GES1028 Singapore society (under Department of Sociology) is about applying concepts of sociology on the context of the issues faced in Singapore.
Assessment
20% Class Participation
20% Class Presentation
20% Critical Review (An Essay Review on one of the readings assigned)
40% Final Examination (2 Essays, Closed Book)
Lecturer: DR Adelyn Lim Li-Ping
Tutor: Mr Muhammad Kamal Jauhari Bin Zai
Comments
First and foremost, I didn't exactly know the true reason why I chose to take this module because I'm terribly horrible at writing essays. Plus, I'm an engineering student here, so taking this arts module wasn't exactly an easy thing for me. However, I definitely did not regret taking it because it provided me with another perspective about Singapore as well as the 'hidden' issues/problems many locals face.
Please also do take note that this module may be handled by different teaching teams every semester and these lecturers and tutors may not be handling this module during your semester.
The good thing for this module is that there are no textbooks required (YAY).
The good thing for this module is that there are no textbooks required (YAY).
Lecture
Lecture was on every Thursday for 2 hours long (10 am - 12 pm). There wasn't any webcast for this module and since I'm afraid of losing out, I attended all the 11 lectures. The module consists of 10 main topics (e.g. of topics are like education, race, religion in Singapore), with 1 lecture talking about 1 topic, and one round up lecture at the end. The lecture usually starts with a brief history about the topic in the world before bringing in into the Singaporean context. The lecturer is very clear in her explanations but she does speak pretty quickly. So, I would advise taking an audio recording for the lecture so that you can refer to it again to make sure you do not miss anything out.
Readings
There is one assigned reading for every topic, so there are 10 in total. Some are really long while some are pretty short. I'll advise at least reading half or at least get the gist of the readings before attending lectures so that you would not be too lost. I have to say that some readings (only 1 or 2) are a bit too complex for me to understand (sad engineering student here) and I had to google some terms now and then. But I guess maybe it is because some of the readings are pretty relatable to me and thus, I don't actually hate spending some time to read these readings.
Tutorial
Tutorial is 2 hours long, but only once every 2 weeks and there's only a total of 5 tutorials for the module. For the first tutorial, we were told to form our own groups of 5-6 members, instead of the usual pre-assigned groupings in most modules. It's a good thing for those who have friends in the same tutorial slot but for me, I'm alone in this so it didn't really matter for me. There were 4 groups in total for each tutorial and each group has to present on an assigned topic. A sentence will also be given to us and we would have to break down the sentence and apply it to Singapore's context. For the first tutorial, we just formed our own groups so there wasn't any presentations. But for all the subsequent tutorials, it all started with a group presentation first before the tutor then talks about the main points regarding the topic itself. Every tutorial covers 2 topics previously covered in lectures.
My tutor was a very light-hearted guy, yet he was also able to bring his points up succinctly. He'll crack jokes once in a while and it was thus quite fun to attend his tutorials. And for those who hate class participation and talking in class, this module is actually good for you because the class participation grading is not based on how much you talk in class. Instead, at the end of every tutorial, we have to provide a one sentence response for 2 questions and this will contribute to the 20% class participation.
My tutor was a very light-hearted guy, yet he was also able to bring his points up succinctly. He'll crack jokes once in a while and it was thus quite fun to attend his tutorials. And for those who hate class participation and talking in class, this module is actually good for you because the class participation grading is not based on how much you talk in class. Instead, at the end of every tutorial, we have to provide a one sentence response for 2 questions and this will contribute to the 20% class participation.
As for the critical review, we have to write a 'review' on one of the assigned readings. The review is on the same topic as the group presentation and for mine, our group did on gender and sexuality in Singapore. The critical review is a bit like the Application Question in the GP paper where we would bring up arguments made by the author, evaluate these arguments and decide whether to agree or disagree with them. This provided a new experience for me since I haven't exactly written a paper all by myself before but looking back, I wouldn't say it was as bad as I expected.
As for the group presentation, I AM VERY GLAD THAT I HAD GOOD TEAMMATES. To me, the trick to doing well in group presentations is having good teammates (like I'm serious here, I felt the main reason I did well in project work in JC was due to me having nice teammates). As mentioned earlier, we had to break down a sentence in relation to gender and sexuality in Singapore and then talk about the issues facing Singapore. Just take note that if this module is still taught by the same teaching team, then it is VERY important to have a stand with regards to the topic at like the second of third slide of your presentation. Other than that, the presentation actually went pretty smoothly and yeah, that's about it.
Final Exam
The final examination consists of Section A and Section B and we had to write one essay for each section. Sadly, it was a closed book examination. The paper was 2 hours long, so it is best to spend only an hour for each essay. Section A was a compulsory essay question which requires an assessment of a newspaper article and applying the concepts we learnt in lectures for the articles. This was definitely tough for me and I spent about 1 hour and 10 minutes for this question (thus leaving me with only about 50 minutes for Section B). It took me quite a while to sort out what I want to write in the essay. Thus, if the same exam format is kept, it'll be good to read newspaper articles (regarding Singapore, obviously) throughout the semester and think about how to apply the different concepts learnt to the articles. Next, section B was a 3 questions choose 1 kind of thing. It wasn't too bad for me since the questions were on the readings I spent more time on. I chose the first question on governance and it wasn't all too bad. If I'm not wrong, the examination paper might be accessible through the exam library online.
Expected Grade: C
Actual Grade: A-
I totally didn't expect myself to do this well for this module. I guess it was mainly because I got an A for my group presentation and A- for my critical review, which both brought the overall grade up to A-. SO, CHOOSE GOOD TEAMMATES TO WORK WITH.
All in all, it was a 'quite okay' kind of module but I don't think I would want to recommend this module to anyone who hates writing essays. I had a very negative perception towards this module in the beginning but I DEFINITELY do not have this feeling anymore after attending all the lectures and tutorials. I will never regret taking this module since I did way better than expected.
Stay tuned for more updates.
- Alan
All in all, it was a 'quite okay' kind of module but I don't think I would want to recommend this module to anyone who hates writing essays. I had a very negative perception towards this module in the beginning but I DEFINITELY do not have this feeling anymore after attending all the lectures and tutorials. I will never regret taking this module since I did way better than expected.
Stay tuned for more updates.
- Alan
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