Here was my advice coming from 2 years ago when I was in first year
ACCT1501
- Make sure you do the work every week – it builds up and the following week is dependent on the previous week;
- You don’t need to attend lectures;
- Make sure you work with others for perdisco – it’s very helpful to do so;
- Get cheat sheets for perdisco – it’s helpful as well;
- Google up the quiz questions – because you can
;
- Make sure you ask previous cohorts about the midsem questions – they tend to repeat the questions a lot – if you like, feel free to take a photo of your questions and answers and pass them to the next cohort
ECON1101
- Having Alberto Motta as a lecturer is worth it – go to his lectures – he will make you laugh
- In exams, make sure you write specifically what the marker wants or otherwise you will lose marks for not doing so (especially like HSC physics or chemistry);
- Read textbook thoroughly to understand everything;
- Finals used to have short answer responses but are now all multiple choice in order to cut marking costs
ARTS2450
- Do lots and lots of study for the subject – read, write, memorize, learn how to construct sentences, moar reading outside of textbook etc.
- Make sure you attend lectures or get someone to mark your name off;
- Lectures are boring so if you intend to go then do as above
- Make sure you can find a midsem exam somewhere – it’s been uploaded somewhere and most of the answers are right.
- Make sure you get a good group for this subject – it’s pretty hard otherwise
- Make sure what you write is correct – short and to the point or otherwise you will lose marks even if it’s written very well but has grammatical or any mistakes.
- Finals are difficult as they test stuff that’s not in the textbook and stuff you haven’t learned before – learn to read lots of different papers and material (in Chinese) and try to comprehend it to expand your own knowledge.
- If you do background stream it’s harder but there’s more room for cheating iirc. Non-background is easier but it’s harder to cheat in exams though.
MATH1151
- Like MATH1131/1141 same study techniques apply – the thing is that in 1151 you’re not scaled with 1131/1141 students and thus it’s more competitive.
- The subject itself isn’t too bad but make sure you get regular study for this subject – it’s maths so hence why;
- Try to find previously recent quizzes (2012/2013/2014) and use them to your advantage – the class tests do not help too much tbh but they’re a good guide.
- Finals – well make sure you get enough study for it.
ACTL1001
- Not sure about this one but I had Brian Chu as the lecturer. Michael Sherris is now taking the course so it’s all mathematical again I’m guessing.
- If the above is true, well then there’s not much I can say but try the 2010 and previous years past papers (not 2011 or 2012).
FINS1613
- Highly suggest you take this subject in semester 1 instead of semester 2
- Good lecturer in semester 1 – literally gives out a lot of material to study from
- In semester 2 you get a shit lecturer who doesn’t help you at all and takes off lecture slides in order to get people to come to his lectures
- Iirc the DN/HD rate for the subject in semester 1 is around 50% (due to scaling) whilst in semester 2 it’s probably around 25% or less.
- MC is kinda stupid – they have something like A, B, C, A and B, B and C, A and B and C, none of the above (those sorts of questions).
- Semester 1 finals are apparently hard but they should be doable – there’s also scaling for the subject too. In semester 2 the finals are brutal and it’s much harder to pass iirc.
ARTS2451
- Similar advice as for ARTS2450 so not much comment I can give for this one.
MATH1251
- Similar to MATH1151 but if you get Grundling or Brian Jefferies, don’t go to the lectures.
- You don’t need to attend lectures for this subject and still do pretty damn well in this subject.