My courses- How are they so far?

Time flies by, and my rewarding exchange semester is slipping away:(( Anw, after some months here undertaking NUS courses, here are some of my personal lessons and opinions about them. I mostly chose reading-and-writing-intensive courses, where groupwork are kept to the minimum. These types of courses suit my personality better, and it gives a lot of flexbility for exchange students like us to manage our own schedule without affecting any grade-minded peers at NUS:P Keep in mind that these thoughts are my personal viewpoints, hope that they are of some use to you in your future course selection, should NUS be your favorite exchange destination.

EC3377 Global Economic History
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/ every 2 weeks, group presentation (2-3 students/group) on a book
Grading structure: 50% exam, 20% book review (3 pages), 20% presentation (60’), 10% participation& attendance
Course materials: PPT slides, academic articles, popular books on the subject
Lecturer/tutor: Sng Tuan Hwee
Workload: Light to Moderate

Comments: This is my best course at NUS, the one and only course where I attended every lecture and tutorial since the lecturer was such an adorable, approachable and fantastic lecturer. The course uses economic theory and quantitative methods to understand the course of economic development of different countries. Students are required to read an academic paper before each class, which will be the main topic of the lecture each week. Besides, we are split into different groups and get and assigned book for the group presentation. Each book shows different perspectives about the critical factor that generate economic inequality worldwide, namely, biological endowment, culture and political systems. You mainly just need to skim through the book that are assigned to your group, get the main ideas, and your presentation and 2-3-page book review would be OK. If you read the course materials and the articles three to four times each, get the main ideas noted down, you'll do well in this course. Overall, it's a very enjoyable course with interesting insights into the past of long-term economic development, without too much "technical" economic stuffs, yet greatly enhances your critical thinking about the application of economics studies.

EC3394 Economics and Psychology
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 1 hour/week, group presentation (1-2 students/group) about an academic article
Grading structure: 50% exam, 20% referee report (3 pages), 20% presentation (45’), 10% participation & attendance
Course materials: PPT slides & academic articles
Lecturer/tutor: Wong Wei Kang
Workload: Light to Moderate 

Comments: As I did my thesis in behavioral economics in the previous semester, this course seems to be a mere revision for me. The course introduces students to the main themes of behavioral economics, the new frontier interdisciplinary field between economics, psychology and neuroscience- after all, we humans are not as rational as our economic models desire us to be! The lecturer is decent, although a little bit monotonous as he always just recites from the lecture slides --> no need to go to lectures pretty much! Although pretty much recommend that you should attend the last lecture, as the prof will solve some problems that will appear in the final exam. The tutorial setting is a bit ridiculous, in my opinion, since each week one group will present a summary of an academic article that only they have read, and the rest just sit and listen passively, pretty much- yet it's compulsory to attend=.=.

EC3312 Game Theory and Applications in Economics
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial:1 hour/week, weekly exercise & assignment correction
Grading structure: 50% final exam, 35% midterm exam, 10% assignments (2), 5% participation & attendance
Course materials: PPT slides, A Gamer in Game Theory - Robert Gibbons (65 SGD at NUS COOP)
Lecturer: Sun Yeneng
Tutor: Wang Peng
Workload: Moderate 

Comments: I always find game theory to be such an intellectually stimulating field in economics, yet it was touched upon very slightly in the Micro course at Aalto. This course serves as a perfect next step introduction to the field, teaching more in-depth about simultaneous/sequential game with asymmetric/symmetric information (Nash equilibrium & Bayesian equilibrium). The course pace goes pretty steadily, with weekly exercises corrected at the tutorials very thoroughly and two graded assignments. The lecturer, although has some soporific impact on the students, is very approachable and attentive to students’ pace of learning in the classroom. I really enjoyed the tutorial sessions with Ms. Wang though, she explains all concepts and exercises in a very comprehensible way, so if possible, get her tutorial sessions if you can:) The exams are a bit tricky,

PS2234 Introduction to Comparative Politics
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/every 2 weeks, discussion of course materials
Grading structure: 45% final exam, 35% take-home midterm exam (individual), 15% participation & 5% quiz
Course materials: PPT slides, Politics textbook (75 sgd at NUS COOP, but you can photocopy everything from a borrowed library book)
Lecturer/tutor: Subhasish Ray
Workload: Moderate (LOTS of weekly readings) 

Comments: If you are interested in gaining a general knowledge about the politics of major countries, this course is for you. The course readings give you a comprehensive picture of the political culture and systems of certain countries worldwide ( the US, Japan, India, China, Russia,etc), after which you could use the comparative tools to evaluate the effectiveness of each system in appropriate context. I enjoyed the reading materials, which were very student-friendly and instructive, but the lecturer's teaching is just abysmal. There are like 10 slides per 1.5-hour lecture, and he mostly just digresses somewhere, sometimes repetitive and never hits the point. The tutorials also follows his impromptu style, just throw some random questions, then he answers, mostly to his favorite students. I personally think that it's better for me just to take Global Economic History, and not this course at all, as some parts are repetitive yet at much lower quality level.

PS2203 Ancient Western Political Thoughts
Lecture: 2 hours/week
Tutorial: 2 hours/ every 2 weeks, discussion of course materials
Grading structure: 50% final exam, 15% 1500-word essay, 25% 2000-word essay (both individual), 10 % participation & attendance
Course materials: selected readings from ancient texts
Lecturer: Dominic Cooray
Workload: Moderate ( LOTS of ancient text readings) 

Comments: As I’m very much into philosophical thinking and profound political thoughts, this course isan eye-opening experience. The contemplative feeling when you read about the thoughts on justice, happiness, leadership, ruling, etc of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydidies, etc is just simply rewarding. However, one warning is that the ancient dialogues pose a credible challenge to those averse to ancient text readings, since the language used is fairly archaic and at some point very arcane to readers. But if you can take it, munch on it, and you'll enjoy it to the fullest. About the lecturer, notwithstanding he's not an inspiring story-teller about the lives and philosophies of these thinkers,is very interactive and supportive towards students. Personally I would prefer more hours on Aristotle's thoughts and less on the St. Augustine's ideology, but well, I enjoyed the course in any case!

That's all for now, ahoy and see you in the next blog!