Apart from the 3 classes that I shared in my previous post, I took 3 additional business classes during my exchange semester in Yonsei University.

IEE3348 Marketing Channels (Prof Kim Kyunghee)

This is a marketing class focusing on how products are distributed through the different channels and how each marketing member contributes to this process. We even had a guest speaker from the industry (I forgot which company he was from) to talk to us about his work and marketing channels. Here’s the breakdown of the assessment:

Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%
Class Participation 10%
Case Discussions 30% (10% is from Peer Evaluation)

We had one midterm exam and one final exam which are non-cumulative (all of my modules in Yonsei had non-cumulative exams; meaning chapters tested in midterms were not tested again in the final exams). The midterms consisted of multiple choice questions and some essays. It was very straightforward compared to the exams we have in NUS and I managed to finish my exam in 30 minutes although it was a 1 hour 50 minute exam.

For the finals, the professor decided to remove the essay part and we were only given 40 multiple choice questions. Again, it only took me around 15 minutes to finish because there were not quantitative questions whatsoever.

Other than the exams, we had to read a case every week for the 1 hour class slot. It’s a case related to the topic we learned earlier in the week’s 2 hours classes. The professor divided the class in groups of 4 to 5 members and each group was assigned 3 cases each. For each case, there will be 2 groups that will provide their answers for the class. There were no presentations involved, we just needed to come prepared with our group’s answers for the assigned case and be ready to argue with the “competing” group. I wouldn’t say this took a lot of time since it was a rather informal discussion. After each case discussion, all the other groups that did not need to prepare for that week’s case will submit a peer evaluation form regarding which group did better in that week’s case discussion.

The only downside to this module was that we had to buy our own cases from HBR because the professor does not provide them for us. Perhaps you can purchase the cases as a class, like we did, and then share the cost.

The teacher, Professor Kim was quite knowledgeable in the field. She is also very strict on attendance and is rather sensitive if you miss a lot of classes. According to Yonsei’s policy, you can skip one third of the classes before you will automatically fail – just for your reference.

Overall, this module was okay. I took this class to fulfill my graduation requirements but it was not as bad as I expected it to be.

BIZ3108 Management Accounting (Prof Moon Doocheol)

Midterm Exam 40%
Final Exam 40%
Class Participation & Attendance 10%
Assignments & Quizzes 10%

This module by Prof Moon had a flip class element to it so even though the schedule says that the class will meet every Monday and Wednesday, the professor cancels the 1 hour Wednesday class for us to watch the online lecture and do the weekly assignment. There were 10 weekly assignments in total and each must be submitted before class because the answers are discussed at the end of class. There were 2 random short quizzes after class and this together with your assignments accounts for 10%.

As for class participation, the professor got people to write out their assignment answers on the board when he wants to go through it and this was the only thing that counted as participation. After “participating” once, you do not need to participate again for the whole semester because there are more students than questions. This class was one of the classes I shared with the local students so they were very much more competitive.

For the exams, we had a total of 40 multiple choice questions for both the midterms and finals. Again, these exams were non-cumulative. The midterm tested the first 6 chapters and the finals tested only the last 7 chapters. Overall I felt that the exams were doable but since the class is graded by absolute numbers and not a curve, you need to make sure you get close to full marks if you want an A.

ECO1104 Principles of Macroeconomics (Prof Kim Cheol Sam)

Here’s the breakdown of the grading for this class:

Assignment 5%
Midterm Exam 45%
Final Exam 45%
Attendance 5%

Honestly this was the worse class I took in Yonsei. The professor was nice for sure but I don’t think the way he taught was effective – at all! Most of his notes were directly copied from the textbook in a microsoft word format, no slides whatsoever! It made it really ahrd to sustain your attention in class and what I did in his class most of the time was to blog (HEHE). You will find phrases like “Now ask your students to think about…” in his notes which I find very annoying because it shows how the notes were not well prepared. Not only that, he will just read off the notes word by word with some occasional (very occasional) add ons so it’s really a boring class.

The exams were also very ridiculous. We only had 3 questions (YES 3 questions) with short answers, not even a long essay type of question, for our midterms and 4 for finals. It took me 20 minutes to finish both papers, so crazy!

In conclusion, take this class if you want a chill class where you can sit and do your own thing but be prepared to have to read the textbook on your own for the exams.