Module Review: MA1511 (AY17/18 Semester 1)

MA1511 Engineering Calculus is a new module for engineering and it is meant to replace MA1505 for chemical engineering. It is a 2 modular credit (MC) module and only half a semester long. The final examination occurs at the same time as the mid term tests of my other modules.

Assessment

10% Class Participation

30% Class Assignments (Open Book)

60% Final Examination (6 structured questions, each with 2 parts, Closed Book with a 2 Page Cheat Sheet)

Lecturer: Dr Ng Wee Seng

Tutor: Mr Andreas Dwi Maryanto Gunawan

Comments

This is a core module for Chem Eng so we had to take it. It was a very rushed module in my opinion since it was only half a semester long and all the contents were squeezed into that amount of time. The topics were mainly about partial derivatives, multiple integrals and vector fields.

Lecture

Lecture was once a week on Fridays from 1600 - 1700 and was on only from week 1 to week 5 since there were only 5 topics in the module. The lecturer uploads videos about one topic before lecture (like about 1-2 weeks before the lecture). Technically, we can just watch these videos and not attend lecture at all since lecture is just a repeat of these videos. Furthermore, the lectures are webcast-ed! Thus, I only attended the first 2 lectures. However, I really like the lecturer's explanations in his videos as he can explain really complex math concepts and make it simpler for us to understand.

Tutorial

Tutorial started on week 2 and ended on week 6, with a total of 5 tutorials. Tutorials were 2 hours long. Since there were 5 topics, each tutorial covered one topic. My tutor would usually give a short summary about the topic and then go through some of the selected tutorial questions. The tutorial questions can be pretty tough but my tutor was able to explain the solutions to the questions well. 

There is a class assignment at the end of every tutorial but this class assignment is open book and discussion is allowed. The tutor just repeating that our answers cannot look exactly the same. Well, I would say these class assignments were a boost for me since it took up 30% of the overall grade. Each class assignment consisted of 2 questions and they were not very tough to complete.

As for class participation, it is mainly accounted via attendance since there wasn't really much discussion throughout the tutorial (except during the class assignment).

Final Exam

The final exam was one of the toughest math examinations I ever had. I never came out of the exam hall after a math paper feeling so lost and disappointed. As mentioned above, there were 6 structured questions in the paper and we were only given 1 hour 30 minutes! I could only complete half the paper (with final answers) while brief workings were presented for the rest of the questions. Well, the lecturer already did warn us in the first place that we will not be able to complete the paper.

You can refer to my 2 page cheat sheet here.

Expected Grade: A

Actual Grade: A+

I would say it was mainly due to my class assignments that I was able to get a really good result for this module. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

- Alan