I just finished my third year and sitting pretty for entry to honours. What do I think of psych at UWS? Well, from it's international reputation it's a highly regarded course and the psych department is probably one of the best at the uni, there are a central core of passionate psych lecturers (which you probably won't really see till second year) that really, in my case at least motivate and interest you in psychology.
The best units? To me, logical thinking, neuroscience, the stats units (very fun), History and philosophy of psychology (any science degree should teach the fundamentals of "clear thinking"). The worst? I chose some bad electives, I would recommend against Crime and Criminology and Information processing. As for the cores, well I didn't like abnormal psych mainly because there was too much material to learn, there's two textbooks one for psych disorders the other for stats and test theory. It sort of felt like the unit had dissociative personality disorder
.
The easiest? Well I can't really answer that, getting a hd in any unit is hard, it depends mostly on your ability to give your tutors what they want (not that easy) sometimes you will be disappointed but you have to learn from that for the next time, don't blame others even if it is the case, instead think hard "how can I beat this tutor?" it worked for me.
I can tell you some of the hardest however, some units involve lots of memorising, especially neuroscience but also environmental psychology. He also tends to have some hard exams (neuroscience this semesters had two essays) but the material is interesting. Some of the biology units may be a little hard for someone without science experience (chemistry/ biology) which I've seen drag some down. In those units don't panic, just apply yourself, look at the material you don't understand, look it up on google, youtube anything until you do understand.
For me the first year was pretty challenging, mainly due to nerves and thinking
"well its the big time now, how can I possibly succeed?" but that passes the first assessment you get a d for. The second year is really like a sandwiched year between two significant years, the first and the third. But it is very important to get good marks here, firstly to make up for usually poorer results in first year but to also set yourself up for entry into the fourth year.
Second year units build on those of first year b psych, b arts will be doing some new stuff. Third year is a bit of a grind, if your like me and want to get into honours, get a phd than you will be thinking about that honours proposal alot, however the amount of assessment at this stage is cranked up and your spare time goes down the drain.
The worst semester for me was the last for third year, it feels like I just wanted it over with and get on with the honours, I call it third year burnout. However don't let my experience dictate your actions, try hard in third year, be consistent, the material is still interesting.
On a different note life at UWS is interesting, there are a wide variety of people from all different cultures and nationalities. In my course at least there are some very dedicated and intelligent people whom I am proud to work with, however there are always a lot of underachievers initially, but they get filtered out over the years, so don't get discouraged about your degree when you see a few 'idiots' walking in and out of lectures (if they attend lectures) and talking about how "dreamy Edward is" during bio tutes.
Social life at UWS is what you make of it, you can make lots of friends or be a bit of a shut in concentrating on studies (like me
) people with negative attitudes can get you down, (the whole UWS sucks thing) but it's important to overlook this attitude, which stems from a sense of entitlement ("I am much better than everyone here") and self depreciation imparted from North shore snobbery ("Westies are pathetic, bogan idiots"). Overlook these people, or if you can tell them to look at the uni differently, it's an opportunity to show what western sydney can do.
The clubs at UWS are sparse and shitty (bible study anyone?) but this is mainly the fault of student negative attitude causing melange or laziness towards association with the uni. Coupled with a poor student association that spends most of its time protesting about anything and yelling at walls about parking the result is stunted social facilities. I would hope this would change, but don't hold your breath, try starting your own club, the uni will probably fund you (through the student association).
Anywho, its important to keep in mind that whilst UWS has a lower entry requirement it really aims to filter out underachievers latter on, so work hard don't think low uai/ atar means shit easy work. It means "I will have to compete with alot of people, and prove my self"
To close my rabid UWS fueled rant, there's no reason not to choose UWS if it is convenient for you for psych, it is well connected internationally and the job prospects are very good.
Oh and go to Bankstown....
EDIT: I didn't realize how old this thread was, sorry for the necromancy......
