Saturday, May 23, 2009

Majors and honours: Syllabus restructured

When applying to university, the subjects you are studying in the last two years are very important. For NUS High this means the majors and honours that you choose. The system has always changed from year to year, but recently there has been a complete overhaul for all math/science subjects, and the modules that form the major can get very complicated. It's absolutely necessary to be properly informed of the possibilities before choosing your subject combination.


If you have any questions, if anything I have presented is confusing, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.


For this year’s Year 4 batch, the system has undergone a complete overhaul, which means what the Year 4s and below will be studying is different from what the current Year 5s and above are studying. I’m going to call them the NEW SYSTEM and the OLD SYSTEM respectively. We will approach this massive topic by subject.


A brief note on APs:

The math APs (for calculus) are Calculus AB and Calculus BC. BC is harder than AB. You cannot take them both in the same year, because they run at the same time.

Similarly, the physics APs are Physics B and Physics C. C is harder than B. You also cannot take them both in the same year.

For chemistry and biology there is only one AP each.

There is also AP statistics. This is strictly optional but most people choose to take it anyway.



MATHEMATICS


Old system


Everyone studied MA4101 Vectors and MA4105 Sequences, Series and Mathematical Induction in Year 4 Sem 1. However, in Year 4 Sem 2, the cohort was split into 4 tracks.


I have attached some screenshots from the Specialisation of Subjects presentation given to my cohort in 2007, which is the same as the version given to the current year 5s last year. I think the table format is quite clear. Honours modules are in blue. MA CAP refers to the CAP of all your math modules so far.


Note that as you go up the tracks they all become voluntary. Meaning that those math CAPs are more like the minimum CAPs you need to enter that track. So, if you have a 4.7 math CAP, you can, in principle, still choose to take Track 1 if you really want (but no one has ever done that and I’m not sure the math department will realistically allow that).


A more likely situation is that a student who qualifies for Track 3 chooses not to take math honours instead and decides to ‘downgrade’ to Track 2. This is what I did. On the other hand, if you only qualified for Track 2 in Year 4, you could ‘upgrade’ to Track 3 by scoring a Year 5 math CAP and at least a 4 in your AP Calculus AB. But to my knowledge no one has done that either.










































The purpose of the tracks was to allow students to go at their own pace. Weaker math students can take two years to learn basic calculus instead of cramming it in one year, so they have more time to learn the concepts.


On the other hand, stronger math students can push themselves by taking both calculus and advanced calculus modules at the same time (Calculus II and Calculus III respectively) and finishing Calculus BC earlier.



New system


There are no more four tracks in the new system. In the new system, you are split into major or honours students. The following screenshot is adapted from the 2009 specialisations briefing to the Year 4s.


Modules in black are modules that everyone must take, regardless of major or honours. Blue modules are for majors. Green modules that are labeled ‘honours’ are for honours students on top of the blue modules. This means you will do both blue modules and honours green modules if you choose to take math honours.

Optional modules are the electives, one of which is Statistics.


In the old system you had to do two semesters of Stats. Now you only have to do one semester. Honours electives are self-explanatory; these are elective modules offered to honours students only. I think this probably includes game theory and graph theory modules which are being offered to my batch now (Year 6). I will talk more about NUS modules in another post.















In the old system, realistically speaking there was no differentiation of Tracks 2 and 3 until Year 5 Sem 2 (which is when the Track 3 students’ math syllabus finally deviates; they take MA5401 Polar Coordinates). This means you could actually wait until the end of Year 5 Sem 1 to decide whether you wanted to do math honours or not. But in this new system, you have to declare honours by Year 4 Sem 2.


An important thing to remember is that realistically speaking, once you have taken an honours module, you are committed to taking honours. In principle you could drop honours any time you wanted, but due to administrative reasons this doesn’t happen in real life.



PHYSICS


Old system


The exams of physics are generally the same. Physics majors take Physics B, and Physics honours students take both Physics B and Physics C.



























































As usual, the system is never that straightforward here in NUS High, so here are some very important notes:


First, PC5105 Electromagnetic Spectrum can actually either be taken in Year 4 or Year 5. However, potential physics majors were highly encouraged to take the module in Year 4 because it frees up your time. But of course there were a small number of students who chose to take it in Year 5 instead.


Second, if you take physics honours, you must take Physics B in Year 5. But if you were a physics major, you could choose to take Physics B either in Year 5 (get it over and done with quickly) or in Year 6 (more time for preparation).


Third, there is an error in the physics honours Year 6 slide. In sem 2 the honours students still have to take PC5110 Introductory Electronics along with the physics major students.



New system


The new system is quite convoluted. The specialisation slides did not say anything other than the fact than reiterating which APs are taken by major/honours students. If you would like a look, here is the table in Programme Of Studies 2009:



















Looking at the number of MCs allocated to PC3110 Mechanics and PC4110 Advanced Physics, it looks like these two are year-long modules. Basically what this means is that if you know you are going to take Physics honours, you will take the accelerated track in Years 3 and 4, and take the advanced modules concurrently with the basic modules.


As you would have cleared the modules PC5110 Advanced Mechanics and PC5111 Higher Physics by end of Year 4, it will free up your time to take the honours modules in Years 5/6.


I suppose a student could choose to do physics honours only in Year 5 (that means he/she did not clear the two advanced modules earlier) but to me it seems a bit crazy to be doing SIX physics modules in a year, and all of them are at least 2 MCs. This is on top of all the modules from other subjects that the student would be taking.


Some of you may be wondering, why are there now two more physics modules? Is the new syllabus covering a lot more content? The answer is NO. This is one key difference between the old system and the new system.


In the old system, our Year 3 mechanics modules covered all A level mechanics. In the new system, advanced topics like 2D-motion, rotational kinematics, gravitational potential and fluid dynamics are covered only in PC5110 Advanced Mechanics. This means that only the physics major students will learn all this, in contrast to the old system where everyone learnt this. This has a lot to do with mapping of our syllabus against A level so I will elaborate on this more in another post.


PC5111 Higher Physics is similar. It is a higher-level follow up to PC4110 Advanced Physics. These two modules deal with oscillations and waves. In the old system, we all had one 3 MC module in Year 4 that covered all this content. It should be noted, though, that PC5111 has more content than the old Year 4 oscillations & waves module, such as Malus’ Law of Polarization and Brewster’s Angle. In summary the content learnt is something like this, in increasing order: PC4110, old system Year 4 oscillations & waves module, PC4110 + PC5111.


One more thing about the new system: Honours students will take Physics B in Year 5 and Physics C in Year 6, as previously done. However, all major students will take Physics B only in Year 6. There is no more option to clear it early in Year 5, as Physics B covers content in PC5110 and PC5111, which major students, having not taken the accelerated track, would not have covered yet.



Chemistry


Old system


I don’t have the fully updated file to screenshot so I will just state this in word form. This system is for the current Year 5s/6s. Honours modules are taken in addition to major modules.


Year 4: CM4101 Equilibria, CM4102 Thermodynamics & Electrochemistry

Year 5 Sem 1: CM5102 Organic Chemistry, CM5105 Kinetics & Reaction Mechanisms

Year 5 Sem 2: CM5104 Inorganic Chemistry

Honours modules in Year 5: CM5401 Advanced Organic Chemistry (Sem 2)

Year 6 Sem 1: CM6101 Experiments in Synthetic Chemistry

Honours modules in Year 6: CM6401 Principles of Spectroscopy, CM6402 Separation Science (both Sem 2)


For the current Year 6s, AP Chemistry was usually taken in Year 5 (2008). Only 3 students chose to take AP Chemistry this year instead.


For the current Year 5s, AP Chemistry will be taken in Year 6 (2010). Students are not allowed to take it earlier.


For the graduated batch, their modules were slightly different. Instead of CM6101 Experiments in Synthetic Chemistry, they had CM5101 Experiments in Organic Chemistry.



New system


The new system basically involves a rearrangement of the topics in Year 4 and 5 but nothing as drastic as the math and physics syllabuses (syllabi).


In word form:


Year 4: CM4105 Chemical Energetics and Kinetics, CM4106 Equilibrium & Thermodynamics

Year 5 Sem 1: CM5102 Organic Chemistry, CM5106 Electrochemistry

Year 5 Sem 2: CM5104 Inorganic Chemistry

Honours modules in Year 5: CM5401 Advanced Organic Chemistry (Sem 2)

Year 6 Sem 1: CM6101 Experiments in Synthetic Chemistry

Honours modules in Year 6: CM6401 Principles of Spectroscopy, CM6402 Separation Science (both Sem 2)

AP Chemistry is taken in Year 6.


I also have a screenshot. Honours modules are in pink.
















BIOLOGY


Old system


I think bio is quite self explanatory in diagrams. Honours modules are in purple.














For those who would rather just read words.

Year 5 Sem 1: BL5101 Biochemistry

Year 5 Sem 2: BL5102 Advanced Animal Physiology, BL5103 Ecology and the Environment

Honours modules for Year 6: BL6401 Functions & Adaptations (Sem 1), BL6403 Proteins (Sem 2).


If you are taking bio major there are no bio modules in Year 6. However AP Biology prep sessions begin earlier than for the honours students.



New system


Again, honours modules are in purple.















Year 5 Sem 1: BL5102 Advanced Animal Physiology

Year 5 Sem 2: BL5103 Ecology and the Environment

Year 6 Sem 1: BL6403 Basics of Biochemistry (I don't know if this is a major or honours module. On one hand it's pink, which indicates major module, but it has a '4' as the 2nd digit in the module code which usually indicates honours)

Honours modules for Year 6: BL6401 Functions & Adaptations, BL6403 Proteins (both Sem 2).


As you can see the main difference is that the topics are moved around, just like chemistry. The biochemistry module has also been restructured. Previously it was 3 MCs, but the new biochemistry module is only 2 MCs. I don’t know if this means the content is less (maybe that’s why they call it ‘basics’).



Alright that's all I have now. Topics I will be posting about in future: Mapping of our syllabus against A level syllabus, taking NUS modules, research in NUS High.

7 comments:

  1. Hey,

    I really think biochemistry is now an honors module, not a major module

    ReplyDelete
  2. But isn't biochemistry quite a huge topic in AP bio? There's always a free response question about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ^^ edited my comments on that module in the post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is this writer taking all honour subjects herself ? Are the informations she posted accurate ? I think I will rather approach the school to find out more.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is it necessary to take both AP calculus AB/BC and both Physics B/C

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Anonymous,

    The answer is quite long so I've put it in a new post: http://nushscollegetalk.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-it-necessary-to-take-both-ap.html

    Thanks for the question,
    Vanessa

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,

    Just a clarification, for the new system, it seems as though the Math Honours students are taking more core Honours modules and at an earlier time (e.g. Calculus III in Year 5 Semester 1, on top of Calculus II vs. the old system whereby Math Honours students take those two Calculus modules in different semesters). Also, the Polar Coordinates module that was previously 1 MC is now changed to 2 MCs and covers more content (e.g. Parametric and Vector functions). Does it mean that the new Math Honours syllabus is comparatively harder?

    Thank you! :)

    ReplyDelete