HP2700 Abnormal Psychology

Lessons:
3-hr lecture per week

Assessment:
Mid-term 1 16%
Mid-term 2 16%
Course Participation 18%
Finals 50%

Exam Format:
Mid-terms - MCQs
Finals - MCQs, Short-answer questions, Short essays

Description:

This module is about mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, depression, etc. You will be learning about the causes, symptoms and treatment aspects of every illness. A content-heavy module, but interesting if you like to know more about mental illnesses! 

Lectures are recorded. Content taught in the lecture can help you to estimate what will be tested for exams. There are content in the lecture slides that are not covered in textbook, so you do have to read both for your exams. Videos will also be shown during lectures to enhance understanding.
Since it is content-heavy, do keep up with the lecture pace! 

Mid-terms are just MCQs and it is manageable if you have studied your lecture slides well. DO TAKE NOTE of the statistics shown in the lecture slides, e.g. prevalence of bipolar disorders, because they will be tested. Even though there are 2 mid-terms, they are helpful in making you keep up with readings. 

For the course participation component, it mostly comprises of your participation in discussion board on NTULearn. There are a total of 3 discussion cycles, each worth 4 marks. Basically, for each round, you can choose to comment on your peers' or professor's thread, or create your own thread. Discussions should be of quality and comprise of some research about the topic and your opinions and experiences related to it. For me, I commented/created around 4 posts per cycle to get the full 4 marks. 

For the finals, the whole syllabus will be covered. For the MCQs, emphasis is on the later half of the syllabus. However, the short answers and short essays, which formed the bulk of the grade, are quite evenly spread, so you should not neglect the front topics! Do take notes of statistics, and some specific details such as the neurotransmitters involved for each disease, etc.

No projects for this module!

HP2200 Biological Psychology

Lessons:
3-hr lecture per week

Assessment:
Mid-terms 30%
In-class essay 15%
Finals 55%

Exam Format:
Mid-terms - MCQs
In-class essay - choose 1 topic
Finals - Short-answer questions

Description:

This module is about the biological aspects of psychology. A very content-heavy module! Slightly beneficial for people with biology background.

Lectures are recorded. Content taught in the lecture slides are very good for knowing what will be covered in exams. It is advised to use the lecture slides as framework to know what to study. Content in the lecture slides are actually adequate for the final exams, but reading the textbook will allow easier understanding of the content.

Readings consist of textbooks and lecture slides. Some content in the lecture slides are not found in textbook, and same applies vice versa, so do read both! In addition, since it is content-heavy, do keep up with the lecture pace.

Mid-terms are just MCQs and it is manageable if you have studied your lecture slides well. However, some options are rather similar so be careful to read properly.

For the in-class essay, it will take place a few weeks after recess week. It is based on a situation and you will have a list of questions to choose from. Each question corresponds to one chapter, so you only need to work on one chapter for the test. However, it is advised to study at least 2 or 3 chapters in case the questions are hard. Use this essay test as an opportunity to strengthen your memory for those chapters so you do not have to study as hard for them for finals.

For the finals, they consist of just short-answer questions. Each question (containing many sub-parts) corresponds to one chapter, except one or two questions that may combine 2 closely-related chapters together. We had to choose 10 questions out of 11. But the exam covers main concepts and not really the in-depth details, so it makes readings less tedious.

No projects for this module!

HP8006 Psychology of Crisis Stress Management

Lessons:
3-hr lecture per week

Assessment:
Mid-terms 40%
Finals 60%

Exam Format:
Mid-terms - MCQs
Finals - MCQs, T/F questions, Short-answer questions, Essays

Description:

This module is about crisis management, mainly what will happen during a crisis, the behaviours of affected personnels, PTSD, the types and forms of interventions to be taken, communication systems during crisis, etc. 

Lectures are not recorded, so I will advise you to attend. And the lecturer tells you stories about his experiences, which makes the lessons much more entertaining and interesting.

Readings will consist only of lecture notes, which may have quite a lot of content to memorise. Consistency is important. Also, it is important to make sense of the lecture notes in advance because you may confuse them with subsequent lecture notes.

Mid-terms are just MCQs and it is very manageable. You will be able to score if you study well and have a proper common sense. 

For the finals, MCQs and T/F questions are similar to those in the mid-terms in terms of difficulty level, so they are manageable. For the short-answer questions, they are purely regurgitation from the lecture notes. It is VERY IMPORTANT to attend the last lecture, which is the summary of the course and he will emphasise on the parts that you need to know for the exams. Focusing on the content mentioned in that lecture will be safe for the short-answer questions. But you do need the other information for the LONG essay, which is worth 40 marks, and it is application-based. 2-choose-1 essay and mostly like case studies where you are given a situation and asked to write an essay. Format may vary though. 

BS8003 Science and Fiction - Biology in Popular Media

Lessons:
3-hr lecture per week
(2 to 3 E-learning weeks)

Assessment:
Finals 100%

Exam Format:
Finals - 50 MCQs

Description:

This module is about analysing the biological content in sci-fi films. In my opinion, it is a very interesting module, especially if you are a hardcore sci-fi lover and wants to get insights about the scientific validity in films. This module helps to strengthen biological knowledge through content featured in films, and also the inaccuracies presented that you may not have even considered when you watch the films. It will be beneficial if you have biology background, but not necessary provided enough effort was put in. 

Lectures consist of film screening and a lecture. Some films are shown in whole, whereas some are shown in excerpts. Examples of films are Jurassic Park, Outbreak, etc. Format of E-learning is the same.

Readings will consist only of lecture notes, so it isn't a heavy module. But do not read your lecture notes at the last minute because it takes time to understand some of the concepts, and you may forget what the movie is about. Even though you can search for the movie online, you may end up spending more time watching the whole movie, which is not helpful if you are facing lack of time. The professor is very approachable so do ask for help if you find it hard to understand. 

There is no mid-terms, all of the grade is based on your finals, which are completely MCQs. On the good side, not much memorising needed. Understanding is more important, and there are Past-Year Papers that you can refer to to know more about how you will be tested. On the down side, the bell-curve will be steep, so you need to be careful of carelessness.

For the finals, the MCQs will consist of both single answers and multiple answers questions

CM8012 Introduction to Forensic Science

Lessons:
Weekly lectures

Assessment:
Polling 5%
Graded MCQs 75%
Case studies (Peer-to-peer marking) 20%

Description:

A MOOC online module which gives you the basics of Forensics Science, including blood, fingerprinting, firearms, and a variety of real-life case study.

The lectures can be watched at your own pace. However, you have to take part in a polling at the start of the week. The polling is similar to tutorial participation marks, you just have to poll and you will get your marks regardless of whether you gave the right or wrong answer. The poll is just to get an insight of what people understand about the topic before listening to the lecture.

You have to complete 3 sets of MCQs, each 25%. There are a total of 3 tries given for each MCQs, so it is very likely to get full marks for all of them. Each set of MCQs cover the topics in the previous weeks, for example, MCQ Set A cover content from Lecture 1 to 3, Set B covers Lecture 4 and 5, etc.

For the case studies, you will be given background of the case and a series of illustrated diagrams of the scene. You will have to apply the knowledge from the lectures to answer the questions. The case studies will be peer-marked anonymously by a few other students, and you will have to mark case studies of other students. Rubrics will be given. The important part of case study is to answer logically, with thorough explanation and substantiation.

Do note that this module is NOT equivalent to CM8002 Forensic Science. This is a 2AU module, and you can choose to take it as UE or GERPE (STS). If you decided to take it as GERPE, you will have to complete CM8022 Applications of Forensics Science, which is 1AU, in order to fulfil the 3AU requirement for GERPE (STS). I did not take CM8022 so I am not sure about its content, but I do know that it is a 3-hr weekly lecture in-class, so you have to take it during subsequent semester. However, if you decided to clear it as UE, completing CM8022 is optional, but remember that CM8012 is just 2AU, so you may have to take a 4AU module to balance out, or overload your UE credits.

Another note to remember is that you MUST sign up for signature track if you want to credit transfer. More instructions will be given on how to sign up for signature track.

HP3901 Cultural Psychology

Lessons:
2 hr lecture + 1 hr tutorial

Assessment:
Class Participation 10%
Mid-term 15%
Group Presentation 15%
Finals 60%

Exam Format:
Midterms - MCQs
Finals - MCQs + Essays

Description:

This module is about the differences between different cultures with respect to various psychology topics such as interpersonal attraction, morality, perception, etc.

Readings are quite heavy, with each chapter ranging from 30 to 50 pages. But similar to all other psychology modules, it is a MUST to read the textbook.

Lectures come in handy because it provides a good summary for the textbook, thus, giving you an idea of what to focus on for your exams. There are also a few content in the lecture that is not covered in a textbook. Also, demonstrations of experiments and videos will also be shown during the lecture.

Tutorials include extensions of the content taught in lectures, and also discussion questions and simple hands-on for the experiments. The content taught in the tutorial are not tested in the finals, but it does give you a more complete view for the topic.

For the group project, each group will have to think of a phenomenon that is different between cultures. You will have to do thorough research on it and present it in the final tutorial class. The presentation format will be in the form of a research poster.

For the mid-terms, because it is MCQs, not much memorising needed. It is more important to understand the concepts. For the finals, the essays are actually short-answer questions. Memorising may be required, but I do feel that understanding is more important. This is because most of the content rest upon the underlying principle of individualism VS collectivism so you can actually understand the rest of the content much better. However, what you do need to memorise may be the experiment procedures and results, definitions. Do note that you do need to read BOTH textbook and lecture slides for the exams, especially finals.

HP8004 Coping With Cultural Transition

Lessons:
3 hr lecture

Assessment:
Mid-term 30%
Finals 70%

Exam Format:
Midterms - MCQs
Finals - Fill-in-the-blanks + Essays

Description:

This module covers aspects of culture shock, intercultural training and puts focus on various context such as business, international students, media, etc. It is a Liberal Studies/Liberal Arts GER-PE under Psychology.

Readings consist of only the lecture slides and handouts for every chapter. There is no assigned textbook.

Lectures are supposed to be 3-hr each, but most of the time it ended within 2.5 hours. Some content in the lecture slides are not covered in the handout so it is good to attend the lecture, otherwise it may be hard to understand the points written in the lecture slides.

For mid-terms, there are only MCQs, so not much memorising needed. Be sure to know which are the main points (e.g phases of culture shock) and definitions. Bell-curve can be quite steep for MCQs so it is important to study for it.

For finals, there are fill-in-the-blanks which most test how well you remembered the main points. The questions usually serve as good cues to remember your answer if you studied well enough. For essays, the questions can range from 5 to 20 marks. You may be required to draw out diagrams given in the lecture slides, and much memorising is needed for the essays. There are also a few application questions which test your knowledge for the specific contexts of acculturation.

Since this is a cultural transition module, you do need to know about the differences between cultures (e.g. individualism VS collectivism) and this can form a framework to understand the topics that focus on specific contexts of acculturation.