Monash General Chat

[brenden]

Hi,

I was just wondering would a double degree in arts/business at monash be better than an Arts degree at Melbourne, or vice versa? Whilst leaving the prospect of business school masters open at a good school after my undergraduate, I'm quite CBF during VCE and feel like I can easily achieve the ATAR required for Arts/Bus at Monash Clayton but not so easily for Melbourne. Without any bias input (#monashmasterrace etc ) is it worth trying alot harder in VCE just to do Arts at Melb or is Monash all good.

Cheers.

It's kinda the wrong question in a way. Like… it depends what you want, you know what I mean? Like, it's circular. Whether you want to go to Melbourne depends on whether you're interested in Melbourne. Eg… do you want to experience breadth, etc etc, be more geared towards research etc etc. This probably doesn't make sense because I'm so tired, but your question isn't complete yet. Better, in what sense? Better in terms of employment? In times of how long you have to spend at uni? In terms of cost? Like, what do you want by "better"?
I can't conceive of a reason a lazy person would decide to work harder simply to go and do a single degree at X prestigious university instead of a double degree at Y prestigious university.

[Jono_CP]

It's kinda the wrong question in a way. Like… it depends what you want, you know what I mean? Like, it's circular. Whether you want to go to Melbourne depends on whether you're interested in Melbourne. Eg… do you want to experience breadth, etc etc, be more geared towards research etc etc. This probably doesn't make sense because I'm so tired, but your question isn't complete yet. Better, in what sense? Better in terms of employment? In times of how long you have to spend at uni? In terms of cost? Like, what do you want by "better"?
I can't conceive of a reason a lazy person would decide to work harder simply to go and do a single degree at X prestigious university instead of a double degree at Y prestigious university.

I want to study philosophy, politics and journalism as a bare minimum. I heard from one of my mates that his friend got into this course (Melb. Uni B/A) with an 86 without a SEAS application or anything which I found stunning. I do have a SEAS application in the making, but that only adds about 2 ATAR points overall. I am a hard worker, and will be around the high 80's mark, definitely not lower than 85. So in this sense, would you or anyone know that if this kind of guarantees me into the course if someone who gets lower than the ATAR required without a SEAS still gets in? But I am also interested in Arts/Business as the previous user Summer identified. I noticed though, that Economics is also taught in a B/A course. I don't care about the cost (not yet anyway), time doesn't matter to me (longer the better), but what is the difference between an Arts Course at Monash and an Arts Course at Melbourne? Both in terms of future employment, and direct experience in these courses.

Thank you!

[donkson]

I'm doing a few philosophy units at Monash, and I've heard a few people that study it at UoM say that the Monash options are a little more wide ranging (in terms of subject matter and approaches etc). I'm not doing an arts degree though so that's as much as I can say.

In terms of future employment though, I really doubt it matters which uni you ultimately choose for arts.

[Jono_CP]

Thanks for that, but why then is there such a gap in the ATAR score? One would assume UoM is the better one based on score a lone, is this still true?

What type of philosophy are you learning and which philosophers? E.g. Greece like Socrates, Pluto or Revolutions such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau? Or modern thinkers like Deepak Chopra?

[brenden]

Hey Jono. ATAR reqs don't offer a decisive view of university quality. Especially when you have a specific idea of what you want to do. ATARs are done via popularity. Let's say a course has 100 places and 10,000 people apply. Only the top 100 will get in. Let's say all 10,000 people have some sort of score similar to the ATAR. You obviously look at the highest 100 and let them in. By no means is this a direct analogy, but that's the idea. The more popular a course is, the higher the ATAR requirement goes. So, assuming that UoM is better simply because of the scores would not be a good assumption. UoM is definitely good. For other reasons. And the people at UoM may or may not have made an informed decision. They may also have looked at the buildings and decided to go there, so the popularity as aforementioned is not a precise indication.

The Monash philo department is phenomenal.
As far as employment, I've actually seen info indicating a far higher rate of employment for Monash grads. (could be because many more people from Melb go to postgrad? No idea. didn't pay much attention to it tbh)

Honestly, just choose the uni that's going to be quickest to travel to.

[vashappenin]

So I've got like less than a month until my first exam.. Yay.. I was looking at past papers for one of my subjects and realised that there's no solutions for them -.-
So my question is, how do you guys study for exams? And how early do you start studying? Any advice is good but especially those students doing law subjects and commerce subjects.. Is it just reading through notes?? What about practice exams? What's the point if you don't get answers?

[donkson]

Depends on the unit but I remember a few of my 1st year commerce units posted some past exams with solutions after week 12.

[duhherro]

hey guys if i want to get into civil, it says i need a 60 average WAM, does that mean I need 60% in my exams for all subjects assuming I did alright for the internal stuff?

and how similar are the exams compared to the past papers usually anyway?

[alondouek]

hey guys if i want to get into civil, it says i need a 60 average WAM, does that mean I need 60% in my exams for all subjects assuming I did alright for the internal stuff?

Nope, WAM (weighted average mark) refers to your entire unit score, not just the final exam. Here's some more (official) info about the WAM and how it's calculated

[Reckoner]

I think this is what alondouek was referring too by "here" 

[duhherro]

Nope, WAM (weighted average mark) refers to your entire unit score, not just the final exam. Here's some more (official) info about the WAM and how it's calculated

Thanks for this reply! Your link was broken

But , I feel as if exams are a heavy part of the unit score, so even if you max out internal , you still need to do well on the exam to get above 60 for the subject . Atm I don't feel I can get a decent mark on the exam to get a 60 wam for civil

[duhherro]

Thanks for this reply! Your link was broken

But , I feel as if exams are a heavy part of the unit score, so even if you max out internal , you still need to do well on the exam to get above 60 for the subject . Atm I don't feel I can get a decent mark on the exam to get a 60 wam for civil Are Credits easy to get in eng subjects?

[alondouek]

I think this is what alondouek was referring too by "here" 

haha my bad! Thanks man

Thanks for this reply! Your link was broken

But , I feel as if exams are a heavy part of the unit score, so even if you max out internal , you still need to do well on the exam to get above 60 for the subject . Atm I don't feel I can get a decent mark on the exam to get a 60 wam for civil

Getting a credit average isn't overly hard to do; depending on the course material and the effort you're willing to put in it's by no means insurmountable.

Let's take a random CIV unit for example: CIV2206 - Mechanics of Solids.

- Internal assessment is worth 40%
- You need a score of 45% on the final exam (worth 60% of the unit total) to pass the unit.

0.45 x 0.6 = 0.27 = 27%, so assuming you do well on internal assessment and get the absolute bare minimum in the exam (which id unlikely, you'll probably do much better than 45% on the exam), then you've already got 67% - nearly a distinction.

It's a lot to do with preparedness and attitude; keep those both on track and you'll surpass a credit easily!

[duhherro]

Thanks for the reply alondouek! Very helpful! How similar are exams compared to their previous years? And are there differences in doing the sem 1 or sem 2 exams?

[alondouek]

I'm afraid I don't think I can help you there; I'm not studying engineering of any sort!