Questions about Uni life :)

[amorphous]

I've just realised how uninformed I am about university life.

The questions:
Do you have classes everyday? Or just some days?

How do you graduate? Do you sit 1 test at the end of your 3/4 years?

[Aaron]

Do you have classes everyday? Or just some days?

Depends on your choices/allocations and your discipline. The discipline is a big one because some have around 10 hours of contact per week, whilst some are in the 20s and even 30s. For IT, I always managed to get 1 day off (so went for 4 days a week) and for my MTeach I went 2 days and had 3 off (but a lot of that was spent working from home).

How do you graduate? Do you sit 1 test at the end of your 3/4 years?

Depends on discipline. To graduate from a standard course (assuming so), you just have to pass every one of your units. Usually you do 4 per semester, sometimes 5 as a full time student. "Pass" means pass all hurdle requirements (extras such as "attend at least 90% of tutorial classes") and get at least 50 overall. Each unit will have several assessment items which are weighted (most will include an exam of some kind with a significant weighting of at least 50% of the overall subject).

[pi]

Read and report back: https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=146885.0

If you have a question that isn't answered, mention that in that thread in a reply, and I'm sure one of the active mods around here can add it to the main post. I know we all like having information spoon-fed to us, but a bit of research never goes astray

[Coffee]

Hi Amorphous

Do you have classes everyday? Or just some days?

This depends on your degree. I have friends whose degrees require them to be there every day. I do an Arts degree, and although that has less contact hours than most degrees, I actually was stuck with a timetable in Semester 1 that had me there every day. Last semester I only had three days. But, I also know people who only go 1 day, so it varies a lot!

How do you graduate? Do you sit 1 test at the end of your 3/4 years?

I haven’t graduated yet, so I’ll leave this one to those who have. But, my understanding is that you graduate contingent on whether you have met the requirements of your degree, e.g. You must complete 48 units to graduate with a major in X, etc. Assuming your degree has tests and exams, you sit them each semester, and you’ll also need to pass those in order to graduate. So, no, there isn’t necessarily one ‘big’ test at the end of the three years that will determine whether you graduate, it’s more of an amalgamation of everything you do.

If you let us know what degree you want to do, and where you want to do it, we may be able to answer your questions a bit more specifically.

[AngelWings]

Depends on discipline. To graduate from a standard course (assuming so), you just have to pass every one of your units. Usually you do 4 per semester, sometimes 5 as a full time student. "Pass" means pass all hurdle requirements (extras such as "attend at least 90% of tutorial classes") and get at least 50 overall. Each unit will have several assessment items which are weighted (most will include an exam of some kind with a significant weighting of at least 50% of the overall subject).

Just to add on to Aaron's post. To get a feel for what a unit (subject) is about, you can look up "[insert university] handbook" on Google. It'll show roughly what you'll be learning in that unit, any prerequisites, what faculties it's under and when it's available to study (some units are first semester, second trimester, etc.). 

You'll also be able to check up something called a "unit guide" or something similar across the university. This'll list all the important info you need to know: who to contact if you're in a bit of a bind, what assessment you'll likely be doing, how much is it weighted and whether something's a hurdle or not. It's usually advised that you read them prior to starting the semester, however, sometimes they are not available until close to the starting date.