Subject Reviews (with PDF compilation) (1 Viewer)

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MATH1003 - Integral calculus and Modelling

Ease - 7/10
Not very difficult overall. If you've done 4 unit maths in high school, it shouldn't be too difficult. Like 3/4 of the course was just trying to remember what I did in high school whilst the other 1/4 was modelling certain scenarios and such. I'll admit that I had some trouble with generating some models, but the majority of the students found the content quite straightforward. The final was harder than expected and was an exception in terms of the relatively low difficulty of past papers. Although I will attribute the difficulty of the exam to my lack of effort. Remember kids, never get arrogant - it'll bite you in the ass.

Lecturer - Zhou Zhang (7/10), Andrew Papanicolau (2/10) and Bob Crossman (0.1/10)

Zhou Zhang: Pretty good lecturer. He goes through the content in depth and he actually puts the effort into trying to prove the theorems. Although he has a slight accent, it's hardly noticeable and that was the only negative a found.
Andrew Papanicolau: Copies directly from the compiled notebook for MATH1003 into his lecture notes and spends 1 hour reading off the projector. He's a new lecturer and although he has improved, I found his lecturing style quite disappointing.
Bob Crossman: All he does is whine about telling people to turn their phone's off. Explanations weren't very good at all.

Interest - 1/10
I found it to be quite tedious, especially since I learned most of the course in 4u. In terms of interest, I probably should have tried out for MATH1903 since it looks much, much more interesting but eh.

Overall - 5/10
Not too bad in difficulty but personally, not appealing at all.

MATH1005 - Statistics

Ease - 8/10
Statistics in my experience was basically probability in high school and a pinch of permutations and combinations. Some of the questions that were in the final were quite dodgy, but overall it's quite straightforward.

Lecturer - 10/10
Di Warren - What a passionate lecturer! I absolutely ADMIRED her enthusiasm. It's always great to see a lecturer who truly enjoys what he/she is teaching and personally, I was inspired to do better in statistics. Her explanations and examples were great as well as her notes. However, her notes can be too detailed which can be a negative to some.

Interest - 8/10
Well for the first half of stats, I just found it tedious but by the second half, it definitely picked up! I never thought I would've found such a unit interesting but here we have it - thanks to Di Warren :)

Overall - 9/10
I highly recommend statistics. Not too difficult and fitted in with a wonderful lecturer!

CHEM1102 - Chemistry 1B

Ease - 8/10
My first lecturer, Chris McErlean, frequently remarked "Organic chemistry is easy" and hey, it really is (in my opinion). No hard calculations except within the inorganic component of the course and it's all very theoretical. Just being able to use logic and some understanding will get you very far. I did note rote learn anything at all except the reagents for organic synthesis which becomes 2nd nature.

Lecturer - Chris McErlean 11/10, Tony Masters 11/10
Chris McErlean: Very passionate about chemistry. Wow, I looked forward to every chemistry lecture and had a blast learning the content. Every lecture I would literally be smiling for almost the full hour - I'm not even kidding. I loved organic chemistry thanks to this man! He does blast out some dry jokes but I found them hilarious since I am a fan of dry humour.

Tony Masters: Another passionate lecturer. He loves the Sydney Swans was one of the things I remembered. A funny bloke too who knew the content and could explain it clearly. His pacing is quite slow and you may find the he rushes the lectures towards the end of the semester, but nevertheless a top lecturer.


Interest - 9/10
Learning about the mechanisms, relevance and applications of organic chemistry was just awesome. Inorganic chemistry was interesting, but I found that going over acids and bases was kind of tedious.


Overall - 9/10
Another unit I would highly recommend to anyone!

PHYS1004 - Environmental Physics

Ease - 6/10
It was of okay difficulty except for when it came to currents and electromagnetism. Damn, I hated that. I just suck at physics anyways and found it sooooo boring, but many people found the content quite easy.

Lecturer - 7/10
Pulin Gong - Explains the content pretty well except he has an accent that may bother others.

Interest - 0.1/10
Sorry physicists, I just found the content extremely, extremely dry and had literally no motivation to study for it.

Overall - 4/10
If you're interested in physics, go for it. I'm just not interested in physics and had no motivation.

MBLG1001 - Molecular biology and genetics (Intro)

Ease - 5/10
What a course! Talk about throwing first years in the deep end. Study hard from day 1 guys, do not mess around with MBLG1001! It does get easier as the weeks go by. I found protein structures and such to be the hardest part of the course! The fortnightly 4 hour labs were a pain in the ass and the skills test....don't mention that thing again. The final was actually okay but I had to study pretty hard for it!

Lecturer - Danny Liu (11/10), Gareth Denyer (9/10), Vanessa Gysbers (9/10), Sashi Kant (2/10), Jenny Saleeba (2/10)
Danny Liu was one of my favourite lecturers so far in my degree. He knew how to make his lectures enjoyable. He knew how to apply everyday actions into concepts to make it clearer to the cohort about what was going on. The polls he used during the lectures actually made it more enjoyable since it involved active learning and of course, there were some students who entered stupid choices for shits and giggles.
Gareth Denyer was also a pretty good lecturer too as well as Vanessa. They were just engaging in my opinion and I found them quite entertaining! Sashi and Jenny weren't as good - inaudible, monotone and simply reading off the slides. I was quite disappointed.

Interest - 10/10
Some of my peers know that I've said "Fuck MBLG", "OMG i HATE it" etc etc but by the time the finals rolled in, everything clicked. I just loved everything about it! It was really interesting in my opinion - so interesting that I considered doing MBLG2971.

Overall - 9/10
Okay listen, MBLG1x01 is difficult. However, I recommend this to anyone! It is a common pre-requisite for intermediate and senior units so you might as well do it. By far one of the most difficult 1st year courses, this will challenge you quite a bit - whether you're naturally inclined or not. It will make you experience true pain but as Danny Liu said, it'll help you appreciate the other units you do that aren't so bad relatively. The only final thing i can say is that I survived MBLG1001 and in retrospect, I wish I did MBLG1901 purely out of interest and a tiny bit of scaling.
 

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MATH1003 - Integral calculus and Modelling

Ease - 7/10
Not very difficult overall. If you've done 4 unit maths in high school, it shouldn't be too difficult. Like 3/4 of the course was just trying to remember what I did in high school whilst the other 1/4 was modelling certain scenarios and such. I'll admit that I had some trouble with generating some models, but the majority of the students found the content quite straightforward. The final was harder than expected and was an exception in terms of the relatively low difficulty of past papers. Although I will attribute the difficulty of the exam to my lack of effort. Remember kids, never get arrogant - it'll bite you in the ass.

Lecturer - Zhou Zhang (7/10), Andrew Papanicolau (2/10) and Bob Crossman (0.1/10)

Zhou Zhang: Pretty good lecturer. He goes through the content in depth and he actually puts the effort into trying to prove the theorems. Although he has a slight accent, it's hardly noticeable and that was the only negative a found.
Andrew Papanicolau: Copies directly from the compiled notebook for MATH1003 into his lecture notes and spends 1 hour reading off the projector. He's a new lecturer and although he has improved, I found his lecturing style quite disappointing.
Bob Crossman: All he does is whine about telling people to turn their phone's off. Explanations weren't very good at all.

Interest - 1/10
I found it to be quite tedious, especially since I learned most of the course in 4u. In terms of interest, I probably should have tried out for MATH1903 since it looks much, much more interesting but eh.

Overall - 5/10
Not too bad in difficulty but personally, not appealing at all.

MATH1005 - Statistics

Ease - 8/10
Statistics in my experience was basically probability in high school and a pinch of permutations and combinations. Some of the questions that were in the final were quite dodgy, but overall it's quite straightforward.

Lecturer - 10/10
Di Warren - What a passionate lecturer! I absolutely ADMIRED her enthusiasm. It's always great to see a lecturer who truly enjoys what he/she is teaching and personally, I was inspired to do better in statistics. Her explanations and examples were great as well as her notes. However, her notes can be too detailed which can be a negative to some.

Interest - 8/10
Well for the first half of stats, I just found it tedious but by the second half, it definitely picked up! I never thought I would've found such a unit interesting but here we have it - thanks to Di Warren :)

Overall - 9/10
I highly recommend statistics. Not too difficult and fitted in with a wonderful lecturer!

CHEM1102 - Chemistry 1B

Ease - 8/10
My first lecturer, Chris McErlean, frequently remarked "Organic chemistry is easy" and hey, it really is (in my opinion). No hard calculations except within the inorganic component of the course and it's all very theoretical. Just being able to use logic and some understanding will get you very far. I did note rote learn anything at all except the reagents for organic synthesis which becomes 2nd nature.

Lecturer - Chris McErlean 11/10, Tony Masters 11/10
Chris McErlean: Very passionate about chemistry. Wow, I looked forward to every chemistry lecture and had a blast learning the content. Every lecture I would literally be smiling for almost the full hour - I'm not even kidding. I loved organic chemistry thanks to this man! He does blast out some dry jokes but I found them hilarious since I am a fan of dry humour.

Tony Masters: Another passionate lecturer. He loves the Sydney Swans was one of the things I remembered. A funny bloke too who knew the content and could explain it clearly. His pacing is quite slow and you may find the he rushes the lectures towards the end of the semester, but nevertheless a top lecturer.


Interest - 9/10
Learning about the mechanisms, relevance and applications of organic chemistry was just awesome. Inorganic chemistry was interesting, but I found that going over acids and bases was kind of tedious.


Overall - 9/10
Another unit I would highly recommend to anyone!

PHYS1004 - Environmental Physics

Ease - 6/10
It was of okay difficulty except for when it came to currents and electromagnetism. Damn, I hated that. I just suck at physics anyways and found it sooooo boring, but many people found the content quite easy.

Lecturer - 7/10
Pulin Gong - Explains the content pretty well except he has an accent that may bother others.

Interest - 0.1/10
Sorry physicists, I just found the content extremely, extremely dry and had literally no motivation to study for it.

Overall - 4/10
If you're interested in physics, go for it. I'm just not interested in physics and had no motivation.

MBLG1001 - Molecular biology and genetics (Intro)

Ease - 5/10
What a course! Talk about throwing first years in the deep end. Study hard from day 1 guys, do not mess around with MBLG1001! It does get easier as the weeks go by. I found protein structures and such to be the hardest part of the course! The fortnightly 4 hour labs were a pain in the ass and the skills test....don't mention that thing again. The final was actually okay but I had to study pretty hard for it!

Lecturer - Danny Liu (11/10), Gareth Denyer (9/10), Vanessa Gysbers (9/10), Sashi Kant (2/10), Jenny Saleeba (2/10)
Danny Liu was one of my favourite lecturers so far in my degree. He knew how to make his lectures enjoyable. He knew how to apply everyday actions into concepts to make it clearer to the cohort about what was going on. The polls he used during the lectures actually made it more enjoyable since it involved active learning and of course, there were some students who entered stupid choices for shits and giggles.
Gareth Denyer was also a pretty good lecturer too as well as Vanessa. They were just engaging in my opinion and I found them quite entertaining! Sashi and Jenny weren't as good - inaudible, monotone and simply reading off the slides. I was quite disappointed.

Interest - 10/10
Some of my peers know that I've said "Fuck MBLG", "OMG i HATE it" etc etc but by the time the finals rolled in, everything clicked. I just loved everything about it! It was really interesting in my opinion - so interesting that I considered doing MBLG2971.

Overall - 9/10
Okay listen, MBLG1x01 is difficult. However, I recommend this to anyone! It is a common pre-requisite for intermediate and senior units so you might as well do it. By far one of the most difficult 1st year courses, this will challenge you quite a bit - whether you're naturally inclined or not. It will make you experience true pain but as Danny Liu said, it'll help you appreciate the other units you do that aren't so bad relatively. The only final thing i can say is that I survived MBLG1001 and in retrospect, I wish I did MBLG1901 purely out of interest and a tiny bit of scaling.
If you used your real account mang, I could have repped you for using a Danny Liu quote *tears up*
 

LoveHateSchool

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Its k rep me still.
I can't bby boi...must spread rep

Dat Danny Liu crush (guuuurlll don't fight over me k, he's mine :p awks moment when he said he was Christian though...)
Wait what when did he say this? Was it the lecture I didn't go to?

And lol, courtesy of the more rabid fangirl of our biol1902 class (yes someone is actually way more obsessed with him than me)-she informed me that he is married so you can't have him either.
 

Rythen

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I was joking please :p (Homosexual professor-student relationship? Jailbait.)

He said it at his last lecture, right before he left. Went all saintlike in tone...

He's married? He looks so young though (might be asian genes)
 

LoveHateSchool

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I was joking please :p (Homosexual professor-student relationship? Jailbait.)

He said it at his last lecture, right before he left. Went all saintlike in tone...

He's married? He looks so young though (might be asian genes)
Sure sure ;)

Oh yeah that's right! Anything at the end of sem is fairly hazy for me due to the impending trauma :p

yeah he's young-ish to be married...29. Though we got into a massive argument once when half the class thought he was 20 and the other half 35...
 

Rythen

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Sure sure ;)

Oh yeah that's right! Anything at the end of sem is fairly hazy for me due to the impending trauma :p

yeah he's young-ish to be married...29. Though we got into a massive argument once when half the class thought he was 20 and the other half 35...
29 is fine. I got this. 10 year gap no probs.

if you are going to carslaw, I'll see you tomorrow. takes me like 40 mins to talk to carslaw tho T_T
 

LoveHateSchool

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29 is fine. I got this. 10 year gap no probs.

if you are going to carslaw, I'll see you tomorrow. takes me like 40 mins to talk to carslaw tho T_T
hahahaha oh god.

And lololol that's just the 'A' face of asianese being himself. He's not actually going to fight other asianese at Carslaw :p
 

someth1ng

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MATH1903 – Integral Calculus and Modelling
Ease – 7/10
Most of it is pretty straight forward if you have done MX2 in Year 12 – a large chunk of it is very similar (only slightly extended). However, there are some concepts that are effectively brand new. I was crap at MX2 and still found it challenging but it’s definitely not a hard course. I got 7/10 and 6/10 for the quizzes, respectively.
Lecturer – 4/10
It was okay when I went but since it was 8AM, I effectively didn’t turn up to most of them (actually, I didn’t turn up to all of them except the in-lecture quiz). Lost 5 for being at 8AM, lost 1 because Daniel Daners has doctor handwriting and from the in-lecture quiz.
Interest – 2/10
I had no interest in this, at all. I’d recommend doing MATH1003 when possible.
Overall – 5/10
Lame course.

MATH1905 - Statistics
Ease – 6/10
Most of the statistical tests are the same shit over and over again but the way to teach you is really dodgy and doesn’t solidify or make you understand well enough.
Lecturer – 4/10
0 of Shelton Peiris and 8 Garth Tarr – Shelton left out gaps in the notes, making it a total pain in the ass for me, since one lecture was 8AM – I didn’t go to that shit.
Interest – 0/10
Crap course, doesn’t teach you anything interesting and you can just bull shit your way to a decent mark. In the final exam, there was shit that wasn’t in the textbook so I didn’t have much clue about how to do it…cool.
Overall – 4/10
I’m being very, very generous – if you don’t need statistics for later years, it might be a bit nicer to do MATH1004.

CHEM1904 – Chemistry (Special Studies Program)
Ease – 10/10
Mostly straightforward and nothing too complicated – well, if you go to lectures and listen. Some of the calculations can get a bit tricky but it’s mostly doable. If possible, go in SSP and be very careful about who you partner with. I had a really bad lab partner that drove me nuts. But otherwise, pretty darn solid.
Lecturer – 10/10
Rutledge and Rendina are both very, very good lecturers and you should be very happy if you have them. They are engaging and approachable. It’s also worth noting that Adam Bridgeman is extremely helpful and will answer any question you throw at him and will answer it very, very quickly. Top notch above all others. Though, I must admit, the tutor was pretty boring – he was too strict and it made the tutorials much more bland and boring.
Interest – 10/10
Very interesting course – bring on second year chemistry! I recommend it to anyone doing science – chemistry is important and it’s fucking fun too. So yeah, do it.
Overall – 10/10
What can I say? I really enjoyed it.

PHYS1902 – Physics 1A (Advanced)
Ease – 0/10
This is a very hard course, there is no doubt that this is one of the hardest, if not the hardest course in first year. A friend of mine said that this makes MBLG1901 a “walk in the park” – if that puts things into perspective. If you do this course, don’t expect to feel like you know your work – it’s a really tough course and most, if not all students struggled. Oh, and if you want to do this, be VERY good at maths.
Lecturer – 6/10
8/10 for the first two lecturers and 3/10 for Mike. Mike didn’t really teach – he just talked to himself and made it incredibly boring and annoying to be at class – enough said.
Interest – 0/10
I’m not doing any more physics – enough is enough.
Overall – 4/10
Hardest course ever. Period.

PHIL1012 – Introductory Logic
Ease - 7/10
I’d say that this is a very underrated course – it’s very easy at the start but later on, the teaching gets really poor and very confusing. Logic is not easy but this level isn’t quite hard, yet. Don’t miss lectures and don’t fall behind in this course, or you’re fucked.
Lecturer – 5/10
He was decent at the start but towards the end, he made no sense and started talking to himself and not really teaching. Our tutor always tied the loose ends so props to him.
Interest – 1/10
It gets 1 because it was more interesting than physics – actually, both were equally balls but physics was much harder – either way, only do this as a WAM booster. Don’t expect to be blown away with “interestingness”?
Overall – 5/10
Eh, not all that great but good enough for me to go to lectures and do my shit.

Final Marks
MATH1903: 68
MATH1905: 69
CHEM1904: 90
PHYS1902: 69
PHIL1012: 81
 

LoveHateSchool

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MATH1903 – Integral Calculus and Modelling
Ease – 7/10
Most of it is pretty straight forward if you have done MX2 in Year 12 – a large chunk of it is very similar (only slightly extended). However, there are some concepts that are effectively brand new. I was crap at MX2 and still found it challenging but it’s definitely not a hard course. I got 7/10 and 6/10 for the quizzes, respectively.
Lecturer – 4/10
It was okay when I went but since it was 8AM, I effectively didn’t turn up to most of them (actually, I didn’t turn up to all of them except the in-lecture quiz). Lost 5 for being at 8AM, lost 1 because Daniel Daners has doctor handwriting and from the in-lecture quiz.
Interest – 2/10
I had no interest in this, at all. I’d recommend doing MATH1003 when possible.
Overall – 5/10
Lame course.

MATH1905 - Statistics
Ease – 6/10
Most of the statistical tests are the same shit over and over again but the way to teach you is really dodgy and doesn’t solidify or make you understand well enough.
Lecturer – 4/10
0 of Shelton Peiris and 8 Garth Tarr – Shelton left out gaps in the notes, making it a total pain in the ass for me, since one lecture was 8AM – I didn’t go to that shit.
Interest – 0/10
Crap course, doesn’t teach you anything interesting and you can just bull shit your way to a decent mark. In the final exam, there was shit that wasn’t in the textbook so I didn’t have much clue about how to do it…cool.
Overall – 4/10
I’m being very, very generous – if you don’t need statistics for later years, it might be a bit nicer to do MATH1004.

CHEM1904 – Chemistry (Special Studies Program)
Ease – 10/10
Mostly straightforward and nothing too complicated – well, if you go to lectures and listen. Some of the calculations can get a bit tricky but it’s mostly doable. If possible, go in SSP and be very careful about who you partner with. I had a really bad lab partner that drove me nuts. But otherwise, pretty darn solid.
Lecturer – 10/10
Rutledge and Rendina are both very, very good lecturers and you should be very happy if you have them. They are engaging and approachable. It’s also worth noting that Adam Bridgeman is extremely helpful and will answer any question you throw at him and will answer it very, very quickly. Top notch above all others. Though, I must admit, the tutor was pretty boring – he was too strict and it made the tutorials much more bland and boring.
Interest – 10/10
Very interesting course – bring on second year chemistry! I recommend it to anyone doing science – chemistry is important and it’s fucking fun too. So yeah, do it.
Overall – 10/10
What can I say? I really enjoyed it.

PHYS1902 – Physics 1A (Advanced)
Ease – 0/10
This is a very hard course, there is no doubt that this is one of the hardest, if not the hardest course in first year. A friend of mine said that this makes MBLG1901 a “walk in the park” – if that puts things into perspective. If you do this course, don’t expect to feel like you know your work – it’s a really tough course and most, if not all students struggled. Oh, and if you want to do this, be VERY good at maths.
Lecturer – 6/10
8/10 for the first two lecturers and 3/10 for Mike. Mike didn’t really teach – he just talked to himself and made it incredibly boring and annoying to be at class – enough said.
Interest – 0/10
I’m not doing any more physics – enough is enough.
Overall – 4/10
Hardest course ever. Period.

PHIL1012 – Introductory Logic
Ease - 7/10
I’d say that this is a very underrated course – it’s very easy at the start but later on, the teaching gets really poor and very confusing. Logic is not easy but this level isn’t quite hard, yet. Don’t miss lectures and don’t fall behind in this course, or you’re fucked.
Lecturer – 5/10
He was decent at the start but towards the end, he made no sense and started talking to himself and not really teaching. Our tutor always tied the loose ends so props to him.
Interest – 1/10
It gets 1 because it was more interesting than physics – actually, both were equally balls but physics was much harder – either way, only do this as a WAM booster. Don’t expect to be blown away with “interestingness”?
Overall – 5/10
Eh, not all that great but good enough for me to go to lectures and do my shit.

Final Marks
MATH1903: 68
MATH1905: 69
CHEM1904: 90
PHYS1902: 69
PHIL1012: 81
Damn and that friend is a comb med genius lollll.
 
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I agree with someth1ng that you need to be really comfortable with lots of hard integrals, uncertainties and lots of algebra for success in phys1902. It's quite overwhelming.
 

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