UNSW Subject Reviews. (3 Viewers)

[RenegadeMx]

it is a friday night/saturday morning and i am bored so ill do mine i guess

Math1231
Ease: 8/10, depends on lecturer like always, but i found 1231 easier then 1131, calc ch1-3,5 rly easy ch4 gotta study a bit, algebra different story but ch8/9 piss easy ch6/7 understand the theorems and u should be sweet, dont neglect maple easy 12% of ur final mark, and quick to learn
Content:7/10 a lot of interesting concepts here, just wish they would explain why subspaces/lin transformations are useful, cause personally i still dont know, a lot of calculus was interesting, especially differential equations (imo) but i guess thats just how tisdell made it like
Lecturer: Tisdell 10/10 - one of the 3 gods in (first yr) maths, read the other comments for more info
Stephen 7/10, she is good just gets outclassed by Tisdell and is sometimes boring, but overall she knows her stuff and is decent as a lecturer
Tutor:Mak 9/10: spends too much time going over in detail stuff we are already meant to know, but is pretty good and always seems to be happy, to those who might disagree, just get past his accent and you will see why he is pretty good
O'brien 8.5/10 doubt many will know who I'm talking about but anyways, his weekly summary notes are really nice as well as his explanations, gives lots of useful hints

Math1081
Ease:1/10, if u dont study efficiently you are fucked pretty much(for all sections)
Content:9/10 a lot of broad and interesting topics, did make me think about maths in an entirely different way (which i guess is what it is meant to do), personally i enjoyed it a lot, judging by past reviews, this is hit or miss with different people.
Lecturer: Angell 9.5/10 his style of teaching fits in perfectly with discrete(not rly for 1131 calc), he explains things really well, but sometimes over complicates unnecessary things, and does go off topic a lot(but it is interesting) plus his mars bars challenges were fun. He will always try help you if you ask him which is also nice
Tutor: Angell: ^

Phys1160
ease: 9.5/10, minimal effort needed to get a D minimum, just post online within first week for bonus marks and just once a week or so, quizzes can be googled easily, careful with final can throw u off balance and fuck up your HD, gg
content:7/10 interesting if u like space and life, not much else to say here
lecturer:n/a, dont really have to even watch the lecturers, there are lecture slides if you really want it
tutor: n/a

edst1104
ease: 7/10 a lot of it is common knowledge, only reason not 10/10 is the 2 major assignments (essay,research project on fking abos) will fuck you hard if you are shit at essay writing, and will rape your WAM
content: 3/10 as i said before, most content is pretty simple,(no shit abos/immigrants/people in rural areas are disadvantaged) but you do learn some new stuff
lecturer: Vass 4/10 alright, but he had to make lecturers compulsory so..., and seems to fall behind on time a lot, but does explain and talk about various concepts well
Tutor: Chadwik 9/10, really good and nice tutor, generates discussion well and helps a lot regarding the assignments and other questions, just dont be late/away because she takes the attendance requirement seriously

 

[seventhroot]

it is a friday night/saturday morning and i am bored so ill do mine i guess

Math1231
Ease: 8/10, depends on lecturer like always, but i found 1231 easier then 1131, calc ch1-3,5 rly easy ch4 gotta study a bit, algebra different story but ch8/9 piss easy ch6/7 understand the theorems and u should be sweet, dont neglect maple easy 12% of ur final mark, and quick to learn
Content:7/10 a lot of interesting concepts here, just wish they would explain why subspaces/lin transformations are useful, cause personally i still dont know, a lot of calculus was interesting, especially differential equations (imo) but i guess thats just how tisdell made it like
Lecturer: Tisdell 10/10 - one of the 3 gods in (first yr) maths, read the other comments for more info
Stephen 7/10, she is good just gets outclassed by Tisdell and is sometimes boring, but overall she knows her stuff and is decent as a lecturer
Tutor:Mak 9/10: spends too much time going over in detail stuff we are already meant to know, but is pretty good and always seems to be happy, to those who might disagree, just get past his accent and you will see why he is pretty good
O'brien 8.5/10 doubt many will know who I'm talking about but anyways, his weekly summary notes are really nice as well as his explanations, gives lots of useful hints

Math1081 will update later regarding final
Ease:1/10, if u dont study efficiently you are fucked pretty much(for all sections)
Content:9/10 a lot of broad and interesting topics, did make me think about maths in an entirely different way (which i guess is what it is meant to do), personally i enjoyed it a lot, judging by past reviews, this is hit or miss with different people.
Lecturer: Angell 9.5/10 his style of teaching fits in perfectly with discrete(not rly for 1131 calc), he explains things really well, but sometimes over complicates unnecessary things, and does go off topic a lot(but it is interesting) plus his mars bars challenges were fun. He will always try help you if you ask him which is also nice
Tutor: Angell: ^

Phys1160
ease: 9.5/10, minimal effort needed to get a D minimum, just post online within first week for bonus marks and just once a week or so, quizzes can be googled easily, careful with final can throw u off balance and fuck up your HD, gg
content:7/10 interesting if u like space and life, not much else to say here
lecturer:n/a, dont really have to even watch the lecturers, there are lecture slides if you really want it
tutor: n/a

edst1104
ease: 7/10 a lot of it is common knowledge, only reason not 10/10 is the 2 major assignments (essay,research project on fking abos) will fuck you hard if you are shit at essay writing, and will rape your WAM
content: 3/10 as i said before, most content is pretty simple,(no shit abos/immigrants/people in rural areas are disadvantaged) but you do learn some new stuff
lecturer: Vass 4/10 alright, but he had to make lecturers compulsory so..., and seems to fall behind on time a lot, but does explain and talk about various concepts well
Tutor: Chadwik 9/10, really good and nice tutor, generates discussion well and helps a lot regarding the assignments and other questions, just dont be late/away because she takes the attendance requirement seriously

1st srs post

 

[Menomaths]

1st srs post

I tl;dr'd it

 

[RenegadeMx]

1st srs post

already doing better then you

 

[seventhroot]

already doing better then you

pls

 

[Drifting95]

it was though

he didn't even do 1613 this sem

 

[seventhroot]

he didn't even do 1613 this sem

mfw when I did

mfw I have no face

 

[RenegadeMx]

pls

1 srs post>0

 

[nightweaver066]

ACTL2102
Ease: 6/10 - definitely not easy, but not something I found particularly hard. I struggled more with ACTL2111.
Content: 8/10 - pretty interesting stuff learning about Markov processes & time series. Could do with more working out in the worked examples because they're cut short to the point where it's hard to figure out how they got to the next line.
Lecturer: 7/10 - Ziveyi is troll king. Funny guy who marks assignments quite leniently and does a decent job explaining concepts. I don't like how he rewrites stuff already in the lecture slides though.
Tutor: 10/10 - EZ. Friendly, approachable, good at explaining concepts. Teaches the class from the students' needs perspective.
Overall: 7/10. Probably easier for the more mathematically inclined people. Finals turned out to be quite doable with no curveballs so that was nice.

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.

MATH2221:
Ease: 10/10 - Learn the methods and you're set.
Content: 5/10 - didn't interest me at all. Found it very hard to stay focused and learn the content as it felt very dry. The last topic on IBVP in 2D was especially hard to learn.
Lecturer: McLean. Can't really comment because I didn't attend many of the lectures, and if I did, I couldn't keep myself awake.. I think this was due to the nature of the course content.
Tutor: 8/10 - McLean. Seems like a pretty nice guy, writes up lots of solutions which helps us out and answers our questions.
Overall: 7/10. Do it if you're looking for an easy course to score highly in and you can commit to learning the methods.

MATH2931:
Ease: 1/10. Ok so the content is pretty difficult, but that doesn't account for this rating. That final..
Content: 7/10 - Seemed useful & interesting learning about linear models, how to implement them, what makes a good model and all that.
Lecturer: Libo - Can't really say much because I didn't attend many lecturers, but he is also a troll. Didn't give any helpful hints for the finals, and nek minnut, pulls out LAST years assignment questions (which we don't have access to) and puts them in the final. I mean, I heard they usually put in the assignment questions that you do in your year.
Tutor: No tutorials, just labs, not very helpful as the tutorials questions don't really help with your learning.
Overall: 1/10. So during the final, I was seriously wondering why I even chose to do the 2 maths courses instead of the one ACTL course which I think would have been 100x easier. Even with scaling, I'm hoping i pass.

 

[obliviousninja]

My tutor was CAG

10/10

 

[4025808]

Tutor: 10/10 - EZ. Friendly, approachable, good at explaining concepts. Teaches the class from the students' needs perspective.


MATH2931:
Ease: 1/10. Ok so the content is pretty difficult, but that doesn't account for this rating. That final..
Content: 7/10 - Seemed useful & interesting learning about linear models, how to implement them, what makes a good model and all that.
Lecturer: Libo - Can't really say much because I didn't attend many lecturers, but he is also a troll. Didn't give any helpful hints for the finals, and nek minnut, pulls out LAST years assignment questions (which we don't have access to) and puts them in the final. I mean, I heard they usually put in the assignment questions that you do in your year.
Tutor: No tutorials, just labs, not very helpful as the tutorials questions don't really help with your learning.
Overall: 1/10. So during the final, I was seriously wondering why I even chose to do the 2 maths courses instead of the one ACTL course which I think would have been 100x easier. Even with scaling, I'm hoping i pass.

EZ is an amazing person

And yeah, for MATH2931, oh goodness.
I heard people complaining hugely about the exam and about how troll Libo is. =_='
Imagine him next year, he will be taking MATH2901.

 

[nightweaver066]

EZ is an amazing person

And yeah, for MATH2931, oh goodness.
I heard people complaining hugely about the exam and about how troll Libo is. =_='
Imagine him next year, he will be taking MATH2901.

BOTEV NEEDS TO COME BACK
#botev2015

 

[4025808]

BOTEV NEEDS TO COME BACK
#botev2015

The only problem I have with Botev is that he's too cbf to write his own papers and thus he just re-uses exam questions and thus never gave us past papers

 

[RenegadeMx]

EZ is an amazing person

And yeah, for MATH2931, oh goodness.
I heard people complaining hugely about the exam and about how troll Libo is. =_='
Imagine him next year, he will be taking MATH2901.

well im glad im doing 2801 then...

 

[asi9]

FINS2624
Ease - 7/10
Content - 8/10
Lecturer - 9/10 Joakim Bang (didn't go to one, but I liked the way he structured the course)
Tutor - 9/10 Jojo

FINS1612
Ease - 10/10
Content - 7/10
Lecturer - N/A (Forgot who they were but the one in charge is lazy)
Tutor - 6/10 (an international PhD student who probably never told me his name)

FINS3616
Ease - 8/10
Content - 6/10 (nothing interesting until the last chapters for international capital budgeting and futures options... which didn't get tested properly in the finals)
Lecturer - 7/10 for Bohui (midsem was moderately hard) and 5/10 for Jaehoon (finals were too easy)
Tutor - 8.5/10 Peter Andersen (i could take him)

 

[obliviousninja]

Henry Yip the wam destroyer

 

[HeroicPandas]

Semester 2

PSYC1011
Ease: 8/10 - concepts are very easy to understand but too much to memorize
Content: 1/10 - not interesting, especially with this behavioral junk. Gave it 1 point because psychobiology was fun
Lecturer: 0/10 (1 lecturer for each topic) - apalling, I gained like <10% going lectures
Tutor: 9/10 - I had Donna Li and she was awesome. Explained everything well and we had a lot of fun
Overall evaluation: Psychology is bullshit with it's stupid reports (I do not mean to offend any psych lovers here). Glad I'm dong with this madness - NO PAST PAPERS PROVIDED (what a load of ****)

MATH1241
Ease: 8/10 - stay consistent and it'll be alright
Content: 8/10 - calculus and algebra was fun but the statistical component of algebra was unpleasant
Lecturer: 9/10 - Thomas Britz (algebra) was really cheerful and nice. I like his presentations and notes (typed in LaTeX).
10/10 - Bill Ellis (calculus) was the best lecturer I've had in this university, whenever I came there, I understood at least 80% of the stuff he was teaching. This is because he went through example questions which apply the concept.
Tutor: 10/10 - Denis Potapov (algebra) is the man. You reach a deep level of understanding in mathematics when he goes through questions.
10/10 - John Steele (calculus) is very good like many MATH course tutors
Overall evaluation - Good exercise of logic

COMP1917
Ease: 3/10 - EXTREMELY difficult if you do not practice coding or rote learn the content
Content: 6/10 - useful and practical but heavy. You will learn creative ways to apply logic and program effectively
Lecturer: 3/10 - Alan Blair is boring
Tutor: 10/10 - Alan Blair explained everything clearly and is very approachable and nice
Overall evaluation: a VERY rewarding, but difficult course. Hugely practical and induces lateral thinking and logical thinking to a greater level if you can push through it's difficulty. One sample past paper provided but you can get more by checking the previous years (most are identical, you'll only find about 3 extra questions to do). Be sure to check the course outline and assessments (semester 2)

CHEM1011
Ease: 9/10 - very easy, like HSC chemistry but at a deeper level with some difficult concepts to understand
Content: 10/10 - interesting and fun to learn
Lecturer: 10/10 (1 lecturer for each topic) - I can remember 2 real quick (Steven Colbran and Alex Donald) but I cbb recalling the others. These 2 lecturers were excellent. Their notes were so good I'd stay home and read them all day. They explained everything so clearly but since my concentration span is so low, it's hard to learn in lecturers lol
Tutor: 10/10 - Joe Brophy is an old man and is a good tutor
Overall evaluation: very fun and interesting course. Nice and challenging concepts in here to understand. It also answers many questions I had for HSC chem

 

[kalstar]

MATH1231
Ease: 7/10 - Not too difficult, but stay up to date with the content
Content: 7/10 - Quite alot of content to remember, do the questions unlike me
Lecturer: 6/10 - Chi Mak was hard to understand but taught the content alright, tends to go offtrack slightly, Nick Fewster-Young horrible, didn't learn a single thing, only learnt off the book
Overall: 7/10 - Math is math, if you like maths it's great for you, if not, it will just be that little bit harder.

CVEN1300
Ease: 8/10 - Pretty easy, but make sure you're up to scratch on the dynamics section of the course
Content: 6/10 - Again, fairly basic stuff, nothing too difficult, lots of past quizes and papers provided, so it was all good
Lecturer: 8/10 - I found both lecturers pretty good, was easy to learn off them, however Wei Gao might be a bit hard to understand for some.
Overall: Good course, nice basic insight into civil engineering.

MATS1101
Ease: 6/10 - Materials strand had lots of content to remember, chemistry wasn't that hard
Content: 7/10 - Chemistry strand had relatively less content to remember compared to the materials strand. Labs and quizes pretty standard.
Lecturer: 7/10 - Crosky was a beast lecturer, easy to understand, but the chemistry strand was horrible, especially organic chemistry by none other than Fracois.
Overall: Did not like the course that much, but it wasn't that bad I guess

ENGG1400
Ease: 7/10 - Coding is ew and the other content is just - wtf
Content: 6/10 - Lots of coding, lots of irrelevant stuff
Lecturer: 5/10 - Waller wasn't that good, didn't learn a whole lot off him, mostly from tutes
Overall: Interesting course, but not that great, no past papers or anything so it was hard to guess what was expected for the final, but it didn't turn out to be very hard.

 

[obliviousninja]

INFS2603

Ease: 8/10 Fairly simply, straight forward stuff, kinda like 1602
Content: 2/10 Boring, tedious, didn't really find anything interesting cept maybe UI, but the course scope is heaps limiting, so it was covered briefly
Lecture: 3/10 9am lecture. gg no re. not really engaging. didnt learn much
Overall: Easy course, (might get HD if im lucky). didnt apply any effort till stuvac. chillz4dayz. but course is so bland

 

[sirable1]

ARTS1271: The History Matrix
Ease: 8/10 - Depends on your skills in writing and research rather than 'knowledge'.
Content: 10/10 - Good course. Goes over the 20th century by lecture/week by lecture/week. Covers some very interesting stuff.
Lecturer: Zora Simic 9/10. Very good, explains ideas/concepts very clearly with a good summary of this and that. Very nice as well! (ie. offered students to celebrate at the Whitehouse after the final lecture)
Tutor: Isobelle Barrett Meyering 9/10. Pretty much the same as Dr Simic. She gave good feedback on my assignments etc.
Overall: 9/10. Really like this course, although if I were a lot better in writing, my marks would have been better.

MATH1131: Mathematics 1A

Ease: 9/10 - Easier the second time around, particularly Calculus.
Content: 8/10 - Liked Algebra more than Calculus. Calculus itself was alright on one hand, but some topics I hated so much (ie. Riemann Sums, Curve Sketching)
Lecturers: Peter Brown (Algebra) 9/10. Terrific lecturer, very passionate about Mathematics. Goes over the stuff very well and makes things a bit more interesting like the History of Maths, Beauty of Maths (ie. Euler's identity, Gaussian Elimination etc.).
Pinhas Grossman (Calculus) 8/10. Good lecturer also I found, explains things very clearly. Lecture notes could be improved though.
Tutors: Milan Pahor (Algebra) 9/10. Everybody who takes maths should know Pahor LOL. Yep, he's pretty good also. Very casual when teaching maths (ie. Gaussian Elimination: Bullet proof method, killing off rows, paradox at the bottom corner)
Thanom Shaw (Calculus) 10/10. Easily the best tutor that I've ever had for Maths. Fast speaker yet explains things very preciously. Reason why I'm more confident in Calculus now. Shame she won't be teaching anymore next year :/
Overall: 7/10 Bit tedious to do this course again, though it easier the second time around. Aimed to score really high in pre-exam marks to ease the stress for the exam itself, which I eventually did. Can't wait for summer school now! (MATH1231)