Module Review 3

On to AY12/13 Year 2 Sem 1

I should be able to say more accurate things about this particular semester than the last two since it ended just 2 months ago after all.

GEK1542 -  FORENSIC SCIENCE

Right. Forensic science is not for people who do not wish to stay until 10pm on a friday. Trust me when I say this. It can make TGIF feel like a crap load of rubbish. If you're taking this module, you will never say TGIF. It's more like TGIS (S for saturday)..

This is actually a really fun module. The lecturers are prosecutors, forensic pathologists and police, taking time out of their jobs to give us lectures. Now you know why the lectures are always late at night. The lectures are very interesting! The prosecutor lecturer actually invited us to go visit him on his rape/rage of modesty case at Court. I never got to go as I wasn't free then. We can also sign up for a visit to the Supreme Court as well. I didn't manage to go for that too.. Pity..

The lab was pretty simple by theory, but actually pretty hard to carry out. It's just a matter of taking your own fingerprints using various methods and manually (instead of using the forensic's high-tech computer) comparing two of your own fingerprint (same finger) to prove its the same person. It can be pretty fun at first since the first time you try to lift the print onto the scotchtape can be quite a fun experience. Then, when the natural oil in your finger runs out, you start using the oil from your face to get prints.. I know it's pretty gross. But minutes later, you see everyone doing it as well, then you get desperate because you can't get a perfect print to lift onto your very precious lifter to bring home to scan and enlarge, you just desperately get prints over and over again to brush for the perfect one to lift. It's actually quite a tedious task that requires a lot of concentration and tack to actually obtain a nice print that is usable in the lab report... That was one hell of a day, I tell ya..

The CA and final paper were pretty doable. The CA consists of short structured questions. It's surprisingly fun to do the paper actually. None of the stress you feel when you normally take an exam or test. Probably because the questions in the CA are quite laughable. The names for the application questions are like Ah Beng, Ah Lian, and stuff like that. Haha. You'll be so amused by the questions that you can't feel the stress. My first enjoyable test in NUS.

The final paper is 100 MCQs. Just read and re-read the notes until you understand all the procedures and know them by heart. It's forensics, not that difficult. Just do your best to remember as much as you can. The questions can be quite tricky though, so be careful as well.

LAK3201 - KOREAN 3

Again, I will be comparing this to Korean 2. This is a very rigorous module. If you do not have the passion for Korean or languages in general, don't take this. Most of the vocabulary are self-study. The lecturers expect you to already know them and they won't explain anything on new vocabulary. The teaching of grammar is very fast paced as well as heavy. It is still a fun module, not stressful for those who like Korean. But for those who are not into the language, stress might be very real.

Oral and skit presentation requires much more effort and practice as well. The lecturers are more strict in this module as it's a higher level of proficiency we are expected to have already. Homework load is heavier as well, so more effort is required as compared to Korean 2. The exam styles are similar throughout all the Korean language modules. So just expect little time to read the passages, unless you can already read as fast as you can read in your Mother Tongue, or even better, as fast as you read in English.

LSM2101 - METABOLISM AND REGULATION

This module is basically a pretty boring module. A more detailed version of what we learnt in JC. Sad to say this.. but I failed this module.. Wasn't totally unexpected.. The final paper was pretty hard.. And since I have a habit of forgetting the details of bad experiences, I will review this module again after I have gotten a B or better yet, an A, after this current semester.

LSM2102 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

This module's lecture is right after LSM2101. So I basically slept through both lectures if I fell asleep in the first one. LOL! The notes are enough to get you by. Just read carefully. The bell curve helps a little. I got a better grade than I expected.. I actually thought I would fail this module rather than LSM2101.. But I guess the MCQ final paper lessened the difficulty by a little. Since everyone thought it was a difficult module, the bell curve really helps!

LSM2203 - EXPERIMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY

Ahah! This module is pretty fun, but extremely taxing with its 6-hour lab every other week. With no breaks in between, it is very possible to go thirsty and hungry pretty fast using up a lot of brain cells.

The 4 lab reports, just do some research and answer the side questions as best as you can. Put as much details in it as possible. Every result and number you have obtained in the experiments, put them in. Don't leave anything out. It is possible to get an A for the lab reports.

The CA, as I have told my friends taking this module the current semester, is very simple. As long as you almost memorised the notes from the 4 lectures and the names of the bacteria in the practical notes and how to identify them, the CA is practically free points for all. I got only a B for the CA because I thought anything from the practicals wouldn't be tested.. The CA is a theory test, but the practical notes have some theory elements in them, so just go through them as well.

The practical exam.. That's the more difficult one. I said Korean final paper was a race against time... This practical exam cannot even compare.. There is no time at all. You have to do loads of gram staining, and I re-did some of them because I just couldn't see what I had stained, in the end I should have just trusted myself that I stained them properly and that there was nothing to see.. Remember all the biochemical tests, which and how much chemical to add first or next. Remember the traits of the bacteria that are mentioned in the practicals and how to identify them. The practical part of the exam is the busy part, staining and whatnot. The theory and application parts are the difficult parts. It can be quite difficult to use your results from the rush and find out the answers to the questions. Just read through your lecture notes as you have done for the CA and memorise every single experimental results that can be obtained from each of the tests or stain methods used or mentioned in the practicals. You can definitely get an A for this. Even though I didn't... =.=