SC2207 - Introduction to Database Systems

Lecture Clarity:

(4/5)

Content Relevance:

(4/5)

Content Difficulty:

(3/5)

Overall Workload:

(3/5)

Team Dependency:

(3/5)

Course Summary

First half of the course covers:

1. Entity Relationship (ER) Diagrams
2. Functional Dependencies
3. Normalization (BCNF, 3NF) Second half of the course covers:
4. Relational Algebra
5. SQL
6. Semi-Structured Data

Workload

The workload is reasonable for a 3AU module. Weekly commitments include:

• 2 x 1-hour lectures
• 1 x 1-hour tutorial
• 1 x 2-hour lab every two weeks The content is fairly easy to understand, and there are plenty of online resources available for the topics covered.

Projects

The group project involves about 6 to 7 people and really tests your understanding of the lecture material, making it quite relevant compared to some other group projects in coding modules. My group’s problem statement was about an investment portfolio, which could be confusing at times, but clarifying doubts and googling certain terms helped me better understand the relationships involved. The project consists of 5 labs, but only labs 1, 3, and 5 are graded; labs 2 and 4 are just refinements of the previous ones.

Tips to Do Well

The content can seem overwhelming at first because of all the symbols, but I found that writing everything out on a big whiteboard really helped deepen my understanding and appreciation of the module. For the SQL portion, lots of practice is key. For the first midterm, the main strategy is to finish the quiz—doing so puts you ahead of most students since the professor makes it almost impossible to complete within the time limit. The quiz has 45 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes, which is a real rush, especially since the first half of the content requires you to write down and process information. Finishing it really sets you apart.

Written by GIS