Preamble - Nus Module Review (Business Analytics, School of Computing): Tips on Course Registration? Module Recommendations? Why?
Tips?
I have some insights about NUS's course registration that I hope will provide you with more understanding and useful suggestions regarding the CourseReg system.
The school will send emails with information about the course registration exercise approximately one month before the start of each semester. Be mindful of the timeline and ensure you participate promptly. Before course registration, you need to declare your academic plan at least 24 hours in advance. You are allowed to submit only one declaration per semester and It is advisable to declare your academic plan at least one day before Round 1 of CourseReg begins. While there are no severe consequences if you forget to declare after Round 1 has started—since Round 1 typically lasts for two or three days—it’s still a good habit to complete everything on time.
CourseReg consists of three rounds (originally there is Round 0 but NUS removed it from AY24/25 onwards), and the courses available in each round may vary. For instance, in Round 1, students can only select courses that fulfil their program, minor, or other specific requirements, meaning you cannot register for GE-coded courses during this round. From Round 2 onwards, most courses will be open for registration. You can find more details on the NUS CourseReg official website:
https://www.nus.edu.sg/coursereg/using_coursereg_undergraduate.html
Here’s my first tip:
When declaring your academic plan, make sure to indicate any minors, 2nd majors or specialisations. This can give you an advantage when registering for courses. For example, EC1101E Introduction to Economic Analysis is a must-take for School of Computing (SoC) students who wish to minor in economics. If there’s only one vacancy left for EC1101E and two students are trying to register, the system will prioritise the student who declared Economics as their minor during the academic plan declaration. Therefore, even if you don’t plan to minor in Economics and just want to take EC1101E, it’s still recommended to declare it as part of your academic plan. Don’t worry about not meeting the requirements for the minor or specialisation later on; you can always change your academic plan next semester.
However, if you do intend to pursue a minor or second major, keep in mind that students can be admitted to Minor or Second Major programs either at the point of admission to NUS or by applying to the relevant Faculties/Schools no later than the end of their fifth semester. If you’re aiming for a Minor or Second Major, it’s important to declare early. Also, if you decide to drop your Minor or Second Major after the fifth semester, the courses you’ve taken for that programme will be counted as Unrestricted Electives (UEs), and your graduation certificate will not indicate that you had declared but didn’t fulfil the requirements.
Here's my second tip:
Now that you know GE-coded courses are only released from Round 2 onwards, you might be wondering how to secure a spot in popular GE courses, or any other popular courses which are released from Round 2. Some GE courses, like GESS1025, GEX1007, and CLC1101, are notoriously difficult to enrol in due to high competition. Here’s an interesting detail about the CourseReg system: when multiple students have the same Priority Score for a course and the demand exceeds the available slots, tie-breakers are used to determine the final allocation. The most prioritised tie-breaker is whether the student has reached the minimum workload (18 units).
This means that if you haven’t yet reached the minimum workload when registering for a course, you have an advantage over those who have already met the minimum workload in that round. To leverage this, you might consider intentionally not registering for enough courses during Round 1 and then ranking that highly sought-after course as your top choice in Round 2.
However, be cautious—this strategy is risky. You could end up missing out on your program electives due to high competition. Therefore, it’s only advisable to use this approach if the other necessary courses you plan to take this semester are not as difficult to get into.
If you want to know more about tie-breakers, you can refer to the CourseReg website as well:
https://www.nus.edu.sg/coursereg/using_coursereg_undergraduate.html
Third tip:
Review your major's graduation requirements carefully, ensuring you're referring to the correct cohort, as these requirements are frequently updated by school. For instance, from AY2023-24 onwards, BZA and IS students face changes in specialisation requirements. The previous Set I and II courses have been replaced, allowing students to select any 5 courses from the prescribed list. If you belong to an earlier cohort, be mindful to stick to the old requirements, and vice versa. Moreover, don't rely solely on study plans from senior students, as changes might affect your specialisation course selections.
You may refer to this youtube video for more information on NUS's course registration and modular system. Although it's from CHS instead of SoC, most of the things they covered are the same for all faculties and schools.
Module Recommendations - General Education Pillars:
I'll start by GE courses. Since I'm from SoC, my graduation requirements only include GEC, GEX, GESS, and GEN. If you're looking for details on GEA or GEI, you may need to seek additional resources. It's important to note that while all GE-coded courses fall under GE pillars, but not all courses within those pillars are GE-coded. For example, CLC1101 is categorised under the Communities and Engagement (GEN) pillar, and CS1010 under Digital Literacy (GEI). For more information, you can refer to the official website.
Firstly, GEC. Based on my own experience and feedback from friends, they often involve components like group projects, essays, presentations, exams, or a mix of these. It's best to take these courses with friends to avoid the hassle of finding group mates. Also, avoid choosing a GEC module based solely on its name, as it can be misleading. Always check the course description on NUSMods and search for reviews online.
Secondly, GEX. Popular modules are GEX1007 Darwin And Evolution and GEX1015 Life, The Universe, And Everything. I took GEX1014 Logic and I think it's quite good as well, you can find my detailed review in another post of mine:
https://nusmodsreview-yyz.blogspot.com/2024/08/2023-y2s1.html
Back to GEX. The focus of these courses is more on exams with less emphasis on group projects. Midterm and final exams, along with some graded assignments, are common. Again, researching the courses beforehand is advisable.
Thirdly, GESS. Well, unless you're aiming to boost your GPA or aren't keen on Singapore-related topics, yGESS1025 is highly recommended. It is interesting, has low workload, biweekly lessons ... most importantly, the grading is CSCU (at least for now AY 23-24).
Last, GEN. I am kind of unqualified to give advice as I tried bidding for CLC1101 for three semesters without success. Also, many GEN courses are difficult to enrol in, so it’s wise to clear your GEN requirement early. Since most GEN courses span a full academic year, completing 2 units per semester, enrolling in Y4S1 could delay your graduation as the results for some year-long GEN courses are released after the graduation season, so be sure to plan ahead to avoid complications.
Why do I create the blog...
A few days ago, a first-year student complained to me about her experience with a GEC course. She found the lectures extremely tedious and confusing during the first week's lecture. I asked if she had done any research on the course beforehand. She said no, she enrolled simply because of the title and the want to fulfil a GE pillar.
It actually made me laugh, because her story was such a deja vu. I experienced something similar two years ago. As a freshie, I was naive and inexperienced. Besides the four pre-allocated courses, I could only choose one more during the first semester. I was quite unclear about my major's graduation requirements at the time, except for the GE pillars. I looked through the list and, "Culture" was the only thing that made sense to me. I searched for GEC courses, skimmed through the names and thought, "Names as Markers of Social-Cultural Identities" sounds interesting! And I decided to go with that one.
That’s the introduction to the story of how I ended up being hunted by that GEC course during my first semester at NUS. Long story short, I received a B as my final grade, which I still think the professor showed some mercy on me.
Anyway, the junior's story made me reflect a lot. Throughout my time at NUS, I found it very challenging to find relevant information about courses. It can be easier if you know some seniors or friends who have taken these courses before. But what if you're a first-year student who doesn’t know any seniors and your friends are just as uncertain as you are? What if the course you're interested in is too niche, or you simply don't have enough friends who can provide useful information? Although Nusmods offers brief introductions for all the courses, a student's personal experience and thoughts can often be more helpful. In fact, other students' reviews play a crucial role in my decision-making process for course registration. If I can't find relevant and detailed reviews for a course, I usually choose not to enrol in it, even if the course introduction on Nusmods seems appealing.
Therefore, I believe it's a good idea for me to start my own blog where I share my thoughts and information on the courses I have taken. I hope this blog will be helpful, especially for first-year students who are lacking experience and feeling lost in the new environment.
PS. My grammars are just poor so I use a mix of simple present tense and simple past tense for the reviews. Sorry for the inconvenience but I guess you can get the overall idea.
The other side of the story...
I enrolled in BT4212 this semester (2024 Y3S1) and the Homework 1 requires students to set up a blog. What a cold and nasty story.
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