Module review for GEK1527: Genes and Society

Taken AY2014/2015 Semester 2


GEK1527: Genes and Society

Only take this module if you have taken H2 Biology in JC. If not, the extremely steep bell curve would put you in an even more difficult position. For acc/biz students, it is compulsory to take a science GEM/GEK module, and I made the unfortunate mistake of selecting this one.

The lecturer, Lam Siew Hong, was very passionate but did a poor job of teaching the course content. Despite starting each lecture with much gusto, he nevertheless did not organise the lecture material well, and students are left to themselves to decide which information is important and which is not. As such, I can see how this can be quite difficult for those who have not taken H2 Biology before.

I did try to attend the lectures in the beginning, but honestly they were of zero use to me. After all, not everyone can teach, and simply knowing the material well doesn’t make one a good teacher. As such, I skipped most of the lectures and studied on my own.

Assessment:
Continuous assessment – 40%
Finals – 60%

Workload:
For a GEM/GEK couse, the workload is actually disproportionately heavy even though there were no tutorials, much to my irritation. The continuous assessment, which takes up 40%, is split into 4 assignments and several in-class questions. If you happen to skip lectures, make sure your friends help you to take down the in-class question. The assignments, which add up to 34%, were a great burden, requiring an incredulous amount of time and effort. For example, we had to design and craft a brochure to increase awareness on intersex, and also write a long essay on the government collection of genetic data. Finals were all MCQ, and a relative breeze. However, it appears that they like to test seemingly obscure and irrelevant knowledge, which only furthered my dislike for this module.

Overall, I would not recommend this module to anyone, as it is simply not worth the effort, and more importantly, the final grade you get would hardly justify the time you put in.


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