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Author Topic: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 1734956 times)  Share 

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Sinner

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #165 on: July 08, 2013, 09:15:18 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: MULT10011 Introduction to Life, Earth and Universe

Workload:  3 x one hour lectures per week, 1 x three-hour pracs for 9/12 weeks

Assessment:  Ongoing assessment of 9 pracs (totalling 25%), two 20-minute tests during the semester (5% each), a poster (5%) and a 3-hour written examination (60%).

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen captures.

Past exams available:  Yes, 4 (2009-2012)

Textbook Recommendation:  No required texts; 'Life in the Universe' by Bennett & Shostak is avaliable in the library. 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is also very helpful and also avaliable in the upper levels of the library.

Lecturer(s): Rachel Webster (Physics/Astronomy), Stephen Gallagher (Geology) and Geoff McFadden (Biology)

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2013

Rating: 3 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (80)

Comments: A subject which was a last minute decision for me among last semester's subjects. From the viewpoint of a science student, I was struggling to find a Semester 1 Lv1 Science subject to do which would fill up the last slot in my study plan, and this showed up. Anyway, the consensus of this subject is to use different areas of knowledge in astronomy/physics, geology, and biology to touch on the topic of life in the universe, including us and others.

Astronomy

The astronomy lectures were split into 2 parts, 2 weeks during weeks 1-2, and 2 weeks during weeks 11-12. The first part outlines the basic topics of the origins of the universe and the solar system, which is mildly interesting for a start into the subject. The second part outlines humanity's attempts to find evidence of life outside the universe, which may be or may not be interesting for different people, as they don't go too deep into each issue. The lecturer, Rachel, is a decent lecturer who also puts a glossary at the end of the slides; words for you to look up to better understand the content.

You do 3 pracs about astronomy, most of which involves the use of computers and programs, though not too hard to work once you get the hang of things. You'll have to do some math (Usually some big division equation), but you can always ask the demonstrator if you need help. These were relatively dull, depending on your opinion towards maths and physics. You have to print out the worksheets first, complete the questions and hand them in by the end of class.

Geology

The geology lectures proceed after the first part of astronomy, spearheaded by Prof. Stephen Gallagher, who is surprisingly entertaining and made the lectures more bearable. Unfortunately however, he has a grudge against people who he call "Lectopians". Once before a lecture, he showed a bar graph showing that people who attend lectures get better results than Lectopians. This is reflected in his lecture notes, which consist mostly of pictures and few descriptions - the content you need to know being verbal. Sometimes he even goes out of way to write things on the board, be it diagrams or key words, so that it won't get on Lectopia. Lastly, he also gives out helpful extra notes during some lectures that Lectopians don't get. The content is fairly interesting, and includes Earth's development from its genesis to around 10,000 BC plus climate change. Either way, I cannot stress this enough: attend the lectures if you can! This is not a part you can pass from simply reading lecture notes, you have to lectopia all of the ones you missed, which is a waste of precious time.

The geology pracs are comparatively more interesting than the astronomy ones, being more hands on with meteorites and fossils loaned from the museum, although it might frustrate some. Here you complete a MCQ at the end of each class. It's open book based on your worksheet, so it should be relatively easy.

Biology

Following after geology, this is probably the easiest section in this subject. I'll confess that I never went to the lectures for this section, but the stuff is relatively manageable without lectopia and only the notes, although there are some things that pop up in the exam that were in lectopia, so attending lectures is once again a suggestion. Here you learn about bacteria, the essentials and origins of life on Earth, as well as basic stuff in molecular biology - nucleic acids, macromolecules, and photosynthesis + respiration. The first lectures are comparatively dull, although they progressively get better and more interesting. Quite easy for biology savvy kids to pick up, the required knowledge that overlaps with BIOL10004/5 is even of a lower level.

If you've done biology pracs before, expect little that is new, and they can be dull and confusing depending on how much experience you've had with bio pracs. At least the staff are relatively more cheerful in the larger sized prac, and it does help sometimes to pass the time. Similar to astronomy pracs, you print the sheets out, complete them, and hand them in.

Assessment

You get two mid sems, one of which happens around the mid sem and one considerably long after. They're both a mix of short answer questions and MCQs, the first one on astro + geo and the second one on bio. There's not a lot of questions, so don't screw them up.

You also have to do a A3 sized poster by the end of Week 12, which might be a hassle depending on your other subjects. A list of topics is provided on the LMS for you to choose from, which can be astro, geo, or bio. Thankfully, you can do this in pairs, and some subjects are ridiculously easy and require only an hour and a bit to complete, such as explaining the essential characteristics of life.

The exam is split into 3 parts that you have to do in separate booklets. Astro, geo, and bio sections all contribute 60 each to the 180 points total. The geo section is a long list of short answer questions that you choose some to write on, while the other 2 sections are a mix of compulsory MCQs and short answers (though mostly the latter). It's better to know a little bit of everything, particularly the "examples" type of information as they are often used in the short answer questions. The exam format hasn't changed in 4 years and it'll probably stay this way.

Overall, this subject had a good potential to be an interesting subject, but this collapsed with the 9 practicals (Seriously? And the lot of them are irrelevant to the main course, content could be added to lectures) that were required as well as the fact that knowledge between the different disciplines were not tied in too well. Nevertheless it remains a decent option for people who want a little bit of everything in science (and by this i exclude math), and one to consider if one simply needs a Lv1 science subject to fill in their study plan, but hates quantitative stuff (physics, chemistry, calculus), this is a subject to consider, as was my case previously.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 01:17:56 am by Sinner »

anazergal

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #166 on: July 09, 2013, 06:48:27 am »
+7
Subject Code/Name: LING20005 Phonetics

Workload: 2 x 1 hour lectures and a 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week. No tutorials in the first and last weeks.

Assessment:

Transcription Assignment 1 (20%): Transcription of 21 Korean words (only marked on the number of correct IPA symbols used for consonants).

Transcription Assignment 2 (20%): Transcription of the consonant and vowel sounds as well as the lexical stress of 15 Gupapuyngu words. Transcription of the consonant and vowel sounds as well as the lexical tone of 10 Thai words.

Transcription Test (10%): Transcription of approximately 14 single symbols and 5 single nonsense words, as well as the intonation pattern of 3 Australian English sentences. No IPA charts allowed. Held during the last lecture.

Production Test (10%): Identification and production of 6 given symbols from the IPA chart, as well as the production of 3 nonsense words distributed approximately 10 mins before the test. No IPA charts allowed. Held during the last tutorial.

Final Exam (40%): Multiple choice and short-answer questions on phonetic theory and speech waveforms. 2 hours, with 15 minutes reading time.

Lectopia Enabled: Yes, but without screen capture.

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

Textbook Recommendation: "A course in Phonetics" by Peter Ladefoged and Keith Johnson. Probably important, but I personally never read much of it. :-\

Lecturer(s): Mainly Hywel Stoakes, with Joshua Clothier for one guest lecture.

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: Frankly, this was the toughest subject I'd ever taken (though I admit I was a lazy arse this semester :-[). On top of the already hefty amount of theoretical knowledge, students are also expected to memorise and produce, both orally and in writing, the entire IPA chart. I found this a bit like learning a new language, and often felt tone deaf and tongue-tied. Tutorials are absolutely essential (a special mention to my tutor Rosey, who was extremely capable and pleasant!), as they mostly consist of going through all the symbols and sounds as well as practising a bit of transcription. Definitely do the homework exercises and listen to the sound clips beforehand, or you might feel lost in class. I didn't find the lecturer that great (I thought Hywel fumbled about a bit too much, and he often ran out of time which impacted the structure and flow of subsequent lectures :-\), but try not to miss too many live lectures as he plays a number of sound clips (which are captured on the audio recordings) and videos (which sadly are not). Expect to put in a lot of work. I didn't and blundered through the entire subject, only managing not to fail because an exam segment on spectrograms (which I completely didn't understand) wasn't marked due to a printing error. ;D (That, and I think they took pity on me during my disastrous production test which ended on the verge of tears.) This subject definitely offers a comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of speech sounds, but PLEASE don't take it unless you have (or think you have) a passion for it.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2014, 10:03:41 pm by anazergal »

anazergal

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #167 on: July 09, 2013, 09:01:24 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: UNIB20016 Same-Sex Desire: From God to Genes
WARNING: I did this subject in 2012 so my opinions are a year outdated, but I figure that some information's gotta be better than none, right? :P Besides, I took a look at a friend's 2013 course materials and they look pretty much the same, down to the assignments.

Workload: 2 x 1 hour lectures from weeks 1-6, later reduced to a 1 x 1 hour lecture from weeks 7-12. A 1 x 1 hour tutorial from weeks 1-11. The first half of this course involves overviews of various subject disciplines (History, Theology, Genetics, Health, and Law), with the second half covering more detailed case studies.

In even more detail (simply because I can :P), the lecture topics / case studies are:
Week 2 & 7: History and theories of (homo)sexuality / Social movements and social changes
Week 3 & 8: Theology of homosexuality / Sexuality crisis in the Anglican Church
Weeks 4 & 9: Gay genes + Intersex people / Sex tests and sport
Weeks 5 & 10: Health and medical approaches + Same-sex led families / Citizenship and same-sex desire
Weeks 6 & 11: Same-sex desire and law / Anti-discrimination law

Assessment:

Assessment Task 1 (20%): Analysing the arguments and persuasive strategies of 3-4 opinion pieces on same-sex marriage (from a list of some 13 of them). 1000 words.

Online Quiz (20%): Multiple-choice quiz; answers could be found in the lectures. I can't remember if this was timed but it was very manageable.

Final Assessment (60%): This was a take-home exam consisting of two parts:
1. A 1000 word opinion piece on any topical issue except same-sex marriage; AND
2a. One 2000 word research essay on a proposed question different from that of the opinion piece; OR
2b. Two 1000 word essays chosen from a list of 12 reasonably open-ended and controversial questions drawn from a variety of lecture topics.

Lectopia Enabled: Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: N.A.

Textbook Recommendation: No textbook, just a subject reader.

Lecturer(s): Graham Willett (History), Peter Sherlock (Theology), Andrew Sinclair (Genetics), Ruth McNair (Health), Anna Chapman (Law)

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1 (But very similar, if not identical, to its 2013 counterpart.)

Rating: 5 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: I really enjoyed this rather unique subject, and found the interdisciplinary nature of its content engaging and relevant. Most of the lectures are interesting enough, if not in their deliveries then in their material. (I especially liked the theology component, though I found the health and law sections a little dry at times. :-\) While each discipline is covered by a different person, the lecturers try to relate their parts to each other's for a more holistic understanding. The tutorials are heavily steeped in dialogue, so it's pretty easy to pull something out of your arse if you haven't done the readings. I notice no one really quotes or refers heavily to an article anyway; discussions may start from guided questions but usually devolve into heated exchanges full of personal/acadamic opinions. Still, the readings aren't all terrible so do give them a go before class. Assignments are also manageable as there's always something to talk about. This course exposed me to many fresh perspectives and arguments to use for either faction, even if the ground sentiment was usually skewed towards pro-homosexuality (I suppose detractors wouldn't take the subject :P). All in all, I'd recommend trying this if you have an open-mind.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2014, 10:03:12 pm by anazergal »

marr

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #168 on: July 09, 2013, 09:16:38 am »
+6
Subject Code/Name: LING30007 Semantics 

Workload:  2x 1 hour lectures and 1x 1 hour tutorial per week

Assessment: 
Assignment 1 (25%): Consists of two parts. The first part involves analysing the different meanings of 'like' (after you do this assignment you'll be pulling your hair out everytime you hear the word being used incorrectly - like totally!). The second part involves using event semantics to classify actions as either a state, activity, accomplishment or achievement.

Assignment 2 (25%): Using cognitive semantics draw a radial map of the different meanings of 'side' (I.e: "The 6 sides of a cube", "this is my side of the room", "I sided with her in the argument"). This assignment wasn't explained all that well by the tutor or the lecturer which brought my overall rating of this subject down.

Final essay/research project (50%): A 2,500 - 3,000 word essay or research project on an area within the course. There are a few suggested essay topics if you can't think of something to write about but I'd highly recommend coming up with something yourself in order to get a good mark.     

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  There is no exam component in this subject.

Textbook Recommendation: 
Understanding Semantics by S. Lobner - Not crucial but it does help out with the first few topics and with Assignment 1.
A subject reader that can be purchased in the library for $15 - You need to buy this. It contains all the lecture notes and tutorial exercises for the entire semester.

Lecturer(s): Dr. Brett Baker

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments:
It's a fairly tough subject to begin with but if you're smart you can get through it with minimal work. In a nutshell semantics is the study of the meaning of words independent from context (the literal meaning of something). There are many approaches to semantics that are covered in the course such as event semantics, truth-conditional, prototype semantics, cognitive semantics, componential analysis and a few other smaller topics. These topics are unrelated so it can get confusing when you expect things to link together.

Dr. Baker's lectures are rather relaxed and welcomes questions in the lecture if you don't understand anything. The class itself is fairly small as well (about 60-70 people) with only 3 tutorial classes. You don't have to go to the lectures as they are recorded but I would recommend going to the ones that contain information needed for the assignments. The tutorials are just discussions about the course material with your fellow classmates and there aren't any tutorials in the 1st or last week.

You really need to pick a topic for your final essay early and it can be from any part of the course that you want to focus on. Be warned though, it is very difficult to get a high H1 mark in this essay or any linguistic subject for that matter (unless you're Stonecold ;)). The tutor explicitly told us that to get a H1 for the final essay you need to write something innovative, creative and original (basically say something that no one else has ever said before). This means that unless you can come up with a completely different perspective on one of the given essay topics, it's highly recommended that you pick your own topic so that you can direct your own study. I actually found this part of the course the most enjoyable as it allowed me to write up my own mini thesis (you come up with your own research question, collect the data for it and then analyse it). The other 2 assignments aren't too hard and you can do fairly well in them (you can 100% even because they are problem based questions with objective answers).

Because there is no exam for this subject you don't need to memorise every single part of the course in depth (thank God!). Honestly you only need to concentrate on a few topics to do well - event semantics, cognitive semantics and the area of study that you are going to write about for your final essay. The rest of the topics aren't assessed so you could potentially skip those lectures if you have other subjects that require attention.

Overall I found this subject really rewarding. I admit that I struggled with it at first but like solving a tough maths problem that you've been working on for ages, it's satisfying when everything just 'clicks'. I realise that there might not be too many people interested in this subject as it's rather obscure (some people called it a 'hippie' subject but I didn't think it was anymore 'hippie' than your average arts subject!) and has no real-world application, but it does make you more conscious about your own language use (which is never a bad thing!) You don't need to have done a linguistic subject before, nor do you have to be a wordsmith but there is something that you need - you have to be (or at least want to learn how to be) consciously aware of word meanings. Language use requires implicit knowledge and this subject requires you to make that knowledge explicit. This subject isn't for everyone but if you are thinking about taking this subject try this as a test: think of the word 'rock'. How many meanings can you come up with? Are they related? If so, how? If you enjoy analysing these sorts of questions then you might enjoy this subject.

PM me if you have any specific questions ;)     
« Last Edit: July 09, 2013, 10:26:58 am by marr »

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #169 on: July 09, 2013, 02:02:54 pm »
+1
Subject Code/Name: FNCE10001 Finance 1 

Workload:  2 x one hour lectures and a 1 tutorial per week

Assessment:  Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%).

Lectopia Enabled:  No, like all other FNCE subjects.

Past exams available:  There are about 20 on the library website.

Textbook Recommendation: I'd say buy the textbook because it's not that expensive anyway. It has some good review notes and what not.

Lecturer(s): Sterla and Carson (I don't know whether I spelt their name's right as they are both Europeans).

Year & Semester of completion:  Semester 1, 2013

Rating:  -1 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (88)

Comments: Oh my god, FNCE10001. Don't get me wrong, I loved the lecturers and they did provide some interest into a subject that is drier than dust. I read the previous ATARNotes review (which said it was -3 out of 5) and I thought, it can't possibly be that bad and I was looking for a cruise-y breadth after taking Introductory Microeconomics. So I took the class and it was a really bad decision. While there is some mathematics in it, it is so basic that you don't really need to study that much, GIVEN THAT ALL THE FORMULAS ARE LAID OUT ON THE FORMULA SHEET ANYWAY. Most of this class was basically memorising facts about ADIs (authorised deposit taking institutions) and different characteristics of markets, such as the money market, bond market and the share market. I guess I was hoping for something more mathematically inclined, and I was a little let down with the 2 weeks of dedicated financial mathematics in the course.

The assignments were ok, but it is a joke to give "originality marks" in a finance assignment. 6 of the marks were given for content, 2 marks for presentation and 2 marks for originality. THERE IS NO ORIGINALITY ABOUT FINANCING A HOME PURCHASE. EVERYONE IN THE CLASS CHOSE TO DO A HOME LOAN THROUGH A BANK. It may sound like I'm bitching about lost marks (I am) but this concept of originality marks just seems stupid.

The exam is incredibly similar to past exams, even going to the point where there are questions from the 2004-06 exams on the paper. Do the past papers and you'll be set. Do FNCE10001 if you want a cruis-y breadth, but it's not interesting. You have been warned for a second time.
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jeppikah

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #170 on: July 09, 2013, 05:47:56 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: FNCE20004 Introduction to Real Estate Analysis

Workload:  Weekly: 2 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour tutorials

Assessment:  2 assignments worth 15% each, 1 exam worth 70%

Lectopia Enabled:  No

Past exams available:  No

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbook is required. The lecturers will post relevant readings from various sources on LMS.

Lecturer(s): Rob Brown & Greg Schwann. Rob takes the first 6 weeks while Greg takes the last 6 weeks.

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating:  3/5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (82)

Comments: So the name of this subject is probably very appropriate: it is an introduction to real estate so really, when you finish this subject you won’t feel like you know very much about real estate at all, rather just a general overview.

The first half of the lectures taken by Rob include topics such as the types and characteristics of real estate, the interaction between demand and supply with construction activity, house pricing, demographics and mortgage finance.  Mortgage finance was my favourite because it’s similar to the mathematical component of Finance 1. Rob was quite good at getting through the material in a timely manner and I found him reasonable to listen to.

The second half of the lectures is taken by Greg and deal with commercial markets (industrial, office & retail), location theory on commercial property, leases and real estate development. Again, I enjoyed leases the most because it was predominantly mathematically based. I hated real estate development because it was very dull and just seemed really wishy-washy. Thankfully there were no  theory-based real estate development questions on my exam. Greg seemed to waffle on a lot which made me lose interest at times, and thus I also missed the relevant points (my fault, I know).

The lecturers post readings for each lecture which are basically where all the lecture content is summarised from anyway. (Or at least Rob did anyway. Greg didn't post them at all even though there were supposed to be some and decided not to release them at the end because he thought it was too late anyway lol.) I found reading them to be good revision but you're not missing out on much if you don't do them at all.

There are 2 assignments in this subject. The first assignment deals with looking at demographic factors of two different suburbs and drawing conclusion on real estate. My advice would be put in as much detail and garble in as possible. Also, do NOT forget to put in graphs, tables and anything else that might make you look like you spent a lot of time and effort into it. My comment on this assignment was that I wrote a very good analysis, however I scored poorly for being too short and not including graphs and tables. The second assignment is written predominantly by Greg. After a while, you realise that Greg makes a lot of assumptions about the students and a few of his questions were quite ambiguous while he seemed to think they were perfectly clear. So make sure you ask him about any questions you’re unsure of because he’s quite helpful and will pretty much lead you to the answer. Greg also thought everyone had taken accounting and most had taken business finance (I hadn’t taken either) and I felt his language doesn’t cater well for breadth students but it’s still quite manageable.

The tutorials always annoyed me because my tutor just answered the tutor questions exactly as how they were written on their answer sheet. There was no further discussion, explanation or engagement with the students. These “1 hour” tutorials rarely lasted longer than 30-40 minutes for this reason. While attendance is not taken and non-compulsory, I still think it’s worth it to go because you will pretty much go through all the answers to the tutorial questions and the tutorial questions are the best indication of questions that you might get on the exam. In fact, one or two exam questions were almost word for word identical to some tutorial questions. All answers to numerical tutorial questions will eventually be posted online but there won’t be any answers to theory questions.

The marks allocated in the exam were split roughly evenly between the two lecturers. Furthermore, each lecturer asked approximately half numerical and half theory-based questions. You will get a formula sheet in the exam so learn what they are for and what each pronumeral means. It annoyed me that in the exam, Greg asked a question that required the present value for a growing annuity formula which Greg neither explicitly taught nor put on the formula sheet. I had to do it the long way which was a pain to write out and put in the calculator, and I probably messed it up anyway, so I suppose it’ll be good to memorise if you can. Definitely learn how to do all the steps in doing SFFA, including knowing all the information and numbers you need. Unfortunately, the question given to us didn’t include a lot of the expected information (eg. LTV ratio, undervaluation by the bank) which was confusing to me. The exam invigilator told me to make up numbers for these and then write down all these assumptions. This annoyed me and I’m not sure how it was marked.

Overall, this subject covered pretty much what you would expect from the handbook. I didn’t feel like it was an easy H1 but at the same time, the workload is probably less than you would find in a science/biomed subject. The mathematical finance side is good but this only accounts for half of the subject so I would only suggest doing the subject if you have some interest in the topics outlined, otherwise you’ll be too lazy to study it and then it’ll be too much to cram for during SWOTVAC!
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acinod

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #171 on: July 10, 2013, 07:27:51 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MUSI20143 World Music Choir 3

Workload: 1 hr lecture + 2 hr rehearsal

Assessment: Participation (40%) + Listening Test (40%) + 2 Written Tests (20%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Audio only

Past exams available: N.A.

Textbook Recommendation: Lecturer wrote the textbook, a must buy for $10! It contains everything you need to know for all the tests as well as the lyrics and score to all the songs you will sing. You can get away without the textbook for the first half of the semester since he'll be handing out spare copies of the songs during rehearsals.

Lecturer(s): Joseph Jordania. THIS GUY IS AMAZING!!! Super friendly and amazingly talented at piano and guitar. He even has his own wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jordania

Year & Semester of completion: Sem 1 2013

Rating:  5/5!!!

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (82)

Comments:
HEY HEY!!! Having graduated 2 years ago, I don't normally come back on ATARNotes often but I just feel so compelled to share this incredible hidden subject with everyone. Like many students, I was always puzzled on which breadths to choose. Should I choose something that will help me in the future, or something fun and interesting, or maybe something that I can bludge throughout the semester. I can safely tell you World Music Choir 3 fills all of the above criteria. It's also a Level 2 with no prerequisites!

Let me start with the one hour lectures. These are SO CHILL. You pretty much just go there and listen to music. The best times are when he plays on the piano and Joseph is indeed a brilliant pianist. I will continue to refer to the lecturer as Joseph because this subject would be completely different without him (something that I cannot say about any other subject). It's ok if you miss a few lectures; even if you miss all of them because they are all recorded. The only reason you will ever need to go to lectures is for the 3 assessments (listening test and 2 written tests). This is just awesome because that means 3 of the lectures of the semester and not really lectures but for tests instead!

Next are the 2 hour rehearsals. These are why I look forward to every Wednesday afternoon of the week. Initially, my first impressions of the rehearsals was that a lot of time gets wasted. This is perhaps the most bludgy subject I have ever done. The rehearsals are suppose to be 2 hours but I can tell you they will never reach 2 hours! Joseph always starts a few minutes late to allow everyone to get here 'on time' and then we call stand up. THIS IS THE WARMUP! Honestly, at first, I thought the warm-ups were a joke and I'm sure most will agree. When we stand up, Joseph shouts 'HEY HEY' and we all follow him. We sing a few scales to loosen up the vocal chords and then some octave jumps. Then Joseph tells everyone to close their eyes to do warm up our ears by doing a rhythm exercise. Basically he claps a rhythm and everyone claps it back. After around 10 rhythms, he does a tricky one where he claps once on an off beat which messes with everyone but eventually we all get it by the end of the semester. After the rhythm exercises, we all turn to the side and give the person next to us a neck massage. And that concludes the warmup. After that, Joseph marks the roll (which takes a couple of minutes since there's a lot of us) and then we begin to actually learn the songs. This was incredibly awkward for everyone in the first few weeks but by the end of the semester we LOVED IT!!! Me and my friends looked forward to every warmup session to the point where we were warming up outside of rehearsals!

The songs we sang was quite interesting. Since this subject is 'World Music Choir' we were singing a wide variety of songs from different cultures, which we perform at a concert at the end of the semester. Unfortunately this semester we couldn't sing Hallelujah but this is an example of the type of songs we could sing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70esQzSjpTk). We also sing very traditional songs ranging from the African 'Sombamba' to the Georgian 'Elesa'. This subject is very rewarding because it teaches you to be more open to other cultures. I absolutely loved Elesa it sounded so epic. When we sing, we sing in 4 part harmony so at the start of the semester, you will join either Soprano (highest), Alto, Tenor, or Bass (lowest). Being a bass, we got to sing the deepest part and if you're a guy you will probably be placed in bass. I totally forgot to mention how well this subject helps develop your singing ability. BASSISTS4LYF!

Finally I want to talk about the assessment:

Let me begin with the participation marks which are 40%. DO NOT COME INTO THIS SUBJECT AND BELIEVE YOU WILL GET 40% IF YOU ATTEND ALL REHEARSALS. Attending all rehearsals will give you 20-25%. To really get the most out of these marks, you actually have to participate! This includes singing the limited amount of solo parts in the songs performed. Something I did was stand in the front of every rehearsal. I sang loud and tried my best to make Joseph notice me. Perhaps the best chance to get participation marks is to sing a solo at the end of the semester. I bravely took the opportunity to sing one of the songs solo with the other solo Soprano, Alto and Tenor part and hopefully impressed Joseph. I'm not totally sure but I think for participation I ended up with 30% out of 40%.

The next assessment is the listening test towards the end of the semester. In the last lecture, you will have to do the listening test and it is pretty much the final exam. This is by far the hardest part of the subject and why you might not end up with an amazing mark. Apart from singing, the lectures are there to teach students about the different types of music in the world. You will study two types of music: traditional and pop/rock. The listening test is split into two parts. First, a traditional music is played and you have to talk about the features and musical elements it contains. Then, a pop/rock music is played and you will have to explain whether it is a pop song or rock song. You will do well in this if you read the textbook the night before and go through all the lectures and make summaries of everything he says. The songs played are always those that have already been played and analysed in lectures. I can't believed I crammed for this subject (since it's been so bludgy) but trust me it is worth it. I think I scored around 30% out of 40% for this assessment as well.

The last assessment is the two written tests. If you have any musical background, these would be ridiculously easy given that you don't make any careless mistakes. The first test is basically to form a triad from a note. For example, if you are given A, then you write ACE. You do this for 2 more notes and then you're done! I didn't realise we weren't allowed to start until he handed the paper to everyone but I finished in 5 seconds. We were given 15 minutes so time is definitely not an issue. The next written test is a tiny bit harder, it involves harmonising a couple of notes. For example if you were given A and E, you could write A minor and E major or F major (since the triad FAC has A in it) and A major (since the triand ACE has E in it). Once again this is pretty basic if you know music. Even if you don't know music, it's not that hard because you can learn in from the textbook and he spends a whole lecture teaching exactly how you do it. I scored 20% out of 20% for this section.

Overall, World Music Choir 3 is the best subject I have ever done and if you are looking for a breadth, I recommend you find a few friends and enrol in this fantastic subject. The final rehearsal on the big stage before the concert was actually both sad and beautiful. It was the last time we were singing together with Joseph conducting and to this day I still miss being a part of his choir. Attached is a photo of me, my friends and Joseph which we took during the last rehearsal. I love this subject so much!!!
« Last Edit: January 18, 2016, 01:35:52 pm by acinod »
2015: Working Living The Dream
2012-14: BCom (Actuarial Studies/Finance) @ UniMelb
2011: English [41] | Mathematical Methods CAS [45] | Specialist Mathematics [43] | Chemistry [45] | Physics [42]
2010: Chinese Second Language [35]
ATAR: 99.35

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
-Albert Einstein

Turtle

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #172 on: July 10, 2013, 08:54:05 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: UNIB10009 Food for a Healthy Planet

Workload:  2 x 1 Hour Lectures, 1 x 1 Hour Tute (per week)

Assessment:  1 x Mid Semester Test (15%), 1 x 2000 Word Essay (25%), 3 x Forum Reports (5% each), 1 x Exam (45%)

Lectopia Enabled:   Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, one for each year

Textbook Recommendation:  1 x Reader (Needed for the readings)

Lecturer(s):  Sooooooo many different ones-I can't find all their names, but we had a different lecturer almost every week, and also had 3 guest lecturers

Year & Semester of completion:  2013 Semester 1

Rating:  1.5/5

Your Mark/Grade:  H2B

Comments: I am doing this review to warn people, and hopefully help you to make an informed decision if you are considering this subject  :). This subject is the worst subject I have done at uni, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the content is not interesting. I did this subject because I thought I would be interested in the nutrition side of things. However, this part of "food" was barely covered. Instead, we talked about world food security in terms of economics, genetically modified crops, theories of famine, ect...

The forums (with guest lecturers) not completely boring, but they weren't that interesting either. They are fairly easy to score well in, but it is hard to stay within the world limit of 500 words.

I worked hard for this subject, and even got a 90% essay score, yet I somehow managed to bomb the mid semester test and end of year exam. They give absolutely no indication of how they want you to answer questions for either the MST, or exam. I studied hard, and rote learnt almost everything for the mid semester test, and exam, yet somehow, my answers weren't correct (even though I tried to learn/apply exactly what was in the notes). The only saving grace for this subject is that you get to take a cheat sheet into the exam, which helps a lot with the rote learning. But otherwise, I found this subject to be dull, uninteresting, and there was no indication given on how to answer questions to receive full marks. If you are looking for an easy, or interesting breath (like I was), they I do not recommend this subject.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 08:56:57 pm by Turtle »
VCE 2011: English, Chemistry, PE, Methods, Health & HD, Further

2012-2014: BSc (Melbourne Uni)

2016-2019: Medicine (Melbourne Uni)

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #173 on: July 10, 2013, 09:25:33 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ANAT20006 Principles of Human Structure  

Workload: Per week--3 x 1 Hour Lectures, 6 x 2 Hour Practicals (spread over semester)

Assessment: ADSL Online Quizzes (10%), 2 x Mid Semester Tests (15% each), 1 x End of Sem Exam (60%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No (not really a problem, I don't think they are that necessary)

Textbook Recommendation: 
-Eizenberg N. Briggs CA et al (2008)-General Anatomy: Principles and Applications-McGraw Hill (This book is particularly helpful in regard to the principles lectures in the first four weeks).

Lecturer(s): Dr Varsha Pilbrow, Associate Prof. Colin Anderson, Dr. Jenny Hayes, Dr. Jason Ivanusic, Dr. Peter Kitchener, Dr. Simon Murray,
Dr. Junhua Xiao (New lecturer. Alot of people told me how much they disliked her lectures. However, I loved her lectures because she outlined exactly what we needed to know, and they also only went for 40 minutes which was great!)

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2013

Rating:  5 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 92 (H1)

Comments: This subject is fantastic! The topics covered are extremely interesting. The lecturers do a fantastic job of explaining everything very clearly, and making sure that you know exactly what is expected of you. BEWARE, if you don't like rote learning, then this subject is not for you. Almost everything in this subject is memory based, and you cannot get away without memorizing a lot of information. But not to fear, if you find this subject as interesting as I did, then this will not be too much of a chore.

Mid Semester Tests: Many students hated these, but I thought they were great, in that they forced you to keep revising constantly. These tests were not that hard. If you took the time to revise each lecture thoroughly, then you would get the marks you deserved. There are no trick questions, and basically every question tests your recall of information.

ADSL quizzes: These were an easy 20%. You could repeat them until you get 100% in them. They were accompanied by ADSL worksheets. I did these for the first few weeks, and they took me about 3 hours each. This is why after the mid sem break, I stopped doing them, because they took up too much time. I don't think that they were that necessary, so don't stress too much about not doing the worksheets. However, if you do have the time to do them, they really really help your understanding of information covered in lectures.

End of semester exam: Consists of Multi Choice, Multi Selection Section, and a Short Answer Section. The Multi Choice covers the last 3 weeks of the semester, and if you take the time to revise carefully, and memorize all the information in the last few lectures, then you can breeze through the MCQ very quickly. The Multi Selection Section was the hardest in my opinion. It tests you on fine detail, and you need to label diagrams. However, once again, this is all in the lectures, and if you are careful to revise fine points, and practice labeling diagrams, then this section will not be that much trouble. In my opinion, this section rewards those who know their work most. The final section is a Short Answer Section. Everyone hated this section this year, because it contained a question on the borders of the Inguinal Canal. However, if you took the time to memories this, since it had a lecture slide all to itself, then this question wouldn't have given you any trouble. This section could be hard if you didn't do enough revision, because you can't really bluff your way through it.

Pracs: I found these very interesting, as you get to "prod and poke" cadavers. However, on the downside, they go for 2 hours, and you can't sit down, and therefore they hurt my legs :/ Overall, although they were interesting, they didn't really aid my learning, and just gave me sore feet. There is a 75% hurdle attendance requirement.

I highly recommend this subject. Although most people just do it because it is a prereq for post grad health science courses, I would have done it even if this wasn't the case. This subject helped me to decide to major in Human Structure and Function, because I enjoyed this subject that much! If anyone needs any help with this subject, or any more information about the subject, then just PM me :) I hope this review helps anyone interested in this subject!!
« Last Edit: July 11, 2013, 04:49:04 pm by Turtle »
VCE 2011: English, Chemistry, PE, Methods, Health & HD, Further

2012-2014: BSc (Melbourne Uni)

2016-2019: Medicine (Melbourne Uni)

LeviLamp

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #174 on: July 10, 2013, 11:45:24 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: GERM10004: German 1

Workload:  2 x 2 hour tutorials, and probably about the same amount of time per week revising the content if you don't want to do it all in a block before each assessment (which is perfectly doable).

Assessment:  Each component will be covered below :3

5 x Vocabulary Tests (2% each)

Don't be fooled by their low weighting; preparing well for these vocabulary tests will really help with the rest of the coursework/exam, and in addition, if you don't study well, these tests are really quite difficult (despite their simple layout).
Every now and then, you'll be told you have a vocab test during a tute in the upcoming week. These tests cover pretty much all vocab from one of the five vocabulary lists (and may ask questions pertaining to content learned from previously covered vocabulary lists). This includes all the obscure and long nouns, as well as GENDERS of said nouns, and conjugated forms of the given adjectives. Make sure you've learned all the grammar-based content from each week's tutorials as well, because these vocabulary tests focus just as much on that as they do on knowing the assigned vocab lists inside out. A tip to help push your mark into the low H1 range: use the Learn function on the provided Quizlet lists and LEARN THE GENDERS OF EACH NOUN OFF BY HEART (the department uses a picture of a lion to denote masculine nouns, a ballerina to denote feminine nouns, and a drop of water to denote neuter nouns). If you can recall the genders for the vocabulary tests, that's 3-5 marks in the bag as soon as your pen hits the page, thanks to the "der-die-das Genderquiz" section that appears on each test. Make sure you're able to conjugate verbs, use the nominative and accusative cases and modify adjective endings appropriately, recall noun genders, form grammatically correct sentences and (later on) separate certain verbs and alter sentences/words for the various imperative forms. Why am I placing so much importance on these tests? Because if you can score well on these, you should be well-equipped to score well on the other assessments! Don't be disheartened if you underperform on the vocab tests, though; my tutorial group's average for these was a high P, and none of the tute groups (purportedly) scored above an H3 average for these. Also, expect to be given a lot of generous half and quarter marks where you think you've made a mess of things!

3 x Homework Assignments (5% each)

These assignments are your gateway to a free 13-15%, if you're careful and meticulous with correction and put in a little bit of effort. They take an hour or two to complete, but aren't particularly hard if you know what you're doing. Like the vocabulary tests, these cover a veritable smorgasbord of topics and a large amount of content, but focus primarily on grammar and writing, as opposed to vocabulary and noun usage. There are a large number of questions at the beginning of each homework sheet that only require a single word to answer, so if you're careful with your responses you'll probably be able to score very well on these. Towards the end there will be a short writing task, and be aware that FLUENCY IS WEIGHTED FAR MORE THAN ACCURATE GRAMMAR. Be INTERESTING, try and stretch your imagination and think of ways to spice up what is probably the most boring and robotically presented German passage your tutors are ever going to have to read, throw in a noun you haven't been taught if your limited vocabulary is failing you. These writing passages were most people's downfall because they wrote a short, safe grammatically sound passage. Also, if you get an ambiguous prompt, write about a bunch of things relating to any nouns in the prompt and you should get a good mark (speaking from experience).
Overall, these homework tasks are pretty easy to do well on, and you don't have much to worry about (I got 99/100, 59/60 and 55.5/60 and I promise I made more than one mistake on all of them).

2 x Listening Tests (5% each)

Ridiculously easy if you can grasp what the people speaking on the recorded tape are saying. Listen to the textbook CD conversations for a night or two and these will be a breeze. Each one has one somewhat tricky question, so pay attention and think about what the speakers are saying. Everyone seemed to do pretty well on these, and it's legitimately easy to score the full 10% if you're on the ball.

1 x Mid-Semester Test (15%)

Definitely easier than the final exam, but not exactly a walk in the park, especially if you're underprepared or don't remember what you've been taught. It tests everything you've been taught in all the tutes beforehand, including what's on the culture sheets (they can ask you anything from those sheets, but it's about 3% of the MST, so if you're pressed for time, ignore them). Try and complete every exercise from the first three chapters, and do some solid vocabulary revision, and you should be able to pull an H1 on the midsem. Importantly, get your sentence structures down pat - the sentence building on the MST was fairly tricky in some cases, and was also worth quite a lot. The written piece is daunting but fairly easy to score well in if you exhibit competency with the manipulation of the language (as opposed to showing off perfect grammar). This was by far my worst attempt at a written piece and I still did well on it. The MST also gets marked quite generously, so if you've attempted all the questions with some degree of understanding it's not going to be hard to H1. I managed a 62/80 and my MST was seriously covered with mistakes. Don't expect a full mark off for every little error you make (if that was the case I'd probably have gotten about 50%).

Exam! (50%)

I have one thing to say about this exam: RUDE. On first glance it appears quite simple, and they're not exactly asking you to write much, but it's HARD. Probably the most difficult thing I had to do all semester (vocab tests were easy in comparison, I just didn't study well for them at all), and my friends' thoughts echoed mine. A girl I met outside the REB after the exam, who'd gotten something like a 95 for the semester's assessment, was 100% confident she'd failed to get an H1 on the exam. I felt pretty demoralised after the exam as well, despite having a pretty good crack at everything they threw at me and revising my vocabulary and grammar like there was no tomorrow. The paper was really WEIRD, and I don't even know why. Please study hard for this exam if you have the time!
The exam had a number of sections, and was marked out of 100 (I don't think the staff were very lenient with their marking, either).
Tasks included English->German translations to complete a passage, writing a letter (quite difficult, actually), recalling some food nouns (I'd wager the category of nouns they ask for changes every year), lots of conjugations, answering accusative/nominative-based fill-in-the-blanks questions, personal pronoun recollection, passage analysis (T/F questions), manipulation of separable verbs and the conversational past, rewriting English sentences in the forms of certain imperatives (wir, du, ihr, and Sie-imperatives) and answering a menagerie of culture-based questions in German (!!! READ OVER ALL YOUR CULTURE SHEETS, SRSLY). Good luck, this assessment is NOT easy, even if you've studied extensively.  :)

Lectopia Enabled:  No lectures! The tutorials have an 80% attendance requirement, too, so don't expect to be skipping classes like you might for a lecture.

Past exams available:  No sample exams, no exam-oriented revision exercises (save for some random sheets that had nothing to do with the exam), no nothing.

Textbook Recommendation:  Begegnungen. Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Integriertes Kurs- und Arbeitsbuch.
Sprachniveau A1+. Anne Busch and Szilvia Szita. Schubert-Verlag: Leipzig.

This book is basically an all-German workbook, but it strangely works /extremely/ well as a textbook, particularly if you've paid attention in class and look up words you don't know. Use it as much as you can, it'll help immensely. (It goes without saying that the book is also 100% compulsory.)

Lecturer(s): None, but my tutor was Leonetta Leopardi. Very kind woman, and very helpful, but she'll leave you behind in the tutes if you don't pay attention. Also quite generous with marking if she can see that you understand what the question is asking and have some kind of idea what you should be doing. Don't do it on purpose, but if you're late and miss an in-class assessment, she'll probably arrange for you to sit it after the tutorial so you don't miss out on precious marks.

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester One.

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (89)

Comments: German 1 was a very fast-paced but quite comprehensive introduction to the German language. Don't take this subject if you want an easy and laid-back breadth or Arts subject, but DO take it if you're interested in the language of German and area of Europe in which it is spoken, or feel that German could significantly aid your job prospects in the future (apparently useful for people in careers such as business, engineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, music composition/history/performance, literature, classical studies, European history, physics, mathematics and other such things). This course progresses QUICKLY, so be sure to stay somewhat on top of things. I felt that my tutor explained everything well, albeit briefly, and in such a way that the textbook acted as a perfect complement to the taught material. Lots of worksheets, dialogue sheets and textbook exercises were set in class or as homework for practice with the language (though be aware that there is NO oral examination in German 1 despite the speaking practice) and if you actually put the effort in, the following tutorial would usually make sense. Feedback was given on each assessment, so improving and fixing mistakes you had previously made was very easy to do. The only real downside to this subject was the sheer volume of vocabulary that is assumed knowledge and is not taught in class (usually). USE QUIZLET IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THINGS AND DO WELL, SERIOUSLY. There are about 1200 core words to learn, and a few hundred more if you include those only found on worksheets and throughout the textbook chapters 1-5. Don't neglect the long or obscure words on the vocabulary lists, because they WILL pop up without prior warning and when you least expect them to. Also pay attention to the culture component of the course; 11% of the exam this year was based on culture, as well as a small component of the mid-semester test. Overall, this subject was well coordinated and well taught, but was no walk in the park with its frequent assessments, fast-paced delivery and large vocabulary load. If you stay on top of things, the semester assessments will reward you with good marks, and any problems you have can be easily resolved with the aid of the tutor during tutor-independent work time (during class or via email outside of class). If you're looking for an introduction to the powerful language of Germany and Austria (Switzerland doesn't really count, as you will eventually discover), this subject is definitely for you, but if you're looking for an easy H1, go take something like MULT10011 instead. Viel Glück und auf wiedersehen!
VCE: Chemistry | Biology (2011) | English (2011) | Environmental Science | Mathematical Methods CAS

2013-2015: BSc [Zoology] @ UoM | DLang [German - DISCONTINUED]
2016: GDSc [Botany] @ UoM
2017-2018: MSc [Biosciences - Zoology] @ UoM

Summer: BOTA30006

S1: BOTA20001 | EVSC20004 | BOTA30003 | BIOL90001

S2: GEOG20009 | BOTA30002 | BOTA30005 | EVSC20003 | NRMT90002

Subject and major reviews incoming :)

ChickenCh0wM1en

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #175 on: July 11, 2013, 01:38:08 pm »
+9
Subject Code/Name: JAPN10001 Japanese 1A

Workload:  1 x 1hr lecture, 2 x 1.5 hr seminar (tutorial)

Assessment: 50% final exam, 15% Cultural Discovery Project, 2X 10% oral exam, 3 x 5% vocab/dictation tests spread evenly throughout semester

Lectopia Enabled: Yes for the lecture, good esp since lecturer Jun Ohashi speaks very softly .... :/

Past exams available:  None, exam outline provided.

Textbook Recommendation:  GENKI I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (used for Japanese 2 as well)

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating:  4 Out of 5

Mark: H1

Comments:

Going into this subject with absolutely no prior knowledge of Japanese, I felt I was disadvantaged because everyone around me seemed like they had done Japanese in some form or another (High school, primary school etc). The lectures in my opinion, are pretty boring but the good part of Japanese 1 were the 2 seminars held each which which helped me with my confidence and made me step out of my comfort zone in terms of speaking in front a class and interacting with other people in a new language.

Don't expect to be "fluent" in Japanese after this subject LOL.... I'm so far from it....

At the start of each week you have a lecture where the content for the week is introduced. In each of the seminars, you are placed in a class of around 15-20 people.
Seminar 1 focuses on oral/speaking abilities while Seminar 2 focuses on writing/grammar.

The 3X5% tests were fairly basic to be honest. They were marked out of 30 and most people got around 25/30... So aim high cause they probably scale down the marks.
The 1st oral assessment we got was a partner assessment where you work together to produce a dialogue and act it out. This was a little controversial for me as my partner decided not to work with me and did not do anything, leaving me to write the dialogue myself and go into the assessment with insufficient practice.
2nd oral assessment was individual and I felt I had a much better understanding/grasp of what was required.
However on both occasions, I felt the department marked quite harshly for those who put the effort in and too leniently for those who obviously did little/no practice. The highest for both the assessments was around 8.3/10, and the median was around 7.6/10.
Moving onto the Cultural Project, I thought it was a bit peculiar and trivial... 15% is substantial for the overall mark but it was based off the 2nd oral assessment.

The exam was actually much more difficult than I expected it to be as some of the stuff which was examined I felt was not covered sufficiently in the lectures/seminars.

Despite me bitching about the inconsistent marking scheme, I really enjoyed this subject as I learnt the basics/foundations of Japanese language and also aspects of Japanese culture/traditions/norms. Hard work must be put into Japanese outside of class to do well as the pace is extremely fast, and sometimes not enough time is given between assessments.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2013, 10:28:02 am by Sashimi »
BSc (2015), MD1 (2016)
Tutoring in 2016: http://www.tutorfinder.com.au/tutors/detail.php?TutorID=78301
Chuck a PM if interested :)

Available for tutoring on the summer holidays for university subjects or VCe.
Also tutoring for the Melbourne uni MMIs (medical/physiotherapy interviews)

Please don't PM me for lecture slides or recordings. I don't have them anymore.

tonychet2

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #176 on: July 12, 2013, 01:54:45 am »
+9
Subject Code/Name: Calculus 1 https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2012/MAST10005]MAST10005

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lecture, 1 x 1 hour prac

Assessment:  80% end of semester exam, 20% assignments

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, about six

Textbook Recommendation:  Hass, Weir, Thomas, University Calculus Early Transcendentals 2nd edition, packaged with a differential equations supplement from Hass, Weir, Thomas Calculus, Pearson, 2012.  DO NOT BUY IT. you also must purchase the lecture slides - they are sufficient

Lecturer(s): ? will edit later

Year & Semester of completion: 2013 sem 1

Rating:  3 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 50 PASS

Comments:

OKAY. If you tried your best got less than 40 in methods (I got 37) and didn't take specialist in VCE, then prepare your....

Anyway, having a free slot on timetable available for breadth, I thought to myself; what do I think I'm good at?  They say do what you're good at and enjoy, so being the fool I was, I thought I enjoyed methods from VCE and did fairly decent so I decided I would take up Calculus 1. I mean it's the easiest standard maths subject available in university, it can't be that bad right? BIG MISTAKE

The lectures are SUPER DRY. They work off lecture slides every lecture by going over questions and concepts one at a time. After the first 2 weeks the attendance went from full house to about 30%. I stayed up until about week 5 and 6 until I realised it was more productive by watching the slides on the lectopia whilst rewinding and pausing, the rate you are forced to learn is very fast and it is easy to dig yourself into a hole.

The exam was definitely not easy, the correct answers required a lot of steps and came out very messy.

Maths at university is definitely no bludge and only for those that are genuinely interested in maths or engineering, I put the same amount of effort across all my subjects and I kept finding myself having to look back and go over concepts again and again, and the worst part is that the  topics are not related to each other.

The textbook is not required or referred to at all - it is useless as they provide you a free book with a list of weekly questions covering each topic

If you're looking to do this because you're not sure what to do as a breadth and want to learn extra maths, stay well away unless you're maths skills are somewhat leet.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 02:18:36 am by tonychet2 »
B.Com University of Melbourne 2013 - 2015

tonychet2

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #177 on: July 12, 2013, 02:16:00 am »
+3
Subject Code/Name: Introductory Microneconomics ECON10004 https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2013/ECON10004

Workload:  2x1hour lectures, 1x1hour tutorial

Assessment:  60% final exam, 10% attendance, 25% assignments (10% and 15%) and 5% mid sem test

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes the last 3-4 are very relevant

Textbook Recommendation:  I can't find the name as the LMS is down, but buy the textbook

Lecturer(s): Gareth James

Year & Semester of completion: 2013 Sem 1

Rating: 5 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments:

Coming out of VCE with no prior commerce knowledge, this has been my favourite subject. The topics were great, and very interesting as the connection between the theory and applications to real world examples were quite obvious. The lecturer Gareth James was very engaging and enjoyable to listen to as he cracked many jokes (talked about why it is economically beneficial to have more sex etc. lol).

The tutorials were setup in a classroom-style with a tutor going through theories on the board, all you have to do is sit and listen and then do a couple of questions to consolidate your knowledge. T

Overall a great subject for commerce students as it is mandatory and anyone else who may be interested in learning a bit of basic economic theory

The course  followed the textbook and the textbook is quite engaging to read also. Introductory microeconomics was the only textbook all semester that I found enjoyable to read, so much so that I actually read all of it.
B.Com University of Melbourne 2013 - 2015

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #178 on: July 13, 2013, 05:09:37 am »
+7
Subject Code/Name: CHEM10003: Chemistry 1

Workload:  3 x 1 hr lectures, 1 x 1 hr tutorial, 6 x 3 hr practicals spread throughout the semester, and quite a lot of hours of independent study ;) (DO THE ZUMDAHL QUESTIONS U GAIZ)

Tutorials

Sonja Horvat is great (and I mean great, what a wonderful woman), but some other tutors are purportedly not good at all. I still think rocking up to tutes is a good idea, especially if you've attempted the tute questions prior.

Assessment:  6 x 3 hr practicals (20%), 1 x online MST (5%), 1 x ~final exam~ (75%)

Pracs! (3.33% apiece)

The chemistry pracs are stressful, and if you're bad at managing time it's very possible that you're going to underperform. Preliminary preparation is an extremely good idea; complete as many of the prac questions/reports as possible BEFORE you enter the labs and make sure you've properly read all the ChemCAL prelabs thoroughly. Try not to get too stressed out during the pracs, though, or you may end up in a pickle that could cost you lots of marks, such as dropping a volumetric flask or incorrectly using the Buchner funnel three times in a row. Demonstrators mark the pracs very unevenly and also vary immensely in the way they brief the prac groups and assist students throughout the pracs. My demonstrator was Dayna, and, while she was willing to help, she was a little scary and marked the pracs quite harshly. My friend had an extremely nice demonstrator who marked pracs extraordinarily generously and she got near to full marks for all her pracs, even when they contained many mistakes. Be especially prepared for pracs 4 and 5; they're time-intensive and involve a LOT of work. Try to be as accurate on prac 4 as you possibly can be, because almost all your marks come from calculations, accurate graphs and data manipulation. For prac 1, also try and wrap your head around error calculations BEFORE you do the prac; this was by far the easiest prac, but the mark I received was my lowest of the semester (14/20) because I had no idea how to do the error calculations that were worth 4 marks (?). Also, DON'T BE CLUMSY. Seriously, if you knock things over or spill them, you could be in trouble, assessment-wise AND safety-wise. If you see a large yellow stain on the floor in one of the corners of the lab, that was me dropping my volumetric flask full of iodide stock solution (and thankfully catching it before it completely emptied, hit the floor and smashed). I'm not really sure what else to say about the pracs because everybody's experiences differed enormously, but be as prepared for them as possible and make sure to work efficiently and meticulously throughout. Also make absolutely sure to wear closed shoes and don't remove your goggles at any point during the pracs, lest your demonstrator gets mad. If you don't wear appropriate clothes, you'll be refused entry to the lab, so BRING YOUR GOGGLES AND LAB COAT AND DON'T WEAR SANDALS. For all that scare talk, the pracs shouldn't be too hard to get an H1 average in if you're on top of things. I had a pretty mean demonstrator, marks-wise, and despite two big screw-ups and constant ruination of the laboratory and my glassware I managed to pull an 83% final average. Most people should be able to average a 15-18/20 for the pracs with some input of effort, but every mark helps buffer your score for the final exam, so keep that in mind!

Mid-Semester Test! (5%)

This is a short (30 minute) online test that covers the organic chemistry component of the Chemistry 1 course, and it's a good excuse to revise and grapple with the concepts covered during the first 4 weeks of semester. Since it's taken at home, you have full access to your notes and textbooks, but it pays to have done prior revision if you want to grab those last couple of marks. Make sure you're confident with stereochemistry and NMR/IR/mass spectrometry before you start the test. I was really, really underprepared for the MST and still managed to score 10/12, so don't be too worried about it, especially since it's only worth 5%, but do put the effort into your revision, because you'll need to know the same things for the final exam, which is worth a terrifyingly large amount of marks.

Big, Scary Exam! (/75%/)

This exam is very fair, and the only key to doing well is to know everything that the lecturers expect you to know. It's all in their notes, really, minus spectrometry/spectroscopy (just spend a little while reading McMurry, doing the syllabus tests on ChemCAL, looking at some old Year 12 notes and/or finding some things to read online and you'll be fine), so if you've done all the set questions and tackled a few past exams, you'll be in good stead for a decent mark on the exam. Pace yourself and avoid nerves, because there are no tricks, only a few questions that require some lateral thinking, so there's nothing to concern yourself with. If you know your shit, you'll be fine. If you don't know your shit, you won't be fine. It's really that simple. DO learn all the little details the lecturers cover for organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry, but try and single out the big concepts/important equations for gas laws/thermodynamics, and do the set questions on these topics to help yourself figure out which things are actually important. I don't really have any more advice to give; provided you've put in a good chunk of time revising for this exam, you're probably not going to be pushed for time or psyched out by the difficult questions. I left knowing exactly where I'd made some of my errors and I was still fairly confident I had a lot of room for further mistakes before my grade dipped below an H1. Revise, revise, revise and start early (I dedicated 9 days to chemistry and a further 2 to both chemistry and biology) and this exam is seriously not going to be that bad. More importantly, try and pace yourself throughout the semester, or try to start catching up no later than Week 9/10.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture. Things Mark writes down are NOT on the Lectopia recordings, so please make the effort to attend all of his lectures. You can probably rely on Lectopia for Uta and Gus if you really want to.

Past exams available:  Yes, they date back to the early 2000s, but the department recommends not completing past exams published prior to 2004-ish due to changed content. Also, solutions are only provided for three/four of the exams. The previous year's exam will also be put up on the LMS in Wiki format for students to use as a study material.

Textbook Recommendation:  S S Zumdahl and D J DeCoste Chemical Principles 7th Ed, Cengage Learning, 2013. AND J McMurry, Organic Chemistry 8th Ed, Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning 2012. A laboratory manual and tutorial book are also available for purchase at the Co-op, and you'll need to buy some safety goggles and a lab coat, as well as a lab book if you like, from one of the shops around campus.

I strongly recommend purchasing both textbooks, particularly as a whole slew of them are available at (often drastically) discounted prices via Textbook Exchange. Even if you can't find a single potential seller (highly unlikely), DO buy these books from the Co-op Bookstore. Zumdahl in particular is extraordinarily useful, as the lecturers set questions pertinent to their course content from the book (aside from Mark, who provides a small number of questions in the tutorial book to complement the ChemCAL tutes/test and the tutorial questions). McMurry is probably a good thing to have around when you're stuck on stereochemistry or need to bone up on NMR/IR/mass spectroscopy, and it's used in later years as well (if you decide to continue chemistry), so it can't really hurt to buy it. There are no set questions for McMurry, and no solutions (unless you buy the overpriced solutions manual or manage to find a copy online), so it's best not to rely on it for problems unless you've really got some time to kill. It goes without saying that the lab manual is necessary; you need to pass 4/6 pracs to pass the subject, the pracs comprise a significant 20% of your final mark, and to pass the pracs you're going to need the manual and the ChemCAL slips inside. The tutorial book is also useful as it contains a number of practice questions, some notes and question sets/lists for all the content in the course, minus NMR/IR/mass spectrometry.


Lecturer(s): Mark Rizzacasa, Uta Wille, Angus "Gus" Gray-Weale, Brendan "Tweedledum" Abrahams (totally didn't make the last one up)

Mark

Mark is the lecturer for the entirety of organic chemistry, and despite his slow pace, he's very thorough and quite interesting to listen to. Make sure to pay careful attention to his final lecture if you've forcibly repressed all of your VCE Chemistry memories like I did, because there are no set questions or provided for IR or NMR spectroscopy or mass spectrometry, and you'll need to know how to solve problems related to these techniques on the exam. Finding extra resources/reading McMurry is a GOOD IDEA. Apart from this little issue with the course, Mark's lectures are all handled with aplomb and are easy to follow, so you should be good to go if you pay attention to his worked problems, verbal utterances and all the supplementary work provided by the chemistry department.

Uta

I honestly feel like Uta could have done a much better job of teaching gas laws and thermodynamics (the topics that she covers, albeit only part of thermodynamics), and she could have made it a lot simpler than she did. Listening to her ramble on with her wall of confusing notes up on the screen, I felt like I was never going to grasp thermodynamics. What she presents is overcomplicated and tangled up, but if you DO manage to understand all her content after some reading, you'll be in an EXTREMELY good position for the exam. Hint: like she always stresses, most important to consider: UNITS UNITS UNITS! If you're dragging yourself out of bed for the morning Chemistry stream, maybe sleep in and use Uta's notes + Lectopia to get through her part of the course. Zumdahl questions will be extremely helpful, if you have the textbook. (All that said, she IS a fairly amusing person in her own right, so don't expect to hate her or anything.)

Gus

Gus covers a bunch of thermodynamical concepts, focusing mainly on entropy. He tries his best to make it comprehensible to a bunch of clueless first-year chemistry students, but I have to say his "arrow of time" video didn't really help much. Do try and understand as much of his lectures as possible, even though he's forced to take the "just accept that it works for now because I said so" approach to teaching his content, and then revise/do questions from the textbook/tutorial book at home, and really make sure to read his notes. Scan them for key points; it's likely he'll throw a bunch of concept-based questions onto the exam, which are free marks if you remember what he's written down and impossible to reason through if you haven't read the lecture notes at all. Overall, a decent lecturer who sets pretty forgiving questions and does his best to step you through entropy, but ultimately fails because it's not really something you can just "get".

Brendan-senpai  ;)

Brendan Abrahams covers the final component of the Chemistry 1 course (a number of minor topics towards the end as well as a large amount of material relating to VSEPR, covalent bonding, ionic structure and acid-base chemistry), and he is the sweetest, most helpful lecturer, explaining everything with aplomb and in an extremely clear manner. It's easy to tell he has a qualification in education as well as science (he actually does) due to the way he approaches his content delivery; it's clear and concise, though some people felt quite patronised by the way he taught his topics. His lecture notes are also fantastically clear and, in combination with the textbook questions he sets, make learning what he covers not overly difficult. He also reminds me of Tweedledee/Tweedledum from Alice in Wonderland and that gives him extra brownie points, OK.

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating: 5 out of 5!

Your Mark/Grade: 86 (a very unexpected H1)

Comments: Chemistry 1 is a content-dense introduction to a wide variety of chemical concepts that expands on certain parts of VCE Chemistry and introduces a number of new concepts that follow on logically from those you've already studied in the past. That said, if you, like me, forcibly screened all VCE content from your brain after your final exams, you're not really at much of a disadvantage if you put in the time and effort. Practicals are intense but not too horrible, tutorials can be great depending on your tutor, and there are lots of opportunities to use the learning centre throughout the semester if you have any questions for tutors or even lecturers regarding CHEM10003. This subject really is very well run and there are lots of resources at your disposal if you're motivated enough to utilise them. Topics covered include organic chemistry, thermodynamics and inorganic chemistry.

Organic Chemistry

You cover sigma- and pi-bonds, hybridisation, theory of organic molecules, bond lengths/angles, steric/torsional strain, Newman projections, cyclohexane alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, cyclic hydrocarbons, aromatics and conjugation/delocalisation, cyclohexane and the ring flip, axial and equatorial positions, functional groups, stereochemistry (chirality and cis-trans isomerism especially, as well as some things on meso-compounds and enantiomers), a little on geometric isomers and other minor things that should be fairly easy to pick up on, and then (very briefly, but by no means least importantly) NMR, IR and mass spectrometry, which are analytical techniques commonly used in organic chemistry for molecule identification and analysis. Mark covers all these concepts with great competence, but stereochemistry WILL confuse you at first. Go home and try to wrap your head around visualising molecules in three dimensions. It'll take a while, but once you get it, it sticks and questions/problems subsequently become quite easy to solve! Note that bond angles/lengths and IR absorption bands are NOT provided in the examination, so you do need to memorise those given.

Gas Laws and Thermodynamics

You cover gas laws and equations and the kinetic theory of matter, ideal gas behaviours, the Van der Waals equation, intermolecular forces, Hess' Law, enthalpy, work, heat, non-state and state functions, energy levels, standard enthalpies of formation, calorimetry and a bunch of other things I can't be bothered remembering. In any case, thermo is best understood by actually analysing the content and doing the questions. Learn the mean free path, average kinetic energy, heat, work, internal energy, enthalpy (delta H= deltaU + delta(PV), NOT PdeltaV, as it depends on the given conditions; this is IMPORTANT if you want to avoid mistakes), heat related to heat capacity and standard enthalpy equations, and don't worry about the rest. Do get really good at manipulating units and provided data, and make sure you're able to logically work through things by understanding what the equations are saying. Lots of questions rely on you being able to analyse the situation. Standard enthalpy conditions, unit conversions and hidden units are common trip-ups for this part of the course and can make it very easy to get a question wrong or completely fail to understand a question (the Mg question on the exam was a classic example, and I'm ashamed to say I didn't get it after all the practice I did).

More Thermodynamics inc. Equilibrium and Entropy

Probably the hardest part of the course. I'm not entirely sure WHAT we covered; it all sort of makes sense in my brain when I look at the content and my notes, but I don't really know how to categorise this stuff. Try to get past the whole "just accept it works b/c first year" mentality you're surrounded by and focus on understanding what you're actually presented with. It's not a whole lot, but it's quite important to have a vague understanding of the big ideas of Gus' lectures as well as the equations and calculations. Equilibrium questions are quite easy, but for everything else that isn't concept-based you'll want to be comfortable with unit conversions, equation manipulation and all that jazz. There are two equations you can only learn if you either pay REALLY close attention to the notes or actually do the Zumdahl questions. I /strongly/ recommend doing the Zumdahl questions!

Inorganic Chemistry

You cover a whole bunch of acid-base stuff (which can be quite tricky, though there are lots of methods for working efficiently through the problems that I'll leave you to hopefully discover), then a whole bunch of VSEPR, molecular orbital theory and hybridisation, and covalent bonding and polarity/dispersion forces, ionic and metallic structure (not difficult to comprehend at all, but many people find it to be at first glance), general chemistry and trends of the periodic table and its substituent elements and a whole bunch of minor, seemingly arbitrary concepts in between. My advice for this section of the course is to learn everything presented in the lecture slides, attend lectures and complete all set questions and ChemCAL exercises. Don't neglect the miscellany of facts in the final two lectures, because they're IMPORTANT! You should be fine for all this if you revise thoroughly.

Chemistry 1 is a fantastically run and very broad subject that is useful for an enormous range of pathways. While you'll find yourself "forgetting" a lot of the thermodynamics equations and specific details from the course after completing the subject, the knowledge you've gained is somewhere in the back of your head, and if you can bring it back out it's surprising how often little segments of the course can aid you in other areas of study (I found it helpful for BIOL10004 and even once in MAST10005, even though I was studying them concurrently). Strongly recommended for ALL life science majors and earth sciences, essential for chemistry-based majors, chemical engineering and some life science majors and probably also a good complement to physics and statistics majors, this course is not easy, but the knowledge base is extremely useful and is excellently taught, so if you have a free space in your timetable or know your major requires or is made easier by taking chemistry subjects, then CHEM10003 is a must.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2013, 04:42:54 am by LeviLamp »
VCE: Chemistry | Biology (2011) | English (2011) | Environmental Science | Mathematical Methods CAS

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Subject and major reviews incoming :)

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Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #179 on: July 16, 2013, 04:55:08 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: ACCT10001 Accounting Reports and Analysis

Workload:  1x2hr lecture, 1x1hr tute.

Assessment: Online MCQ tests which are scaled by tute participation (10%), group assignment (20%), 3hr eoy exam (70%). Exam is a hurdle – min 50% pass.

Lectopia Enabled: Yes, but sometimes the lecturer disables it to share exam tips, work through old problems, etc (not often).

Past exams available:  Yes, one (as it is a revised subject as of 2012 sem 2).

Textbook Recommendation:  E-book version of Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, 4th Edition by Birt et al, 2012. Not strictly needed. More on this in comments.

Lecturer(s): Michael Davern (intro to acct), Matt Dyki (financial acct), Michelle Hogan (managerial acct).

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, Semester 1

Rating: 3/5

Your Mark/Grade: H2B

Comments:
Note: I haven’t taken VCE accounting before, so my opinion might be different from those who have done so.

From what I’ve heard, if you've taken VCE accounting prior, there are some similar aspects and some different aspects, the most different being lots and lots of writing. You focus not on the calculations and making the reports, but more on the theory and interpreting results and reports which I think was the overall purpose of the subject in the first place (re: subject objectives in the handbook). However, I didn’t feel this was the case as the exam contained some heavily calculation-based questions (in managerial acct) which was surprising considering we hardly touched on the calculation-side in tutes… Generally you'll find the sorts of questions in tutes on the exam, so going back through these before exams is a good idea.

I feel that it’s necessary to point out that this was the subject I was worrying over the entire semester. Part of the reason why is because I haven’t taken accounting before, but also because I felt I was constantly behind in the lectures, often having no idea what was happening, even though I devoted so much time to ARA. Maybe I don’t study effectively, but the “required” readings were stale and way too long - I would be discouraged to even start; thinking of the sheer amount of time it would take. I’m even inclined to say that they didn’t really help with my understanding of the subject because some of the explanations were way too advanced and written with a purpose that wasn’t to educate effectively. I stole my friend’s VCE accounting unit 1/2 book and found the explanations much more concise and appropriate (for me, anyway). This said, you’d probably be better off not buying the expensive book if you’ve done accounting before.

I did get a bit confused on whether or not ARA is heavily memory based - the IQ tests certainly suggested that lots should be memorised (especially formal definitions of terms), however this wasn’t emphasised in the tutorials, so I was inclined to just search for the answer in the textbook instead of truly trying to test myself on how much I knew. In retrospect; it really was a waste of time worrying over these tests, since they played only a minor role with the understanding of the subject itself. If you think you’re up to par, use them only to test your knowledge, otherwise, don’t spend too much time on them.

I did say that I often had trouble understanding the lectures, but that was more my issue than the lecturers. They were generally well set out, albeit boring, but I felt they were much better absorbed when attended in person compared to lectopia’d. We didn’t really have Michael Davern enough to let me comment on him, but Matt Dyki was good in that his strict attitude made you concentrate. Michelle Hogan did a relatively good job in making managerial accounting interesting, my only complaints being the lecture demonstration on how to calculate budgets, which would’ve been better in a tute, and her poor control of the class, ie. People started talking over her and she couldn’t stop them.

The last lecture was a revision lecture which went through each set of lecture objectives and pointed out the main points. I started panicking because there were some concepts I had totally forgotten about, so my idea of exam prep was to go through and type a paragraph for each lecture objective. Doing so showed that the important concepts came up more than once, and these were often tested upon in the exam. Hence, going through the lecture objectives and seeing if you understand each is a good idea for exam prep.

All in all, an average subject. It does well in that it teaches you about the subjectivity in accounting but fails in that too much is assumed knowledge. However, if you find yourself totally lost, try going to consultations, which Matt Dyki strongly suggests. Often you’ll find yourself a one-on-one tutoring session, where the tutor can really pinpoint your weaknesses. Matt Dyki also does these, and I’ve heard that he is really friendly and helpful. There’s also the online tutor, where questions are really prompted answered, so you can grab some help there too.