Choosing electives at Monash

[lolattack]

I am looking at enrolling in the bachelor of biomedical science at Monash next year but am unsure of how electives work; specifically which units are allowed to be taken and which are not.

The 2016 Monash handbook states (for the bachelor of biomedical science):
"elective units may be chosen from across the faculty and include those with the prefixes BCH, BME, DEV, GEN, HUP, IMM, MIC, MIS, PHA and PHY. Refer to the index of units by code in the current edition of the Handbook. Elective units may also be used to sample disciplines from across the University or to complete a major or minor(s) from another course if you have the required prerequisites and there are no restrictions on enrolment into the units. The faculties of Arts, Business and Economics, Engineering, Information Technology and Science offer units particularly suitable as electives."

On the Monash university website it also states regarding electives: "This will enable you to broaden and deepen your knowledge of aspects of biomedical science, or to select units from across the University in which you are eligible to enrol"

My question is, can we select any units from any faculty across the university as electives, or only certain ones which are specified by the university?

Thanks!

[JI2015]

Hi lolattack,

The following link is from 2010 and has information regarding elective units for Monash's Biomedical Science course. Some information might not be relevant but it should give you an idea of what to expect.

http://www.med.monash.edu.au/biomed/docs/bms-student-handbook.pdf

[yazzman]

Have a read of this
http://monashbiomedsociety.weebly.com/textbook-and-unit-guide.html

[PhishPhillets]

Both responses are spot-on so far! I would also recommend checking out the unit handbook to make sure that the electives that you are interested in are still running and don't have prereqs that you haven't done. 

Also note that they revamped the whole arts faculty unit codes some time after 2010 so their unit codes now start with ATS rather than CHI, JPL,  HYS, etc.

If you're still confused, they clear everything up on the information day, but it is great to think about what you want to do now
Link to the handbook is here:http://monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/

[EspoirTron]

Only in third year do you need to specifically take electives relating to the Science units you listed (unless they've changed something). To be honest however, I'd suggest being strategic in your options - don't do something just because everyone says it is "easy". I'd suggest you take something you are genuinely interested in. In first year it doesn't matter too much, broaden your horizons, do something you like.

In second year I'd be very picky however. The jump between first and second year is tremendous, with the workload for the cores being quite high. Pick something you enjoy but I'd caution you in picking something with a high degree of workload.

Personally I've taken electives from the Maths and Biology faculty. If I could again, I'd steer away from Maths as the workload was more demanding than my Biomed cores, but Biology was very interesting and had a relaxed atmosphere. I'll be taking Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physiology and Pharmacology electives next year. If you need any information on those, let me know.

[PhishPhillets]

I'd steer away from Maths as the workload was more demanding than my Biomed cores, but Biology was very interesting and had a relaxed atmosphere.

I'd beg to differ haha.  I've taken maths as my electives since first year semester 2 and they have consistently been my highest scoring units which required minimal work. I've taken a liking to maths so much that I'm planning on doing a science degree to do an extended major lol.

This does emphasise the benefit of picking an elective you do enjoy,  as it will make life at uni a lot more enjoyable. Biology units such as Pharmacology,  Immunology,  and Developmental Biology are very popular in second year as they do have a good amount of overlap with core units and I've heard that some (especially dev) are a lot easier compared to our core units. I also have friends doing Chemistry and Psychology units as well. Do a bit of exploring and hopefully, you'll be able to find an elective field that will be perfect for you!

[lolattack]

Thanks for all your help guys!

I've had a look around and narrowed it down to either Chemistry I (CHM1011) or Analysis of Change (MTH1020) for my first semester. Has anyone here done either of these units and if so, how are they/would you recommend them?

[keltingmeith]

So, fun fact: both of these subjects are difficult. Therefore, DO NOT pick either based on difficulty. A lot of people will say 1020 is harder, I personally reckon 1011 is harder, so yeah.

The question is, what do you want out of this unit? What do you want out of your degree? CHM will obviously help with GAMSAT stuff, but MTH is basically spec maths, so that will help with the physics part of the GAMSAT.

You should also read the subject reviews, that'll help you make an informed decision.

I would definitely recommend CHM over MTH, but CHM1011 is a pretty pivotal unit of my uni life, so I'm pretty biased - both units are good, though.

[warya]

Should we tailor our first year electives to prep for the gamsat? I was thinking of doing arts electives as I thought core subs would be enough preparation :/

[PhishPhillets]

It's up to you whether you want an extra subject to study for the GAMSAT.  I know friends who did CHM1011 and CHM1022 to prepare for the science section and it helped them get a good score.

I personally chose not to study chem,  and found the core subjects pretty relevant to what was actually on the science section of the GAMSAT. If you really want to do those arts electives,  I'd recommend taking it and seeing how it goes. You could always try taking the lecture notes off a friend to study over the summer.