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Author Topic: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 828711 times)  Share 

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #165 on: November 30, 2013, 02:13:43 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ATS2634/3634 - Global indigeneity (Recoded in 2014 as ATS3634 - Global Indigeneity)

Workload:  1x 1 Hour lecture and a 1x 1 hour tute

Assessment:  3x1000 word Response Papers worth 20% each, 10% for participation and attendance and 30% In-class test

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available: No

Textbook Recommendation:  The reader from the bookshop which is kinda expensive coz it was massive- it was around 35 bucks

Lecturer(s): Jullian Millie and someone who substituted for a while when he was away

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating:  4.5 of 5

Comments:
I love love love this unit. I think its by far one of the best units I've taken at Monash. The response papers are structured around the 3 modules of 'Indigeneity in Kenya' on the Nubians, 'Indigenous religion in the nation state' on Indonesia and 'The endangered languages of indigeneity' on Aboriginal Indigeneity and you have to submit each paper for each module a week after the module finished, but all three times Jullian was kind enough to extend this to everyone for 2 days. The response papers were based around the readings, which forced you to read and understand the readings to a deeper level then just summarising it exam time. The questions for the response papers I found very hard to write in 1000 words, and often I had one massive paragraph with my main point and a significantly smaller paragraph for a counter-argument, and thank god for 10 percent leeway but it still wasnt enough, especially to cover all the readings. The modules were very interesting, the first covered international responses to indigeneity and how globalisation has helped indigenous groups in their fight for self determination, as well as the politicalisation of indigeneity, in general and in case study of the Egyptian and Kenyan Nubians. The second module was about the Indonesian politicalisation of religion in indigenous groups to gain status within Indonesia and how the indigenous were forced to conform to the state's expectations and generalisations of religion, away from customs, to gain political and social status and acceptance. Thirdly, was the module about the loss of language culture in Indigenous Australia and the inherent assimilation of Indigenous people into mainstream Australian society through the downplaying of their native languages, where it also discussed how cultures could be revived and the different views towards doing so. TBH I didnt do that well in the response papers, got average marks. The in-class test was where again you had to write I guess, mini essays. You had to answer 3 out of 5 questions and so each response was worth 10%. It was only for an hour so each response would only be like 400-500 words I guess. The questions were a tad less general and perhaps were testing knowledge of one weeks worth of content but tbh it wasnt hard to bullshit if you had done the readings. Oh 3rd years just have to submit a 1500 essay instead of doing the in-class test.

The lectures themselves, I never went to, purely because a) ceebs b) I heard they were pointless and he doesnt even have slides for the lectures and just keeps rambling on aimlessly and that its hard to actually decipher content from them. Also apparently the lectures was just an hour long version of the condensed weekly overview he posted on moodle each week. He's a nice guy, ran tutes awesomely, where we did group activities in scenarios which forced you to discuss and understand the various facets in the weeks' content.

Would definitely recommend this unit for any International Studies major, as it is List A (was??? Not sure with new restructuring of majors)
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:00:41 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #166 on: December 04, 2013, 09:53:34 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: BMS1062 - Molecular Biology

Workload:
  • 3x 1-hr lectures
  • 1x 3-hr lab (most, but not every, week)
Assessment:
  • Labs - 30%
  • Mid-sem test (MCQs) - 10%
  • Exam - 60%
Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: Nope!

Textbook Recommendation: Molecular Biology of the Cell 5th edition - Alberts et al. You don't need this book per se, but it's an incredible textbook and is written to cater to everyone from those who struggle with the material to those who are really good with it. (The pictures are pretty too :P )

There are also a lot of other textbooks that the lecturers talk about, but don't buy them! If you really need to read them, the Hargrave-Andrew Library will have numerous (dusty) copies for you to look through as you please.

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr Peter Boag (DNA/RNA/Protein Molecular Biology)
  • Dr John Boyce (Microbiology)
  • A/Prof Anna Roujeinikova (Transcription)
  • Dr Saw-Hoon Lim (DNA Recombination)
  • A/Prof Robyn Slattery (Immunology and Genetic Technology)

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: D

Comments: This is a very solid unit, and I know the organisers have worked very hard to improve it in any way they can. The content is exceedingly interesting but there is a lot to know.

The assessment is also quite good; labs are well-run, well-described and very interesting, but sometimes a little repetitive. The major complaint that I had is that the labs aren't always directly relevant to the content (p.s. if you don't like running gel electrophoresis, this unit is NOT for you, lol). For example, we'd learn about transgenic organisms in the immunology lectures but there's no way they could get us to do that in the labs. Also should note that the labs were really cool, especially doing extractions and tests with your own DNA, bacterial transformations and the ELISA lab to name a few.

The mid-sem was an MCQ test, 45 questions in as many minutes. It was definitely not hard, but the questions were sorta picky and you needed to know some very specific things (like sigma-subunits, holoenzymes etc. that were only covered briefly in the lectures).

The exam was looooong (or at least it felt like it), about 130-or-so MCQs. It wasn't exactly a hard exam either, just quite tedious (mind you, I'm limited by an inability to sit relatively still for 3 hours, so that might have been a factor). The invigilators interrupted our exam 12 times to issue corrections, and there were a few pissed off people, so I think that future exams will be proof-read and written a lot better.

One thing that is CRITICAL to know - and the lecturers will reinforce this throughout the semester - is that the lab materials are examinable, and you WILL get questions on the exam based on the lab theory and techniques. A few people were slightly thrown by some of the lab questions, especially those relating to bacterial transformation/conjugation and the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, which will probably be your last lab of the semester).

The lecturers are great and really friendly, I haven't got a single bad thing to say about them except that Robyn Slattery sometimes gets so passionate about her material that she speaks unbelievably quickly (or at least it seemed so, some of her immunology stuff was pretty challenging). However, the lectures are recorded so you can go back to them for reference whenever.

Overall, a very good unit and one that provides a lot of important information and techniques for future studies and careers in biomedical sciences.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2014, 04:25:32 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #167 on: December 08, 2013, 06:51:17 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MTH1020 - Analysis of Change

Workload:
  • 3x 1-hr lectures
  • 1x 2-hr tutorial
Assessment:
  • 3 assignments (10% + 15% + 15%) - 40%
  • Exam - 60%
Recorded Lectures:  Yes but only audio is recorded. All the workings for your lecture notes are uploaded to Moodle though.

Past exams available:  Yes, but only one.

Textbook Recommendation:

Calculus – Early Transcendentals 7th edition by Stewart. This is a great textbook for explanations/reference/extra questions etc. but is by no stretch of the imagination critical. Not worth buying, and you can definitely find a .pdf version online if you look hard enough.

MTH1020 Lecture Notes by A/Prof Cristina Varsavsky, available from the Monash Bookstore for about $18. BUY THIS, you take it into the exam with you.

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr Thomas Hall
  • Dr Daniel Mathews
Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: D

Comments: First things first, I passed lol, probably the most surprised I've ever been. This is in no way an indictment on the unit or its teachers, rather my unique and sometimes hilarious mathematical ineptitude. This unit is for the most part well taught, and the lecturers are quite passionate, definitely knowledgeable and deliver the content as well as any maths teacher I've ever had. In the interests of transparency, I didn't attend the majority of the lectures due to clashes with biomed stuff, so I can't comment well on the lecture quality - but I liked what I was there for.

The course content is essentially Specialist Mathematics plus a tiny bit more, all compressed to 12 weeks. It might sound difficult, but it's actually quite manageable, even with 3 other full-on units; you just need to manage your time well. The workload is by no means excessive and there are plenty of people you can approach for help.

Aside from the lectures, there is a 2-hour tutorial in which you complete a problem set (essentially a worksheet) with a tutor present if you need help. My tutor was very helpful, but if yours isn't then don't worry because tutes aren't compulsory, and there is the Maths Help Centre available in the Maths building if you need help (definitely use this, I didn't until the end of semester and I regret not doing so far earlier).

The assignments are a bit more complicated and involved than what you generally come across in the problem sets, but they're fairly easy to full-mark if you devote a fair amount of thought to them (hint, WolframAlpha helps if you're stuck). In order to get full marks for the assignments (as well as the exam questions) you need to do more than get the question right and show your working; you need to write "mathematically" according to the guidelines at the back of the lecture notes. In some cases, this might involve giving written explanations to your working (though you could probably get away with not doing this for the most part).

The exam is a hurdle (i.e. you need to pass the exam to pass the unit) and I personally found it quite tough, but I wasn't properly prepared and if you do the practice exam that they give you a few times you'll be well set for the exam. As mentioned above, you can take your annotated bound lecture notes book into the exam for reference, which is helpful given the length of the exam and the breadth of content.

Overall, I enjoyed this unit somewhat because it taught maths in a way that worked far better for me than how it's taught in VCE, even though the content was definitely harder than what I experienced in school.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2014, 04:20:47 am by alondouek »
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2012 ATAR: 96.55
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #168 on: December 08, 2013, 10:22:56 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: ATS1315 - Human Rights Theory 2

Workload:
 
  • Two 1-hr lectures per week
  • One one hour tutorial per week/li]
Assessment: 
 
  • Two 15% assessments with three short-answer questions in each assessment, something like 300-500 words in each.
  • One 1500 word essay or something like that, worth 40%l
  • 30% exam which consisted of four short-answer questions, with a recommended word count of 1000 words total (with two hours to write them in - pretty generous exam)

Recorded Lectures:  Yessum. With screen capture iirc. There was definitely a video file of the lecture if that counts?

Past exams available: Nope.

Textbook Recommendation: You need the Subject Reader if you want to pass. That's actually the only thing they tell you to buy.
Lecturer(s): Dr. Robert Simpson (maddest guy!)

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 2.

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 81

Comments:

I really, really enjoyed this subject. The latter half of the semester gets more philosophy based, so it's definitely better than the first half of semester. The first half of semester was still pretty important though. The implicit philosophical question of this unit is: What does it mean to be human?

The topics covered were probably slightly less interesting than HRT1 but still pretty great. Bob is a pretty good lecturer and a really nice guy. He's really funny too, although I don't think many people got his sense of humour. I had Jess B as my tutor and she is actually phenomenal. She's a harsh marker and won't give away free marks - which is so fantastic and a bit different to the usual in my experience. Be prepared to get lower marks than you're used to if you get her has your tutor. My first assignment came back with a 69 which is significantly lower than a similar assignment in Sem 1. My essay score was also ten points lower than Sem 1. That said, she gives incredibly detailed feedback that can really bolster your philosophical thought. I consider myself pretty lucky to have landed in her tute and would highly recommend trying to get into one of her tutes (so long as you're not a pansy who wants free marks).

Would really recommend this unit if you enjoyed HRT1. If you didn't enjoy HRT1... well... yeah. Also, taking it without HRT1 is doable but would be challenging. They don't assume any knowledge to a massive degree, but the background was really valuable in my experience.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:01:37 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #169 on: December 09, 2013, 03:29:27 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: FIT1040 - Programming Fundamentals

Workload: 2 hours of lectures, one 2-hour laboratory, one 1-hour tutorial

Assessment:

Short tests during tutorials and labs - 20% (tests are worth 1% each, pretty much just to make sure you didn't sleep through the tutorial)
Assignment 1 - 10%
Assignment 2 - 10%
Written exam - 60%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  I was part of the first group of students to do this subject so there were no past exams, only a sample exam.

Textbook Recommendation:  I don't remember if there was something on the recommended reading list, but I can't see how a textbook would be necessary or helpful.

Lecturer(s): Peter O'Donnell, definitely one of the more engaging lecturers

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, semester 1

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 88 HD

Comments:

This is a core unit in all of the IT streams offered at Monash, although students with a background in programming could opt to 'test out' for an exemption. This is because the unit was designed for the students who have no background whatsoever in programming (like myself).

Instead of using a written programming language, we used a drag-and-drop interface called Scribble. It reminded me of those Lego Mindstorms kits I used when I was younger, haha. I found it kind of fun but a lot of the people I talked to thought it was pretty boring. A lot of these people could've tested out, but decided not to.

The lectures were quite engaging but I found I didn't miss much if I went straight to the tutorial without watching the week's lectures. I admittedly put quite a bit less energy/time into this subject than my other, more difficult units (namely FIT1029 and MAT1830).

Overall I enjoyed this unit as a relaxed introduction to programming, although in hindsight I would've liked to do a bit more as it's not, in my opinion, a sufficient introduction to lead onto units such as FIT1008.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:01:54 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #170 on: December 09, 2013, 03:58:15 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: FIT1029 - Algorithmic Problem Solving

Workload: Two hours of lectures, one 2-hour tutorial. I highly recommend giving the optional PASS sessions (1 hour/week) a try.

Assessment:

Assignment 1 - 10%
Midsemester test - 15%
Assignment 2 - 15%
Written exam - 60% (hurdle requirement, you must get 40% or more on the exam to complete the unit)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available: There were some available but no solutions so it wasn't very useful to me. I tend to do the past exams at ridiculous hours of the morning so a response on the online forum would take a while, and I can't be bothered travelling 1.5 hours each way to uni just to get some feedback. The PASS leader supplied a bunch of exam-style questions (with answers) which were helpful.

Textbook Recommendation: I think there were ~7 books on the "recommended" list. There's really no need to buy them unless you want to pay $1000 on a bunch of textbooks of which you might look at 1-2 pages.

Lecturer(s): Dr Peter Tischer

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, semester 1

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 69 C

Comments:

This unit made me want to sleep. Zzzzzzz.

For someone 100% new to the subject, it was kind of hard at first to work out how the lectures actually related to the tutorials or actually writing out an algorithm. The first half of the semester seemed to be just talking about different puzzles, and the second half different algorithms (using recursion, search algorithms etc). Even when I attended lectures, I often couldn't work out what was going on in the tutorial. The PASS sessions were much more useful for me.

I didn't really understand what was going on in this unit until the night before the exam, after doing 10000000 past exam questions. This was known for having a particularly high fail rate, so I kind of panicked a bit in the nights leading up the the exam. It wasn't particularly easy or particularly engaging but looking back, I feel like I actually learned something so it's a worthwhile subject if you can get through it.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:02:07 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #171 on: December 09, 2013, 05:29:33 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ASP3012 - Stars and Galaxies

Workload: 
- 3 x 1hours lectures
- 1 hour laboratory
- 1 hour  tutorial class

Assessment:
- Examination (3 hours): 60%
- Assignments: 20%
- Computer laboratories: 10%
- Field-trip report: 10%

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 2 on moodle and 1 with solution

Textbook Recommendation:  None, the lecture notes + extra reading materials is all you need

Lecturer(s): Dr Maria Lugaro, Dr Daniel Price and Dr Alina Donea

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating: 2 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 70 D

Comments:
Another unit with a HUGE amount of workload, they give you 2 x 1 hour lab to finish a lab sheet that requires at least 5 - 6 hours, worst of all only the specific computers in the math building has the linux program that you need to complete the lab. Besides that the tutorial are almost useless as they ask you to proof ridiculous amount of theorem, which would be fine if they don't do any weird math logic. An example would be "hey look I know that there's a square root of 2 here, but let's just ignore it since it doesn't affect the equation much anyways" or "quick, assume density does not depend on distance so we can integrate this!", these logic just frustrates me to no end.

The amount of content in this course is quite scary, especially if you came from a physics minor with no astrophysics background, the lecture notes are terrible and the only saving grace is the extra reading material they upload. Despite all that, the field trip was rather mind blowing, I never knew so many stars were visible at night!
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:02:16 am by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #172 on: December 09, 2013, 05:50:30 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MTH3020 - Complex Analysis and Integral Transforms

Workload: 
- 3 x 1hours lectures
- 1 hour tutorial class

Assessment:
- Examination (3 hours): 60%
- Assignments and quizzes: 40%

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 2 on moodle and 1 with solution

Textbook Recommendation:
- Fundamentals of Complex Analysis by E.B. Saff and A.D. Snider (optional)
- Schaum's outlines Laplace Transforms by Murray R. Spiegel (must for exam)

Lecturer(s): Dr Greg Markowsky

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating: 4 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 76 D

Comments:
Overall an enjoyable unit, though I can't say the same for many of my friends. The content is very challenging and despite the name "analysis", it is very different from real analysis, there won't be many rigorous proofs like induction, contradiction and all that, its more of algebra manipulation and theorem application. This course will start off quite easy, with some basic complex numbers such as Euler's identity, the imaginary plane, conjugate and whatnot. Then the course takes you to a brand new territory, filled with new theorems that's only available in complex numbers (they are quite fun to think about) and they teach you how to do integration and differentiation in complex plane. Then it moves onto taylor series, laurent series, a slight introduction to mobius transformation and conformal mapping. But hang on, theres more! You will also learn laplace and fourier transformation! This unit is very useful for engineering students whose also taking a science degree, it's not overly difficult but don't underestimate the amount of things you have to study for the exam.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:02:32 am by alondouek »
2009: Chinese SLA
2010: English, Maths method[45,A+ A+ A+], Specialist maths[44,A+,A,A+], Physics[40,A,A+,A+], Psychology Atar:94.75
2011-2015: Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering/Science @ Monash

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #173 on: December 09, 2013, 06:04:41 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MTH3150 - Algebra and Number Theory II

Workload: 
- 3 x 1hours lectures
- 1 hour tutorial class

Assessment:
- Examination (3 hours): 70%
- Assignments and tests: 30%

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 2 on moodle and 1 with solution

Textbook Recommendation: Lecture notes will suffice

Lecturer(s): Associate Professor Ian Wanless and Heiko Dietrich

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating: 5 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 81 HD

Comments:
In terms of the content, this unit is the best out of everything I've done. This unit dwarfs algebra and number theory 1 in terms of difficulty, yet it is doable while remaining enjoyable. Similar to the first unit, there's a weekly assignment that's worth 10/3% and they are quite challenging. I'm trying to think of other things to say but this unit is just so awesome that I don't know where to begin so rather than writing a massive essay, I would fully recommend you to check this unit out yourself!
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:02:50 am by alondouek »
2009: Chinese SLA
2010: English, Maths method[45,A+ A+ A+], Specialist maths[44,A+,A,A+], Physics[40,A,A+,A+], Psychology Atar:94.75
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #174 on: December 12, 2013, 12:19:31 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: PHS2022 - Physics: Electromagnetism, Light and Entropy

Workload: 
- 3 x 1hours lectures
- 3 hours lab

Assessment:
- Examinations (One x 3 hours and One x 2 hours): 50%
- Assignments: 16%
- Practical work (compulsory): 34%

Recorded Lectures: Forgot, most likely recorded with screen capture although they are all useless

Past exams available: Multiple exams, the number varies between each sub topics

Textbook Recommendation: Wikipedia and library, no need to buy any text book

Lecturer(s): Again I don't remember, all lecturers were different for each sub topic

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2012

Rating:  1.5 Out of 5 (comparatively)

Your Mark/Grade: 68 C

Comments:
First of all let me just say that I did this unit a year ago so my memory aren't the best so do ask around before deciding whether this unit is for you or not!

When I wrote comparatively, I meant that it is slightly more enjoyable compare to PHS2011. The 3 hours lab each week is quite troublesome and most likely you won't finish it on time, which is to be expected. In terms of lecture quality, it's a physics unit so don't expect anything awesome, personally watching a lecture is worse than staring at a hypnotoad gif for an hour. With my personal opinion out of way, lets look at things more objectively. There are some pros such as the content is ... decent, I'm not saying that its not boring (if its fun then its either not physics or its too basic) but you do learn some interesting stuff, optics was quite fun and electromagnetism was good as well since its mostly an application of calculus. Optics involves stuff like polariser, phase difference with some matrix while electromagnetism is just applying Maxwell's equation to simple cases like calculating the electric field of a single electron with spherical co-ordinates. You also get to go on an excursion to visit the synchrotron, its sounds cooler than it is and you'll have to summarise an article from the Natures journal afterwards. Now onto the cons, thermal physics...... when I did thermodynamics I thought that was the hardest shit I've ever done, I passed it with a very satisfying results and going into this sub topic I thought I would be ready, how wrong was I (story time).

I rocked up to the exam (2 hours) and I swear to god, I prepared the shit out of thermal physics, during the reading time I cried because I couldn't do most of the questions. I don't know if its just my year but they gave us questions that wasn't even on the lecture/tutorial/assignments, HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSE TO DERIVE SOME BULLSHIT ENTROPY STATE FOR THE CURRENT ROOM?? I AIN'T A PHD AND FUCK YOU DR LINCOLN TURNER. Similar story can be said about optics, but not as bad as thermal physics.

All in all, if you're considering this unit then either your majoring in physics or astrophysics, let's just say that this unit deterred me from doing a physics major. For those who are seriously considering doing a physics major, the work load from now on will only get worse and the content will be even harder (from what I've heard off a friend, who never complained about the difficulty of a unit, he said that physics is "fucking g**")
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:03:06 am by alondouek »
2009: Chinese SLA
2010: English, Maths method[45,A+ A+ A+], Specialist maths[44,A+,A,A+], Physics[40,A,A+,A+], Psychology Atar:94.75
2011-2015: Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering/Science @ Monash

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #175 on: December 12, 2013, 05:59:01 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: FIT1004 - Data Management

Workload:

Two hours of lectures, one 2-hour laboratory

Assessment:

Assignment 1: Data collection and markup - 5%
Assignment 2: Database manipulation - 20%
Assignment 3A: Conceptual design - hurdle requirement
Assignment 3B: Full database design - 20%
Tutorial participation and quiz completion - 5%
Written exam: 50%

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available: 6 past exams with solutions

Textbook Recommendation: Database systems - Design, Implementation and Management - I used this book a bit, but mostly for looking up the notation for diagrams. There's nothing in the book that you couldn't get on the internet.

Lecturer(s): A./Prof. David Dowe

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, semester 2

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 83 HD

Comments:

The workload isn't HUGE for this subject but I found it pretty daunting.

The exam for this unit was divided into six parts, and this could apply to the unit as a whole as well:
  • General stuff about data like data integrity, formats, role of data, some definitions of key terms
  • Entity relationship modelling
  • Logical model
  • Normalisation
  • SQL - big topic which includes DDL (writing SQL code for creating tables) and DML (writing SQL code for SELECT statements, updating tables etc)
  • Transaction management (mostly theory)
The hardest part for me was the SQL. My lab demonstrator wasn't the best at explaining what we had to do, so it was pretty much up to us to work on the questions given for that week. I talked to people in other classes who said they learned a lot during labs so it really depends on who you have as a demonstrator.

I found assignments 2 and 3 pretty hard, so I attended consultation sessions when I got really stuck. Maybe I wouldn't have needed to so much if my lab demonstrator was a bit clearer, but the consultation really was helpful for me so I managed. With the exception of assignment 1, the content of the assignments was quite similar to what was on the exam, so if you understand the assignments you'll be okay on the exam.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:03:33 am by alondouek »
2013-2017: Bachelor of Software Engineering and Diploma of Modern Languages (Japanese, advanced entry)

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #176 on: December 13, 2013, 12:50:09 am »
+6
Subject Code/Name: MKC1200 - Principles of Marketing 

Workload:  2 x 1hr Lecture,  1 x 1 hr tutorial
Tutorial Structure: Submit tutorial exercises, do some practice multiple choice questions, discuss tutorial exercise, random group activity.  I found that time in tutorials flew pretty quickly.

Assessment:
Assessment 1: Individual Tutorial Exercises 10%
So for 8 of 12 the weeks of tutorials, there were tutorial exercises that needed to be completed. These tutorial exercises were uploaded onto Moodle and you needed to complete before your tutorial and then submit them in your tutorial. The tutorial exercises where mainly 1 page tables that you had to fill out but somtimes were textbook questions. Each exercise was worth 1.25 and you could consider the easy marks because they were either marked as satisfactory (got the 1.25 marks) or not (0 marks). Staying in bed and skipping your tutorial can be tempting though :3

Assessment 2: Multiple Choice Test 15%
Test done in tutorial consisting of 25 MCQ. I just remember the night before frantically trying to learn 4 weeks of content and still doing good/average (21/25 was the average mark). You could have deduced most of the answers from common sense, but some were pretty specific. If I recall correctly, you got the whole hour to do it which was way more than enough time imo

Assessment 3: Marketing Mix Analysis 25%
I hate writing essays so when I saw this in the unit guide I was like 'oh boy'. But it’s actually not too bad! The essay is 1800 (±10%) words and involves analysing the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) of a product (we got to choose between Toyota Prius C, some tooth brush thing and the HTC One). You also get to make a pretty cover sheet for it :3

Pretty straight forward once you figure out what you're doing. Spent around 2-3 days on it and managed a C (would’ve been a HD if I didn’t hand it in two days late #regrets). You may or may not think 1800 words is heaps, but I struggled to keep below the word limit and for most people I spoke to they hit above 1800 words. Some of the knowledge required for the essay needed to be self-learnt because it was due to be covered after the essay was due. This may or may not be the case when you do this unit, it was easily managed though.

This essay can be tough as it might be the first essay you’ve written in uni and have no clue about APA referencing (Q MANUAL IS YOUR BIBLE), and finding good journal articles was an absolute pain but there’s a library seminars specifically for this essay and it’s not restricted to peer reviewed journals (“only” had to use 4) and you could use textbooks (including the prescribed), company/product websites, newspaper articles etc. 

Oh and you don’t actually get a numbered mark for this essay. You do however get a filled out rubric and a letter grade (N, P, C, D or HD)

Exam (50%)
2 hour exam. 100 marks. Hurdle (must achieve at least 50%)
  • No essays, hooray!
  • 3 compulsory questions: 20 marks each, not some crazy massive essay question, the questions could be broken into parts
  • Choice 4 questions out of 7(?): 10 marks each
Make sure you know your examples!

Recorded Lectures:  Nope

Past exams available:  Sample exam and one from 2007. Dewi told us not to look at the 2007 one as she has a different style of exam writing. The sample exam was pretty good indication of the structure of the exam. She also held a lecture in the last week about what topics would be covered on the exam which was very helpful.

Textbook Recommendation:  The prescribed book is Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., and Armstrong, G. (2013). Marketing (9th Ed.). Pearson Australia.

Didn't buy it (new textbook, $$$, yolo) so can't really comment on it. I did however consult other textbooks by one of the authors. Some tutorial exercises did come from the textbook, but when this was the case an excerpt of relevant part of the book was uploaded onto Moodle so yeah. I think the textbook would have been really useful for the essay, I ended up referencing the textbook through quotes in the lecture slides >< (wouldn’t recommend haha). Oh and the textbook would be really useful for examples. Every question on the exam required a few examples. The textbook I consulted had random American examples which I hadn’t even heard of haha.

Lecturer(s): Dr. Dewi Tojib (Chief Examiner), Peter Thompson

Each lecturer would take one lecture a week.
It was Dewi’s first semester of taking this unit and when I found the motivation to attend uni she was great! Didn’t read off the lecture slides, had great examples and a few good jokes. Peter, on the other hand,  scared me off from his lectures in the first week (picking on random students to answer, finds students with laptops annoying, angry kind of tone etc) so I can’t comment further :P  Seriously, I didn’t attend any of his lectures afterwards hahaha. I heard he reads of the lecture slides and left the lecture 5 minutes in when the technology wasn’t working. 

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2013

Rating:  3.75 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 78

Comments: A lot of content but most of it is fairly straightforward and not too dry. Overall a decent unit and well organised. Disappointed with myself for not putting more effort in the class

m.Chemia

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #177 on: December 21, 2013, 12:48:02 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS1171 - Korean Introductory 1

Workload:  1 x 2 hour lecture, 1 x 2 hour tutorial

Assessment: 1 x Read aloud test - 10%
                      5 x Online listening tasks - 5 x 1%
                      1 x Listening test during last lecture - 15%
                      1 x Written work - 10% (IIRC, as I took it in semester 1 and I can't find the unit guide anywhere.)
                      1 x Speaking test - 20% (IIRC, same as above)
                      1 x Final exam - 40%
  • Read aloud test: I'm pretty sure they don't have assessment like this in any other languages, even in the lowest lowest level. This is literally a read aloud test. You will be given a piece of paper (you are going to choose one from three) with ~5 Korean sentences which are similar to the ones in the textbook, you are given 30 seconds preparation time and you just read it aloud. Because it is held in Week 4 or 5, so rather than the fluency or accent or anything, the main thing they are assessing is Korean character (Hangul) recognition. So even you are not fluent at all, as long as you can manage to recognise the characters, you won't get a bad mark.
  • Online listening tasks: You have to do a short listening task on Moodle once ever few weeks. It will be similar to the ones for homework. But since you have unlimited attempts, this 5% is pretty give away. But treat you homework listening tasks and these online listening assessments seriously, because they are gonna help with you big listening assessment.
  • Listening test: This is 15% of you final mark so it's quite important. You will have it in during the lecture in week 12. I personally found it quite easy but most of the people said it's quite challenging. And as mentioned above, although you have unlimited attempts on the little online listening tasks, you really should aim for being able to understand the whole conversation and every single details even when playing once only.
  • Written work & Speaking test: These are group assignments and you have to get in groups of 2, preferably from the same tutorial group. So basically as a group you have to write up a short dialogue (<200 words) and this is the written work, and obviously the two of you will get the same mark for this. The next step is that you have to memorise the dialogue and that is the speaking part. People, at least the ones in my tutorial group generally got a relatively low marks for the written part so it's marked more harshly than other assessments.
  • Final exam: IT IS A JOKE. I mean, it is just so easy that everyone starts leaving after one hour. It has two parts: Part 1 is reading comprehension. You have 4 or so short dialogue or text you will be answering multiple choice questions. Part 2 is 40 or so filling in the blank questions. Questions from both parts are taken from the text book directly or with minor alternation. If you go the tutorials and pay a little bit of attention, you will be able to recognise the structure and some fixed usage of grammar/vocabs and you won't fail. If you actually study for the final exam, you'll be able to get something close to 100%.


Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture, but the recording will be online for one week only. Lecture slides are uploaded.

Past exams available:  No.

Textbook Recommendation: My Korean 1 by Moansh. PDF version is on moodle. A hard or soft copy must be brought to tutorials.

Lecturer(s): Dr. In Jun Cho, Dr. Dam Bi Kim

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 90 HD

Comments: Overall, this is an enjoyable and easy unit. Most of the people doing Korean really like K-Pop and they already know some expressions/vocabs. But it doesn't really matter, this unit assumes zero previous knowledge and they teach you from the very beginning so there is nothing to worry about. I stopped going to lectures after week 5 or so because I found them pretty useless, not that Dr. Dam Bi Kim is not good, she is actually pretty awesome. And my tutor, Hye Yun Bae is the most awesome tutor I have met at uni so far. She is nice, approachable, caring and is pretty good at teaching. Try and get into her tutes if you can. (She will most likely be the only 1st year Korean tutor  anyway as the other female tutor was on maternity leave.) And one final thing about the exam, don't focus too much about the weird vocabs (such as crab) you are never gonna use, just study the common ones and read the book through from the beginning to the end for 20 times or so, read every single thing written in the book aloud and you'll most likely get a good mark.
I'm not sure about other languages, people doing Koreans (from the same tutorial) are generally quite close to each other, and I mean go out all the time kind of close, so it is very likely to you will make some good friends doing Korean. So anyone thinking about doing a language at an introductory level, Korean is probably the best.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:04:04 am by alondouek »

m.Chemia

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #178 on: December 21, 2013, 09:55:12 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS1172 - Korean Introductory 2

Workload:  1 x 2 hour lecture, 1 x 2 hour tutorial

Assessment:  1 x Read aloud test - 10%
                       4 x Online listening tasks - 4 x 1%
                       1 x Listening test during last lecture - 16%
                       1 x Written work - 10%
                       1 x Speaking test - 20%
                       1 x Final exam - 40%

  • Read aloud test: Same structure as Korean Introductory 1. But as the progression of language proficiency, instead of short sentences, you are actually give a moderately long dialogue (about a page). But it is again not that difficult as long as you don't pause for like every 5 seconds.
  • Online listening test: Please refer to Korean Introductory 1 review.
  • Listen listening test: Please also refer to Korean Introductory 1 review. But students generally found this one easier than the one in semester 1.
  • Writtern work: You are asked to write a casual letter to a friend, approx ~200 words. Unlike semester 1, this time you are required to type the assignment up. It might take a while get use to the Korean typing system/keyboard layout and stuff, but it's not that bad to be honest. You are meant to put in all the grammars you have learnt so far, as this assignment is due in Week 10 or 11, you would have learnt a range of different grammar patterns by then (plus the ones from Introductory 1), so if you don't use a wide range of grammar/vocabs, it could be quite hard to get even 80% for this assignment.
  • Speaking test: This is more like a real tertiary level speaking test, you will be having a conversation with your tutor, your tutor would act as your friend so you have to speak in casual language (banmal). It is quite hard to use casual language to your tutor as you are used to use honorific or at least polite language, but you won't be penalised too much on that unless you use polite language all the way through. The speaking test is actually quite scary and difficult. As in tutorials, although you read a lot, when it comes to speaking, you tend to depend on the what is written on the book so that you wouldn't have many opportunities to speak without looking. It is quite normal for a student to just go blank, even for good students (quote the tutor). I personally went blank as well, but my mark wasn't too bad, so the marking for this task is not that harsh.
  • Final exam: Please refer to Korean Introductory 1 review. All I can say is, IT IS AN EVEN BIGGER JOKE.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture, but the recording will be online for one week only. Lecture slides are uploaded.

Past exams available:  No.

Textbook Recommendation:  My Korean 2 by Moansh. PDF version is on moodle. A hard or soft copy must be brought to tutorials.

Lecturer(s): Dr. Dam Bi Kim

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 2

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 93 HD

Comments: This is the second Korean unit at Monash. The vast majority of students have completed Korean Introductory 1 in Semester 1, but some students who have Korean language skill to some sort of extend might be put into Korean Introductory 2 directly. This uni basically has the same difficult as Korean Introductory 1. And again, I only went to the lectures in week 1 and week 12, I personally found them useless but I don't recommend anyone to skip them. As usual, the tutorials are compulsory, and you actually learn stuff from tutorial. I didn't even listen to the recording of the lectures. All I did was going to the tutorials and work really hard. And once again, I have to mention that the only tutor (she took SIX tutes this semester), Ms Hye Yun Bae was amazing! She was so friendly, helpful and approachable. Geez, I don't know what else to say, this unit is pretty much the same as Korean Introductory 1. Please refer to the review for that as well for exam tips and everything.

*The Korean Introductory 1 review is right above this one.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:04:17 am by alondouek »

Dallas45

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #179 on: January 21, 2014, 10:41:33 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ATS1041 - World Religions

Workload:  2 x hour lecture + 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week

Assessment:

10 x Pre-tutorial quizzes: Worth 20% (2% each). Relatively simple, short answer online quizzes for which you have the questions in advance in the unit reader. Based on the weekly readings.

Expository Exercise:         Worth 10%. Summary of an article.

Essay:                              Worth 30%. 1500 words. On a topic of your choice from a set list of questions. There are around 10 questions per religion studied so there is heaps of choice and you should be able to find something of interest.

Tutorial Presentation:      Worth 10%. A short 5-10 minute presentation during one of the tutorial weeks on that week's studied religion.

Exam:                              Worth 30%. 2 hour examination. The lecturer gives really good preparation in the last week, but other than that there are no practice exams or other help.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  No and no sample exam.

Textbook Recommendation:  There is no textbook and instead you are required to buy the course reader. You must buy this as all readings and course info is found in this book.

Lecturer(s):  Constant Mews (Course Co-Ordinator) + various other lecturers

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2013

Rating:  3 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 71 D

Comments: The assessment was pretty easy (just tutorial participation/attendance, a couple of article summaries/synthesis exercises, an essay and an exam if i remember correctly.)
The lectures and tutorials were easy to follow and easy lecture was given by a different lecturer with expertise in that particular religion. Each week looked at a different religion (Aboriginal spirituality, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, new religious movements like Scientology etc) and the essay was a topic chosen from a list based on one of these religions. You are given roughly 10 essay topics to choose from per religion so there is heaps of choice.

The exam was relatively simple and the lecturer/tutor (Constant Mews) prepared for it well.

Overall, the subject was good, though it could get a bit boring sometimes but that's the same with any subject - some topics will interest you more than others. Workload wasn't too bad either. Only 1 x 2hr lecture + 1 x 1 hr tutorial per week and the weekly readings/essay readings and research :)
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 01:04:33 am by alondouek »
2010 | Texts and Traditions - 30

2011 | History: Revolutions - 37 ; French - 33 ; Biology - 31 ; National Politics - 31 ; English - 41 (ATAR 85.85)

2012 | Monash Arts w/ Archaeology and History Double Major

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."