Yesterday marks the end of my fifth semester as I had my last finals and yes, 6 finals in a timespan of exactly one week. By far, this is the most gruelling semester for me as I had 6 core modules on top of work. Thankfully, not all the modules are too demanding. However, I am not very confident of doing well this time round (again) mainly because of the steep bell curve for several modules like EC3332, EC4102, ST1131 and ST2137; the finals for EC3332, EC4102 and ST2137 were disappointingly too easy and suprisingly, ST1131 finals was a bit more challenging than I thought. I feel a bit bad talking about this module though because I can literally count the number of hours I spend on it for the whole semester. Moreover, there are some modules which I did not do up to expectations for midterms and that may cause me my grade. Well, I shall leave the details to my module review after results are out.
I'll be starting my internship tomorrow which leaves me only a day in between as my break. But I think it's good to be occupied rather than having too little on hand. Now I think it feels weird to have finished finals in the first week of exams as my finals have been stretching to two weeks since Year 1 Semester 2. Nevertheless, I'm quite drained this semester so it's good to have finished all the finals within a week. Somehow though, it feels like this semester has passed too quickly such that it seems that I haven't settled down very well to study my modules very thoroughly and everything's over.
And MPE is coming up and I guess I should have decided on my modules for Sem 2. Finally, I can take just 4 core modules from now on (if you don't count the last semester) which is good because I am beginning to understand how time-consuming level-4000 EC modules can get. By the way, the Economics department has requested for students to complete a MPE exercise for the next academic year. It seems like they are asking for EC4101 and EC4102 to be taken away as core requirements for honours and also to open more electives for students. I've seen the new electives and they are pretty interesting like the Economic and Financial Forecasting, Income Distribution Analysis and Mathematical Economic Analysis.
Anyway, here are my choices:
EC4332 Money and Banking II
Apparently, this module is many times harder if you take it under Bodenstein instead of Jungjae. He even recommends that students take EC3314 and EC4102 before taking this module. So I guess a fair amount of maths will be involved. I saw things like multivariate, eigenvectors and eigenvalues in the syllabus so it should be one of the more challenging electives.
EC4880 Topics in Economics: Special Topics in Economic Growth and Macroeconomics
This took me quite some time to decide on it. I was contemplating a few modules mainly EC4333, EC4394 and this. And I decided that maybe it's time I prioritize my interests and grades a bit instead of usefulness. Despite this module being quite theoretical, I think it will suit me better than the rest. I really wanted to take EC4341 in place of this in view of the wider range of electives that's going to be offered in 15/16 and that EC4341 is a must-take for me but then Gentile is really not going to give me as good a learning experience than Davin Chor can. So I will leave this module to Year 4 Semester 1.
ST3239 Survey Methodology
This is one of the more fundamental modules that I think if you are looking into research fields in the future, you should take it. It teaches different types of sampling methods; how to construct surveys taking into cost considerations etc. Conducting surveys is probably one of the more layman-understood areas whereby it's "just like that" so I'm hoping this module will provide me with some new insights. One drawback is that I heard the bell curve is extremely steep and that it is highly popular so it isn't that ideal if you're suffering from the problem of lack of bid points.
ST3244 Demographic Methods
I was deciding between this module and ST3243 but I think ST3243 may be a bit over-specialized. So I'd rather take more general modules to gain the necessary skills to increase marketability. I guess the module title makes it quite obvious that students are going to learn about demographics such as population rates, fertility rates etc. I am looking forward to the part on making projections though.
SSA1201 Singapore Society
This is definitely one of the most irritating component that all undergraduates must clear. I chose this because (1) it fits my timetable (duh) and (2) it doesn't seem like it requires much studying to be able to crap during exams to get away with any grade that's B- and above so that I can s/u it with zero problems. And I am not looking forward to the 25% class participation component at all because I've seen how this department works and most of the time, the arguments are full of fluff.
And so that's all for the updates. It doesn't seem very easy to be able to secure two level-4000 modules when you are not in the SOC4 batch yet. EC4102 was easy to get because no one wanted to take it under Aamir Hashmi due to the rumoured difficulty compared to Semester 2. I hope the same goes for EC4332 since I'm not too sure how EC4880 will turn out exactly. Past experiences tells me 4880 isn't easy to get so it's like you should be prepared to waste over 1k bid points on it. But that's not the main issue for me. The thing is non-honours students are not allowed to bid in Round 1 and I probably have to wait until Round 2A or 2B to bid for it and by then, all the slots may have been filled up and it'll no longer be offered for bidding. So that means I have to go through all that hassle to appeal for it and it doesn't help that I have no other possible choices besides this. Hopefully, MPE will work its magic.
