UNSW Subject Reviews. (5 Viewers)

[k02033]

Has anyone done MATH2281- Biomathematics? How was it?

 

[Iruka]

Has anyone done MATH2281- Biomathematics? How was it?

Yep. Did it about 3 years ago. Now doing a research degree in the area.

It's not hard. (Might depend on your mathematical background, though.)

 

[TehAzner]

Yes, I was going to take it with ACCT2542, but I chickened out and switched Mgmt acct 2 for INFS1602, which I think would be the smarter thing to do.
Lucky you, last accounting course Going for CPA?

lolol Go for INFS1602, it's a MUCH safer option ^______^

Last accounting course + elective which is E-Business . I have completed CPA/ICAA required courses (still need to finish off some LAWS subjects to replace LEGT), but will most likely focus on my law studies, since that's where I really want to go. Accounting is my back-up plan for me

 

[Lydia_88]

Some first year courses that i have done (although some of these have been covered already)

CHEM1011 - If you have done HSC chemistry then the first half of the lectures should be straight forward (as they cover moles and calculations..stuff in prelim chemistry), however the organic part gets confusing towards the end....

CHEM1021 - This is MUCH harder compared to CHEM1011.... everything is new especially organic structures was just too damn annoying to absorb and learn....so you do need to put in a bit more effort if you want to pass the course....

BABS1201 - Course was fairly straight forward..although some of the stuff is covered in HSC biology (as a couple of the posts said).......what kills is the group assignment where you have to design an experiment..

BIOS1101- THIS COURSE IS VERY DRY, but if you have earned a credit in BABS1201 and a good mark in HSC biology then you can be exempted from this course....so much rote learning its not funny...yet i left the exam 45 mins after the exam started hahahahah....yet i passed it.

MATH1131 - I did 3 unit in high school and yes this course was a real challenge for me...the calculus strand lecturer i hated so much (Crocker) that i would use that time to go to the student support scheme for help....wheres Pahor was excellent and made algebra lectures enjoyable.....I found the calculus strand easier to absorb (it was my stronger area) rather than the Alegbra strand >.<.....

MATH1041 (I will be doing that next semester so watch for my review)..

Semester 2 '10 (I'll be posting reviews on these subs..)

MATH1041 - Stats for life sciences
SAFE6201 - safety risk management
ARTS1691 - the use of language
BIOT3081-environmental biotechnology

 

[Lydia_88]

Oh btw, if you are looking for a level 3 elective and want to look into Risk and Safety sciences subjects, next semester is the LAST opportunity to do it -

Subjects offered (for the last time ever.. )

SAFE6201 - Safety risk management
SESC6801 - Toxicology
SESC6031 - Safety, security and environmental law

The reason that i say this is that they are closing down the school from December this year....just so i warned you

 

[laluna]

Some first year courses that i have done (although some of these have been covered already)

BABS1201 - Course was fairly straight forward..although some of the stuff is covered in HSC biology (as a couple of the posts said).......what kills is the group assignment where you have to design an experiment..

MATH1131 - I did 3 unit in high school and yes this course was a real challenge for me...the calculus strand lecturer i hated so much (Crocker) that i would use that time to go to the student support scheme for help....wheres Pahor was excellent and made algebra lectures enjoyable.....I found the calculus strand easier to absorb (it was my stronger area) rather than the Alegbra strand >.<.....

thanks for the review of babs1201

i agree with you - pahor is AWESOME.

 

[ColdBuffet]

Anyone done BIOM1010?

 

[Lydia_88]

BIOT3081 - anyone has done that course??

 

[darshil]

2010:

Micro 1:
Ease: 7/10
Lecturer: Zieme (7/10) /Nichols (9/10) (Nichols was great)
Interest: 9/10

Business & Economics Statistics (ECON1203):
Ease: 6/10
Lecturer: Fiebig 10/10
Interest: 8/10

ACCT1501
Ease: 7/10
Lecturers: Many... Trish Strong (7/10), Yungdeok (7/10), Tu (8/10)
Interest: 7/10 (yes... really)

Managing Org. and People MGMT1001 or "MOP" as they called it:
Ease: 7/10
Lecturers: Wardrop 7/10, Bainbridge (9/10), The American one (8/10)
Interest: 10/10 - Thanks to my tutor Noah (THE BEST TUTOR ON THE PLANET)

 

[magpie-python]

Figured i'd give this a go while avoiding any study for the upcoming exams, plus, i haven't seen many GEOS courses in this thread. Although, there may be a reason for that.

Semester 2, 2010:

GEOS2071: Life Through Time

Ease: 6/10. Not having a biology background hurt me a bit here.

Lecturers:
M. Archer - 10/10. It's been said before, Mike is great.
S. Hand - 7.5/10. Similar to Mike, but does drag a bit at times.

Many other "guest" lecturers throughout course, vary from 9-1.

Interest: 8/10. Take out the plants lectures with Paul Adam in the last two weeks and this probably get a 10.

Overall: 7/10

GEOS2171: Earth Structures

Ease: 5/10. From what I've seen, you either get this stuff or you take a while to understand the content. I, unfortunately fell into the latter group.

Lecturer P. Lennox - 6/10. Can be very bland at times, although some lectures are good.

Interest: 6/10. Lots of similar stuff, if geological stuff is your go, then its better.

Overall: 6/10. 6 Day Field Trip is a bit of a curve ball, introduces stuff a bit too early. Would have been better with a smaller group rather than the 30 we had.

GEOS2181: Earth Materials

Ease: 6.5/10. If you did GEOS1211 and GEOS1111, this is a lot easier.

Lecturers:
I. Graham - 7/10 although will commonly speed up and slow down his talking speed mid-way through a lecture.
C. Ward - 9.5/10 very good, although there will be those few seconds he goes off on his own

Interest: 7/10 lectures. 5/10 labs. After about 5 weeks, i started walking out of labs half way through, very repetitive. As long as you attend Ward's lab which has an assessment included, there isnt much point staying after the lab quizzes are completed.

Overall: 7/10

GEOS2721/GEOS2101: Australian Surface Environments and Landforms/Sedimentary Environments (co-run course)

Ease: 8/10 if you did well in GEOS1211, if not its a bit lower.

Lecturers:
J. Triantifilis - 9.5/10 Almost as enjoyable as Mike Archer. Very laid back, whilst being effective.
C. Ward - 9.5/10 (same as previous)
R. Brander - 9/10 i missed two of his four lectures, so take for what its worth.

Interest: 9/10 helps that i'm doing an EES major, if you liked 1211, you will like this.

Overall: 9/10 (probably a biased opinion here) particularly enjoyed the Field Trip to Kiama, an easy 10-15% of your final mark if you go.

 

[niloony]

Foreword i never bothered to learn my lecturer's name >>
Micro 1:
Ease: 8/10 - HSC eco will give you a false sense of secruity in the first few weeks
Lecturer: 8/10 All the ones i had, had the trademark ecentric boffin eco lecturer charm.
Interest: 6/10 - Micro has never appealed to me (macro next sem )

Business & Economics Statistics ECON 1203
Ease: 6/10 -Can't just ride off the tutes and lectures for this one
Lecturer: 5/10 -Maybe its just me but i found my textbook alot more helpful
Interest: 7/10 - When i actually bothered to learn stats it became interesting

Accounting 1A - ACCT1501
Ease: 9/10 - Some seemingly pointless things but the bulk of material is straightfoward
Lecturers: 7/10 - Some found ways of making it interesting but most just taught from slides.
Interest: 7/10 - Not as boring as most say probally because its not very complicated so if anything its kinda relaxing to learn.

Managing Org. and People MGMT1001
Ease: 7/10 -Assignments are marked quite hard (They try to make up for all the free marks they give you i guess)
Lecturers: 8/10 They all seemed know what they were talking about
Interest: 7/10 - The tutes are a fantastic introduction to uni and the lectures have interesting interviews but the material is very dry

I should probally get back to studiyng MGMT1001...except they were never very clear on what would be in the test....

 

[jenecis]

I'll try to avoid repetition and review subjects that are not common/ I disagree with previous reviews

ECON1203 - Business and Economics Statistics
Ease - 10/10 - did not go to any of the lectures (albeit I looked at the lecture notes) and got HD
Lecturer - N/A (see above)
Interest - 8/10 - I'm a mathsy person and this was a pretty easy maths course
Overall - 9/10 - If you are good at maths, this would be a great WAM booster.

FINS1613 - Business Finance
Ease - 8/10 - the concepts are pretty straight-foward once you get your head around them
Lecturer - 4/10 for Donald (he literally reads off his 100+ slide lecture notes - you might be better off reading them yourself - but seems like a pretty nice guy if a bit clueless) - 10/10 for Kyung (this guy knows what he's talking about, engages well with students in a big lecture which is pretty hard - explains not reads off the slides)
Interest - 9/10 - provides a solid introduction to finance
Overall - 9/10 - despite the lacklustre lecturer (for the first few weeks at least), if you are genuinely interested in the finance world, this is a good course and would be provide some worthwhile fundamentals. But be warned: there is maths involved (particularly at the end) despite Donald's attempt to shift this traditonally-mathsy course to be more 'theoretical' (to my chagrin).

FINS1612 - Capital Markets and Institutions
Ease - 7/10 - this is a rote-learning course so I suppose for some the ease would be 10/10 but I have the memory of a goldfish...
Lecturer - 8/10 - both lecturers were very knowledgeable in their fields and engaged well with their audience. I only deducted some marks because sometimes they set ambiguous multiple choice questions that could have 2 correct answers.
Interest - 7/10 - whilst it provides great definitions/background information on different types of financial assets and institutions, there was heaps of useless stuff in there to that was chucked for the hell of it. There was less practical application than I liked.
Overall - 6/10. You have to do this for a finance major so better grin and bear it.

I would post up some law subject reviews but I just finished a law exam and am a bit shellshocked

 

[MooshyMoosh]

I won't repeat my science subjects, since it's all pretty much been said.

ARTS1480- Introductory French 1A
Ease- 4/10: I've been told that French is an easy language to learn due to the similarities between it and English. But because the course has been revised this year- new coordinator, new textbook, new teaching method- I found the course extremely hard to follow. The method they decided to use was immersion, and unless immersion is your thing, you will struggle. If you're like me, and need translations to see and understand how a language works, then this subject does not work in our favour.

Lecturers- Valerie: 7/10 She's funny, which made her lectures enjoyable, albeit the fact I couldn't understand most of what she said.

Michelle: 5/10 Didn't enjoy her lectures, and at times she was quite patronizing- we were too slow apparently- but her grammar notes are good for revision, I'll give her that.

Tutors- Guylaine: 10/10 If it wasn't for Guylaine, I would never be able to understand the content in the lectures. She explained things clearly enough, she knew how to teach a language, and had a good sense of humour.

Interest: 6/10- The French language is awesome, but when I feel like I am just rote-learning lines from a travel phrasebook (and poorly at that), this course doesn't meet my expectations. Except for the tutes (bit biased here, sorry).

Overall: 6/10- As it's a newly revised course, I'll be a bit more lenient. There is a lot of potential, because the teachers are pretty decent, but maybe they should look over whether immersion is a good method of teaching absolute beginners a language.

 

[missanonymous7]

Will also add Vertebrate Zoology and Data Analysis for Life & Earth Science when I can be bothered writing them. But for now, a review for:

BIOS2011 Evolutionary and Physiological Ecology:

Content and lectures: Covers all the fundamental concepts in ecology, such as various ecosystem processes / interactions (decomposition, competition, predator-prey relationships, plants, other species interactions), population modelling, community structures, environmental stuff. I found it a bit dull, mainly because a large part was focused on maths-based models (though the maths itself didn't play a big part). Lecturers were OK, one of them reminded me exactly of Nicholas Cage which was a bit bizarre.

Practical work: On the whole, labs were wonderfully short - some only lasted one hour, almost none went for the full three hours - but some were more interesting than others. They were different to other labs in that several experiments were carried out simultaneously over multiple weeks rather than being started and finished in the one lab session.

Assignments: There was a huge groupwork component involving two collaborative research / report writing assignments and a surprise presentation to the class during the final lab. A LOT of scientific report writing involved, and make sure you know your statistics.

Overall: 6/10. Not as dull-and-boring as first year BIOS1101, but I still found it a bit uninspiring. The course was also very disorganised, although it's being restructured for subsequent years so hopefully that will change.

 

[proringz]

ACTL2001 - Financial Mathematics
Ease: 7/10 - Some stuff may seem like nonsense at the start, but makes sense later towards the exam. Quizzes weren't too bad.
Lecturer: 8/10 - Very helpful with new structure of course, where no content is taught in lectures, and are only every 2 weeks (alternating with tutes which are 2 hours).
Interest: 7.5/10 - A lot of stuff taught is applicable to real-world.
Overall: 7.5/10
FINS1613 - Business Finance
Ease: 10/10 - After doing actuarial courses, the concepts taught here (esp. fins maths) are a breeze.
Lecturer: 2/10 - Donald - literally reads every slide word for word from start to finish.
8/10 - Kyung - better
Interest: 8.5/10 - A lot of stuff taught is applicable to real-world.
Overall: 9/10 - Good course
MATH2111-Higher Several Variable Calculus
Ease: 5/10 -For first half, 9/10 for second half
Lecturer: 4.5 for kress, 7.5 for dick (lecturer's surname)
Interest: 6.5/10 -First half didn't interest me at all
Overall: 7/10 - didn't enjoy first half
MATH2901-Higher Theory of Statistics
Ease: 8.5/10 - Once you get your head around the concepts, its good
Lecturer: 5 for bruce brown, 70 years old and cannot hear people's questions from even the first row, doesn't post solutions to exercises until end of sem. Doesn't connect the concepts very well - jumps back and forth between chapters and makes it very confusing for the students.
Interest: 8.5/10 - Having said the above, its quite interesting
Overall: 8.5/10 - 10 if better lecturer

 

[random-1005]

ENGG1000 - was really interesting though frustrating trying to find information relavent to the project.

MATH1141 - Lecturers were reasonably good, class tests are as easy as pie, final exam was relatively easy despite the fact i left out 20% of the questions

PHYS1131 - Very different from hsc physics , quizzes and labs were some good marks to help balance out for the low mark i will get in the final. Needs more than 1 one hour tutorial session per week, however in sesmester two i will definately take advantage of the teaching assistents more

COMP1911 - A fairly painful subject and the lecturer Achim is smug asshole, the assessment for the course is a massive pain in the ass, you either get full marks or no marks for something, there are no part marks!!!

 

[proringz]

COMP1911 - A fairly painful subject and the lecturer Achim is smug asshole, the assessment for the course is a massive pain in the ass, you either get full marks or no marks for something, there are no part marks!!!

Oh no, that sounds bad. I'm doing this subject next sem and its the same lecturer as first sem

 

[kaz1]

If any of you have done GMAT1110 and/or CVEN1300 can you please give your insight?

edit: nvm found a detailed post about it.

 

[Gold Lion]

These were already reviewed first page but I guess more reviews couldn't hurt:

Engg1000:

Ease: 8/10- I found this subject relatively easy (especially because I was involved in the so-called easiest project in the compsci sect). You have an assignment like every week or so and regular diary updates but apart from that it's generally a breeze. I guess the hardest part was coping with group work (unfair work load etc.)
Lecturer: 4/10 - Lambert wasn't great, he would go off topic really easily and blab on for a while but a good lecturer really isn't necessary for this subject IMO.

Interest: 7/10 - It was fun, more like something you'd do as a hobby than anything else, but group work once again did get really annoying
Overall: 7/10 - If you like working with people and want to do something fairly simple, I suggest you do this subject


COMP1917:

Ease: 6/10- Even for someone with some previous programming experience in year 12 SDD, I found higher computing to be really challenging. I screwed up for the last 2 assignments because I left them way too late, and the final exam requires alot of logical thought under pressure which I also found difficult.

Lecturer: 10/10 - Morri is amazing. He has a great sense of humour and keeps the class intent and listening. He's articulate and his lectures are the only ones I didn't skip once this semester!

Interest: 9/10 - I'm doing comp science as a degree, but none the less, this subject is actually really fun and interesting. IMO, It's close to impossible that you will be unimpressed with the content and challenges you are presented with in this course
Overall: 9/10 - apart from the difficult aspect, this course is great for anyone interested in problem solving. I highly recommend it




MATH1131

Ease: 5/10- I only did 2 unit at school and I struggled like hell for this course. It's not an extremely difficult subject but it does require quite a bit of assumed knowledge and the will to study and understand difficult concepts

Lecturer: Angel - 7/10 - Pretty good lecturer, but hardly paid attention to be honest, he's definately not the best there is. 3/10 for my other lecturer who teaches algebra, can't remember his name. But in summary: he was crap, and yelled at everyone for taking out laptops and generally made the content sound alot more difficult than it actually was -.-


Interest: 6/10 - once you understand the content, this subject is really not too bad.

Overall: 5/10 - I didn't enjoy this subject too much only because I never really understood it. If you like maths, I do recommend it though.

(save the worst for last)

MATH1081 a.k.a hell

Ease: 1/10- Welcome to hell. This subject is a bunch of new concepts you've probably never seen or heard and need at least 3 years to fully grasp, but instead, have to cram within the timespan of a single semester. If you're not a super logical genius, steer the fuck away.

Lecturer: Chan - 9/10 - Chan is a GREAT lecturer. The topics I had him for were the ones I was able to grasp alot easier. Jefferies 1/10.- Jefferies added to this subject being an absolute bitch. He's AWFUL. After attending his first 3 lectures and forcing myself to stay awake I figured that I could better spend my time teaching myself the damn subject. I did Truth tables in year 12 SDD, and was so happy when it came to learning this topic. Jefferies, however, gave a 1 hour introduction on the subject that had me wondering if there was a totally different definition of truth tables. JUST AWFUL. When Chan came back for the last topic, we clapped for like a minute straight.

Interest: 3/10 - For the topics I did understand, this subject was somewhat interesting

Overall: 4/10 - If it wasn't so ridiculously hard, this subject wouldn't be half bad.

 

[LordPc]

Oh no, that sounds bad. I'm doing this subject next sem and its the same lecturer as first sem

change to 1917, there is still time