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Author Topic: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 828814 times)  Share 

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keltingmeith

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #195 on: June 13, 2014, 09:52:51 am »
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Subject Code/Name: CHM1051 - Chemistry I Advanced

Workload: 2x1 hour lectures, 1x1 hour workshop, 1x4 hour lab (you normally won't go for the full 4 hours, expect to go for 2-3)

Assessment:  You have 4 assessments - 10% is based off of 5 pre-lecture tests and 5 post lecture tests, 30% is based off of your laboratory work and 60% is based off of your exam, as opposed to CHM1011 when the exam is 50% and the missing 10% comes off of tutorial attendance.

Recorded Lectures: The lectures and workshops are with screen capture, but there's no point watching a recorded workshop. You should go to it to watch (and sometimes breathe ;) ) all that chemically goodness.

Past exams available:  No, but Chris will give you some CHM1011 sample exams. They'll be good enough.

Textbook Recommendation:  There are two "recommended" buys, I think one of them was just an e-book. Don't bother, really. Chris himself said they'll only assess you with what's on the lecture slides.

Lecturer(s):
  • Weeks 1-4 - Chris Thompson, including Atomic structure and Bonding
  • Weeks 5-8 - Alison Funston, including Molecular Orbital Theory, Gas Laws and Thermodynamics
  • Weeks 9-12, Mike Grace, including Equilibria, Solubility, Acids and Bases and Kinematics

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 78 D

Comments: Overall, it was a fun unit. Initially, I was struggling, and I didn't like it, and was opting to drop out of chemistry. However, after the revision lecture, I am considering going for a major in chemistry. (dramatic turnaround, if you had spoken to me in semester)

I thought every lecturer was brilliant - a lot of people didn't like Alison (she was my favourite, but nobody cares for my opinion there, so whatever), and while a lot of the initial topics might go over your head, a lot of it seems to come together at the end come exam time. Just let it kind of fester in there and wait until the exams. It'll make sense eventually, don't worry about it.

On assessments, I don't think that this is a hard subject to do well in. You've just got to keep on top of your game. First thing, though, don't let your study score in Chemistry fool you - I got a 33, and I was still allowed in. I personally think that if you get an ATAR over 90 and understand chemistry, you should at least try CHM1051. You have a few weeks grace period to drop into CHM1011 if you think that you won't be able to handle CHM1051 without the support of the tutorials. In terms of actual content, the only difference between the two is two labs and one equation in gas laws. So, don't drop down if it's because you think the actual content will get easier, because it won't.

The pre-lecture tests are easy - quite literally, you watch the pre-lecture video and fill in the questions as you listen to Chris talk. Guaranteed 10/10. These only count for 2.5 of that 10%.

The post-lecture tests are a little harder, but don't worry, you get three tries at those. These count for 7.5 of that 10%. Your best bet is to do it once blindly, then look at the comments on that first attempt, then use those comments to do better on your second and third attempts with friends. The questions change, but you'll do better that way.

The laboratories are fun, and are really what sets this a part from CHM1011. The laboratories are longer, and there are a couple of different ones than there are to CHM1011. There are more IDEA labs, which are sort of like designing your own labs (not really at all, but just roll with that idea [pun not intended]). However, because everyone in CHM1051 is supposed to be good at chemistry, that means the labs are more relaxed, get done quicker, and you have more fun with them. This is the biggest bonus of CHM1051 - not the fact that the content is "harder", it's the people you're doing it with makes things easier to work with.

alondouek

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #196 on: June 13, 2014, 04:31:50 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: BMS2021 - Biochemistry of Human Function

Workload:
  • 1x 2hr lecture, 1x 1hr lecture
  • 1x 3hr tutorial

Assessment:
  • Online quizzes - 15%
  • Tutorials - 30%
  • Exam - 55%

Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: Nope!

Textbook Recommendation: If you don't already have a copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell and Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry, now's as good a time as any to get one. You don't strictly need either but this is a hard unit and they're good resources to have on hand.

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr Alfons Lawen (Integration and Regulation of Metabolism; Cell Cycle and Apoptosis; Neurochemistry)
  • A/Prof Tim Cole (Cell Signalling)
  • Dr Jenny Dyson (Haematology)
  • A/Prof Janet Macaulay (Diabetes, Fasting and Starvation; Protein Trafficking)

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2014

Rating:  2.5 out of 5

Comments: This unit is hard. Really hard. Take any unit or subject you've ever done and laugh at it because they pale in comparison compared to this one. The amount of information that you need to learn, consolidate and understand is immense, and it's pretty independent too so aside from the fact that communication with staff is great, you're quite on your own (so find a group of friends to study with and stick with them).

If I could get a do over, I'd go to every lecture possible; it just not worthwhile cramming this unit because there's so much to know. Try to stay up to date as much as possible with the assessments too; there is quite a bit of online assessment and it's pretty easy to forget to do something.

The semester starts of with Integration and Regulation of Metabolism, which is predominantly glycolysis, gluconeogenesis and other glucoregulatory processes and their regulation; you also cover nitrogen-based concepts like the urea cycle and  pyrimidine and purine metabolism. Next you'll cover cell signalling, with things like hormonal control, different types of cell surface and intracellular receptors and the regulatory mechanisms of all of these. Afterwards, you'll study regulation of the cell cycle and the CDK-cyclin regulation of it. You'll also look at the 'checkpoints' of the cycle and why they are important in preventing tumourigenesis due to mutations in proto-oncogenes and in tumour-suppressor genes. You'll also look at apoptosis in great detail, examining many of the various pathways that cells can trigger apoptosis. As well as this, you'll examine necrosis and oncosis and how they differ. Finally, you'll deal with neurochemistry and other neurobiochemical areas of study. In all of these modules, you'll be learning about the clinical significance and applications of these areas of study.

In-semester assessment consists entirely of A) your tutes and B) online quizzes. Tutes are quite fun, especially the weeks where you do clinical case studies. Other weeks are group oral presentation-based, and these are pretty fun, not a lot of work to do for them in all honesty. You do spend one tute session doing a paper chromatography lab involving amino acid <-> alpha-ketoglutarate transamination; you'll then have to write up a detailed lab report based on your results. Some weeks your tute grades were split 66% in-tute work and 33% for an online quiz.

The other component of in-semester assessment are 6 online quizzes after each module of the unit. These, frankly, were ridiculously structured and hopefully (given the SETU surveys that people filed) they should be changed for next year. Basically, they were 8-12 MCQs, with 1 minute per question; only problem is the question and responses were very detailed and it generally took more than a minute to read everything. This was made worse by the fact that some of the questions were drop-down boxes or multi-option MCQs, which too even longer to get done. All in all, this part of the assessment was very poorly thought out by the faculty, and it really caused a great deal of stress among most students.

The exam is enormous. It consists of 10 essay topics from the modules that make up the unit; you pick 5 and write essays on them. You're expected to know a lot of biochemical detail which is a pain, and chances are you're not going to know everything, but if you can make links between concepts you'll be fine for the exam. You have three hours, and this is generally enough time to write everything up (most of us were done by about 2.5 hours); the main issue is that it's bloody painful to write this much regardless. There were a good deal of people doing that goddamn-it-my-wrist-hurts hand-shake thingy every few minutes haha.

Unfortunately there isn't a set reading list but Alfons and the other unit contributors often put some references with page numbers which pretty much pass as reading recommendations. They'll also upload some papers and articles for you to read if you want, but you can probably get by without them (they are really interesting though, so you may as well if you have a spare few minutes between classes).

The best thing is that Alfons uploads some condensed summary papers for all his modules closer to the exam - read and know these, they contain basically all the details you need for his sections of the exam.

In conclusion, this unit is by no means a walk in the park (then again, nothing in biomed past first year is easy). There is so much to know, and all of it is examinable - but at the end of the day it's not insurmountable. The material is pretty interesting overall, so if you put some time into it things tie together without too much issue; the main thing is just to stay up-to-date as much as possible, because it's really easy to fall behind and pretty tough to catch up.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2014, 04:27:12 am by alondouek »
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keltingmeith

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #197 on: June 16, 2014, 10:13:46 am »
+9
Subject Code/Name: ESC1011 - Planet earth: Our place in the universe

Workload:  3x1 hour lectures, 1x3 hour labs

Assessment: 5 quizzes, 3 based on labs, 2 based on self-guided "field-trips", one poster, which from what I have gathered changes from year to year (this year it was on hazards) and the exam.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  No, with no sample exam.

Textbook Recommendation:  Marion says that Earth: Portrait of a Planet is a required AND that the edition she prescribes is the one you need, because the other ones will be years out of date. Supposedly, the one we had this year was a few years out of date (however, I can agree with her, so... Yeah). It was certainly useful, but I wouldn't say it was required.

Lecturer(s): Marion Anderson

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 60 C

Comments: First, a disclaimer: geology is changing everyday, and what I write in here you may not be learning in your year of completion. Given that there's actually been evidence put forth that there's more to the structure to the Earth than scientists have recently though, there's good chance that the content to this unit will change quite a bit. You have been forewarned.

This was a good, fun unit. You start off learning about cosmology - which I'm assuming is to hook people on what is otherwise, let's face it, rocks.

As someone who was originally going to major in geology, I didn't mind the idea of learning about rocks, however starting in astrogeology was a nice little treat, and it was very interesting. Basically covered things like, "what is a planet" (spoiler: not Jupiter) and what the other planets are made of, as well as confusing things like where the universe came from. Also covering other concepts such as the likelihood of being hit by a comet. The first quiz was based on this material, and the last topic (hazards) some crossover into here.

Next, we moved onto rocks and minerals. We did some detouring into what the Earth was made of and what it looks like first, and then the big things. We covered different minerals and identifying them, and then types of rocks and identifying those. Where those rocks might be find. Doesn't sound like much, but once you get there, you'll realise there's a lot in here (the tragedies of there being no Earth sciences in VCE...)

Next comes the paleontology side of things, and you learn about time before now. Basically just what kind of life there was like before now, learning about dinosaurs and the megafauna. Not my favourite topic, but whatever floats your boat. (on the plus side, Bunyips were real).

Then, finishing up on geohazards. Pretty cool stuff. How close can you get to lava before catching fire? Can you surf on it? Are we at risk from being hit by a comet? What even is a landslide? All that fun stuff.

The best part about this unit, though - science changes every day, and Marion tries (and I reckon she succeeded) to keep up with this in the course. Especially in geo, if a new hazard happens, you will know, and you will learn about it. Nothing assessable, don't worry about being assessed, but you will learn first hand what it's like living in the world of research and science.

Oh, and Marion's a sarcastic bitch. A funny one, but she's a sarcastic bitch.

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #198 on: June 16, 2014, 06:11:24 pm »
+10
Subject Code/Name: PHS1080 - Foundation Physics

Workload:  3x1 hour lectures, 1x3 hour labs

Assessment:  6 assignments (7%), practical work (25%), mid-semester test (8%), exam (60%)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 3 useful ones

Textbook Recommendation:  Physics for Scientists & Engineers is prescribed. It's not required, but highly recommended, for reasons outlined below.

Lecturer(s):
  • Ali Moghimi, Newtonian Mechanics
  • Shane Michael Kennedy, Electromagnetism
  • Istvan Lazlo, Waves and Quantum Physics

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 0.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 69 C

Comments: This unit is utter crap. Before I give any detailed comments about the unit, I want to say this - you should only take PHS1080 if you have no other choice. If you only want it because it might be useful, don't do it. There are so many better units to fill your course with - like sexology (not a joke - Monash are incorporating this unit/course). I was excited for physics before doing this, and am now dropping it, so you can see the impact of this unit on me.

So, firstly, the lectures. Ali is a horrible lecturer, but if you didn't do spec, try to either stick out the lectures or keep up. If you can but the textbook, do so and complete the suggested questions as you go by them in the unit. You can then go by TAPAS for help if you need it (and, you probably will need it). Ali does have one good thing going for him, though - he's incredibly quoteable. "It's ze force BY ze apple ON ze Earth"

Shane isn't that great, but he's a whole lot better than Ali, and he cares (thankfully - someone in the course needs to). He works through one concept at a time, and he has lots of online simulators for you to play with, so that's good, too. The best part about Shane is that he's always posting on moodle, so you know that he's there and he's with you.

Istvan is quite popular with the 1011 kids, so maybe you'll like him? I don't quite know why, though... Then again, my favourite chem lecturer is hated by most, so yeah, whatever. He was alright, explained concepts, but he seemed to have this issue of not uploading the slides that he actually showed to us (for whatever reason that is...)

Next is the labs - they're... Completely independant of the lectures. Yes - you'd expect the lab people to talk to the lecture people, but they don't. Quite often you'll learn something in a lab then learn it in a lecture the next week. Or, you'll learn something in a lab then never touch it in a lecture. OR (worst case scenario), be EXPECTED TO KNOW SOMETHING FOR A LAB EVEN IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE. (yes, in a course designed for people who know no physics)  Labs will probably be quite stressful at first, but they'll even out and turn into quite a formula, and this formula represents the 0.5 of my rating.

In summary: don't do this unit UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. If you want to do this unit because "physics is good to have" - there is always something better. Do something different, like geo or astro. Do more maths, take an elective from outside science. Maybe try the science equivalent of biophysics, PHS1031. Just only take this unit if you absolutely have to (i.e. you need a major or minor in physics/are doing eng)

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #199 on: June 16, 2014, 09:53:03 pm »
+8
Subject Code/Name: BFC2140 – Corporate Finance

Workload: 
One 2-hour lecture
One 1-hour tutorial

Assessment: 
•   Midsem: 30%
•   Tute attendance/participation: 10%
•   Exam: 60%

Recorded Lectures: 
Yes

Past exams available: 
Yes - 2 were given out with solutions, but there are more available from past students if you ask nicely 

Textbook Recommendation: 
Fundamentals of corporate finance – The second edition is prescribed, but the 1st is almost identical so buy second-hand if you can. Has the weekly tute questions in it, so best get your hands on a copy. I didn’t really use it much for the learning of the theory, but others who did said it did its job.

Lecturer(s):
Dr Hue Hwa Au Yong (Weeks 1-6)

Dr Jason Choo (Weeks 7-12)

Both are great lecturers. Au Yong sticks to the lecture slides, but her explanations are pretty clear. Writes the answers to the lecture examples on transparencies, and they don't get recorded unfortunately. The slides on Moodle get updated though so all's well. Jason talks more generally about finance. He follows the slides, but also talks about what is generally happening in the finance world. While not directly related to the material, they can be interesting tangents. 

Year & Semester of completion:
Semester 1 2014

Rating:
3 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade:
HD

Comments:
This unit is required for accounting and finance majors, and can be a part of a few others. Its one of you staple second year commerce subjects, so chances are you'll be doing it even if you don't major in finance.

Very well run unit. You would know exactly what was happening, what topics would be covered, what questions would be set, and tutorial answers came out quickly. No complaints what so ever about the lecturers or the administration side of things.

However the actual course material isn’t too amazing. I’m not a huge finance guy, and seemed to just go with the flow of the unit. I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it, there was just nothing that really jumped out at me. I liked the lectures though, and most of the stuff that you learn is fairly interesting. 

The topics covered include:
Financial Maths: Should really be called “formulae that you will need”. Not a great deal of maths involved, just number plugging really. You don’t need to know the derivations of any of the formulae, just what each of the variables represents, and when to use each formulae.

Valuation of bonds and equities: All in the title. What is a bond, how do you price a bond etc.. For share valuation you mainly look at constant dividend growth models. P/E ratios are touched on but not in depth. A little bit on risk too.

Project Evaluation: Remember NPV and IRR from first year accounting? These are touched on again, as well as a few other methods such as MIRR and payback period. You also look at projects with different lives and decision tree analysis (with probabilities of events occurring). You look at the advantages/disadvantages of each, which eventually leads you to the idea NPV is the best. Simulation and sensitivity analysis are touched on.

Risk and Return: High risk requires a higher rate of return. Diversification of portfolios and a few more types of risk. You look at very basic stats/probability calculations such as expected returns, standard deviation, covariance a normal distributions. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is introduced.

Cost of Capital: Looks into how the discount rate used for project evaluation is calculated, from the cost of equity and the cost of debt as the weighted average cost of capital (WACC).

Working capital management: Accounting, with a few formulas thrown in. Looks at how current assets are managed, trade-offs between carrying and shortage costs, reordering of stock, and funding strategies.

Capital Structure: How much debt and equity are be used to finance projects and companies. Looks at various factors that should be considered when considering how to finance companies.

Dividend policy: the decisions and effects of different policies in how dividends are paid out by companies.

Mid-sem/exam: The mid-sem is multiple choice and short answer. IS almost entirely number plugging with a couple of theory questions tacked on the end. Past tests with solutions are given out, and the actual test is very similar to the past ones. Same thing holds for the exam, but with no multiple choice and more theory questions.

Tutes aren’t especially helpful. You just run through that particular weeks questions, and the answers are uploaded to moodle at the end of the week anyway. But they are marked, so best to show up.

Overall not particularly challenging unit, is pretty accessible if you don’t leave everything last minute. Don’t be worried about the maths that is involved; if you are ok with plugging numbers into a formula then you should be alright. Not much higher level maths is involved.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2014, 07:52:24 pm by Reckoner »

spaciiey

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #200 on: June 17, 2014, 03:48:54 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: ATS2676 - Sociolinguistics 

Workload:  One 2 hour seminar per week.

Assessment: 

Scrapbook - 20%
Mid semester test - 25%
Mini research project and group presentation - 10%
Major essay - 45%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, because you can also do this unit by distance ed.

Past exams available:  N/A, there is no exam.

Textbook Recommendation: The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics by Allan Bell. No, you don't need it because you can get it for free online. You might want it for the mid-sem because it's open book, but to be honest it's not needed, just bring your own notes!

Lecturer(s): Melanie Burns

Year & Semester of completion: 2014 semester 1

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 79 (grrrrrr just one more mark!!)

Comments: Until this year, this used to be a second AND third year unit. THIS IS NO LONGER THE CASE! So if you need to round out your majors and whatnot and you are NOT a first year, make sure that you have the right amount of third year units to get a linguistics major. I believe under the new system it's one of those 'cornerstone' units, but don't hold me 100% to it.

Okay now to the actual unit itself. This was the first year that Melanie took this unit, it was previously taken by Julie Bradshaw. So things might change next semester. I liked the content. It was basically a broad overview of sociolinguistics in general. The first half of the semester looked at more technical stuff, and then the second half of the semester focused on the applied side of sociolinguistics, so stuff like language policy and planning, research, multilingualism, etc. The topics and stuff were set out in a way that made sense and Melanie was mostly good at explaining stuff but sometimes it felt like she was rushing through the content because there was a lot of it.

The mid semester test is taken in class, and it goes for an hour. It's all the stuff from the first half of semester, and it's open book. But I struggled to finish it on time because there was lots of writing involved -- lots of short answer questions and a handful of longer ones.

The scrapbook was weird. Kind of fun as far as assessments go, but weird. You had to find 5 popular media articles (newsapers, magazines, and so on) that talked about sociolinguistic stuff and write a short commentary on it, comparing it to how accurate it is to actual sociolinguistic research. Then you had to chose one of the articles and write a 'letter to the editor' in reply to it. I didn't find it too bad and there was lots of help given with regards to how to do it, BUT the word count drove me crazy because each 'commentary' is only 100 (yes, 100!) words.

Group project was time consuming but there was lots of time set aside to do it in class at least. You had to make a survey about language use, collect data and come up with something interesting to present in week 12 about it, but you only have 3 minutes to present in so time management is an issue there. It's also a bit hard to coordinate if you have a big group but for some reason it was insisted upon that our groups were 5 to 8 people.

The essay is 2000 words and you have all semester to work on it. You can pick a topic out of a pre-made list, or you can make your own topic to suit your own interests, provided you ask permission first. To provide context, I made up my own topic and went with: "Malaysia has recently reversed its policy on teaching Mathematics and Science at school in English instead of Malay. Explain the decision and assess its impact."
The essay has a lot of flexibility so you can do what you want, but it's a pretty stock standard linguistics essay.

Also, no exam, yay! It's a good enough unit as far as linguistics goes and I generally liked it.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2014, 12:46:32 pm by spaciiey »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #201 on: June 17, 2014, 04:21:48 pm »
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Subject Code/Name: ATS3259/APG4758 - Geographical information systems (GIS) for environmental science

Workload:
ATS3259:
1 hour 'interactive class' per week (tbh it's really more like a lecture)
7 x 3 hour computer labs

APG4578: All classes are optional, as long as all assessment is handed in as required.

Assessment: 
Practicals: 50%
Project : 25%
Exam: 25%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  Yes, in the exams database. But they're somewhat outdated so don't bother. In the review lecture there were slides that had sample questions. More detail in 'comments'.

Textbook Recommendation:  Erm probably, but to be honest I didn't bother.

Lecturer(s): Xuan Zhu

Year & Semester of completion: 2014 semester 1

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 80

Comments: First off I want to say that I really liked this unit but it is not for everyone. If you are a technophobe I would recommend you pick another unit because you WILL spend a lot of time using ArcGIS, which is simultaneously a pain in the butt of a program to use and a miraculous godsend. I don't think I've ever had a subject that is so insanely content heavy and at times it did do my head in a little bit. Unfortunately GIS is a HUGE area and so there's a LOT of content in this unit.

It starts off by giving an overview of GIS and what you might use it for, and talks about different kinds of data and map projections. If you have done ATS2780 the stuff that you see in the first week or two of this unit shouldn't be new to you. After that you learn about different kinds of analysis, so spatial analysis, terrain analysis, interpolation and you finish off the unit with applications of GIS, so land suitability modelling, habitat mapping and the like. Having a good grasp of maths is useful for this unit, too by the way, especially when it comes to understanding some of the concepts with interpolation.

There are no real lectures, you are supposed to either read the notes or watch a pre-recorded video about the content before class. I can't speak for the videos because I never watched them (Xuan has a bit of an accent and I find it hard to follow if it's not irl) but his lecture notes were, uhm, dense. They are very thorough, but very content-heavy. There were weekly quizzes you could do to check your progress, which was good, but they're not graded so you don't have to do them if you don't want to.

The lectures were okay I guess. Some of the stuff he did was useful but I wouldn't say it's 100% necessary to go, but sometimes Xuan draws stuff on the whiteboard (usually flowcharts) so you won't get to see those. The practicals started off incredibly easy but they got difficult quickly. Each one builds off of the previous one in some way shape or form. I found them generally well thought-out. They're easy marks if you read the instructions carefully and answer the questions properly though. I really liked them but I know that the other people in my prac class thought differently!

The project was one of the better assessments I have done in Geography. It goes something like this: You have to do a site selection. Here are some maps. Here is a list of criteria, x, y, and z. Given these things, Find and present a solution using GIS and write it up in a 2500 word report. He has a rubric put up of how to do it and stuff and if you have been following the content and practicals you basically know how to do it. It's a little bit difficult though because in the practicals you have lots of instructions on how to move from step A to B, but in the project you don't have any more hand holding.

The only thing that kind of irked me was the exam. It was a bit of a bitch, to be honest. Thankfully it's only worth 25% and so most likely you will have already passed the unit by the time you actually DO the exam. I found that the practice questions were way easier than the actual exam itself, so I'd recommend finding a way to study everything as thoroughly as possible so you can make the content stick. If you are good at flow charts and explaining the difference between vector and raster data there are a few easy marks chucked in there too.

I docked some marks off of my rating because I didn't like the exam and I found the unit a little TOO content heavy. It's a pretty decent unit though, I would recommend it overall.

« Last Edit: July 26, 2014, 12:46:53 pm by spaciiey »
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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #202 on: June 17, 2014, 08:43:12 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: ATS1041 - World religions

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

Assessment: 20% Pre-lecture quizes based on readings, 10% expository essay (my year was dialogue between Buddha and a fictional character; i chose Dr.House), 30% essay (selection from a list), 10% tutorial presentation, 30% exam.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen caputre. Approximately 20% of the recordings failed though, be careful. The subject is simulatenous run at Caufield, thankfully both caufield and clayton did not mess up in the same week.

Past exams available:  No. 20% of the exam marks are defining terms, you are given a large list of definitions, a subset of these are on the exam.

Textbook Recommendation:  No, available online via library website. Honestly not a very good textbook though.

Lecturer(s): Scott Dunbar and various guests

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: Unknown, did fairly well overall though.

Comments: Standard religious studies 101 class really.

It includes a basic description of the beliefs and doctrines of what Scott terms/decides to be "world religions". The use of this term, like most of the field of religious studies, is up for significant debate. To simplify though, he definitely does included all the biggest faiths in the world. A few exceptions are Judaism (which is actually relatively small now) and Chinese religions like Daoism/Confucianism which have a debatable number of actual followers. New religious movement (think Scientology, hare krishna) are covered in one lecture, approaches to religious diversity are covered in another.  As a nod to the country we're in, Indigenous religion is covered as well.

I feel it was a bit hit and miss sometimes. Religious studies is a relatively new field compared to its older academic brethren, it's still finding its feet. Compounding this is the fact that it's an interdisciplinary field and theres no one right way to go about it either. Some lectures seemed to be regurgitations of the textbook, especially when Scott was lecturing on ones he wasn't familiar with. Often, he did a good job of adding value beyond the textbook. He was rather entertaining and bought a genuine enthusiasm to the class.

It seemed a bit over the place sometimes. Sometimes religion and modernity was included, other times its really wasn't (Daoism/Confucianism, except maybe the link to fortune cookies). This is half the textbook chapter for each religion. It describes the basic beliefs then how the religions have responded to the modern world (women, democracy, violence, etc).

The guest lecturers themselves were judiciously selected, all were very interesting. Our indigenous religion lecturer for example spent decades in the NT and could sing to us in various aboriginal languages (on which he wrote a book). Considering he wasn't indigenous, it was very impressive having access to an academic who has poured his heart and soul into it so much. The Judaism guest lecturer was very through but also very skilled at actually weaving a coherent lecture narrative together which i felt was sometimes missed in Scott's lectures.

That said, Scott did a pretty good job for the 2 hours we had each week to learn about a major belief system. As almost every lecturer admitted, it was "mission impossible" to lecture about an entire religion in 2 hours, you could spend 2 hours talking about a single word or concept from any religion, let alone the religion as a whole. Given this constraint and expecting superficiality, i think they did OK.

A better textbook could be selected, for one that talks about modernity, it was published in 2002, just after 9/11 and before many major religious controversies of the past decade. I've read ones by oxford and routledge which i think are much better. The assessment was great and even fun. The Buddha dialogue is explained above. You're still doing work but its an engaging and interesting way to do it. The essay topics went beyond the lecture material which is great. I'm sick of essays which simply require you to mostly regurgitate lectures. Most of these topics were not at all touched on, requiring 100% original research. The topics themselves were very interesting, i wrote my essay on the links between the Bushido code of the Samurai and the religions of Japan (Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto). Scott offered anyone who wasn't pleased with the list a chance to nominate their own topic which i thought we very great of him.

Overall, a good unit, a bit shallow, needs improvement in areas but the assessment regime and energy in it is fantastic.

« Last Edit: June 18, 2014, 02:20:13 pm by slothpomba »

ATAR Notes Chat
Philosophy thread
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2011-15: Bachelor of Science/Arts (Religious studies) @ Monash Clayton - Majors: Pharmacology, Physiology, Developmental Biology
2016: Bachelor of Science (Honours) - Psychiatry research

kinslayer

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #203 on: June 18, 2014, 01:01:56 am »
+9
Subject Code/Name: ECC1000 - Principles of Microeconomics

NOTE: this course is taught differently in semester 1 to semester 2. The below is current for semester 1, 2014.

Workload:  3 contact hours - 2 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour tutorial.

Assessment:  40% in-semester assessment comprising: tutorial participation 10%, midsemester test 20% (redeemable, week 6), APLIA tests (in Moodle) 10%. Final exam: 60% (or 80% if your performance on the final exam exceeds that of your midsemester test)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, both streams (same lecturer), with screen capture (if Stephen remembers to set the right camera to MULO, lol). Stephen also uploads supplementary lecture material to Youtube (~1 hour per week). Very useful.

Past exams available:  Yes, last year's. However, there is a large number of "sample exam questions" provided which are much more difficult than the exam questions typically set. There is no shortage of exam-style questions.

Textbook Recommendation:  Principles of Microeconomics, Gans et al. 5th edition (2011)

It is not essential to have this textbook, though I found it quite useful. You can get it on 1 week loan from the Caulfield or Clayton libraries without too much fuss and you can get the full length loan on hold too if you can be bothered waiting a few weeks. I think it's a good book, but you don't need to buy it or even have access to it. All of the examinable material is presented in lectures and tutorials. There are no assessable exercises from the book.

Lecturer(s): Stephen King. Great lecturer, my favourite so far. He has a good sense of humour, knows the course back to front, and thinks quicker than he talks (watch the youtube videos, you'll see what I mean).

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating:  4.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 90

Comments:

I enrolled in this course because it was a core unit for the BComm; after sitting it, I can see why it is a core unit. In this course you will learn about how firms make decisions, specifically how they set prices; how they decide whether or not to produce, temporarily shut down or leave the market; how government policy affects the behaviour of individual players in the market; how international trade affects domestic social surplus; and the differences between competition and monopoly in the marketplace.

Pretty much every week Stephen had a new example from the news to put our learning in context, from the mining boom to energy prices to the minimum wage and beyond. He is a former chairman of the ACCC, he's given evidence in court cases as an expert witness and he brings a lot of his experience to bear in his lectures.

The essence of the course is having a thorough understanding of firm behaviour at a basic level. The midsemester test is multiple choice, but none of the questions is easy; the questions draw inspiration from the lectures, but most of the questions are phrased in such a way that you need to apply concepts learned in class, not just remember definitions. So you need to attend tutorials and understand the examples to do well.

The final exam is 40% short answer (is this statement true? yes/no/maybe/why) and 60% extended response. It's basically diagram after diagram after diagram. It's not as hard as the practice questions uploaded on Moodle, but you need to understand each of the topics and know how to visualise each situation under consideration. For each concept learnt in the course, you need to know how to draw the diagram to show how it works. Since the midsemester exam is multichoice and the tutorials are only assessable in terms of participation and attendance, you need to practice drawing the diagrams on your own. Go through the textbook, ask your tutors, make sure you understand APLIA, etc. There is a lot of material available, you just need to know how to use it.

Regarding in-semester assessment:

The APLIA testing is just a carrot to get you to look at the material before it is presented in lectures. There are 10 tests, each worth 1%. You get 0.5 marks if you complete every question and another 0.5 marks if you get over 50% correct. So essentially you get the full 10% if you attempt APLIA and get over 50% for each test. It's an easy 10% but it helps your mark in the course overall because it forces you to think about the concepts before they're explained in lectures.

The midsemester test is worth 20%, unless you do better on the final exam than the midsem. The midsem isn't easy, but I think the exam is harder. So it's up to you to do well on the midsem to take some pressure off when the exam comes. If you do better on the final exam then the midsem won't be counted, so you can redeem your midsem mark by doing well on the exam.

Conversely, there is NO hurdle requirement for the final exam, so if you do really well on the midsem then you're looking at a 30-40% threshold on the final exam for passing the subject (very easy). My advice is to study as hard as you can for the midsemester test and take the pressure off.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2014, 11:58:00 pm by kinslayer »

BigAl

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #204 on: June 18, 2014, 03:01:46 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: PHS2011 - Physics: Quantum concepts and technologies



Workload:  6 contact hours - 3 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 3 hour lab weekly.

Assessment:  50% in-semester assessment comprising: 3 assignments (5% each) 2 quizzes (2.5%each) labs and report (30%) 2 exams (20% and 30%)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Plenty of past exams available for Quantum mechanics section, however only 2 past exams available for condensed matter and atomic physics( no solution for A.P exams)

Textbook Recommendation:  serway moses moyer modern physics-get a pdf version or hard copy...you'll need it for the labs.


Lecturer(s): Prof Michael Morgan, Dr. Scott Findlay and Dr. Alexis Bishop

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating:  2/5

Your Mark/Grade: 53

Comments:

Completing first year physics, you should already know what's coming. You should be aware of intensive workload with labs and assignments, however I found that it was much more relaxing towards the end of semester (Maybe it's just me). You'll be welcomed by the first assignment as soon as you walk in the lecture room...It's a set of questions consisting of last year's exam questions. Don't get frustrated if you can't do them in the first week..With Michael Morgan's super teaching, you'll get a full mark. The second assignment is exactly the same procedure. The exam is 2 hour long and worth 20%
Let's talk about Dr. Findlay's part.
You'll learn nothing at this part. The lecture notes are just bunch of words squished together and Findlay's monotonic speech makes you sleepy. I was lucky some of the concepts in this sub unit was exactly the same as my eng unit (MAE2400:Engineering materials) so I was lucky. I was cramming for this section expecting somewhat similar exam from previous years...How wrong I was...Most of my friends and I struggled in the first exam. The assignment is a different story..You'll be given a set of question at the start of the sub unit...None of the questions will make sense because you haven't learned anything.

Dr. Bishop's part wasn't as bad as Dr.Findlay's. Perhaps that's because I like atomic and nuclear physics. This sub unit was much more easier than condensed matter physics in my opinion. The quizzes weren't difficult...Don't let the past papers deceive you though. Be prepared for anything.

Side notes on labs: Absolute bullsh*t. You'll encounter technical problems for sure. In the first week, we spent 30-45 mins to log into the computer...in the third week, the computer was almost frozen and I was about to lose all my data for the experiment...In week 6 or 7, I had to deal with this tablet bullsh*t and got 2/20 for that lab...I was lucky the demonstrator was lenient so he re-marked my lab. In week 10, I lost all my data so I had to write the whole lab discussion in 5 minutes. Some of my friends failed failed lab.

Fingers crossed if I have done enough to pass...Can't wait to finish second year physics..If I fail this unit, it's going to cost my double degree...It's a unit you dont want to repeat. 
« Last Edit: July 13, 2014, 06:38:03 pm by BigAl »
2012 ATAR:88.90

2013-2015 Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Science (dropped in 2015)
2015-2017 Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical)

jeanweasley

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #205 on: June 20, 2014, 05:46:22 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: PSY1011 - PSYCHOLOGY 1A 

Workload: 2 hour lectorials (lecture and a tutorial, but mostly a long lecture that sometimes have hands on activities, eg. measuring each other's personalities on the Likert scale by asking them a couple of questions or working through a handout with application questions about the topic with the people around you. Normally these tutorial type activities happen during the last hour or half an hour but normally by then, people would just walk out.

Assessment:  5 x lecture topic quizzes: 15%
Oral paper report (video) and written summary (1000words): 20%, apparently doing the video was a first for this year and caused confusion and frustration for some of us. The style of the summary depended on your facilitator/tutor so some did the 1000 word summary in a table, some in essay format and some in numbered bullet style. For a first assignment, this was particularly difficult because we only had a few lectures' knowledge of what was going on so to go find three research papers and summarise them was quite a task, especially since the papers didn't really make sense until after we've covered the "Learning" topic (we had a choice between choosing between media violence, punishment and aversion therapy). Coupled with the oral paper, this assignment was just too much stress for a first assignment. First of all, to upload the video you have to enable your Google account with Monash but that part wasn't in the guide so some people, including me just used whichever Google account they had to upload the video on Youtube (some didn't know that the video had to be unlisted so you can go watch some for tips). Going back to the written summary, the criticism part was a big part of the assignment but I really had no idea how we were meant to criticise when we hadn't even learn any tools to do that.

Critical evaluation exercise (1000words): 15%

Examination (2 hours): 50%, not a hurdle requirement although the unit guide says it is.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  No, they don't provide you one but you do have MyPsychLab (an accompanying source with the book that generates questions for you) and they do recycle questions from that. The exam I did had about 50% of the questions from MyPsychLab, some from the weekly quizzes and some were too specific like in the learning or sensation & perception topic, that probably came from the extra info the lecturers talked about. They also had two questions that were the exact same in the exam that I did so I guess that was an easy mark to get provided you got the previous question right. (The exam wasn't too hard and it was pretty much matching definition to an answer or naming a function, no funky diagrams that you had to pick the name from and almost no application type questions where you get given a scenario and see the results and say what those results mean)

Textbook Recommendation:  I got the Custom Lillinfield textbook and all the readings are there plus each chapter  has revision questions but it's mostly memorising definitions. I did get the one by Finlay but I didn't really think it helped me with writing the summary or the lit review but it could be useful for next semester so I'm keeping it.

Lecturer(s): Varies, but you get a lecturer for two weeks because each topic goes for two weeks except for the introduction lecture and the historical timeline of psychology one. Some of the lecturers I remember: Matt Mundy(developmental psych, I think), Sean Cain (sensation & perception), Kim Cornish (bio psych) Wei Wei (Personality), Russell Conduit, also the coordinator (first two lectures)

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: TBA 74 D

Comments: I came into this unit knowing it was disorganised and that the assignments were a mess to understand and these sentiments couldn't be more true. This unit suffers from not being structured properly mainly because it was hard to understand what was going on half the time and the advice you get from the Moodle forum differs greatly to other people's advice or your tutor - basically, there's no universal standard and there's a lot of variation. You really do need to go to your consultation class because your tutor tells you what you need to do and if they want an essay instead of a tabled answer, you have to write an essay EVEN IF the assignment does say that you can choose which format you do your assignment in.

The criteria sheet also didn't match with what my tutor said he was grading and it appeared to be just a copy from another assignment (and like with anything in this unit caused confusion), but if you form a facebook/study group, you'll be more than okay since people share their tips and things like that on there.

The other downfall of this unit was that some lecturers were uninteresting or mumbled their words a lot or had trouble forming sentences due to their native language not being English that it was hard to keep up or try to understand what was being said, because by the time the lecturer had said the next word, you'd already forgotten what was said before (sorry, this is a mouthful haha). Also, some lecturers seemed to talk a lot about their Phd and while it was interesting to listen to, it felt like advertising.

Other than that, I liked this unit although it was reallly reallllllly hard to get well or a HD compared to other subjects (I got told that the average was around 5 or 6 for the first assignment that was out of 10 and that only 16 people got HDs - also beware, there are a lot of people that have dropped out of this course because of how difficult/unclear it was BUT if you do the work and ask for feedback, you will be okay, probably not HD okay but okay enough :P) but the weekly quizzes were easy enough to get well, especially the later quizzes since they just regurgitate the MyPsychLab questions.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2014, 07:06:00 pm by jeanweasley »
2014: BA @ Monash University
2015: LLB(Hons)/BA @ Monash University

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #206 on: June 20, 2014, 09:04:52 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS1261 - UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOUR  
Workload:  2h lecture (lecture slides are posted on Moodle after both campuses have had their lectures)
1h tutorial

Assessment:  20% In lecture short answer test (1)
45% Written research report
25% In lecture short answer test (2)

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No exams, only 2 in lecture tests.

Textbook Recommendation:  Text book is not required. Readings will be on Moodle.

Lecturer(s):  Attitudes and behaviour, Behaviour and attitudes, Assessment of attitudes and behaviour, Behavioural research report, Social perceptions and attitudes, Cultural world views and behaviour and Social cognition and behaviour  (Kerry O'Brien)
Music influence on emotion and cognition (Sherilene Carr)
Prosocial behaviour and Social influence (Nick Faulkner)
Attachment/child development (Eloise Zoppos)

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: TBA

Comments: The overall unit was good, however the long lectures can be very boring since it was jam packed with theories and experiments. Also, tutorials were a waste of time since most of the discussion was already explained during the lectures. Everything is posted on moodle in terms of readings and information for the research assignment. The unit is structured and organised well. The lecture slides are not posted on Moodle until Caulfield and Clayton have had their lectures. I found that it was hard follow the lecture since I had nothing to write on and sometimes there is too much information to write down. Study the lecture slides well and readings prescribed for the in lecture tests. If you enjoy psychology, this unit is very similar (PSY1011).

jeanweasley

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #207 on: June 20, 2014, 09:10:48 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS1061 - FRENCH INTRODUCTORY 

Workload:  Language and Culture component:
One 1-hour grammar lecture
One 2 hour writing/grammar workshop
One 1 hour oral/aural tutorial
Specialized Culture component:
One 1-hour lecture

Assessment:  Weekly written and aural language homework (800 words): 17%
Class tests: oral, aural and written (1500 words ): 33% - the written tests weren't hard since you have the internet/dictionary to look the words up but there was one assignment which was unclear why one part of the table had 'x' and because of my misinterpretation, I lost marks. So definitely double check your understanding of writing assessment!
Written language exam (1200 words): 25%
2 Written assignments (1000 words): 25%

The workload isn't that heavy but if you're not used to learning a language it could definitely be a hurdle for you. However, in saying that, this is introductory French so it's not that hard compared to learning French in high school - here you start at the very basic but the pace is fast.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  No, and you don't need to, really. You just gotta practise conjugation but you can use the Alter Ego exercise book for revision.

Textbook Recommendation:  The Alter Ego textbook is a must because you WILL be using it every class and the accompanying workbook is optional if you want to practice your grammar so I suggest that you should probably get it if you have no background in French whatsoever (I did Year 9 and dropped out so I covered most of the basics) and intend to do well, you should get it. However, there are other online activities that you could print and check but most of the online ones don't really have answers to them.

I didn't buy any other verbs list or dictionary. I used Google Translate and Collins French Dictionary to help with translating some of the words that weren't covered in the lectures for the written assignments.

Lecturer(s): Jessica Chakowa, (also the coordinator) for Grammar, Benjamin Andréo & Chris Watkin for Culture. Chris speaks really fast and is quite soft-spoken but he has a lot of knowledge about culture so make sure you go rewatch his videos and take notes down because chances are it's going to be in the Culture Quiz. Ben is awesome too but he speaks slightly slower and is obsessed about Tour de France and cycling. The lecturers are amazing and while you don't see the culture lecturers for workshops or tutes, they know their stuff and are really good to chat with. (The tutors are also native French speakers so you get to hear how you should sound and things like that because you can observe how they pronounce words)

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 83 HD

Comments: I can't really say much about this unit because there isn't much to say other than the fact that I liked this unit and that the lecturers and tutors were always ready to answer my questions. But I do have one criticism regarding the culture assessments that were a little harder than normal compared to the language tests. The culture assessments sometimes relied on extra reading that was given or other material said in the lecture that could have easily been missed and there were also details that we didn't go through in the lecture but did appear in the quiz; I can't remember exactly what the question was but there were at least one and two.

For the third culture assessment which was a series of four short answer questions focusing on a French comic strip but (be warned there is no word 'comic' in French so it should always be referred to as bande dessinée or BD) it was kind of difficult to answer even with the slides with all the information on them. I think with this kind of assessment or with any culture component, you do need to do a bit of additional reading because you need to be able to explain the reason why things happen and how, and not just use information from the powerpoint because the information presented can be the bare minimum. Overall, it's a good unit and if you're looking for a language to learn, this could be the one.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2014, 07:05:07 pm by jeanweasley »
2014: BA @ Monash University
2015: LLB(Hons)/BA @ Monash University

nosuperstar

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #208 on: June 21, 2014, 02:42:00 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ETX1100 - Business Statistics

Workload:  3 1/2 contact hours - 1 x 2 hour lecture, 1 x 1 1/2 hour tutorial

Assessment: 
•   Assignment: 5%
•   Mid Semester test: 15%
•   Tutorial attendance + H/W completion: 10%
•   Exam: 70%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes.

Past exams available:  There were no past exams available but instead 3 sample exams were provided.

Textbook Recommendation:  Basic Business Statistics - Berenson 3rd Edition (2012). It is prescribed but honestly not used, countless times Gerrie has indicated to do calculations based on the way its presented in the Lectures rather than the textbook's method. It's only useful for practice questions.

Lecturer(s): Gerrie Roberts

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: HD

Comments: A relatively easy subject to pass, although if you don't keep on top of the work, it can seem pretty difficult (like it did for me most of the semester). The concepts are simple although a major issue would be the 70% weighing of the exam, as it is a hurdle requirement, this subject has a high fail rate due to the heaving weighing of the exam. The mid semester test and assignment are easy marks, as are the tutorial attendance ones which contribute 10%. These marks are achieved through 1% per tutorial, 0.5% for attendance and the other 0.5% for completing the part A work to be prepared before the tutorial.

The mid semester test covered topics from weeks 1-4, thus those were not included in the final exam, which made it a lot easier to study for also.

Overall, it was quite a dry subject but if you are good at maths you will like it.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2014, 10:39:07 am by nosuperstar »

Joseph41

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Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #209 on: June 21, 2014, 09:23:56 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ATS2637 - The Human Body and the International Marketplace

Workload: 2 hours per week (1x one hour lecture, 1x one hour tutorial)

Assessment:
Essay 1: 30%
Essay 2: 40%
Exam (two hours): 30%

Recorded Lectures: Yes

Past exams available: No idea, but probably not necessary

Textbook Recommendation: Nothing further to the Unit Reader (which is, obviously, essential)

Lecturer(s): Dr. Ryan Tonkens

Year & Semester of completion: 2014, Semester 1

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: N/A

Comments: This was the last unit I chose for Semester 1 of my second year (in fact, I switched into it in about Week 2), and I'm glad that I did. It provides a fairly general overview of some major issues in bioethics, including prostitution, surrogacy motherhood, gene patenting, and the purchase and sale of human organs (which I found most interesting). There is also a major emphasis on a few key concepts which relate to most if not all of the topics, being commodification, exploitation and objectification.

Ryan is a very good lecturer; he is engaging, encourages further learning and is more than willing to meet outside of class to clarify any questions you may have. He also offered his services throughout the year to read essay plans, and provides very extensive feedback. I was a little concerned that I would be overwhelmed with some of the content (as I had never done any bioethics units), but a lot of it is intuitive. In fact, I guess that's a main objective of the unit - to challenge your intuitions.

This unit had pretty much my perfect assessment structure - two major essays (the first one was 30%, the second 40%), and then the exam. The exam was rather lengthy, but it covered a good range of material. There were five definition questions (choose 5 from 10), five short-answer questions (choose 5 from 10), and then one mini-essay (choose 1 from 3, if my memory serves me well (which it probably doesn't)).

I would recommend the unit to anybody who is interested in bioethics or philosophy. I think it's an excellent unit, and made better by virtue of Ryan and the tutors doing everything they can to improve the unit in the future. Another plus is that it falls under the brackets of Bioethics, Human Rights, Philosophy and International Studies (which I am using it for); a significant portion of the content relates to countries further to Australia.

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.