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March 29, 2024, 10:24:52 am

Author Topic: Will she stick with her double degree? - paigek3’s University Journey Journal  (Read 5645 times)

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paigek3

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Firstly, just want to apologise for not posting for weeks then writing essay worth entries OOPS don’t hate me please.

The title of my journey journal is “Will she stick with her double degree?” because going into doing this course, I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for law. I was certain on media because it was something I had always wanted to do, and through internships, something I knew I had a passion for. But law scared me a bit, I wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision or not. Sure, I loved Legal studies, but was I doing law because I had a real interest in it, or just for the prestige of saying I do law? I honestly did love seeing the reaction of people when I told them I was about to begin law because everyone was always so impressed.

Oh how I doubted myself. I LOVE LAW!!! University has honestly surprised me so much. This semester so far I am enjoyed my law unit even more than my Media ones which is a huge shock. I love all the boring parts too like learning about the purpose of a long title, and learning the origins of common law and equity, and learning all the cool Latin phrases used.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoyed my Media classes too, but I just look forward to law every week! It does help that I’ve met people in that class who are great, and the people in my tutorial in general are also great. But it’s just so cool!!!

I also wanted to include in this post the units I’m doing this semester and next because I can’t remember if I have or haven’t before (sorry if I have)

SEMESTER ONE
Australian Media (Media)
Academic Cultures and Communication (Media)
Foundations of Law (Law)
Australian Society (People unit)

SEMESTER TWO
Criminal Law (Law)
Contracts (Law)
Law, lawyers and society (Law)
Media cultures (Media)

ps to clarify, a people unit is basically an elective. At Macquarie, we have to do at least one ‘people unit’ - which often involve studying subjects to do with social sciences e.g. Aboriginal studies, the ANZACs, social marketing, introduction to criminology, one ‘planet unit’ - which often are more sciency and mathematical or studying different cultures e.g. statistics, astronomy, human biology, drugs accords cultures, and one ‘PACE unit’ - which is an internship

I haven’t chosen my planet unit yet, but my people unit comes from sociology cause I loved society and Culture and the course outline seemed quite like that! However, we did begin learning about sociological theories which I didn’t exactly love, but learning about gender last week was really interesting so hoping it picks up a bit now.

I’ve made a fair few friends from Uni so far, and in Law we got to choose our groups for our projects so me and the two girls I sit with made sure we were in the same group!

I know I have already said how much I’m enjoying Law but my tutorial class is honesty amazing - my tutor is so fun and engaging, and the people in my class love to say their opinion and everyone is so intrigued by it all. If only I could have this same tute for my whole degree!

For this semester, I believe I have no exams if I have read my unit guide correctly. I kind of excepted it because it’s hard to assess media subjects through exams because it’s more of an assignment favoured area of study. For Law and Australian Society the only exams I have are online quizzes. It’s honestly weird knowing I’m not even going to be assessed on everything, but I’m kind of enjoying it. I really am liking learning without the added pressure of feeling as though I need to remember everything.

For Law also, we aren’t getting graded for HD, D, C and Ps, instead we are getting a mark of satisfied or not satisfied. You may think this is easy but it isn’t really. For my upcoming assignment the criteria is only in two columns for NS and S, and we have to re do the assignment as many times before the supplementary due date until we get all satisfied’s. It is teaching us to get out of bad habits early though which I think is awesome!

I have two assessments due this week - the one I mentioned above and one for academic cultures and communication, a critical essay on a topic of our choice to do with our discipline (in my case, media). I’m doing it on the media’s representation of female athletes and to my SURPRISE, I finished it on Thursday - AKA 5 DAYS BEFORE IT IS DUE!!!!!! This is so unlike me because the earliest I ever got an assignment complete in high school was the morning it was due lol. (Note: this is also for the subject that I hate because it’s so boring)

Also, I just wanted to add a question and I’d like whoever is reading this to be honest - do you think of Macquarie Law School as ‘lower’ to UNSW, USYD etc. or is that just my imagination? Of course I believe that Macquarie Uni in general is seen as lower to the ones mentioned so I guess it would make sense to perceive the Law School the same, but I honestly love it (ok I’ll try make this the last time I talk about me loving Law lol). My tutor mentioned how diverse it is here because of course there is the stereotype of the rich white private school kid who’s come from a law background family at the other unis (which could be and probably is completely wrong). But when we got asked who has a family member who is a lawyer NOONE put their hand up, and I think that is awesome. I always had the thought of possibly changing to a more prestigious university sometime during my degree, but looking at the units offered at other unis, I honestly prefer Macquarie’s and I am really liking everything about the Uni (especially the 35 min travel time from my house and being able to drive!)

Anyways, I think I’ll try wrap it up there. Sorry it’s all over the place, I’ve had enough of writing sophisticatedly and in an orderly fashion at the moment :P My uni break is coming up in about 2 weeks time which I’m keen for so I can get myself together before the end of semester!


I LOVE UNI (So far)
HSC subjects
Advanced English | Extension 1 English | Extension 2 English | Legal Studies | PDHPE | Society and Culture | General 2 Maths


Need HSC tutoring, mentoring or essay marking? I'm offering all of that online! Check out all the offers, pricing and details here https://bandsevenhsctutoring.wordpress.com/blog/ and feel free to get in contact with me if you want any more info :)

paigek3

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Long time no speak!

Honestly have been soooooooo busy with Uni, work, and everything in my mind so updating this has not been at the forefront of my mind (soz for ignoring the 30 day rule pls don’t hate me)

So, I have been loving Uni still which I’m glad to say! I finally feel like I have a good grasp on how it all works, at least how it all works at Macquarie, like the fact never to trust your tutors when they say results will be released because 3pm today was release time and I’m stilllll waiting.

I thought I would do a unit review on each of mine for your interest and any HSC students wanting to study either Media or Law or both at Macquarie!

Foundations of Law: Have loved this unit. The assessment tasks have been very hands on which I think is awesome for a foundational unit. We did a case brief, a hypothetical problem where we had to give advice to a client, and did a group project on a topic that was given to us (my group did governance and corruption!). Only downfall is that you have to get 100% to pass in each assignment. I know what you’re thinking - 100%?!?!? It is a bit daunting but we do get re-submissions to keep going until we get it right. Basically, it is a satisfied/non-satisfied unit instead of HD, D, C, P. It is annoying to have to re-do assignments but it is honestly teaching me lots and making me know how to fix mistakes which is good.

Australian Media: This unit has been alright. It is quite broad and we have looked at a lot of topics, and then had some writing tasks and essays to complete. Some things I have found super interesting, but my only problem is the limited flexibility in assessment tasks. Like we were given 5 questions to choose out of, and ive seen at UTS you can like twist the question to suit your passions which I think is awesome. But I love the Law program at Macquarie SOOO much that I am happy to make that sacrifice. Just hoping future courses I can write more about what I want to aka SPORT

Academic Cultures & Communication: Worst unit ever. Just your standard first year class of learning how to learn. Honestly could have just put lectures online for us to watch, and then just added some assessment tasks, but NOPE, it’s a compulsory 3-5pm Friday afternoon class.

Australian Society: This is my people unit aka my free elective. Not gonna lie, kind of wish I chose something else. I chose this because I loved society and culture but it isn’t like it at all and I have heard of some other units that are way better. We do have a cool assessment task though, which is a group project to design your own monopoly board representing inequality in Sydney, and I have enjoyed doing that.

I haven't been getting the marks I did in year 12, but have got either Distinctions or Credits so far so I am still pretty fine with that!

I have met some amazing friends who I am unfortunately not in any classes with next semester but we are keeping an eye out for any openings in classes. BUT I ONLY HAVE TO GO ON THURSDAYS NEXT SEMESTER YEWWW!

I don’t have any exams this semester because of the nature of a media degree & the fact the law unit I am doing is only foundational so they thought a quiz will suffice. Kinda sucks though because my boyfriend has exams for allllll his units for his course so im just gonna be chilling here waiting for him to be doneeeeee!

I am still a Marketing Co-Ordinator at my work, but my gosh it is so extremely tiring. It is like having a real adulty job because I get emails on weekends, calls and texts from my boss’ on days I don’t work because they need something, and have to post on socials every day. It is a whole lot more to deal with than what I imagined so I am thinking of looking for something a bit more chilled out at the end of the year, but we will see. I know it is great practice for the future, and it is a pretty cool job, but I want to make the most of being able to have a job that I don’t have to worry about at home whilst I can.

Anyways, other than that, I am off to Europe with my fam in uni break, which im keen for except the flying because im not a huge fan of that.

Let me know if anyone wants to know anything about Macquarie, or anything!!
« Last Edit: May 28, 2018, 11:22:51 pm by paigek3 »
HSC subjects
Advanced English | Extension 1 English | Extension 2 English | Legal Studies | PDHPE | Society and Culture | General 2 Maths


Need HSC tutoring, mentoring or essay marking? I'm offering all of that online! Check out all the offers, pricing and details here https://bandsevenhsctutoring.wordpress.com/blog/ and feel free to get in contact with me if you want any more info :)

paigek3

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Oops I did it againKk so I swear every post I do here starts with me forgetting to post from before

SORRY

BUT ILL KEEP IT A BRIEF UPDATE THIS TIME IN BULLET POINT FORM

- Still loving law
- Finding media a lil bland but its still so introductory so im just waiting till i can start my elective units!
- Got a new job at a law firm in the city! So excited because there were 130 applicants and I was one of the two that got it! It's a 'top-tier' firm too!
- Thinking of starting tutoring properly as my new job is less hours than my old one. Thinking of making it legal studies and pdhpe only though seeing as though they were my band 6 subjects
- Going to be active and assist in PDHPE/Legal Studies forums so that I'm not rusty if I do start tutoring
- Went to Europe, was cool, plane wasn't cool, but hey I made it home safely (just lol)
- Finished semester 1 with one HD, two credits, and then the other unit wasn't graded
- Only at uni one day a week this sem, have realised I prefer going two days and breaking it up

Hope everyone is enjoying sem 2 so far!
« Last Edit: August 19, 2018, 10:03:22 pm by paigek3 »
HSC subjects
Advanced English | Extension 1 English | Extension 2 English | Legal Studies | PDHPE | Society and Culture | General 2 Maths


Need HSC tutoring, mentoring or essay marking? I'm offering all of that online! Check out all the offers, pricing and details here https://bandsevenhsctutoring.wordpress.com/blog/ and feel free to get in contact with me if you want any more info :)