UNSW Chit Chat Thread (7 Viewers)

[VBN2470]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Okay, so the timetable for Semester 2 is officially out. So, you can check the different timeslots, different rooms and, most importantly imo, the different lecturers.

Some things that I noted (as an actuarial student) was:

* Sherris is lecturing ACTL1101 (not a surprise at all) but also taking every single tutorial but one.
* The lecturers for MATH1251 will be Dr D Potapov and Apro T Tran. Anyone willing to share their thoughts/experiences?
* For those taking the (stupid) decision of doing FINS1613 next semester, their lecturers will be Dr KH Shim and Dr Z Chen.

Just to add to this, this link should help in planning your SEM2 timetable: http://tdransfield.net/utilities/bojangles. Simply add in all the courses you are taking next SEM, and it will generate a sample timetable (which is based off the all the official times from the SEM2 timetable release) in which you can move around given lecture/tutorial slots for your convenience. This will make the planning a lot easier. Make a few backups just in case, esp for first-year courses where courses will get quite packed quite quickly so most of the good timeslots will fill up fast.
---
To answer your q mreditor16, D Potapov (Algebra) is chill and sometimes a funny guy and can be pretty engaging too, but his way of delivering lectures is not the best, he doesn't really have a neat set of lecture notes to follow, so your best friend will be the yellow book (from the 1251 Course Pack). He does use examples from the tutorial book to demonstrate a few concepts, so sometimes his notes can be helpful. He also likes to take things quite conceptually at times, so it may become hard to follow what he is trying to explain. Overall, he is still pretty good. I don't know about Tran though, never had him and never heard any review about him as a lecturer.

 

[VBN2470]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Doing MATH2121, 3 petroleum engg subjects and maybe MATH3821 (if it's worthwhile overloading that one)

Did you do MATH2931 in SEM2 of 2nd year? I hear that is a deadset hard course esp when Libo ran the 2014 stream (he is also running the 2015 SEM2 cohort). Any tips on how to get through this course?

 

[mreditor16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

To answer your q mreditor16, D Potapov (Algebra) is chill and sometimes a funny guy and can be pretty engaging too, but his way of delivering lectures is not the best, he doesn't really have a neat set of lecture notes to follow, so your best friend will be the yellow book (from the 1251 Course Pack). He does use examples from the tutorial book to demonstrate a few concepts, so sometimes his notes can be helpful. He also likes to take things quite conceptually at times, so it may become hard to follow what he is trying to explain. Overall, he is still pretty good. I don't know about Tran though, never had him and never heard any review about him as a lecturer.

Ooh interestinggg, thanks a lot VBN

 

[4025808]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Did you do MATH2931 in SEM2 of 2nd year? I hear that is a deadset hard course esp when Libo ran the 2014 stream (he is also running the 2015 SEM2 cohort). Any tips on how to get through this course?

I took MATH2931 in 2013S2 with Botev - it was easier before Libo came in and bumped the difficulty of the course.

Honestly, just ask some of the final exam questions from people who did the course last year - it'll help greatly.

 

[Shadowdude]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Did you do MATH2931 in SEM2 of 2nd year? I hear that is a deadset hard course esp when Libo ran the 2014 stream (he is also running the 2015 SEM2 cohort). Any tips on how to get through this course?

Libo Li the legend you mean

 

[VBN2470]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Libo Li the legend you mean

Not sure if srs...

 

[Shadowdude]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Apparently he's a massive troll but he gets as good as he gives, so he's cool. His 2931 class last year he would troll about questions I think (this is hearsay), but a friend of mine in 2931 and a few others I think found his Facebook - saw that there was a photo of him extremely drunk - printed this picture out, put it on a massive "Thank you" card and gave it to him in the last lecture

And for being a legend about it - he's Libo Li the Legend.

Also he apparently hangs it up in his office, but I've never had him as a lecturer so might be awks if I see him just to see the card

 

[sirable1]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Contemplating on MATH1231 or MATH1241 (I dropped out of summer session).

Either Boris Lerner/Milan Pahor (sacrifice one extra day to 5) or Daniel Chan/Chris Tisdell (class clash but still willing to go) for MATH1231, or Thomas Britz/Wolfgang Schief (one extra day again) for MATH1241. They're all good.

Has anyone here ever done MATH2871?

 

[sirable1]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Doing MATH2121, 3 petroleum engg subjects and maybe MATH3821 (if it's worthwhile overloading that one)

Nice! Can't wait to do Differential Equations next year.

 

[mreditor16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Contemplating on MATH1231 or MATH1241 (I dropped out of summer session).

Either Boris Lerner/Milan Pahor (sacrifice one extra day to 5) or Daniel Chan/Chris Tisdell (class clash but still willing to go) for MATH1231, or Thomas Britz/Wolfgang Schief (one extra day again) for MATH1241. They're all good.

Has anyone here ever done MATH2871?

Well, I have heard many good things about Tisdell.....

 

[VBN2470]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Anyone have opinions on the course MATH1081 Discrete Mathematics and the lecturers D Angell & J Franklin? Thanks.

 

[mreditor16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

VBN, these might help!!

MATH2621
Ease: 7/10 - Probably the easiest 2nd year maths course I've done but I still didn't find it that easy.
Content: 7/10 - Complex numbers. Wouldn't say it's interesting but they can be pretty fun questions to solve.
Lecturer: 8/10 - Cowling was pretty good at explaining concepts but those 9am starts didn't help me stay awake. AND lecture notes have unanswered example questions on them which forced me to go lectures.
Tutor: 9/10 - Angell was one of the best maths tutors I've ever had. Good at explaining concepts and very friendly too. But I feel he sometimes went too slow - eg. he would go through 1 tute question using alternative methods which took up the whole tute.
Overall: 8/10 - Pretty solid maths course and finals (for the most part) wasn't too hard if you do your tute questions.

MATH2621:
Ease: 8/10 - Subject is quite straightforward most of the time, but other times its really confusing (conformality & stuffs like that).
Content: 9/10 - Interesting content, the Mobius transform was pretty amazing! New flashy integral techniques are also pretty nice. Basically an extension of high school complex #s.
Lecturer: 9/10 - Cowling. Explains concepts well, doesn't move at a fast pace which is good, although he doesn't put up solutions to lecture examples until pretty late in the semester. A friend and I tried emailing him but got no response (this was a few weeks in to the course lol).
Tutor: 10/10 - Angell. Undoubtedly the best tutor. Very passionate, very helpful, brings up interesting applications to real life, shows us shortcuts and is always trying to help.
Overall: 9/10. Great choice for a maths elective as its pretty fun and not too hard. Finals weren't too difficult with most things being standard and that you've seen before already.

MATH2011 (Several Variable Calculus)

Ease: 6/10 – I struggled with Stokes theorem and Divergence theorem, and in general, the end parts of the course. The first half of the course is very easy (if you took MATH1251 that is – it’s pretty much just revision of the end parts of MATH1251).
Content: 8/10 – interesting stuff I’ve learned. Calculus is actually quite interesting.
Lecturer: Jim Franklin – 6/10. He is a decent lecturer but boring at times. He does make pretty decent lecture slides. Johann Brauchart – 2/10. Shit experience, hence I stopped going to lectures after he started lecturing. His lecture slides are horrible as well.
Tutor: Nick Fewster – 7/10: he’s quite good as he explains his stuff quite well, but he needs to go through the harder questions.
Overall: 7/10 – pretty good course to take. But take MATH2111 if you can because the course scales a lot better – in MATH2011 the final mark is pretty much determined by the sum of your raw marks.

 

[mreditor16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Also this VBN

MATH1081
Ease 8/10. Couple of topics are a bit wacky and take a bit of time to grasp, but certainly by the time finals come around there is nothing out of reach. Final seemed tougher this year than most (although maybe everyone thinks that) and is weighted at 80% but if you do the problems 80+ is achievable (especially since there seem to be a decent amount of people in the course who have to be there and don’t particularly care). Quizzes during session vary wildly in difficulty within and between classes. That being said, unless you are really unlucky, there should be a couple of straightforward ones so that if you know what you are doing 25+/30 is reasonable.

Content 9/10. Some parts (Proofs, logic, set theory) more interesting to me than others (modular arithmetic). Some people hate the absctract nature of the material, some love it. I fall into the latter camp, but I can understand that if you want to be able to find practical appliactions of whatever you are learning you might not like this course (also, maths is probably not for you – try accounting).

Lecturer 5/10 – Trenerry was alright, seemed to know his stuff but was generally just boring. Read straight off the notes, didn’t bother to set up the PDF so when he clicked each part would then appear. He just read through the whole block. Still, between the notes and the youtube videos you should be fine learning the theory. (PS Peter Brown was a sub for one lecture and that was amazing, 10/10 for him).

Tutor – Daniel Mansfield 9/10. Nice guy and probably 10/10 if you were aiming only to pass, but doesn’t pay too much attention to the hard questions so getting yourself from D to HD requires independent work. Still, very good tutor.

Overall 9/10- preferred it to 1131/41/51. Not sure how easy it is to do well (maybe I’ll update this next week). For that reason, there are probably better elective choices out there than this one. But if you enjoy working through problems (relative to essays or whatever) and don’t mind abstract and precise thinking, then you will probably enjoy it.

 

[obliviousninja]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Henry Yip the WAM destroyer

 

[Shadowdude]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Nice! Can't wait to do Differential Equations next year.

DEs? eww

why

Anyone have opinions on the course MATH1081 Discrete Mathematics and the lecturers D Angell & J Franklin? Thanks.

Fantastic course, both great lecturers.

 

[RenegadeMx]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Anyone have opinions on the course MATH1081 Discrete Mathematics and the lecturers D Angell & J Franklin? Thanks.

Angell is pro for discrete

 

[omni16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Hi guys So, 29 April is the day that we can officially enrol and make our timetables?

 

[VBN2470]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

According to the UNSW site, "Your enrolment appointment is simply the day and time from which you can begin enrolling online.". People can start enrolling from the 29th but I don't think everyone can (only a selected few, maybe more senior students get this privilege?). If you go to Student Profile -> Enrolment Appointments, you can see the date and time of your appointment (make sure you check Semester 2 2015). My one is on May 5 @ 9:00a.m. May 8 is when it is open for all undergraduate students.

 

[mreditor16]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

Dang, I got 07/05/2015 09:00 AM. And I have a lecture at that time :/

 

[Queenroot]

Re: UNSW Chit Chat Thread 2015.

06/05/2015 09:00