Govt/Int. Studies Units (1 Viewer)

[cimbom]

I enrolled into B.Economics today... with two of my four elective subjects being
GOVT1105- Geopolitics and
GOVT1202- World Politics.

I chose those two for the sole purpose of choosing the same core units from the B.International Studies degree... but now i'm reading all this stuff about World Politics being crazy boring and pointless, and i'm reconsidering; would GOVT1406 be better? International Business and Politics? I intend to study two govt subjects in my first year anyway to give me the option to major later on, and i'm not really interested in aust.politics or power in society.

Basically what i'm asking is- what are the best units of study from the 1000- level Govt. subjects? Thankyou heaps.

 

[ujuphleg]

I did GOVT 1105 (Geopolitics) and GOVT 1202 (World Politics) and basically, I thought they were shit.

Geopolitics had a really boring lecturer, with content that was interesting, but was presented in a boring way. The tutorials seemed to be really disconnected with the lectures and the same goes with the assessments - they too seemed to have been pulled out of no-where, with no relation to the course content at all. Additionally, the exam was made up of pointless trivia which also didn't seem like it was connected to the course in anyway.

GOVT 1202 had a marginally better lecturer although I wouldn't have said it was riveting. The drawback was that the content was more boring than Geopolitics as World Politics is very much a theory based course - a familiarisation with the terms of International Relations. At least the course was very cohesive though and it was possible to do well if you paid attention.

I can't speak from experience for the other courses, but others have told me that Australian Politics wasn't much better and neither was International Business and Politics.

Power in Society (a first semester unit) is easy peasey, but is a cop-out of a course. The people I knew really enjoyed it, because the lecturer was funny, the course didn't have very hard assessments and the content was easy to understand.

I am not endorsing Power in Society mind you. If you are really interested in being a serious International Relations student, you should probably take World Politics, if nothing else.

Good Luck!!

 

[what971]

I enrolled into B.Economics today... with two of my four elective subjects being
GOVT1105- Geopolitics and
GOVT1202- World Politics.

I chose those two for the sole purpose of choosing the same core units from the B.International Studies degree... but now i'm reading all this stuff about World Politics being crazy boring and pointless, and i'm reconsidering; would GOVT1406 be better? International Business and Politics? I intend to study two govt subjects in my first year anyway to give me the option to major later on, and i'm not really interested in aust.politics or power in society.

Basically what i'm asking is- what are the best units of study from the 1000- level Govt. subjects? Thankyou heaps.

Yeah I'm doing Geopolitics, Int. Business and Politics, Commercial Transactions A as my electives in my B/Commerce degree. Join me! Oh, we'll have ever so much fun!

 

[hysteria]

I chose Geopolitics, world politics and int business and politics too as well as eco as a social science and the compulsory units of study
however, i'm considering changing geopolitics to australian politics.

 

[hysteria]

i guess that leaves me with Power in Society

 

[bustinjustin]

I'll be changing from Aus Politics to Power in Society a.s.a.p. I think. And I guess I have no choice but to do World Politics in Semester 2.

All this makes me wanna run off to the Arts people and do Art History instead. It's such a pity though, because the senior Government units are deeply interesting, or they seem like it anyway...

 

[Phanatical]

Power in Society is a second semester unit. I'd do it, but I need to start senior units ASAP, so it's Australian Politics and Geopolitics for me.

 

[cimbom]

Yeah... it looks like i'm going to keep geopolitics + worldpolitics. Only two from govt. 1000- level though, there's no point doing more. Power in society reminds me of hsc preliminary society and culture, and int. business and finance is sort of like ecop1003 anyway if i'm to do it.

 

[seraphyte]

GOVT1105- Geopolitics
GOVT1202- World Politics

I'm doing those two also.

 

[adambra]

I chose Geopolitics and int bus and politics, but if int bus and politics iis really that bad, I guess I'll switch to World Politcs. Can anyone else confirm Henry_Kissinger's assertion that it sucks balls?

 

[cimbom]

http://community.boredofstudies.org/114/university-sydney/98530/2006-subject-choices-3.html

DONT do govt 1406. whatever u do.

 

[Oz]

i did both geo and world politics last year. yes geo was hell boring and badly presented, but the readings where very interesting, keep in mind last year was the first time it had ever been offered so there were many kinks to iron out, should be better this year.

while the theory in world pol wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, it is stuff that you should know if u go on to do futher study in international relations and as such is worth taking. this mostly applies if like me in your govt major your taking more international relations type units compared to the more govt based ones

 

[what971]

The Uni/Syd description of the Geopolitics subjects was really interesting for me though, I just hope the lecturer/tutor is not as bad as you all say he/she is.

 

[cimbom]

Or would it be better to not go to tutorials for world/geo politics?

 

[Sarah168]

go to tutes for geopolitics. Depends on the tutor (if you get the lecturer as your tutor, God help you...) but it should be reasonably helpful esp since the final geopolitics exam has questions on tute readings.

lectures for geopolitics? Errr go to one or two and you'll immediately know whether you should attend any more

Edit: whoops. Definately GO to tutes cos it has attendance marked.

 

[what971]

Tutorials are compulsory. (well not compulsory, something like school). I 'jigged' a lot of school

 

[what971]

umm... Is there any chance that the lecturer from last year (whom everyone here says is shit) could be replaced by a better one, come March?

 

[cimbom]

of course i'll go to all lectures and tutorials... no matter how bad some of my teachers were back at school, i never skipped. i was stupidly tolerant... i think... i guess it's possible that the lecturers have changed... if people complained, or if they reviewed the whole unit of study or something since it's only been running for a year.

 

[Sarah168]

umm... Is there any chance that the lecturer from last year (whom everyone here says is shit) could be replaced by a better one, come March?

doubt it. he developed the course.

 

[stazi]

you have to attend 80% of tutorials or most subjects will fail you.