Wednesday 3 June 2015

Last Academic Update AY2014/15 Sem 02

As the morning sun rose and crept into my bedroom, I sat in front of the desk, where I had spent countless hours grinding for the past 4 years, anxiously awaiting for the moment my phone vibrates and reveals the outcome. 

A blend of anticipation and trepidation engulfed me. The same cocktail of emotions which overcame me when I was still a freshie waiting for my Yr1 Sem1 result. But this time, more is at stake. I needed at least an A- for FYP in order to achieve the First Class Hons (FCH) I worked so hard for, and in turn, a FCH means quite a significant difference (+8.2%) in my starting pay.

The phone buzzed and there it was, ST4199 A-. Exuberance awash me as my efforts have bore fruit. It has been a long journey. When I first set foot in NUS, I worried about my ability to cope; then I started worrying about not being able to get an internship; I was quite depressed when my job applications were rejected repeatedly by Dept of Stats (Singstat); And my FYP was quite a mess, hence I was very worried about my grade. Luckily, things always turn out fine.

ST4199 Honours Project in Statistics A-
ST4232 Nonparametric Statistics A-
ST4242 Analysis of Longitudinal Data B+
ST4245 Statistical Methods for Finance  A

MC160
CAP4.70

ST4232
The content is very light. The entire syllabus consists of approximatedly 70-80 pages worth of content. The materials taught are also quite easy. A/P Yu Tao likes to read off lecture notes, but his explanation generally helps to clear doubts. Assignments and final exam were manageable.

ST4242
The Content is heavy, and the module requires a lot of SAS coding which I am not very well-versed with. Spent a lot of time doing trial and error to get some output from SAS for my tutorials and I have no idea what's going for the most of the semester. Overall, I did not have a good experience with this module. Module was taught by A/P Li Jialiang.

ST4245
For people who have taken Financial Economics (EC3333), Applied Time Series Analysis (ST3233), and Linear Model (ST4233), there were not many new concepts introduced. As usual, Prof Xia Yingcun's midterm and final exams follow his tutorials closely. As long as you understand the tutorials, the exams will be manageable.

If anyone would like to get a softcopy of the lecture notes, tutorials for any of the modules I have taken, you may access them through this link: NUS Modules. Do note that, I don't have any secret study or access to pyp solutions. The files I share will contain only lecture notes, tutorials (+ solutions), assignments (+ solutions), and perhaps some pyp obtained from the library portal. Hence, asking me for materials towards the end of the semester is kind of pointless. The materials are meant for people who are keen to read ahead, or have a glimpse of the contents before they bid for the modules.

That's all for my last academic update. I am not sure if I will still be posting anymore academically related post in the future. I hope the series of module reviews and freshmen guides had help some of you. Feel free to contact me if you have any doubts related to the course, I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. Bye.