof Bo An (IDK which is his first and last name so I will refer him in full bah) really taught his stuff quite comprehensively as a result. Even for the math heavy part, he will tend to forewarn that we should read this section beforehand. Which I really appreciate. And during the lecture, we will not just read the equation off the slides, but use the time to dissect what the math is supposed to do. You can see why I ended up watching his lectures huh.

I cannot comment on the second half, because that's when I actually realised I didn't really need to watch it to do my lab. Sorry just being a real pragmatist as I grow older whoop-di-doo... But I don't think the syllabus changed. So if the profs give me no effort vibes, I as a student unfortunately reciprocated that.

Might I add that Prof Bo An even post Zoom recorded tutorial sessions (when the rest of us still have physical tutorial class) for the whole cohort so I really think he is probably in my top 5 list of most dedicated SCSE professors. And my tutor, Prof Pan, is also 👍. There are already solutions uploaded in the main course page, at least for first half (Edit: and my hunch is right, second half no solutions uploaded woo~). But Prof Pan still has his own version of solutions with a lot of explanations. Absolute props to him! Sorry it really sounds like I have low expectations for tutors to be this dedicated but yes my expectations are actually very low after 3.5 years of schooling (add 12 more from primary school to JC). Enough of sad ramblings ya good profs get their credit and I am giving them that 😊

Yea labs (our only assessment format this semester)! Once again, I really need to highlight the disparity in effort between first and second half. The only lab that changed up and consequently, I put in real effort for, is lab 2. It was about reinforcement learning (including Q learning) and a legitimately new lab assignment. This I really had to watch Prof Bo An's lectures about reinforcement learning to do it, and that SHOULD be the purpose of labs right? Consolidate what you have learnt. I can tell you the other 3 labs are so not the case. I cannot even blame the first lab on Prof Bo An because he inherited the topics and old lab assignment (on searching algorithms). But yes Lab 3 and 4 still uses Prolog (How do I tell my friends from other schools that we have not fully switched to Python... this is what happens when even the lecture syllabus intends to stay dated what can I say). You get what I am insinuating? But then again I should say that lab 4 still requires a lot of effort. Basically the expectation is to do like a question bot using Prolog. But I say most students certainly don't do everything on Prolog (it's definitely not your go-to for decent GUI ya). I have seen a lot of people do web app or Telegram chat bot so that is a differentiator.

Oh yea so far I know my grades for the first 3 labs, just.. ehh. Hate to say it but without exchange students taking AI really my grades going to tank lah friends 😭 At this stage my GPA (hopefully) should not change too much but still just a realisation of mine.

CZ3007 - Compilers

Course coordinator: Dr Huang Shell Ying

(Alternative) Assessment format: 5 quizzes (70% total), 4 labs (20% total), LAMS Quizzes (10% total)

If there is one module that I am much happier to have without finals, hands down this! There is so much to know for one quiz, imagine having to remember all the topics for finals (sis will pass away istg 😭). Alright so for starters, LAMS lecture honestly wasn't very useful in first half (by Dr Huang), but second half (by another prof who didn't teach this sem) was actually good cuz it was taken from a past lecture where it's actually done review style. Nevertheless, review lectures conducted by Dr Huang is one of the best I have seen in SCSE! I mean content is still quite a confusing hellhole but I say Dr Huang explained the best she can already~ Considering the whole circumstances where video conferencing is mandated, she did very well to answer students' questions as much as possible.

LAMS Quizzes has deadlines, but can be reattempted many times so just make sure you do them and keep trying til you get it correct. The questions are generally quite useful so I would also save the page in PDF after every attempt for revision purposes.

Onto lab. It's done in groups of 2-3 in the same class (and I managed to find my own friends so yay). 4 labs, other than the 3rd one (will explain later) the rest are technically independent (like if you mess up an earlier one you are still on a clean slate with later labs no worries) but very much sequential. Honestly the real bummer is being forced to use Eclipse and having to configure everything to a dated version 😠 but my groupmate managed to pull it off elsewhere so we'll take it! Personally I don't feel like I have really learnt a lot from the labs. I know other schools (have many friends taking compilers during exchange for obvious reasons) who make the students actually build a compiler language, whereas in SCSE it's really more like analysing the code and writing a bit of regex or CFG and let Java do the work. Well at least our group did decent I think, almost full marks except for about 2 edge cases. Ahh yes erm so you only need to submit like 1-2 files where your group has edited anything, and the prof will just run it against their own compiler and set of test cases to give the score so just feels like a lot of work cut out but not much takeaway for me. As for lab 3, no writing of code at all! It's literally reading the code they sent us and doing the lab quiz until we get full marks.

And OH BOIII the quizzes! I am thankful that they are separate quizzes, but doesn't mean that I still feel royally screwed! First 2 quizzes were ok for me (and I bet if I had finals where I have to remember for ALL topics, I probably couldn't do first 2 topics either so I am insanely thankful for no finals!) Quiz 3 is where things went absolutely downhill for me. And for Quiz 3 onwards I have absolutely no idea how I fare but oh well. I really pulled the "LMAO Year 4 GPA can't change much fret not" card when I am this discouraged pfft.

To sum up, killer mod (already modded down during the pandemic), no like labs, but good prof IMO.

CZ4064 - Security Management

Course coordinator: Assoc Prof Anwitaman Datta, Dr Kang Meng Chow

(Alternative) Assessment format: 2 quizzes (60% total), Group Project (Report 25%, Presentation 15%)

As I am typing this, I regret not SU-ing this module 😭 Probably not the ideal cybersecurity mod that I wanted to take, but I had to pick an elective for Semester 1 so as to not overburden for Semester 2, and here I am. Also because I have friends taking this and we can pass away together (but they pretty much set it as UE and could SU it. I did not and riskily decided not to.) If I could pick one more security elective, I really would have preferred Software Security (or if I'm a bit more masochistic for the better, Malware Analysis). Alright enough of regret rambling.

Before I even talk about the profs and all, I should add that this module has a lot of student from PaCE@NTU. Basically those seeking continuing education, usually those already working. So I have concluded that it is not necessarily a module we like (at least yknow as undergrads who prefer getting their hands dirty as opposed to more management level stuff), but certainly one needed in the working world. So now you know the interesting demographic of students this module has.

The content, unsurprisingly, lean towards management level security concepts. As if the title of the course has not alluded to it already. Topics like risk management, security operations, contingency planning. I will not use terms like "fluff" and "smokebomb", but like I said, almost no hands-on on the security side of stuff. INSANELY MEMORY HEAVY if you are talking about tests. And a lot of readings when you go out there to work. (I remember the profs providing at least 10 sections of policies for every topic - don't need to read those to do well, you don't have time to read either. But you get an idea of how much you need to know in the working world.)

Yknow how football games are sometimes described as a game of two halves (where the difference between first half and second half performance from a team is almost like... it should not even be coming from the same team?). That is how I feel. 

First half was a good half. (I lowkey said that cuz my quiz results were ok but it's not just that.) The lecture videos are honestly still 💀 but it's more of a content thing than lecturer thing. Prof Anwitaman otherwise conduct pretty good review lecture sessions. Tutorial solutions (and explanations during review lectures) were pretty helpful. I could actually feel my life being made much easier with such a helpful prof, that is all I can say. I might as well also talk about the first quiz since it's really a game of two halves. I honestly thought I would barely pass considering how I practically RNG my MCQ answers (which btw is not your classic 4/5-choose-1. It's more like glorified T/F questions where multiple choices can be correct.). Ahh and a little funny story: I lowkey predicted the open-ended question that will come out. I say "lowkey predicted" and not "spotted" because I did not study for that question. I only predicted 5 minutes before the quiz and by then I have already put my notes aside. So peak 🤡 act from yours truly woohoo!

Second half... recipe for disaster. *Switching off my nice side after like the 60% mark of my post is an achievement here goes...* The content is 2.5 times heavier than first half (I know because I wrote my own notes and saw the shocking page count! One chapter itself was actually as long as my whole first half! Absolutely ridiculous!)! That is the very least of all the problems I have. First half was also content heavy but at least the lecturer is helping the students. I absolutely don't feel that way in the second half. It really felt like the meme where...

Everything is just so off! The review lecture is such a revolutionary audio experience (no slides accompanying what is being said 10/10 following!). You think that's my worst problem? Hear me out when I say that I was so shocked with the tutorial solutions that I, in the midst of my actual pre-test panic attack, rushed to do up my own tutorial solutions (although I cannot finish writing my own answers for 100+ questions). Half of the solutions basically goes "Reference Section 9.2 in Supplementary Notes.". (I get that some of these questions are basically straight from notes but we end up reading a whole page of sub-section just to find a one-liner. You can call me as a student lazy. But I think the laziness goes both ways.) And the other half? Application-based questions where the answer does not even answer the question! 

If I have to describe how the application tutorial questions were like.

Don't even ask me about lecture videos. I just completely forgo ANY videos after the shock of the first recorded lecture. Oh and the slides are supposed to be succinct and summarised right? Only to realise you actually need to blaze through the wholly prose form notes to be able to find that 2 lines to do the tutorial questions and actually the quiz. You never read through the notes? Oops, suck it up. I spent 15 minutes typing out how much effort I put in but decided to take it out to not sounds even prickier than I already am. So yes disproportionate amount of effort, almost no reward. The quiz really was just nitpicking the minor details. It's not undoable, but in the midst of absolute content saturation (and prof not even helping us the slightest bit to encapsulate his content properly), it's not optimally doable as well. Adding on to the fact that the quiz coincided with many other deadlines and quizzes that we students have. (Basically the "profs really act like students only have their work to do" complaint, I don't want to sound like a broken record so I won't continue.) This is why I really regretted not SU-ing. First half looked hopeful, and this just tore my whole confidence for this module down to the depths of hell.

Enough about second half (I retrospectively read my post and realised how much I have ranted, and I had consciously tried to cut down for apparently, brevity that is not really achieved here), and onto the project. We get to form our own groups of 5-6. Ideally, I did have friends who had their friends so my group is formed as such. But Prof Anwitaman did also dedicate a forum for students to find groupmates (which already isn't that easy considering the lack of physical tutorials, let alone the complete lack of physical lectures due to the pandemic). There were 6 topics, and we allocate our preferences. The profs will then try to allocate the topics to balance out preferences and number of groups per topic. Our group got our second choice topic, "The new normal in managing security". Not the hardest topic, but one of the most relevant and open-ended ones. So the hard part was even setting a direction, but everything else just comes instinctively. I think we were quite baller and only started brainstorming 2 weeks before deadline, and chiong-ed report and presentation in (almost) a single session on deadline week. That was the only time I remembered staying in school late for this semester. Tbh most of my group really went in with the "We are likely going to SU this" mindset but I think our work was decent? IDK our quality compared to others though. Presentation is basically a recorded video within 15 minutes. Our group decided to record in the same place in that one session, rather than recording separately. Basically you can probably tell that we wanted to get it done and over with. Oh yes and originally, a separate Q&A session was planned and part of the grades for presentation, but the profs scrapped it because they don't have a lot of time to set up the sessions for all the groups.

I don't even know how to end off this part. Just... should not be the worst module out there but I would much rather take something like software security.

HE9091 - Principles of Economics

Course coordinator: Mr Tan Khay Boon

(Alternative) Assessment format: Attendance (10%), 2 MCQ quizzes (30% total), Individual Project (60%)

And if there is one module where I would much rather have finals than alternative assessment formats, this is it. Ok but one good change is that we are now taking Econs under SSS instead of NBS (AB0901). I have seen the exam papers for AB0901 and *straight back to A levels trauma*. I didn't study what's covered in AB0901 so I won't make any more comparisons. But HE9091 in its traditional exam format looks more straightforward. Usually calculation questions or short answer questions like using a diagram to illustrate the effect on something. None of those long stressful essay stuff. Content is still on the heavier side (and I don't really see any efforts to condense or summarise our learnings) but personally I think I would have still coped with these kind of exam questions since it's not heavily reliant on memory or ability to write essays, and also not blatantly straightforward since application is needed. I say so much but no finals so sed :(

Before I talk about assessments, the lecturer and TA first. I mean, I completely dropped the lecture videos after week 3 or so. So I am not the best judge in his quality of teaching. But I do remember me and my peers not having the best email correspondence with him. Our TA is basically uncontactable (more on that later) so he was our only outlet, but he does take a long time to reply (that is fine considering how many students he have to handle). Problem is his replies don't answer our concerns as well. We didn't ask to be spoon-fed btw, literally just admin questions like where is the submission portal. As for the TA, I didn't even know her name. Absolutely no soul (I mean physically there are because we need to mark attendance but a soulless class.). The tutorial sessions basically sees us signing attendance, TA writing given answers on the board and have a monologue, we take pictures, and we panggang. I get that TA are usually still PhD students but I have to be fair in my feedback on how much they are helping, and the answer is: practically of no help at all. Even if the quiz turned out to be real easy tutorial knowledge wasn't really used, it's still the quality of teaching (or lack thereof) being reflected here.

Anyway, 10 MCQ questions for each quiz, 30 minutes given and each quiz was 15%. I don't have much to say. It is very much doable. Content is still a little heavy but it is nowhere nearly as disastrous as something like Security Management's insane depth and breadth of content.

Now here's the part that replaced the finals and something that I dreaded the most! The 60% individual project is given out VERY LATE (week 12 I think?), with a month to complete. Thankfully we had a month to finish because no way we could finish it in week 12 and 13 with every other module also having some form of submission deadlines and quizzes. I still hate the project because I simply am not a fan of writing essays. But yes, we pick 4 articles (1 for Lectures 1~3, 1 for Lecture 4~6 and so on, you get the gist). For each article, give a one paragraph summary and then a 2~3 page analysis. I honestly don't think I did a great job (partly my inaptitude for essays, and partly me honestly now knowing what they are looking out for in the analysis). And this is 60% so pretty much the very determinant of our grades (considering how the other components are surefire full marks for almost everyone) and I don't have a lot of faith that I did well. But yes I managed to get out of my procrastinating slump and finished it one week before the deadline (without beta reading being baller here 10/10 not encouraged). And finally ending my semester in peace! (Until I see my grades I guess~)

 

I don't really have much to add on. I am just glad that I managed to survive this semester and finish writing this before FYP and studying for my certification exam kicks in. I wanted to post food to end off but I didn't go to school as often and didn't really have nice pictures of new school food that I tried so~ Stay positive and test negative everyone! And I will see you all in 2021!