Taken AY2014/2015 Semester 1
HY1101E: Asia and the Modern World
I thought I liked History when I did it at the A Levels, and I loved SEA especially (I still do). But this mod just didn’t do it for me – it was too broad, spanning from the dynastic period to modern history, and it was mostly ‘touch and go’ for each of the different time periods. There was a vastness of regions covered – South Asia (India and Pakistan), East Asia (China, Japan and occasionally Korea/Taiwan), and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Burma and Vietnam, mostly). It was too much for me, and I felt that the content wasn’t really organised in an understandable way. The patterns, while there, were not readily apparent, and it was very difficult to track the developments and continuities across so many regions.
I read other module reviews that said if we have taken A Level History before, this module would be not much of a problem. I have to disagree. While it is convenient to have some background information on SEA nationalism, decolonisation, political structures and economic development, as well as a knowledge of the Cold War, the module content organised these topics in a different way. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the recap, especially for the SEA region which I love, but other than that, it was all new information and I struggled with synthesising it and using it in my arguments. I really didn’t enjoy this module, but I know of a sizeable amount of people who remained ambivalent or even stayed interested throughout, and to hear my opinion regarding this subject only would be therefore quite an unrepresentative summary of what this mod is about.
Assessment: There were two midterms, each one 25%, and online forum participation was 20% (one forum session was 5%). The finals was 30%, which was a great relief because it didn’t have as high a weightage as the other mods’ finals. However, having two midterms was taxing (even though we would get the Fri lecture off in lieu of this torture) and having to remember so much information without a discernable, identifiable pattern really killed me. The forum participation is something that is required in Sem 1 – if I’m not wrong, Sem 2 may not have this component. It was amusing, if not a bit disturbing, to see everyone duking it out online with their tremendously long posts and taking up all the available points anyone could possibly conceive for a particular question. My advice to you is to start early and beat the crowd, but play fair at the same time – you can write a long post, but try to limit yourself to at most 2 points so that you’ll reserve some space for the rest to write as well. As for the finals, I wanted to die – partly because I left all the memorising to the day before the exam, which was the stupidest thing I’d done this year. The finals test all the semester’s worth of work, but I spotted identification terms from Theme 1 and 2, and thankfully was able to scribble some half-hearted words for them when they came out.
Workload: The forum participation was a pain, really – it required checking to see if anyone replied, and typing another short ‘essay’ in response to someone’s rebuttal, or adding on to their point. It took up even more time than a tutorial would have. There are readings every week, but I gave up very early on in the semester, and only read whenever it would help with the online forum post (I cited some readings for my points). I think the lectures, if you pay attention and diligently take notes, will stand you in much better stead for the exams than the readings. The content, however, is massive, and it’s hard to tell what is permissible to skip. Still, the saving grace of this mod is that they have a tendency to keep the questions at a somewhat doable level (although I would say it’s still hard) and you are probably bound to recognise a few of the ID terms that you have to do if you put in enough effort into at least scoping out the topic in general. I think, though, I would have been better off not taking this mod, especially with my poor time management and inability to memorise copious amounts of information in a short amount of time.
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Showing posts with label hy1101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hy1101. Show all posts
Module review for HY1101E: Asia and the Modern World
Taken AY2014/2015 Semester 1
HY1101E: Asia and the Modern World
This module takes an extremely broad approach to Asian history: it spans from ancient times (yes, we’re talking about 2000 BC here) to the modern era, with a focus on China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia. The content was neatly divided into East Asia and South + Southeast Asia, taught by two different lecturers— both of whom interestingly (or like duh) hails from the respective region they were in charge of.
Despite her accent, the lecturer for East Asia was well-organized and clear in her lectures. Through the use of proper headings, she broke the truckload of content down into easy-to-understand, chronological chunks of information. This made studying a lot easier.
On the contrary, the lecturer for South Asia + SEA conducted lessons in a rather haphazard and random way. He didn’t do a very good job of organizing the lecture content— the headings didn’t make much sense, and he tended to dwell on introductions, leaving him with little time and no choice but to bulldoze through the important parts. He also liked to talk about ‘broad trends’, but neglected to go into in-depth explanations of them.
If you’re thinking that having a background in H2 History would help you to ace this module, think again. JC content only comes in for a select few topics, such as SEA nationalism and Cold War. Much of the material is completely new, especially for Chinese and Indian history.
Assessment:
20%: online tutorial participation (4 sessions, 5% each)
50%: 2 lecture tests, 25% each
30%: finals
The online tutorial sessions were a pain in the neck (I have to restrain myself from using the alternative, more vulgar form of the phrase). Students were placed into online tutorial groups of ten— you can choose to join with your friends, or join a random one with strangers, whichever suits you. For each session, we were given a history source to analyze and answer 2 or 3 questions on the online forum. We were supposed to engage in active discussion, so it involves responding to others’ posts as well.
Unfortunately, what initially seemed to be a simple tutorial activity turned into an essay writing competition. People became pressured to write more, especially after seeing the long model posts (or should I say essays). Longer posts also meant that points were exhausted and those who joined the discussion later had nothing more to say. We also had to check back continually to see if anyone else had replied, and as a result, a lot of time was spent on this.
My advice for this is to play nice and to write just 2-3 good posts. You can craft a longer response, but please leave some points for others to talk about and don’t hog the entire discussion.
The lecture tests and finals are of the same format: 1 section for identification of terms and 1 essay. For the ID, you’re expected to provide information on the term (a historical event, ideology etc— it could actually be anything) and explain its relevance to Asian history. The latter requirement is iffy and I never knew how to explain it (neither did the lecturers explain it to us, not really). Your best bet is to feign intelligence and link the term to some broad idea/thingy.
For the essays, I got the impression that the lecturers don’t want you to write a long answer. For the lecture tests, they actually limit your answer to 2 sides of a blank A4 paper. As such, I don’t think there is any need to memorize copious amounts of nitty-gritty historical information for this module. You should know the major historical events like the back of your hand, but what’s more important is to be able to draw connections and properly link your ideas/argument to the question.
Workload:
The workload for this module is rather heavy, thanks mainly to the online tutorials. For the tests and finals, it would be best to start studying early so that you won’t be overwhelmed by the content at the last minute.
Source
HY1101E: Asia and the Modern World
This module takes an extremely broad approach to Asian history: it spans from ancient times (yes, we’re talking about 2000 BC here) to the modern era, with a focus on China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia. The content was neatly divided into East Asia and South + Southeast Asia, taught by two different lecturers— both of whom interestingly (or like duh) hails from the respective region they were in charge of.
Despite her accent, the lecturer for East Asia was well-organized and clear in her lectures. Through the use of proper headings, she broke the truckload of content down into easy-to-understand, chronological chunks of information. This made studying a lot easier.
On the contrary, the lecturer for South Asia + SEA conducted lessons in a rather haphazard and random way. He didn’t do a very good job of organizing the lecture content— the headings didn’t make much sense, and he tended to dwell on introductions, leaving him with little time and no choice but to bulldoze through the important parts. He also liked to talk about ‘broad trends’, but neglected to go into in-depth explanations of them.
If you’re thinking that having a background in H2 History would help you to ace this module, think again. JC content only comes in for a select few topics, such as SEA nationalism and Cold War. Much of the material is completely new, especially for Chinese and Indian history.
Assessment:
20%: online tutorial participation (4 sessions, 5% each)
50%: 2 lecture tests, 25% each
30%: finals
The online tutorial sessions were a pain in the neck (I have to restrain myself from using the alternative, more vulgar form of the phrase). Students were placed into online tutorial groups of ten— you can choose to join with your friends, or join a random one with strangers, whichever suits you. For each session, we were given a history source to analyze and answer 2 or 3 questions on the online forum. We were supposed to engage in active discussion, so it involves responding to others’ posts as well.
Unfortunately, what initially seemed to be a simple tutorial activity turned into an essay writing competition. People became pressured to write more, especially after seeing the long model posts (or should I say essays). Longer posts also meant that points were exhausted and those who joined the discussion later had nothing more to say. We also had to check back continually to see if anyone else had replied, and as a result, a lot of time was spent on this.
My advice for this is to play nice and to write just 2-3 good posts. You can craft a longer response, but please leave some points for others to talk about and don’t hog the entire discussion.
The lecture tests and finals are of the same format: 1 section for identification of terms and 1 essay. For the ID, you’re expected to provide information on the term (a historical event, ideology etc— it could actually be anything) and explain its relevance to Asian history. The latter requirement is iffy and I never knew how to explain it (neither did the lecturers explain it to us, not really). Your best bet is to feign intelligence and link the term to some broad idea/thingy.
For the essays, I got the impression that the lecturers don’t want you to write a long answer. For the lecture tests, they actually limit your answer to 2 sides of a blank A4 paper. As such, I don’t think there is any need to memorize copious amounts of nitty-gritty historical information for this module. You should know the major historical events like the back of your hand, but what’s more important is to be able to draw connections and properly link your ideas/argument to the question.
Workload:
The workload for this module is rather heavy, thanks mainly to the online tutorials. For the tests and finals, it would be best to start studying early so that you won’t be overwhelmed by the content at the last minute.
Source
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