Taken in AY 18/19 Semester 2
- 2 1.5 hours lecture weekly (webcasted)
Grading Components
- Midterms (40 MCQ+2 essay) 20%
- Graphic Commentary 20%
- Written Commentary 20%
- Finals (80 MCQ) 40%
Took this module because the module name sounds interesting. Initially thought that I would be learning about the impact of drugs on society ( somewhere along the lines of moral implications of drugs) but it didn’t turn out that way. For the first half of the semester, we learnt how drugs like stimulants, depressants, opiates and other poisons affect the health of individuals. This would have seemed like a really content heavy module to take but we were allowed to bring in a one-sided cheat sheet for mid-terms so it is actually possible to squeeze in most of the important stuff. However, I felt that it was still essential to know the underlying ideas for some of the drugs as the time given is actually too short for you to constantly refer to your cheat sheet for the answers.
For the Graphic commentary,we were required to submit an illustration along with a write-up to show what we have learnt from this module. It was really difficult to think of a relevant learning point for this module since it is just merely talking of the effects of drugs and poisons. As for the written commentary, we were required to do an evaluation on one of the topics that were given to us. This component was relatively easy to do cos you just need to do some research on the topic and provide some of your own thoughts on the topic (or paraphrase what you have learnt from your sources). The only shortcoming of this assignment was the difficulty of making insightful comments on the topic itself ( the factor which distinguished the As from the Bs for this assignment). As for Finals, we were tested on the Pharma industry, Performance-enhancing drugs and Medicines. I felt that these topics gave me a better understanding of the role played by Pharmaceuticals in our society as opposed to the topics that were learnt in the first half of the semester.
To sum it up, I wouldn’t say that this module was very interesting or useful as I am probably forget most of the content that I have learnt for this module. But I would say that this is a pretty good module for people who are really busy and just wanna take a General Education module that doesn’t have a very heavy workload.
Expected Grade: A-
Actual Grade: A
Life 