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January 20, 2020, 05:48:55 pm

### AuthorTopic: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 456145 times) Tweet Share

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#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #465 on: July 15, 2019, 04:51:17 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: BFC2751 - Derivatives 1

1x 2hr lecture per week
1 x 1hr tutorial per week

Assessment:

30% Mid-semester test
10% Participation
10% Assignment

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No past/sample exams provided. Practice questions provided which are very similar to the final exam questions.

Textbook Recommendation:

Options, futures and other derivatives (9th edition, global edition) - Very valuable to have this book for this subject, either in hard or soft copy. It goes over the content in a far more stripped down form, plus all the tutorial questions are taken from this book each week. It also has extra questions to do for the exam as practice to go over everything again, so highly beneficial to get this.

Lecturer(s): Zhe (Andrew) An - Also the CE. Was his first time taking the subject, so seemed a bit distant from the content, and it was tough to understand him in the lectures as a result. He was also coughing for the majority of the lectures that I went to (on Fridays) so made it a little tricky to understand him as a result. But in consultations he seemed like a very decent guy who wanted to help out his students as much as possible.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2019

Rating: 4 out of 5

Comments: Give your overall opinion of the subject, lecturers, assessment etc. and a recommendation, plus anything else which you feel is relevant.

Really interesting subject for anyone doing a finance major. It is incredibly real-world, as it goes through products (derivatives) which are actively traded on the financial markets today. The course starts off with an overview of derivatives, before looking at futures and forwards and how they are priced. Then basic options are covered + crucial concepts such as put-call parity, which form a key part of the exam.

After the mid-semester test, trading strategies in options are covered, followed by binomial trees. Then the Black-Scholes-Merton model and Greek letters are covered.

What is key to know is that this subject has changed from previous years, and is now taught in a traditional approach of lectures/tutorials, in a purely theoretical way. All excel coding has been removed from this subject, with the exception of implied volatility, but this is not examinable in that format. So, to do well in this subject, focus should be paid on understanding the content in a theoretical way, by going through tutorial questions themselves + lecture notes.

Participation - This consisted of 8% coming from work done in tutorials, with the remaining 2% being via posting a question and answer on the Moodle discussion forum with an exam relevant question. This question had to be original, with feedback provided on common mistakes. However, this was an easy 2% to receive, as if you posted on Moodle then you got the marks. The remaining 8% consisted of 2% for presentations in tutorials and 6% for just showing up to your tutorial and answering questions. My tutor scrapped the presentation marks due to time constraints and knowledge that students didn't want to present which was very kind of him. This enabled all 10% of marks for this section to be very easy to gain.

Mid-semester test
This was held at the Caulfield Racecourse on a Monday night when one of the lecture streams usually took place. It consisted of 4 questions with a total of 30 marks. The first question was about differences between forwards/futures, second was margin calls, third calculating prices of forwards and futures and 4th on put call parity. In general most students did not do that well on this, with the average mark being around 60%. This is probably because of time constraints, as there was only 1hr to answer everything and time was perfectly calculated to answer all questions. I did not do that well on this, mainly because of being flustered and confused with some of the wording of the questions, but it was not worded in that confusing of a manner overall.

Assignment
This was where students were to write 1000 words on what can we learn from financial disasters? Two topics were provided, either the London Whale case from JP Morgan Chase, or the collapse of Baring Bank.
Students’ last names starting with A to M were told to write on Baring bank, whilst last names starting with N to Z were told to write on JP Morgan Chase. This was quite straightforward to do, as it was the kind of essay you'd write in a marketing or management context, not finance which is usually more practical. That being said, the average mark for this was 7.1/10 as students normally skimmed over stuff and missed the finer details.

Exam
Worth 50%, this consisted of 5 questions. The first question was 10 short answer questions covering all topics of the course. Question 2 was on option trading strategies, and asked how to design a short strangle strategy based on the options given to trade in. Question 3 was on binomial trees. Question 4 was on the Black-Scholes-Merton (BSM) model with interpretation, and question 5 was related to Greek letters. It seemed as though this exam had little difficulty to it, resulting in nearly 60% of the cohort scoring 80% or higher on the final exam. The median of the exam was 41/50 which again seems too high to how an exam distribution would usually be structured. This seems to be a once-off thing, as in the future the exam should be much harder in order to gain a far-more streamlined curve.

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable unit for me. Although I did not do that well in the in-semester assessments, I was extremely lucky with the exam and scored highly in it. To succeed in this unit, get the textbook, do the questions over and over again, and try and get some old past exams (if they're still available), as practice is perfect to do well here.

#### Eucalypt

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #466 on: July 15, 2019, 06:57:16 pm »
+5
Subject Code/Name: MTH2132 - The Nature and Beauty of Mathematics

Workload:  One 1-hour lecture and one 2-hour lecture every week

Assessment:
10 x weekly problem sets (30%)
These were engaging and enjoyable, and very easy to get good marks on with a reasonable understanding of mathematics
Lecture polls in every lecture (10%)
This was a new assessment, replacing an essay. It was very easy to get these right as the lecturer would go through the answer and allow you to change your answer if it was wrong. They are only open during the lecture and there is no way to answer them without actually being in the lecture. The question wasn't on the poll, only a spot for the answer, with the question being displayed on the slides.
Exam (60%)
*40% hurdle for exam and 40% hurdle for in-semester assessment*

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture. I would note however that whilst the lecturer uses the document camera for the many practical demonstrations, this cannot replace actually attending the lecture.

Past exams available:  There were no past exams. We did, however, receive a document of 120 practice questions, and 80% of the exam was made up with questions directly from the document.

Textbook Recommendation: There are no 'recommended' textbooks, however much of the content is similar to the content of 'The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking'. This book was in no way necessary, but I found it useful to refer to sometimes (and is available at the library). Another resource to make use of is Burkard's 'Mathologer' YouTube channel.

Lecturer(s): Prof. Burkard Polster (also Unit Coordinator)

Year & Semester of completion: Sem 1, 2019

Rating:  5 out of 5

I really loved this unit. It made many difficult, high-level maths concepts accessible to anyone with a year 12 level of maths. We did heaps of practical demonstrations (at least one every lecture) such as magic tricks, bubbles, and juggling. There was usually a small practical task in the weekly assignment that we had to take a picture of for bonus marks. I'm not studying education but I would highly recommend this unit to anyone who is, as you not only increase your understanding but also learn many activities that you can run in your classes. Burkard is clearly incredibly passionate about what he does, and runs an organised unit. After each week, he sends out lecture notes which are really detailed and include great diagrams.

Weekly assignments:
These are out of 10. They are due before the Friday lecture and get handed back in the following Friday lecture. Not every question was marked on these, but you have no way of knowing which will be marked beforehand, so you have to do them all. I spent ages formatting mine and making meticulous diagrams, but my friend did them by hand somewhat roughly and got the same marks, so it's the work that's really important. I would recommend checking answers with someone before handing them in as it was easy to make mistakes.

Lecture polls:
These are easy marks, you really need to attend the lectures to get them though. This was a new assessment so I'm not sure if it will be included again. They added up to 10% and you got half of that automatically for doing 70% of the polls, and one extra percent for every 10% correct you got above 50%. Eg. Answering 70% polls, and getting 80% of them correct would get you 5+3=8%.

Exam:
The exam format was 80 marks, 10 questions worth 8 marks each, and 4 sub-questions for each question, worth 2 marks each. Although they were all worth 2 marks each, they varied from simple answers to full-blown proofs. Something I didn't realise before going into the exam was that we were given a list of questions and a script book, and we just answered the questions in the script book (by far the strangest way I've done a maths exam). I'm still not sure if we were meant to do them in order, although I didn't and still did well, so as long as the questions were clearly labelled I assume it would be ok. The best way to do well on the exam is to do all 120 questions (this takes longer than you think so start early), and to attend the revision lecture. During the revision lecture, he often hints at questions that might be on the exam, and questions that you definitely don't need to bother with.

#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #467 on: July 17, 2019, 11:13:17 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ETC3460 - Financial Econometrics

2 x 1hr lectures per week
1 x 1.5hr tutorial per week - Attend these each week, as the content is gone over in far more detail + no solutions are given for tutorial questions except in the tutes themselves.

Assessment:

Assignment 1 & 2 - 15% each (30%) - These were done in groups that were allocated randomly based on your tutorial, with 4-5 students in each group. Both assignments consisted of short-answer questions related to the material that had been taught. Assignment 1 was mainly focused on theory behind the CAPM + some interpretation work from EViews, whilst assignment 2 was solely interpretation and graph plotting in EViews. As long as you've done ETC2410 recently, then you should be fine with the EViews work as all steps to carry out analysis in EViews is covered in the course, with the exceptions of news impact curve plotting, which could be done in whatever program you wanted. Most students did well in these assignments as the questions weren't too tricky, with only the odd curveball question here and there.

Group Project (10%)

This was the most tricky task to do for the semester. In the same groups as the assignments, you were to pick up to 10 stocks from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and track your performance in their returns over the semester. Then, starting from mid-way through the semester, you were to forecast tomorrow's returns, using past returns and the methods taught in class. Gradually over the semester the forecasting power got better and better, as there were more models available to help predict your returns. These returns + forecasting methods were then to be written into an investment report, which was to be marketed as a tool for potential investors to invest in the stocks that you had chosen. This was quite tricky for me and my group to plan and write, as it was the first time that we had ever written something in this domain. After the report was submitted, the top 20 groups (out of 64 for the cohort) were chosen and had to present a 5 min report to the class in the week 12 lectures, summarising their report. The top 5 groups out of those 20 received full marks, with the remainder receiving 90%. I found the marking to be very generous for this, resulting in high marks overall, which justified the effort put into the work at hand. My tip for this would be to start as early as possible with forecasting methods, and ideas on how to write up your report, as this will take a ton of time to put together, and will subtract time from everything else that you would like to do on the side.

Exam (60%)

The exam consisted of 4 questions in the following form.

Q1 GARCH Modeling: 20 points
Q2 CAPM Analysis: 30 points
Q3 Time Series Analysis: 20 points
Q4 Volatility Analysis: 30 points

70% of the exam was very similar to the 2018 exam so was not that tricky. The remainder though comprised unseen material, particularly question 4 in relation to using the normal distribution and proving its probabilities. This tripped up a lot of people, including myself, as this was something that had never been fully explained in class as a potential exam question. Despite this, the exam was not overly difficult and was a fair exam that was able to be completed within the 2hr duration. This was reflected by the mean of the exam marks being around 64%, such that it was very fairly written overall. To prepare for this, go through all the tutorial questions again and again, particularly the two revision tutes in weeks 11 and 12, and then attempt the 2018 exam to the best of your ability. The trouble was, I seemed to find the 2018 exam easier than the 2019 exam, as the degree of difficulty seems to have been increased in the 2019 exam to compensate for high in-semester marks.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, the 2018 exam was given along with indicative solutions provided in SWOTVAC.

Textbook Recommendation:

No textbooks are needed for this subject, as the slides + Kevin Sheppard's notes provided on Moodle are sufficient to understand the content

Lecturer(s):

David Frazier - Also CE & unit coordinator for the subject. David is incredibly passionate about financial econometrics, so his lectures were very engaging and worthwhile to attend. He knew the content extremely well, only referring to the slides to provide tips on the key material via his laser pointer, or indicating at graphs on the slides. What is key to know is that David does use a laser pointer each lecture to provide further emphasis on the material, and this does not appear in the recordings, so try and get to the lectures otherwise you miss that additional detail.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2019

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Thoroughly enjoyed this subject. David is a gun at explaining financial econometrics, and has done a great job of piecing this unit together into one build-up of knowledge. The lecture slides are of outstanding quality, so definitely use those as a revision tool for the exam, even with the odd typo here and there.

The only issue I found was with EViews work. Some commands had to be manually written in the command window in EViews, which was a bit clunky as I was learning code on the go whilst trying to get the graph that I desired. For example, the recode function for EViews was only taught in the week 10 tute, and was necessary for assignment 2 to plot news impact curves in EViews. This is being fixed in the future though as the unit is switching to R and RStudio from next year to do all graphical outputs, due to the majority of students having the background in R and RStudio to be able to use it confidently in the subject.

The content started with a review of statistics needed in the unit, particularly the law of iterated expectations and law of total variance which are examined upon heavily in the exam. Then basic financial modelling such as the CAPM, AR, MA and ARMA process are examined as well as the theory behind finance, returns and financial products. After this, volatility modelling is covered through ARCH, GARCH, T-GARCH & EGARCH processes. Then multivariate volatility is touched upon, in the form of the BEKK and DCC models but this was not covered in the exam.

Tutorials were pretty standard, but were done in the Learning and Teaching Building (LTB) using EViews via MoVE on your personal computer, instead of the computer labs in the Menzies building due to booking constraints. This made the work a little annoying to do due to computers constantly rebooting or being unable to connect to EViews via MoVE and Citrix Receiver. The tutorial class sizes were also large, with around 50 students in each of the 5 tutorial sessions. I had Nathaniel and Shuofan as my tutors, both of whom knew the content extremely well and provided great explanations to each tutorial question. Make sure you go to each tute as stated above, due to detailed tutorial solutions not being provided unless you attend the tutorial or a consultation session for either David or one of the tutors.

Overall, highly enjoyed this unit, as it combined my financial and econometric approaches together. I would strongly recommend this unit for anyone with an econometric / stats / mathematical background if you did ETC2410 and enjoyed it, as it goes deeper into modelling financial products and is a really enjoyable subject due to David providing such a succinct course structure.

#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #468 on: July 17, 2019, 08:08:32 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ETC2430 - Actuarial Statistics

1 x 2hr lecture per week
1 x 1.5hr tutorial per week

Assessment:  (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)

Mid-semester test (20%) - Was taken from the first half of the course. No calculators were allowed, so the questions included excel screenshots and relatively straightforward mathematical calculations, as well as some derivations and theory questions. 90 mins was allocated to complete the 8 questions of the test. This did not prove to be enough time to finish the test, as there was too much material to cover in such a short time-frame. This was compensated by generous marking, however the average was only 59%, even though the top mark was 98%.

Assignment (20%) - This was a very time-consuming and tedious assignment to complete. It involved creating a spreadsheet in Excel for a reverse mortgage annuity product, accompanied by a report to produce to potential clients in your product. Very limited instructions were provided as to how to design the spreadsheet, such as application of Goal Seek, so consultations with tutors were required immensely to produce a reliable spreadsheet that could be easily interpreted, along with explanations of your calculations in the report. This was compensated by relatively generous marking again, such that the average mark for this task was 15/20.

Exam (60%) - This covered the remainder of the course from weeks 8-11 + 1 question on the exam from lectures 1-5. Of this, around 60% of the exam was taken from weeks 8-10 content, with 20% from weeks 1-5 and 20% from week 11. The exam was also calculator free, so involved a majority of theory based questions + some simple calculations that did not require a calculator. Unlike the mid-semester test, there was only 1 derivation type question which was relatively straightforward to achieve full marks in. Time was less of an issue here as well, as the exam was designed to be of similar difficulty to the mid-semester test, only shorter.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No past or sample exams provided. Limited amount of practice questions provided

Textbook Recommendation:

No textbooks are recommended or prescribed, as all content is taken from the CM1 core readings.
However, buying the CT1 or CM1 combined materials pack from Actuarial Education (ActEd), will help you immensely as this goes into far more detail than what is given in the slides.

Lecturer(s):

Brett Inder - Took the first 5 lectures + half of the revision lecture in week 12. Brett continues on his merry way from ETC1000, as he shows the same level of enthusiasm in delivering his lectures. However, he is learning the content on the go with his students, so can sometimes slip up when explaining derivations. Despite this, Brett was the best of the 3 lecturers, as he always kept his audience engaged so that they can understand the content as best as they can.

Heather Anderson - Takes lectures 8-11, as lecture 6 was the mid-semester test, and lecture 7 was on Good Friday so did not run. Heather took the more mathematical areas of loan schedules, equations of value, project appraisal & equity and bond valuation techniques. Sometimes she became a bit lost in the derivations, such that the lecture theatre had no clue of what was going on. Her lectures also tended to be a bit drier than Brett's, as she would usually read off the slides more, so made it hard to comprehend what was going on completely. Despite this, the material was still relatively straightforward to understand under her guidance.

Maziar Nikpour - Took the guest lecture at the end of week 5 and the lecture in week 11 on term structure of interest rates. Maz delivered lectures in a very detailed way, and often skipped over important details if he could see that he was running out of time. He also struggled to show some Excel calculations such as using Goal Seek to explain a problem, as in practice is different to what is taught in the classroom. Despite this, Maz still showed a great deal of enthusiasm in explaining the content and still made it relatively straightforward to comprehend.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2019

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Comments: Give your overall opinion of the subject, lecturers, assessment etc. and a recommendation, plus anything else which you feel is relevant.

For those of you who have read previous reviews of this subject, scrap whatever way it was taught in the past. 2019 marked a change in the way the content was taught, with Brett taking on the role as Acting Head of Actuarial Studies, and together with Julie designing a new approach to this course. This resulted in most complex formulae scrapped from the course, as they are not relevant in day-to-day work, along with the removal of calculators to switch to using Excel in tutorials, lectures, assignments and exams, due to this being more widely used in day-to-day practice.

Tutorials

The tutorials are still standard 90 minute tutes where you went over the tutorial questions provided. However, each tute had a question to do in Excel, like designing a loan schedule or calculating the price of an annuity using Excel commands. I had Melvern as a tutor, and he was one of the best tutors I've ever had in my whole degree. Having taught the course in the past, Melvern had a great in-depth knowledge of all the concepts in the course, + the Excel applications due to him tutoring ETC1000 as well as ETC2430. This helped make the material far more comprehensible than if I were to be in any other tute. Melvern also provided tons of tips about the mid-sem, exam and the actuarial science degree, making it far more interesting to sit in his tutes and ask him any random question about the course than any other tutor. If Melvern tutors the course next year, I would 100% have him as a tutor again due to his wide understanding of every detail in the course, as he was a key influencer in the way it was designed.

Despite this, the course overall felt like a work in progress. Lecture slides varied quite significantly per lecture, and often difficult questions tripped the lecturers up as they did not have an in-depth knowledge of the material being asked, having only learnt about it a few months before the course was started to be taught. That being said, the ability of the entire teaching staff to explain the content was valued significantly, as they were able to comprehend the material in a very short window and explain it to the students in a far more detailed way than expected. As a result, ETC2430, although being rebuilt from the ground up, is in a very strong shape, as only content from the past CT1 is examined, and all complex material has been removed and incorporated into ETC3430/ETC3530 instead.

#### LifeisaConstantStruggle

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #469 on: July 18, 2019, 02:02:26 am »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ETC3410 – Applied Econometrics

Workload:  2x 1 hour lectures, 1x 1.5 hour comp labs.
Assessment:
Assignment 1 (20%): 1 individual component, 1 group component with STATA, 1 project proposal for a research project. The individual and group components comprise of questions on the theoretical and practical part of the lectures and comp labs, and these are pretty standard actually albeit its length. The research project is designed to test students’ ability to design projects and use econometric techniques taught in the lectures to analyse data. Students can opt to choose 1 of 2 topics provided by the lecturer, or make up their own project topic, which was pretty cool. Our group did an entire project on global HIV/AIDS data. Marking was pretty harsh though.
Assignment 2 (20%): 1 individual component, 1 group component with STATA, 1 project report for a research project. Again, a similar structure, but the project report with the results section is handed in instead. Marking was quite harsh for this as well.
Final exam (60%): 3 long questions. The questions were fair, and there were definitely a few challenging bits here and there. Marking was quite harsh apparently, and students don’t do as well compared to other ETC units despite being an “applied” and “easy” unit. If one were to focus in the comp labs and do the assignments well it is quite easy to do well in the finals.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  1 sample exam with solutions

Textbook Recommendation:  Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach by Jeffrey M. Wooldridge. Textbooks are not required as lecture slides are more than sufficient.

Lecturer(s): Jun Sung Kim. Great guy, super funny and approachable, gives really good advice for the research project.

Year & Semester of completion: S1 2019.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Comments: Thoroughly enjoyed the unit (partly biased as an econometrics enthusiast). This unit is divided into 5 topics:
1)   A review of econometric topics (statistics and linear algebra, OLS from ETC2410, GLS and an array of hypothesis tests)
2)   Binary choice models (logit, probit)
3)   Instrumental variable estimation
4)   Panel data estimation (fixed effects, random effects, etc.)
5)   Project evaluation (not examined)
Even though this is technically an ‘applied’ unit, Jun does spend a great deal of time on developing the theoretical foundations of the models and econometrics techniques taught, while the applied side of the unit is mainly taught in the tutorials. STATA is used as the main software for this unit, and basic commands need to be recalled for exam purposes, which isn’t a very steep learning curve compared to R.
The only gripe I have with the unit is how econometric methods are used in a ‘black box’ manner without any form of confirmation through mathematical reasoning (i.e. serial correlation and what-not). Otherwise, it is a really good unit.
2016-2017: VCE (ATAR: 99.3)
2018: Monash.

#### strawberry7898

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #470 on: July 25, 2019, 01:07:45 am »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS1264 - Bioethics, justice and the law

Workload:  1 x 1-hour lecture & 1 x 1-hour tutorial

Assessment:
Short Critical Analysis- 15%- when they say short they really do mean it- only 650 words, nothing too tricky, you get to choose a topic so that makes it easier. Treat this as a practice run for the bigger argumentative essay. The gist is- present an author's view, present counter arguments, make your opinion based on the strength of the objection.
Argumentative Essay- 45% (was 35% for me)- this is the big one! 45% is a lot but this essay is not that intimidating in the end. The rubric provided is extensive so use it. Again, you get a choice of 5 Qs to pick one. I felt that the lecturer and tutors made their expectations clear in the assignment description and it's not particularly taxing. I think the main thing you should do for high marks on this is to defend your own original points well and show understanding of the unit in general. Doing some research on your topic will help too. Try to start early, it can take some time to come up with your own arguments if it's not something you've done in advance or aren't used to. Discussion with family and friends can help here.
Tutorial Performance- 5%- don't know what my mark for this was, but my tutor did say he was pretty chill about giving people marks for trying. I think that the unit guide has a detailed schema in place for it- so ask your tutor what their expectations are maybe?
Bioethics Beyond the Classroom- no longer in this year's (2019) unit guide but it was a really small assignment where you could make art or discuss a movie or news segment which covers a chosen bioethics issue, really simple stuff, I didn't do anything too creative unfortunately, I just wrote. Other people did brilliant things like sculptures/drawings etc. Sad they got rid of it!

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No. But they give you some idea about the exam structure and style of Qs beforehand so that makes it much easier to prepare for

Textbook Recommendation:  In my year, nothing to buy, any texts you had to read (and you DEFINITELY do have to read them!) were available online through library- they were all articles written by bioethicists and I believe there was a website. If you want to have a read of these you can do that through "Reading Lists" under the library tab under my.monash, just gotta search the unit code

Lecturer(s): Ryan Tonkens-  at least that's who I had, I believe this has since changed

Year & Semester of completion: S2 2017- unit may have changed since!

Rating: 5 out of 5

I highly recommend this unit if you enjoy writing. For those of you who have a background in debating or just like to discuss, you'll really enjoy the tutes because they're very interactive. I think this element also depends on who you have as a tutor but mine was very encouraging and he pushed me to contribute as I tend to be the person who sits at the back quietly and listens the whole time. This is important too because tute participation counts for marks, so they really try to incentivise communication! If someone makes a point in a tute that you like (or if you think of one yourself), I reckon write it down- it'll probably come in handy in some assessment at some point, arguments form a big part of this unit (see assessment description)

I think the assessments were spread out well and were easy to score in, they weren't too demanding in terms of workload. Many people do this unit as a "bludge" and I think it is sort of bludgy because of the fewer assessments but don't take that exam for granted if you are the student who has been taking other assignments for granted because it can pile up- especially if you haven't been keeping up with your readings.

This subject has a lot of relevance in real life too and you are encouraged to discuss the topics you encounter in your tutes with people, so discuss with family for example. I personally enjoyed the unit, it had application for me as a biomed* student looking to do med in the future, because it discussed public health issues that are highly relevant and you got to hear the opinions of those who had backgrounds in other fields like arts or commerce because the cohort for the unit is very diverse. My only regret is not having done ATS1263 too!
*word of warning: some biomed students in my cohort did not like this unit, it was more because they realised they don't like arts units because they said they didn't like all the reading and writing and subjectivity etc or that they didn't like having to talk in tutes- so I guess do this unit if you're like me and loves this kind of essay writing and wants a break from all the sciencey biomed stuff?

#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #471 on: November 18, 2019, 02:56:31 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: ETC3420 - Applied Insurance Methods

1x 2hr lecture per week
1x 1.5hr tutorial week

Assessment:

11x Weekly Moodle Quizzes - 20%: Every Monday at 8am starting from week 2 to week 12 a quiz was available on Moodle. This quiz consisted of anywhere between 2-4 questions, which could be multiple choice or short answer, with no time limit and normally only 1 attempt allowed. These only covered the basics of each topics, and rarely strayed into difficult areas. Due to this, by researching answers and collaborating with others, it was relatively okay to get close to 20/20 for this section.

Group Project - 20%. If there was one part of this unit that was particularly flawed, it would have to be the project. Although groups could be chosen by yourself, what actually had to be completed for the assignment was a mystery for everyone. The goal of the assignment was to analyse a randomly generated portfolio of claim holders and price reasonable premiums for each policyholder. This was then supposed to be written as an executive summary in a report style format. However, no indication was specified that it had to be a report written, so it was quite unfair that tutors penalised so harshly on those who did not write in a report standard. People who's numbers were all wrong but wrote it out in a report format received higher marks compared to those who did not write the project out in a report format. This really punished those who put so much effort into the subject, which is quite unfair as we all worked incredibly hard to comprehend what needed to be done and to just be punished for presentation is extremely flawed.

Additionally, tutors focused on marking in a subjective rather than an objective way. Marking was done on personal preference, rather than the content actually presented in the report. Due to this, the marks that were given were usually too low of an indicator of how much grit and determination had been written, reflecting tutors relying on their own ideals to make a decision. In the future, having something like a marking rubric available (which was not provided) would be far more relevant, otherwise being left in the dark for so long is an absolute nightmare for a project carrying so much weight.

Exam - 60%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, 2016 exam was provided without solutions

Textbook Recommendation:

Dan (the lecturer and CE) recommends a bunch of books, but they aren't excessively relevant. However what is relevant are CT6, CM2 (2 topics only) and CS2 notes of the Actuarial Education Company (ActEd). These are way more detailed and formatted correctly compared to the lecture slides. So, they will provide far more intuition on the topics covered rather than relying on just the lecture slides. The CT6 notes are freely available online, but since the actuarial program changed to a new model this year, the CS2 and CM2 notes are harder to obtain, but if you ask around you may be able to obtain them.

Lecturer(s):

Dan Zhu - Took all 12 lectures. In the past, I have not been a strong fan of Dan, just because she struggles to explain concepts in a plausible way in lectures that makes sense for any student to understand. However, this semester is her 4th year of taking this subject at Monash, and she has improved lecture delivery quite significantly. This has meant that I was able to comprehend most topics effectively, with the exception of Copulas and Extreme Value Theory (EVT) as these were taught for the first time this semester.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2019

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

Firstly, this is probably one of the 2 trickiest actuarial units, along with ETC3530. So if you do not fully get what's going on with the content at first, then don't worry as many others are probably in the same boat as you. However, if you put in a lot of effort, mainly prioritising understanding this and any other 3rd year actuarial units, then you should be okay, as long as you use the additional readings to help reinforce your knowledge.

The best way to study for this subject would be:

1. Read the CS2/CM2/CT6 notes of each topic before attending the lecture.
2. Attend the lecture and see what parts of the CS2/CM2/CT6 notes are relevant to the course, and add on any additional material covered in the lectures to that knowledge bank
3. Have a go at the tutorial questions
4. Go to the tutorials to have it reinforced. This semester only 2 tutors took the subject, that being Jin and Jonathan who were both teaching it for the first time. I attended 1 of Jin's tutorials and for the rest I went to Jonathan's. Jin only read off the tutorial solutions on the screen and was difficult to ask for clarification in tutorials, as he would usually minimise deriving anything on the whiteboard rather relying on the solutions. Jonathan on the other hand was great even if it was a little difficult at first to understand him. He never relied on the tutorial solutions and instead wrote out each question from scratch on the whiteboard. If he is taking this unit again next year, I would strongly recommend attending his tutes, as only he understands the right way to teach the content.

Exam - The exam was not as bad I was expecting to be honest. There were 6 questions, covering the main topics taught. 1 was on Poisson Processes, 1 was on Run-off Triangles, 1 was on Ruin Theory, 1 was on Collective Risk Model, 1 was on Extreme Value Theory & 1 was on Copulas. In particular, the Copula and EVT questions were tricky as they had not been taught properly and with no revision material provided to cover the topics, we had no idea what to expect for the exam.

Overall, this unit had solid foundations in the past, but this blew up quite significantly this semester. In the future, a project should be designed with far more relevant instructions, rather than leaving students in the dark on what is expected from them. Additionally, new topics must have material revised, otherwise this unit should not be done by anyone other than actuarial students.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2019, 12:31:02 pm by Springyboy »

#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #472 on: November 18, 2019, 06:58:08 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: BFC3140 - Corporate Finance 2

Workload:  (specify how many lectures, pracs, tutes etc. and their duration)

1 x 2hr lecture per week
1x 1hr tutorial per week

Assessment:

Mid-semester test - 20%. Held at the Caulfield Racecourse during the lecture slot time, this consisted of multiple choice questions and short answers. It was designed to be a little bit harder than previous MSTs, which showed as the marks were usually lower than in previous years. The average mark was 30.79/40 or a little over 75%, so most of the cohort still did very well. My advice for this would be to just go over the tutorial questions with solutions, as they cover all the key points and similar questions did show up in the test + memorise & understand everything in the lecture slides.

Online Post Lecture Exercises - 10%. Very similar to online tasks covered in BFC2140: Corporate Finance 1. Each exercise was available every Sunday at 6pm and then closed the following Sunday at 10pm. Unlike corp fi 1, there is only 1 hour allowed for your 1 attempt and results are available instantly after you submit. If you follow the examples though you'll get close to or exactly 10/10 for this. The best 9/10 quizzes are counted towards your final marks, so you are allowed 1 missed attempt/ bad quiz result to not count.

Tutorial preparation and participation - 10%. This is very standard, every week you have a 1hr tutorial that goes through the tutorial questions posted on Moodle. As long as you attempt the questions and show some effort to participate, you should get at least 8/10 for this. All tutorials run 1 week behind the lectures, so tutorials in week 2 cover the week 1 lecture. However, tutorials do run in week 1 to revise concepts covered in corp fi 1, so it's imperative to attend all tutes to maximise your understanding of the content.

Exam - 60%. Was very reasonable, with 6 questions totalling 100 marks. 1 was on leases, 1 was on capital structure, 1 was on real options, 1 was on international corporate finance and the other 2 were theory based questions covering corporate governance and mergers & acquisitions (M&As). I was not excessively pressed for time, so you should be able to get through these reasonably well. The questions did have some tricks though, which did throw me  off, particularly in 1 question. Despite this, with solid study and revision of all concepts and attempting the sample exam and understanding it fully will be sufficient to get a good grade in this unit.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  1 sample exam provided with solutions

Textbook Recommendation:

The prescribed textbook is Corporate Finance, Global Edition, 4th Edition by Berk & DeMarzo. This should be replaced by the 5th edition next year, which is not as easily obtainable online as the 4th edition. However, this semester the lecture slides were sufficient as I hardly used the textbook, only as an additional reference. But all tutorial questions do come from the textbook, so it's good to have as an extra resource if you can get it.

Lecturer(s):

Ying Dou - Also chief examiner. Ying is an absolute legend, who is extremely passionate about talking about corporate finance. This made the unit very straightforward to understand. I watched all the lectures and attended 1 of them, and for the 1 I attended I found it to be very captivating. It's a shame that next year Ying will not be taking the subject, but I'd still recommend to do it if possible as part of a finance major/ finance degree/ finance elective.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2019

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Really really loved this unit. Found it much more straightforward compared to corporate finance 1, so definitely recommended as a unit to add to your finance major or even as an elective for a BCom student who did not find corp fi 1 too difficult. The topics covered are not as strenuous as corp fi 1 so you'll really enjoy it. Also, because the internal assessments are very similar to corp fi 1 in terms of structure, it should be easy to maximise your in-semester marks to not have to stress too much about the final exam. All in all, I am very glad I did this unit and would love for anyone to do it even as an elective to rest from having 3 other difficult units around you.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2019, 09:10:48 pm by Springyboy »

#### Springyboy

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #473 on: November 19, 2019, 12:23:36 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: BFC3240 - International Finance

1x 2hr lecture per week
1x 1hr tutorial per week

Assessment:  (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)

In-tute online quiz - 5% (Sum of 10 Quizzes) - Every tutorial usually at the start a quiz is unhidden on Moodle and must be completed in the tutorial once it is unhidden. Each quiz consisted of 2-3 multiple choice questions. These were usually not too difficult, and answers were readily available online but were not always correct. Each quiz was worth 0.5%, to get to the total of 5%. Most people got close to 5/5% so this should not be too tricky

Post-tute excel submission - 5%. Something new this semester. After the last tutorial of the week, on Friday at 1pm a spreadsheet was released on Excel for students to complete. The spreadsheet had to be completed by the following Wednesday at 11:55pm and was then submitted on Moodle. This tested the previous tutorial's content, usually following the problem sets released to be completed in the tutorial after the quiz. These as well were not too difficult, and you do have the opportunity to collaborate with friends to check over your spreadsheet, so most certainly take this on board to maximise your marks.

Mid-semester test - 20%. This semester the mid-semester test was trialled as a multiple choice test only. There were 30 questions covering material from lectures 1-4 and parts of lecture 5 that were not really specified correctly. However, the 100 mins allocated for this were plentiful, such that there would be no problem for most students to complete the test in the given timeframe. As per all finance mid-semester tests, the test was held at Caulfield Racecourse during the allocated lecture time slot (6-8pm Thursday). If you go over all the lecture slides then you should be fine for this, as the questions were usually taken straight from material in the lecture slides, sometimes on obscure information which was not to be expected.

Group Assignment - 10%. This was an 1000 word essay on the currency system in either India or Turkey and how risks could be mitigated by having operations in these countries. Groups were formed by yourselves, so this did not make the task too difficult as we had group members willing to help wherever they could. The average mark for this was 7.81/10 so most students understood what needed to be done to do well. Unlike the project posted 2 reviews earlier for ETC3420, a marking rubric was provided, so if you stick to that and ensure you follow all points listed in that then you will be able to maximise your marks.

Exam - 60%. The exam consisted of 9 short answer questions covering the lectures, tutorials and additional readings covered over the semester. I found it to be not too bad, as I understood what the additional readings were asking, so was able to maximise my marks in that form. It also touched upon the All-in-cost-of-funds (AIC) also known as the internal rate of return (IRR), so remember to bring your HP 10bII+ calculator to the exam as this is the only way you can get full marks for that question. Other than that, the exam was relatively straightforward, and was very similar to the past exam questions with solutions provided on Moodle. If you just go over those, the problem sets and the questions for each topic provided on Moodle then you'll be fine.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  No past/sample exams provided. Only a small selection of practice questions with solutions were provided

Textbook Recommendation:

Multinational Business Finance 14th edition by Eiteman Stonehill and Moffett is the prescribed textbook for this unit. It isn't excessively necessary, as the lecture slides do cover everything quite well. However, most examples from the lecture slides are taken from the textbook, so if you can get an online copy it will help immensely. The 15th edition of this book is due to be released this month, so from next year onwards the 14th edition will be outdated, so try and get the 15th edition online if you are taking this subject from next year onwards.

Lecturer(s):
Ali Sheikhbahaei - Also CE & unit co-ordinator. I found Ali to be very approachable and knowledgeable in the content, even though this was not his area of research or education. He understood the content very well and was able to explain it decently in the lectures. Due to this, although the lectures are a bit dry, by watching over them you are able to get a far deeper understanding of what the subject is about.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2019

Rating: 4 out of 5

Coming from a more statistical/applied background, I thoroughly enjoyed this subject. It was able to look beyond the theory of finance and apply it into practice. There is also a large economics background employed, particularly in the field of balance of payments and demand and supply graphs as covered in ECC1000 & ECC1100 in particular. Therefore, doing this unit as close to as completing those 2 units is recommended, such that your knowledge on macroeconomic concepts is fresh to make the understanding far easier.

Tutorials were pretty standard, you just went over the questions posted on Moodle + excel spreadsheet after completing the tutorial quiz in the first 10-15 minutes of the tutorial. I had Ibrahim as my tutor, who was excellent, as he understood the content very well and was incredibly approachable to help clarify any questions about the material that I had.

Also, the exam covered concepts well beyond the last few weeks. Everything in international finance builds up knowledge, so it is good to have a strong understanding of the fundamental concepts covered in the first few lectures before learning the later concepts. Due to this, although limited material was provided for the exam and the assignment marking was a bit weird, I still really enjoyed this unit as most of the concepts made sense to me and were extremely relevant in the inter-connected world that we live in today. Would definitely recommend this unit to a finance major / finance degree student as an elective, or as a unit to add on to your core list of units for your finance major
« Last Edit: December 05, 2019, 09:11:04 pm by Springyboy »

#### K888

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #474 on: November 20, 2019, 03:08:39 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: PTY2042 - Physiotherapy 4

I imagine the structure will have changed a bit since last year, but it's basically 4 days a week with one day off (a Tuesday, from memory). CBL on Mondays and Fridays like usual. Anatomy lectures and prac, physio theory lectures and pracs and physiology lectures. Probably ~16 contact hours, sometimes maybe more?

Assessment:
Attendance at 80% of tutorials and practicals.
Professional conduct: Students are required to demonstrate professional behaviour in communication (written or verbal) with department staff and clinical educators in order to pass the unit.
Health Promotion assignment (1,500 words + 10 minute presentation) (15%)
Anatomy assessment (5%)
Physiology assessment (5%)
2 x Written examination (2 hours each) (30%)
OSCE (30%)
Research assignment - group work (4,500 words) (10%)
Research activities folder (5%)

Recorded Lectures:
Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:
Don't think there was any full practice exams but there definitely was some practice questions.

Textbook Recommendation:
Neurological Rehabilitation - Carr & Shepherd
Clinical Outcome Measurement in Adult Neurological Physiotherapy - Hill et al
Definitely recommend buying these two. They will be super useful during the semester but also when you're on placement in future years - especially the outcome measures book.

Lecturer(s):
Prue Morgan - physio theory
Narelle Dalwood - physio theory
Jo - anatomy
Ash - physiology

Year & Semester of completion:
2018, Semester 2

Rating:
5 out of 5

Best run unit in the entire physio course by far. Prue & Narelle are so lovely and caring, it kinda feels like they become your uni mums haha. They're absolute geniuses when it comes to neuro physio but treat you like a colleague and equal and are such great teachers. Their passion for neuro is also infectious - I didn't think I'd really like neuro before I started the unit and it's now become a field I'm interested in working in when I graduate!
2017-2020: Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours)

#### K888

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #475 on: November 20, 2019, 03:24:34 pm »
+6
Subject Code/Name: PTY3051 - Physiotherapy 5

Usually:
Monday - a few online lectures and some prep for lectures and pracs but nothing on campus
Tuesday - 2 lectures & prac
Wednesday - 2 lectures & prac
Thursday - clinical simulation
Friday - day off
The unit guide says ~20 contact hours but it was definitely less than that, especially given the fact that they ditched CBL. It's a nice change from the much higher contact hours of first and second year

Assessment:
80% Attendance in tutes/practical classes
Written examination (30%) (3 hours)
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) (35%)
Clinical Scenario Assignment (2,500 words including video creation of simulated patient interactions) (20%)
Anatomy image exam (30 minutes) (10%)
Research Folio (5%)

Recorded Lectures:
Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:
Nope, but some practice OSCE scenarios were given to us in prac

Textbook Recommendation:
Nothing new, you'll just be using bits of textbooks from previous years - Clinical Sports Medicine, Neurological Rehabilitation, etc. and for anything extra they provide the readings.

Lecturer(s):
Steve Maloney - most of the physio theory lectures
Liana Cope - some physio theory lectures
Jo Corbett - anatomy
Narelle Dalwood & Shane Pritchard - they run the Thursday clinical simulation
Various guest lecturers

Year & Semester of completion:
2019, Semester 1

Rating:
3 out of 5

Not a particularly well run or organised unit. They've obviously made some changes to the unit structure over the past few years and still haven't perfected it, but I really did enjoy that they removed CBL. Simulation was pretty good, Narelle and Shane have put a lot of effort into creating the program and do a good job running it. The unit as a whole does a decent job given it's not centred around one area of physio (rather it covers random bits and pieces that aren't covered in the first two years of the course) but I didn't particularly enjoy it.
2017-2020: Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours)

#### kez1234

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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #476 on: December 05, 2019, 11:03:56 am »
+4
Subject code/name: ATS1904- Reading the City

1 x one hour lecture weekly (on-campus or online).
1 x one hour tutorial weekly (on-campus).

Assessment:
Annotated Bibliography (20%). Although I had never done one of these before, it was quite a pleasant task to undertake.
Research Essay or Creative Writing (40%). Make sure you use sufficient evidence to back your points up. Although I used evidence from around 7 different resources, it was commented that there were certain points where more evidence could have been incorporated.
Exam (35%). I disliked the fact that the 3 definitions were worth 15 marks (almost 50% of the exam).

Past exams available:
Yes. We were provided with exams from 2014-2018.

Textbook Recommendation:
No textbooks were required. Just your usual unit guide, ‘The Children’s Bach’, ‘The City and the City’, and Persepolis.

Lecturer(s):
There were various lecturers. Lynda Chapple did all of the lectures for ‘The City and the City’ and Persepolis, and then the rest were done by lecturers who were passionate or experienced in that certain authors work for a given week.

Year & Semester of completion:
2019, Semester 2.

Final mark:
Pending.

Rating:
3.5 out of 5.

Compared to ATS1903, I quite enjoyed various weeks in this unit. However, I wished that there was less of a focus on crime fiction and hardboiled fiction, and more of an emphasis on other elements of the city that were changing at the time. I felt as though this unit was run more efficiently than the first gateway unit, but it would have been great if certain lecturers were relying more on their own independent thought about a topic, as opposed to reading their slides word-for-word. If you didn’t thoroughly enjoy ATS1903, my point would be that you won’t be disappointed with ATS1904. It provides a point of interest for everyone.

« Last Edit: December 05, 2019, 11:05:34 am by kez1234 »
2019-2021- Bachelor of Arts at Monash University.

#### kez1234

• Posts: 16
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##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #477 on: December 05, 2019, 11:16:14 am »
+3
Subject code/name: ATS1262- Understanding Social Behaviour

1 x one hour lecture weekly (on-campus or online).
1 x one hour tutorial weekly (on-campus).

Assessment:
Quiz 1 (10%). Quite manageable, if you completed all of your readings beforehand.
Essay plan (10%).
Major essay (40%). I felt like the marking was harsh. I improved my writing and points significantly from the essay plan, but still ended up with the same mark as the plan.
Quiz 2 (10%). Common sense questions, really.
Final test (30%). Quite manageable, if you completed all of your readings beforehand.

Textbook recommendation:
What I love about the first year units for Behavioural Studies is that you are provided with all of the weekly readings. Keep up to date with Moodle!

Lecturer(s):
Ayoub taught most of the lectures each week. He was always so passionate about what he was discussing/pulling apart.

Year & Semester of completion:
2019, Semester 2.

Pending.

Rating:
4 out of 5.

ATS1262 was such an AMAZING unit! The main criticisms I have are: myself and others found the weekly tutorials to unfortunately not be beneficial to our learning. We could have been using that hour in a more effective manner. Furthermore, while there were some weeks where the readings were manageable, there were weeks where around 10 readings were uploaded. I’m sure that others were also overwhelmed with the amount of readings given. For weeks 9 and 10, we were told what pages to focus on for the final test, but this would have been great if we have been given this guide for the entirety of the unit. If you are thinking about studying Behavioural Studies as a minor, take my word on the fact that you won’t regret it!!!

2019-2021- Bachelor of Arts at Monash University.

#### kez1234

• Posts: 16
• Respect: +2
##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #478 on: December 05, 2019, 11:30:51 am »
+4
Subject code/name: ATS1423- Punishment, courts and corrections

1 x 2 hour seminar weekly (on-campus or online).

Assessment:
Quiz (10%). Quite basic.
Essay 1 (30%). Drawn from ‘You be the Judge’.
Essay 2 (30%). Drawn from ‘You be the Judge’.
Exam (30%). Consisted of 10 short answer questions, for which we had to answer 8 (5 marks each).

Textbook recommendations:
Crime, criminality and criminal justice (3rd ed.).
MAJOR TIP: This textbook has kindly been uploaded onto the Monash library as an accessible e-book. I was stoked this semester when I saved over $100 on buying a physical textbook. Access it online for FREE. What I did was go through the reading list for the entire semester, and when through the e-book while I had loaned it and saved all of those chapters. A life saver! Lecturer(s): There was a vast range of lecturers that I cannot remember all of their names! Both of the unit coordinators taught several of the seminars, leaving the rest up to people who kindly came in from different industries. For instance, prison staff came in and spoke to us, a researcher that looks into the role of a father in prison and masculinity came in, etc. They were very diverse. Year & Semester of completion: 2019, Semester 2. Final grade: Pending. Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Comments: By far, this was my favourite unit during my first year at Monash. I communicated mostly with Anna via email, and she was always prompt in her response to my concerns or queries. It was run so efficiently, which made me appreciate the subject matter so much more. Moreover, the 2 essays we completed actually related to four weeks of content at a time (but you also had the ability to connect it to any of the 12 weeks of content). The essays were very flexible in the way that you approached them, and the marking seemed fair. Unlike other units, I actually enjoyed EVERY week of this unit. We looked at an intriguing topic every week, which in the end they all overlapped and were interconnected. This unit has broadened my mind extensively, and I am so appreciative that units like this exist. FINAL TIP: If you can, DO THIS UNIT!!!!!! 2019-2021- Bachelor of Arts at Monash University. #### Springyboy • Victorian • Forum Obsessive • Posts: 213 • Respect: +51 ##### Re: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings « Reply #479 on: December 06, 2019, 12:08:08 pm » +3 Subject Code/Name: ETC3430 - Financial mathematics under uncertainty Workload: 1 x 2hr lecture per week 1 x 1.5hr tutorial per week Assessment: 2 x Class tests - 20% each (40%) - Being someone who prefers doing assignments to class tests, I wasn't a fan of this format. The tests were held in weeks 5 and 12, and each took 1hr. Both tests consisted of 6 multiple choice questions that were each worth 2 marks and either 2 or 3 short-answer questions for the remaining 8 marks to total 20 marks. The tests were not excessively difficult, as they were taken straight from the tutorial questions usually with a few minor adjustments to throw people off a little. However, because they were held so close to the prior tutorial which was the day before, that covered a lot of concepts, it was really difficult to be properly prepared for them. The average for test 1 was around 15/20 and for test 2 was around 14/20, which highlighted that most students did find it reasonably challenging, despite the averages being in the 70 range. Overall, if you prepare heavily for these, by going over the lectures and tutorial slides, then you should be alright I guess Exam - 60%. I found the exam to be a bit too long to complete in the 2hr timeframe. It covered all material covered in the remaining 9 lectures (as 1 was lost due to the Grand Final Eve Holiday), but heavily emphasised on a lot of proofs that were not taught fully. Therefore, to do well on this you had to excessively rote-learn the proofs from the slides. As the exam was on the first day of the exam period, this was not that easy to do. Consequently, this was reflected in my mark, due to questions being left blank or just answered weirdly due to me not being able to memorise enough proofs in an early enough timeframe. Recorded Lectures: Yes, with screen capture Past exams available: Yes, 2018 Semester 2 Exam was provided with solutions Textbook Recommendation: Actuarial Mathematics for Life contingent Risks is recommended but barely covers any of the content in the course. Don't get it. Instead, try and get either the CT4 or CS2 notes from the Actuarial Education Company (ActEd). These are where all of the content is taken for the subject, so to have the CS2 notes on hand in particular is incredibly valuable, as you will be able to unpack and understand in a far deeper way what is being taught. That being said, the CS2 notes can only be bought from ActEd directly (costing around$250) or from someone who already has them, so  they are not that easy to obtain. Due to this, the CT4 notes as a backup are still very valuable, as they are readily available online, and are basically just the content before 2019's updates.

As a result, please try and get the CS2 or CT4 notes if you are doing this subject. They are incredibly valuable and will help you immensely to figure out what is going on every week, as the explanations from the lecturers may not be up to point.

Lecturer(s):

Athanasios (Thanasi) Pantelous - Really great guy. Thanasi is incredibly friendly and passionate about actuarial science, particularly in the area of quantitative finance, so loves to teach students about the course. Despite this, Thanasi is still a little lost on the content, which is why I guess from 2020 onwards he isn't taking the subject. Despite this, I found his lectures very captivating and far more straightforward to understand due to his ability to be really engaging in conversations that were/weren't related to the course itself.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 2, 2019

Rating: 3 out of 5