AY2015/2016 Semester 1 LAM1201, PL3240, PL3242, PL3251, PL3259

It's module review time! This semester has been a really busy and tough semester for me. Taking 4 core modules at the same time is as if I am fighting a war constantly for 4 months everyday. Readings is never ending (imagine having at least 30 pages every week for each module (multiply by 4) and then 12 weeks), mid terms and assignments are one after another all in different weeks, it was a tough journey but nevertheless I survived it! I am just not going to take 4 psychology modules ever again (please plan your modules well and take 3 psychology modules every sem will be good).

The modules I took this semester are LAM1201, PL3240, PL3242, PL3251 and PL3259.


LAM1201 Malay 1
Lecturer: Mr Sew Jyh Wee

Assessment

10% Tutorial
20% 2 Quizzes and Blog
45% 2 Tests
10% Listening
15% 2 Oral

Weekly 2 hour lecture and 2 hours tutorial. Mr Sew is a really funny lecturer and attending his lectures are entertaining. Sometimes, he will show us Malay Music Videos which were refreshing. There is a booklet for the tutorial as well and there were many practice questions (but without answers...). My tutor will go through during lessons but somehow my tutor did not go through most of the questions. It will be good if individuals self-do the questions and ask for answers. There were A LOT of practices inside so it is really good to do and also the vocabularies inside will be tested on top of those went through in the lectures. The quizzes were half an hour each and it is just writing a short paragraph.

How to study for Malay?
Be familiar with the sentence structures, and constantly revise the vocabularies. Make sure you memorise everything. The tests tested a lot of vocabularies.

It is a much easier language to study as compared to Korean. I think because it is an alphabetic language which is similar to English and some words are similar to English language, hence it is easier to learn (but still have to remember vocabularies and there were really a lot of them).



PL3240 Group Dynamics
Lecturer: Dr. Cha Yeow Siah

Assessment
50% CA:
   20% Midterm Quiz
   15% Group Project Presentation
   15% Written component (Project Report & 2 Critical thinking assignments)
50% Final exam

Weekly 2 hours lecture and biweekly 2 hours tutorials. This is one of my favourite psychology modules. In my opinion, Dr. Cha is a very good lecturer. He tried to make lectures interesting by sharing his funny/embarrassing past experiences and also said some jokes. His lectures itself is already interesting. He will show us videos and relate it to the content he went through which is very helpful for applications.

I love the group project. It is a group project that you can bond with your new friends and don't bother going to the same tutorial as your friends as you will highly likely be separated from your friends and it really will defeat the purpose of the project. It will be really a good experience if you have great group mates! We are supposed to film a video and do editing to the video. Put in effort, and you will be really satisfied with the results! My group is quite bonded now after many meet up sessions (other than for the project).

The exams consist of MCQs, fill-in-the-blanks and for finals it is also inclusive of short-answered questions and case study. Fitb requires us to remember very clearly what each concept/theory exactly is and also the names of people who came out with the concepts/theories and we will be thought in tutorials how to handle case study as well.

It is important to go for the tutorials because we will learn skills which is very helpful for other modules/for exams. It will be very lucky if you get Dr. Cha as your tutor. He is really good!



PL3242 Health Psychology
Lecturer: Dr. Griva Konstadina

Assessment
60% Coursework:
   20% Leaflet Report
   10% Instagram Photo and written narratives (Photovoice data)
   30% Photovoice Report
40% Final exam

Weekly 2 hours lecture and biweekly 2 hours tutorial. Dr. Griva's lecture notes are very clear and that's why there were a lot of of content is the notes but it is a good thing. Sometimes her accent is a bit hard to catch, but I think most of it are fine. This module has a lot of concepts and theories as well, and I would say it is very relevant in understanding people's mindset toward health and also patients, hence it is quite relevant in daily lives. I didn't do well for the reports and I wished I had gone for the consultation to understand better how to handle the report. Tutorials were helpful for the report writing as well as answering exam essay question. There were 40 MCQs and 1 essay for the exam.



PL3251 Atypical Development of Language
Lecturer: Dr. Leher Singh

Assessment
10% Tutorial attendance and participation in discussion
30% Midterm exam (50MCQs, Open book)
20% Term Paper
40% Final exam (50MCQs, Open book)

Weekly 2 hours lecture and biweekly 2 hours tutorial. THIS IS ONE OF THE HARDEST MODULE EVER OMG. Don't get fool by MCQs AND open book exams. It seemed easy uh? Uh, no. Attending Dr. Leher's lectures are as if you are taking bullet trains every week. She speaks really fast, and it is quite hard to catch. Be attentive and try very much to focus and catch her words. She will also show clips of her children to better understand the content of the lectures

Her readings were really hard to read... How do I say this? There were many technical terms and it seemed as though every single sentences is very relevant to take note. There were many different types of tests to detect atypical language throughout the entire readings as well. Unless you have an interest in this module, you might want to think twice. But if you know how to prepare for exams, it can be quite manageable I guess. Doing notes for the readings are very helpful and most importantly, integration of all the content from all the chapters in the readings. Do integrations, organisations, categorisation (e.g. what are all the tests and relevant details of the tests), and understanding of the content will be helpful for the exams.

Her tutorials were very chill and very interesting as well. During each tutorial, we will watch videos/films regarding people who have the disorders followed by a short discussion. The video clips she showed is helpful in understanding about those with certain types of disorders.



PL3259 Psychology of Aging
Lecturer: Dr. Grace Lee

Assessment
10% Group presentation
10% Assignments
10% Elder mentor reflection paper
30% Midterm test
40% Final exam

Weekly 2 hours lecture and biweekly 2 hours tutorial. I enjoyed this module a lot too because it is very applicable to ourselves, our aging parents/grandparents and better understanding of older adults. I have learnt a lot about aging successfully and this is definitely very relevant to ourselves. Dr. Lee's lectures are very clear and she will share her experiences as well as those of the people around her. Elder mentor reflection paper requires us to meet up with an elder mentor weekly (at least 1 hour) for a minimum of 6-10hours throughout the whole semester and then write a paper about the experiences and how do they link to the content we had learnt in the module.

For every tutorials, it will be group presentations followed by the tutor's lesson. The tutorials were important for the exams. Tutorial contents are tested in the exams, so do take notes during the exams because they are not provided. Ms Chan Wei Ting was our tutor for the tutorials. She is extremely strict about her markings for the presentations. She even remarked about narrow eye contacts, not engaging to the audience etc... Other than her annoyingly picky marking style, she is clear in her teachings. The final exam format was MCQs and short-answered question.




Have a great winter holiday ahead!