Module Review: GET1032 (AY 17/18 Semester 1)

GET1032 Building Relationships - Theories and Practice  (Under the Department of Social Work) mainly talks about building effective interpersonal relationships, effective communication with different groups of people and emotional intelligence.

Assessment
30% Class Participation and Debate
30% Term Test (50 MCQs, Closed Book)
40% Final Examination (50 MCQs and 2 structured questions, Open Book)

Lecturer: Dr Vasoo
Tutor: Dr Vasoo

Comments
The main reason why I decided to take this module was because of the MCQ style examinations and I only needed 1 bid point to get this module. But I have to say I did benefit from this module as it taught me a lot of life skills with regards to communication and emotional intelligence.

I would recommend getting a textbook for this module. I got the Interpersonal Communication Book,14th Ed. by Joseph A. DeVito. A lot of the key terms taught were taken from this textbook and the final examination is open book, meaning that you can bring this textbook into the examination hall.

Lecture
The lecture is held very Wednesday from 4pm - 6pm. The lecture is webcasted and thus, I stopped attending lecture after the second lecture. The lecturer also mainly just read off from the slide, so I don't think there's a need to attend the lectures. Each lecture will talk about a topic with regards to communication. 

The lecturer does provide additional reading materials too and it'll be good to read them as well. (I wouldn't say it's a must to read these readings, but it will really help)

Tutorial
The tutorial takes place once every 2 weeks and there are only 5 tutorials in the semester. At the beginning of each tutorial, there will be a debate session with 2-3 students on each side of the debate. I was part of the first group to do the debate so I didn't have to worry about the debate anymore for the subsequent tutorials. The groups are pre-assigned by the tutor. The debate topics were obviously related to communication and my topic was: 'Interpersonal communication is a natural human ability' and I was on the side agreeing with the statement (although I strongly disagree with this statement). Not to worry, the debate is pretty relaxing, in the sense that we do not have to stand up to talk. We can just sit at the front of the class and present our arguments. And the funny thing is that we didn't even rebut each other's points. For the subsequent tutorials, most groups didn't rebut the other side's points either. We're only allowed to speak for 2-2.5 minutes too, so it really isn't that worrying for those who have stage fright and hate presentations.

Our tutor, Dr Vasoo, is also a very nice tutor and does make the tutorials more enjoyable. After the debates, we will just form into random groups of 5-6 people and we will discuss about a certain topic with regards to communication. Sometimes, there are some roleplay involved and sometimes, we get to share our problems we face in life too. It's more of like a 'leadership kind of course' where you sit in a circle with a group of students and discuss about your strengths and weaknesses etc. I don't mind such a thing since we do not have to prepare for tutorials (other than the debate), as compared to my engine and math modules. 

Term Test
The term test is held at the end of the semester, on week 13, and there are no mid term tests for this module. It consists of 50 MCQs and it was a closed book examination. We were only given 1 hour for the paper and I was pretty worried because I might not be able to finish the questions. However, the worrying was pointless since the 50 questions could be completed within 30 minutes. The paper isn't too tough either if you've read the textbook and readings provided.

Final Exam
The final exam was open book and it consisted of 50 MCQs and 2 structured questions. Some of the MCQ questions were exactly the same or slightly paraphrased from the term test. (But they don't release the answers for the term test, so it doesn't really help anyway. You either get both correct, both wrong or one correct and one wrong) The structured questions involve a case study of an issue (e.g. interpersonal conflict or loss of a loved one) and we're supposed to provide solutions to the problems. We can refer to our notes for this, so it wasn't a really a huge problem to answer these 2 questions. 

Expected Grade: B+

Actual Grade: B

The bell curve was pretty steep for this module and I barely got a B. I would recommend this module for anyone who is pretty good in communication terms and jargons. But the module is still relaxing, not that tough and doesn't really require a lot of bid points to get, so it's still worth a try for the rest.

Stay tuned for more updates.

- Alan

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