The Module-Review team dropped by NTU to participate in AISEC’s Bazaar on 13 August.
Module-Review.com was conceptualised as a tool to help students, and we are glad to have this opportunity to interact with the NTU community.
“Wow…this is so helpful! I didn’t know such a thing exists!” It is expressions like these that keep us going, and we hope to bring what we have achieved in NUS to the NTU community as well.
If we didn’t get to chat with you at the bazaar, free to drop us an email for a virtual one!
The module selection period is finally over…whew! Hope you got the modules on your wishlist.
We want to thank you guys for the enthusiastic support you have given us over these two weeks – our servers were bombarded with traffic 24/7! A random tidbit: Uni students are really nocturnal, browsing through modules even at 2am!
We apologise for the lag and downtime some of you experienced in this time. We took shifts monitoring and ramping up our server resources whenever there were signs of imminent failure, but we were caught surprised a couple of times too! We’ll be moving stability to the top of our to-do list to figure out how to better prepare ourselves in future.
We promise the next semester will be a better one – all the best for your semester and see you after the exams this December!
Happy holidays! We hope you’re enjoying the well deserved break with friends and family.
Before we take a break to enjoy the holidays as well, we’d like to introduce a new feature we’ve been working on at Module-Review.com: Professor Reviews!
Professor Reviews
As students ourselves, we know that the content and workload of a module doesn’t translate directly to grades – all the help from professors and academic staff also play a huge part in making that score on your report card!
With professor reviews, you can drop a message recommending that awesome lecturer, or suggest ways for professor X to teach better in classes.
Try it out today – simply search for your professor from the search box or via the Module Browser to get started!
Raffles Studio Promotion
The winners of our previous Facebook event contest are: Mäbell Lew, Chua Jia Zhen and Goh Cai Yun. Congratulations!
Are you a graduating student? Good news! Module-Review.com has teamed up with Raffles Studio this year to bring you great deals on graduation photoshoots!
Simply share our photo or a review on your Facebook wall by 14 July 2012 to stand a chance to win a free graduation family portrait worth $280 – we’ve 6 prizes up for grabs!
As always, drop us a message at feedbaack@module-review.com if you encounter any issues, have any suggestions or just want to chat!
3 attendees to the Facebook Event and 6 lucky reviews stand a chance to win FREE graduation photo shoot packages worth $280! Redemption codes will be distributed by 30th June 2012.
Enjoy $30 off your family graduation photo shoot at Raffles Studio, Singapore’s most preferred people photography studio since 1947.
View and select from photos printed immediately after the shoot with high-end medium format “Leaf” digital back.
Simply post a review on Module-Review.com between 1st to 22nd June 2012 to receive a redemption code at your registered email address*, or present this brochure at Raffles Studio. Your contribution will help juniors in need during module selection periods.
Visit Module-Review.com for more information, or call 6324 4423 / email sales@rafflesstudio.com to make your appointment with Raffles Studio today.
*Terms & Conditions apply. Valid for one redemption per graduating student enrolled in institutions listed on module-review.com. Valid for graduation studio photo package services. Present this voucher or email your redemption code to sales@rafflesstudio.com to enjoy this special promotion. Valid till 31st December 2012. Voucher is not exchangeable for cash, non-transferable and non-refundable.
First thing that was really striking was that lectures over here are 2 hours at a time – not so bad unless your timetable dictates that you have three in a row! Also the day here is much longer – lectures can start anytime from 8am and finish up til 10 at night – this is very unlikely that you will be in this time but it is common in Psychology and Law modules that you may have lectures between 6-10pm.
One thing I must stress: Make sure that you find out who your advisor is over here before choosing modules. During the application process you should be choosing them anyway however when you get here it’s important to know which combination of these to take in forst and second semester. I didn’t know we had advisors over here (often they have a specific faculty advisor for exchange students). This meant that I ended up taking the three modules with the heaviest workloads (plus two regular modules) all within the first semester which really isn’t recommended!
Most modules within the Science faculties equate to 50 hours teaching time throughout the whole semester and usually consists of division into lectures, labs, tutorials etc. Some may have no labs, some may have no tutorials, it’s totally dependant on the module. Unless you do a science or engineering module it is very unlikely that you will do labs, although I believe there is one specific psychology lab module.
Obviously the lecturers will also vary . The emphasis over here seems to be very much on cramming as much information as possible in biology! I have to admit within my modules so far I haven’t really been impressed with the lecturers as I found they lacked the enthusiasm that most Glasgow lecturers did, however I have heard off many other students that thier lecturers were very good. One site I found to be very useful in assessing this is http://module-review.com which allows you to read reviews on each modyule including the lecturers, teaching assistants, workloads and emphasis on what to read for the exams etc.
It took me a while to settle into student life in Singapore, maybe a little longer than most I think. Luckily another exchange from my course at Glasgow also happened to be doing most modules I was which was a huge help in revising and generally just being sympathetic to me being homesick! One of the advantages was that when doing labs you can actually choose your own lab partner which definately made the six hours more enjoyable!
Good news for Science students (sorry guys but this is my major, however I will post info about other faculties if I do come across it!) the labs here are FANTASTIC. The extra funding with the university being privatised has definately been reflected in the labs which were not only very enjoyable but easily allowed us to do more complex procedures than second year labs in Glasgow from what I hear. I took LSM2202 which was experimental cell and moleclar biology which allows you to isolate and manipulkate mRNA and DNA in various ways – it’s fairly difficult on the tests (still waiting on results) but the experiance you get from it is definately a selling piont to take the module and it is mainly lab based as well. (Any of the ‘Experimental’ modules are in high demand though).
One thing about NUS is that they DO grade on a curve: Meaning you are competing against people in your class for grades! This basically means the highest marks get the A’s the lowest get F’s and the averages get C’s/B’s. This sounds similar to back home but does mean that the module is not giving out so many A’s or F’s that the integrity of teaching is disputed. I.e. a fairly simple module is often still competitive as you can score very highly but it’s a case of the top recentile which will get the A. This is a terrifying concept but is good because if you find a test difficult (and everyone else does badly too) chances are you won’t have failed but will still get a fair grade.
I have been told that exchange students are graded slightly differently so thier class curves aren’t skewed too much however rumours I have heard regarding this include: Not failing exchange students, grading them more leniantely, grading them on a seperate curve etc. but I genuinely do not know the validity of these claims!
Since our previous launch over a year ago, we’ve been adding more and more features to Module-Review.com to improve your browsing experience. With the latest v3 upgrade, some of you may have experienced additional delays on some parts to the website.
We’ve received your comments and feedback, and are glad to announce that we’ve just moved to the cloud – a brand new server to handle the thousands of visitors we get each day!
Logon and feel the speed boost right now!
You may feel some “turbulence” as we settle Module-Review.com into its new home – please hold on tight and let us know if you need any help with the new site!
We are always working towards a better experience for our users, and feedback is always appreciated. Once again, on behalf of new and current students, thank you for supporting Module-Review.com!
Singapore, Feb 17, 2012 – Module-Review.com, a homegrown community website for tertiary students to rate and review academic modules, announces a website revamp for a faster and more seamless browsing experience.
Module-Review.com, a familiar name among NUS students, updated its website today with a new user interface and additional features such as professor reviews and Facebook integration, stepping ahead in the revolution of social networking sites.
Among many other new features, Module-Review.com users can now choose to view or suggest modules their peers have taken, are taking, or are interested in taking in the latest update through Facebook Connect integration.
With the new Module Browser, users can also search and sort through modules and professors with the highest or lowest ratings, grades, and workloads among many other variables, determined by aggregates of reviews on the module or professor.
Jace Liew, CEO Module-Review.com, described the update as “an indication of our commitment to improve students’ grades through the power of the web and community”.
“We have received hundreds of comments from our users from when we first started Module-Review.com, which we have evaluated and put into this update,” he said.
Module-Review.com was launched in 2006 by Jace, then a student in NUS, as a solution to dilemmas students faced when selecting modules.
“At that time, you could only know how a module was like by asking your seniors who have taken the module previously. I wanted to take that information and pool it together as a resource for everyone to tap into,” explained Jace, who set out to create Module-Review.com with a fellow student.
“By collecting opinions and reviews from everyone and putting it on a central platform, students can better research on modules to take up while professors can also better evaluate and modify their syllabuses to suit students’ needs,” he said.
Module-Review.com quickly became popular among the NUS community, gathering over 2,600 reviews and some 3,000 registered users since, with media coverage from Lianhe Zaobao, Omy.sg, MyPaper and NTU Tribune. It has since listed academic modules for other local universities and polytechnics too.
Module-Review.com received a S$50,000 grant from SPRING Singapore in 2011 under a government scheme to boost innovative startups in Singapore.
For more information, visit Module-Review.com or contact Ryan Lee at ryan[at]module-review[dot]com.
We’ve been working hard at Module-Review for the past few months (we hope you are at school too!), and we’re thrilled to announce a major upgrade to our website!
Since our launch in 2006, we’ve been continually striving to serve the needs of the student community. Our refreshed website is the result of analyzing years of data and feedback, which we couldn’t have obtained without your help (thanks a bunch)!
We’ve made so many improvements to our website, our email program will crash if we listed them all! Instead, here are some of the most exciting changes:
Better search. A complete overhaul of the Module Browser means that modules now can be sorted by individual variables and filtered by friend activity.
Better browsing. A clean new layout on our module pages, complete with statistics and graphs, ensures that the most important information reaches your eyes first.
Better reviewing. A simplified review format and a new request review feature on our module pages improves reviewing experience.
Professor reviews. Modules are as important as the professors teaching them. We’ve added a whole new professor review section so you can be better prepared for that module.
Better experience. Improvements to the methods our servers use to handle data and traffic equals to a better, speedier experience.
If you spot any bugs, please do help report them to our developers via the feedback tab on the left. They’ll squash them out with their ninja coding skills.
We hope you enjoy the all-new Module-Review as much as we enjoyed developing it! If you need help navigating the new website, have questions, feedback or just want to chat, send us an email via the feedback tab on the left and we’d be happy to chat!
—
Jace Liew, Executive Officer
Ryan Lee, Brand Officer
