Business & Economics Subject Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Azure]

Welcome to the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Business & Economics subject review thread.

The aim of this thread is to allow students to offer feedback on the units they are studying/have studied.

Reviews should be made in the following format:

• Unit Code:
• Difficulty: (Easy/Moderate/Difficult)
• Lecturer:
• Tutor:
• Year and Semester Taken:
• Workload:
• Comments:
• Assessment Breakdown:

In order to find a particular subject review within this faculty, simply click on the "search thread" function and enter your unit code.

Good luck with your studies.

 

[barbecuedflava]

Having finished exams and with some free time on my hands I'd thought I'll have a go at sharing my personal experiences with the business subjects that I have completed.

Hopefully this will generate more interest and activity in this thread and allow it to develop into a useful source of information for future students contemplating which subjects to undertake.

Unit Code: ACCG200
Difficulty: Extremely easy
Workload: Very light
Comments: Probably the easiest 200 level accounting subject. It is important to understanding the concepts that are taught in this unit as they will be applicable in subsequent subjects.

Unit Code: ACCG224
Difficulty: Moderate
Workload: Moderate
Comments: If you struggled in first year accounting you can expect your woes to continue. Think of it as ACCG'1C'. However if you understand the accounting concepts in first year you will have no problem whatsoever. Apparently there is a relatively high failure rate for this unit.

Unit Code: ACCG250
Difficulty: Low
Workload: Low-Medium (QuickBooks assignment was a lot of work).
Comments: One of the easier subjects; you need to understand how the flowcharts work and the different symbols. You get to practice this throughout the sem and it is featured in an assignment so by the time the final exam comes around there should be no issues.

Unit Code: ACCG301
Difficulty: Medium
Workload: High
Comments: When I attempted this subject it was a requirement for students to complete 'MyAccountingLab' tests each week. They were excruciatingly boring and lengthy; often 2-3 hours in length for only a couple of marks each. To compound the intense tediousness of the subject there was also a 4000 word group assignment to write. I was asked to hand back the marked group assignments to the class and there were a high level of fails. Make sure you get into a good group otherwise it will be a very long semester.

Unit Code: AFIN253
Difficulty: Medium
Workload: Low
Comments: As an accounting major I actually enjoyed this finance subject. I found the concepts very practical and the methodologies logical to apply. Class attendance is not compulsory but if you attempt the tutorial questions and go through them each week with the tutor (I was the only person in my class to do this because no-one did their homework - why did they even turn up??) then you will breeze through the subject. Although the final exam is only two hours in length the mid semester exam is on a Saturday morning, which was a bit of a pain.

If anyone has done any 300 level accounting electives and can post up their reviews that would be great!

 

[Proteus]

Unit Code: ACST101
Difficulty: Relatively Easy
Lecturer: D. Westcott
Tutor: L Zhao
Year and Semester Taken: 2012 S2
Workload: Moderately light, includes weekly quizzes.
Comments: Some people think it's a hard subject, but it's very rewarding to perform well as the 3 class tests are extremely similar in layout to the past papers.
Course is designed very well. Print out at least 2 copies of lecture notes and re-do the lecture examples
Assessment Breakdown: 3x 10% Class Tests, 20% compiled from weekly quizzes, 50% from finals

 

[crazy_paki123]

Unit Code: ACCG101
Difficulty: Moderate
Lecturer: Amy Tung
Tutor: Some Asian, think her name was Kate
Year and Semester Taken: 2013 S2
Workload: Moderate, must do all hw and work in order to succeed
Commentseople say its a theory heavy subject and that is 100% correct. It has a lot of theory that must be revised regularly to succeed. Also this year they introduced MYOB which must be self taught. That is crucial as it is 10% and many people dont do well in that i think anyways.
Assessment Breakdown: 5 random hw collections, 3 inclass tests, MYOB, online resume and 60% final exam.

Unit Code: ECON111
Difficulty: Moderate (If you did HSC Eco like me then its piss easy)
Lecturer: Onur (Good)
Tutor: Ryan Esplin (Very good)
Year and Semester Taken: 2013 S2
Workload: Its similar to HSC economics so for me not too much work, just the weekly hw and quizzes to keep revising the content.
Comments: Very interesting subject. If one understands all the graphs in it then they will find it very easy and enjoyable.
Assessment Breakdown: 4 quizzes, 1 assignment, weekly hw, tute participation, 60% Final exam

Unit Code: MKTG101
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Jana Bowden (Good)
Tutor: Sonal Singh (Good)
Year and Semester Taken: 2013 S2
Workload: Light, aside from the essay not too much work at all
Comments: A general knowledge subject. Just a bit of reading and writing thats all.
Assessment Breakdown: 1 essay, 1 group presentation and a 40% final exam.

Unit Code: ISYS100
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Matthew Mansour (Brilliant lecturer)
Tutor: Kristi (Very good, too)
Year and Semester Taken:2013,S2
Workload:None, aside from the final essay its very easy and enjoyable
Comments: Very easy, fun too even for non-computer people
Assessment Breakdown: 3 quizzes, HTML assignment, Blog group assignment, video group assignment, tute participation and final essay which is 32%. NO FINAL EXAM!

 

[tom9422]

can anyone tell me anything about AFIN252 or ECON204?

 

[crazy_paki123]

i hear afin252 is notoriously difficult. Even harder than 300 level subjects

 

[kkmok]

As I saw someone said AFIN252 is so difficult, I might actually do a review for it

Unit Code: AFIN252
Difficulty: Difficult ( easy if you did put effort in your first year prereq in accg106/accg100,econ111/bba103,acst101,stat170/171)
Lecturer: Lindsay Stubbs
Tutor: Yunping Chen
Year and Semester Taken: 2012 S1
Workload: moderate
Comments: People usually find it is hard because it require a lot of your first year knowledge especially acst101, if you mastered acst101, you will find it really easy for the first few topics, if you mastered stat, you will find it easy for some of the topics as well. If you forget most of the stuff in first year, basically you will relearn it with some new additional theory, the workload will be really heavy if you forget your first year knowledge. You also have to memorize some of the finance theories like economics, this subject is a combination of theory and mathematics. You will also need to know how to read the accounting reports like balance sheet and stuff to answer exam questions so again first year knowledge..
Assessment Breakdown: There is an essay (20%)in my year but end up the lecturer took ages to mark it and decide to cancel it for later semester, probably assignment now, (5%) diagnostic MC, (20%) mid sem and (55%) final

Maybe I should just review the whole actuarial studies degree if I have time haha

 

[crazy_paki123]

thanks for the review kkmok

 

[tom9422]

i hear afin252 is notoriously difficult. Even harder than 300 level subjects

...fuck

As I saw someone said AFIN252 is so difficult, I might actually do a review for it

Unit Code: AFIN252
Difficulty: Difficult ( easy if you did put effort in your first year prereq in accg106/accg100,econ111/bba103,acst101,stat170/171)
Lecturer: Lindsay Stubbs
Tutor: Yunping Chen
Year and Semester Taken: 2012 S1
Workload: moderate
Comments: People usually find it is hard because it require a lot of your first year knowledge especially acst101, if you mastered acst101, you will find it really easy for the first few topics, if you mastered stat, you will find it easy for some of the topics as well. If you forget most of the stuff in first year, basically you will relearn it with some new additional theory, the workload will be really heavy if you forget your first year knowledge. You also have to memorize some of the finance theories like economics, this subject is a combination of theory and mathematics. You will also need to know how to read the accounting reports like balance sheet and stuff to answer exam questions so again first year knowledge..
Assessment Breakdown: There is an essay (20%)in my year but end up the lecturer took ages to mark it and decide to cancel it for later semester, probably assignment now, (5%) diagnostic MC, (20%) mid sem and (55%) final

Maybe I should just review the whole actuarial studies degree if I have time haha

Haha maybe, i'm actually doing B Applied Finance/B Economics though.

Hmm, that infos interesting. I did well in ACST101, got a reasonably comfortable D so that should be fine, but i only just scraped by in STAT170. What would you say is necessary from stats that transfers into AFIN?

 

[krnofdrg]

Unit Code: ACCG224
Difficulty: Moderate
Lecturer: Thomas Kern
Tutor: Thomas Kern
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate (Tutorial questions take a bit of time)
Comments: Probably the hardest but most interesting accounting unit at 200 level. The lecturer is pretty good.

 

[krnofdrg]

Unit Code: ACCG250
Difficulty: Easy - Medium
Lecturer: Matthew Mansour - He's a good lecturer but can be a little boring/time wasting sometimes in the lectures. Goes off topic a lot with his "story telling" and case studies.
Tutor: May Vargas
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate
Comments: An interesting unit involving Accounting Information Systems and a little bit of Auditing. The tutor was very good as she had a lot of experience in the field and very helpful in explaining the tutorial questions. Only criticism I have for this subject is that there is a lot of content to memorise for the final exam.

 

[krnofdrg]

Unit Code: ACCG200
Difficulty: Easy - Medium
Lecturer: Sophia Su
Tutor: James Mackey
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate
Comments:
The tutor has a great personality and was very good at explaining the concepts.

Only thing I would be cautious about in this subject is the Excel assignments. They can be a little tricky.

 

[thor1990]

Unit Code: Econ110
Difficulty : Moderate
Lecturer: Stephanie Brooks
Year and Semester Taken : 2014 S1
Workload: High
Comments:
The downside is there is tutorial homework due each week which can take some time to complete (Approx 5 pages). They will pick 5 weeks randomly out of the weekly homework to count to 25% towards you overall grade. On the plus side, it is very easy to get 90% for these as they go through them and give you half the answers in the tut. Mid semester and Final can be a little tricky. Focus on tutorial homework asnwers to prepare and more detail for graphs the better.

 

[crazy_paki123]

Unit Code: ECON110
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Lecturer: Stephanie Brooks
Tutor: Some African bloke called Adebayo
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Not too bad, light-medium
Comments: The unit and the concepts in it werent too bad. Doing HSC Eco helps enormously, but some topics such as the PAE eqn are hard to remember. The diagrams in it are pretty easy to understand and remember. I NEVER went to a lecture for it lol but listened to it every week. The tutes were horrible. Sometimes I even got more confused after a tute in econ110. Compared to econ111 i found it a bit more difficult not because of the concepts per se,the tutor in econ111 was much better, and econ111 they pretty much fed me marks with the assignment and hw/participation.
Assessment Breakdown: 25% hw collections (5x5%) 25% midsem, 50% final

Unit Code: BUSL250
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Lecturer: Verity Greendwood
Tutor: Catherine Jeffry
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate
Comments: My first ever law subject (i know its noob law) was thoroughly enjoyable. The topics were interesting, and the lectures were engaging. The tutes run every 2nd week which was a bit weird but turned out alright. Bombed the contracts test cause i made a shite cheatsheet, but made up for it in the other assessments. Lecturer is great but gets a bit moody about taking pictures of her slides as they arent the same as the ones given. Catherine is a bit strict in marking but she too is good. I strongly recommend going to the STAR program for it aswell, it may be on a Saturday but it is extremely useful for the final.
Assessment Breakdown: 30% Online Quizzes (3x10%), 10% Contracts Test, 5% Speech/Presentation, 5% Participation, 50% Final

Unit Code: ACCG200
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Sophia or something like that
Tutor: Shadab Khan
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Low
Comments: Easy Unit, alot of maths but all basic. My mate taught himself the whole subject in one day and says he aced the final lol. My average before the final was 87 for it but i FEEL i bombed the final (like i got a 70-75). So ill probably miss out on a HD but hey could still get it. Listened to the lectures on echo. Tutes were great, engaging and interactive. Anyone who puts in decent effort is guaranteed a 70+ for it
Assessment Breakdown: 10% Class Test, 10% Excel assignments (2x5%), 10% Participation, 10% hw collections (5x2%), 60% Final

Unit Code: ACCG224
Difficulty: Moderate-Hardish
Lecturer: Rajni Mala
Tutor: Thomas Kern
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate-High
Comments: Difficult unit, most difficult 200 level accounting unit probably. Rajni's lectures were BORING, she just red off the slides, defintely go to Thomas's lectures, much more engaging and he uses good example to help people remember the concepts better too. Thomas is a good tutor although he does like picking on people who dont do the hw which is pretty sizeable compared to other units i did in the semester. Students that want a D+ for this should try to do decently in the class tests as a lot of students lose massive marks here. Oh and for the tutes try to get Chris as your tutor, he marks easy on particpation my friend she got 9.6/10 for it whereas everyone else i knew including me got 50s 60s for it. Apart from Chris they mark particpation very harshly.
Assessment Breakdown: 20% class tests (2x10%), 15% Report, 5% Presentation, 10% Participation, 50% Final

 

[ChrisAC]

Unit Code: BUSL301
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard
Lecturer: Zaman Korseduzzaman
Tutor: Catherine Jeffry
Year and Semester Taken: 2013 S2
Workload: Moderate
Comments: i got a HD in BUSL250 and came into this one quite confident. Homework is not compulsary and most of the class didnt bother doing their HW but i spent a good 2-4 hours per week doing the homework as well as i could because this would help me participate well in class (which was a huge 20%). Mid semester was multi choice but hard to get higher than a D some real tricks in there. Participation was a killer - i answered/contributed to discussion in at least a half of questions in every class cos most of the people never did the homework, yet i still only got 17/20. My friend who said nothing in any tut still got 12/20. Who knows what it takes to get any higher but at least its pretty impossible to fail participation as long as you turn up (this is probably subject to which tutor you get). Final is pretty predicatable if you look at previous final exams, but still difficult. Quite a lot to remember and this is the only BUSL subject that you dont get a cheat sheet for.
Assessment Breakdown: 10% Class Test, 5% Speech/Presentation, 20% Participation, 60% Final

Unit Code: BUSL320
Difficulty: Hard
Lecturer: Hope Ashiabor
Tutor: Peter
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: High
Comments: Well, i actually found this subject fairly easy in the end, but most people find it hard. The most notable thing is the amount of reading you have to do. I'd say double the amount of reading required compared to any other unit ive done so far. The problem is compounded with the fact that legislation to help with your answers comes from redirections from the readings. So the 'required reading' might give you an explanation, then will refer you to some taxation ruling which you need to look up on a website and read another few pages on, or itll refer you to the other tax book (theres 4 books for this course) where you might have to read the direct legislation. Tutorials leave you a little disheartened because even after i spent a good 4-5 hours reading and doing the homework, i still got most of the homework wrong. The average for the mid semester is ALWAYS a fail (like 8/20) so again this is disheartening to your studies. Despite all that, i walked into the final exam today on 88% and feel pretty good about the final walking out of it.
If you want to make your final exam easy for this unit, do a tonne of past papers and do the tutorial questions again. I did 6 past papers and maybe 70% of my final exam consisted of questions which were direct copies of questions appearing in past papers. Another 20% were copies of examples given out during lectures and the last 10% were original questions.
Hope is a great lecturer and a great unit convenor, you get the sense he's there to help you get through the unit. I'd try to avoid peter as a tutor, as you can imagine tax is a pretty complex subject and he makes class discussion more complex than it needs to be for the unit and it confuses people. Also, for the presentation he refused to give anyone 100% whereas other classes many people got 100%
Assessment Breakdown: 20% Class test, 15% Essay, 10% Homework/presentation, 55% final


Unit Code: ACCG340
Difficulty: Hard
Lecturer: Dominic Soh
Tutor: Medhat
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S1
Workload: Moderate
Comments: Everyone told me that if you did well in ACCG250 you should be fine in ACCG340. I wish that was the case, i got like 83 for ACCG250 but struggled hard in this unit. The mid semester always has a fail average, and i failed harder than the average despite putting alot of study into it. The unit starts off easy to understand, but once it gets into assertions and substantive testing everyone has a hard time applying the theory. The saving grace for me was that you can get an easy 20% for handing in homework and the online quizzes arent too bad. Also the case study is group work and i had a fantastic group who were well organised, so i still entered the final exam on a decent grade.
The final was hard, harder than the 4 or so past papers than i attempted, but that was because this semester was the first semester where a cheat sheet was allowed in the exam, so i guess we had to expect that. So therefore, i guess they are still experimenting on the balance between difficulty and cheat sheet. I think i would receive a higher mark if i had no cheat sheet and an easier exam, but you have to do the course thats in front of you. (and theres nothing wrong with my cheat sheet, ive got nothing less than a D in all my other cheat sheet exams).
This was also the first semester where they had a seminar format. I usually just echo lectures but this forced me to go to lectures.. which is OK i guess for most students because it forces them to listen to the content but i listen to it regardless. Its probably an effort to reduce fail rate along with the addition of a cheat sheet to the midsem and final. If you aim for D's/HD's in your studies, definitely dont sleep on this unit.
Assessment Breakdown: 20@ homework/online quizzes, 20% class test, 20% case study, 40% final exam


if anyone has any questions feel free to pm me!

 

[crazy_paki123]

Unit Code: ACCG250
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Lecturer: Mauricio Marrone
Tutor: Edward Tello
Year and Semester Taken: 2014, S2
Workload: Light - No homework, but its best to study up for assessed coursework and revision
Comments: Heavy Unit that has a LOT of info, Mauricio is a great lecturer and makes the content engaging and lectures entertaining. Edward is also a very good tutor and always answers any question very clearly making it much easier to understand.
Assessment Breakdown: 30% Assessed Coursework (5 x 6% each), 20% Group Report, 10% Group Video Presentation, 40% Final Exam

Unit Code: ACST201
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Sachi Purcal
Tutor: No idea lol
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S2
Workload: Light
Comments: For the average finance student this unit should be a breeze. Sachi is a very good lecturer and the tutor was pretty good to. The only annoying part of this unit was that for the take home quizzes we had to convert them to PDFs and for the second won technology was against me which cost me 7%. Also, the tasks were annoying, wed only get 2 days to do the questions and submit them, also we would have to mark our peers work and it just seemed like there were too many tasks for only 40%.
Assessment Breakdown: 20% (2 Takehome Quizzes), 10% (2x5%)Online Quizzes, 10% (2x5%)Group Tasks, 60% Final Exam

Unit Code: AFIN252
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult
Lecturer: Lindsay Stubbs
Tutor: Lindsay Stubbs
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S2
Workload: Moderate
Comments: Interesting unit. Its definitely a little bit difficult but its content is applicable to real life and i actually found it fun. The midsem was not too difficult but had a whopping 40% fail rate and an average of only 55%. My biggest tip for this unit is to keep ontop of your work and do the h/w and extra questions every week. Lindsay was a pretty good lecturer and tutor but yeah do your hw. Also turn up to the lectures, they were very important for me and hardly any body turns up too so it gave us a better opportunity to engage with the lecture
Assessment Breakdown: 5% Online Quiz, 15% Midsem, 20% Group Assignment (10% for Part A and B each), 60% Final Exam

 

[v1]

Unit Code: ECON241
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult
Lecturer: Fazeel Jaleel
Tutor: Adriadne
Year and Semester Taken: 2014 S2
Workload: Low-Moderate
Comments: Do not do this unit if the unit convener has initials F.M.J. Worst experience ever in a unit I've done so far. Barely any feedback given during the semester, and in the assignment (similar to finals) which everyone fails (7.5/20 average) because they are looking for very specific answers. Hardcopy of assignment collected day before final exam (We get assignment mark 4 days before finals to know that we are in deep shit so late). Lecture notes pretty much useless in answering long response questions and tutorials are something I don't look forward to. My tutor was a cheating police and basically her job was to investigate cheaters, stop interaction between students and write formula on the board rather than help understand content.
Assessment Breakdown: 10% weekly tutorial, 20% 4*5% quizzes , 20% Major Assignment, 50% final exam

 

[crazy_paki123]

^ Shieet... im doing Econ241 in s1 :/

 

[thor1990]

Great, im also doing this in semester one

 

[v1]

^ Shieet... im doing Econ241 in s1 :/

Great, im also doing this in semester one

pm me later, i'll let you guys know what to look out for