HSA1000 Module Review

AY24/25 Sem 1
Lecturers: Dr. Clay Eaton, Dr. Yang Yang, and Dr. Vani
Tutor: Ms. Piya

Topics covered:
- Interrogating the concept of Asia
- The environment
- Heritage and language
- Creating categories
- Social inequalities

Weightage:
- Tutorial participation: 15%
- Group presentation: 15%
- Individual field observation exercise: 20%
- Group neighbourhood video: 20%
- Individual essay: 30%

I thoroughly enjoyed this course although its workload was heavier than HSS1000. Still, I found the material engaging — especially because it revisited a number of topics from O-Level History and Social Studies but in a more stimulating way. I did not watch the recorded lectures (aside from the last one) because I found the lecture slides sufficient for review.

I liked the tutorial classes, especially the discussion components, since the questions were pretty broad in contrast to A-Level General Paper. I really detested the latter (got an A for A-Level but a mixture of Ds and Es for internal examinations) as the essay questions felt really restrictive. Our tutor, Ms. Piya, was very engaging and I loved her lessons. My tutorial group was great as well. In fact, I still remember one quote which Ms. Piya mentioned in class which resonated with me. It was something along the lines of every historical statement being inexact due to different perspectives from various sources. This was why I loved studying History back in secondary school!

For the group presentation, each team was assigned a reading to present, followed by a discussion segment that we could structure however we wished. Instead of the usual group poster assignment, each group had to create a neighbourhood video, which constituted 20% of the final grade. Our video was cinematic and although we spent much time rattling (I would say this is a more formal way of saying yapping) in front of the camera, there was a decent amount of engagement with the viewers. I was mainly responsible for editing the video and thanks to the other members for helping to rotate the roles of the videographers and the teleprompter holder. As I had prior experience with video editing, this assignment was a piece of cake.

My favourite component was the individual essay, which gave a chance to write about my personal history and connect it to the themes we covered in this course. These were stories I had often heard from my family but never put into words, and I found it deeply meaningful to finally capture them in writing.

Expected grade: A-
Final grade: A