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March 28, 2024, 09:27:48 pm

Author Topic: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 828599 times)  Share 

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epicviolinsolo

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #360 on: June 22, 2017, 03:41:07 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: EAE1011 - Earth, Atmosphere and Environment 1

Workload:  3x1hr lectures per week, 1x3hr lab per week (most times it finished 30mins-1hr early)

Assessment:
- 30% Weekly lab classes (quizzes and written work)
- 10% Fieldwork (2 1/2 day fieldtrip on a weekend in March/April or a 1 day fieldtrip in May)
- 10% Major assignment (self-run group fieldtrip to the city)
- 50% Exam (2 hours, closed book)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No past or sample exams. About 30 practice multiple-choice questions online with no answers.

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbook required for this subject!

Lecturer(s):  Marion Anderson and a couple of guest lecturers from the School of EAE

Year & Semester of completion:  2017, Semester 1

Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Comments:  This is the second year that EAE1011 had been offered as a subject. Supposedly, it combines elements from ESC1011 (keltingmeith's review), ESC1022, ATS1301 and MON1011, which aren't being run anymore.

This unit is a good introduction to the options that can be taken in second and third year. It touches on a number of topics, such as earth processes, cycles, minerals, rocks, our atmosphere, the solar system and the evolution/progress of life on Earth. There is a lot of information given in lectures, so be sure to pay extra attention to the review lectures, because the most important information is repeated in them.

Labs can be pretty fun. They usually run for 2-3 hours. Timetables have them scheduled for 3 hours, but in the 2017 handbook, it says they are 2 hours. Each one is somewhat related to the lecture content from the past few weeks. Often, there'll be actual rock/mineral/asteroid samples to look at, which is pretty awesome (especially the asteroids), and in one lab you go out into the rock garden to identify rocks. 3-4 of the labs are based solely on rocks and minerals, which I didn't really enjoy as I wasn't understanding the rock content in lectures. The demonstrators are all lovely and willing to help. Labs are assessed either by an online quiz based on questions answered during the lab, or by some kind of written work handed in then or one week later.

The fieldwork component was quite fun. You get a choice of two fieldtrips: either a weekend (Fri evening - Sun) trip to Rawson (near Moe), or a one day weekend trip to the You Yangs. I went on Rawson and had a great time. It gives you an idea of the kinds of work you may be doing in this field for a job, like recording weather observations, looking at rock outcrops and how they formed, and soil environments. The report you do is handed in before you leave, so you complete it all while you're there. With the You Yangs trip, you get about a week to finish your work and hand it in.

The major assignment is a group task (3-5 people) where you go into the city and answer questions about different environments. Easter was in the middle of April in 2017, so this assignment was handed out at a great time, because there was time to do it during the mid-semester break. There are heaps of questions, so towards the end my group was getting tired and just wanting to finish. It was cool to learn some new things about Melbourne, but just doing all the questions out there got frustrating as the day went on.

The exam is 2 hours, closed book and made up of multiple choice and short answer questions. It was frustrating to not have any full practice exams and answers for the exam, however the subject is quite new. Not too bad, just difficult to study for due to the huge amount of content learnt throughout the semester. Overall, a pretty good unit.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 12:08:39 pm by epicviolinsolo »

AngelWings

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #361 on: June 22, 2017, 11:09:20 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: BIO3011 - RESEARCH METHODS IN BIOLOGY 

Workload:
2 x 1 hr lecture
1 x 3 hr lab (recorded)

Assessment:
Assignment x 3 (13.33% x 3)
Theory Exam (35%)
Practical Exam (25%)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture (same with labs)

Past exams available:  Yes, theory exam has 1 sample, practical exam has 2.

Textbook Recommendation:
See this. There are about 10 more, mostly PDFs or available in that form via the library. You will probably not need to read any of them, but you will need to have a device compatible with R and R Studio.

Lecturer(s):
Dr Chris Johnstone
Associate Professor Carla Sgro
Dr Tim Connallon
Danielle Annese (not lecturer, but lab technician who runs all the admin areas of BIO3011 and deserved a good mention.)
 
Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5

Comments:
Note: I did not take any statistics units before this one and asked for permission to join this unit. My only prior experience in statistics was in high school.
Lectures
The lectures are divided into two sections and only run on roughly nine weeks, with all other lecture slots being used for question sessions. On the first week, they'll tell you to download the statistics program, R, and R Studio. This is compulsory.
Weeks 1 - 6: Experimental Design, Data Analysis and Basic R Coding Chris and Carla take these weeks. The lectures are really tutorials. The content may seem dry, but it's a case of 'what must be done, gets done', especially because most biology majors (presumably, if you're doing this unit) aren't good with computers or math.
Weeks 8 - 11: Modelling in Biology Tim takes this section and this is the harder section of the unit, especially if you haven't seen derivatives since Methods or done any population genetics/ ecology for a while. Parts of it are calculus, but applied in biology (typically genetics). Similar to Chris and Carla, it's mostly just the utmost basics and extra interesting information on modelling.

Labs
This is where the majority of the learning goes, so if you have to choose one day a week to go to uni, go to this. The labs are recorded like 3 hr lectures and require you to use R.
Weeks 1 - 6: Experimental Design, Data Analysis and Basic R Coding Carla takes the first few weeks and Chris does the next few. Weeks 4 and 5 are the heaviest in content and run quickly, so it would be best if you read the practical manual before you attend. You are given the Week 6 lab to do Assignment 2.
Weeks 8 - 11: Modelling in Biology Tim talks through some math and examples here, but he ensures that it's never all that difficult; simple algebra is enough. In Week 8, it's on using R to generate graphs and derivatives. Weeks 9 - 11 are based mostly on understanding 4 different models and their equilibria.

Assignments
Assignment 1: Basic Statistical Analyses You write statistical analyses, results and generate some simple graphs. If you are lazy, you can wait for the code to be given, but that means you'll have more to learn come the next assignment and practical exam, so pick your poison wisely.
Assignment 2: Write a Scientific Paper Simply enough, you must complete the risk assessment, do an experiment on the prompt, do the appropriate analyses on R and submit an entire report. It's best not to leave this to the last minute and you should have a good group and sample. Don't over-complicate your experiment.
Assignment 3: Use of Modelling in Biology The brunt of it is your mathematical and writing abilities. Don't forget to explain and show your working for this, as this is where people lose marks.

Exams (both during exam period)
Theory Exam Tests all weeks, primarily on Chris and Carla's content. Closed book.
Practical Exam Tests only the first half of the semester. Open book/ can bring in USBs with whatever you like on them. Computer based, held where your practicals are held. You must sign for a session. Make a table sometime throughout semester of the different tests, codes and assumptions to avoid a lot of stress and ensure you choose a session early to avoid disappointment.

Other
Chris is super dedicated to this unit and if you ever run into any problems, he's always more than willing to help (so much so that he looked absolutely exhausted juggling the Assignment 2 consultations with his newborn child and his usual research work in Week 7 and was running on caffeine), so I appreciate his efforts. You'll notice that he types his emails and Moodle posts as if he's speaking, including the discourse particles (i.e. 'um's and 'ah's) and always answers fairly quickly. Tim, likewise, doesn't shy away from giving you detailed explanations if you ask him questions and gives pretty good hints after it seems you don't get it. The TAs are just as willing and helpful. Most of the time, it's because you have issues with your code or computer and they'll fix this with an explanation as to where you went wrong. They're also all cool people to talk to in general or if you're into research (which you probably are, since it's one of the Biological Sciences Honours prerequisites).
This is a chill, well-run and comprehensive unit and would definitely recommend this to any biological science major-intending student. My only negative comments are that the practical manual is not bookmarked and Assignment 2's hectic nature (which it always was going to be). It's probably been my favourite unit so far in my degree. Like Chris says at the start, if you have never encountered R, this is going to be a huge learning curve for you, but if you listen and ask questions, then you'll fare well.
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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AngeRay

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #362 on: July 03, 2017, 09:19:40 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS1325 - Contemporary Worlds 1 

Workload: One 2.5 hour lecture followed by one 1 hour tutorial. Expected that you read the textbook and reader pages at home before attending the lecture.

Assessment:  Annotated Bibliography (hurdle), 1000 word comparative document analysis worth 20%, 1500 word research essay worth 40%, tutorial participation (engaging in class) worth 10%

Recorded Lectures:  Caulfield audio only

Past exams available:  None that I could see

Textbook Recommendation:  International History of the 20th Century and Beyond, costs $65, half the readings are from here. The other half come from the Unit Reader ($19) which is necessary. The textbook can be found and copied from in the library.

Lecturer(s): Alastair Thompson, very engaging lecturer.

Year & Semester of completion: Offered first semester at Caulfield and Clayton

Rating: 2 out of 5

Comments: Tutor didn't seem to know what was going on as much as really needed. Always ran out of time to go over classwork. Assessments weren't given any explanation and they just sort of expected you to know how it worked straight out.

Sine

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #363 on: July 05, 2017, 09:44:43 am »
+10
Subject Code/Name: BMS1011 Biomedical Chemistry

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 3 hour tutorial per week

Assessment:

-Small Group Sessions (19%)
-Directed Learning Activities (DLA) (4%)
-Professional Development (2%)
-Mid Semester Test (15%) 
-Exam (60%)

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: None. Although practice questions were available for both the MST and end of semester exam. We also received a list of questions that other students had created.

Textbook Recommendation:

-Prescribed Texts:
Introduction to Organic Chemistry, 5th Ed (2013) Brown & Poon. Principles of Biochemistry (Lehninger), 6th Ed, (2012) or 7th Ed (2017) Nelson & Cox.

-Recommended texts:
Introduction to Organic Chemistry & Biochemistry, 10th Ed, (2012) Bettelheim et al. Biochemistry, 7th Ed, (2011) Campbell & Farrell.
You don’t need any of these texts, I had the prescribed texts but never used them during the whole semester. The lecture notes are more than enough to complete all the assessments and do well.

Lecturer(s):
-Dr Ian Fraser (Structure of Biological Macromolecules, 11 lectures)
-Associate Professor Jackie Wilce (Proteins: Structure and Mechanism of Action, 6 lectures)
-Dr Nirma Samarawickrema (Metabolic Release of Energy/Synthesis of Macromolecules, 11 lectures)

Year & Semester of Completion: 2017, Semester 1

Rating: 5/5

Your Grade/Mark: TBA

Comments:
The unit was subdivided into 4 sections (A,B,C and D). Section A –Structure of Biological Macromolecules consisted of 10 lectures, which was basically organic chemistry, along with a revision lecture. This portion of the unit was relatively simple considering I had completed MUEP Chemistry during year 12. For others chirality was probably the toughest topic for students to understand. The revision lecture consisted of the lecturer going through practice questions for the MST which were indicative of the MST difficulty. Ian made lectures relatively interesting (compared to other lecturers) by making nice links between the content and real life. We were told that for this section was predominately application based which it was; you were able to derive each answer logically. Section B- Proteins: Structure and Mechanism of Action was 6 fairly mundane lectures consisting of basically proteins and then more specifically enzymes. Lectures were boring however usually ended early. Section C and D consisted of 11 lecturers, this was definitely the toughest portion of the unit although the most interesting section as most concepts were related to everyday life or clinical situations. Section C consisted of metabolism of lipids and carbohydrates to produce energy. Section D was about the processes utilised when there was an abundance of energy e.g. gluconeogenesis. Any marks that I lost on the exam were most likely from the last 2 sections.

Small group sessions:
Was basically tutorials which occur each week for 3 hours which included a worksheet or a class case study, although most weeks you could leave after 1 or 2 hours if you had completed the worksheet or the class had completed the case study. Each week of work is 1% other than week 11 where in which we completed an essay (outside of class) which was worth 8%. For worksheets, we could discuss answers with other students along with the tutor making it relatively easy to score well. The worksheets we had for Section A were quite good in covering the main concepts taught in lecturers. For section B the work was often too specific to be that helpful and mostly consisted of some MCQs and short answer. Section C and D often included clinical case studies which were very boring to get through. The marking scheme for this was 50% for participation and 50% for a MCQ sheet at the end (in exam conditions – although often broken). Keep in mind each case study is still only worth 1% overall. Each case study included heaps of questions and we would answer them for participation marks. These weren’t helpful for exam study.  The MCQ sheet was regurgitation of the general idea of the case study and was doable if you had paid attention and were somewhat indicative of exam style MCQ’s.

Essay:
An essay was a part of the assessment – being worth 8% and a word limit of 1500. My essay ended up being 1640-1650 (you can go 10% plus/minus). The Great Metabolic Race as they called it, was where we were required to outline the metabolic processes at rest, at 5 mins and 45 mins into a race. It was very easy to get all the details required (all can be found on the lecture slides or online), which were reactants products and the enzyme required for every reaction in the process. You weren’t exactly forced to speak about every reaction but I was able to fit it in. The hardest part was probably to decided where in your essay you wanted to mention certain processes. For me and most of my friends marking was very fair (if not lenient) with most people scoring 90%+. One of my friends got 100% so it’s possible. The essay was great to review section C of the lectures.

DLAs:
There were 6 DLA’s, these were small online quizzes which consisted of some MCQ ranging from roughly 5 to 10 or some fill in the blank style questions. We generally got a week to input our answers online however the questions were all available from day 1 in the workbook which was given during the first lecture but could also be found online. These were also quite straightforward to do well in. Most people would double/triple check (commonly known as collusion) with friends so it wasn’t uncommon for students to full mark all of them. Ironically the people who completed them early generally did worse because less information was out. For example, DLA 4 around a 1/6th of the cohort completed it before the content was covered in lecturers. The lecturers had a slight difference (NADH produces 2.5ATP not 3ATP) to what was learnt in high school so many people scored 0%. The unit coordinator was quite nice in then only counting everyone’s best 5 DLA scores, from the 6 DLA’s. As a result, each DLA ended up being worth 0.8% of the total unit grade.

Professional Development portfolio:
This was worth 2% of the unit grade and was just bullshitting a worksheet on what we could do to improve employability. I think I put down LinkedIn and some other stuff – but never created an account. From memory there was a lecture associated to this but I didn’t go – only glanced at the slides. I reckon almost everyone got 2/2 of this “assessment”. Even people who submitted late (although not recommended).

Mid Semester Test:
This was 25 MCQ’s although 2 of them had a mistake in them so ended up being out of 23. The average score was 76%. The practice questions available were indicative of the style and difficulty of the question in the actual MST so do those until you are getting them all correct. We had 45 minutes for the test and was more than enough time, I was able to do the test in around 25-30mins and then had enough time to check over.

Exam:
In a very similar style to the MST this was 75 MCQ’s in 3 hours. Most people left early after around 1.5 hours and at the end I think there were only around 20-25% of people left maybe less. Section A consisted of questions 1-14, Section B 15-37 and Section C/D 38-75. Sections A and B were quite straight forward. Section A being very alike to the MST, imo much easier and section B was fair if you had covered the specifics. Section C and D was a combination of application and memorisation of minor aspects of the unit. There were a few questions that I was 50/50 on but nothing unexpected. 

Other/Overall:
Many of the lecturers utilised the Monash Automated Student Response System (MARS). This allowed the lecturer to put up a question for the audience and we could use our devices such as phone/laptop/tablet etc to answer the question. The lecturer could then choose to show us the % of students choosing each answer similarly it could’ve been a word cloud for our answers.
This unit also included a peer wise system where other students and yourself could create questions for the rest of the cohort – you need to create a question to see everyone else’s though. For exam revision Nirma created a document with around 30 of those question and IIRC she said 1 or 2 of them would come up on the exam although I didn’t see any on the exam LOL. Definitely my favourite of the 1st year, 1st semester core biomedicine units with no real major issues in my opinion and was a very smooth transition into university.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2017, 09:46:37 am by Sine »

Sine

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #364 on: July 09, 2017, 05:12:04 am »
+7
Subject Code/Name: BMS1021 Cells, tissues and organisms

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 3 hour labs (during 7 of 12 weeks)

Assessment:

-Practical Class Reports (25%)
-Written Assessment (15%)
-Mid Semester Test (10%)
-Exam (50%)

Hurdle Requirement: Yes, 45% must be achieved on the exam to pass the unit

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: None, however a substantial number of practice questions were available.

Textbook Recommendation:
Campbell Biology Australian and New Zealand edition (10e). I never really used the textbook however if you haven’t done biology in high school I would recommend getting a copy.

Lecturer(s):
-Dr Chantal Hoppe (Introduction/Histology, lectures 1,12-16)
-Mr Brendan Wilding (Biochemistry, lectures 2-4)
-Professor John Beardall (Cell Biology, lectures 5-7)
-Associate Professor Craig Smith (Developmental Biology, lectures 8-11)
-Dr Christopher Johnstone (Metabolism/Physiology, lectures 17-23)
-Associate Professor Robyn Slattery (Immunology, lectures 24-26)
-Dr Paul Crellin (Microbiology I (bacteria), lectures 27-29)
-Associate Professor Jose Garcia-Bustos (Microbiology II, lectures 30-32)

Year & Semester of Completion: 2017, Semester 1

Rating:4/5

Your Grade/Mark: TBA

Comments:

Lectures:

Biochemistry: A very nice introduction into the course, not too taxing and a breeze if you have done VCE biology- if you haven’t get ready to learn a tonne of content this semester. We covered concepts on water and biomacromolecules. Being lipids, nucleic acids, amino acids & carbohydrates. There is some overlap with this topic and Biomedical Chemistry 1011 however it is more complementary than “overlap”.

Cell Biology: Also a very simple topic If you had already done VCE biology. We learnt all the components of the cell and their functions along with the components of the cytoskeleton.

Developmental Biology: Once again another topic that builds of VCE biology, so it’s a steep learning curve for those who haven’t done it. We covered Gametogenesis (spermatogenesis and oogenesis) along with fertilisation and the development of an embryo. Then as logic would dictate the development of the body plan. In the last lecture for this topic we looked at the different disorders that can crop up such as disease states and syndromes - be it a birth defect or caused by a teratogen. 

Histology: The hardest topic in my opinion and consisted of looking at a lot of histograms and determining what is shown and labelling portions of it. The problem I had with this is that you were only 100% sure if you had seen the exact same image before so this topic was pretty dodgy imo. I put the most amount of time into this and it paid off as the exam questions ended up being mostly simple.

Metabolism/Physiology: Another tough topic for me, however this time not for the content but how dry the content was. For the most part, any concept learnt in this unit isn’t too hard but for some minor portions understanding it fully can be. The metabolism sections were quite straightforward. The physiology portion covered temperature regulation, respiratory gas exchange, blood and respiratory pigments, circulation and salt/water balance. The hardest part would be determining what we needed to learn but evidently (from the exam) everything is examinable :P.
 
Immunology: Once again a simple topic if you had completed VCE biology although I found it to be a very nice refresher. This went over the innate and adaptive immune responses. The major difference would be the depth in which we learnt the adaptive mechanisms along with the understanding required of the lymphatic immune system.

Microbiology: At times, a very dry portion of the course. We first covered bacteria where we had to learn some of the specific types of bacteria and the disease they caused. The main concept I felt in the bacteria section was really gram+ vs gram- bacteria. We also covered the favourable and unfavourable places within the human body where in which bacteria may live or infect. Then we went into protists, fungi and viruses. The lecturer here was very nice in telling us what specific genus we were required to memorise and thankfully what he said ended up being on the exam.

Practicals:
This unit consisted of 6 practicals. 6 of which were worth 3.5% and 3 hours long and the microbiology practical being worth 4% however it was run over 2 weeks for 6 hours (2 x 3 hours). This totalled to 25% of the unit grade. Overall, I felt many of the pracs were boring and tedious however very simple.

Microscopy: We basically learnt or reviewed the basics on how to use a microscope along with all of its features. It’s a very important prac since this semester and later in the degree we continue to go back to stuff taught in this prac. Like most of the pracs it was long and boring, the assessment was a short test along with assessment of our actual practical skills.

Biochemistry: This prac was purely online based and was mainly ourselves altering an excel spreadsheet to change pH and see what changes occurred to the relative concentrations of a particular ionisation state of aspartic acid. The assessment was 15 MCQs which were quite accessible, from what I recall there where two questions that were quite dodgy but nothing too bad.

Developmental Biology: This practical was hands on however I’m not too sure whether it was compulsory since you could’ve skipped it and still completed the quiz online haha (no attendance was taken). We covered the stages of spermatogenesis, labelling the anatomy of a spermatozoa and we also looked at some sperm under the microscope and observing it’s motility/morphology. As I’ve said the assessment was an online quiz which wasn’t too taxing but as a lot of these practicals there was a couple of questions which weren’t explicitly covered in the pracs nor the lectures so we had to do our own research.

Histology: A very interesting prac session consisting of 2 activities which were a worksheet and a presentation. The worksheet was tough for me as histology was the hardest section for me in this unit but there was help available. The presentation included students in groups of 4 creating a model of an organ containing the 4 primary tissue types (muscle, nervous tissue, epithelium and connective tissue). HINT: Chantal apparently loves kidneys 😉 The assessment for this prac was an online quiz.

Metabolism: The procedure was relatively simple, we examined the activity of amylase in germinating barley. The assessment was quite tough and was very different to the other pracs. We had a scratchy sheet for MCQs so you had to scratch out what answer you wanted to submit and if you got it correct on the first go you got 2/2. However, if you get it wrong you have another shot (to scratch out another answer) for a potential 1/2).

Immunology: Was above all my favourite one (probably because I knew all the content going in) It was slightly tedious but was manageable since we all knew we were going to do quite well on the prac. If you have done VCE biology this will be an absolute breeze.

Microbiology: My least favourite prac, maybe because we hadn’t covered the relevant lecture content before the prac and I was never 100% sure on what to do. This was because the cohort was split into those completing the prac in week 7 & 8 or in week 11 & 12. Although this was also good since closer to exam time I had more time so it evened out. The prac included basic techniques we can use in order to differentiate different bacteria. Our context was a package had come in with a mysterious white powder and the 1021 unit coordinator had developed an respiratory tract infection and we had to determine what it was smh. Only once we started microbiology content in the lectures was when I started to understand what I did in the prac fully.

Mid Semester Test:
This was worth 10% of the total unit grad and included 45 MCQs covering lectures 2 through 17 however the amount of MCQ questions that was counted is not known since there was some disagreement if there was some dodgy questions LOL. I found the test to be very fair but of course there were a small number of questions which went into the minor details of the course. We had an hour for the test which was more than enough time so I was able to do the test twice. I scored slightly lower than I had anticipated so maybe didn’t consider some silly errors. From memory, it took around 4 weeks for the results of the MST to be released.

Simplified Literature Review:
This was worth 15% of the total unit grade, so really a massive chunk. Personally, my least favourite part of my whole first semester at university. It involved us choosing one of nine topics. I ended up choosing Protein folding and misfolding. Topic choice was on a first come first serve basis and some topics were fully ridiculously quickly, e.g. 2-3 topics were full after 1 minute and maybe 5 topics full under 10 minutes. A week’s labs were allocated to for the lit review and included a workshop where they tried to help us and tells us what we needed to do. This wasn’t that helpful since it was really early in the semester and months before the actual lit review was due. In the workshop, we worked in small groups to complete a guided worksheet .
Now for the actual writing of the lit review. We had a word limit of 1000 words and you could go the usual plus minus 10%. It was painful to go through tonnes of articles looking for anything which may have some value for our own lit review. I used one note to upload all the articles I found and annotated which parts I thought were useful. The best way I found to approach the lit review was to break your question up into 3 smaller questions then try to answer them individually. Also remember primary articles are favoured over secondary however they take so much longer to interpret since they have raw experiments and data. We received our marks around 4 and a half weeks after the due date. The actual marking of our lit reviews was extremely fair and for someone who wasn’t always sure what I was doing did relatively well on it. One of my friends ended up with 29/30 so it’s possible to get full/close to full marks since you are marked via a rubric. I would think the average mark would’ve been around 22-23/30. This is just an educated guess though since the actual value was not released.

Exam:
The exam is worth 50% of the total unit grade and consisted of 110 MCQs and ran for 3 hours. There were no time strains whatsoever and most people finished early and left. Maybe 30-35% of the students stayed until the very end. It was very similar to the MST although I felt it was slightly harder than the MST. However I felt as though the exam was extremely fair although heaps of tricky questions I felt as though went into extreme detail of the course. However, there was plenty “Free marks” for those who did enough study to do well. This exam was probably good for me in the long run since now it’s very clear that even the smallest details can be assessed.

PASS:
PASS classes were run for this unit however I stopped attending after a few weeks. Although I still received the worksheets from friends. PASS sessions were timetabled very badly for me so the main reason why I stopped going and I also felt they weren’t that great for me to out of my way to get to the class. The worksheet given is the main learning tool here as the tutor doesn’t really teach us but guide you during the session.

Other/Overall:
I found this unit to be extremely content heavy however simple at times. It was extremely run well and the only major fault I can comment on is the lit review (might be a little bias). All the assessment was very fair and how well you do will be up to how much time you invest into the subject.

« Last Edit: July 09, 2017, 05:15:29 am by Sine »

ravenswood

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #365 on: July 09, 2017, 03:09:07 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: FIT2004 - Algorithms and Data Structures

Workload: 1 x 2hr lecture, 1 x 3hr lab/tut

Assessment:
-10% "active participation", there are tutorial questions you must attempt, u do not need to get them right. also includes lab attendance (you don't have to go to lectures)
- 30% assessments, split between 5 worth 6% each
- 60% exam

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Theres one you can find online easily, and we were given one. no solutions for either

Textbook Recommendation:  N/A

Lecturer(s): Arun Konagurthu - i heard hes not teaching it anymore though

Year & Semester of completion:  2017, Semester 1

Rating:  3 out of 5

Comments:  This unit is soooo painful. If the only CS you've ever done is the first year units, it's going to be a rough ride. As far as the assignments go, in 1045 and 1008 they don't really care about your code at all, only if you get the output right. However in this unit every single line of code is scrupulously analysed, and your code must be as efficient as possible. If your code performs an operation in O(N) when it could be in O(1), you will lose marks. These small inefficiencies add up, so while your code may work perfectly fine and get the right solution, if it could have been better you will lose marks. I got 50% on an assignment that had perfect output and nice looking, well commented code because of this obsession with efficiency. ultimately you will become a better programmer in the long run because of it, but it will be frustrating while you're doing it. e.g, if you use a dictionary where you could have used a list, you'll lose 0.5 marks. that's 0.5% of your entire unit mark. however, arriving at the solution is generally not that hard, so its relatively easy to do "okay" in the assignments.

the main issue I had with this unit was that I spent too long on the assignments, so the amount of cramming for the exam I had to do was unbelievable. this is because there isn't a mid semester test or anything, so its easy to just ignore most of what is being taught and focus purely on the assignments. dont do this, you will hate yourself for it when you're preparing for the exam and realise you don't actually know anything. you will need to work very hard in this unit if you want to do well unless you've done lots of CS before, to ensure your assignments are of a high quality and that you're staying on top of the content. As far as the content goes, you delve deeper into some stuff you've already learnt but learn a truckload of other algorithms and data structures (duh). Off the top of my head, Week 1-3 is probably the hardest, theres writing formal proofs and structural induction (structural induction is SUPER easy if you practice enough, it blew my mind at first but its actually incredibly simple. i still suck at writing proofs), and proving the correctness of algorithms and showing that they terminate. Week 4 is dynamic programming, I found this the hardest. Week 5 is hashing and AVL trees, Week 6 is suffix trees/tries, Week 7 is prefix doubling, BWT transform and pattern matching. Week 8-10 is graphs, Week 11 is networks (basically graphs, we learnt ford fulkersons algorithm) and week 12 was a bit of recursion. I said "is" a lot, I'm sure it will vary a bit but not by too much considering almost everything on the 2014 exam was taught. nothing you learn is that hard except proofs, but theres just a lot of stuff. most of it is actually incredibly interesting, assuming you like CS. my only advice, practice, practice, practice. try code every algorithm and data structure taught when you learn it. start your assignments ASAP, do all your tutorial questions and lab work quickly, and don't be afraid to ask for help.





apan

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #366 on: July 14, 2017, 10:31:08 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ACC1100 - Introduction to financial accounting 

Workload:  2 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 1.5 hour tute per week

Assessment:  assignment: 10%, midsem test: 20%, tute homework and participation: 10%, group presentation: 10%, exam: 50%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 2: 2016 sem 1 and 2016 sem 2

Textbook Recommendation:  Financial Accounting - Shirley Carlon, Rosina Mladenovic-McAlpine, Chrisann Palm, Lorena Mitrione, Ngaire Kirk, Lily Wong

Buy it, you'll need it. Explanations are pretty shitty and way too complext and I never did the pre-readings but all the homework questions (compulsory) is in the textbook and I was unable to find a pdf version anywhere. Probably the only textbook I used this semester.

The handbook is recommended and I didn't buy it but I borrowed it from LTU library (all out at Monash) for the exam and it was actually pretty helpful for the exam. It saved me a lot of time of memorising definitions and instead I could refer to the handbook if I was lost regarding a definition or a standard. But it wasn't necessary for the mid sem for me, as our mid sem was mainly prac and no theory.


Lecturer(s): John Gerrad

Year & Semester of completion: Sem 1 2017

Rating: 3 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 87 HD

Comments: I would only recommend choosing this subject if you intend on majoring in accounting, otherwise choose accounting for managers. A lot of the content (week 1-7) was VCE accounting, so if you've done VCE accounting you could pretty much never attend a lecture and be fine - there was a tiny bit of new content but nothing too difficult. The mid-sem was really easy and the assignment was pretty basic too. The assignment was assigned like week 2 or 3, pretty early on, and it was completely individual. Each student got their own set of numbers, transactions etc so no way of doing the assignment with someone. It was an excel based thing and you had to submit an income statement, balance sheet and some summary thing in the excel spread sheet. The assignment took a long time so start early, especially if you've done VCE accounting, there was no new content in the assignment. The formatting was kinda weird as well, I got a bit confused. I got marks off because of my formatting in the balance sheet with regards to depreciation. Check with your tutor what the correct formatting is because I had no idea I based it off a google search of "balance sheet". The mid-sem was fairly easy too, had no theory whatsoever but study for it for sure. I didn't study much for it but thankfully it was mainly all prac and year 12 accounting.

The tutes were compulsory and I'd recommend going to them anyways, basically go through the homework. My tutor was a legend, Lily Polic. She was really nice and helpful, but she checked on homework every week. So do all the homework, and the hw is helpful. It takes ages though and there are soo many questions and tbh I barely did the hw or I would do a very small amount and I'd always get called out in tutes so def do them, especially as it goes towards your overall end mark. The "group presentation" was basically each tute we were given a q based on that topic and as a group you do the question, then a random group is chosen to read the answers out. It isn't too hard and I only went up once but it was easy marks if you contribute and speak when its your turn to go up.

Week 7-12 was all new content from VCE, and a lot more theory based. The exam was mostly week 7-12 and it was a lot harder. John Gerrad wasn't the best lecturer, he was really slow and starts on the dot (not 5 mins in). usually id watch his lectures from home on 2x speed.

The exam was a lot harder than expected but not toooo bad, as I said before mainly week 7-12 stuff.

Overall the unit was okay, I did better than I expected and I'm considering majoring in accounting but I wouldnt recommend it to someone who has no interest in majoring in it. If you haven't done VCE either you'll likely struggle a bit as they basically cram 2 years of accounting in 6 weeks. However it was an enjoyable subject and if you've done year 12 accounting you'll be fine and be able to pass pretty easily.
Accounting [39] Chemistry [36] Economics[25] English [35] Further Maths [45] Methods [37] Atar - 93.15

2017: Bachelor of Commerce/ Bachelor of science

Sine

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #367 on: July 22, 2017, 01:37:53 am »
+8
Subject Code/Name: BMS1031 Medical Biophysics

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 2 hour tutorial per week

Assessment:

-Practical Work (25%)
-4 x Online Quiz (10%)
-Question Set (5%)
-Fact Sheet (10%) 
-Exam (50%)

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: Yes, from 2006-2015. 2016 exam was not available in 2017. Only physic section of unit had past exams.

Textbook Recommendation:
Physics for Bioscience Custom Book Monash University
Physics: Principles with Application with MasteringPhysics: International Edition (6e)
Textbooks were actually useful to learn the content well and it is alright to just use them to learn the content, without going to lectures (although not recommended)

Lecturer(s):

Prof Kristian Helmerson (Fluids and Energy)
A/Prof Chris Wright (Cardiovascular)
Dr Agnieszka Gorecka (Electricity and Radiation)
Prof Helena Parkington (Bioelectricity/Bioimaging/Physiology)
Mr Michael Ferguson  (Waves and Optics)

Year & Semester of Completion: 2017, Semester 1

Rating: 1/5

Your Grade/Mark: TBA

Comments:

Firstly I don't think anyone actually enjoyed this unit :P Definitely my least favourite unit and it will be very hard to beat in the future. The worst part was how disconnected everything seemed to be and the fact that they would try to use the last 2 minutes of the lecture trying to tie in the concepts back to medicine.

Practicals:
Practical work was tiresome and boring for the whole semester. Usually we would have some pre-lab work to complete which was never too difficult worth 1%. The actual practicals weren’t too hard but the assessment was totally inconsistent depending on whether you got a nice or harsh TA. Thankfully most of my TA’s were not too harsh. In some weeks in place of practicals we had tutorials where we would attempt some exam style questions. This was a great idea on the departments part but often the questions were too difficult to actually be useful in an exam situation. These were also worth 1% each week.

Online Quizzes:
We had 4 online quizzes worth 2.5% each and they were never too difficult. You were given two attempts at each quiz and your best attempt was scored. Often the questions were recycled so a lot of people would worth together on the quiz and help each other. However sometimes there would be a concept on the quiz that you hadn’t covered so you had a to use a quick google search.

Question Set:
This was basically just another worksheet which we had to complete. We were allowed to discuss answers with others but our own work had to be submitted. Around 80% of the set was easy and the other 20% most people needed to go to a help-desk to discuss it since it wasn’t explicitly covered during the lectures. The majority of students did very well on this and heaps full marked it.

Fact Sheet:
I wasn’t too sure on the reason for this assessment but we initially had to choose a topic through moodle. I chose COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) which I regret since when I decided to start the assignment found out didn’t have much physics concepts related to it. This “fact sheet” is basically a mini poster describing the concept at a first year biomed level. The scoring on this assessment was very inconsistent with some people doing very well and others barely passing it really depended on which topic you chose and who marked it. Pretty unfair considering that this was worth 10% of the total unit grade.

Exam:
The exam ran for 3 hours and was worth 50% of the total unit grade. This exam was split into 3 sections, physics, cardiovascular and physiology.  The final exam was out of 137 marks. Do the past exams. I don’t think most people would’ve passed the subject without past exams. I used my SWOTVAC to learn from the past exams since going through actual notes and lectures was way too time consuming. The past exams were only available for the physics portion. The actual exam was quite similar to the past exams and roughly the same difficulty. The whole “physics portion” of the exam was relatively easy and there was only one electricity question which I wasn’t too sure on. The physiology portion of the exam was a lot tougher. We were given another set of mock exams for physiology which looked alright but was nothing like the actual exam. Understanding is probably the most important thing for physiology since only about 2 out of the 25 marks were recall. We also had 10 marks on cardiovascular which wasn’t too difficult and watching the cardiovascular lectures days before the exam definitely helped me answer those questions.

Overall/Other:
The lectures were nothing special really so I won’t go into detail about them. You could’ve learnt out of the textbook and still done very well. Which is what I did sometimes. From the lecturers that I attended the Optics lectures were definitely the most engaging and fun to listen to. This is a core unit for biomed so sadly you have to take it. PASS sessions helped quite a bit for this subject since they would give out worksheets with exam style questions. I stopped attending those sessions but continued to complete the worksheets which I found quite helpful. They were basically an extra practice exam or 2.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2017, 12:28:43 am by Sine »

VanillaRice

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #368 on: July 22, 2017, 03:00:47 pm »
+8
Subject Code/Name: MKC1200 - Principles of Marketing 

Workload:  Per week: 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial, 1 x online Moodle lesson

Assessment:
10 x online quizzes (10% total)
These Moodle quizzes were to be completed each week after watching the online lesson for that week. They were made up of about 5 MCQ questions, and were relatively easy to do, provided you watched the video. Most of the answers could be obtained directly from the lecture slides/online lesson.

8 x tutorial-based assessments (15% total)
These were weekly quizzes done in pre-allocated groups in the tutorials. Questions were all MCQ, and were answered on an IF-AT card (those scratchy ones) - so you could still gain some of the marks even if you didn't get the answer the first time. Tutorials were 1 week behind the online lessons, and to do well on these quizzes, it's important to do some study beforehand (since we couldn't use our notes). Tutorials weren't compulsory per se, but you could only obtain the mark for each week's tute quiz by attending and staying for the whole time. You also get 9 quizzes, but only the top 8 are counted, so you could miss one without too many problems.

The 'Look Around You' Video Project (10%)
This is a video project done in pre-allocated tutorial groups. You will have a choice of some recent events (e.g. our group chose Woolworths' decision to shut down Masters) and have to create a 2 minute video on what environmental forces led to the event, and how the company responded. A word of warning - the video has a strict 2 minute time limit, and this is not a long time at all. In the end, our group had to talk really quickly, and probably lost marks because we couldn't be understood or whatever  :P.

STP Essay (15%)
You had a choice of two products, and were required to write a 1500 word essay about the marketing strategy employed by the company with regards to this product. Another word of warning - make sure your essay is based around STP strategy (with minimal discussion of other topics you have learnt), since lots of people lost marks due to not being on topic. The Matheson library also ran optional workshops for this essay where they talked about academic essay writing and how to research journal articles.

End of Semester Exam (50%)
The examination consisted of two sections - section A consisted of 3 extended answer-style responses, while section B consisted of 5 short answer questions (but you were only required to answer 4 of them i.e. leave one out). The sample exam provided was pretty similar to the final exam, and there were no trick questions - I found they could be well answered as long as you studied the content. Be sure to remember to talk about real-life examples where asked, and apply the concept to the example.

Recorded Lectures:  N/A - pre-recorded videos uploaded to Moodle in a weekly online lesson format

Past exams available:  No. 1 sample exam provided to give an idea of the exam format only - no answers.

Textbook Recommendation: 
- Prescribed: Marketing principles (2nd ed.) by Pride et al. I don't think that this textbook is essential for the unit content, since the online lectures cover the required content. However, I found it helpful at times for clarification (since each topic has a relevant textbook section) and also useful for the STP essay (which requires you to reference at least 2 marketing textbooks anyway).

Lecturer(s):
- Dr Elizabeth Snuggs (unit coordinator) - only gives a quick 2-minute intro video at the start of the week outlining what's happening that week, as well as the end of semester revision lesson
- For the online lessons, I don't think the lecturers gave their names

Year & Semester of completion: S1, 2017

Rating: 3 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: HD

Comments: If you're studying Commerce, you don't really get a choice since this is a core unit  :P. I'm not the biggest fan of marketing, but the content was still somewhat interesting. Each week generally covers a different topic. As an overview - you'll learn about what marketing actually is, how companies design marketing strategies, the many decisions they have to make (e.g. how much to price an item for), and the differences between consumers and businesses. I found that many of the concepts you learn can be applied to your everyday life (especially when you look at/watch advertisements).
The contact hours for this unit were pretty relaxed, and you could generally do things at your own pace. The tutorials usually consisted of the quiz for the first 20 or so minutes, and then the tutor goes over the previous week's content (sometimes there's also group activities).
« Last Edit: July 22, 2017, 03:19:53 pm by VanillaRice »
VCE 2015-16
2017-20: BSc (Stats)/BBiomedSc [Monash]

VanillaRice

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #369 on: August 04, 2017, 01:18:26 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: ETC1000 - Business and economic statistics

Workload:  Throughout the semester: 9 x 1.5 hour computer labs, 8 x 1.5 hour live lectures, 8 x sets of online videos

The first 8 weeks of semester involved an online 'lesson' (basically pre-recorded videos) where you watch 2-4 videos to learn the content.

The computer labs consisted of an online Moodle quiz which involves you manipulating spreadsheet data in Excel to answer questions. Note: there is assigned homework to do before each lab class - do these. The questions can be quite similar to that of the actual lab, and the homework sheet will contain information which may not have been explained in great detail in the online videos. Also be careful with things such as units (e.g, $, cm) as you can lose half marks for these.  The final lab class did not involve a quiz - it was entirely dedicated to the group oral presentation.

Live lectures generally did not involve teaching new content - they were generally used to go through 'case studies' and applying the content learnt in the videos. It might be worth paying attention here, as some of it may be useful for your group project. There were also 2 lectures explaining the group project and how to present it/what to do. The week 12 lectures involved the lecturer going through a practice exam, as well as going through what you need to know for the exam.

Assessment: 
7 x submitted computer lab work (24.5% total)
You have 8 computer labs which involve a quiz, but only the best 7 results are counted. Results are usually released the week after, and you are allowed to review it afterwards. These were generally accessible, provided you watched the online videos and did the homework.

Group Project (15.5%)
My cohort was the first to do this assessment, so as expected, there were a few things that still need refining. The group project involved analysis of a large set of data about African households (from which you were required to generate your own sample) around a particular theme, which you will then present to your lab class. Your group (usually 3-4 people) had a choice of about 3 different themes (schooling and farming are the ones I can remember). There were questions to help guide your project, as well as a general structure. I think a problem for me was the lack of an assessment criteria from which we could follow. One of the lecturers/unit coordinators will be present in each computer lab to assess the (10 minute max) presentation, and gave general class feedback after everyone had finished. I found there was no detailed feedback given to the individual groups, so you couldn't really tell where you lost (or gained, for that matter) marks. Hopefully this is something that will be addressed in the future.

End of Semester Exam (60%)
2 hours, closed book. The exam comprised of short answer questions grouped into 3-4 sections. The exam generally involved analysing a set of data and answering relevant questions. Quite accessible in my opinion, provided you kept up with the content. The questions were generally 'analysis' questions, rather than using actual maths (although there were still a few of these).

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture. Also uploaded to the unit YouTube channel.

Past exams available:  Yes, the exams from the most recent 8 semesters were provided. Solutions only provided to the most recent 2 though. Note that the exam structure and content has changed somewhat over the past few years.

Textbook Recommendation: 
Essentials of Business Analytics by Camm et al. Probably not essential to have (I didn't really use it myself), but I guess it could be quite useful for clarifying concepts (especially for those who are new to statistics, or have not done methods/specialist maths in VCE). Perhaps loan/have a look at a copy from the library before deciding to buy.

Lecturer(s):
Prof. Brett Inder (unit coordinator)
Dr Daniel Melser

The lecturers generally take it in turns to deliver the case studies. Brett also loves telling mid-lecture stories - there's a few very interesting ones (although you'll have to go or listen to them yourself to find out  :P)!

Year & Semester of completion: S1, 2017

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: HD

Comments: This is a Commerce core unit, and serves as a brief introduction to statistics. If you've done Specialist Maths in VCE, you'll find a lot of the content here similar to the statistics taught in spesh (p-values, confidence intervals, etc.) plus more. Like the previous reviews have said, this unit is more focused around the analysis of statistics rather than the actual mathematics side (which was probably a bit disappointing for me  :P). The unit is not difficult to keep up with week by week, but that is not to say you can leave everything to the week before exams, especially since the computer labs assess the previous weeks material anyway. There are also consultation helpdesks available throughout each week if you require any extra help.
VCE 2015-16
2017-20: BSc (Stats)/BBiomedSc [Monash]

K888

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #370 on: November 05, 2017, 07:29:58 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: PTY1022 - Physiotherapy 2

Workload:
Variable during the semester.
Per week:
- Lectures: 8 hours, but in the first 2 weeks there's an extra 2 hours per week (HEP lectures), and a one off 2 hour group exercise lecture in week 1
- Tutes (weeks 1-4): weeks 1&2: 1 hour, weeks 3&4: 2 hours (HEP)
- Prac: 4 hours (2 x 2 hours)
- Anatomy prac: 2 hours
- CBL: 3 hours (2 x 1.5 hours)
- Independent skills practice (1 x 1-1.5 hour(s))
- Group exercise (1 x 1 hour - weeks 2-6 inclusive)

There's also a few one-off things during semester - the first aid course, the plastering prac, etc.

Assessment:
Just about everything is a hurdle in this course.
Formative:
- Attendance - 80% at pracs and tutes, 100% expected at CBL
- Professional conduct - communicating professionally in emails, etc. and there's a professional attribute checklist you have to get signed off at the end of semester
- First aid - if you don't already have a level 2 first aid certificate, you have to attend the (free) first aid course the uni runs
- Vaccination, working with children check, police check, etc. - you have to submit documentation by the end of the semester to prove you've met these requirements
- Skills mastery checklist - submit by the end of week 12
- Skills mastery videos during the semester
- Attendance at IPE volunteer experience & 2nd year OSCE (you have to be a patient)
- Reflective Portfolio - there's about 5 or so instalments of this due in the semester, with the first few being journals for HEP, and the last few about skills mastery stuff.

Summative:
- CBL - 5% of semester grade
- Research quizzes - worth a cumulative 10% of semester grade
- Physiology assessments - there's 2 of these during the semester, worth a cumulative 5%
- Anatomy mid-semester exam - 2.5%
- Group exercise assessment - 2.5%
- IPE group video assignment - 2.5%
- Changing Client Health - written assignment - 20%
- Written exam (3 hours) - 30%
- OSCE - 20%
- End of semester anatomy image exam - 2.5%

Recorded Lectures: 
Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:
One is provided at the end of semester by faculty staff, it's not available publicly and no answers are provided.

Textbook Recommendation: 
Same as for PTY1011. Clinical Sports Medicine is easily the one I have used the most this semester and is, in my opinion, very necessary. I'd also recommend an anatomy textbook - Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy is the prescribed text, but anything like Gray's, etc. would also be good.
The rest you can borrow from the library and have on loan for ages - there's heaps of copies.

Lecturer(s):
Variable.
Physio theory lectures were mainly delivered by Jodie and Luke (unit coordinators) with Mick (PTY1011 coordinator) also lecturing, and some guest lectures from Dr Ebonie Rio (she was by far my favourite lecturer this year). Anatomy lectures were delivered by Jo (first-year coordinator), and Physiology by Dr Ash Frazer (she was new this semester, I assume she'll be lecturing next year but unsure).
All the lecturers are really approachable and knowledgeable. :)

Year & Semester of completion:
2017, Semester 2.

Rating: 
4 out of 5

Comments:
This semester (and unit), which covered upper limb musculoskeletal physiotherapy, is a lot more difficult than PTY1011, with harder content and higher expectations. Still enjoyable, but you have to be on your toes and I definitely didn't enjoy this semester as much as last semester.
A big drawback of the semester for me was HEP (Health Enhancement Program) - which was, from what I gather, about stuff like mindfulness, stress, etc. Good in theory, but you actually get assessed on it, which isn't helpful for your stress levels. The tutes were pretty boring, too, and were 2 hours long so they dragged out.
Group exercise was amusing, but I found that the lady who took it just made things way too complicated which made it a lot less enjoyable.

Uranium

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #371 on: November 15, 2017, 05:45:07 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS2648 - Contemporary Japan

Workload (Weekly): 
1 x 1 hour Lecture
1 x 1 hour Tutorial

Assessment:
15% Participation (Throughout the semester)
3 x 5% Quizzes
1 x 30% Short Essay or Annotated Translation
1 x 40% Exam

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  No, but some sample questions were provided.

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbook purchase required; all essential readings are available on Moodle

Lecturer(s): Dr Jeremy Breaden

Year & Semester of completion: 2017, Semester 1

Rating: 4/5

Your Mark/Grade: HD

Comments:
This unit is a cornerstone unit for the Japanese Studies major.  Overall, it was a pretty chill and laid back unit.

Lectures
The majority of the lecture content can be found in the prescribed readings, but there are cases where Dr Breaden adds some extra content into the lecture.  As this additional content may end up in the quiz, if you are unable to attend the lecture on the day of the quiz, you should at least skim the lecture slides, since he does note down his key points in them.

Tutorials & Participation Marks
The tutorials were on the same day as the lecture.  I had my tutorials right after the lecture, which made it annoying when Dr Breaden introduced new content in the lecture that we needed to know for the quizzes that took place in the tutorials.  However, the tutorials themselves were engaging and involved a lot interaction and exchange of ideas amongst peers.  It should also be noted that although attending tutorials is one of the criteria assessed for participation marks, active participation in tutorial discussions and Moodle forum will be make up the bulk of your participation marks.

Quizzes
The quizzes for the particular week assess the prescribed readings for that particular week and the lecture content prior to the tutorial.  The marking is pretty lenient and the only way for you to get no marks for any given question is for you to write something that is totally unrelated to the content assessed.

Annotated Translation & Short Essay
The annotated translation required that students used proficient level Japanese and since I was only studying Japanese Intermediate I at the time, I was left with the option of the short essay.  This essay could be based on one of the essay topics provided or if you had another topic you wanted to write about, you could e-mail Dr Breaden for approval.  The other flexible thing about this assessment task was that there was no prescribed referencing style, so as long as you referenced any one style consistently, you would be fine.

Exam
The exam was closed book and consisted of 5 extended response questions and 5 short answer questions.  Each extended response question consisted of two options and the topics related to these options were provided to us prior to the exam, so you could pretty much select which topics you wanted to cover and just study for them.  For the short-answer questions you simply had to provide a comprehensive definition for 5 of the terms listed.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2017, 05:28:36 pm by Uranium »
2013: Chinese SL
2014: Accounting || Chemistry || English || Further || Methods
2015: BPharmSciAdv (Hons)
2016-Present: LLB (Hons)/BBiomedSci & DipLang (Japanese)

When you get inspired by drug patents to stay in uni for another 100 years ;)

VanillaRice

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #372 on: November 15, 2017, 07:15:11 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: BMS1062 - Molecular biology 

Workload: 
Per week: 3 x 1 hour lectures

Throughout semester: 10 x 3 hour laboratory sessions (weekly)
The labs are grouped into 4 distinct topics - biochemistry (3), microbiology (3), biological sciences (3) and immunology (1).

The PASS program was also available for this unit, however I was a bit late with the registration (I was in a lab at the time  ::)) and never bothered to sign up for the waiting list. However, from what I heard, the classes were quite useful, and provided some good revision questions.

Assessment: 
Practical/laboratory sessions (30% total) - biochemistry/microbiology/biological sciences each 9%, and immunology 3%
For the biochemistry, biological sciences and immunology pracs, there are worksheets which deal with the prac theory to be handed up. You will also be able to collect your marked worksheets a few weeks after you have completed the prac. For microbiology, the assessment involves a quiz about the prac theory in the last week (so make sure you understand everything!), as well as about a quarter of the marks being allocated for your TA's assessment of your participation, attendance and level of interest. Unfortunately, there was no feedback available for the microbiology lab :(

Mid-semester test (10%)
This was a computerised test done on-campus. It went for 45 minutes, and had about 34 MCQs about the content learnt thus far. The questions were also released back to us (with our corrected answers) - apparently this was the first time this was done in this unit. Revision material was made available on Moodle in the form of MCQ quizzes.

End of semester exam (60%)
The end of semester exam consisted of 130 MCQs and EMQs in 3 hours. Be sure to note that practicals are examinable as well! The exam is also a hurdle (45% to pass).

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  None. Although, revision material was made available - there were 3 revision lectures, which generally involved the lecturer giving a brief overview of their topic, as well as going through some practise questions.

Textbook Recommendation: 
  • Prescribed: Molecular Biology of the Cell (5e/6e) by Alberts et al. Many of the lecturers source their content directly from this text, so it might be worth having a read if you're struggling to understand the content.
  • An Introduction to Genetic Analysis (9e/10e) by Griffiths et al. Never actually looked at this, although there was some reference to it in some of the lectures.

Lecturer(s):
A/Prof Fasseli Coulibaly [unit co-ordinator] (Structure & Replication of DNA; Manipulation of DNA & Gene Cloning; Translation)
Dr Marina Telonis-Scott (Manipulation of DNA & Gene Cloning; DNA Recombination, Repair & Mutations)
Prof Christian Doerig (Molecular Genetics)
A/Prof Anna Roujeinikova (Gene Expression & Regulation)
Dr Terry Kwok-Schuelein (Gene Expression & Regulation)
A/Prof Robyn Slattery (DNA & the Immune System)

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2017

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: Not yet available

Comments:
The central theme of this unit was the Central Dogma, and can be divided up into 7 topics:
  • Structure & Replication of DNA (A/Prof Coulibaly, Dr Telonis-Scott)
  • Manipulation of DNA & Gene Cloning ((A/Prof Coulibaly): analysis of gene expression and DNA sequence; DNA sequencing; DNA recombinant technology, PCR
  • Molecular Genetics (Prof Doerig): DNA organisation in prokaryotes and eukaryotes; replicons; mobile genetic elements
  • Gene Expression & Regulation (A/Prof Roujeinikova, Dr Kwok-Schuelein): transcription in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and how it is regulated
  • Translation (A/Prof Coulibaly): mechanism of translation in eukaryotes and prokaryotes
  • DNA Recombination, Repair & Mutations (Dr Telonis-Scott): the different types of DNA repair mechanisms; DNA recombination in DNA repair,
     as well as meiosis; mutations in disease and evolution
  • DNA & the Immune System (A/Prof Slattery): how B and T cell diversity is generated; transgenic and knockout technology; immunological cancers; antigenic diversity in parasites (this particular lecture was a duet lecture with A/Prof Slattery and Prof Doerig - all I will say is that if you attend only one lecture in this unit, make it this one!)

This unit provided a good introduction to the central dogma of molecular biology, and will form the basis for further units in molecular biology/biochemistry. In terms of assessment, there is not a lot of it - however, the labs do make up a significant proportion, so be sure to pay attention during the labs so you can do well on the assessments. And, once again, they are assessable (so try not to forget about them after they're done :P). In terms of unit content, there is indeed a lot to know (as with all biomed units  ::)), so make sure that you at least try to keep up with everything (especially since there is a mid sem test). However,  I did find the unit content relatively interesting - the lecturers do quite a good job at relating the concepts of molecular biology disease and medicine. In terms of practicals, as a previous review has stated - there is a lot of gel electrophoresis involved (so consider yourself warned :P). But regardless, I thought that the pracs were hands-on, interesting, and quite well organised. You even get to analyse your own DNA in one of them!
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 07:22:14 pm by VanillaRice »
VCE 2015-16
2017-20: BSc (Stats)/BBiomedSc [Monash]

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #373 on: November 15, 2017, 07:54:36 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: ATS1835 – Time, Self, and Mind (Introduction to Philosophy B) 

Workload: 2x1 hour lectures, 1x1 hour tutorial

Assessment:
- Assessment Tasks 1, 2, 3 - Short-answer questions (Worth 10% each)
- Assessment Task 4 – Essay (Worth 30%)
- Assessment Task 5 – Optional weekly quizzes (Worth .5%)
- Exam (Worth 40%)

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: No, but you’re given a sample exam.

Textbook Recommendation: The Unit Reader, which you need for readings.

Lecturer: Dr. Oisin Deery

Year & Semester of Completion: Semester 2, 2017

Rating: 3/5

Your Mark/Grade: TBA

Comments:
The Content
This unit is broken up into four parts:
1.   Time (With a Logic interlude)
2.   Mind
3.   Self
4.   Knowledge

Time is concerned with the idea of time travel, and free will. The Mind section focuses on Descartes, and the mind-body problem, as well as Alan Turing, and computationalism. If you like AI, or even science-fiction, you will probably enjoy these two sections. I do like Descartes, so I did enjoy the Mind section, but I enjoyed Self and Knowledge much, much more. Knowledge speaks for itself, you’ll consider the question, ‘What is knowledge?’ and you’ll be reintroduced to Descartes again. In Self, you study John Locke, and the concept of personal identity.

Assessments
The assessments are similar to those in ATS1371, although you won’t struggle if you haven’t done it.

The first three assessments are short-answer questions, usually two, or three questions of 300 words each. If I remember correctly, they’re on each of the first three sections; Time, Mind, and Self.

The essay is worth 30%, and is 1250 words. So, relatively short. You’re given quite a few different prompts to choose from, and they’re from each of the four sections of the unit. I wrote mine on Descartes, Alan Turing, and John Searle’s Chinese Room thought-experiment, which I found by far the most interesting.

Like ATS1371, there are also optional weekly quizzes based on the readings. There are six questions, and if you answer at least 5 correctly, you receive a bonus mark of .5%. These run from weeks 1-11.

The exam is worth 40%, and consists of two sections:
1. Multiple-choice – 20 questions, and worth 40 marks.
2. Short essays – 4 questions, of which you must answer two. Each response should be approximately 300 words, and is worth a total of 60 marks, or 30 marks for each essay.

Before the exam, you receive a sample exam. The practise exam is designed so that if you study it well, you should do well on the exam. The practise exam consists of 14 multiple-choice questions, which are either identical to, or similar to those that you receive on the actual exam. There are also 12 essay prompts, 4 of which you will receive on the exam.

The exam was easy, and I think a lot of people would agree since a lot of people were leaving after the first hour. As long as you study the practise exam, and go over the content from each week, there shouldn’t be anything too unexpected pop up.

Uranium

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #374 on: November 16, 2017, 11:07:36 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: LAW2112 - Property A

Workload (Weekly):
2 x 1.5 hour Lectures
1 x 1 hour Tutorial

Assessment:
10% Tutorial Attendance and Participation
1 x 30% Class Test
1 x 60% Exam

Recorded Lectures:  No.

Past exams available:  Yes, 3 were made available to us.

Textbook Recommendation (Prescribed Texts):
  • Bradbrook, Moore, Grattan and Griggs, Australian Real Property Law (Thomson Reuters): I would not recommend this book, since it only goes through the principles of Property Law and Ms Schachna goes through the principles in a lot of detail.  This book just ended up as being an over expensive paperweight...
OR
  • Edgeworth, Rossiter, O'Connor, and Goodwin, Sackville & Neave Property Law in Australia (LexisNexis Butterworths): This book goes through the principles of Property Law and also includes a lot of the cases that are in the reading guide.

Lecturer(s): Ms Elyse Schachna

Year & Semester of completion: 2017, Semester 2

Rating:  4.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: TBA

Comments:
This is a core unit for the LLB.  Overall, the unit was pretty interesting and kept me engaged.  It should be noted that this review is only really applicable to Property A in semester 2.

Lectures & Exam
Ms Schachna goes through the content at a pretty good pace.  You can pretty much understand most of the Property A principles and case precedents just by attending the lectures.  However, she doesn't go through the statutory provisions as much in class, so it is advisable that you remember to read them yourself.
There's a lot of content revision in the form of her non-assessed Kahoot! revision quizzes and sometimes through problem questions.  I found the Kahoot! quizzes fun and pretty helpful for identifying my problem areas.  In relation to exam revision lectures, it should be noted that she will not upload the revision slides for them, so I recommend you attend, as she goes through a lot of problem questions that are highly likely to be in the exam.

Tutorials
The tutorials are based on past exam papers, so I suggest doing them before attending your tutorials.

Tutorial Attendance and Participation
Tutorial attendance is worth 5 marks, so just attend them, after all, it's a free 5 marks.  The participation marks come from active engagement in general discussion (2 marks) and discussion of the tutorial question you were assigned to in week 1 (3 marks).  Moral of the story is attending and actively participating in your tutorials will earn you an easy 10% of your final score.


Class Test
The class test is in-class, online test that is open book.  As long as you have your framework for the topics ready, you should be fine.
« Last Edit: November 16, 2017, 11:12:24 am by Uranium »
2013: Chinese SL
2014: Accounting || Chemistry || English || Further || Methods
2015: BPharmSciAdv (Hons)
2016-Present: LLB (Hons)/BBiomedSci & DipLang (Japanese)

When you get inspired by drug patents to stay in uni for another 100 years ;)