Shi Chee
August 9, 2021
13 Elective Recommendations by Seniors in NTU
Before every semester, students like me scour the seemingly endless list of Unrestricted Electives (UEs) to find that one or two UEs to clock Academic Units (AUs) and fill our timetables. However, a UE doesn’t just fill your timetable. It could be the key to making or breaking your semester. To avoid making your semester tortuous, start by setting out your criteria for choosing a UE.
Some choose certain electives for an opportunity to explore a new skill or hobby, while some pick electives with a lower workload and intensity to complement a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) option. Others however might pick electives based on the ease of scoring to capitalise on their strengths for that easy A.
Whatever your criteria, we’ve got you covered with a round-up of recommendations from seniors to their juniors. Interestingly, we had several electives that were hotly debated as to whether they should be on the recommendations list or not!
Disclaimers: Do note that these recommendations were written from the perspectives of students from various majors. As such, they might recommend electives based on their strengths in certain domains such as in writing or math. Also, module syllabuses and lecturers differ year by year so remember to do your due diligence. Reviews were collected in Sem 2 AY2020/21.
National Institute of Education (NIE) Modules
AAI381 Studies in Japanese Music
It’s an extremely fun and enjoyable course. This UE allows the student to dive into the world of Japanese music, as well as to learn about its culture and history. Although it doesn’t teach students how to play Japanese instruments, it has designed assessments that induce them to make use of their creativity to create and put up musical performances. Fret not if you don’t know how to play any musical instruments, as you can opt to write lyrics, dance or sing. You can score a good grade as long as you put adequate effort into the performance.
(Year 4, Economics)
AED38A Motivating Pupils to Learn
I enjoyed it because it was very hands-on and the instructor was very engaging. The presentation was fun where we could come up with our ideas. Sociology and Psychology majors are attracted to this mod as psychological theories are taught and we learn how to relate to students better. Social science students will have an advantage in understanding the materials faster.
(Year 4, Sociology)
ADP16A Introduction to Theatre and Performance
If you like drama, this is the class for you. You get to literally play games, act stuff and do stupid things for class. A word of warning though, quite a lot of ppl who take the class have a production background. So it would be to your advantage to work with them for group work. However, the theory gets dry at times.
(Year 4, History)
AAL28E Identities in a Diverse World
You debate about the different identity constructs in Singapore eg Chinese, Malay, Indian Others (CMIO), Cosmopolitan vs Heartlander etc. It was very eye-opening and you get to discuss racism and other issues relating to identity. It’s important to find good group mates for the assignments too!
(Year 4, History)
General Sports Electives from NIE
As a sports inclined person, I recommend sports electives as the modules are pretty easy, just like PE lessons back in secondary school. For the breakdown of the module, they usually teach you basic/practical skills, which comprises about 70% of the grade. The remaining 30% is theory which is very straightforward. Definitely a free A if you are good at it. I also heard from beginners who took these modules that they got at least a B+. Sports is also a way to de-stress from studying your usual boring modules and there are also no finals for these modules!
(Year 2, Chemistry and Biological Chemistry)
Nanyang Business School (NBS) Modules
BU8641 Cultural Intelligence: How to be an Explorer of the World
I liked this course because you can get to interact with different people from various countries. It also helps you understand why certain people behave a certain way in group projects or through day to day conversations. I find that the skills learnt are quite apt and can be applied in almost any scenario.
Also, it’s not that hard to score, to be honest. As long as you have good self-awareness and you know how to explain your feelings and your thought processes, it shouldn’t be too hard to score an A.
(Year 3, Maritime Studies)
College of Engineering (CoE) Modules
EE8086 Astronomy - Stars, Galaxies & Cosmology
Recommends this module:
AY 20/21
I find that this module requires minimal effort and not much memorising. The lectures were pre-recorded and online, midterms and finals were all MCQ, hints were also provided so it was a pretty straightforward module.
(Year 2, Chemistry and Biological Chemistry)
Does not recommend this module:
AY 17/18 Sem 1
Prof Yong Ken Tye, Prof Poenar Daniel Puiu
The graded assessments (CA1, CA2 and Final Exam) were in MCQ format so essays or short written answers were not required. The content was very interesting and there was no need for background knowledge in this module (though simple Physics is involved). The CA1 and CA2 were relatively easy but this means that getting a good grade across the cohort can be very challenging/competitive. The Final Exam was very tough as there was too much content to memorise with no help sheet. While the lecture notes for the 1st half were concise, it was not the case for the 2nd half. The content from this module may not be very relevant to your career or personal life if you are not pursuing this field (Astronomy).
(Year 4, Mechanical Engineering)
College of Science (CoS) Modules
CM8002 Forensic Science
Recommends this module:
AY 18/19
Forensic Science was very interesting and there were many case studies. The final paper while it was like being a detective at a crime scene, it was challenging.
(Year 3, Chemistry and Biological Chemistry)
AY 19/20
It is an interesting module for people who like psychology. The final paper was like a crime scene whereby you had to figure out what happened with the given clues.
(Year 2, Chemistry and Biological Chemistry)
Does not recommend this module:
AY 18/19
Assoc Prof Roderick Wayland Bates
This is one of the modules which appeals to the masses, in terms of its content and graded assessments. CA1 and CA2 were relatively easy to score as they were in MCQ format. However, the Final Exam was comprised of a mixture of MCQ and scenario-based questions. The content to memorise was manageable and interesting. However, the 2nd half was mainly content delivered by guest speakers so their notes were not tailored to students’ needs. Discretion must be exercised to extract the important points. The scenario-based questions were not difficult as long as logical reasoning and information extraction could substantiate your points (more than one “model” answer). However, it is worth pointing out that if one fails to understand the scenario, the mistake from one part of the question can spill over to the next and cause catastrophic damage.
(Year 4, Mechanical Engineering)
ES8007 Climate & Climate Change
Does not recommend this module:
AY 18/19 Sem 2
Assoc Prof Wang Xianfeng
The graded assessments (CA1, CA2 and Final Exam) were in MCQ format. However, this module was very difficult to manage. It required extensive Geography background knowledge to understand the concepts and many important points, that were delivered by the lecturer on a weekly basis, were unfortunately not stated in the lecture notes. The CA1, CA2 and Final Exam were very challenging. Too much time and effort were required to study this module yet the probability of scoring a good grade was low.
(Year 4, Mechanical Engineering)
MH8300 It's a Discreetly Discrete World: Math in Real Life Application
Assoc Prof Kiah Han Mao
I found the content taught in this module to be particularly interesting because math, for the first time, is being applied in real life. The lecture notes are very simple and easy to understand but you will struggle if your maths is not so good for the tutorials and finals. I would recommend this module to anyone that has a background in discrete math as I think this course would be a breeze for you. Oh ya, just to add on, if you’re planning to take this module, do get a few friends to take it with you so that you guys can discuss the answers for the online assignment for each unit before submitting it.
(Year 4, Computer Science)
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CoHASS) Modules
HP1100 Fundamentals of Social Science Research
Assoc Prof Xu Hong
I was attracted to the process of learning how to design survey questions and understand how to analyze data from the surveys. Besides, it only involves statistics and doesn’t require strong calculation.
(Year 3, Bioengineering)
HN9010 Singapore: Imagining the next 50 years
If you would like a low workload, Pass/Fail module then this is the one you should take. It was very manageable as you only had to answer a few MCQ questions weekly and write a reflection essay at the end of the module. In this module, you will learn about the threats that Singapore faces and the policies needed to overcome them. There were group discussions and it is mandatory to turn up for classes.
(Year 3, Maritime Studies)
DP2001 Digital Photography
I would only recommend taking it only if you like photography a lot or don’t mind not getting an A for that. It is hard to score well and requires a lot of time in planning for the photos and editing them. However, I did learn how to capture photos and edit them well!
(Year 3, Maritime Studies)
Centre for Modern Languages (CML) Modules
Level 1 language UEs teaches you the basics of a language and introduces you to different cultures. I took Korean, Japanese and Thai. It’s super interesting to learn about the history and culture of the different countries. Also, it’s always cool to be able to converse in a different language. However, the bell curve is quite bad as there will be people who have learned the language before without declaring. But I think as long as you put in the effort to memorise and practise it’s doable. I had 0 background in Jap and Thai but I scored A- because I kept practising.
(Year 4, WKW Communications)
This article was written by Shi Chee, a Sociology graduate from NTU.