HE9091 PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS (3.0 AU)

This module has a steep bell curve because of all the people who have taken Economics in JC who take this for the free A. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have taken this module since I didn’t take Economics in JC, but it was a core module for me. Since the content was new, it was kind of challenging for me at times, but at least the workload was very manageable up till the 60% final project, which I actually had to put in a lot of effort for (disclaimer: this was a temporary replacement for the final examinations due to the pandemic). My tutor was actually really nice and helpful, he really gave a lot of links to real-life situations which we could use for our final project (in addition to helping us understand the concepts better). While I didn’t get an A, I was satisfied with my grade considering my lack of prior background, and it was definitely a good foundational module to take (though I had no choice).

Unlike the suggestions of many seniors not to take econs if no prior knowledge of it in JC, I feel that it’s actually quite doable.

Scored an A- in the end probably bcos of the steep bell curve.

The grading components were 2 midterms, 15 percent each, class part 10% and a final assignment of 60%

For midterms I scored a 8/9 (bcos one question out of originally 10 apparently had its ans bolded so it was cancelled) for quiz one and then 9/10 for quiz two.

Class part wise I got full marks 10%

Project wise, dedicated at least a full 24 hours to finish it.

Lecture-wise, I find things easily digestable, though some do find it confusing. It is actually a mod that I quite enjoyed.

My tutor was also Goh Ee Lin, and she’s very enthusiastic and fun although tutor classes always get dragged behind (try avoid making lunch plans with a friend who take diff module tutor class as econs class ALWAYS finishes late:’))

Ask any of your seniors and they will tell how bad this mod is. None of the profs in this mod can teach at all and the classes will never end on time. I was taught by Goh Ee Lin. Even though she is always very nice and gives a lot of class part marks, she really isn’t good at teaching and often makes us more confused at the end of the lesson. The good thing about her at least is she only extends the class by like 5-10mins compared to the other profs which may extend more than 30mins.

From what I know this course is easy for JC students but for poly students its definitely more difficult because in poly we had 2 mods: Microecons and Macroecons. But in this mod, both micro and macroecons are squeezed in one mod and its more in-depth in content. The tutorials may be hard but honestly most people don’t do it. Most also don’t attend the lectures cause they are recorded and online and the prof just reads off the slides.

Despite the content being much tougher, the 2 quizzes that they set are both super easy and most students would average an 8 or 9 out of 10. So, the bell curve is much steeper and will be very dependent on your final component. During my year in 2020 sem 1, the 60% component was changed from a final exam to a final project. This project is an individual project and it has to do with article analysis. If you want to do well and beat the bell-curve, you will need to start early and put in really a lot of effort. Many people had their grades pulled down because of this project. The biggest tip I can give is to make sure that all your formatting is in place because the course coord actually penalises very heavily on formatting. Lastly, borrow your notes from your HCJC friends and you will definitely be able to score for this project.