I like Multimedia. It's good fun.
We don't learn a lot
from the teacher but he's good at providing us with resources to learn from, if that makes sense. I'm not surprised that other people have found their teachers to be incompetent, I've had shit IT/computing teachers before.
The Multimedia aspect of the course should be simple for anyone able to use these forums. It's quite similar to the things you learn in the Multimedia option topic of IPT.
If you're interested in a career in the industry, the major project can be an excellent addition to a portfolio.
It is actually pretty career orientated, like other category B courses. You do things like an Industry Study, where you're supposed to research a business that does the sort of work that your option topic covers. It's useful as a way of gauging whether you'd want to work in the area.
It's worth noting that the focus is very much on industry, and that does cover a lot of dry, relatively boring crap. If you do business studies or economics, you're already ahead. (I don't do either, but others in my class do).
The HSC exam is 60% Industry and 40% option Topic. The exam itself is 40% of the HSC mark; 60% being your major project.
The project will be due (probably, YMMV) just before your trial exams. Ours were due a few weeks before HSC marking so that we could finish them and focus on studying for other subjects. This does allow you to stress a little less, having finished the bulk of the work for a subject gives you more time for the others.
The major project was the most fun, naturally. It's worth noting at the start that as far as marks go, it's a roughly even split on documentation (your record of how you built the project) and practical (the actual project). Even though lots of people seem to spend 90% of their time on the practical aspect, almost half the marks come from your documentation.
It is an easy subject as long as you can learn the basic theory and think on your feet in an exam and be able to bullshit reasonable responses (particularly in the industry section). Judging by the recent exams, 35% to 40% of the exam will be questions requiring about 1 page as an answer. This counts as a long response in IT, although it's nothing compared to other subjects.
You only have to look at the syllabus (compared to say... Physics) to understand that it's not a particularly well organised or structured course, one of the Board's least favourite children.
Finally, it scales shit. The top of the state got a scaling contribution of 39.7/50 in 2004 and 42.7 in 2005, if memory serves me right. It's moving in the right direction, at least. Personally I think Multimedia suffers in this respect from being grouped in with other options. (Just from my own experience, the top students in IT at school are all from the Multimedia option and not Timber and Furniture)
Having said that, unless you need to get a UAI of 99, a scaling contribution of 40 would be fine. Of course, that's if you're at the top of the state. According to my friend SAM, a band 6 (90) in IT contributes 33/50 and an 80 contributes 23.
IT:Multimedia is a great subject if you're interested in it and don't mind how it scales.
