difference between subjects/units/electives? (1 Viewer)

[somecooldude]

difference between subjects/units/electives?

i keep hearing about these, but when exactly are they studied and can someone give examples of each?

thanks!

 

[kami]

A subject is exactly that...it can be philosophy or microbiology or interpretive dance etc.

Units are basically the individual modules you study as part of your program.

Electives are units that have been chosen by you as opposed to a required subject which you must do, an elective is a subject of your own choosing.

 

[Frigid]

for completeness, i might add:

a 'course' is an individual subject, not the degree program;

a credit point is an arbitrary unit of the 'size' of the subject; also indicative of number of contact hours.

 

[somecooldude]

I regard units/subjects the same. The uni calls them units, I call them subjects.
Credit points are how much a subject is worth to your degree. For my degree I need 240 cp's, and each subject/unit at my uni is worth 10cp. This differs from uni to uni. For example USYD has subjects/units worth 6cp, 12cp whatever.

Adding to what Frigid said about contact hours and cp's. My uni reccomends to students that they study one hour for every cp per week. For example most of my subjects are 3 hours per week AT uni, but the uni reccomends 7 more hours OUT of uni to study that unit. Again this differs between uni's becuase all UWS subjects/units are worth 10cp.

Your degree will have CORE subjects. These are subjects/units that are compulsory for you do to in order to obtain your degree.
You may or may not also have electives. At my uni , sometimes you may have to choose from a set list of electives, or you may choose any that the uni offers.

thanks nat. this is what ive heard from most ppl so its starting to sink in

 

[somecooldude]

ok so basically its like this

Course: "B Business"
Core Subject/Unit: "21129 Managing People and Organisations"
Major subject/Unit: "24510 Advertising Research" (assuming you did major in advertising and promotions)

is this right? and electives.. im still lost on that. basically i think its stuff you choose, but when do you choose it, and how many cp's are they worth in relation to core/major subjects/units?

 

[ballerinabarbie]

electives.. im still lost on that. basically i think its stuff you choose, but when do you choose it, and how many cp's are they worth in relation to core/major subjects/units?

when do u chose them? depends on your degree... some you will get electives in 1st year, others you may not get them at all (pretty uncommon, mainly for things like nursing)

as for how many credit points they are worth - at my uni, electives are worth the same number of cp's as core subjects, however this might be different at a different uni..