My notes

Semester 1

CS1101S Programming Methodology
Final Grade: A

Could be considered one of the hardest introductory module in NUS. There is a very heavy workload. 4h solely on lectures and 2h on tutorials. On top of that you still are required to do coding task, which could take up literally 1 whole day.

You would start off with the theory of recursion, and some basic program that limits your answer to using solely recursion. This encourages you to think in a different way - a way where programmer should think. This way of thinking would help you in your future career as an programmer/computer scientist.

All in all, CS1101S is definitely memorable for me, and its definitely much better than other CS1010 modules in terms of the concepts we learnt.

CS1231S Discrete Structures

Could be considered the hardest module in semester 1, this module requires knowledge from H3 Mathematics, for the topics on logic. If you do not have such knowledge, then it will be very hard to chase for top grades. Furthermore, the `S` version meant that all students taking the mod is from CS, and the bell curve would be disadvantages to those who do not have strong fundamentals in mathematical logic.

The topics covered are the following:

  • Logic and proof techniques propositions, conditionals, quantifications.
  • Relations and Functions Equivalence relations and partitions. Partially ordered sets. Well-Ordering Principle.
  • Function equality. Boolean/identity/inverse functions. Bijection.
  • Mathematical formulation of data models (linear model, trees, graphs).
  • Counting and Combinatoric Pigeonhole Principle. Inclusion-Exclusion Principle. 
  • Number of relations on a set, number of injections from one finite set to another, Diagonalization proof An infinite countable set has an uncountable power set.
  • Algorithmic proof An infinite set has a countably infinite subset. Subsets of countable sets are countable.
IS1103 Ethics in Computing

One of the worse module in NUS. (Thankfully they reorganized this mod into IS1108)

This was taken during covid semester, the entire module was conducted in 10 quizzes (10 weeks) and each quiz has 10 questions - that's 100 questions for 100% of the grade! The questions were supposedly based on the provided textbook (which you need to buy/pirate). It was well known that there are many people who cheated in this mod, where they will form large groups to discuss and distribute the quiz answers.

MA1521 Calculus in Computing

This was another module where rampant cheating was well-known.

As it was a covid semester, the entire module was split into 3 mini-tests, and there was no proctoring for the first test and it was open internet ?!!? It was obvious there had been cheating as there was a exponential bell-curve for the first exam.

There was minimal proctoring for the second test, and for the third test, despite there was some form of adherence to the exam protocol, the damage has already been done. The bell-curve was dominated by cheaters.

RVX1002 What do you mean? Meaning & Communication in Intercultural contexts 
Final Grade: A

This was one of the better mods I have taken in semester 1. The module was conducted in a small class of around 16 people, however since it was covid semester, some of my classmates are connected to the class through Zoom, whereas the rest of us are at the physical classroom.

I didn't have any idea what it was about, until I started learning from the mod. I felt that the prof was very engaging despite the lack of interaction from my classmates. It was definitely an interesting topic to learn. This module was very much about linguistic and how to simplify people's communication.