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#### QuantumJG

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #75 on: June 25, 2012, 07:50:37 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MAST30028 Numerical and Symbolic Mathematics

Workload: 1 or 2 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 3 hour computer lab and 1 x 1 hour computer lab

Assessment:  2 assignments (each worth 20%) and 2 x 90 minute exams (each worth 30%)

Lectopia Enabled:  No

Past exams available:  Yes (MATLAB component only), you're given exams for 2010 and 2011

Textbook Recommendation: C. Moler, Numerical Computing with Matlab, SIAM, 2004.

Lecturers:  Assoc Prof Jan De Gier (Symbolic Component - Mathematica), Assoc Prof Steven Carnie (Numerical Component - MATLAB)

Year & Semester of completion: 2012

Rating: 5/5

This is a pretty tough subject and keeping up to date is a necessity.

The first half of the subject is the numerical component taught by Steven Carnie. Here you start off learning how to use MATLAB and then you learn about how computers process numbers, error analysis and numerical stability applied to solving linear equations and ODE's.

The assignment is doable, although it is still pretty tough. The exam in the other hand was far too long to finish in time so everybody was marked out of 40 instead of 50.

The second half of the subject is the symbolic part taught by Jan de Gier. This part is considered easier, although the trade-off is that MATLAB doesn't crap itself anywhere near as often as Mathematica. Again you start off learning how to use Mathematica and then you look at writing short lines of code that do the same as Mathematica's inbuilt functions, then you look at cobweb plots and chaos associated with them, bifurcation diagrams and then finally solving ODE's symbolically. My favourite part to this was learning that the solution to:

$a y'' + b y' + c y = 0$

Is:

$y(x) = c_{1} exp \left( \frac{- b + \sqrt{ b^{2} - 4 a c}}{2 a} \right) + c_{2} exp \left( \frac{- b - \sqrt{ b^{2} - 4 a c}}{2 a} \right)$

Then you learn perturbation theory, boundary layer method and finally WKB approximation.

The assignment for the symbolic part isn't too hard, the exam is much easier than the MATLAB one, but again, Mathematica can play up on you.

With both exams, you're allowed to use lecture notes on the LMS and any code the lecturer has provided on the LMS. Make sure you know where they are so you can USE THEM in exams! Doing this will speed up the pace at which you complete the exams!
« Last Edit: July 02, 2012, 06:24:51 pm by QuantumJG »
2008: Finished VCE

2009 - 2011: Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Physics)

2012 - 2014: Master of Science (Applied Mathematics/Mathematical Physics)

2016 - 2018: Master of Engineering (Civil)

Semester 1:[/b] Engineering Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Risk Analysis, Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering

Semester 2:[/b] Earth Processes for Engineering, Engineering Materials, Structural Theory and Design, Systems Modelling and Design

#### QuantumJG

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #76 on: June 25, 2012, 08:18:08 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: MAST30011 Graph Theory

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour practice class

Assessment:  2 assignments (first is worth 8%, second is worth 12%) and 1 x 3 hour exam (worth 80%)

Lectopia Enabled:  No

Past exams available:  Yes, from 1998 (maybe earlier)

Textbook Recommendation: G. Chartrand and O.R. Oellerman, Applied and Algorithmic Graph Theory, McGraw-Hill, 1993, Freeman, 1998.

Lecturers:  Assoc Prof David Wood

Year & Semester of completion: 2012

Rating: 3.5/5

This subject starts off relatively easy and it's easy to neglect doing any study after a while and then suddenly you're faced with difficult concepts.

Anyway, the subject's content is somewhat intuitive and doesn't go anywhere near as abstract as what the other third year pure maths subjects do, so if you keep on top of the work, the subject should be a breeze. Although David does put the odd unsolved graph theory problem in the problem sheets (which he'll warn you about)

Both assignments are given to you on the first day, so if you already understand the content, you can finish them ahead of the due date (this wasn't the case for me).

This year's exam was split into three components:

- The first part (15% of the exam) was definitions and examples, which you can rote learn out of the notes.

- The second part (45% of the exam) was applying algorithms, you can master this skill by doing algorithm problems ad nauseum.

- The third part (40% of the exam) was doing proofs. This part is what will divide the students into those who get H1's and those who don't. Some of the proofs I found in the exam were quite tricky.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2012, 06:26:21 pm by QuantumJG »
2008: Finished VCE

2009 - 2011: Bachelor of Science (Mathematical Physics)

2012 - 2014: Master of Science (Applied Mathematics/Mathematical Physics)

2016 - 2018: Master of Engineering (Civil)

Semester 1:[/b] Engineering Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Risk Analysis, Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering

Semester 2:[/b] Earth Processes for Engineering, Engineering Materials, Structural Theory and Design, Systems Modelling and Design

#### VivaTequila

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #77 on: June 26, 2012, 02:23:51 am »
+10
Subject Code/Name: CHEM10003 Chemistry 1

Workload:  6x 3hr Chemistry Practicals (scattered throughout the semester) and 3x Weekly 1hr Lecture and 1x Weekly 1hr Tutorial

Assessment: A 30-minute on-line mid-semester test (5%); ongoing assessment of practical work (20%); a 3-hour written examination in the examination period (75%). Satisfactory completion of practical work is necessary to pass the subject. Independent learning tasks need to be completed in order to pass the subject.

Lectopia Enabled:  Not sure, never used it

Past exams available:  Yes, ample past exams, 2 per year dating back to ~2004. There is so much revision work that it is an effort to complete it all in the run-up to the exams, so start before SWOTVAC (pre-exam study break)

Textbook Recommendation:  2x Textbooks are recommended, one for Regular Chem and one for Organic Chem. The Organic Chem textbook honestly isn't needed, but "Chemical Principles" by Zumdahl is really very useful. I would recommend buying at the very least an outdated version of Zumdahl (I can testify that they are all the same in content) because there are so many small, pedantic things that you need to study that aren't covered extensively in lectures, such as Molecular Orbital Theory and particular calculations involving Buffer Solutions

Lecturer(s): Too many to list/remember, but this course is run REALLY well, and none of the lecturers were bad. The department is efficient and pragmatic in their operation of Chem 1.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1

Rating:  5 of 5

Comments: What a brilliant subject. Straight up, I have to commend this for being the best structured, easiest to follow subject. They have ~1,500 kids in the course which they need to look after, set up timetable pracs, and essentially make the course work for, and you know what? They pull it off with aplomb, much better than the Biology department, which had emails running amok, impromptu assignment boxes, and objectively ambiguous instructions for a slightly smaller and more managable amount of students.

Ok so basically I assume that the only reason anyone would pick this is because it's a pre-requisite for anything, and the only people who would consider picking this would be VCE students/UoM entrants who simply want to know what the course covers. As far as I know, you don't pick Chemistry to complement your other subjects in the same way that you might pick Calculus or Data Analysis to do so, with the only exception coming to mind being Biology. I therefore think that people wouldn't choose Chemistry on a whim; I can only imagine that someone who picks Chemistry would study it in it's own right and plan to major in a Chemistry discipline, or perhaps for a Biology discipline. For those reaons I'm not going to do a pros/cons of picking Chemistry - you either will or you won't, depending on what you want your course to do. Rather, I'll just explain what's taught.

You cover, in a nutshell
1. Organic Chemistry (Less on the reactions/polymerisation side of things, and more into understanding molecules in 3D. You'll cover a bit more nomenclature relating to alkenes, a new type of nomenclature relating to stereogenic molecules, and you'll cover (although still introductory material in the world of Chemistry) a LOT more detail into atomic orbitals than you could have ever imagined yourself doing, much less understanding in first year Chemistry)
2. Thermodynamics from VCE level with a physics based understanding (more on predicting whether a reaction will be exothermic/endothermic, rather than just using the informations that it is or isn't)
3. Entropy (understanding where Equilibrium Constants come from; objectively the hardest part of the course. This deals with WHY endothermic reactions CAN be spontaneous, even though VCE says 'generally, they won't be, but there's some exceptions'. This is where fundamental understanding is critical to answering exam questions correctly. There are two approaches here; the first is to memorise all the formulae and learn how to apply them with no inherent understanding of what is happening, or alternatively blow your brains out trying to understand how probability applies to atomic particles in the three different states and using your knowledge of (primarily real/ideal gases) to figure out a lot of crazy conceptual stuff intuitively
4. A whole heap of arbitrary shit relating to Chemistry 1/2 (Electronegativity, Sizes of atoms/ions, Acids and Bases including pH/pOH and Buffers {what is simple in VCE becomes rather challenging}, Metallic Character, and the new stuff covers magnetism, certain chemicals (you're at an advantage if you studied the production of H3PO4 of H2SO4 in Unit 4) and their production, Structures of Ionic/Metallic Lattices (Very complicated)), and exceptions to the Octet rule (explains structures of molecules like PCl5 and XeF4)

In summary: You do all the same shit, but the new topics are:
1. Organic Chemistry: Stereogenic centres (mirror image molecules) / Geometric nomenclature (naming alkenes) / Understanding bonding and applications of understanding bonding
2. Thermodynamics is almost the same but is more physics based; if you've done physics, you'll have a laugh here. If you hate physics, it'll take some study.
3. Entropy is entirely new and is more of a headfuck than anything introduced in VCE. It's to do with equilibrium constants and how people came to them in the first place, and is heavily based around energy. Good luck to anyone who hasn't done VCE physics because I wholeheartedly believed it helped a lot.
4. Lots of Chem Unit 1 stuff expanded which will likely be the foundation for a lot of the stuff in Chemistry 2.

Now tutorials are not compulsory and I found them useless. You can teach yourself the same and more than you would learn in a 1 hour tutorial using YouTube in 30minutes and have a far more fundamental understanding of it. Sure, they work through problems, and by all means they teach one or two problems. However the person delivering the tutorial won't have time to get around to your problems; he'll stand at the front and deliver a lecture to a smaller group of people than a regular lecture and you won't be able to ask what you need to ask. If you have problems, EMAIL the people in the Chemistry department; they actually get back to you and are incredibly flexible with organising times. I also therefore recommend against buying the "compulsory" tutorial book. I  didn't touch mine and wasted all that money on it.

By all means, minus the tutorials, this subject was incredibly enjoyable, the pracs interesting (liquid nitrogen, c'mon! Even polyiodide salts and synthesis of aspirin from 4-aminophenol is damn fucking interesting), and the lecturers clear.

P.S. The better you are at converting between units of magnitude (i.e. nanolitres to kilograms with a given density in the units tonnes per microlitre), the more prepared you'll be for the exam. It's something that you should start doing on your holidays before coming to UoM and taking Chemistry 1, because they always drop a few direct conversion questions on the exam.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2012, 09:44:36 pm by VivaTequila »

#### Starlight

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #78 on: June 26, 2012, 05:57:14 pm »
+8
Subject Code/Name: BIOL10004 Biology of Cells and Organisms

Workload:  3 x one hour lectures per week, 36 hours of practical activities pre-laboratory activities and computer workshops (independent learning tasks), averaging 3 hours per week and 6 one-hour tutorial/workshop sessions during the semester.

Assessment: A 45 minute multiple choice test held mid-semester (10%); work in practical classes during the semester, made up of a combination of written work not exceeding 1000 words, assessment of practical skills within the practical class, or up to 5 short multiple choice tests (20%), completion of 5 independent learning tasks throughout the semester (5%); a written assignment not exceeding 1000 words (5%) a 3-hour written examination on theory and practical work in the examination period (60%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes

Past exams available:  One sample exam given just before swotvac.

Textbook Recommendation:  Prescribed text is 'R B Knox, P Y Ladiges, B K Evans and R Saint, Biology, An Australian Focus 4th Ed, McGraw-Hill, 2009' however you can easily get by with lecture notes alone.

Lecturer(s): Rick Wetherbee, Andrew Drinnan, Geoff Shaw, Stephen Frankenberg, Mark Elgar

Year & Semester of completion:
2012, Semester 1

Rating:  4 of 5

H1

Comments: This is a subject that most science students undertake as part of the prerequisite requirement for a variety of majors. I thought that the content covered was very interesting and the lecture notes were reliable to count on. In addition, the exam at the end of semester was incredibly fair for most students, provided they had put in the hours studying when finishing up the semester (i.e. not just during swotvac). There was a fair amount of content to cover, however this is as to be expected from biology. This is from a student who did not do well in VCE biology (C on one exam), and it just shows that putting in the hours in studying for this subject really pays off. What I didn't exactly like about this subject from personal experience is that sometimes it felt as though my work was being marked quite harshly, for example during one prac losing a couple of marks for not 'elaborating on the results' i.e. providing an average to the results written up in the result table, which was not asked in the particular prac. I didn't think the tutorials helped a great deal, considering we had only 1 per 2 weeks and what was discussed during these tutorials was often not mentioned in the lecture slides, however was expected to know. The mid semester test had quite a few hard questions in there that I didn't remember being fully covered in lectures, however studying for this earlier would have ensured better marks. The 5% assignment we are required to complete was once again also harshly marked, and 1/2 of this assignment was based off writing a correct citation, where we received some resources to help us out with this, however even in following the exact rules of these pieces of information, I still managed to lose about 45% of marks from the assignment. At the end of the day, I did enjoy this subjects and most of the time the lectures were enjoyable too.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2013, 08:52:41 am by El2012 »
2012-2014. BSc: Neuroscience. University of Melbourne.
2015-2018. Doctor of Optometry. University of Melbourne.

Unlikely to respond to any PMs these days.

#### jeppikah

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #79 on: June 26, 2012, 08:30:06 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: CHEM10006 Chemistry for Biomedicine

Workload:  3 x one hour lectures per week, 1 x one hour tutorial per week, 6 x three hour lab/workshop throughout the semester, 3 x ILTs.

Assessment:  A 30-minute on-line mid-semester test (5%); practical write-ups from labs (20%) and a 3-hour written exam (75%). Must pass labs and ILTs to pass the subject.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes, exams with solutions available from 2008. Also, there are answers for relevant questions in exams prior to 2008 but I couldn’t find the questions. Perhaps in the Ballieu library as hard copy?

Textbook Recommendation:  Prescribed texts are McMurry’s Organic Chemistry and Zumdahl’s Chemical Principles.
I bought both books but, in hindsight, I didn’t really need them and wouldn’t get them again. I only used Zumdahl for the last ILT with content that wasn’t taught in the lectures but that stuff is easily Googled. The lecture notes are enough for the exams; the textbooks were more for if you enjoyed chemistry and wanted a more thorough explanation for some things. These books come with the molecular model kit that can be brought into the exam if bought together at the book shop. But really, it’s fun to play with for 5 minutes but otherwise useless and unnecessary.

Lecturer(s): Craig Hutton, Spencer Williams, Brendan Abrahams, David McFadyen.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1

Rating:  5/5

Comments: Personally, I really enjoyed this subject. I found it interesting and it wasn’t one of those 100% rote learning subjects. Some people found it challenging but I think it’s only a small step up in content difficulty from VCE chem. I think it’s just that there is double the content to learn in half the time so you have to be organised with your time.

The lecturers for this subject are quite good and enjoyable to listen to. The subject coordinator who took the orientation week presentation was horrible and monotonous so thank god he didn’t take any subjects. (A/Prof Hutton’s New Zealand accent amuses me. Dr. Williams reminds me of Dexter from Nickelodeon. A/Prof Abrahams reminds me of Tweedle-Dee or Tweedle-Dum. A/Prof McFadyen mentions “Prof Abrahams” once a lecturer so I think they’re BFFs. #irrelevant)

Simple VCE chemistry things like significant figures and unit conversions often pop up in ILTs, the MST and the exam. One of the ILTs had questions that were completely irrelevant to the exam but it was pretty easy to get by reading the textbook or just Googling. ILT content is examinable and there is at least one question related to molality or the freezing/boiling point change stuff, which A/Prof Abrahams mentioned only 22% of the cohort got that question right in 2010. There was also these ChemCAL tutorials that are unassessed but recommended but personally, you don’t need them and they are a waste of time.

Heaps of people disliked pracs because of their demonstrator but I got a great demonstrator who was very helpful with questions so I found it quite easily to score highly in the write-ups. (Just a heads up, you lose marks for getting a lower-than-expected boiling point.) Tutes are not compulsory but I found them helpful.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2012, 05:01:47 pm by jeppikah »
2011 ATAR: 99.80 - Maths Methods [50], Specialist Maths [50], Biology [46]
2012-2014: Bachelor of Biomedicine at UoM
2015-2018: Doctor of Dental Surgery at UoM

#### Starlight

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #80 on: June 26, 2012, 09:09:37 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: LING10001 The Secret Life of Language

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

Assessment:  Problem-solving assignments totalling 2000 words 50% (due throughout the semester) and a 2-hour examination 50% (end of semester).

Lectopia Enabled
:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  No.  A sample exam was made available, and as Stone Cold previously mentioned on his SLL post was easier than the actual exam.

Textbook Recommendation: Once again, the course manual must be purchased. It contains tutorial exercises and complements the lecture notes well.

Lecturer(s):
Associate Professor Janet Fletcher (Introductory lecture, morphology, phonetics/ phonology, language variation, historical linguistics), Maureen Saclot (syntax, semantics), Dr. Susan Douglas (the brain and language, first language acquisition), Dr. Carsten Roever (second language acquisition and bilingualism)

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1

Rating
:  3.5/5

: H2B

Prior to taking this subject, I was interested in learning a little bit more about linguistics since I quite enjoyed VCE english language. This subject did just that, it brought me to concepts in linguistics I hadn't come across before. I thought the lectures were well planned during the semester and the tutorials helped to 'fill in the gaps' about anything that was left ambiguous in the lectures. In addition, the lecturers also gave us the opportunity to attend a 'make-up' tutorial during the Anzac day holiday week, which I thought emphasized further how well constructed this subject is. The only issue I had with this subject was, and as stone cold mentioned in his post on the secret life of language, was that the exam didn't cover certain lectures in the semester (e.g. the brain and language and very minimal on language acquisition) and wasn't a general overview of the subject's workload as such , but rather we were given more detailed problem solving questions (harder than those given on the assignments and the sample exam given out wasn't exactly a great indication on the difficulty of the exam). I thought the assignments through the semester were fair and helped to consolidate topics covered. This was a good subject for anyone really, whether they had done VCE english language or not, and is a good breadth for anyone who has no idea what to choose.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2013, 09:01:39 am by El2012 »
2012-2014. BSc: Neuroscience. University of Melbourne.
2015-2018. Doctor of Optometry. University of Melbourne.

Unlikely to respond to any PMs these days.

#### stonecold

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #81 on: June 26, 2012, 10:47:40 pm »
+7
Subject Code/Name: LING20006: Syntax

Workload:  2 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week (starting in week 2)

Assessment:  2 x Assignments (25% each), 1 x Take home exam (50%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.  Still useless though because the lecturer often writes on the board.

Past exams available:  No, but if you ask nicely I guess they might give it to you.

Textbook Recommendation:  Analyzing grammar: an introduction'. Paul Kroeger. 2005. Cambridge University Press.  This textbook is good, but not great.  It covers some of the stuff you learn well, and other stuff not at all.  Probably not worth buying, but luckily it can be found online pretty easily.  There is also a very crappy reader for the subject available from the bookshop.  You probably have to buy it because it will have 1 or 2 useful pages, but it mostly has stuff in it which is already in the lecture slides.  Thankfully it is cheap.

There are also a whole bunch of very badly organised readings on the LMS.  Don't read them unless the lecturer tells you to.  There was one really useful one which pretty much told you exactly how to answer an exam question, because it used the same example.  The lecturer made an effort of putting it up a couple of days before the exam so it was pretty obvious that you should read it.

Lecturer: Brett Baker

Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 2

Rating:  4/5

Comments: Firstly I will start by saying that this is not an easy subject.  If you have no interest in linguistics, English, languages, grammar or problem solving, then stay well away.  Although the workload is pretty light, if you have no idea what is going on, then there is a fair chance that you will fail.  This subject is pretty much like maths.  If you get what is going on, it is wonderful.  If you don't then it might as well be Chinese.  It is recommended that you have done some prior LING study (i.e. Secret Life of Language) to do this subject.  I would probably agree that this will make your job a whole lot easier, especially for the first 3 or 4 weeks.  It would be very challenging if you have not done any linguistics or at least VCE English Language beforehand.

That aside, what you learn in the subject is pretty much the principles of sentence structure and grammar in both English as well as in other languages.  To be honest, the assessment focuses mostly on English stuff and it is this stuff which gets rather hard and complex.  When you do other languages it is usually less complex and slightly easier because I guess they are being more lenient seeing as it is a foreign language.  You don't have to know any languages other than English to do this subject.

The lectures for this subject were average and moderately useful.   The tutes were also average but you definitely need to go along because firstly, attendance is compulsory and less than 75% will result in a fail.  Secondly, the tutes teach you how to solve all the stuff which is important for the assessment, so make sure you go, participate and write everything down.  The lecturer was also decent in that he said he didn't care if we collaborated on assignments, so long as we all wrote out our own work.

The first assignment was pretty straight forward.  2/5 of it was just getting given English words in a sentence and then using evidence to argue for whether the underlined words were verbs, nouns, adjectives etc.  The rest of the assignment involved analysing a foreign data set with NO translations (ours was an Aboriginal language) and then grouping the words into lexical classes (verb, noun, adjective etc.) and giving reasons.  Whilst this sounds hard, it really isn't that bad and they show you how to do it in the tutes.

The second assignment on the other hand was much harder.  The whole thing was about analyzing English sentences, and drawing tree structures for these sentences and then arguing for the tree you draw.  This assignment is mainly about something called the complement/adjunct distinction.  You get given phrase structure rules to help draw your trees, but it is not so formulaic because the sentences that they give you are often ambiguous and therefore require you to think very hard about the structure which you assign them.  You also should draw your tree diagrams on the computer.  I found a program called 'Tree Form' very helpful for this.  At the end of this assignment there was also some sentences which did not follow the given phrase structure rules, and you had to explain why.

Both of the assignments had a nasty trick in them.  It is pretty obvious as to what the trick is, as it will most likely be the part of your analysis which doesn't really make sense or fit in with the rest of the data.  You pretty much just have to keep working on it and you'll eventually work it out though.

As for the take home exam, I cannot really remember much of it, other than it being rather difficult and having only 4 days to do it.  I also had 2 actual exams in these 4 days, so you need to manage your time well.  The take home exam pretty much addressed only the final topic, which was complex sentence constructions.  This is the hardest topic and requires a fair level of understanding.  Still, if you can do the tute problems you should be fine.  I remember a particularly annoying question about subject/object raising and subject/object control on the exam, so make sure you understand this well.  Complement clauses and relative clauses are also an important part of this topic and came up on the exam.  You just need to work through the paper until you have solid evidence and reasoning to argue for your answers.  If you can do this, you can be sure you have the right answer.  If not, then you probably have the wrong answer.  I was really scared by the take home exam and wasn't sure if I had done it right, and ended up with 49/50 on it, so just make sure you back yourself and fully answer the questions.  Also, just note that the lecturer was really anal about people NOT collaborating on the take home exam, and seeing as it is a small subject, there is a fair chance you'll get caught, so don't do it.

As for this subject on the whole, if you get what is going on, then it is somewhat of a bludge.  You don't really have to learn anything by heart as there is no true exam.  Just make sure you are familiar with everything and you can look up specifics at your leisure.  I did minimal study, and just spent countless hours on the assignments and exam, because this is all that really matters.  There's no point learning the extra stuff unless you're really into it.  If you really enjoy analysing things and solving problems, then this is definitely the subject for you.  If not, then steer clear!
« Last Edit: July 12, 2012, 04:13:47 am by stonecold »
2011-13: BBiomed (Microbiology & Immunology Major) @ UniMelb

VCE 2009'10: English 46 | English Language 49 | Chemistry 50 | Biology 50 | Further Mathematics 48 | Mathematical Methods CAS 39
ATAR: 99.85

"Failure is not when one falls down but rather when one fails to get up" - unknown

#### cibicl

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #82 on: June 28, 2012, 04:07:22 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ECON10004: Introductory Microeconomics

Workload:  2x1 hour lectures per week, 1x1 hour tutorial per week

Assessment: Multiple choice online exam (5%), two assignments, one worth 10%, second 15% (25% total), tut marks (10%), exam (60% non-hurdle)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture. All streams by the same lecturer.

Past exams available:  Yes about four, with solutions.

Textbook Recommendation:  The textbook used is 'Principles of Microeconomics' by J.Gans, S.King & N.Mankiw. When buying the book you also get a case studies book by Jeff Borland which I never used but is supposedly good. The textbook however I did use every week for readings and it is really good. Really reaffirms the central things we learn - definitely recommend buying it. Older editions are fine too!

Lecturer(s): Mr Gareth James - pretty cool lecturer, explains well, tries to crack the occasional joke and seems approachable.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating: 4 Out of 5

Comments: Personally, I quite enjoyed the subject. The first half of it is quite a breeze and the topics are fundamental but relatively easy: cost-benefit, supply & demand, elasticity, welfare, international trade etc. Make sure you understand the whole supply and demand models and that you can draw them with ease as they are central to this whole subject - be prepared to be drawing HEAPS of these curves. They are pretty easy though. The first half of the subject I found quite interesting too. After week 3 (I think?) there is a short multiple choice test worth 5%. Its easy and hardly worth anything so don't stress and it covers the first few weeks, there are practise tests available too.
Just before mid-sem break the first assignment was due which was mainly about international trade. Even though the topic itself isn't too bad, the assignment was a little challenging, easy to pass but hard to score really well in and requires a bit of thought. The tricky stuff is combining different concepts e.g. international trade and subsidy and welfare all into one diagram.

Didn't enjoy the second half of the subject as much which covers the costs of production, profit maximizing strategies and game theory (I did like game theory though!). This is however possibly due to my own fault haha, as I think I lost concentration early on when we covered costs of production and found myself a bit lost. Fair bit of graphing which is annoying, but I recommend just not falling behind and you will be perfectly fine! Assignment 2 was easier then the first one I thought as well! And the very last topic is covered in about 3 lectures I think - Game theory which is pretty cool and easy actually - think everyone enjoyed it!

The exam wasn't too bad from memory, and if I had studied sufficiently would have been pretty easy! Only worth 60% and non-hurdle, so I'm pretty sure barely anyone would fail this subject! Do the practise exams though, they are similar and the tut qs are really good too!

This is a compulsory subject for commerce kids, although I heard quite a few kids pick it as a breadth. I'd recommend it, its quite interesting, logical and relatively easy, and so long as you put the work in, should score well! Goodluck
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 10:44:13 pm by cibicl »

#### Hancock

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #83 on: June 28, 2012, 04:35:27 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MAST10006 Calculus 2
Workload:   3 x one hour lectures per week, 1 x one hour practice class per week

Assessment:  3 assignments, worth 3.33% each. One mid-semester test, worth 15% and final exam worth 75% (hurdle).

Lectopia Enabled:  Nope, pretty sure no math lectures are?

Past exams available:  Yep, +10ish

Textbook Recommendation:  Calculus 1 & 2 (Hass, Weir, Thomas, Adams and Essex), Pearson, 2010. Do not buy any books. They are not needed when the lecture notes are fairly good.

Lecturer(s): Norm Do (don't know about the others).

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2012

Rating:  5 Out of 5

Comments: Honestly, probably my favourite subject this semester. It started with some pretty boring limit stuff which always comes up on the exam and the 'tricks' to solve them are always the same. Moved onto hyperbolic functions and complex numbers which were ok, but the real meat of the course was applications and modelling of differential equations which was by far the most interesting. Applications involved spring-mass systems, concentration in tanks and electric circuits. The assignments were an easy 10% if you pay attention in lectures, and if you want to go well in the MST, make sure you do the questions in the green question book because they are almost identical. The exam was very similar to those of past years which made it very beneficial to do practise papers.
All in all, a very good subject, run very well, were you knew exactly was expected of you. Enjoyed it immensely.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2012, 08:25:17 pm by Hancock »
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#### curious111

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #84 on: June 28, 2012, 05:04:49 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: MAST20026 Real Analysis With Applications

Workload:  Three 1-hour lectures and two 1-hour tutorials per week

Assessment:  Ten assignments worth 20% and One 3-hour exam worth 80%

Lectopia Enabled:  Not in my semester, but it varies from semester to semester depending upon the lecturer (there is a link to 2011 lectures in this subject here)

Past exams available:  Many are available, lecturer posted answers to both 2011 exams. It should be noted that course content changes a lot from lecturer to lecturer so older exams may have many irrelevant questions

Textbook Recommendation:  There was no prescribed textbook, a few were recommended:
• S.R. Lay, Analysis with an Introduction to Proof, 4th ed., 2004
• J. Stewart, Concepts and Contexts

Lecturer(s): Dr Richard Brak

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester One

Rating:  5/5

Comments: Basically, this is an introductory subject to what some might call "proper math" (for non accelerated pathway students). If you thought Linear Algebra was pedantic, then this subject will take it to a new level.

The main idea of the subject is to discuss concepts that you will be very familiar with (eg limits, differentiability, integral calculus), but discuss them in a much more rigourous way than before. The other overriding theme of the subject is PROOFS. You will learn various techniques for proving (usually simple) claims such as proof by contradiction, proof by induction, e-N and e-delta proofs. Just looking through the exam, about half of the questions are "prove that..." type questions. The subject is structured quite well in the respect that you will spend a lot of time in lectures and tutorials covering proof techniques so if you're willing to put the effort in then you won't find the proofs aspect of the subject so daunting. Having said that, if the rigourous proof-based aspect of mathematics doesn't appeal to you then you should probably think twice before taking this subject (unless you need it for something like physics). There are some simple mechanical concepts covered such as evaluating if a series converges or diverges and basic predicate logic using truth tables, but really most of the subject is proof-based. We were supposed to cover Fourier Series but disappointingly it got condensed to one haphazard lecture at the end of semester.

I found the tutorials were a good way of building knowledge in this subject. Often the lectures flew right over my head and it wasn't til the tute that the concepts started to stick. This subject is unique in the sense that there are two tutes a week, which personally i thought was really helpful.

Assignments were weekly from the second week, and there were usually 1-2 questions. They might look hard when you first get them, but spending some time thinking about them will usually result in you being able to nut out the main idea. And even if you can't then it doesn't really matter as I found the tutors were quite lenient in marking them (i got 10/20 for one assignment where the whole idea of my proof was COMPLETELY on the wrong track).

There wasn't a question book handed out like the first year subjects, but there was a problem sheet for each topic of the course. Annoyingly the lecturer left out many answers on the answers handout.

Lecturer is knowledgeable, but has near-illegible handwriting and often messes up when writing things out. You probably won't have him anyway as it seems to change each semester. It should be noted that as the lecturer in this subject changes, so does the content. Eg this semester we covered predicate logic which hadn't been done before in this subject.

Personally, I loved the content and thought the subject was organised quite well. But it isn't for everyone.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2012, 05:09:40 pm by curious111 »

#### Starlight

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #85 on: June 28, 2012, 05:39:40 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: CHEM10007 Fundamentals of Chemistry

Workload:   3 x one hour lectures per week, 6 x three hours of practical activities during semester, 1 x one hour tutorial/workshop sessions per week, 6 hours of computer aided learning during semester, 8 hours of independent learning tasks during semester.

Assessment
:  Three 45-minute on-line mid-semester tests (15%); ongoing assessment of practical work throughout the semester (20%); a 3-hour written examination in the examination period (65%). Satisfactory completion of practical work is necessary to pass the subject. Independent learning tasks need to be completed in order to pass the subject. .

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Plenty available, about 10 or so have solutions (answers only, no fully worked solutions)

Textbook Recommendation:    S S Zumdahl Chemical Principles, 6th Ed, Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Just borrow from the library or get a pdf or something, it's important to do the questions in the textbook after lectures (extra revision besides tutorials).

Lecturer(s): Dr. Colette Boskovic, Penelope Commons, Associate Professor Jonathan White.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2012

Rating:
4.5 of 5

Comments: Great introductory subject! I thought it was taught incredibly well to those who had not completed VCE Chemistry. I suppose they do move a little fast but after all it's supposed to be VCE chemistry in one semester. I urge any of you who wish to do this subject to regularly attend tutorial sessions, it's just not enough to look at the solutions provided on the LMS, and also go to see the lecturers in the learning lab in the chemistry building (I went there every tuesday 1-2 pm) where Penny Commons answered any questions we were having difficulty with the subject. So this subject aims to introduce the basics of chemistry for example mole calculations, and even though all this stuff has to be taught in one semester they don't just bombard you with all this difficult chemistry, you can easily score well in this subject provided you do the work. So by doing work, I suggest you do the following:

* Tutorials regularly
* Lectures (if you don't understand a specific lecture, i'd lectopia it that night when I got home so I understood it right away)
* Email the tutor if you have any chemistry problems
* Go to the learning lab to get any help, or even just listen to problems other students have, which can just be revision for you anyway
* There are a few chemcal problems you are able to do, i'd do those too
* Make sure to do the zumdahl textbook questions after each lecture (I didn't do the readings, but I think it would be a better idea to refer to those aswell)
* DO AS MANY PAST EXAMS AS POSSIBLE. I can't stress this enough, and if you don't understand a question, go to the learning lab!

I didn't particularly like the practicals in this subject, I found my particular demonstrator to be a little hopeless in actually outlining what to do in the pracs. A few classmates on the other hand told me they had great prac demonstrators though, so I guess it's just the luck of the draw. Topic tutorials would also be of great help in this subject, there were a few topics that I didn't automatically understand and wished I could have brushed up on, but I guess that's why they have the learning lab. If you commit to the subject, the subject will reward you with a decent mark.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2013, 08:54:30 am by El2012 »
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#### jeppikah

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #86 on: June 28, 2012, 10:51:19 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: UNIB10009 Food for a Healthy Planet

Workload:  2 x 1 hour lecture per week, 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week. There is a 75% minimum attendance for tutorials so attendance is taken.

Assessment:
• 3 x 500 word Forum Reports (5% each)
• 1 x 2000 word Research Essay (25%)
• 1 Mid-Semester test (15%)
• 2 hour Final Exam (45%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture. Forums are not recorded.

Past exams available:  Past exams available to 2008. No solutions are provided. Past mid-semester tests also available.

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbook is required but there is a student reader available for purchase from the bookshop. Not completely essential in my opinion because most of the tutorial readings from the reader is also put on LMS, although not all of them. The reader has extra material that may help you with your research essay but I suppose you could survive without it if you want to save ~\$30.

Lecturer(s): Mohan Singh, Richard Roush, Frank Dunshea, Snow Barlow, Mark Hargreaves, Bill Malcolm. Forum speakers were Peter Gresshoff, Jennie Brand-Miller and Kerin O’Dea. Nanette Esparon takes all tutorials.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1

Rating:  3.5/5

Comments: I chose this subject because I genuinely thought I would be interested in the content, but there were only few moments where I was actually interested while the majority of the time I was completely bored.

The subject covered a broad range of topics that mainly focused on solutions needed to feed the world in the future and climate change affecting food security. Other minor topics included GM food, nutritional strategies for athletics, obesity, famine, economics of food security, environmental effects of agriculture, etc. There were many different lectures for all the little topics so the subject content felt slightly disjointed. I was interested in the nutritional side but that was poorly taught and only a minor aspect of the subject. If you’re like me, be prepared to put up with a lot of other stuff.

The lecturers for this subject were terrible. Most of them were so monotonous and hard to hear. Some concepts were not explained probably. In hindsight, watching the lectures on Lectopia would probably be better in most cases just so you can hear them properly.

The only exceptions were the forums with reasonably good speakers and interesting content. These forums were not recorded and a forum report was expected a week later but 500 words was pretty quick to do. Make sure you cover all of the main aspects of the report or be prepared to lose marks.

You have a timeframe of about 2 months from when the essay questions are released. Try to start early to give yourself time to do wider reading, which will significantly improve your mark. Also, do yourself a favour and learn how to use EndNote; it makes referencing less of a hassle.

The mid-semester test uses recycled past questions so make sure you do them and know the answer to each one. Same goes for the exam. For the exam, you can take in one double-sided summary sheet of any font which takes out huge portion of rote learning.

In the end, this subject was pretty easy and not that time-consuming to complete and study for with the exception of the research essay.
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#### bridger

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #87 on: June 29, 2012, 12:32:33 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: PHYS30005 Muscle and Exercise Physiology

Assessment:  Two tests = 15% each, Assignment = 10%, Exam = 60%

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes

Textbook Recommendation:  -

Lecturer(s): Gordon Lynch, Mark Hargreaves, Rene Koopman, Kristy Swiderski and various others

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, Semester 1

Rating:  4.5/5

Comments: Overall I found this subject really interesting and enjoyable. The subject was a great learning environment and you could really see the coordinators had gone out of their way to provide a subject that taught students about the latest cutting-edge research in the area. There were two main lecturers for the subject, Gordon Lynch and Mark Hargreaves, who taught muscle physiology and exercise physiology respectively. Muscle physiology covered topics such as muscle injury and repair, growth promoting agents for muscle and adaptations of muscles to training. Exercise physiology covered topics such as the various fuels (carbohydrates, fats etc.) used during exercise and responses to exercise. There were various other lecturers covering other topics in the field, with many presenting information on the research they were conducting. These were really interesting and really gave insight into what doing honours in physiology would be like.
I really enjoyed this subject and found it really interesting. Extremely glad I chose this subject as it was the the main reason for me switching from a Human Structure and Function major to a Physiology major. Highly recommend this subject.
VCE 2009
2010-2012 Bachelor of Science - UoM
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#### acinod

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #88 on: June 29, 2012, 05:19:07 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ECON10004 Introductory Microeconomics

Workload:  Two 1-hour lectures and a 1-hour tutorial per week (3 hours in total)

Assessment:
• 2 hour end-of-semester exam (60%)
• 30 minutes mid-semester test with 10 multiple choice (5%)
• 30 minutes mid-semester test with 10 multiple choice (5%)
• Assignment 1 (10%)
• Assignment 2 (15%)
• Tutorial attendance (10%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes. There's heaps. Solutions are also posted online.

Textbook Recommendation:  Principles of Microeconomics by Gans, King and Mankiw. There are several versions of this textbook as well as an American version just by Mankiw. However they are all exactly the same except for the formatting like the font and pictures. Definitely recommend it as it was the only textbook out of all my subjects that I actually used for assignments and learning stuff. There's another case study book by Jeff Borland but I never used it despite buying it.

Lecturer(s): Gareth James. Quite boring due to monotonous and slow voice. I fell asleep on countless occasions both in lectures and at home whilst listening.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating: 5 Out of 5

Comments: This is a brilliant subject. For those that have never done any commerce or business related subjects like me, this is a great introduction to economics.
Most important thing about this subject is to GO TO TUTORIALS. Not only do you get a free 10% to your mark, but it also helps you understand a lot of the content. Pre-reading the textbook was also something that helped me a lot to understand concepts. The topics were also quite interesting, especially Game Theory. The exam is very similar to previous exams and if you know the basic topics well, you should do fine.
Do note that if you are majoring in actuarial studies that this is a subject for accreditation, so as long as you don't try to fail, you should be good to go.
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#### acinod

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##### Re: University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #89 on: June 29, 2012, 06:16:05 pm »
+3
Moderator note: This review was written before the subject was revised. The lecturer's thoughts on the subject can be found here

Subject Code/Name: ACCT10001 Accounting Reports and Analysis

Workload:  One 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial (3 hours in total)

Assessment:
• 3 hour end-of-semester exam (70%)
• Assessment 1
• Assessment 2
• Tutorial Assessment (10%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes. There's heaps. Solutions are also posted online.

Textbook Recommendation:  Bought it, never used it.

Lecturer(s): There are 3 lecturers:
• Matt Dyki - This guy knows his stuff. He writes the exam and is basically in charge of the whole subject. HOWEVER he is incredibly annoying to listen to as he does have an accent. Listen to his lectures if you want to know everything and don't mind his accent.
• Greg Cusack - This guy is quite boring. He's the calmest out of all the lecturers but he is really slow. Doesn't crack jokes like the others. Listen to his lectures if you're a slow steady learner.
• Noel Boys - This guy is amazing! He makes the best jokes. Never fell asleep in his lectures because every once in a while he just yells randomly and everyone wakes up. Go to him if you've never done accounting before because he really helps you concentrate in his lectures.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating: 4 Out of 5

Comments: If you've never done accounting before, expect to struggle for most of this course. Your first assignment will disappoint you because everything is so new and bizarre. The second assignment is computer-based and it's just about using a program called Quickbooks to apply some concepts. Should be easy if you're good with computers.  Tutorials are once again like most subjects, crucial to learning if everything is new to you. Practice exams are a SAVIOR! The LMS may even be over resourceful as there are so many things to help you prepare for exams. They even have an exam format that tells you what each question on the exam is generally about, making it even more easy to study for.
The reason I didn't give it a 5/5 is because the assignments do not really relate to the exam. They seem kind of out of placed now that I think back.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 02:16:26 pm by Russ »
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

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR TUTORING IN 2016 for:
-Mathematical Methods
-Chemistry
-Specialist Mathematics

Tony Tam's Chemistry and Maths Tutoring

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