University of Melbourne - Subject Reviews & Ratings

[bridger]

Subject Code/Name: BCMB20002 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Workload:  3 1hr lectures/week, 1 1hr tutorial/week

Assessment:  3 hour written exam held in examination period (70%), one 1 hour multi-choice examination (10%), continuing computer based assessment (20%).

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes

Past exams available:  Yes, past exams are available. The department provides past exams starting from the beginning of the Melbourne Model years. However, only answers to Multiple Choice are provided

Textbook Recommendation:  Nelson and Cox, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, 5th edn., 2008 (not necessary, I did not touch the book at all during semester. Despite the lecturers raving about how good it is, I found it discussed material to a level well above what is expected in the course).

Lecturer(s): Irene Stanley, Paul Gooley, Geoff Howlett, Paul? Gleeson, Graham Parslow

Year & Semester of completion: 2011 Semester 1

Rating:  3.5-4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 87

Comments: Overall the subject is relatively enjoyable. The material covered is very memory based and is less dependent on understanding concepts. The workload is medium, just remember to review lecture material at least week by week and you'll be fine. Don't bother reading Lehninger, I think a lot of people were scared into going and reading it even though it wasn't necessary because at the end of the day they only assess what was covered in lectures.
Topics covered are Molecular Biology (DNA structure and function, RNA and protein synthesis etc), Proteins, Enzymes, Membranes and Lipids and Metabolism. Most topics are reliant on heavy memory work (be prepared to memorize Glycolysis and all Amino Acid structures/names). The CALs are an easy 20%, and the tests that are part of this component are a joke, just attempt the practise test a number of times because the questions are exactly the same in the real test. The Mid-Semester is ok, just remember to study. Covers the first two topics. Exam is not overly difficult, again just remember to study everything because they assess anything mentioned in the lectures (eg. some random fact on how long a sequence of bases is at a particular part of a gene).

sorry didnt know how to get link to work 

[darlok]

Subject Code/Name: MAST30021 Complex Analysis

Workload: 3x1 hour lecture, 1x1 hour tutorial

Assessment: 4 Assignments worth 20%, 3 hour end of year exam worth 80%

Lectopia Enabled: No

Past exams available:  We were given 2 past exams from 2004 and 2005, they were not entirely relevant. Also had access to exams from Semester 1 2010 and Semester 2 2010, again, not entirely relevant due to change in lecturer / style.

Textbook Recommendation:  Jerrold Marsden and Michael J. Hoffman, Basic Complex Analysis, 3rd Ed. Freeman, 1998. Stopped using it after week 4. Didn’t flow in the same way that the topics did, which is very annoying. If you wanted to follow what was happening in the lectures in the book, you would have to switch sections every 5-10 pages. Also, some sections were presented differently in lectures. Some questions from the assignments were pulled from the book, but answers were not present. Would not recommend purchasing the book.

Lecturer(s): Paul Norbury & Alex Ghitza

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1 2011

Rating:  4 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 80

Comments: First of all, this is a difficult subject. Although you could probably do semi-decently without fully understanding the concepts, some of the concepts took me quite a while to grasp. It is a subject where almost everything is interlinked, and in an exam or assignment, you may have to use those links to quickly and correctly answer a question. I feel that this is what made the subject difficult for so many. The tutorials were next to useless. In fact, as 50 people were in each tutorial, they were required to call them practicals. They involved being given a set of problems and solving them at your desk. Admittedly, the format may have improved, but I stopped going after the first week. The lectures were decent, with Alex being one of the clearest lecturers I’ve had. Paul would sometimes make mistakes and his handwriting is sometimes hard to read, however he was better at visualising the material than Alex. The saving grace for this subject was the content. If you put some time into it, you will begin to appreciate why you learnt all those seemingly unrelated things. It wasn’t until a couple of days before the exam, when I actually knew what the hell was going on, that I fully appreciated this subject.
As far as offering advice on going well in this subject (I’m not sure if I’m qualified to give it); Make sure you have the mechanics down pat, as they are underemphasised in the lectures. Know your trig functions well, know the basics of complex numbers. The lectures mainly involve proving things that you will use to solve problems in tutorials, assignments and the exam. It is not important to remember the proofs 100%, although doing so will definitely give you more insight into the material. In the assignments and exams make sure to offer explanation of all steps, especially if you are using a theorem derived in class. I lost quite a few points due to this.

[Massofbubbles]

Subject Code/Name:  UNIB10003 An Ecological History of Humanity

Workload (weekly):   2 x 1Hr lectures, and 1 x 1Hr Tute

Assessment:  A 500 word tutorial paper due the week of your choice (10%), 10 x 150-300 word weekly private blogs (3% each) - none in 1st week and mid-semester break, a 2000 word research essay which was due first Mon of 2nd examination week (50%), tutorial attendance (10%) - must attend a minimum of 9 tutorials.  Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Anyone who missed no more than 3 tutes got the full 10% regardless of their participation.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  N/A

Textbook Recommendation:  None. The text by Ponting is completely useless in terms of assessment. Also, the weekly readings are not required to go well in this subject. (I didn't read the text or any of the readings)

Lecturer(s): Sometimes I found the lectures interesting, but again, they are pointless in terms of assessment. It was beyond me why people were taking notes. When I found some of the lectures boring, I revised for my other subjects.

I really disliked the main lecturer (Richard Trembath). It seemed he was only there to massage his oversized ego.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2011

Rating:  2.5 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (88)

Comments: This is an easy subject. You don't need to do much in it to get a decent mark. I think it helps to not write like a wanker - the way they teach us to in VCE. My tutor actually deducted marks when people wrote things like "In his text "Green History" Ponting continuously and forcefully contends that..." instead of "Ponting states that.." or "Ponting says.."

I spent most of my time trying to think of original arguments for the blogs. Then my blogs just consisted of the argument and a few sentences to support it.

The research topic I chose had nothing to do with anything we were taught, and Google Scholar along with Super-search made it a breeze to get references for just about anything.

Don't be fooled into thinking this is in some way a science subject. It's not. The tutes were extremely painful. If you try to discuss anything above primary school level science people are gonna stare at you blankly for a second, then go back to talking about how they ingeniously discovered that feminism causes capitalism (even though they're just regurgitating what they were told in a lecture earlier that morning).

Overall, although it was a pretty worthless subject, it was an easy H1, the lectures were a welcome break from my other subjects, and I think the blogs were good practice for the GAMSAT.

[Massofbubbles]

Subject Code/Name: BIOL10002 Biomolecules and Cells

Workload: 3 x 1hr lecture each week, 1 x 1hr tutorial each week, 5 x 3hr lab over the semester.

Assessment:  A 40 minute, mid-semester test consisting of 25 MC questions (10%); Labs - 4 of which are followed by short 10-15 min MC tests (25%) - a short essay on an assigned topic is also included in the 25%, 4 ILTs (5%); a 3-hour exam in the examination period (60%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, but without screen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes, one was put up on the LMS towards the end of the semester.  

Textbook Recommendation:  I didn't use the text (Life), but I probably would have used it if I hadn't done year 12 Bio.

Lecturer(s): I thought all the lecturers were great, but I think Mary might have a small screw loose.
All the info needed to get a high score was in the lectures. I found all the frog egg, fish circulation, and animal taxa stuff to be extremely boring, but thankfully there was only a relatively small amount of it.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2011

Rating:  4.65 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (91)

Comments: If you liked year 12 bio, you'll also like this subject. I loved it. It's takes a bit of memorisation, but that's not difficult if you find it all fascinating.
Some of the practice MST and past exam questions were recycled for this year's MST and exam, so make sure you do them

[Edmund]

Subject Code/Name: BCMB20005 Techniques in Molecular Science

Workload:  1 x 1hr lecture, 1 x 1hr tutorial, 1 x 3hr practical, 1 x demonstrator session

Assessment:  Practical assessment including weekly lab reports and lab performance (50%), Final exam (35%), Practical exam (10%), MST (5%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture etc.

Past exams available:  Heaps

Textbook Recommendation:  Don't buy the recommended textbook

Lecturer(s): Various

Year & Semester of completion: 2010, Semester 2

Rating:  4.5 Out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: There were 12 lectures for this subject which were packed with content. These lectures covered the theory required for the lab report and this was mainly examined in the final exam. There was a MST which covered the first few lectures but was quite easy (similar to sample test provided). The last two lectures were difficult to understand, can't remember the topics but I think it was Genomics and microarrays. Make sure you ask if you still can't understand it.

The practicals are the major focus for this subject. If you don't keep up and hand in lab reports late, there will be penalties and you are not likely to get good marks. And if you don't pre-read the manual and come into class not knowing what to do, you'll hold up the rest of your group (10 students) and lose performance marks. About 42% of the 50% counts towards lab reports and the other 8% are the performance marks. Lab reports are marked out of 10. The maximum mark for each lab report is 8/10. To get the other 2 marks, you will need to consult research papers and expand your answers in the discussion. Trust me, this is hard and a 10/10 is very rare. The highest I've got was a 9.75

The practical exam was held in Week 12 and you had to carry out an assay (Biuret/Bradford). Accuracy is important here. Remember to sign up for all the practice sessions you can. But remember, no matter how much practice you've done, it all comes down to your performance on the day.

General tips: Sit with someone you know because you want to work with someone who you can meet up with regularly to compete the lab report. Go to every demonstrator session and ask many questions. If you (and your other group members) get ridiculously high marks, don't be too happy because your demonstrator is lenient and it will get scaled down. Similarly, if you get low marks, it may get scaled up.

Hope this helps anyone interested in this subject 

[Massofbubbles]

Subject Code/Name: CHEM10006 Chemistry for Biomedicine

Workload:  3 x 1hr lecture weekly; 1 x 1hr tute weekly; 6 x 3 hour (usually 2-2.5hr) labs over the semester. 3 x ILTs.

Assessment:     A 30min on-line mid-semester test consisting of 15 MC questions (5%); labs (20%); a 3-hour written examination in the examination period (75%). ILTs must be attempted to pass the subject.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, withscreen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes, three I think. You could get more from previous/similar courses if you're eager.

Textbook Recommendation:  I wouldn't recommend either text. Just learn what you're taught in the lectures, and texts are in the library (or on the net) if needed. I only used the text once to read the chapter on sugars. Model kits seem kinda pointless, unless you have a long way to go on pubic transport to get to uni.

Lecturer(s): I thought they were all good lecturers. Make sure you learn A.Prof McFaygen stuff, cause he told us a few times that he doesn't want us to remember things, instead we should just "appreciate the chemistry". I did this, and consequently found his questions the hardest - I couldn't remember any of it.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2011

Rating:  4.7 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 (88)

Comments: I ended up liking this subject way more than I expected. I even ended up loving the inorganic chem, when beforehand I was dreading it cause I hated all the VCE redox stuff. It was great how Bio and Chem sometimes complemented each other, and you'd be like fk yeah, now I know why I should eat more carrots.
This subject - along with bio - have made me really glad that I chose to do biomed

[tek]

Subject Code/Name: GENE30001 Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics

Workload:  3 x one hour lectures per week

Assessment:  A written class test during semester (20%); three assignments 10% each (In my semester two problem based and one question/essay based) ; a 2-hour written examination in the examination period (50%). The content on the mid-sem is not assessed on the end of semester exam.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes. However it is the genetic departments policy to not allow screen capture

Past exams available:  Yes

Textbook Recommendation:  not essential

Lecturer(s): various. Some good ones and some bad ones

Year & Semester of completion: 2011 semester 1

Rating:  3.5 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: This subject is focused towards population genetics. So if you did not like it second year then this subject is not for you. The subject really needs tutorials, there were a few lectures where a lot the slides showed steps on how to solve problems. This time could have been used better if there were tutorials, plus more practice problems would have helped a lot. It was a challenging subject, and the exam was quite hard consisting of short answer questions, mini essays and application problems. I only did well because almost half the course (15 lectures) was assessed midsem and like the genetic subjects I have had so far they recycle past exam questions. Overall I found it to be an okay subject, there were some interesting topics, but some lectures just seemed to drag on.

[tek]

Subject Code/Name: GENE30002 Genes: Organisation and Function

Workload:  3x1hour lectures

Assessment:  One midsem test (MC questions), and two online multiple choice questions based on on a online paper, each worth 10%. A 3 hour end of semester exam worth 70%.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes without screen capture

Past exams available:  Multiple

Textbook Recommendation:  Not essential

Lecturer(s): 4 different lecturers. Hynes had the most lectures and a lot of people didn't like him. At first his Lectures were slow and boring (probably because those topics weren't his area of interest), but by the end of the subject he's style and enthusiasm grew on me. However I can see why others did not like him.

Year & Semester of completion: 2011 semester 1

Rating:  4.25 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: Out of the two 1st semester core genetics subjects, I liked this one better. The subject focuses on genetic processes like transcription, translation and their regulation; for example we went over the Lac operon and lambda phage regulation in the early lectures. I found it to be an in interesting subject and in general the lecturers were enthusiastic and helpful.

As a Biomedicine student I was slightly disadvantaged because we did not do a second year science prerequisite (GENE20002 Genes and Genomes). It was not too bad because they provided the slides to the subject and if there was anything important they went over it again. Also some of it was covered in the core biomed subject. It was not a challenging subject and is easy to do well in if you try. For example they give you a pdf of the MCQs for the online midsems, so you can go over it heaps of times and with friends. The best way to study for the exam is to go over the past exams as there is a bit of recycling and rejigging.

[dcc]

Subject Code/Name: FNCE10001 Finance

Workload: Two hours of lectures and a 1-hour tutorial per week

Assessment:    Assignments not exceeding 2000 words (20%) and a 2-hour end-of-semester examination (80%). (We had 2 assignments, 1000 words each)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Many past exams are available, but solutions were only provided to a single practice exam.

Textbook Recommendation: Financial Instiutitons and Markets (B Hunt and C Terry), though I didn't use it at all (use your brain - think, dont copy!)

Lecturer(s): Carsten Murawski.

Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1.

Rating:  -3 of 5.

Your Mark/Grade: H1.

Comments: A complete joke of a subject.  Lectures are too slow (although you can alleviate this somewhat by listening to lectopia recordings at +40% speed), the content is dry as anything, and the assessments are obviously intended to be a wicked satire of modern tertiary education.

To succeed in this subject, you need only know:

• How to reference
• How to reference
• Be good at exams

Since the exam pretty much determines your mark for the subject (80%), I was able to maintain a 0% attendance record for lectures and tutorials, which was perhaps the only reason this subject was rated -3 instead of -5.  You have my blessing to take this subject if:

• You must take this course as part of your degree, or
• You know how to reference, or
• You are a mathematics student who initially intended to study PHIL30043 Completeness and Undecidability only to later find out that the subject clashed horribly with MAST30005 Algebra and hence needed a quick and dirty breadth subject to study which didn't have group projects*, or
• You are a masochist.

As I alluded in the "Textbook Recommendation" section, I think the key to doing well in this subject is to not be a drone - while I estimate 50% of your mark in this subject comes down to your ability to do mathematics at a primary school level, the rest involves some MINOR CRITICAL THINKING, where you might be rewarded for saying something unique or creative (not necessarily "correct"). **

* - Not a typical situation.
** - I'm not entirely sure if this is true, because I never collected my assignments back so I have no idea how I went on them.

[iamdan08]

Subject Code/Name: BCMB20003 Biochemical Regulation of Cell Function

Workload: Weekly 3 x 1 hour lectures and a 1 hour tute

Assessment:  There is online CAL's (20%), a MCQ midsemester test (10%) and the exam (70%)

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available: Yes there are exams for the past 2 years. There are also similar subjects that you can get exams from (from "old generation" subjects).

Textbook Recommendation:  They recommend Nelson and Cox, Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, however i didn't use it. The lecture notes sufficed.

Lecturer(s): Irene Stanely, Graham Parslow, Matt Perugini

Year & Semester of completion: 2010, semester 2

Rating:  5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: I found this subject very enjoyable. The staff go out of their way to help you and genuinely care about the students. All the lecturers are very passionate! As far as the content goes if you are good at memorising material, this is the subject for you! Have a look at the handbook for detail about what is covered, but briefly it covers things such as cell structure and transport, metabolism (a lot of memorisation of metabolic pathways and structures), cell signalling and some plant biochemistry (which i found the least enjoyable). The assessment is very easy. The CAL's are an easy 20% as long as you remember to do them. The test was pretty straight forward (I think it was 20 MCQ from memory). The exam is also pretty straight forward although expects a lot of detail. They really can ask you anything that is on any lecture slide, no matter how much or how little it was emphasized, hence the need to be able to memorise a large amount of material. If you put in the work for this subject it is a pretty easy H1.

[Massofbubbles]

Subject Code/Name: MAST10011 Experimental Design and Data Analysis

Workload (weekly): 3 x 1hr lectures; 1 x 1hr tute; 1 x 1hr computer lab

Assessment:  An assignment due in the second half of semester (5%); 10 weekly on-line quizzes  (10%); two relatively short take home computer software (Minitab) assignments (5%), and a 3-hour written exam at the end of the 1st week of the examination period (80%).

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture, but if you have Ray, he hasn't quite got the hang of putting the right things on the screen being recorded.

Past exams available:  Yes, a heap of them.

Textbook Recommendation:  Personally I just used Ray's reader, and didn't use the textbook once. I didn't really understand much in this subject though, so maybe the prescribed text (by the Triolas) is worth looking at. I noticed that whenever I was in the library there was multiple copies of the text available (I was in the 1st semester though - I think 2nd semester is much larger).

Lecturer(s): As a person, Ray has been my favourite lecturer at Melbourne Uni. But unfortunately I rarely had a clue what he was talking about. I think his level of mathematical comprehension is way above most people, so it's hard to understand what he's saying. Most lectures I just sat there blankly, occasionally grasping a few things. He did hammer in a lot of things that I would have never remembered if I had not gone to the lectures though.

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1, 2011

Rating:  3 of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H2A (78)

Comments: I found the content of this subject to be extremely boring, so I couldn't put in the effort to learn the material. Hence, when I did try to study I found it really frustrating because I didn't understand anything. In the end I just focused on the chapter problems in the reader, and sat there with the solutions until I got most of them. This actually saved my ass because the exam questions were extremely similar to the reader questions.
The maths in this subject is actually really basic, it's more about understanding where to do what, and why (and also trying to decipher Ray's formula sheet).
If you are more stoic than me you should be fine. I spent more of my study time complaining about the subject than actually studying.
I think (but could be wrong) that most of the statistical analysis we are going to do could've been (or already is) incorporated into our other subjects. And like Ray said, by the time we will need to use most of the stuff we will no longer remember it..

[Consuela]

Subject Code/Name: MAST10007 Linear Algebra

Workload:  3 x 1 hour lectures; 1 x 1 hour tutorial; 1 x 1 hour computer lab which immediately follows the tutorial.

Assessment:  Ten short weekly assignments totalling 10%; A 45 minute MATLAB test worth 10% held near the end of semester; Final exam worth 80%.

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes, with screen capture.

Past exams available:  Yes, about five, however solutions were provided for only two of them. There was also a sample MATLAB test but with no solutions nor the essential m-files.

Textbook Recommendation:  Lecture slides are a must, however I think they were all put up on the LMS if you would rather print them yourself. The Anton & Rorres textbook is great to help digest some of the proofs and to consolidate the theory. Definitely borrow it from the library to read through the more difficult sections, but only buy it if you can scrape a second hand copy for $30 like I did, or if you're really keen to do extra problems from the textbook.

Lecturers:  Dr. Craig Hodgson or Dr. Lawrence Reeves.

Year & Semester of completion:  Semester 1, 2011.

Rating:  5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: H1

Comments: This subject is different from high school maths and Calculus 1 and 2, but a whole lot more interesting. Previously, simply working through a large amount of highly methodical problems will grant you success. However, in Linear Algebra I had to literally sit down and think about some of the ideas to get my head around it -- which makes it all the more gratifying when everything clicks! This subject is all about definitions, and usually once you have a clear idea of the definition you'll know how to solve the problem. A good memory or consistent summaries helps with this.
The tutorial worksheets were really helpful as fully worked solutions were provided so you knew how to set out your work. I found the MATLAB test an easy 10% but be aware they don't give method marks for it. No programming knowledge is required for the test even though quite a few lab classes were focused on irrelevant things like coding which i never needed nor bothered to learn.
Overall, this is not an easy subject to immediately grasp, as it covers things you've never come across before. I liked how abstract and seemingly unrelated to real life the content was but if you're doing it as a requisite for engineering you may not agree.

[QuantumJG]

Subject Code/Name: MAST30005 Algebra

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures; 1 x 1 hour practice class

Assessment: Two assignments (10 questions each) worth 10% each totaling 20%; Final exam worth 80%  

Lectopia Enabled:  No

Past exams available:  Yes, from 1998 - 2010 (potentially more)

Textbook Recommendation:  Lecture notes are provided to you. All recommended textbooks (Michael Artin, Algebra, 1st Ed. Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1991 and B. Hartley and T.O. Hawkes, Rings, modules and linear algebra, 1st Ed. Chapman & Hall, London, 1970) are available at the Maths library in the mathematics and statistics building. I personally found the Internet and lecture notes to suffice so I didn't really use the textbooks.

Lecturer: Lawrence Reeves

Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1

Rating:  5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 59

Comments: I personally love pure Maths subjects, so despite my mark I thoroughly enjoyed this subject. The subject jumps straight into ring theory at the start and is fairly fast paced, the content itself takes awhile to make sense. The main thing that separates high achievers from low achievers is the ability to do difficult proofs, to be able to do proofs your knowledge of the content must be concrete, you need to practice proofs A LOT (which I didn't do). The subject does have a mechanical side in the sense that you learn techniques to diagonalise matrices, determine which polynomials are irreducible in , etc. Also being able to memorize theorems and give examples is paramount to getting a good score. I guess how I know how to do well in this subject is that in hindsight I know how to not do well. I would definitely recommend this subject to anyone who did linear algebra and enjoyed it. In second year group theory and linear algebra (a prerequisite for algebra) builds up from linear algebra.

[QuantumJG]

Subject Code/Name: MAST30021 Complex Analysis

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures; 1 x 1 hour practice class

Assessment: Four assignments totaling 20%; Final exam worth 80%  

Lectopia Enabled:  Yes

Past exams available:  Yes

Textbook Recommendation:  Jerrold Marsden and Michael J. Hoffman, Basic Complex Analysis, 3rd Ed. Freeman, 1998. This textbook covers all the content, but not in the same order as the lectures are given. I would definitely get this book since it helps a lot. 

Lecturer: Alex Ghitza and Paul Norbury

Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1

Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 59

Comments: I personally found the subject quite easy to grasp in terms of the lectures (up until the last few) and the assignments were approachable. The real curveball with this subject is the exam. The exam was very different to past exams with questions on topics that are so subtle that you (well I especially did) can skip over when studying. Alex Ghitza was a great lecturer and just reading over his notes was enough to grasp the material, whereas Paul Norbury was lazier and understanding certain concepts required outside reading (the recommended textbook). The practice classes were pretty stupid, but completing the questions is essential for only them and the assignments and practice exams is the practice material for the exam. 

[kamil9876]

Subject Code/Name: MAST30011 Graph Theory

Workload: 3 x 1 hour lectures; 1 x 1 practice class

Assessment: Two assignments first worth 8% and the second worth 12%; Final exam worth 80% 

Lectopia Enabled:  No

Past exams available:  Yes, plenty to keep you busy on the LMS but I only browsed through them.

Textbook Recommendation:  We were given a booklet with all the assignments,problem sheets, course content and general advice in the first lecture. Printed lecture notes were handed out whenever we started a new topic. You're also supposed to buy a course reader which is just a printed copy of the textbook Applied and Algorithmic Graph theory though it's only really useful for extra problems, certain tutorial problems and proofs of certain theorems we cbf proving in lectures. It doesn't exactly follow the lecture notes so it's not essential to read it all.

Lecturer: David Wood

Year & Semester of completion: 2011, Semester 1

Rating:  5/5

Your Mark/Grade: H1 90

Comments: Great subject even without my bias towards this area of math. A graph is just a bunch of points, some of which are connected and some which are not (like those networks that you may have studied in high school). Pretty simple eh? well it can get very interesting and complicated. That's one of the great things about this subject, that you deal with childish concepts but in a mathematically matured way, which is a nice change from getting bombarded with abstract definitions. Course consists of half proofs/reasoning as well as unfortunately(or for some, fortunately) mechanical computations of algorithms ala accounting. But let me repeat, you're dealing with childish concepts and so the proofs are nice and intuitive despite still being rigorous and sometimes challenging so you may enjoy this more than the usual proofs you may have encountered earlier. The lecturer is great, clear and precise. He is also honest in that he shows his appreciation for the subject as well as his views on math, unlike other lecturers who are completely different people once they start teaching. In a nutshell, interesting variety of problems and theory, enjoyable and sometimes interactive lectures(asks us questions and lets people solve them on the board) and approachable staff.