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Planck's constant

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Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« on: January 28, 2012, 02:07:36 pm »
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The following thread from this forum contains subject reviews from recent students.

University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings

It is a good, useful thread (for Commerce and non-Commerce students alike).

I am particularly interested in a second opinion for the following three subject reviews which appear on that thread:

ACCT10001 Accounting Reports and Analysis
FNCE10001 Finance
ECON10004 Introductory Microeconomics

Do you agree/disagree.
Good tips will be appreciated.
Thank in advance.

For you convenience I have cut and pasted the relevant sections of the thread below:

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Subject Code/Name: ACCT10001 Accounting Reports and Analysis 
Workload: 1x two hour lecture and 1x one hour tutorial a week.
Assessment: 5% Participation Marks, 5% consisting of 6 Decision Making tasks to be completed within weeks 1-12, 10% Accounting Elements Assignment, 10% Quickbooks Assignment and a 70% exam.
Lectopia Enabled:  Yes
Past exams available:  Yes. About 8 past exams were available.
Textbook Recommendation:  Accounting in Context, although it is pretty much useless so not worth buying.
Lecturer(s): Matt Dyki
Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1
Rating: 3/5
Your Mark/Grade: H1
Comments: First of all if you are reading this and you have never done VCE Accounting/don't have an accounting background of some sort, then stay well away from this subject! It tries to go through the whole of VCE accounting units 1-4 in 12 weeks, which is near impossible not to mention tortuous. Even if you have done accounting before, this subjects goes through concepts very quickly that it is still difficult to keep up. On the other hand, this subject is simply just VCE Accounting just more in depth with 2 new topics. The biggest difference you will find is that, surprisingly, the accounting principles and qualitative characteristics are not even mentioned and that the format of some financial statements have changed with can be hard to get used to.

The two hour lectures are a pain and if you have Matt Dyki then prepared to be bored to death. I suggest bringing/sneaking in food or something else just to make it more interesting (I saw someone read the newspaper in there). To be honest though, it is very difficult to make accounting seem interesting.

Assignments are fine and if you need any help there are weekly consults to go to which are extremely helpful. If you have never used Quickbooks before then there is a optional lecture that will be held which I suggest you go to. The workload is okay, there is quite a bit to do each week but it's all repetitive (You'll be asked to fill out ledgers, balance sheets, profit and loss statements and cash flow statements every week from weeks 1-6). Decision making tasks are easy to get marks for, all you have to do is show that you made an effort to do them. The exam - it's usually early in the examination period I hear but if you've done all the work and understand it then it's not hard to pass, although it's very hard to get top marks because there are always tricks.

I did this subject as a breadth and I regret it. Take heed of my warning at the start of my post and basically, I would only recommend this subject to Commerce students wanting to major in accounting or possibly someone who has done VCE accounting - but either way be prepared to work hard in order to keep up to date.

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Subject Code/Name: FNCE10001 Finance
Workload: Two hours of lectures and a 1-hour tutorial per week
Assessment:    Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%). (We had 2 assignments, 1000 words each)
Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.
Past exams available:  Many past exams are available, but solutions were only provided to a single practice exam.
Textbook Recommendation: Financial Instiutitons and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry), though I didn't use it at all (use your brain - think, dont copy!)
Lecturer(s): Carsten Murawski.
Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1.
Rating:  -3 of 5.
Your Mark/Grade: H1.
Comments: A complete joke of a subject.  Lectures are too slow (although you can alleviate this somewhat by listening to lectopia recordings at +40% speed), the content is dry as anything, and the assessments are obviously intended to be a wicked satire of modern tertiary education.
To succeed in this subject, you need only know:
•   How to reference
•   How to reference
•   Be good at exams
Since the exam pretty much determines your mark for the subject (80%), I was able to maintain a 0% attendance record for lectures and tutorials, which was perhaps the only reason this subject was rated -3 instead of -5.  You have my blessing to take this subject if:
•   You must take this course as part of your degree, or
•   You know how to reference, or
•   You are a mathematics student who initially intended to study PHIL30043 Completeness and Undecidability only to later find out that the subject clashed horribly with MAST30005 Algebra and hence needed a quick and dirty breadth subject to study which didn't have group projects*, or
•   You are a masochist.
As I alluded in the "Textbook Recommendation" section, I think the key to doing well in this subject is to not be a drone - while I estimate 50% of your mark in this subject comes down to your ability to do mathematics at a primary school level, the rest involves some MINOR CRITICAL THINKING, where you might be rewarded for saying something unique or creative (not necessarily "correct"). **
* - Not a typical situation.
** - I'm not entirely sure if this is true, because I never collected my assignments back so I have no idea how I went on them.

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Subject Code/Name: Introductory Microeconomics
Workload:  2 lectures a week (50 minutes each), one tute every week (50 minutes)
Assessment:  Lets start off with my favourite
10% tutorial participation 
10% Assignment 1
15% Assignment 2
5% Mid semester online MCQ test
60% End of semester exam

Lectopia Enabled: Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes ranging beyond the scope of the current style and content of the course, ie, IMO its not worth working past 2007 papers,
Solutions are usually provided for 4 years worth of exams prior to the year the subject is taken. (Some solutions will explain MCQ answers, some wont)

Textbook Recommendation:  Gans, King and Mankin 'Principles of Microeconomic' is a must, Microeconomics: case studies and applications by Jeff Borland is optional IMO, however I would recommend it because solutions for problems therein are provided on the LMS.


Lecturer(s): Mr Gareth James (S2), Prof Jeff Borland (S1) (Try to get your copy signed to embellish your ebay advertisement)
Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2011
Rating: 4.5/5
Your Mark/Grade: H1
Comments:
Firstly, I recall some students having reservations about taking this subject because Jeff Borland (S1) wont be their lecturer, I will try to dispel this mentality.
This is a subject that everyone can succeed in, ie, obtain a H1,
The resources available to students are almost excessive, via the LMS students have access to: Complete lecture notes posted a week in advance, excerpts from various textbooks pertinent to subject matter, complete solutions to Borlands book, review questions posted every week covering that weeks material with complete solutions, an 'online tutor' which answers any questions about the course and its contents (troubles with questions in exams, lecture notes ect) usually within 24 hours (I strongly advise you make use of this service (the respondent gets paid for his troubles so he welcomes any question, no matter how stupid  )) and finally tutorial notes (unfortunately no solutions provided as these get recycled year to year, however the online tutor will answer you if your question is specific and researched)
Outside the LMS: 'pit-stop' tutorials, a dedicated room is announced via LMS, times are provided and students are able to arrive with their qualms to be discussed with a live tutor, finally the lecturer has consultation times during which you may discuss problems with the course or any other concerns.

What does this mean? THE LECTURER IS SUPERFLUOUS, you could literally stay at home with half of the support system this subject provides and scrape a H1.

Points on assessment: The 10% for tutorial participation can be considered 'in the bag' unless of course you arrive late (or not at all) and sit unresponsive with your back to the class, the tutor doesnt expect nervous excitement and arcane factoids about economics, just pay attention and you'll be fine.

A word about assignments, generally the course material can be considered relatively 'easy' which is why these puppies are marked quite harshly (I got ~50% on one), please due your research and read the question, I cant stress that enough, If you answer the question completely and close to correctly it leaves little room for the tutor (who marks your assignments) to justify marking you down, if you argue with them enough as did I, they will bend. For assignment 2, bear in mind that originality is key, leave the mundane classical textbook examples behind and do some research (this will make sense once you read the abstract)

The 5% MST can also be considered 'in the bag', this is basics,

A word on the exam, the bulk of the exam (75%) is written, as such, please make sure your explanation consider all perspectives of the question, are sharp succinct and to the point, no waffle, be expected tho complete the script book with your panicked hand writing in 90 minutes, finally USE DIAGRAMS there's nothing like a diagram to illustrate your arguments.

Finally, really, like the tutorials, questions from the exam are recycled, past exams indubitably are the best indicator of future exams, so do as many as you can and understand every single question that is asked, if you don't there's plenty of support networks available to help you understand the error of your ways and lead you back to a righteous path, on that pious note I will end before my hands fall off.

tram

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2012, 03:01:10 pm »
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haha, you are far too preprared for your bcom Argonaut, my preparation leading up to last year consisted of, sleeping, meeting friends, laying on the beach, tv show marathons....

Ok

ARA: It's probably a but much to say it's that's bad. Granted not the easiest subjects if you haven't done accounting, personally i hated the subject and wouldn't have done it if wasn't compulsory, but it's probably useful? having said this if you don't enjoy accounting i would probably stop after ARA, it gives you enough of a basic understanding.

Finance: didn't do it myself, but had friends who did it an loved it to bits, can't really comment much more than that, haven't actually heard anything bad about it, but i haven't really been asking around anyway

Micro: yeah the lectures are piss easy, but borland is a gun, best lecturer ever. You will have no problems whatsoever with this subject given your intelligence

Planck's constant

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2012, 05:17:29 pm »
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haha, you are far too preprared for your bcom Argonaut, my preparation leading up to last year consisted of, sleeping, meeting friends, laying on the beach, tv show marathons....


I am walking around listening to Commerce Lecture podcasts 24/7 on my ipod

Only joking .. I actually plan to do zero study before Day 1, Semester 1
I am just sorting out the admin side of things and making sure that I have not made any monumental blunders with subject selection.

I will ask you this though .. How much information does the LMS contain on how a particular subject was taught last year ? eg sequence of topics, lectures etc.
Is this information generally accessible to students ?

tram

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2012, 06:35:00 pm »
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The LMS contains everything you should ever need to know, at least admin-wise if your lecturer is decent. Most defintiely things like lecture plans/lists of topics will be up.

acinod

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2012, 06:39:38 pm »
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Just wondering for IntroMicroeconomics, why are there multiple locations for a tute at the same time. There's The Spot and the Engineering Workshop as well as many others but these two are the most popular. Are the tutes the same and also is The Spot the best place for tute?
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tram

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2012, 06:56:48 pm »
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Just wondering for IntroMicroeconomics, why are there multiple locations for a tute at the same time. There's The Spot and the Engineering Workshop as well as many others but these two are the most popular. Are the tutes the same and also is The Spot the best place for tute?

well they need so many tutes that some of the times double up, just pick whichever location work best with the classes either side of the tute. The spot has no inherent advantage to the other locations, unless you want to pick tutes that have less arts kids that ceebes walking all the way to the spot :P

Greatness

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2012, 07:03:00 pm »
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Just wondering for IntroMicroeconomics, why are there multiple locations for a tute at the same time. There's The Spot and the Engineering Workshop as well as many others but these two are the most popular. Are the tutes the same and also is The Spot the best place for tute?

well they need so many tutes that some of the times double up, just pick whichever location work best with the classes either side of the tute. The spot has no inherent advantage to the other locations, unless you want to pick tutes that have less arts kids that ceebes walking all the way to the spot :P
Which one has all the chicks? :p

Kopite

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2012, 12:09:35 pm »
+1
agree with the accounting review. to learn all the basic principles and be expected to know the amount you do in 12 weeks is pretty tough.

marr

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2012, 12:36:58 pm »
+1
If you have any more questions about ARA (I'm the one who wrote the review) you can PM me.

myheaven

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2012, 01:02:33 pm »
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How vital are QM lectures? The way things look at the moment, the only thing I'll have on a friday is a QM lecture..
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Kopite

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2012, 01:07:34 pm »
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How vital are QM lectures? The way things look at the moment, the only thing I'll have on a friday is a QM lecture..

Dont need them. I never got anything out of them.

mdyki

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2013, 02:04:46 pm »
+4
I am the lecturer for ARA and would like to point out that review for ARA is out of date.

The subject was completely rewritten as of semester 2, 2012 so any reviews prior to this (such as the one listed) no longer apply.

The subject is now very different from VCE accounting, and is a snap shot of the accounting degree with a focus on how to read and understand accounting reports, not produce them like the old ARA mentioned in this report.

Assessment is now weekly tests (10% all up) a 20% group assignment and 70% exam.  The text book is vital (and examinable), agree you did not need the old one.

Only a few topics are the same from the old ARA and no debit, credit focus (like VCE accounting). VCE accounting will only help in the a few of the weeks,  with most weeks being very different to VCE accounting (or VCE bookkeeping as I call it).

I will leave it to others to review the new subject (it really is a new subject), but would like to think that its much more interesting then what it was (I find it much more fun to teach!) , as we look at real life scenarios and ask questions about why do companies report the same thing different ways.


Russ

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #12 on: January 29, 2013, 02:13:53 pm »
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Thanks, will strike out those reviews in the main post and note that in their individual posts.

MicroShift

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2013, 10:49:06 pm »
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Only a few topics are the same from the old ARA and no debit, credit focus (like VCE accounting). VCE accounting will only help in the a few of the weeks,  with most weeks being very different to VCE accounting (or VCE bookkeeping as I call it).

I was under the impression that the changes made to the VCE Accounting study design in 2012 were specifically to take the focus off it being merely a bookkeeping course and adding a lot more theory?
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simonhu81292

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Re: Attention UoM : BCom experts - subject reviews
« Reply #14 on: January 29, 2013, 10:57:56 pm »
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Yes, they changed the subject from last year... ARA is more based on theory, not so much of book keeping....
maybe more of Decision making cases....like the ones I had back then in tutes with Matt dyki :)
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