Subject Reviews Semester 1
PSYC2061 (Social and Developmental Psychology)
Ease: 9/10. The first half of the course is basically a revision of what you learn in first year psychology. The second half builds upon that slightly. The journal article assignment was piss easy and required no research whatsoever. The essay on the other hand was a lot more difficult and required 'critical analysis' of the research in that area. The final exam was a combination of 60 multiple choice and 4 short answer questions. Funnily enough, the multiple choice was a bitch whereas the short answers were extremely straight forward. Textbook was not used for the most part except to help study for the finals and the essay. Do not buy the textbook because there is an online pdf available.
Content: 7.5/10. Developmental psychology was very straightforward whereas social psychology got confusing at times. The content was interesting overall apart from the crosscultural psychology lectures. They were merely a repeat of what was learned in first year cross cultural psychology
Lecturer: 9/10 Jenny Richmond was a lot better in this course than in the first year courses. She seemed more confident about her topic and tried to make the lectures interesting with youtube videos. I appreciate that. Cranney, the cross cultural lecturer, was terrible and awfully monotonous. Forgas, the social lecturer knew his topic inside out. He had practically memorised the whole textbook. The only downside was that his lectures were a tad too serious and seldom were there any jokes thrown in
Tutor: Sarah 9/10. She made the tutes very interactive and interesting. She also knew her stuff very well. Her feedback on assignments were quite helpful.
Overall: 8.5/10. Solid course
CRIM2032 (Disability in the Criminal Justice System)
Ease: 9/10. Content is fairly straightforward, especially if you understand first year criminology concepts well, such as institutionalisation, net widening etc. You can achieve a high grade without doing any of the readings that are not necessary. You will have to do some readings though for the assessments. However, I don't know if its just me, but the marking seems to be harsh or at the very least, inconsistent with the feedback that is given. For my final assignment, the comment I received was 'The report was excellent. Well written structured and analysis was critical. Well done!' and only received 35/45. Yes, that's a distinction, and i'm happy with a distinction, but if i got that kind of comment in any of my other courses I would be expecting at least a HD.
Content: 8/10 Very interesting learning about people with mental disabilities in the criminal justice system. Really makes you realise how unjustly they are being treated in gaol.
Lecturer: Eileen Baldry 7.5/10. I did not attend many of the lectures but when I did attend, she seldom taught for the entire duration of the lecture. Often there was a guest speaker and they gave a lecture about their area of expertise. When she did teach though, she was decent and made us watch videos that were usually entertaining as well as insightful
Overall: 8/10. Good course, just be prepared for inconsistent assessment feedback and marks that will leave you saying 'dafk'.
LAWS1052 (Introduction to Law and Justice)
Ease: 8/10. My experience with this course was that it was relatively easy. The court report was straightforward but it required a balance of describing the court proceedings and analysing those proceedings within the content of the course. Apparently, many people did not do as well as they should have because they because they could not strike that balance. In saying that, referencing was a bitch though, you have to be very very careful. Depending on your lecturer, they may take marks off for the absence of a comma in your footnotes. Ridiculous. Also, do not underestimate the case note. It was extremely time consuming and understanding the case was not simple. The harshness of the marking is largely dependent on the lecturer.
Content: 8/10. A lot of wishy washy history stuff and legal theories. This course really does not reflect what studying law is like. I recommend, if possible, that you take this course alongside LAWS1141 because the content overlaps to a large extent. There were topics in this course I did not study for at all (such as the rule of law) because LAWS1141 covered it already, and in more depth as well.
Lecturer: Kripps 5/10. Her positives: she was nice, makes you do a lot of group work so that you can interact with the rest of the class and gives easy CP marks. Her negatives: her favorite word is 'um'. Not even joking, every second word uttered by her is 'um. Funny at first but gets extremely annoying when she is trying to explain an important concept. She also does not seem to know her content well at all. She will struggle to explain or answer many of the questions that are asked to her, even though its expected that she would know the answer to such questions. Her assessment feedback consists of many ticks, and a one word comment at the end. Finally, she doesnt seem to be qualified to teach law in the first place since she doesn't even have an LLB. Therefore, the marks she gives you should not be trusted, whether they be good or bad. Do not choose her classes if you want to learn.
Research Tutor: Collin Fong 10/10. His tutes are so chill, which doesn't mean you won't learn anything. He demonstrates all the research methods on the smart board so that's very useful.
Overall: 8/10. In summary, the lecturer that end up teaching you will largely determine whether you enjoy the course or not. Choose wisely. I hear Vines and Engels were pretty good.
LAWS1141 (Principles of Public Law)
Ease: 7/10. Not going to lie, the assessment wasn't very clear. A problem with law courses is that they do not provide marking criteria before the assessment is due. Therefore, you don't know what your assignment is missing until you receive the feedback. I find that extremely annoying. On the other hand, I suppose it compels you to consider every possible aspect that may be relevant to your assignment. Final exam was seemingly straight forward and I felt that I was copying large chunks off my notes into the exam paper (open book exam).
Content: 9/10. Builds upon many of the principles and concepts learned in LAWS1052 and teaches many more related ones about the arms of government and administration. Personally, I found the content very interesting and it definitely helped me learn about how our government was set out, its constitutional framework and the accountability mechanisms that are in place to ensure limited government.
Lecturer: Jackie Hartley 10/10. Excellent lecturer. She knows her shit, that's as simple as I can put it. She explains herself very well and makes us question ourselves every time a question is asked. Her assessment feedback, although vague on paper, is compensated by the fact that she is willing to sit down with you one-on-one and discuss your assignment with you. I learned a lot from her classes.
Overall: 9/10. Not the easiest course, but you will learn a lot!