3.3
Content: 3.4Faculty: 3
Experience: 3.4
Workload: 2.7kg
Module Description:
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1,743 reviews on 10043 modules!
Reviewed: July 10th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
5
Content: 5 Faculty: 5 Experience: 5 Workload: 3Module Content:
No textbook is required. You only need the lecture notes and the tutorial answers which will be provided by the lecturer. The content covers probability and expectation in various games, permutation and combination, as well as game theory.
Teaching Staff:
Prof. Leung is funny. You can always expect random comments from him which will keep you awake. My tutor, a graduate student, Mr. , is also good. He explains each and every question clearly during tutorials, and he would also extends some questions for us to think deeper.
Assessment Details:
Final exam: 80% Mid-term exam: 20% Basically there is neither graded homework nor any projects for this module. Since final exam carries a weight of 80%, you have to be really careful when doing the paper. The paper tends to be tricky, so do come for tutorials during the semester.
Overall Experience & Feedback:
I enjoy the module since it dissects various games from a mathematical point of view. You get to understand about chances and probability in popular games like poker, backgammon, etc. In addition, I also get to learn new games that I’ve never heard of before. Most of the topics can be followed quite easily, except for the part on permutation and combination which I feel goes too deep for a general education module. Well, you get to learn why casino always makes money!
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Reviewed: August 9th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
3
Content: 3 Faculty: 3 Experience: 3 Workload: 2Module Content:
When i first decided to take this module, i thought this module would teach me to be a better gambler, like the god of gamble. However, it turned out to be otherwise, as what i learned were mostly counting the probability of getting certain combinations of cards and the expected profit from a game. For example, we learned that the expected profit of ANY game in the casino is NEGATIVE, which means gamblers are bound to lose money in the long run. The movie, "21", will be screened on the first lecture, but what you learn in this module is unrelated to counting cards... Should be an easy module for those who are comfortable with probabilities.
Teaching Staff:
Prof leung attempted to get us to appreciate as maths as something more than just numbers and formula, though it wasn't very successful. I find him to be a man who is very passionate about maths, and a pretty nice guy.
Assessment Details:
The mid-term, which carries a weightage of 20%, is open-booked and quite easy. I think many people scored full marks for the mid-term in my sems. The final, on the other hand, is not so easy and, in my opinion, requires critical thinking skills if you want to do well for it. A A4 doubled-sided cheat sheet can be used for the final term. I made a number of careless mistakes in the final, and yet i still scored A+ in the end. So, i guess maybe what the lecturer is really looking for is the correct application of concepts, rather than just having the right answers. Or maybe many other people just screwed up the final :D
Overall Experience & Feedback:
As the name suggests, this is a maths based module, in which you have to learn to solve problems with mathematical solutions, like any standard maths module. The pro is that maths majors are not allowed to take it. So if you think you are good at maths, i recommend you to go ahead and take it. Although lecture timing is pretty bad (8-10am), lectures are webcasted, most people will just skip the lectures.
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0 
0
Reviewed: August 24th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
0
Content: Faculty: Experience: Workload: 2Module Content:
simple probabilities and mathematics. if u take before o level maths. this is a breeze.
Teaching Staff:
prof leung. i don;t think u find lecturers like him anymore. uses graphic illustrattion to explain harder concepts.
Assessment Details:
one midterm that u will get full marks for. one final term that u better not make any careless mistakes or ur A is gone.
Overall Experience & Feedback:
only 3 tutorial questions for each week. what more can u ask for? slackest module in nus. ever. lecturer says he doesn’t like his students too stressed.
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1 
2
Reviewed: May 6th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
4
Content: 4 Faculty: 4 Experience: 4 Workload: 3Module Content:
Module covers probability theory, the binomial theorem, permutations and combinations and game theory. 1st part mostly about learning how to calculate the odds of winning for some casino games like poker, roulette and craps, pretty straightforward. After mids the content covered will be on the binomial theorem/P&C and game theory. I found the 2nd half of the syllabus quite hard to digest and apply. No textbooks needed, just notes, and even so I didn't really find them helpful. Lectures are at 8am in the morning, there are webcasts if you can't wake up. More understanding than memorization needed; the lecturer will guide you to think in an intuitive way so you can derive the formulas yourself should you ever forget them in the exams. Must take down notes during lecture if not when you go back and re-read your notes you might be pretty confused.
Teaching Staff:
Prof Leung likes to emphasize more on the "idea" rather than "knowledge". He has alot of philosophies about life and learning that he will share during the lectures (found it to be quite a time-waster when he did that, but interesting nonetheless). Pretty approachable and teaches using a more visual method, using drawings and diagrams. Not very strict, quite nice as well. Pace of teaching is okay, but as his accent is a little heavy, sometimes you will need to re-watch the webcasts to understand what he actually says.
Assessment Details:
Midterm 20% finals 80%. Midterms were open-book and we were allowed a helpsheet for finals. Helpsheet didn't turn out to be very useful in the end. Tutorials have only 3 questions every week, I think most people just go to tutorial lessons to copy down answers since they're rather hard to do on your own. Prof uploads the answers though. Useful to spot the topics that will probably be tested in the finals (most of the stuff after midterms will be tested. What you must spot is the earlier topics that didn't come out for midterms but will probably come out for finals.)
Overall Experience & Feedback:
Although consistent work is recommended, it is a last-min chiong-able module. But don’t leave the chionging to the day before exams, that’s too late. Overall, it was a pretty okay module, not that scary if you understand what’s going on. Manageable for an arts student like me, science students should have no problem. Math/stats/engin students are precluded from taking this module I think. Means less competition. I like how intuitive this module is. Means less memorizing heehee. Rather useful module for people who gamble, you get to understand why the house always has an advantage and you get to calculate your chances of winning at common table games but take note that THIS MODULE IS NOT ABOUT TEACHING YOU HOW TO GAMBLE. One of the content-light and cheaper science GEMs, won’t make your P account broke, hence it’s recommended for people who don’t want to spend too many points.
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1 
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Reviewed: May 30th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
3.3
Content: 5 Faculty: 2 Experience: 3 Workload: 3Module Content:
Module comprises a sizable portion on probability, peppered with other chapters such as Game Theory and signalling. There's no compulsory textbook stated in IVLE, but it's good to get The Mathematics of Games and Gambling by Edward Packel (the super old version can be found in Science library) for your cheatsheet and practices. Content-wise, this module isn't very heavy - very slack actually. You only need to take home a few important points each week, and topics such as P&C have already been taught in secondary school/JC. There are at most 3 questions for each weekly tutorial, but they can be quite difficult and not intuitive at all. Don't bother memorising the solutions or copying them onto your cheatsheet - it won't help much at all. What's more important is to UNDERSTAND and not memorise. It's more of intuition than exposure/experience.
Teaching Staff:
You can't find another lecturer who craps more than him in NUS. There are 2 2-hour lessons in a week, but he craps 3/4 of the time? That said, just stay at home and watch the webcasts - you wouldn't want to come at 8am to hear him digress and drone on and on and on forever. What's more, you can pause the videos and copy the more important notes + skip the parts where he's crapping. The TA's much better though. He's clear, concise and straight to the point. He is definitely much more approachable when it comes to asking questions. Don't bother asking the somewhat unfriendly lecturer - just email/see the TA.
Assessment Details:
20% mid-term, 80% final. Mid-terms are getting harder each year, since the lecturer likes to bomb everyone with his thinking questions - not straightforward at all! In my sem, less than 10 people scored full marks for the 2nd question. The lecturer was very lenient in his marking though; he tried to pass people wherever possible. The final was quite tough. There will be 4 questions - 2 straightforward (might be a little tricky) if you know your stuff and have done a comprehensive cheatsheet, 2 difficult questions where cheatsheets can't even save your ass. Apparently, most of the candidates found the exam tough too, so I guess there isn't much of a steep bell-curve in play.
Overall Experience & Feedback:
I am really thankful for the slackness of this module since I can allot more time for my other heavier modules. If you love probability, you should take this. Crazy lecturer aside, I actually enjoyed the content.
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1 
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Reviewed: December 30th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
3.7
Content: 3 Faculty: 3 Experience: 5 Workload: 3Module Content:
Content is light, if not very light. Compared to other science modules or gem, the lecture notes are printed in incredibly large font size and every lecture note is basically 10 to 20 plus slides. The lectures talk about different games such as poker cards, backgammon, bridge and the mathematical theories behind them. If you have taken A-level probability, this should be a fairly easy module. The more challenging part is probably the binomial expansion part. But that's the only challenging part in the whole module I think. We watched movie <21> for the first two lectures. Teaching pace is slow and easy to digest.
Teaching Staff:
Prof Leung is a very inspiring lecturer, someone who is willing to answer all questions and reply your emails in a very engaging manner. He focuses more on fun side of mathematics and hope to make students to see that. You can always share your lesson learnt in the class and talk to him about other mathematical problems that you see in life (eg. CORS bidding system in NUS) . He is very approachable and patient to students. I think NUS will progress better if we have more teachers like him, someone who always wanted to inspire students and does not ask students to swallow the books by focusing more on the concepts. My tutor is bad nonetheless. He didn't prepare the tutorial answers before coming to tutorial and ask students to solve the questions when he finds that he can't solve it on the spot. Soon after the first few tutorials i have decided not to go for tutorial anymore. Answer of tutorial questions will be uploaded anyway.
Assessment Details:
Midterm is easy. Open-booked and straight forward, Prof Leung has tried his every effort to make students pass. If you need more time, he will allow that. If you need clue, he will screen the clue on the LCD in the lecture hall. Where else can you find such a kind lecturer? As expected, most students will score very well in midterms and hence finals will be the key to determine your grade. Make sure you understand the concepts behind every slide (there are not many slides afterall) and that should be okay to get a good grade.
Overall Experience & Feedback:
I highly recommend this module to students who are eligible to take it (they banned students from engineering, mathematics, statistics and applied math) Workload is light, if you listen to his lecture every week and understand the concepts behind it. This module is particularly useful when you are taking extra modules.
This module is fun, content is light and interesting, lecturer is good. Although the class is at 8am but there are webcast lectures. I only attended the first two lectures and the first few tutorials after I realized that attendance to tutorials is not graded (my tutor is the worst tutor i have ever met in nus). I got an A in the end. I found it the slackest yet easiest module to score in NUS. And it’s interesting!
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0 
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Reviewed: January 10th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
4
Content: 4 Faculty: 4 Experience: 4 Workload: 3Module Content:
Quite light, no textbooks needed, practically no readings. Easy to understand, can last min chiong some of the topics. 1st part of module is mostly probability and P&C, second part is more about game theory and maximising your payoffs. Relevant and interesting
Teaching Staff:
Prof Leung explains concepts visually so you can visualise them. helpful because i'm a visual learner. He also teaches you how to derive the stuff on your own incase you ever forget. Accent is quite heavy though and he's a bit lor sor, but other than that, not too bad, at least he explains stuff!
Assessment Details:
Midterm and finals only.. Midterms everyone will do well, finals slightly hard.
Overall Experience & Feedback:
Quite interesting. you get to learn the probabilities of getting certain combinations or of you winning a hand, etc. Very relevant. Please don’t be misled by the name, it doesn’t teach you how to gamble. would recommend this module if you want one of the more fun math gems/ looking for something light. it’s cheap as well (i got it for 1 point that sem), so added bonus!
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0 
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