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Modules Taken During NTU Year 1 Computer Science

After one whole year studying computer science in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), I’d try to summarize my impression on each module. See also: Modules Taken During NTU Year 2 Computer Science

Taken during AY2013/14 Sem 1

Computer Science Core

CZ1001 Discrete Mathematics

Lectures attended: 90% (A/P Anwitaman Datta, Asst/P Seow Kiam Tian)
Tutorials attended: 100% (A/P Anwitaman Datta; I love his tutorial. He motivated students to give different attempts and challenge thinking.)
Assessment: 2 Mid-Term Exam (Once in Tutorial, Once in Lecture), 1 Final Exam
Comment: I did all tutorials and had a good experience with exchanging ideas in tutorials.
Download: CZ1001-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

CZ1002 Introduction to Computing System

Lectures attended: 50% (Dr. Li Fang, Dr. Li Qin)
Tutorials attended: 95% (Asst/P Luo Jun?)
Assessment: 1 Website, 1 Final Exam
Comment: I noted all answers during tutorials, useful for revision.
Download: CZ1002-Summary.pdf

CZ1003 Introduction to Computational Thinking

Lectures attended: 70% (A/P Fu Chi-Wing, Philip, A/P Tang Xueyan; they are quite clear)
Tutorials attended: 100% (A/P Tang Xueyan)
Assessment: 2 Assignments(Matching Digit Sequence, Text Hangman Game), 1 Final Exam
Comment: Quite manageable module, make yourself familiar with Python 3 language as well as computational thinking.

CZ1004 Great Ideas in Computing

2 AU
Lectures attended: 50% (A/P Woo Wing Keong, A/P Ramakrishna Kakarala)
Tutorials attended: 100% (A/P Woo Wing Keong)
Assessment: Presentation 20%, TWiki 20%, Peer Voting 20%, Survey 10%, Quizzes 30%
Comment: A lame module which I did not think it served much practical use. Theoretically, it should expand students’ perspective on computing knowledge. The group project was to present a certain Great Ideas; my group did on Graphical User Interfaces. I made a serious mistake in final quiz, which caused me around 20% overall, so got a B overall while my group-mates averaged around B+.

CZ1005 Digital Logic

Lectures attended: 70% (A/P Chan Syin, A/P Douglas Maskell, Dr. Lam Siew Kei)
Tutorials attended: 100% (Forgot his name, a Singaporean Chinese middle-age man, explains things quite clearly, gives PowerPoint answers)
Assessment: Lab Quizzes 30%, Final Exam 70%
Comment: Get a good understanding of circuits and FSM. I did all tutorials.

General Education Requirement – Core

HW0110 Effective Communication

2 AU
Lectures attended: 30% (Dr. Lee Chien Ching et al.)
Tutorials attended: 100% (Mr. Joe MacKinnon)
Assessment: 3 Assignments (Wk 7 group-based article critique 35%, Wk 10 individual speech 35%, Wk 10 individual essay 15%), Class Participation 15%
Comment: B+ for group assignment, did well for individual speech, A- overall.

General Education Requirement – Prescribed Electives (GERPE)

ES8005 Environmental Earth System Science

Lectures attended: 95% (Asst/P. Adam Switzer, Dr. Christos Gouramanis; I like Adam’s lecture)
Assessment: 2 Mid-Term Exam, 1 Final Exam (All MCQ)
Comment: This module is mostly geology. Having no JC Geography background, I found this module interesting and still manageable. Lecture slides are of good quality, 60-100 slides per 3 hour lecture. Expected an A- at least, but received a B+ due to forgetting to study one whole chapter for final exam.
Download: ES8005-mid-term1.pdfES8005-mid-term2.pdf

Unrestricted Electives (UE)

Nil for this sem.

Taken during AY2013/14 Sem 2

Computer Science Core

CZ1006 Computer Organisation and Architecture

Lectures attended: 30% (A/P Goh Wooi Boon, Dr Jason Teo Kian Jin)
Tutorials attended: 90% (Dr Jason Teo; I like his tutorials, though he takes attendance. He gives PowerPoint answers on screen after discussion)
Labs: Compulsory attendance with quizzes, MC needed for make-up labs
Assessment: 4 lab quizzes (30-40%, best 3 out of 4), 1 final exam (60-70%)
Comment: I felt that the labs helped to reinforce concepts, while attempts to solve past year questions helped understanding. The first part focuses on Assembly Programming using an SCE’s own VIP language. For second part, I was confused quite a bit when I missed the initial few lectures after Mid-Term break. For revision, I made a 4-page summary for the second part, containing most lecture materials.
Download: CZ1006-Part-II-Summary.pdf

CZ1007 Data Structures

Lectures attended: 30% (A/P Hui Siu Cheung, Mr Mark Yong Chuen-Tze; I like these two lecturers, easy to understand and follow)
Tutorials attended: 30% (Asst/P Kim Jung-Jae; He tries to interact and ask students to write on whiteboard, and show you his codes afterwards using PowerPoint)
Labs: Sign-in at labs each week, but neither is there any assessment during labs, nor has anyone to check your actual attendance.
Assessment: 2 assignments (1st on C Language, don’t leave it until the last a few days, u’ll panic; 2nd on Data Structure, relatively easier, but do consider boarder cases, I lost mark on only one of all the test cases, sadly), 1 Final Exam.
Comment: Do make yourself very familiar with pointers, the concepts of linked-list, head, and performing the common tasks with the various structures.

CZ1008 Engineering Mathematics

Lectures attended: 30% (A/P Kong Wai-Kin Adams, A/P Lau Chiew Tong)
Tutorials attended: 30% (A/P Qian Kemao)
Labs: Attendance taken, no assessments.
Assessment: 2 Mid-Term Exams, 1 Final Exam (Open Book)
Comment: Very standard JC H2 Maths materials. I took out the most important slides from the second part so one may quickly grasp all needed information, as the exam is open book. Try to practise past-year papers.
Download: CZ1008-Part-I-Cheat-Sheet.pdfCZ1008-Part-II-Summary.pdf

CZ2003 Computer Graphics and Visualisation

Lectures attended: 70% (A/P Alexei Sourin, A/P Zheng Jianmin; disappointed by this module especially Alexei, unable to deliver clear lecture contents; recordings not posted until Mid-Term break)
Tutorials attended: 90% (A/P Alexei Sourin； Even though he mumbles and fumbles, he shows .doc answers on screen after failed discussions)
Labs: attendance taken, submission only after the final lab.
Assessment: 1 Coursework, 1 Final Exam
Comment: Note that VRML syntax is not part of exam topics, so don’t feel too intimated by the labs. There are only a few formulae (Pythagorean, matrix calculation, vector calculation, bilinear surface and other shapes’ equations, Phong illumination model, transformations) used in the calculations in final exam. Train yourself to be imaginative with 3D spatial arrangements when you think of those questions.

CZ2004 Human Computer Interaction

Lectures attended: 50% (A/P Cham Tat Jen, A/P Vladimir Pavlovic)
Tutorials attended: 90% (A/P Cham Tat Jen)
Labs: compulsory attendance for two of the five sessions, submission one week after the relevant lab sessions.
Assessment: 3 assignments (Lo-Fi prototype, hand-drawn, 18%; Review on a classmate’s Lo-Fi prototype, 6%; Hi-Fi prototype, PowerPoint, 16%), Final exam 60%.
Comment: A heck of a lot of memorization during revision!! I tried to condense everything in the first part into a 12-page Cheat-Sheet, but didn’t have time for the second part. I did past-year papers and learned from the better suggested answers.
Download: CZ2004-Part-I-Summary.pdf

General Education Requirement – Core

Nil for this sem.

General Education Requirement – Prescribed Electives (GERPE)

HG8001 Language Puzzle: The Study of Human Language

Lectures attended: 100% (Dr. Joanna Sio Ut Seong; no lecture recording, but very interesting)
Assessment: 2 Mid-Term (40%, all MCQ), 1 Final Exam (60%, MCQ and short questions)
Comment: This is my most appreciated module of this year. The lectures are interesting. There was one time we had an comedian came in did a live show, another had a demonstrator for sign-language, and one more showed a documentary of code-switching in multilingual community, and many more were with shorter videos interleaved. The lecturer was able to deliver clear lecture contents and reference textbook was helpful in clearing up should one requires more information.
Download: HG8001 Materials on Google Drive

Unrestricted Electives (UE)

HH2017 History of Information Technology

Lectures attended: 100% (Asst/P Hallam Stevens; No recordings; Class Size: about 30)
Tutorials attended: 100% (Class size: about 18)
Assessment: Participation 20%, Presentation 25%, Midterm Test 25%, Multimedia Report 30%. No final exam.
Comment: I took the course as the scope concerning technology interested me. This module starts from engine machine era, walks through the various technologies and devices, all the way into 21st century social networks. It helped me to gain a more comprehensive view on why and how a certain technology came about and influenced and got influenced by the society. I gave a presentation on Apple II, which took me about one full week to prepare it, did relatively well; whereas for final website report I did on history of Windows, averagely done. Mid-Term was to write everything you know about each of the different concepts (can be from lectures and/or reference materials and/or classmates’ presentations) in exam questions. My Mid-Term was slightly above class median. S/U-ed the module.
Disclaimer: All related materials in this post are accurate to my best knowledge. Feel free to use and modify the files attached, as they were mostly compilations from lecture materials. If I accidentally violated any rights of yours, or posting any information that would be harmful for continuing the modules, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Added 30 Sep 2015, 28 Sep 2016:

Hi all,
Due to popular requests and me being unable to keep replying many incoming emails,
I hereby share some of the materials, or notes taken, or project done for CZ2001-7.

Links: CZ2001; CZ2002; CZ2003; CZ2004; CZ2005; CZ2006; CZ2007

I provide no warranty to the accuracy of the contents provided.
None of these materials shall be used against me in any ways.
Please do NOT plagiarize, or you will be held responsible for the consequences.
If these contents in anyway violates any rights of any person, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I shall not entertain any more requests in the comments section of this post asking for other course materials.
I apologize not being able to provide CZ1xxx level materials, as either I do not keep a good digital record, or the course contents have changed significantly.
I will not provide any higher level (CZ3xxx, CZ4xxx) materials, as I believe a mature Computer Science student should gain the ability of self-study by this stage.

If you have other questions, I’ll be happy to help.

87 replies on “Modules Taken During NTU Year 1 Computer Science”

Hi, I am taking ES8005 Environmental Earth System Science this sem. May i know whether you have any notes? Also, is a tb required or the notes sufficient?

Hi there, would like to ask how much did you get for your Mid terms and roughly how well do you think you did for the ES8005 Environmental Earth System Science finals because I wanna have a rough gauge for the grades. Am thinking whether I should SU it. Thanks!

The pdf I attached in the review is the answers to the midterm questions. I am no longer keeping the question paper.

[Dr. A.*] is really a douchebag.

I am posting this here for the sake of our future juniors. Could not be bothered to go through proper feedback channels to improve this course since most likely the [Dr. A.*] also do not give a flying fuck about what students feel about the course – neither do I wish for him to improve his teaching and thus, his reputation.

First of all, [Dr. A.*] is a liar. He lies that there is no lecture recordings and blame the CITS people for the absence of recording due to renovation of new lecture theatre. Fact is that other modules using the same lecture theatre have lecture recordings uploaded since the beginning. If there is no recording, where did all the magical lecture recordings appear in the midst of recess week? He also publicly announced in course feedback channels that he is going to withhold lecture recordings for this current semester, like what he did for his previous semesters, until midst of recess week.

Next [Dr. A.*] do not have the passion to teach. He defend student arguments that he is not interested to teach by stating the fact that most of it are fundamentals, student have to catch up themselves and he is always made available for consultation, which does not answer to the notion that he does not show interest in teaching. I agree he is a bit mundane but his method of presentation is not taken into account here. You can deduce from his teaching materials that they are not self explanatory, largely recycled and very badly organised.

What is even more frustrating is that since he is the greatest shareholder for his course. He has the ability to influence content in examinations greatly. Questions in examinations are often unable to be practiced in tutorials. And apparently he keeps it this way, to see who attends lectures so that he explains minor important ones during lecture time. He does not give chance to beginner learners to ace the examination since they often do not have extended knowledge in the field that are required to complete heavy questions in the exam. From the way he sets his questions, it is clear that his intention to discriminate is on purpose.

I am very disappointed with [Dr. A.*]. I placed so much effort in tutorials, labs and attended almost 95% of live lectures but still unable to score well. His grade does not truly reflect my passion for the subject, and hence my major.

To the juniors that are (inevitably) going to take, or are taking [this 2nd year Computer Science Module*], all I have to say is to believe it yourself. If he gives you a good grade, you deserve it, if he doesn’t, you should be proud that you have learnt such knowledge in a tertiary institution.

And finally to [Dr. A.*] if you manage to reach this page by searching your name on web search engines, I want to let you know that you are not a sucky professor, but you do not deserve to be called a teacher. You taught me absolutely nothing. Sure, by now, you have already created several counter arguments to my text above, but I would like to let you know that I also do not give a flying fuck about your opinions, just like yourself.

(*: the commenter used the lecturer’s name & course, but now hidden by the blog owner –@yuan3y)

Hi Gabriel,
Thanks for commenting here. I have wiped away the name and the module here for unnecessary attention, apologize for that.
I understand your frustration, I experienced it some six months ago, in fact, most of our peers share the same feeling.
You are quite right the grade is not a good indicator for the passion or major.
If we had tried our best, I guess it is fine whatever the grade says.

I hope, if Dr. A really chances upon this blog, he would be acceptive to the student feedbacks.
I would suggest the school to revamp this module with the reference of MIT’s Computer Graphics course (MIT 6.837 taught in Fall 2012).
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-837-computer-graphics-fall-2012/
Admittedly, 2 lectures / week, 1.5 hours / lectures for MIT is more workload than in NTU, and they cover at least twice more content than us,
but the MIT module is much more practical. Instead of VRML, they use basic OpenGL in C++, which is a more open and industrial standard.
–@yuan3y

Hi! I’m planning to take HG8001 to clear my LA, was there any recorded lecture? And was it necessary to get the textbook? I’m an engineering student and I was afraid this mod would be difficult for me, able to advise? 🙂

Hi! HG8001 is an introductory course to linguistics. last year it was taught by Dr Joanna Sio, no recorded lecture. Being an engineering student myself, I found it okay, quite informative, and not difficult to understand. I didn’t buy the textbook, but did referred to the textbook for revision of those terminologies. I didn’t S/U the module, got an A. Hope this helps you. 🙂

Hi! I’m in Y1 but I’m taking 2003 & 2004 because the GERPEs I wanted were clashing with my Y1 cores. I’m kinda worried about the difficulty of these Y2 mods – will they be more difficult when offered in sem 2? My theory is that it might be offered for those who failed the mod in their Y2S1, hence would be tougher since they’ve already gone through it.

Do you have to be good in designing to score for 2004 coursework? I feel that designing is very subjective compared to maybe Engineering Math where there is a clear right/wrong.

Sorry for the questions, I’m just worried because I don’t want to drag my GPA down and I’m taking these Y2 mods even though I am not in the accelerated program (technically I’m not overloading – only 19AUs, but all of them are cores & my CGPA is around 3.66).

And thanks for sharing, it’s been very informative! 🙂

Hi,

Wondering if you have the tutorial answers to 2003? Dr. A do not really explain his tutorial answers and i’m really struggling to understand him this sem.. thanks alot..

Hi yuan,

Is there any notes or tutorial solutions available for CZ2003 and CZ2004? I find it hard understanding CZ2003. >.<
Greatly appreciate if you have it. Thanks a lot! (:

Hi man! I’m applying for computer science in NTU for intake this yr. Can I know like what’s your rank point for alvls? and whats the difficulty of CSC in NTU? Manageable even if you do not have any programming background before?

Thks!

Hi yuan! Thanks for replying to my previous reply. Appreciate it. Just another question for you.. Are you taking CS only? Did u apply taking up CS with minor in business?

Hi Jx,
I wasn’t interested in business when I was applying for university, I did not take minor in business. Minor can always be added later in university.

Hi can i have lecture and solution for HG8001? Do you still remember what is the textbook used for your semesters?
Thankyou!

Hi, could you also share with me your notes for HG8001? Also, thanks for sharing such invaluable info abt the modules you took!

hi,

I am planning to matriculate into CS this year and planning to take a minor in business. Do you know how to go about doing it as I heard competition is stiff.

Please do contact me via email, thank you!!

Hello! 🙂

I’m a CS student with a Minor in Business enrolling in this year, is it possible to send me Y1 lecture slides, tutorial solutions and notes?

I’m kinda worried as I’m not sure as to what to prepare and whether I’ll be able to do well in the course. Hope you’ll be able to provide some advice and help me.

Thank you in advance!! 🙂

Hi! Awesome site you have 🙂

Was wondering if you didn’t mention that there’s no lecture recording, does that mean there is?
And would be great if you could share with me your HG8001 notes too!! It sounds interesting! 🙂

Hello, thanks very much for your updates and sharing the modules.

I was wondering if you still have the syllabus for HH2017? I’m keen to take this coming semester 🙂

Hi, Thank you for sharing:) How did you find HH2017? is the workload heavy and do you have the syllabus? Thank you so much

Hey i was wondering do you have any tips for me to prepare before hand since I am taking computer science too in NTU next year.. I am from Poly but did not take a computer related course back then. Instead I took Bioengineering in Poly. Hence do you have any tips for me to prepare(study maths or any computer language program) prior to Uni?

Hi yuan,

do you have any notes or tutorial solutions available for CZ2003? I find it hard understanding CZ2003 too 🙁
Greatly appreciate if you have it.

Thank you 🙂

Hi all,
Due to popular requests and me being unable to keep replying many incoming emails,
I hereby share some of the materials, or notes taken, or project done for CZ2001-6.
See the additional links at the bottom of the main post.
I shall not entertain any more requests in the comments section of this post asking for other course materials.
If you have other questions, I’ll be happy to help.

Hi

Can I have the notes for HG8001. Very interested, gonna take up the mod! BTW,thanks for sharing your exp of taking these mods!

Hi Sorry for late reply,
HG8001 materials Google Drive folder link has been updated.
See above.

Hi, can I ask about ES8005? Just wondering how much we will have to study from the textbook vs the lecture slides, because the Prof (it’s Prof Barbot teaching now) says that we have to read the book but there’s so much information ;-; Is it safe to just stick to the impt questions asked at the end of the slides? Thanks so much!

At my time (>2 years back), lecture slides were sufficient (>100 slides per lecture). but always good to know more.

Hi,

Do you happen to have the actual exam papers for ES8005?
Also, may I know how to score for this paper and what are the important things he will test?

Thank you!

Hi! I chanced upon your site looking for HG8001 materials and read that you used the textbook as reference!
Do you have the pdf version of the textbook or where did you get one?

Thanks for the write ups btw! 🙂

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