UNI NOTES: uni subject reviews, uni guides, uni discussions

We’ve rolled on to Week 7 of the university semester, and we’ve canvassed the room to see how uni students are faring at the moment. Here are some excerpts from university journey journals. You can read them all in full – or make your own – at this link here.

 

“AngelWings” – Bachelor of Science (Honours)

Read AngelWings’ full journal here.

“Another month gone by. I’ve had a few things happen, but all in all, it feels like the same old, same old. I guess I need to work on my spontaneity, but that’s right after I work on taking more breaks. I realise I don’t relax much (I think I mentioned I’m a little more workaholic than I should be before.) and need to ease on the accelerator sometimes.

…

In all honesty, it is going okay and it’s no lie. If I had to be specific, I’m probably somewhere midway into the second model and we (my supervisor and I) think it’ll be my last one for the year, just because we’ve run out of time. It takes roughly a month to do a model and, add in checking, troubleshooting, coding and simulating, it takes about 5-6 weeks now. Not to mention, I have just 2.5 months left until thesis is due. Slightly disappointed I didn’t get to do more, but I’m still happy with my progress and current work. You always have such a grand plan and wind up realising you only can do a portion of it – it simply happens. Oh well. The stage I’m up to right now is just checking my models and seeing if they’re right. I’ll probably have this complete in the following two weeks or so. “

 

“fantasticbeasts3” – Bachelor of International Studies/Bachelor of Media

Read fantasticbeasts3’s full journal here.

“This week
I have two assessments due and haven’t made much progress on any so I’ll see you guys at the end of the week in the hope that I’ve survived.

As for exchange…
UNSW says you have to get all your paperwork and preferences together by some time mid-October (I can’t remember the date) if you’re going on exchange in Term 3, 2019. I’m going sometime at the beginning of 2020 – should I wait for information for Term 1? Or should I be asking now about the exchange program? International Studies has a kinda specialised exchange program so my friends and I are a bit confused as to what we should do.”

 

“Zainbow” – Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Science

Read Zainbow’s full journal here.

“There’s also this other unit, Professional Engagement 1 (0cp), that is compulsory for all students in the Engo and IT faculty to take. It basically ensures that by the completion of your degree you’d have undertaken 600 hours of ‘professional development’ under 3 categories: Engineeering Activities, non-Eng Activities (you can claim your daytime employment as non-eng professional activities), and Engineering Work (between 3rd and 4th years). I get why a program like this is useful, but it’s just so annoying  :-[ . I’m so far behind on the hours that I should have completed by now, and what makes it worse is that you need to submit a multi-paragraph reflection (just shy of an essay) on how the activity you completed is relevant and assists in your professional development.”

 

“insanipi” – Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science

Read insanipi’s full journal here.

“Aside from all the assessments, I’m actually really enjoying learning the content for compchem and formchem! They are definitely my two favourite units this semester- albeit occasionally I have found myself having to sit down and think about all the maths and theory surrounding these units, else I’d be as lost as I am with Colloids! I like my pharmacology unit this semester, however listening to the sole lecturer is a seemingly impossible task- he just makes the whole lecture about him and it gets tiring after the first week aha :’)

Clubwise, I’m doing pretty okay! Planning is in full swing for Winterfest and open day- which has been keeping me busy on and off campus. I also got the opportunity to help run the games club/postgrad association games night on Friday, so I got to see what some of my lab demonstrators are actually like, and to get some of the goss on some of the lecturers!”

 

“katie,rinos” – Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Education (Secondary)

Read katie,rinos’s full journal here.

“I had the Arts Ball on the Friday of week 3 at Doltone House in Hyde Park (which was fancier then my year 12 formal!). I met with two of my friends from the Arts camp so it was good to see and talk to them again. The food was really good; however, the music was too loud so it was a bit hard to talk to each other.

…

Surprisingly, I’m enjoying this course more then I was expecting (& more than last sem). I think this lecturer is explaining things in a way that is easier for me to understand. So far, we’ve been through chords in minor keys, secondary dominant chords and leading tone chords. We have a test on Tuesday about the lecture content, and another one on Wednesday for the rhythm workshop. The rhythm workshop part of M&S has been really boring so far as it’s been very simple stuff that I already know. The aural studio also been interesting, but there are things I’m going to need to work on more such as transcriptions.”