[NUS Module Review] FMS1203S FS: Randomness in Scientific Thinking

(INTRODUCTION)

Welcome to the first and perhaps the only seminar module that I will take in my NUS journey. Not that I have a choice, though; students can only take one seminar module in their NUS life. And if it isn't apparent enough, I'm only taking this module because I have decided to no longer proceed with my Life Science minor. Best choice ever!!! So without further ado, read on to find out what does this pass-fail module have in store for you. 

(LECTURERS)

The lecturer/facilitator for this module is Professor Zhang Jin-Ting. I have to be honest that I found nothing really positive in his facilitating or teaching. He mostly reads off the slides and sometimes it's hard to understand what he is trying to say. Not that the students actually care about it either, since this is, after all, a pass-fail module. 

(EXPANSION OF TOPICS COVERED)

The topics covered include:

• Types of Probability
• Sampling Problems
• Collecting Data
• Hypothesis Testing
• Statistics and the Environment
• Statistics and the Media

As you can see, there are not that many topics that would be covered. I'm sure that you would have come across some of these topics in your daily lives or when studying in a Mathematics examination, just that we never thought that it would be much of a big deal to study them in detail. This is also certainly not the module to take if you are thinking of studying statistics in depth. Nothing in the FMS module series is even taught in depth in my opinion. They are just touch-and-go topics. 

(PASSING THE ASSESSMENT)

The grading for the assessments in this module are as follows:

• Attendance - 10%
• Class Discussion - 10%
• Written Report - 20%
• Class Presentations - 60%

As long as you attend and perhaps do your required presentations (content/delivery isn't graded by the way), then you are all good. You are only required to present, a total of 3 to 4 times throughout the 13 week period. Within your group, you will take turns to present on a certain reading/topic. Nothing to fear about right? 

For report writing, it is very similar to the style of SP1401 (i.e. in the form of a scientific article). All you need to do is to write about a topic that you or your classmate presented on. Again, as long as you write it, irregardless of the content, you are already good. As for class discussion, you have to ask a question or comment something to a speaker/presenter during each session. 

Let's remind ourselves right here again, that this is a pass-fail module. Nothing to stress about this module. 

(SCHEDULE)

There will just be a two hour seminar session per week with a class of less than 20 people. Attendance is compulsory, but then again, I've noticed people taking turns to not come for lessons so maybe as you take this module, you will slowly learn how people try to escape from this class. ;)

(EXPERIENCE AND FINAL GRADING)

I took this module because I wanted a slacker semester. In year 3 semester 1, I took 7 modules and was practically dying. Hence, I decided to embark on a "slacker" semester this time around... Sigh, COVID-19 had to happen...

Anyways, taking this module was part of my plan for a slack semester. We were already split into our respective groups during the first lesson. Each group consists of 3 people so you can tell that each one of us would have to present for at least 3 times for this module. I can handle that right? Doesn't seem that difficult to do. Anyways, I volunteered to be the first person to present, simply because I wanted to get the first presentation over and done with. 

The next lesson came and thus it was my presentation. It was a pretty straightforward presentation and I felt that I did well in it, despite me needing to put little effort to prepare. I was pretty surprised to see many people from my class delivered such great presentations and you could really see the amount of preparation that they place into it. Not that I didn't put in is, but I delivered what I thought contained the true message of each reading that I did.

So this is where things start to turn a little bit juicy for you readers, and perhaps very irritating to me. After the first lesson, I noticed that my group mates didn't turn up for any of the classes. At first, I thought they could be sick; you know how COVID-19 has been going around. But as the weeks went past, I realized they never turned up at all. Despite multiple emails and messages, they didn't bother to reply. And every week, as it was our group to present, I was given an earful by Prof Zhang for not stepping up to the plate to present to the class. Although I told Prof Zhang repeatedly every class that the attendance have shown that they didn't bother to attend, he refused to look into the matter seriously.

While I saw other groups bonding with their own group mates and learning together, I was left alone by two very irresponsible group mates who didn't care about this module, thinking that they would pass if all they did was the final report. But no sis, I wasn't gonna have that and I definitely wasn't gonna present the presentations they they were supposed to do. No extra credit either ways so why should I right? I guess you could say that the handling of the situation was rather poor by Prof Zhang. Either way, I hope my two irresponsible group mates get what they deserve when the grades get released in the future. So sorry, I ain't the type to cover for people when they really show absolutely zero hoots in this module. 

Other than that, I learnt quite a few things in this module. I also learnt the lengths people go to to actually give a splendid presentation despite this being a pass fail module. I did learn from some of these people, as much as they did learn from me. Guess I would be more frustrated had this been a graded module. But since, this is a pass fail module, then it is what it is right. 

(CONCLUSION AND TIPS)

If you would like to have a slack semester and you're wondering what modules you could take that involves the LEAST amount of effort, this would be the perfect module. The only downside of this is that this module will use up your precious 1k. But is it worth the cost? Yes, it definitely is. This module is not only pretty much non-existent when it comes to the workload, it is also a SU module. So why not, right? Every lesson feels like story time, so go for it!

Ratings out of 5⭐:

• Should you take this module - For the free SU, why not right?
• Degree of Difficulty - ⭐
• Effort Required - ⭐
• Timetable Impact - ⭐

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