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UNSW Subject Reviews. (3 Viewers)

plasticities

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Joined
Aug 18, 2009
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175
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Female
HSC
2011
CHEM1041 (Higher Chemistry B):
Ease: 8/10
Lecturers: 7/10, Professor Thordarson explains everything really well but his accent can be hard to understand sometimes, Cole I struggled with again and Morris was pretty good as well
Interest: 9/10, Kinetics, stereochemistry, structural determination and d-orbital complexes are really interesting, and organic to a lesser extent
Overall: 7/10. The labs and lab reports can be tricky, but the computer assignments are very straight forward. I found more of the content this semester, more interesting than CHEM1031. With organic, make sure you learn how to use the roadmap (which is easier if you understand the mechanisms) so that you can do the synthesis questions a lot easier. The final was pretty straight forward, though a couple of tricky questions. And with the group lab assignment, make sure you contribute so your peers don't mark you down on participation (although you should contribute anyway).

MATH1041 (Statistics for Life and Social Science):
Ease: 10/10 If you can add, subtract, divide, multiply and square root, this should be fine
Lecturers: 9/10 I had David and he was pretty good at explaining everything
Interest: 4/10
Overall: 8/10 The assignments were super easy, you can get full marks no problem, the mid-semester exam was harder than expected, so the average was pretty low, but if you listen in lectures, and understand what's going on you'll do fine. The final is super predictable as well and easy. Though the lectures are 2 hours long and I usually lose interest.

PSYC1011 (Psychology B):
Ease: 8/10 The content is really straightforward, the only time it can get difficult is in psychobiology, but other than that it's fine
Lecturers: They were all pretty good, except for the psychobiology guy, who would include massive chunks of text on his slides, with jargon and would pretty much just read straight off them.
Interest: 9/10 This semester of psychology is more brain based (memory and cognition, perception, animal learning, psychobiology and abnormal psychology) rather than psychology A which was more mind based. I found it a lot more interesting since it related more to my major, but it's just a matter of preference.
Overall: 7/10 The exams in this course are really straight forward, but the assignment marking is really harsh. With your group assignments, stick to the brief very strictly and make sure your actual presentation is as good as your content. With the research report, there isn't much advice other than go over your format with a fine tooth comb and get someone to proof read it. They usually award terrible marks for this no matter what. Don't bother going to the statistics lectures if you're doing MATH1041 or know someone who is doing it/has done it. The concepts are straightforward.

BIOS1101 (Evolutionary and Functional Biology):
Ease: 6/10 The practical exam is notoriously difficult, this years average (and apparently best of record is ~59%, while previous years have been around ~45% I've heard).
Lecturers: 7/10 Mike Archer is one of the most interesting and charismatic lecturers I've had so far. I interviewed him for a SCIF assignment last semester and he is just awesome. The other two lecturers are okay but pretty boring.
Interest: 2/10 Not really an animal/plant biology person, but if you're into that, you'll love this course
Overall: 5/10 Try not to lose marks on the small lab assignments, be really thorough with everything because they will take away marks for small things, even if you get it checked by a lab demo before handing it in. Before the final, do the revision questions on blackboard, they will take some straight off there and put it in the final.
 

a19901213

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Has anyone done the ECON1203 exam today? I think it was ridiculous.

Half of the questions were never seen or taught in the lecture or in the tutorial. And we only had 2 hours to finish this crap. I went home try to figure the answers with textbook and lecture side and I have no idea at all.

The mid exam was already bad enough with average mark like 40%, and now they make the final even worse.
 

4025808

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Has anyone done the ECON1203 exam today? I think it was ridiculous.

Half of the questions were never seen or taught in the lecture or in the tutorial. And we only had 2 hours to finish this crap. I went home try to figure the answers with textbook and lecture side and I have no idea at all.

The mid exam was already bad enough with average mark like 40%, and now they make the final even worse.
Did you receive any past papers this semester? Coz you should have asked around for past papers with solutions. Last sem, people got two past papers and the final exam was very similar to the past papers.
 

halapenyo

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Has anyone done the ECON1203 exam today? I think it was ridiculous.

Half of the questions were never seen or taught in the lecture or in the tutorial. And we only had 2 hours to finish this crap. I went home try to figure the answers with textbook and lecture side and I have no idea at all.

The mid exam was already bad enough with average mark like 40%, and now they make the final even worse.
fuck are you serious? i picked it for next sem thinking its a wam booster.
 

a19901213

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Did you receive any past papers this semester? Coz you should have asked around for past papers with solutions. Last sem, people got two past papers and the final exam was very similar to the past papers.
Yes we had three past papers with solutions(I even did a extra past papers just to make sure I have enough preparation), I did these past papers like hundred times that I can even memorize it backward, and the exam today was nothing even close to any of these past papers. Also they changed the examination time from 3 hours to 2 hours this semester, and I think 2 hours was not enough for the content we had today.

Now I hope they gonna scale the result..
 

a19901213

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fuck are you serious? i picked it for next sem thinking its a wam booster.
That's what I thought at the beginning of this semester when people told me ECON1203 was easy when they did it. And the past papers I did were really easy as well. But they changed the structure of the exam a lot this time.
 
Last edited:

halapenyo

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look they are probably going to scale it if it was as hard as you say it is. i mean its a commerce compulsory core course so they cant afford to fail too many people.
 

a19901213

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look they are probably going to scale it if it was as hard as you say it is. i mean its a commerce compulsory core course so they cant afford to fail too many people.
hopefully, otherwise i guess lots of people are gonna end up failing the course(including me)
 

D94

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look they are probably going to scale it if it was as hard as you say it is. i mean its a commerce compulsory core course so they cant afford to fail too many people.
...Physics (core for most engineering streams) has something like a 40% fail rate. Of course they can fail many people if they want. (unless when you say "many", you mean like 80%)
 

kaz1

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...Physics (core for most engineering streams) has something like a 40% fail rate. Of course they can fail many people if they want. (unless when you say "many", you mean like 80%)
it was like 20% when I did it
 

poppy0430

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lol gonna fail comp1917 for sureee on monday...and does anyone know if elec1112 supplementary exams are provided? much thanks beforehand.
 

muzeikchun852

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Semester 1 2012


ACCT1501:
Ease: 8.5/10 Concepts were pretty easy, except I found bank reconciliation really difficult, but we didn’t get anything on it in the final, so it’s all good.
Lecturer: 3/10 All three lecturers were quite boring tbh, but Tami would be the best of the three 7/10. Regardless, I guess we couldn't blame them, since the content itself is quite dry. It is also worth mentioning that the lecturer-in-charge did a great job on structuring the course, and out of all the courses that I have done, this is the most organised one.
Interest: 1/10 DRY.
Overall: 7.5/10

ECON1101:
Ease: 6/10 I thought this was an easy course until we did the class tests. So be prepared.
Lecturer: 5/10 The assessment tasks were extremely unorganised.
Interest: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

MATH1151:
Ease: 6/10 First maths course. It was definitely not easy, but sometimes I felt that they over-complicated the theories. It is much better to work through the problems in the course notes.
Lecturer: 6/10 Both Calculus and Algebra Lecturers moved extremely fast (compared to high school), and you MUST get the theories on that particular lecture before the next one, or else things are gonna stack up and you end up failing.
Interest: 9/10 Quite interesting in comparison to the rest of the courses that I was doing at the same time, but it had the heaviest workload.
Overall: 8.5/10

SCIF1121:
Ease: 10/10 WHAT EASE?
Lecturer: ?/10 WHO’S THE LECTURER?
Interest: 0/10 INTERESTING? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Overall: 10/10 Missed almost half the tutorials and still get a D.

Semester 2 2012


ACCT1511:
Ease: 3/10 The content was so much harder than 1A, and the only reason why I’ve chosen 1B was the mark that I’ve received in 1A. Result: regret.
Lecturer: 3/10 same old accounting lectures. I was forced to attend most of the lecture because there was no recording. Again, they were much organised with assessment tasks/exam notice.
Interest: 2/10 DRY.
Overall: 6.5/10 Lucky the final was comparatively easier than the past years.

FINS1613:
Ease: 8.5/10 My favourite course of the year. The content was quite easy for me and the concept was easy to grasp, although the tests weren't too easy.
Lecturer: 2/10 Most boring lectures.
Interest: 10/10. Very Interesting.
Overall: 9/10

MATH1251:
Ease: 7/10 1251 was a little bit easier, since I got the rhythm of 1151 and some concepts were carried forward from 1151.
Lecturer: 6/10 Same-ish with the last semester.
Interest: 8/10. Less interesting since some concepts had been repeated.
Overall: 8.5/10

MATH1081:
Ease: 8.5/10 I was reading some of the reviews here and there were more negative comments about this course than positive ones, so I’ve prepared myself for the worst time of my life before I start.
However, I need to do some justice for this course.
This course was easy. Much easier than 1151/1251. The concept was easy to grasp and the class test/exam is 10 times easier than 1151/1251. Most concepts have been learnt in high school (perms & combs, induction, function, prove), but there was also a large chunk of concept that I’ve never seen before (graph theory). If you want to me to choose between MATH1081 and MATH1151/1251, MATH1081 no doubt.
Lecturer: 4/10. Frances Kuo 10/10 – Best lecturer I had this year. Very funny. She kept me focused during lecture. One offset of this course is that they have 4 x 1 hour per week in different day (two 9AM as well this sem).
Interest: 9.5/10. Very Interesting.
Overall: 9/10


- sorry for any typo. -
 
Last edited:

Wingardium

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Has anyone done the ECON1203 exam today? I think it was ridiculous.

Half of the questions were never seen or taught in the lecture or in the tutorial. And we only had 2 hours to finish this crap. I went home try to figure the answers with textbook and lecture side and I have no idea at all.

The mid exam was already bad enough with average mark like 40%, and now they make the final even worse.
Yea holy shit. i did the stats exam and it had questions that were impossible to answer. Like that confundment thing at the end that i've never heard of in my entire life.
and Question 1 had the weirdest start with it telling us to draw bar charts wtf. They havent tested bar charts and all those gay crap for the last decade
 

smik11

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138
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2011
Should I do MARK1012 or INFS1062? which is easier??
 

wantingtoknow

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Dec 6, 2008
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I would say MARK1012 although I haven't personally done it. stay away from INFS1602 if you can though, stupid subject in general - waste of time, bad lecturers and tutors, too much theory to learn, boring content, assignment takes forever to complete and if you're stuck with bad people then gg, negative marking in final etc.

but if you plan on completing CPA, then you'll need INFS1602
 

smik11

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2011
not planning to do CPA. ill stick to marketing then. thanks!
 

illmatic1

New Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
Messages
2
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HSC
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CHEM1041 (Higher Chemistry B):
Ease: 8/10
Lecturers: 7/10, Professor Thordarson explains everything really well but his accent can be hard to understand sometimes, Cole I struggled with again and Morris was pretty good as well
Interest: 9/10, Kinetics, stereochemistry, structural determination and d-orbital complexes are really interesting, and organic to a lesser extent
Overall: 7/10. The labs and lab reports can be tricky, but the computer assignments are very straight forward. I found more of the content this semester, more interesting than CHEM1031. With organic, make sure you learn how to use the roadmap (which is easier if you understand the mechanisms) so that you can do the synthesis questions a lot easier. The final was pretty straight forward, though a couple of tricky questions. And with the group lab assignment, make sure you contribute so your peers don't mark you down on participation (although you should contribute anyway).

MATH1041 (Statistics for Life and Social Science):
Ease: 10/10 If you can add, subtract, divide, multiply and square root, this should be fine
Lecturers: 9/10 I had David and he was pretty good at explaining everything
Interest: 4/10
Overall: 8/10 The assignments were super easy, you can get full marks no problem, the mid-semester exam was harder than expected, so the average was pretty low, but if you listen in lectures, and understand what's going on you'll do fine. The final is super predictable as well and easy. Though the lectures are 2 hours long and I usually lose interest.

PSYC1011 (Psychology B):
Ease: 8/10 The content is really straightforward, the only time it can get difficult is in psychobiology, but other than that it's fine
Lecturers: They were all pretty good, except for the psychobiology guy, who would include massive chunks of text on his slides, with jargon and would pretty much just read straight off them.
Interest: 9/10 This semester of psychology is more brain based (memory and cognition, perception, animal learning, psychobiology and abnormal psychology) rather than psychology A which was more mind based. I found it a lot more interesting since it related more to my major, but it's just a matter of preference.
Overall: 7/10 The exams in this course are really straight forward, but the assignment marking is really harsh. With your group assignments, stick to the brief very strictly and make sure your actual presentation is as good as your content. With the research report, there isn't much advice other than go over your format with a fine tooth comb and get someone to proof read it. They usually award terrible marks for this no matter what. Don't bother going to the statistics lectures if you're doing MATH1041 or know someone who is doing it/has done it. The concepts are straightforward.

BIOS1101 (Evolutionary and Functional Biology):
Ease: 6/10 The practical exam is notoriously difficult, this years average (and apparently best of record is ~59%, while previous years have been around ~45% I've heard).
Lecturers: 7/10 Mike Archer is one of the most interesting and charismatic lecturers I've had so far. I interviewed him for a SCIF assignment last semester and he is just awesome. The other two lecturers are okay but pretty boring.
Interest: 2/10 Not really an animal/plant biology person, but if you're into that, you'll love this course
Overall: 5/10 Try not to lose marks on the small lab assignments, be really thorough with everything because they will take away marks for small things, even if you get it checked by a lab demo before handing it in. Before the final, do the revision questions on blackboard, they will take some straight off there and put it in the final.
Haha I recognize this course plan...Much respect if you are majoring in Neuroscience
 

Mature Lamb

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2015
Semester 2, 2012

ECON1102:
Ease: 6/10 I expected this to be my WAM booster, although it's entirely my fault. I left study til the day before (for midsession and final exam) and got a very poor mark.
Lecturer: x/10 Never went to Commerce lectures.
Interest: 9/10 Although I touched my textbook for maybe 12 hours in total throughout the whole semester, I genuinely enjoyed what I was reading despite all the last minute panic. If I could go back in time to the beginning of semester, I'd definitely study this course properly and enjoy it.
Overall: 8/10 I can't really comment on this course other than I really enjoyed it (I'm a Finance major) and wish I studied this course properly throughout the semester.

FINS3616:
Ease: 8/10 Final exam only examined what wasn't covered in the midsession. Wasn't too bad. If you studied it properly, you would've done well.
Lecturer: x/10 Never went to Commerce lectures.
Interest: 7/10 To be honest I didn't enjoy it as much as the other 3 core Finance courses. The foreign exchange stuff got really annoying and I was pretty slow at it.
Overall: 7.5/10 Compulsory for Finance majors. Not as exciting as the other 3 core courses but still fairly interesting.

MATH2130:
Ease: 4/10 I actually found this pretty difficult. I enjoyed differential equations in first year but this was entirely different. Partial differential equations flew over my head completely, I gave up studying for it for my final exam.
Lecturer: 8/10 McLean was a good lecturer but I never really listened in class (9am start). Seems like a genuinely nice guy and seems helpful in consultation.
Interest: 6/10 Like I said, I enjoyed it in first year but this was difficult so I was frustrated at times.
Overall: 7/10 Compulsory for most maths majors. I'll be taking the 3rd year differential equations course, hopefully it won't build on this course too much.

MATH2601:
Ease: 6/10 The content was decent but at times I didn't know how to start off most tutorial questions. Some parts of this course is pretty much revision of first year algebra. Content easy to learn, hard to actually answer questions.
Lecturer: 9/10 Daniel Chan is an amazing lecturer. I had him for Discrete Maths in first year but didn't really enjoy him, but I found him a lot more enthusiastic for this course. Very nice and helpful.
Interest: 8/10 I enjoyed the content, much more abstract than first year though.
Overall: 8/10 Great course, but it was difficult for me.

MATH2620:
Ease: 8/10 Complex Analysis is like a combination of Complex Numbers you did in High School/first year uni and Calculus in first year.
Lecturer: 10/10 The Legendary Peter Brown. Always enthusiastic about what he teaches, full of facts and maths jokes/puns.
Interest: 9/10 My favourite second year maths course. Always interesting to see how complex numbers work and how they link to the real numbers.
Overall: 9/10 I'm looking to take the Postgrad version of this in my Honours year. Fun course, not too difficult.
 

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