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March 28, 2024, 11:04:36 pm

Author Topic: Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings  (Read 828698 times)  Share 

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TrueTears

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #45 on: July 08, 2012, 06:47:15 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: AFC3540 - Modelling in Finance 

Workload:  2 hour tutes per week

Assessment:  Within semester assessment: 60%, Examination (3 hours): 40%

Recorded Lectures:  yes

Past exams available: 1 practise exam, with solutions.

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbooks prescribed.

Lecturer(s): Dr Paul Lajbcygier

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 semester 1

Rating:  5 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 98 HD

Comments: freaking awesome unit, very very enjoyable, I would personally say this is the most useful finance unit alongside with AFC3340 (options). Everything you do in this unit will be VERY VERY practical in the real world and the skills you learn in this unit will stick with you forever if you choose a finance career. The unit is considered to be quite difficult, it really depends on the individual actually, some will say this is one of the hardest units however I personally think it's probably one of the 'easier' ones if you're a dedicated student. Some find it hard because there is a TON of assignments, there are 42 assignments in total, yes 42, let me break it down for you. There are weekly quizes, weekly tute tests, weekly excel spreadsheets submissions, weekly VBA submissions, weekly debates + MIDSEM + separate assignments in separate weeks. So unless you're a student that really stays on top of your game and meet your deadlines, you will FAIL this unit otherwise. There are so many assessments per week that you literally have to start them at the start of the week to finish them all. The exam is pretty hard, EXTREMELY long, and you have to really understand your stuff before you go in the exam. I suggest those that wanna do this unit should have at least done the following units to get the most of it (these are not unit preqs but simply what I recommend will help): AFC3140, AFC2140, AFC2340, AFC3340 (duh options helps with any finance unit lol). But seriously, if you do this unit, you really should do AFC3340 before or at the same time, why? Well AFC3540 has alot of programming, dw if you haven't done it before, they teach you from scratch, the programming you will be doing is related to VBA (excel) and alot of excel spreadsheets, although it isn't "mathematical"  but it helps if you study mathematics as well since the logical reasoning are the same. Now AFC3540 basically takes all the things you learn in the units I listed before and turns them practical, as in it shows real life applications of how the concepts you learn are actually used in the finance world - this is extremely important as you don't just learn theory to get good marks on exams but rather you need to know how to use them once you start working. AFC3540 teaches you all of that but kinda assumes you already know those concepts already; although the lecturer does explain the concepts before he starts going into the practical aspects of them. The entire 2nd half of the AFC3540 course is based on the practical applications of AFC3340 (options and futures). Having done AFC3340 will give you a huge advantage over anyone doing AFC3540 who hasn't done AFC3340 and it will help you enjoy the subject so much more. You can certainly go into AFC3540 without learning AFC3340, however you will find the options part of the course to be quite confusing; this was the case with several of my friends (who are really high-achieving students) however they were stomped on the options part of the AFC3540 because they haven't done AFC3340.

In conclusion, I would suggest you do this unit only if you have done the subjects that I listed above, they are not monash's preqs but I would say they help you so much more and allows you to get the most of the unit. However if you feel confident enough, you can certainly do it without having done the units that I listed. AFC3540 is a very good unit, you will learn so much in this one unit.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2015, 12:58:29 am by TrueTears »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #46 on: July 08, 2012, 08:34:49 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: CHM1011 - Chemistry I

Workload: (per week) 
  • 3x 1 hour lectures
  • 1x 3 hour lab

Assessment: 
  • Lab: 20%
  • WILEYPlus Assignments: 5%
  • MOODLE Web-tests: 15%
  • End of Semester Examination: 60%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  Yes, plenty of years

Textbook Recommendation: 
  • CHM1011 Lecture Notes from Monash Bookstore (didn't buy)
  • Chemistry 2nd ed by Blackman et al (highly recommend)

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr. Chris Thompson
  • Dr. Toby Bell
  • Dr. Patrick Perlmutter
  • Dr Andrea Robinson
  • Dr Ian Gass
  • Dr. Keith Murray

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating:  4.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 91 HD

Comments:
  • Most of the lecturers were really engaging, articulate, and used their presentations well, aided at times by transparencies
  • The content of the course was pretty solid and interesting, divided into Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry
  • Labs were a bit boring, but I had a really good demonstrator  8) You get to make slime once, though!
  • If you coped well with VCE Chemistry, you will do fine. Not too many new concepts
  • Year 12 Physics can help slightly, with understanding some concepts, but nothing too taxing on a non-Physics person
  • Plenty of past exams to practice on
  • Just awesome in general!
  • Highly recommend!! ^-^
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:45:25 pm by alondouek »



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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #47 on: July 08, 2012, 08:52:18 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: ASP1010 - Earth to Cosmos: Introductory Astronomy

Workload: (per week)
  • 3x 1 hour lectures
  • 1x 2 hour labs

Assessment:
  • Lab work: 25%
  • On-line quizzes: 5%
  • Project/Presentation: 10%
  • Mid-sem assignment: 10%
  • End of Semester Examination: 50%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes, plenty of years are available, but only ~2-3 are answered

Textbook Recommendation: 
  • The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett et al (highly recommended)

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway
  • Dr. Kevin A. Pimbblet
  • Dr. Heath Jones
  • Dr. Samantha Penny

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating:  5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 87 HD

Comments:
  • First comment reserved for Kevin: BEST LECTURER! So energetic! So engaging! Articulate! Not afraid to tell amazing stories! Best accent! Best!
  • The lab work in this course is fun!!
  • Not much math involved, it only requires year 10 science
  • The content in the course is amazing, fun, solid  8)
  • The lecture presentations are mostly good, good visuals
  • You get to burn paper with telescopes!
  • Diagrams are essential in Astro. The textbook is really good with these, and explanations in general
  • Good fun!
  • Highly recommended!! ^-^
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:45:55 pm by alondouek »



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BSc (Hons) @ Monash (Double major in Chemistry)

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #48 on: July 09, 2012, 12:38:16 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: CHM1011 - Chemistry I

Workload: (per week)

3x 1 hour lectures
1x 3 hour lab

Assessment:
    Lab: 20%
    WILEYPlus Assignments: 5%
    MOODLE Web-tests: 15%
    End of Semester Examination: 60%

Recorded Lectures: Yes

Past exams available: Yes, from 2007-2011

Textbook Recommendation:

    CHM1011 Lecture Notes from Monash Bookstore (didn't buy)
    Chemistry 2nd ed by Blackman et al (didn't buy)
    Chemical Principles, the Quest for Insight; Peter W. Atkins , Loretta Jones (the textbook for Pharmacy)
    Introduction to Organic Chemistry; [William H. Brown, Thomas Poon

 
Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating: 5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 92 HD

Comments:
  • One cannot find a better unit than CHM1011 if you want to start out in Chem
  • The course is divided to 5 weeks of Physical Chemistry, 4 weeks of Organic Chemistry and 3 weeks of Inorganic Chemistry
  • Most of the content is really an extension of VCE chemistry. The hybrid orbitals isn't though
  • Labs requires a bit of work but they are seriously awesome.
  • Sadly for me my journey in chemistry comes to a close as I have discontinued CHM1022 but otherwise I would have gone further in chemistry.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:46:52 pm by alondouek »
2011: ESL [39] Chem [42] Physics [40] Spesh [39] Methods [38]
ATAR: 97.35

2012: Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering/Bachelor of Science @ Monash
2013-2018 : Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering/Bachelor of Science/Diploma of Language(Japanese) @ Monash
2013 : Faculty of Science's Dean's List for 2013

I am mostly away all the time but I try to be as helpful as I can.

PM me for any Science/Engineering Enquires.

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #49 on: July 17, 2012, 11:27:46 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: PHY2011 - Neuroscience of Sensation, Brain and Movement 

Workload:  3 x 1 Hour Lectures
1 x 3 Hour practical class (doesn't run every week)

Assessment:  Like all Physiology units the exam is a fairly low % of your final mark.

In semester multiple-choice tests: 30% <--- 3 of these 10% each, evenly spread out throughout the semester
In semester problem quizzes: 5% <--- A few of these based on a web-flash tutorial thing about a particular topic, only the last one counts
In semester practical class quizzes: 35% <--- No prac reports to write or hand up in this unit, only a quiz based on the prac due a week after your prac class
End of semester theory written examination (3 hours): 30%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, Audio only (but slides/notes provided)

Past exams available:  Honestly can't remember but theres plenty of practice quizes.

Textbook Recommendation:  The textbook is absolutely not needed and not useful for the unit by the lecturers own admission. He provides an excellent set of notes he created, they make any textbook obsolete.

Lecturer(s): Mainly Ramesh Rajan but a few others take over for some portions of the subject like muscles.

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, S1

Rating: 5 Out of 5

Comments: Absolutely fantastic unit. Great breadth of content and very interesting too. Ramesh is one of the best, if not the best, lecturer i've had at uni thus far. He's both entertaining and very knowledgeable. It makes all the difference for the unit. He provides a great amount of resources in comparison to other units which have next to nothing. Instead of a textbook, you can use the notes he wrote himself, which are excellent. He knows every single students name (i'm not exaggerating), i only went to lectures a handful of times in semester (3-6) and he still somehow knew my name, i almost fell on the floor. We're all amazed how he does it but no one knows. It's certainly a nice touch. I think he may have also won a few teaching awards.

There is a lot of neurobiology (receptors, neurons, neurotransmitters, etc) near the start which transitions into the senses (hearing, vision, smell, etc) and finally muscles/movement.

Great unit. If you're thinking of taking physiology, i highly recommend it.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:47:29 pm by alondouek »

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #50 on: July 17, 2012, 11:39:40 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS1325 - Contemporary Worlds 1

Workload:  one 90 minute lecture
one 1-hour tutorial per week

Assessment: 1. Assignment 1  500 words   10%   

2. Assignment 2 500 words 10%   

3. Assignment 3 1500 words 30%

4. Final Examination  2 hours   40%   

5. Tutorial Participation 10%   

Assignments 1-3 are based off the topics in the lectures (Eg. Communism in China). There is always a list of topics you can have your pick from. Similar with the exam, you can pick from a list on what you will write on.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes.

Textbook Recommendation:  I didn't have the textbook and i survived. It could help though. I also didn't buy the reader but that was a mistake. That you probably should buy.

Lecturer(s): Various

Year & Semester of completion: 2012, S1

Rating:  3.5 of 5

Comments: Good subject. They cover a wide variety of topics in post 1945/WW2 history (the importance of oil, the revolution in Iran, rise of 'communism' in china, the cold war, etc). Only one weekly lecture is devoted to each topic. In my opinion, whilst there is a great breadth and variety of topics, there isn't much depth or time to explore each topic. Huge topics like oil or communism in China only had one 90 minute lecture devoted to them. For the time, they managed to squeeze in a lot but sometimes it came off as very shallow (in the case of North Korea for example). Overall, good unit. Some topics were more interesting to me than others personally and i found this to be true of a lot of people in the course.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:47:48 pm by alondouek »

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #51 on: July 18, 2012, 10:26:53 am »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS3067 - French Studies Advanced 1
This review is applicable to all French language units. If you have any questions about a specific French unit please PM me.

Workload: Generally, 2-4 hours of language + 2 hours of culture per week. For advanced 1, 2 hour language tutorial + 1 hour translation workshop + 2 hour cultural component seminar.

Workload is medium-high, compared to arts subjects in general. You are expected to do one translation per week, which should take 1 hour max, plus read various articles for language and culture, plus do any grammar/aural comprehension/speaking practice as needed.

Assessment: You can find this information yourself on the unit site, but generally cultural component accounts for 50% of your mark (usually comprising presentation, essay and exam) and language component accounts for the other 50% (usually comprising essay, translation test, oral exam and aural comprehension test).

For advanced 1 culture: culture presentation = 10 mins, culture essay = 1000 words in French, culture exam = 1 hour extended response in French.

For advanced 1 language (all in French obviously): essay = 500 words (ish?), translation test = 2 hours, oral exam = 15 min presentation on an unknown article with 1 hour's preparation beforehand + 15 mins conversation, aural comprehension = you watch a video 6 times and transcribe as much of it as you can.

For first-year French students I am reasonably certain that the cultural component will account for 25% and the langauge component 75%.

Recorded Lectures: None. Very annoying.

Past exams available: None, but not really necessary as your "exam" will be a translation test and you can practise that without past exams. For the culture exam we were given the topics beforehand.

Textbook Recommendation: Grammar textbook + workbook, not really necessary unless your grammar skills are weak. You won't be doing any grammar work in class, it will be for your personal study use only.

Ze French department brings out a new course reader each year, which is unfortunately always slightly different from the year before so you do need to buy it as you will be using it in class every week.

Don't buy whatever you're studying in the culture component, you can get those novels in the library (and "cheat" by getting the English translations instead).

Lecturer(s): Varies, but all French academic staff are pretty competent (and generally native speakers).

Year & Semester of completion: Sem 1 2012

Rating: 3 of 5

Comments: Attendance requirement is 75% and they will take the roll in every class. They claim that if you don't attend 75% of classes you will either fail or get a maximum of 50, but I stopped going to class after week 5 and I didn't fail or get 50 so jokes on them.

Hate to sound like a broken record but fuck everything about the cultural component. Some people like it though so it's really a matter of personal opinion. This semester we studied a bunch of texts and movies to do with the relationship between history and memory. Which was okay I suppose but had nothing to do with French except that the texts were in French.

The language component is good. Just challenging enough to keep you interested but not impossibly difficult. The department is very capable and in my 4th year of studying French at uni I have not yet met a single lecturer/tutor who wasn't highly competent.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:48:59 pm by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #52 on: July 19, 2012, 04:34:35 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS2780 - Geographical Analysis 

Workload:  one 2hr lecture a week plus 1 tute/prac a week which goes for either 1 or 3 hours (or 2 if you finish early)

Assessment:  tute papers 20%
group poster + presentation 20%
prac papers 20%
final exam 40%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  One

Textbook Recommendation:  rofl rofl textbooks in this unit are non existent but get ready to do a lot of reading.

Lecturer(s): Stephen Legg, Xuan Zhu and various guest lecturers

Year & Semester of completion: Sem 1 2012

Rating:  2.5

Your Mark/Grade: 85 HD

Comments: one of the most poorly structured units I've seen, it was quite pathetic. the work was easy for tutes and pracs. with the lectures, there was lots of stuff on mapping which I personally couldnt stand but other people liked, and then there was more humanities type stuff in the other half which was very wordy  but easy enough to wrap your head around. Group project is easy if you have a good group -- i use the word 'group' loosely though because I did my poster with one other person.

It's a new unit so it might get better next semester. I hope it does because I didn't like it except that it was a bludge. when you hand in work don't expect to get it back quickly cause they take FOREVER and i didn't get most of my stuff back until the last tute. tute prep is a lot of reading and writing if you want to do well but if you don't really care you can rock up to the tute and take notes to write up your answers later. It's the most time consuming bit of it i think.

I wouldn't really recommend it, except that it's a core unit if you want to major or minor in Geography. I found it mostly a bludge but i think i was one of the few that did.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:49:19 pm by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #53 on: July 19, 2012, 07:03:22 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS3147 - Japanese Studies Advanced 1 

Workload:  1 hr lecture, 1 hr tute, 2 hr seminar.

Assessment:  lots, it never ends and you're constantly cramming for the next one! sadly i don't remember what they're weighted but: 1 speaking test, many ongoing tests, 2 online listening tests, 1 major essay, 1 reading/writing test, 1 presentation, 1 listening test. plus final exam, which is worth i think 25%


Recorded Lectures:  no. and you get marked attendance too if you don't turn up.

Past exams available: pffft no. you get revision questions though.

Textbook Recommendation:  tobira gateway to advanced learning. yes, you should get it. plus kanji book is optional. if you don't have a denshi jisho by now i'd recommend getting one.

Lecturer(s): shimako iwasaki

Year & Semester of completion: semester 1 2012

Rating:  2

Your Mark/Grade: 68 C

Comments:   i generally don't say this, but this unit was a biatch and i couldnt stand it. it was the general consensus of the cohort too so i'm not just being subjective. i died a slow death expecting to fail because throughout the semester i was only scraping a pass.

for the in-class tests, they are held in the MIDDLE of the lesson, and before that they just do normal classwork which is a PAIN. marking is harsh: marks deducted for errors are not really indicative of the question's weighting and so it's far too easy to lose marks. if you intend to major in japanese then you most likely have to do this unit. i'd recommend a LOT of self study and double check all your stuff by another native speaker or somewhere like lang-8. hand in every piece of work that you can cause you'll need it to pass.

oh and the lecture slides are useless -- they tend to be copy-pasted from the textbook. dont get me wrong, i learned lots but i learned it all by myself.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:50:04 pm by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #54 on: July 19, 2012, 07:12:58 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: ATS2679/3679 - Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition 

Workload:  weekly 2 hr seminar

Assessment: attendance/homework 15%
research journal/presentation (depends if second or third year) 10%
major essay 40%
exam 35%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  No, but there are revision questions.

Textbook Recommendation:  First Language Acquisition. it's okay... you don't really need it though, unless you're genuinely interested in background information. You need it for some of the homework but you can just go to the library for that.

Lecturer(s): Anna Margetts

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 semester 1

Rating:  4

Your Mark/Grade: 83 HD

Comments: I really liked this unit and i'd recommend it if you like linguistics at all. the only thing that's a pain is the essay because it's structured like a research paper and if you've never done one of those before (like i have) it's overwhelming. it's a subject where you don't have lots of contact hours but I found I spent lots and lots of time sifting through transcripts so i had data to analyse and it was time consuming, but because I liked it it was okay. The content in the lectures is interesting, but if you don't like kids then don't do this unit. do turn up to class -- it's only two hours a week and there is an attendance mark. the linguistics lecturers tend to be pretty good anyway.

« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:50:41 pm by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #55 on: July 19, 2012, 07:27:14 pm »
+3
Subject Code/Name: MTH2021 - Linear Algebra with Applications

Workload: 3 1-hour lectures and 1 2-hour support class per week

Assessment: 5 Assignments: 4% each, 5 Laboratory work (quiz): 2% each, 3 hours Exam: 70%

Recorded Lectures:
  Voice recorded lectures only

Past exams available:  yes two, one with solutions.

Textbook Recommendation:  Printed lecture notes but also have a copy on moodle. also Elementary Linear Algebra, which is a pretty good book but you dont neeeed it unless you don't intend on turning up to class at all.

Lecturer(s):Dr Tim Garoni and Jerome (cant remember his last name but it was long and started with D)

Year & Semester of completion:Sem 1 2012

Rating: 4

Your Mark/Grade: D

Comments: If you did CAS methods, it's probably a bludge unit. Sadly, I didn't. If you did MTH2010 it is probably again also a bludge unit. Sadly, I haven't yet, I'm doing it this semester instead. So, to me, most of the content was quite new, except the stuff covered in MTH1030. Tim is an awesome lecturer and really knows his stuff, the tutes were quite standard but I'd recommend trying to get Marsha Minchenko because I found she was really good and helpful and willing to go the extra mile. The content itself was mostly easy, and the exam was very doable but unfortunately for me I stuffed it up so got a D instead of an HD but oh well. Halfway through the semester they switched lecturers to a french guy called Jerome and he was okay but he had a really thick accent and so if you're not good with french accents it's a bit of an issue.

I really liked this unit, I would recommend it. If you've done methods and etc it is also a bludge unit, so added bonus there. for me it wasnt a bludge though because I've never seen most of the content before but it's easy enough to pick up.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:52:05 pm by alondouek »
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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #56 on: July 19, 2012, 07:59:36 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: PHS1011 - Physics

Workload:
  • 3x 1 hour lectures
  • 1x 3 hour lab

Assessment:
  • Lab work: 20%
  • MasteringPhysics online assignments: 7%
  • Written Problem Set: 3%
  • Mid-Semester Test: 7%
  • Short report on one experiment: 5%
  • End of Semester Exam: 58%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes

Past exams available:  Yes, solutions are scarce

Textbook Recommendation:
  • Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Knight (highly recommended)

Lecturer(s):
  • Dr Kevin Pimbblet
  • Dr Timothy Petersen

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 79 D

Comments:
  • Content of the course is pretty much Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Waves and Oscillations and Special Relativity - overall an interesting mix
  • My favourites were probably Thermodynamics and Special Relativity (even though I did poorly on SR, it is quite mind-boggling)
  • The lecturers are great, Kevin is of course one of the greatest lecturers in Monash ^-^ Tim is decent
  • Labs are really boring, in my opinion
  • I highly recommend the textbook, has good diagrams, good worked examples, and good questions if you wish to do well
  • The lectures use clickers! In lectures, MC questions will occasionally pop up on the screen, and you will press a button on your clicker to select an answer. Chart afterwards shows an anonymous distribution of results.
  • If you loved VCE math and physics, you will fit right in!



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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #57 on: July 22, 2012, 03:53:25 pm »
+4
Subject Code/Name: MTH1020 - Analysis of Change

Workload:

  • 3x 1 hour lectures
  • 1x 2 hour tutorial

Assessment: 

  • Assignment 1a: 5%
  • Assignment 1b: 5%
  • Assignment 2: 15%
  • Assignment 3: 15%
  • End of Semester Exam: 60%

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen captures, so lecturer workings on tablet PC recorded

Past exams available:  Yes but solutions are scarce. Can also leech off Engineering maths, similar content

Textbook Recommendation:

  • MTH1020 Lecture Notes from Monash Bookstore - required, can be brought into the exam
  • Calculus: Early Transcendentals by Stewart - not required unless you want to understand stuff to perfection, in my opinion, and do really well

Lecturer(s):

  • Dr. Cristina Varsavsky
  • Mr John McCloughan

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 82 HD

Comments:

  • This is pretty much an introduction to the content covered in Specialist Maths - you'll be doing this if you didn't do spesh in VCE
  • Starts off with Methods content, then goes into Vectors and Complex Numbers
  • Lectures are really nice, you'll be copying the workings of the lecturer as they work it out into your lecture note book,which can be taken into the exam
  • Tutorials are REALLY HELPFUL especially if you have a wicked sick tutor (friend of enwiabe, shout out to Davus XD). I got up at 5:30am on Fridays to attend the optional 8am tutorials, it helped so much! The atmosphere was really casual and nice. You get a problem sheet each week with last weeks lecture content, good way to ingrain the mathematical skills needed
  • As stated earlier, the textbook isn't really needed for MTH1020 unless you need extra worked examples, questions or derivations
  • The content may seem boring in the first month, but once you get to Integrals/Differential Equations/Vectors/Complex Numbers, it gets really interesting
  • The people in the Math Learning Centre are really helpful - I'm shattered that I only went there the week before exams, could have done so much better!
  • Assignments are easy marks - do them well! :)
  • Highly recommend for anyone with an interest in mathematics! ^-^



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BSc (Hons) @ Monash (Double major in Chemistry)

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #58 on: August 03, 2012, 10:35:04 pm »
+5
Subect Code/Name: ATS2143 - Japanese Intermediate 1 (previously known as Japanese 3)

Workload:  1 x 2hr seminar, 1 x 1hr lecture, 1 x 1hr tutorial (It is expected that you have a 75+ attendance for seminar and tutes, rolls are taken at all three)

Order:  Lectures, Tutorials, Seminars

Lectures: I enjoyed them, lecturer was pretty good. Content: Cover some social/culture points, grammar and its appropriate usage, do practice sentences etc.  You could survive without going to them because the textbook has everything you need, some of the sentences are from there but I think going to the lecture is easier than self learning it.
Tutorial: These are normally on the same day of the lecture, or the day after, so if you're not going to lectures, you need to cover the content before you go. The focus is on the grammar we learnt in the lectures, this is done through doing like 'speaking grammar exercises' (I made this phrase up, couldn't find the right way to describe it) from the textbook, so there's alot of pair work/role play/speaking. Oh the teacher picks on random people to answer in front of the class so yeah.
Seminars: Seminars are sort of like, a long tutorial with much more writing and reading practice. I find them harder than tutes. Also, it was a bad idea having my Japanese seminar and then a chemistry lecture straight afterwards because for some reason they tell us to start writing when there’s only 15 minutes of class left, yes you can stay behind and finish it but yeah, had another class to go to and it's embarrassing walking into lectures late xD. Also Kanji tests are held in the middle of the seminar which can be fairly annoying for some.

Assessment: Mid-semester test (15%), Writing Task (15%), Listening Test (10%), Oral Assessment (10%), Kanji quizzes(5%), Vocab quizzes (5%), Exam (40%)

Kanji Tests (5%)
- 6 Tests, roughly once a fortnight
- Done in the second hour of the seminar (Can be timed, depends on your teacher, mine gave us 6 minutes)
- Tested on the writing, readings and the meanings of Kanji from the Kanji list from that chapter of the textbook. Warning: previous Kanji from previous chapters will be tested again. 16 Kanji in a Kanji list
- Layout: Short passage with a mixture of words underlined, these words are written in Kanji or Hiragana, write the opposite of them and then a section where you choose the correct meaning for words written in Kanji

Vocab Tests (5%)
- 6 Tests, roughly once a fortnight
- Done online on blackboard. (Blackboard has been ditched now so I'm not sure how future tests for this subject will be done)
Edit: In ATS2144 (Japanese Intermediate 2), vocab tests are now done in tutorials this may be the case for this subject
- Tested on the vocab from that chapter of the textbook. Roughly 52 words
- 7 Minutes, Roughly 7 questions: 5 MCQ, 2 sections of pair the right words
    Example MC Question:  ビールやワインをのみすぎて、_____になりました。あたまがいたい・・・。
                a. げんき

               b. 日本人

               c. ふつかよい

               d. かぜ
               (Hint: Answer is not b xD)

Exam (40%)
- Particles
- Completing sentences with new grammar (Worth the most)
- Culture Questions (Worth the least)
- Reading Comprehension (Answer in English and/or Japanese)
- Writing (not an essay, but just a bunch of sentences with certain requirements)
- No listening tasks
- No dictionary/notes

Recorded Lectures:  Yep with screen capture

Past exams available: Nope. Zero. They give you a revision sheet though. You don't really need it, just redo exercises from the workbook/make up your own sentences and you should be fine.

Textbook Recommendation:  Genki II 2nd Edition Textbook and Workbook are prescribed. I brought mine. It's up to you really. I guess you could borrow the textbook from the library, you use it every lesson though and homework will also be assigned from the workbook which teachers do check (its not worth any marks though, I never did mine [I forgot okay! :P ], I just got a whole lot of red circles on it) They also recommend some dictionary, but you should have one already and that should suffice, you're rarely allowed use it for assessments anyway (infact only once, for the writing task)

Lecturer(s): Dr. Shani Tobias

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 1

Rating: 4/5

Your Mark/Grade: D

Comments:
So this is the unit you do if you'd like to study Japanese at a Monash and you've already done Units 3/4 in VCE. To be quite honest, I found this more relaxed, maybe even easier than Units 3/4. Some of content you've definitely covered before, maybe not so much the Kanji, but grammar and vocab definitely. (Do these ring a bell: ~し, ~そうです, Relative Clauses, Potential form and much more!) However, there's also assumed knowledge, so yeah don't empty your brain after Units 3/4 . The frequency of the assessments (vocab/kanji tests or some sort of other assessment almost every week, or every other week if your lucky and vocab and kanji tests fall on the same week  :P) may be a bit difficult for some, I'm a fairly good crammer though (Flash cards are pretty amazing, however if you're lazy like me and can't be bothered making your own, http://kanji.asianmideast.duke.edu/index.php is an awesome site) so it wasn't an issue but some people may find that there is ''so much to learn and so little time"

Oh and yes the teachers conduct class (tutorials & seminars) in mostly Japanese, not sure if that’s the way it's meant to be officially or what. I thought I wouldn't be able to survive when I heard this but it's fine, really. They don't speak super fast or use any crazy grammar patterns and they do use English/simpler words when they see that their students have the ' I have nfi what you said' look plastered all over their face xD. But lectures are held on both English and Japanese.

Overall I liked this subject, it was a fairly good mini refresher of Units 3/4, I sort of forgot everything so it wasn't too repetitive. However, if you did exceptionally well in units 3/4 (45+ I think, not sure if raw or scaled), this subject may be not challenging enough and I believe you are eligible to do a different subject.

So yeah, hopefully that was somewhat helpful and I didn't scare anyone off the subject :)
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:53:13 pm by alondouek »

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Re: Monash University - Subject reviews & ratings
« Reply #59 on: November 15, 2012, 12:25:35 am »
+5
Subject Code/Name: ENG1060 - Computing For Engineers

Workload: 2x1 hr lectures, 1x3 hr Comp Lab per week

Assessment:  9x2% Comp Labs, 2% Library Test, 10% Assignment, 70% Exam

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: Both Sems from 2005-2011 (Only 3 with solutions)
 
Textbook Recommendation:  Textbooks were pointless for this unit, don't need them at all.

Topics
  • MATLAB Programming
  • Numerical Methods with MATLAB

Lecturer(s): First 6 weeks: Dr Yi Hong, Second 6 weeks: Yogen Padayatchy

Year & Semester of completion: 2012 Semester 2

Rating: 3.5 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 92 HD

Comments: Besides the lectures being quite boring, and going over the simplest of things sometimes, this unit wasn't too bad, once you learnt how to put up with a frustrating Matlab. Looking back at it, you could probably learn this unit easily off the lecture notes and with a fair bit of practice. The compulsory library test is an absolute waste of time, but it needs to be done anyway. With labs, the best way to approach them is to prepare your code before hand, bring it in on USB and then just make the final touches to it during the lab. Its best if you get Matlab to use on a computer at home to practise on. With the assignment, while it isn't easy, its not hard, just confusing and not well worded (well for us anyway). Ended up getting the harder part right, but missing a line of code on q1a (the easiest one on the whole assignment...) which put the results of q1 b,c,d out... In short, make sure you check the easy parts too...., missing one line of code cost me full marking the internal component of assesment.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 12:21:51 pm by b^3 »
2012-2016: Aerospace Engineering/Science (Double Major in Applied Mathematics - Monash Uni)
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