Huratio said:
Please go on lol. I've chosen the Internet Business Technology sub-major to start in Spring 2007.
Let's see.
- What you learn in the lectures and what you do in tutorials do not even closely correlate with each other (you might skimp around topics, but it'll be either generalised or something you know/don't need).
- The tutorial work is NOT tested on. Some (okay all) tutorials are the biggest waste of time ever. One tutorial literally involved you going to a website and COPYING answers from a FAQ section of the website. The question is the same as the FAQ and to obtain the answer, you can just Ctrl+F for it.
- The mid-semester exam is a combination of 'fill-in-the-blanks' (15 marks) and multiple choice (5 questions worth 1 mark each). No word bank, no nothing. You have to know your stuff really well. What annoyed me the most was that I think 2 or 3 questions in that exam were about things we hadn't even learnt yet, or we never did learn at all. I know some one who did the same as me (i.e. read the glossary) and got equal first. I feel behind by half a mark (don't ask me how you get half marks in multiple choice/fill-in-the-blanks).
There will be questions like "a standard notation for modelling of real-world objects as a first step in developing an object-orientated design methodology is ____________________________________". Firstly, even if you had read the textbook, you'd probably see the word like twice without explaination/context. The lecture notes just give the acronym which isn't any use to you, and you never learn/write anything about it, nor is it really relevant to any part of the subject overall (in a broad sense).
- The lecturer said the final exam is NOT a test on your memory. It seemed to me like it was nothing but. There was a question like "blah blah blah packets or something blah blah: a) X.20 Protocol; b ) X.25 Protocol; c) X.400 Protocol; d) X.500 Protocol. Again, not once did we a) touch on this in class and b ) use it any where, were given information about it. The final exam also had questions which were common sense and didn't even seem to fit the content of the subject overall e.g. If your fridge breaks down, who do you see for warranty? Another thing is that the final exam this year had like 95% of the answers that had "All of the above" were actually all of the above. If a person knows 2 of them are right, then they'l know it's All of the above right away. That is NOT testing your knowledge properly.
Oh and let me add, I feel the lecturer is not competent in this subject at all even though she's been teaching it for many semesters. She literally regurgitates words/meanings from the textbook every time and on the topics that are a little tricky, will just zoom past them/ignore them. I found it really ironic one time that about a minute after she said it wasn't a test of memory, she picked up a piece of paper with I assume meanings on it, and regurgitated the glossary meaning. Well done.
- They now make you do a "self-study journal" as there is now also a participation mark for class. How is she to tell us how to study? She says that it'll help us study in the end and we won't need to do any notes. For me, this is a total waste of time because it is not how I study efficiently. Not to mention that you'd probably do poorly if you relied on those study notes alone and did not read the glossary a few times at least.
- The final revision lecture was literally an amalgamation of every lecture up to that date. So basically she just repeated some slides and so on over and over. Do NOT bother going. Period.
- The content of the subject overall is very limited and not detailed enough for you to do anything. Much of the stuff is common sense, not going to be useful and/or pointless to learn.
They should really do those quiestionaire/survey things after the final exam
I have too much to write at times ~_~
