a few questions... (1 Viewer)

[me182]

i'm thinking of doing french next year although have absolutely no knowledge of that language now.. will that be a problem? even in the beginner course.

also, what's involved in cultural studies? i have a book with an overview of it and i find it interesting but what are the specifics of it? like, what do you have to do for assessments and whatnot? and the actual course content, what do you do?

and modern history, is it anything like hsc modern?

thanks.

 

[AsyLum]

Regarding Languages at MQ: You'll find that most language courses run streamed courses, that is they'll usually have Beginners (with either no experience or those who haven't touched the language and want to have a refresher) and depending on numbers Intermediate and Expert/Natural speaker level.

As for Cultural Studies, for the most part its about writing essays on the theories involved in cultural studies. Postmodernism/structuralism will be heavily involved so if you like that kind of thing, it'll be fun (once you get passed the awful 100 level CUL100 subject ugh). The range of subjects can be found here: http://handbook.mq.edu.au/unitcodeprefix.php?ulevel=ug&unitCodePrefix=CUL

And for Modern History, from my limited experience with Modern History I think the department is full of some of the best lecturers/teachers in the Division of Humanities/Faculty of Arts come 2009. As for the subjects themselves, if it was anything like High School Ancient > Uni Ancient, you'll be covering things with a lot more depth in a shorter amount of time and looking at things in a more of an academic manner.

 

[me182]

okay awesome thanks a lot.

this whole uni business confuses me a lot, so how many units can we do?
and how many subjects as well?

 

[AsyLum]

Ok, units = subjects. Each unit has a certain weighting, called credit points (kinda like the HSC with normal subjects taking making up 2 points and extension ones making up 1). For now (because there is change in the air at MQ and things may change) the most units have 3 credit points to their name with latter 2nd (200-level units ie, 2xx, usually seen as 'second year' subjects but again thats contentious at MQ.) and 3rd (300-level) units either 3-4.

As a full time student, most people do 4 subjects a semester totalling around 12 credit points. (The credit points are mostly for administrative purposes, they really don't reflect a subjects difficulty or workload and more for determining whether you are a full-time or part-time student).

Hope that helps.

 

[me182]

okay so i could do say - CUL100, MUS102, PHIL137, FRN106? which equates 11 points.

 

[AsyLum]

Sure, I'm assuming you're doing a BA?

 

[me182]

yep.

 

[xeuyrawp]

Yeah that's fine. Those four subjects are a good mix - make sure you're prepared to work hard, because uni languages can be challenging. Very rewarding, but challenging nevertheless.