NTU Elective Review- Part 1 GER-PEs

Upon my arrival into NTU, I have relied on multiple Elective Review blogposts/articles to make informed decisions when selecting where to put my AUs. I have also relied on friends' recommendations and word-of-mouth on what is easier/more interesting to clear. Below will be the lists of electives that I have personally taken and my personal thoughts on them.

GERPEs

CS8100 Fundamentals of Communication Studies | LA | 3 AU | Grade obtained: B+

Consists of 1 Midterms 25%, 1 Finals 50%, Weekly online MCQ Quizzes 15% & attendance and participation 10%. The weekly quizzes are graded, but do not fret: you can keep retaking until the end of the week to obtain your 30/30. For attendance, it is signed- either beginning, middle or end of the class. It is never fixed to prevent people from skipping part of it. Participation equates to speaking in front of an audience of a few hundred students on stage for a couple of minutes (which I did not do). Honestly, this mod can be studied for. The B+ obtained is despite a failing grade at midterms as it was closed book and I had more pressing core assignments to do. Finals is open-book, however you should at least read through the textbook once to get the general idea of where to flip to for answers. You DO NOT have enough time searching otherwise. Get the textbook- carousel, online, wherever. The prof is really entertaining and his lecturers are quite useful. 

HL8026 Women's Literature and the Contemporary | LA | 3 AU | Grade obtained: A

I would have never taken this mod that honestly does not sound the most appealing if not for my friend recommending it to me for an 'easy' A. Consisting of 1 Midterms 50% and 1 Finals 50%, it really is not a mod with a huge workload. Altogether, you only write 3 essays- 1 take-home essay for midterms and 2 during finals. The prof gives templates for what she expect essays to be, providing good tips on how to score and she SPELLS out what she wants to see. I ended up only studying 2 books and 1 film- just nice for 3 essays with no backups as she told us what to expect for finals. My tip is to CITE. Pile citations, quotations etc for all your essays. They can be reviews, scholarly insights, anything. Just make sure they are relevant and that you look knowledgeable and well-researched. I did 8 citations for my take-home essay and threw in at least 3 external quotations (not actually required) for my final essays for good measure. 

MA8103 Human Resource Management | BM | 3 AU | Grade obtained: SU

This mod was really just to clear my business GERPE. MCQ Test & Class Participation, Class attendance and participation via Discussion forum in NTULearn, 3.5k word Essay and Finals. Honestly, if you do not have time to go for the 3 hour long lecture, just don't. The prof is really good at teaching life-skills and sharing real life experiences and examples. However, trust me- these do not help towards your final grade. The plus point: its not of the few biz mods that do not involve group work. According to my friend, my essay should have scored at least B+, but I used my SU anyway as I felt that my final exam was not well done. My prof said "you do not need to memorize, just apply what you learnt", but the exam questions were pretty much asking for listing and definitions. Get the textbook, it REALLY helps as the slides are not very useful for mugging. My friend got an A- using the textbook and avoiding lectures so its proabably a study-able mod. 

 CM8002 Forensic Science | STS | 3 AU | Grade obtained: A

Midterms 20%, Finals 80%. Honestly, I did not attend the lectures. I DID watch all the online courses two times though. That was probably all that I did. I am not good at memory work- if you could notice from my HRM and CS GERPE. I AM good however, at remembering stories. So, most of the midterms and quite a few areas of the finals were on the case studies the online courses mentioned. I enjoy watching Law and Order, the Mentalist etc, so it explains why I could remember most of the cases mentioned and the deciding factors/ evidences/ people involved. For the rest, I suggest remembering the calculations for alcohol testing, the testing/experimenting methods for solving cases as they are tested in midterms and you can use it to answer the case study section for your finals.