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August 05, 2021, 05:09:49 am

### AuthorTopic: UNSW Course Reviews  (Read 137688 times) Tweet Share

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#### fun_jirachi

• MOTM: AUG 18
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##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews
« Reply #180 on: May 14, 2020, 12:25:59 am »
+10
Subject Code/Name: MATH1141 - Higher Mathematics 1A

Contact Hours:
Lectures: 2 x 2hr, 1 x 1hr
Tutorials: 1 x 1hr

Assumed Knowledge:
Assumed knowledge: Students will be expected to have achieved a combined HSC mark in Mathematics Extension 1 and 2 over 175.

Assessment:
Week 4 lab test was conducted as normal, but after moving online the lab test and assignment were conducted as usual - however, the usual 2 hour exam became an online 2 hour exam with a 3 hour time limit conducted on MapleTA.

Weightings:
Weekly Tests cumulatively 10%, Lab Tests 2 x 15%, Assignment 10%, Final 50%

Lecture Recordings?
Yes

Notes/Materials Available
Course pack was available for $50 from the bookshop, but the same pack is made available through Moodle online. Textbook: Used the course pack and lecture slides. For the first few weeks, these will be quite redundant as the course does skim over a lot of high-school content in the early parts of the course, or fills in gaps that we took for granted in high school. Good for revising for finals however - definitely would recommend using the online version Lecturer(s): Prof NJ Wildberger, Prof WK Schief Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 1/5 Overall Rating: 3/5 Your Mark/Grade: Haven't got marks yet, but will add depending on if I remember or not Comments: A lot of the course is spent on filling gaps and relearning stuff from high school, as well as introducing a lot of concepts which were taken for granted but were intuitively true anyway. This course will probably begin to get easier for incoming students with the introduction of vectors to X2 in high school - perhaps causing a few to switch off, which is not something that is recommended. The new content came with the varying applications of such 'gap-filling' theorems and content post-week 6-8 - which was a bit disappointing because I really wanted to learn new stuff after going into uni. However, it was well-taught and interesting, thus warranting its 3/5 rating « Last Edit: May 14, 2020, 06:30:43 pm by fun_jirachi » Spoiler HSC 2018: Mod Hist [88] | 2U Maths [98] HSC 2019: Physics [92] | Chemistry [93] | English Adv [87] | 3U Maths [98] | 4U Maths [97] ATAR: 99.05 UCAT: 3310 - VR [740] | DM [890] | QR [880] | AR [800] Guide Links: Subject Acceleration (2018) UCAT Question Compilation/FAQ (2020) Asking good questions #### anomalous • Adventurer • Posts: 9 • Respect: +15 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #181 on: May 14, 2020, 01:45:02 pm » +11 Subject Code/Name: COMP3821 - Extended Algorithms and Programming Techniques Contact Hours: 2x 2 hour lectures Assumed Knowledge: Formally, there is one simple requirement: - COMP2521 with at least a CR grade (65+) If you ask me though, this particular course is probably best suited to students with a top-end DN and HD grade. This course is also rather math heavy; be very prepared to wrangle with some ugly summations and complex number theory in some topics. Assessment: Obviously because of COVID-19, assessment changed for this course. In 20T1, our assessment was entirely composed of written homeworks/assignments: - Assignment 1, worth 10% - Assignment 2, worth 30% - Assignment 3, worth 30% - Assignment 4, worth 30% The original plan for the course however was to have both an in-person midterm and final exam worth 40% each with 2 assignments each worth 10%. Lecture Recordings? Yes, but towards the end of the term owing to some personal problems by the lecturer, we were instructed to watch the 2019 lecture recordings or those of earlier runs of the course conducted by Aleks (some of which are on YouTube). Notes/Materials Available: Lecture slides are the primary resource in this course. A bank of past assignments, midterms and final exams should also be gradually released to you as appropriate, filling the noticeable void of any regular exercises like a problem set or lab exercises you may be perhaps otherwise used to. Textbook: Both of these textbooks are recommended, but my personal preference is the first one: - T. Cormen, C. Leiserson, R. Rivest, C. Stein, “Introduction to Algorithms: Third Edition”, The MIT Press (2009) - J. Kleinberg, E. Tardos, “Algorithm Design”, P&C ECS (2005) Neither book is mandatory for the course but I think it is absolutely essential due to how self-driven the course is in reality. Lecturer(s): Dr. Abdallah Saffidine Year & Trimester of completion: 20T1 Difficulty: 3.5/5, though some interesting questions came up in the assignments which would probably be a 4/5 or higher. Overall Rating: Content is a 4/5, course itself is maybe a 1.5/5 for reasons I will soon explain. Your Mark/Grade: SY (unofficially I would've gotten 100 using my raw assignment marks) Comments: I suppose I should start with the good points. I found the content in this course quite interesting, and I think you will too if you’re an algorithms kind of person. My favourite part of this course was probably the intractability and introduction to computational complexity theory at the very end. Around midway through we had a talk by Dolby engineers at the end of the FFT topic to relate it to the real world was also interesting, even if it really was just listening to someone shill a company for 2 hours. I will say that this course definitely has some career value despite it being a bit theoretical, since you learn a few of the more advanced programming techniques to help you with some of those harder technical interview questions you might face when looking for work. So, the million-dollar question you’re all wondering: should I do this course over COMP3121? My answer for the time being, despite all of my glowing comments above, is no. Aleks still takes 3121, and 3821 under his control was well-regarded, so I would say that is the safe option for now. 3821, unfortunately, has some issues. With that said, allow me to rant a little. I find it hard to reason what is “Extended” about this course over its normal counterpart, COMP3121. If you look at the course materials right up until 2018, the distinction is pretty clear; for example, there used to be an extra question or two for the 3821 students in the midterms which were either harder applications of the base content, or some various questions with probabilistic twists and such. Nowadays though, I struggle to notice such a difference. I asked for clarification from Song, the person who ran our Piazza forum during the term (massive props to him, by the way), and he had this to say: “Sore topic unfortunately. Before trimesters, the extended course included Randomised Algorithms (hashing, skip lists, etc.), Order Statistics, Resource Allocation, a bit of Complexity Theory, and also approximation algorithms for NP-C problems, while the regular course covered everything up to DP and then also LP, Max Flow, Intractability, and String Matching. After trimesters, the extended course no longer received its additional lecture hour and so all of that had to be cut. Currently, you've got the allocation (LP, intractability) pretty spot on. The regular version last year was not able to cover LP, Intractability, or String Matching but they did cover Max Flow. This was not entirely intentional, so I'm not too sure what Aleks' plan will be this year. Prior to COVID-19, we did also plan to cover Max Flow in extended, but alas." It seems then that there is some difference, and that nowadays 3821 has been reduced to what 3121 used to be pre-trimesters sans a couple of topics. Moreover, it seems like a lot of the extra content that has disappeared instead appears in COMP4121 now. I think one big step towards making the course worthy of the “Extended” title would be to have an extra tutorial/lecture hour every now and then to build upon some special interest topics or the base theory common to both 3121 and 3821. I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the organisational issues this course has had since 2019. At the same time, I’ll cut the course staff some slack here. I was actually satisfied with the organisation of this course for the most part until the university shut down and we all transitioned to online learning. But after that, this course became a bit of a nightmare. It was mostly a lack of communication; the alternative plan for our midterm was quite drawn out (as in, it took a couple of weeks for them to decide what to do), and the future of lectures going forward was significantly drawn out (although we learned in week 10 that there was a good reason for this). I don’t know if Aleks had the same problems when he ran this course as well, and I do genuinely think Abdallah is a good lecturer, but at the same time I think based on my own experience and the things I heard about the 2019 run of this course that the administration side of the course has declined from Aleks’ days. I know the pandemic did absolutely no favours for any course, but I think my observations are more general about the way this course is now run. My only hope is that there’s enough constructive feedback left during MyExperience for them to make the changes which need to be made. It’s a real pity. Put simply as possible, I think the course has just lost itself after the trimesters move. I don’t know what the future will hold for this course, but I hope it’s good. One other idea I heard while talking to some other students was that maybe what’s best for the course is if it split into two separate courses, one focusing on the more practical aspects of the course (essentially the first half), and one on more theoretical, less practically-minded content (linear programming, intractability). That way, each course has its own more significant window of time to build upon content. Maybe that would be the best path for this course going forward. /rant « Last Edit: May 22, 2020, 11:14:42 am by anomalous » #### fun_jirachi • MOTM: AUG 18 • HSC Moderator • Forum Leader • Posts: 985 • All doom and Gloom. • Respect: +658 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #182 on: May 14, 2020, 06:44:52 pm » +10 Subject Code/Name: COMP1511 - Programming Fundamentals Contact Hours: Lectures: 2 x 2hr Labs/Tutorials: 1 x 3hr Assumed Knowledge: No Assumed Knowledge Assessment: 2 Assignments + Final Exam Weightings: Lab Exercises + Work 10%, Weekly Tests cumulatively 5%, Assignment 1 15%, Assignment 2 20% (upped to 25% after moving online), Final Exam 50% (down to 45% after moving online). Lecture Recordings? Yes through Echo/YouTube before and after moving online respectively Notes/Materials Available: Marc Chee's live streams on YouTube are often sufficient as notes, but otherwise other material is available through the course website through tute questions, lab exercises amongst other things. Lecture slides are also available as are revision videos. Textbook: None - used mostly lecture slides and lab exercises + tute questions Lecturer(s): Dr Andrew Taylor, Marc Chee Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 2/5 Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Your Mark/Grade: Haven't got marks yet but will add depending on if I remember or not Comments: Really well-taught course and adapted best to being moved online (out of all three of my courses this term). The transition between topics was smooth despite the quick jumps in difficulty at some points and if at some point you get lost, it's easy to get back on track with more accessible avenues for help. If you learn things and adapt quickly, even with no prior knowledge of C it is a nice course with minimal pressure to start uni with, otherwise it gauges really well how you might fare with the learning curve in other courses in comp. Lecturers were great and it's actually really hard to fail - tutors guide you really well and help you out a lot. By far the best course I did this term, and it's not even close - even though it's a prereq for many courses and people are probably going to do it anyway, highly recommend Spoiler HSC 2018: Mod Hist [88] | 2U Maths [98] HSC 2019: Physics [92] | Chemistry [93] | English Adv [87] | 3U Maths [98] | 4U Maths [97] ATAR: 99.05 UCAT: 3310 - VR [740] | DM [890] | QR [880] | AR [800] Guide Links: Subject Acceleration (2018) UCAT Question Compilation/FAQ (2020) Asking good questions #### katie,rinos • HSC Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1063 • Respect: +1133 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #183 on: May 16, 2020, 04:43:48 pm » +10 Subject Code/Name: EDST4084-Managing the Classroom Environment Contact Hours: 2hr lecture, 1hr tute per week. Assumed Knowledge: Must have completed EDST 2002, and enrolled in a bachelor of education. Assessment: 1250 word student wellbeing module (20%), 2000 word problem solving exercise (40%), 2500 word classroom management plan (40%) Lecture Recordings? Yes Notes/Materials Available: Reading list and videos (however strongly encouraged to include external readings as well in our assignments). Textbook: Classroom management for middle and high school teachers (10th ed.). Emmer, E. T., & Evertson, C. M. (2017). Was available through the library as an ebook, was needed for some of the readings and useful for the assessment tasks (particularly the last one). Lecturer(s): Sue O’Neil Year & Trimester of completion: 2020/1 Difficulty: 4 out of 5 Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Your Mark/Grade: 74 CR Comments: This has been by far my favourite education course! It had content that seemed to useful, practical and able to transfer to when we will actually teach. Sue was really engaging as a lecturer and even though we had a 9am class, I was disappointed when the course moved online. Our lectures normally occurred though zeetings so we able to participate using polls, and Q&A’s. Sue was a lecturer who practised what she taught, so everything she taught us she’d do during class. The content of our lectures was interesting and we were given examples that were relevant and showed how they could be applied. We looked at kounin’s variables, positive behaviour interventions, rules/routines, positive classroom climate, encouraging positive behaviour, and least intrusive strategies. Our tutorials usually included group work (in breakout groups once we went online) about the lecture content. We had mini microteaching activities such as introducing ourselves to a class, cue to start, and giving behavioural expectations for tasks. The last two assessments were a lot more effort than we initially thought. While they were interesting, I found it was sometimes difficult to find external articles to back up everything I was saying (the last assessment needed citations for every question). There were question forums on moodle for each assessment and Sue tried to get back to every question quickly with helpful answers. She included a lot of info on the assessments & even did a separate question and answer on zoom for the last assessment (which was later uploaded for those who missed it). As this course went online, most of the lectures were uploaded for us to watch during the week and we had questions to answer for attendance. Our tutorials were on blackboard collaborate and Sue seemed to work out how to use it quickly: we had breakout groups for group activities and class participation. This class was so bittersweet when it ended because I enjoyed it so much!! « Last Edit: May 28, 2020, 07:04:33 pm by katie,rinos » Class of 2017 (Year 12): Advanced English, General Maths, Legal Studies, Music 1, Ancient History, History Extension, Hospitality 2018-2022: B Music/B Education (Secondary) [UNSW] #### fantasticbeasts3 • NSW MVP - 2018 • Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1180 • Im Moment studiere ich kein Deutsch :-( • Respect: +864 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #184 on: May 17, 2020, 04:16:53 pm » +8 Subject Code/Name: MDIA2006 - Communication Strategies Contact Hours: 3 - 1.5 hour lecture, 1.5 hour tutorial Assumed Knowledge: Prerequisite of 24 UoC at Level 1, including MDIA1002 or MDIA1003 Assessment: - 30% Environmental Scan - 40% Strategic Framework - 30% Strategic Communications Plan (Group) Lecture Recordings? Yes, including after the course moved online. Notes/Materials Available: Readings are all on Moodle, as well as other suggested readings. Textbook: None Lecturer(s): Lecturer - Dr Paul Ryder, Tutor - Dr Jonathan Foye Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 2/5 Overall Rating: 4/5 Comments: This is definitely the best course I have completed for the Media portion of my studies so far. Theory is combined really well with more practical components, and assessments are actually relevant to tasks that are completed in the PR industry. Due to COVID-19, assessments that were originally based on real-life client scenarios switched to hypothetical clients to account for students who couldn't attend face-to-face classes, however, this obviously changed as the term progressed. I think this change impacted learning in this course as students couldn't directly consult real clients, and this led to gaps in knowledge when it came to assessments because students didn't have all information required for assessments, so we ended up making a lot of assumptions to fit strategies proposed for assessments. Assessment marks and feedback are also returned promptly to allow for improvements prior to completing the next assessment, which is really helpful. For the final assessment, I strongly suggest that you get to know members of your class because with any group project, there is the chance that you can get a bad group so knowing who you can work with is important! Other than that, the teaching staff are no less than amazing - all questions are guaranteed to be answered and clarified to the smallest detail, and Paul is great at delivering content in a way that helps you to understand what strategy is, which was definitely a knowledge gap from Level 1 Media courses. Content is very interesting and I found that it was the most relevant to the communications industry and somewhat assisted in my understanding of certain practices at my internship this term. I couldn't recommend this course more - whether or not you're a PR student, if there's a possibility even for Comms/Journalism students to complete this course, do it! HSC 2017: English (Standard) // Mathematics // Modern History // Legal Studies // Business Studies 2018-2022: B International Studies/B Media (PR & Advertising) @ UNSW #### fantasticbeasts3 • NSW MVP - 2018 • Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1180 • Im Moment studiere ich kein Deutsch :-( • Respect: +864 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #185 on: May 17, 2020, 04:47:19 pm » +10 Subject Code/Name: MGMT2101 - International Business and Multinational Operations Contact Hours: 3.5 - 2 hour lecture, 1.5 hour tutorial Assumed Knowledge: Prerequisite/corequisite - MGMT1101 Assessment: - 10% Group presentation - 15% Midterm - 15% Class participation - 30% Individual learning journal - 30% Final Lecture Recordings? Yes Notes/Materials Available: All readings and case studies are on Moodle Textbook: This is only recommended, but International Business (12e), Charles Hill. Lecturer(s): Lecturer - Dr Pradeep Ray, Tutor - Amir Chitizadeh Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 2/5 Overall Rating: 2/5 Comments: My comments are mostly about the transition to online learning, as this course lacked the smooth transition that other courses I completed had. I'm certain that course quality would've been much better if we didn't have a global pandemic. In comparison to the other courses in the IBUS major that I've completed (MGMT1101 and MGMT2102), it's quite heavy on theory and content, and this impacted content delivery as lectures were packed with information and sometimes it was difficult to keep up. Assessment criteria is very inconsistent from what is explained in class and on the course outline, where for the group presentation, my group didn't address criteria specified in the tutorial and lost marks because we forgot about that as the course outline specified points that differed slightly to what was required. Further, the transition to online learning was not organised very well, and a lot of the learning afforded particularly by the tutorials - which are great in person - was lost. First, tutorials are structured first with an overview of that week's case study, where case studies are supposed to supplement learning of theory, which is then followed by class discussion of the case with question prompts, then discussion of the short article. In the online transition, the tutorials were replaced with discussion on Moodle forums. Groups were required to post their presentation on the forum, and then the tutor posted the questions that we would usually discuss in class. This discounted a lot of the learning that would've occurred in the classroom, as students could actively build on each other's answers, whereas on Moodle, students had 24 hours to post their answers and couldn't really respond to each other as if it were a classroom setting. Asking questions was also made difficult because you couldn't directly approach tutors during class. Next, lectures were just PowerPoint presentations with voice recordings, and this change wasn't announced at all. While other courses had moved to Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom for lectures, this course didn't allow for interactivity in lectures and that also built on the poor transition to online for tutorials. Assessments are also fine, but changes were made very last minute, and there was a definite lack of clarity on them as students didn't really get what was required of them. For example, the midterm was supposed to be on March 16, but was cancelled the night before due to student concerns about COVID-19, where at the time, there had been multiple cases on campus. While it was definitely understandable that the exam was postponed, the way it was reinstated was less than ideal as it was announced 4 days before the new date, leaving a small window to actually prepare for it, even if it was open book. However, explanation of assessments improved as the due date of the individual learning journal and the final approached due to student complaints. HSC 2017: English (Standard) // Mathematics // Modern History // Legal Studies // Business Studies 2018-2022: B International Studies/B Media (PR & Advertising) @ UNSW #### fun_jirachi • MOTM: AUG 18 • HSC Moderator • Forum Leader • Posts: 985 • All doom and Gloom. • Respect: +658 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #186 on: May 19, 2020, 09:26:55 pm » +9 Subject Code/Name: SCIF1131 - Introductory Skills for Science Contact Hours: 1 x 2hr tutorial (first 4 weeks, plus one in the last week) 1 x 2hr seminar (first 3 weeks only) Depending on your team's contact methods for group work, other contact hours are really flexible Assumed Knowledge: None, but you must be enrolled 'in BSc (Adv. Science), BAdvSci(Hons), BSc (Adv. Maths), BSc(AdvMath)(Hons), (incl. associated dual degrees), or BMedSci' - from the above link Assessment: E-portfolio 25% - includes progress checks for individual and group tasks amongst other things Individual presentation 40% Team project 35% Lecture Recordings? No lectures Notes/Materials Available: No notes Textbook: No textbook available Lecturer(s): No lectures Year & Trimester of completion: 2020 T1 Difficulty: 1/5 Overall Rating: 2.5/5 Your Mark/Grade: Coming out in 3 days, will add if I remember Comments: Honestly not the best course out there, though it is required for certain degrees. A lot of the content while a little eye-opening was a bit like doing a practice paper, looking at the answers and going 'yeah I knew that', then skipping the question entirely. The projects also felt a little overdone and like junior high school term assignments, but we did get to learn quite a few handy team building and teamwork skills, which was technically the whole point of the course. Due to the flexibility of the course's content and much of it depending on your ability to work with your team as well as holding yourself accountable to doing work, it was a good course for self-learning in many respects and was a course that wasn't as rigid as I expected it to be, which was great Spoiler HSC 2018: Mod Hist [88] | 2U Maths [98] HSC 2019: Physics [92] | Chemistry [93] | English Adv [87] | 3U Maths [98] | 4U Maths [97] ATAR: 99.05 UCAT: 3310 - VR [740] | DM [890] | QR [880] | AR [800] Guide Links: Subject Acceleration (2018) UCAT Question Compilation/FAQ (2020) Asking good questions #### blasonduo • Moderator • Forum Obsessive • Posts: 402 • Schrodinger waved while Heisenberg didn't? • Respect: +349 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #187 on: May 26, 2020, 03:50:45 pm » +7 Subject Code/Name: EDST4084 Managing the Classroom Environment Contact Hours: 2hr lecture, 1hr tute per week. Assumed Knowledge: Must have completed EDST2002 (Professional Experience) Assessment: 1250 word student wellbeing module (20%), 2000 word problem-solving exercise (40%), 2500 word classroom management plan (40%) Lecture Recordings? Yes Notes/Materials Available: Reading list and videos (however strongly encouraged to include external readings as well in our assignments). Textbook: Classroom management for middle and high school teachers (10th ed.). Emmer, E. T., & Evertson, C. M. (2017). Was available through the library as an ebook, was needed for some of the readings and almost essential for some assessments Lecturer(s): Sue O’Neil Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 3.1/5 Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Your Mark/Grade: 78 DN Comments: Out of all my EDST courses, this has been by far the best both theoretically and practically. Sue created a friendly and engaging learning environment which really encouraged participation, which included live polls and questions throughout the lectures. She also practised what she taught, and it impacted the importance of her teachings greatly. It seemed like she loved lecturing and brought a positive atmosphere to each lecture and tutorial. If you have her as your lecturer, get excited! The content was super useful, especially since behaviour management is a huge aspect of teaching. It included aspects to minimise potential misbehaviour and actions to take if misbehaviour occurs, both minor or major. Practices that I'll definitely be using in my career (something that can't as easily be said with my other courses). This is also why I like the final assessment task (Classroom management plan) since it forces us to review the course content and apply it to a variety of given examples. The assessments, although at times were not fun to write out (especially the problem-solving exercise) each assessment was scaffolded and explained in great detail. Given that a major problem in a lot of EDST courses forms due to the lack of explaining the tasks, I appreciated how well laid out it all was, albeit how time-consuming it was. It's a shame we had to shift to an online environment since the quality in the lectures and tutorials decreased due to the fact it was harder for students to actively participate, but even with that said, she handled the transition very well, and her ability to teach online was very surprising. 2018: UNSW B science (physics)/B education Kicking myself into gear HSC Physics Topics 1 & 2 Exam! #### Partyking1234 • Fresh Poster • Posts: 4 • Kinda interesting, but also kinda not • Respect: +8 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #188 on: May 26, 2020, 05:26:15 pm » +9 Subject Code/Name: Materials and Structures of Music 3 Contact Hours: 4.5hrs Assumed Knowledge: Technically, you need to have done the prior two units of the same name (Materials and Structures of Music 1 & 2). There is also a degree of AMEB knowledge that I later discovered. Assessment: There isn't really a marking criteria for class participation. But there is a requirement to make a serious attempt at all assessment tasks to gain a PASS mark. You also need to achieve a PASS mark in the harmony section alone, being weighted at 60% in order to receive an overall PASS mark. Failure to do this may lead to a fail grade at the end. Lecture Recordings? No Notes/Materials Available: John Peterson, who normally takes the classes, provides ample amounts of resources, notes, revision exercises and time to mark said revision exercises. Textbook: None set for this particular course Lecturer(s): John Peterson (Harmony lecturer) and Georgia Luikens (Aural tutor) Year & Trimester of completion: I'm starting to lose track, but this is my overall 4th year (Although this is a 3rd-year course) and only completed in the 1st trimester Difficulty: 4/5 Overall Rating: 5/5 Your Mark/Grade: 52 Comments: This is my first post of these kinds of things, so just for a bit of background, I did my HSC back in 2016 where I did Music as my own major with no AMEB knowledge up until the completion of this course. This is currently my 4th year at university and i can say without a doubt that this course was the most difficult I had to face. Being a university student who is doing an Arts/Education degree (major Music, minor History) is hard enough with the extra loads of work that comes from the Education side of the degree, but this single course does give a substantial amount of assessment tasks throughout. This includes 2 in-class tests for harmony, a composition you have to write in a Nocturne style (the same Chopin often wrote in), 2 more in-class tests for the aural workshop, a music literature exam that requires you to study numerous pieces to be tested on a fraction of those, as well as a sight-singing test, where you're taught prior in the style of Solfa. This makes a total of 7 assessments in the space of 10 weeks, plus assessments from other courses. Personally, I'm not a fan of such an exuberant amount of assessments fit into such a small time period to even learn the content. Regaining the content from the prior unit is hard enough as you need to review content that you did a year prior (the prior unit is only available in term 2). I was never a fan of the fact that the course did require some AMEB knowledge as well, as my friends who did do AMEB made me aware of the content being very reminiscent of the same tests that are done in the AMEB program. I am mostly self-taught in my instrument and musical ability and I get around a lot of music theory fairly well with the content I've learnt over the years. The harmonic techniques you learn theoretically here are useful, but are also very difficult to grasp a proper understanding of. Especially because of the small amount of time in the term, everything feels super rushed. I don't want this review of mine to deter anyone, however. This is a great unit that does greatly improve your musicianship, both in voice (as you do a lot of singing, which I found has helped my ability to hear notes a lot better), hearing and writing. Be prepared to do a lot of work for the subject as there is a lot of necessary practising required to grasp technical knowledge, but it's a course that is possible to complete to a good standard « Last Edit: May 26, 2020, 05:46:15 pm by blasonduo » #### katie,rinos • HSC Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1063 • Respect: +1133 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #189 on: May 28, 2020, 07:55:21 pm » +9 Subject Code/Name: EDST2091- Digital Literacies in Learning and Teaching Contact Hours: 2hr lecture, 1hr tute per week Assumed Knowledge: Must have 18 units of level 1 credit. Assessment: Digital portfolio planning/set up (10%), group Webquest (30%), Completed digital portfolio (60%). Lecture Recordings? Not at the start of term, yes as we went online. Notes/Materials Available: Articles/reading list about tech in areas of education. Textbook: N/A Lecturer(s): Sandy Phillips Year & Trimester of completion: 2020,1 Difficulty: 2/5 Overall Rating: 4/5 Your Mark/Grade: 73 CR Comments: I did this course as my education elective and it was a really small class (less than 20). Because of this, our lectures were a lot more interactive then a normal education class and included group work. Although our lectures sometimes dragged on, our lecturer seemed to really know and understand the content (she works with technology in the department of education so was able to make connections between tools and how we could use them well!). Throughout the term, we learnt a lot of new skills and tools that we could incorporate into our own classes. As expected, most of this class transitioned online really well. Sandy taught us how to use blackboard collaborate and there weren’t too many issues. However, we had 2 group assignments that were difficult to do as the course went online. One was a group presentation based on a reading (which needed interactive elements), the other a group Webquest. I found it really difficult to keep group members accountable (because we weren’t seeing them in person), and my internet was hardly working before the presentation (which was really stressful). The assessments for this course were fairly chill. It all culminated in a final education/teacher website with 8 different sections. None of it was hugely academic so although I needed to work out how to use google sites, they didn’t take up as long as some of my other assignments. As part of this, we needed to get an education based twitter and Pinterest account and make 5 posts. For reference this was my website. Class of 2017 (Year 12): Advanced English, General Maths, Legal Studies, Music 1, Ancient History, History Extension, Hospitality 2018-2022: B Music/B Education (Secondary) [UNSW] #### owidjaja • National Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1315 • Bibliophile. Stationery addict. • Respect: +1009 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #190 on: May 29, 2020, 10:24:48 am » +9 Subject Code/Name: Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering - ELEC1111 Contact Hours: 2 x 1hr lectures, 1 x 2 hr lectures, 1 x 2hr tutorial, 1 x 2hr lab Assumed Knowledge: N/A Assessment: Pre-Quarantine: 5% - weekly quizzes 25% - mid-term exam 20% - labs + lab exam (you need to pass the lab exam to pass the course) 50% - final exam (you need to get a mark of 40 to pass the course) During quarantine: 5% - weekly quizzes 20% - mid-term exam 20% - labs + lab exam (you need to pass the lab exam to pass the course) 55% - final exam (you need to get a mark of 50 to pass the course) Lecture Recordings? Yes Notes/Materials Available: Yes, they give you extra practice questions and supplementary material. Textbook: C. K. Alexander and M. N. O. Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, 6th ed., New York, NY, USA:McGraw-Hill, 2017. But I didn't buy the textbook. Lecturer(s): Dr. Inmaculada Tomeo-Reyes Year & Trimester of completion: 2019 T3 and 2020 T1 Difficulty: 3.5/5 Overall Rating: 3/5 Comments: This course is very content heavy, and it's quite easy to fall behind if you don't understand something. It also can snowball because once you learn mesh and nodal analysis in Week 2, every single problem you do for the rest of the term is based on these two methods, so make sure you understand them! I'd also say it's important to do the online tutorial questions and supplementary material questions so you do more practice. If you ever need help, Inma is always happy to sit down with you in her office and go through anything you need help with (she's also really nice and such a mum). The other thing with the lab exam is that it sounds really scary but the paper is made for you to pass. If you don't pass, a lot of students tend to make a deal with Inma that if they pass the finals, she's happy to give them a supplementary exam for the lab exam. Something I find really cool is that they really did transition to online learning nicely. Our online labs were basically using TinkerCAD to get measurements via simulations and then we'd have to explain how we would do this in real life and take note of errors. I really admire the ELEC staff who managed to transition online smoothly. 2018 HSC: English Advanced | Mathematics | Physics | Modern History | History Extension | Society and Culture | Studies of Religion I ATAR: 93.60 2019: Aerospace Engineering (Hons) @ UNSW #### owidjaja • National Moderator • Part of the furniture • Posts: 1315 • Bibliophile. Stationery addict. • Respect: +1009 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #191 on: June 07, 2020, 07:21:49 pm » +5 Subject Code/Name: Thermodynamics - MMAN2700 Contact Hours: 2 x 2 hr lectures, 1 x 2hr labs (during Weeks 5, 7 or 6, 8 depending on the timetable), 1 x 1hr consultation (aka tutorial but doesn't show up on your timetable because it's during your lab time) Assumed Knowledge: MATH1131, PHYS1121 Assessment: Lab - 2 x 10% Mid-term exam - 30% Final exam - 50% Lecture Recordings? During face-to-face classes, yes. During online classes, no. Notes/Materials Available: Hand-written notes from the lectures are uploaded onto Moodle Textbook: Y.A. Cengel, M.A. Boles & M. Kanoglu, (2019) Thermodynamics, an engineering approach, 9th, S.I. Edition, McGraw Hill Education. G.F.C. Rogers & Y.R. Mayhew, Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Fluids, S.I. Units, Basil Blackwell. I bought the first textbook but didn't use it much (though I believe my lecturer used example questions in that textbook in the lectures). I didn't buy the second textbook/steam tables because I could find a PDF online. Steam tables are super important! You'll need to use them in exams so you need to know how to read them. Lecturer(s): Dr John Olsen Year & Trimester of completion: T1 2020 Difficulty: 4/5 Overall Rating: 2/5 Comments: This course is basically the thermodynamics component of PHYS1121 but on steroids. You do a lot of questions with real world applications so it's interesting to see how thermodynamics works in a refrigerator, or a nozzle. It's also a good segue into propulsion. I, however, do not want to go into propulsion. Regardless, it was still interesting but it can get a bit overwhelming with the different types of processes and cycles and the corresponding conditions and formulae. However, if you continue to follow along with the examples the lecturer goes through, you should be able to get the hang of it since these questions start to become similar. 2018 HSC: English Advanced | Mathematics | Physics | Modern History | History Extension | Society and Culture | Studies of Religion I ATAR: 93.60 2019: Aerospace Engineering (Hons) @ UNSW #### HelpICantThinkOfAName • Adventurer • Posts: 21 • Respect: +32 ##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews « Reply #192 on: July 14, 2020, 05:31:46 pm » +7 This course is so poorly run that I can't help but post this now. Subject Code/Name: ECON2101 - Microeconomics 2 Contact Hours: 2 x 1.5 hour lectures per week. 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial per week. Assumed Knowledge: ECON1101 and ECON1202. Assessment: 64% - Online Weekly Moodle Quizzes. This is an absolute joke. A course which dedicates so much to homework should not have such a large portion assigned to online quizzes. 8% - Fortnightly Handwritten Submissions. Ridiculous how little feedback we got on these. Only general comments in tutorials. 28% - Final Exam. Timed moodle quiz. Lecture Recordings? Yes. Notes/Materials Available: Full slides given out. Textbook: Banerjee Intermediate Microeconomics. Good book, more helpful than the lectures at times. Lecturer: Aleksandra (Sasha) Balyanova. 1/5. Last term I gave her a pass in ECON2112 since we went online midway through. This term there are no excuses. An hour of lecture recordings a week is absolutely unacceptable, especially since she was teaching this course last term and has already had experience with online teaching. Providing us with recordings from previous years would have been the minimum, but this hasn't happened. I can only hope that she's a significantly better teacher in a classroom than she is online. Tutor: Jacqueline Liu 4.5/5. The only saving grace for this course. Went through all the tutorial problems well and succinctly, and encouraged decent virtual participation. Never was bored in her tutorials. Year & Trimester of completion: 2020/T2 Difficulty: 2/5. Overall Rating: 0/5. Your Mark/Grade: 82 DN. Comments: This has got to be one of the poorest run undergraduate courses in the business school. Under what circumstances would you place a 72% weighting on homework, and only have 8% of that for handwritten submissions? 64% of our grades should not be subject to moodle marking, which doesn't allow for carry-on errors and doesn't give us feedback on our problem-solving. If you're allocating the vast majority of the final grade to homework, put in the effort to properly mark it. It was done fine in ECON2112 last term, so what's the problem? The content of this course is not difficult, most of it just involves setting up functions and maximising them over some domain. The issues arise when crucial topics are only given one or two slides, and when the lecturer only goes through one or two examples every week. Thank goodness I'm not an international student; I can only imagine what they're feeling when they have to pay$5,500 for the knowledge that's taught in three Khan Academy videos.

It's such a shame as well. This course has the potential to be really interesting, but just about all of it is wasted. I cannot recommend anyone take this course in its current state.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 06:22:50 pm by HelpICantThinkOfAName »
Studying Economics/Mathematics @ UNSW

#### HelpICantThinkOfAName

• Posts: 21
• Respect: +32
##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews
« Reply #193 on: August 05, 2020, 11:04:35 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: ACCT1501 - Accounting and Financial Management 1A

Contact Hours:  1 x 1.5 hour lecture per week. 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial per week.

Assumed Knowledge: No assumed prerequisites. If you know how to use a calculator then you'll be fine.

Assessment:  40% - Moodle multiple-choice quizzes. Very easy, questions were similar to the textbook/questions from previous years.
10% - Homework and tutorial participation. Kinda annoying, but nothing too difficult.
50% - Final Exam. Timed moodle quiz.

Lecture Recordings?  Yes.

Notes/Materials Available:  Full slides given out. Lots of past materials available if you search hard enough.

Textbook: Trotman, Carson & Morgan. Financial Accounting: An Integrated Approach. Nelson Management Accounting Supplement. These were necessary to have a copy of as homework questions came out of these.

Lecturer: Leonard Li. 3.5/5. There's only so much that a lecturer can do to keep an accounting lecture interesting.

Tutor: Irene 4/5.

Year & Trimester of completion: 2020/T2

Difficulty: 1/5.

Overall Rating:  3.75/5.

As with previous reviews here, as long as you're not bored out of your mind and keep up with the coursework you won't have any trouble with this course. The first half of the course sets up basic accounting principles and practices, and the latter half expands on specific concepts within accounting, such as assets, costs, and a dash of management accounting at the end.

My only major gripe with the course is that it's necessary to own a copy of both the textbooks in order to complete your homework. I recommend this to every first-year business student and anyone who wants a practical gen-ed in the business school.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 06:23:22 pm by HelpICantThinkOfAName »
Studying Economics/Mathematics @ UNSW

#### HelpICantThinkOfAName

• Posts: 21
• Respect: +32
##### Re: UNSW Course Reviews
« Reply #194 on: August 05, 2020, 11:18:22 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: ECON1102 - Macroeconomics 1

Contact Hours:  2 x 1.5 hour lectures per week. 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial per week.

Assumed Knowledge:ECON1101. I took micro 1 at the very start of 2018 and I didn't have any trouble with having forgotten anything.

Assessment:  30% -Playconomics multiple-choice quizzes. No fun games this time, unfortunately, but the questions were always
10% - Tutorial participation.
60% - Final Exam. Take-home exam.

Lecture Recordings?  Yes. Lecture recordings from 2019 were given, along with new slides with voiceovers. I stuck with past recordings.

Notes/Materials Available:  Full slides given out.

Textbook: Otto, Introduction to Macroeconomics.

Lecturer: Glenn Otto, 5/5. He's been teaching this course for 20+ years. He knows what he's doing.

Tutor: Shreya 4/5. Great tutor, but she'd be better in person.

Year & Trimester of completion: 2020/T2

Difficulty: 1.5/5.

Overall Rating:  4.5/5.

Your Mark/Grade: 73 CR. Disappointed, but blame this mark entirely on 2101.

As someone who's main interest lies in macroeconomics, this was a great introductory course. Most of the time is spent building up to the AD-AS model, by starting in a two-sector economy, then slowly adding inflation, consumption and saving, government spending, international trade, and central bank policies to the model. As long as you can remember how the different sectors interact with each other and the economy as a whole, which is mostly intuitive, then you'll do great!

Again, the business school has this annoying habit of forcing students to buy textbooks written by the lecturers in order to pass the course. This textbook isn't quite as fun as micro 1's was, but it's still a good resource to have.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2020, 06:24:08 pm by HelpICantThinkOfAName »
Studying Economics/Mathematics @ UNSW