(AY2018/2019, Sem 2) NUS BSP1702X Legal Environment of Business Review

Module Title: Legal Environment of Business
Module Code: BSP1702X (for non-business student)
Taken in AY2018/2019, Semester 2.

Lecturer: Ms Ter Kah Leng

Components	Percentage	Grade	Marks
Case Presentation	30%	A+
Tutorial Presentation	20%	A
Participation	10%
Open-book Test	40%

Final Grade: A-

What is it about?

     BSP1702X is an introductory module that covers legal issues pertinent to businesses, covering topics such as types of business organisations, alternative dispute resolution and contracts.

     Students are assessed through Participation, Presentations, and an Open-book Test. There are two presentations in total. One of it is Case Presentation while the other is Tutorial Presentation. Both require a moderate amount of preparation -- 1) read up the case 2) apply relevant legal concepts 3) provide further insights such as on ethics or possible alternative dispute resolution. Presentations are definitely do-able, and Ms Ter does provide guidelines for the class to follow. Furthermore, for the presentations, not everyone in the group has to present. She has a maximum "three presenters" rule, but my group didn't follow it (many other groups didn't too). In addition, she only release the group grade for the presentations, so we don't know our individual presentation grade takes into account our peer review. For Participation, she basically writes down the name of whoever speaks up in class -- doesn't matter if one is asking a question, stating an opinion or if the answer given is wrong. The Open-book Test is held in the last week of school and it consists of 20 MCQs, worth 1 mark each and a case study worth 20 marks. The time limit is 135 minutes and it is definitely sufficient. I personally find the MCQs tricky but do-able. As for the case study, it is hard and I think one of my answer for the subpart is not entirely correct as I missed out on one important component. The open-test is extremely competitive and it can pull one down by a grade easily.

Review

     I really enjoy Ms Ter's class. She is a super encouraging lecturer and the reason why I wake up at 6.30am in the morning just so that I can reach school in time for her 8am seminar. She is highly efficient and she sparks my interests for legal issues.

     This module is extremely competitive. Not only do you need to secure the presentation points, you also have to do well for the open-book test. For the presentation, as long as one puts in effort, know what's going on and answer to her enquiries sufficiently, getting an A is not a big issue. Honestly, for both the presentations, my group was quite last minute but we still managed to sort of ace it because we followed her guidelines. For the open-book test, it really depend on your on-the-day performance because she doesn’t provide much practice.

     All in all, BSP1702X is a fun and engaging module. The workload is moderate (maybe more inclined to light) as there aren't much content taught. Furthermore, the test is open-book. However, the presentation is a huge burden as there is a need for coordination and it's worth 50%.

Ratings

4.66/5