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UNSW Subject Survival Guides (1 Viewer)

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Post up any hints and tips and experiences you've had for an UNSW subject that could help people get HDs!

You can discuss lecturers, tutors, assignments, exams, study advice, etc.

No format but try to do dot points.

SUBJECT:

- Point 1.
- Point 2.
- Point 3.
 
Last edited:
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ACCT1501:

- Stay on top of your tutorial work. Each week builds on the last.
- Don't need to go to lectures but they can be useful depending on the lecturer.
- Try and get your hands on a past paper. They're not readily available.
- Find a Perdisco guide. It's crazy hard to do solo.
- Take your time with the quizzes (there are guides out there and some guy posted a lot of q's on Yahoo Answers). 15% is no joke!
- PASS classes are good for this subject.

ECON1101:

- If you get Alberto Motta as your lecturer it'd be well worth your time attending.
- Read over the textbook each week to fully understand everything.
- Make sure you actually understand demand and supply curves because they're fundamental.
- Take your hand in q's seriously. If you're not sure what to put in, then put in any information you can think of. Structure doesn't matter for these. So long as the right answer is somewhere on the page (even if it's amongst lots of irrelevant stuff) you should get the marks.
- Entire final is multiple choice!

INFS1602:

- Don't bother with these lectures. They're a joke, just like the subject. But do attend the last lecture because he basically tells you exactly what's on the exam.
- Tutorials are a bore but much of the exam q's will be based off the work you do here so be sure to look over your work and pay attention to class discussions.
- Exam is m/c and 6 semi-extended responses (about 1-2 pages each).
- PASS is a waste of time.
- Find a good partner for the second assignment.
- Use lots of examples and case studies in your assignments.

INFS1603:

- This took me a while to get my head around. It's largely diagram based but once you get the hang of it, it is really very simple.
- SQL (coding) can be a bit complex but it's honestly not that vital. Just a little in the final.
- So long as you attempt your SQL h/w you should get the marks for the tutorials.
- Don't over study for the exam. It's underwhelming. Far less technical than you're led to expect.
- The second assignment takes a very long time considering it's only worth 10% and 5% for presentation so definitely find good partners who will actually contribute. Ideally find an SQL wizard!
 
Last edited:

obliviousninja

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ACCT1501:

- Stay on top of your tutorial work. Each week builds on the last.
- Don't need to go to lectures but they can be useful depending on the lecturer.
- Try and get your hands on a past paper. They're not readily available.
- Find a Perdisco guide. It's crazy hard to do solo.
- Take your time with the quizzes (there are guides out there and some guy posted a lot of q's on Yahoo Answers). 15% is no joke!
- PASS classes are good for this subject.

ECON1101:

- If you get Alberto Motta as your lecturer it'd be well worth your time attending.
- Read over the textbook each week to fully understand everything.
- Make sure you actually understand demand and supply curves because they're fundamental.
- Take your hand in q's seriously. If you're not sure what to put in, then put in any information you can think of. Structure doesn't matter for these. So long as the right answer is somewhere on the page (even if it's amongst lots of irrelevant stuff) you should get the marks.
- Entire final is multiple choice!

INFS1602:

- Don't bother with these lectures. They're a joke, just like the subject. But do attend the last lecture because he basically tells you exactly what's on the exam.
- Tutorials are a bore but much of the exam q's will be based off the work you do here so be sure to look over your work and pay attention to class discussions.
- Exam is m/c and 6 semi-extended responses (about 1-2 pages each).
- PASS is a waste of time.
- Find a good partner for the second assignment.
- Use lots of examples and case studies in your assignments.

INFS1603:

- This took me a while to get my head around. It's largely diagram based but once you get the hang of it, it is really very simple.
- SQL (coding) can be a bit complex but it's honestly not that vital. Just a little in the final.
- So long as you attempt your SQL h/w you should get the marks for the tutorials.
- Don't over study for the exam. It's underwhelming. Far less technical than you're led to expect.
- The second assignment takes a very long time considering it's only worth 10% and 5% for presentation so definitely find good partners who will actually contribute. Ideally find an SQL wizard!
Solid write up!

Pretty much ma f33ls. 1603. I thought there would be normalisation. Nek minut.

Mfw all the sql are just group functions...not even any selects within a select
 
Last edited:

Examine

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Peter is also a pretty good lecturer for ECON1101
 

Squar3root

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ENGG1000
- don't put any effort in and get a distinction. but very little effort in and get HD

MATH1141
- gg on Q4

PHYS1121
- don't get rekt'd

COMP1911
- gg mechatronics
 

integral95

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ENGG1000
- don't put any effort in and get a distinction. but very little effort in and get HD

MATH1141
- gg on Q4

PHYS1121
- don't get rekt'd

COMP1911
- gg mechatronics

Very informative, These advices will definitely help my future endeavors . :D

But yeah I agree about Q4 that was a killer (what dem norms?)


With Maths I
-attend most if not all of the lectures(some topics can be pretty hard to self teach imo)
-recommend practicing as much as you can with the tutorial material
-and try not to get too far behind,as each topics build up from the previous topics so you can't expect to learn bits and pieces and ace the test lol.
 
Last edited:

Squar3root

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Very informative, These advices will definitely help my future endeavors . :D

But yeah I agree about Q4 that was a killer (what dem norms?)
that's what i was going for :p

but yeah, what the fuck is up with q4?!?!?!?! they may as well have written it in Chinese so that way i didn't feel bad when i couldn't read it lol
 

RenegadeMx

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Any Maths
>Attend lecture, actually write eveything down
>do tute problems before tut
 

4025808

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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 :D;
- 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 :p

ECON1101

- Having Alberto Motta as a lecturer is worth it – go to his lectures – he will make you laugh :p
- 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 :p

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 :p
- 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. ☺
 

anomalousdecay

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Very informative, These advices will definitely help my future endeavors . :D

But yeah I agree about Q4 that was a killer (what dem norms?)


With Maths I
-attend most if not all of the lectures(some topics can be pretty hard to self teach imo)
-recommend practicing as much as you can with the tutorial material
-and try not to get too far behind,as each topics build up from the previous topics so you can't expect to learn bits and pieces and ace the test lol.

For q4 I did quite a bit of it.

I guess q4 is there for distinguishing between a DN and HD.

Like I found most of it ok (I think I could have gotten 12/20 for it).

Regardless I stuffed up q3.
 
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
61
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
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 :D;
- 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 :p

ECON1101

- Having Alberto Motta as a lecturer is worth it – go to his lectures – he will make you laugh :p
- 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 :p

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 :p
- 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. ☺
Great write up. Is the FINS1613 semester thing still true? Is it a different lecturer?
 

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