Also, I have decided to not update my grades from Y1S2 onward. As such, I will be leaving the previous review post on my Y1S2 mods unedited.
Do leave some comments and any questions you might have on my post or you could email me at the email address stated above. I will be happy to provide any advice I can. :)
List of things accomplished in May/June:
1. Successfully studied and passed my Unity Certified Developer (or Unity Certified Associate) Course and am awaiting the badge to submit for reimbursement.
2. Successfully completed my GERPE-BM Special Term module, awaiting results next month.
3. Applied for and am going to finish a job of being a student helper at Hall 5. I originally wanted to pen down my experiences after the thing was done but I think I shall jump the gun a bit.
4. Finished the preparations for designing the S clan flag and am now awaiting the availability of the materials to start fleshing it out.
5. Downloaded and am playing Overhit. I will be doing a mini review of the game as well.
List of things in progress:
1. Tried to practice the piano again. I tried to play 2 old songs but had to stop again due to the finals period for my BM module.
2. Tried to train for upcoming IPPT in August. I only managed to do one session in 2 months mainly due to studying for my certification and BM which left little time to commit to training.
3. Attempted to practice how to write with my left hand. I was actually quite interested to see if I could gain some proficiency using my left hand. It was supposed to be a pet project of sorts but had to take a back seat due to exams. I'll be trying again in July.
4. Draw some characters in my leisure time. I wanted to draw Alita: Battle Angel but the fire quickly faded off. I'm currently drawing Lu Lingqi from DW8 but am not very confident she might turn out well.
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After such a busy June, I intend to let July be more chill. While the plan to study for next semester will still proceed as normal, I intend to let the extra time in July be used on completing as much of the IP stuff as possible.
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COURSE REVIEW PORTION:
Y1SS: May 2019 - June 2019
General comments on what I did well, what I could have improved on etc will be included at the end of the post. I will also update the final results when they are out.
Each course is broken up into the following parts:
1. Marks and assessment component of the course
2. Course mechanics
3. Short Intro
4. Easy parts
5. Difficult parts
6. Exams/ final paper
7. Tips to do well
8. Overview/ my personal (MIGHT BE BIASED) comments
YEAR 1 SPECIAL SEMESTER (3AU):
GER-PE: BU8601 FUNDAMENTALS OF MANAGEMENT (3AU), (GRADED)
CORE/MPE AU CLEARD: 22/61, TOTAL AU OF GRADED COURSES: 32 /69, TOTAL AU CLEARED: 37/141
=== REVIEW PORTION ===
BU8601 - Fundamentals of Management (Y1SS/3AU)
Lecturer: Dr Vijayan Munusamy, Mr Ng Sin Ain
Tutor: Dr Vijayan Munusamy, Mr Ng Sin Ain
Tutorial/ Class Participation (10%): A
I would say the difficult (or fun depending on who you get) part would be the group project. In my experience, it is ABSOLUTELY crucial to get teammates who have the same goals so that everyone puts in effort for the project. I daresay the project may very well be the differentiating factor to separate the A students from the rest hence it is important to get good teammates to achieve a good grade for the 30%.
Despite saying that the exam can be studied by the revision notes alone, it should be noted that the inverse is not true i.e. what is in the notes may not come out in the exams. For me, the notes included things like Herzberg 2 Factor and Equity Theory but the final exam did not ask a single one. Also, it is important to note every single detail of the revision notes as there can be some tricky questions in the exam. I will not say what here but my advice is to thoroughly memorize the revision notes.
As for the Group Project, the grades for the 30% and tutorial participation 10% should be released before finals so for those taking in the normal semester, these could be an indicator for potential S/U.
1. Marks and assessment component of the course
Tutorial/ Class Participation (10%): A
Group Project (30%): A
Finals (60%): ?
2. Course mechanics
There are 2 lessons per week in seminar-style, 3h each comprising both lecture and tutorial. This is different from the usual semester lecture/tutorial format according to Dr Vijay. Finals is a 2h paper. Class part is self-explanatory and the Group Project includes getting into groups of 4-5 and submitting a 4500-word report by the end of the course (or by a certain lesson I can't remember).
3. Short Intro
Truth be told, I took 8601 because the other available modules for Y1SS did not appeal to me. I did not want to do marketing and Business Finance seemed to much trouble to go through. Accounting was definitely out as well since I was tired of dealing with numbers. Anyway, 8601 has a lot of what I would categorize as fluff and filler as I feel that most of what is taught is probably not applicable in the real workplace at all. I can see why a lot of people skipped out on the lessons in the normal semester. As a note, the only reason people went for class in special term was probably because we specifically paid for it. Also, this is one of the few BU courses that has finals.
Truth be told, I took 8601 because the other available modules for Y1SS did not appeal to me. I did not want to do marketing and Business Finance seemed to much trouble to go through. Accounting was definitely out as well since I was tired of dealing with numbers. Anyway, 8601 has a lot of what I would categorize as fluff and filler as I feel that most of what is taught is probably not applicable in the real workplace at all. I can see why a lot of people skipped out on the lessons in the normal semester. As a note, the only reason people went for class in special term was probably because we specifically paid for it. Also, this is one of the few BU courses that has finals.
4. Easy parts
I would go out on a limb to say that one does not have to study this course at all throughout the entire duration. The only important lesson to attend would be the revision lecture as it would be the most beneficial for those who are squeezed for time. The revision lecture notes should suffice for self-study for the final paper. For me, I went for most of the lessons because of the stated reason above and also because of class part (though I don't think they even knew who went because they didn't take attendance).
5. Difficult parts
I would say the difficult (or fun depending on who you get) part would be the group project. In my experience, it is ABSOLUTELY crucial to get teammates who have the same goals so that everyone puts in effort for the project. I daresay the project may very well be the differentiating factor to separate the A students from the rest hence it is important to get good teammates to achieve a good grade for the 30%.
6. Exams/ final paper
Despite saying that the exam can be studied by the revision notes alone, it should be noted that the inverse is not true i.e. what is in the notes may not come out in the exams. For me, the notes included things like Herzberg 2 Factor and Equity Theory but the final exam did not ask a single one. Also, it is important to note every single detail of the revision notes as there can be some tricky questions in the exam. I will not say what here but my advice is to thoroughly memorize the revision notes.
As for the Group Project, the grades for the 30% and tutorial participation 10% should be released before finals so for those taking in the normal semester, these could be an indicator for potential S/U.
7. Tips to do well
As mentioned, it is extremely important to get cooperative groupmates who are willing to work on the report together. Do not be afraid to ask upfront during the group formation in the first lesson whether prospective members intend to S/U the course or not. In fact, Dr Vijay encouraged us to be direct about our intentions to avoid conflicts down the road.
Memorize the notes down to the very last detail to cement the content for the exam. A significant amount of marks come directly from the content.
During the exam, read the questions first before reading the case. This helps to save time by knowing what to look out for when reading the case later on. It also allows for immediate answering of content-based questions to get warmed up for the tougher questions in the paper.
Memorize the notes down to the very last detail to cement the content for the exam. A significant amount of marks come directly from the content.
During the exam, read the questions first before reading the case. This helps to save time by knowing what to look out for when reading the case later on. It also allows for immediate answering of content-based questions to get warmed up for the tougher questions in the paper.
8. Overview/ my personal (MIGHT BE BIASED) comments
This course is not a hard course. I was extremely lucky to get nice groupmates who were very cooperative and helpful to each other. I'm grateful that they offered to tank the Literature Analysis when I didn't go for lesson as I was sick and they also offered to do the final report when I had to study and take my Unity exam. Of course, I made it for the group meetings and did the report introduction (which was an explicit grading criteria) and overall checking, trimming and formatting before submission (note that there are specifics for the formatting to be followed). Will never forget that we stayed up till 4.30am to rush and submit the report a few hours before the deadline LOL.
During the last lesson, the group beside us broke down because and one of the girls started scolding some of her groupmates for apparent slipshod work. It was damn awkward for us as we listened in and I had to pretend to go to the toilet because apparently things got heated in the room LOL. Also, one of their guys never showed up for class before and only went for the first and last lessons so it really drives home the point of having teammates with the same goals for the group project.
Big shoutout to Ben, KW, Xin Li and Vanessa. Thank you guys for being the most awesome groupmates I've met to date and I wish you all the best for whatever you have!
Unlike the regular reviews, I will not be following any format for this review as it is not an NTU course.
==
EXTERNAL COURSE REVIEW: UNITY CERTIFIED DEVELOPER COURSE
Unlike the regular reviews, I will not be following any format for this review as it is not an NTU course.
I took this hoping to gain an insight into how to make my own game. I took it during the winter holidays in December and was supposed to clear it by Sem 2. However, due to various factors, it had to be dragged till post-finals to finish.
This course cost me $1700 to take and can be claimed from IMDA under the CITREP scheme. It was quite a big factor in convincing me to take it up seeing as how I would essentially be paying $0 to go through. However, I did not pass the first attempt and had to spend $200 on a second attempt. Thankfully, I cleared it in the second try.
The course I took was quite rushed as the curriculum was squeezed into one month. We had 2 lessons per week and each lesson was packed with a lot of content. The entire curriculum consisted of us making our own version of a game using content provided in Unity's asset store. I got lost halfway and did not manage to get a working game. As of this writing, the unfinished files are still in my laptop somewhere and I intend to try again during the summer holidays of Y2.
Truth be told, I would that I did gain some form of insight into Unity. I roughly know (but not necessarily understand) some features and mechanics but I would not go as far as to say I grasp the full extent of what was taught. The actual knowledge and skillset required stretches far beyond whwat is taught and there are many extensive manuals that provide much more information. It would require a lot of time just to read through the literature and practice them, let alone create a working game. As mentioned, I have allocated some time to tinker around in Unity after Y2.
I also got to meet some working adults through the course and interact with them. The guy beside me was proficient in Unreal Engine and he said that Unreal was way harder to navigate than Unity. There was another guy in front of me who was from SIT-DigiPen if I remember correctly, and I think the course content was easy for him as he would have been dealing with stuff that was much more complex than Unity. It felt like I was in a class full of pros and I was one of the few noobs who had to start from scratch.
Exam-wise, I would say that it is essential to go through the courseware provided. There is a lot of content to muscle through and I had to skip some chapters due to the rush to clear everything before the exams. The exam is 100 MCQ and a score of at least 500/700 (~70%) is required to pass.
Ultimately, I feel that game development, as with any other skill, requires time to learn and master and cannot be fully achieved in such a short period of time like they advertise. It would be wise to follow up post exam to achieve maximum learning if the goal is to produce a functional game that can be exported into the App Store. I was not able to do so, unfortunately.
I would recommend going for this to gain basic exposure into game development with an established game engine. Ideally, a significant amount of time outside the classroom should be allocated to try out the various features available, hence I would strongly recommend this to NSFs who have time to kill before university and any other student with some time on their hands.
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I will be uploading my review for Overhit in the next entry as I am rushing to upload this and prepare for my Penang trip in a few minutes. Might do a review on that as well now that I think about it.
As usual, please leave comments or any questions and I will reply them as soon as I can! :)
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