UoM General Chat

[MelonBar]

Dude, you had 40 references?!

[heart]

yeah did badly for my midsem for another subject so went nolife for this assignment to make up for it lol

[vox nihili]

biochem assignment done im a telomere master now 

Ahh thanks mahler. Also high fives to heart, I did telomeres as well 

Currently writing mine right now. Did miRNAs though....this thing's just about killing me.

[Stick]

Well, it looks like the Biomed cohort has a lot of work to do following the collective results from BIOM20001 MST 1. To be honest, I was quite surprised because I, and most other people I talked to, thought it was pretty fair. :S

[Shenz0r]

Well, it looks like the Biomed cohort has a lot of work to do following the collective results from BIOM20001 MST 1. To be honest, I was quite surprised because I, and most other people I talked to, thought it was pretty fair. :S

How were the results?

It is very fair if you've done all the work (as you've probably realised). It's a subject that doesn't try to trick you.

[notveryasian]

Had a Business Finance MST today....still don't understand how 25% of my final mark for this subject is determined by how well I answer 15 multiple choice questions. The subject coordinator really needs to change the format of the assessment.

[Stick]

How were the results?

It is very fair if you've done all the work (as you've probably realised). It's a subject that doesn't try to trick you.

I'll try to be detailed for the sake of those who weren't there today, since it wasn't recorded.

From what I recall:

• In 2011, the staff were noticing a rise in the fail rate over the 2009-2011 period; it was enough to warrant concern and therefore an intervention. Following then, the MDHS student centre ramped up it's campaign on ensuring students understood the demand of the subject's workload, and noticed a steady decline in the fail rate over the 2012-2014 period. In 2014, the fail rate hit its lowest where it was just 4.7%. However, for our cohort, the fail rate was 14.3% - the highest it's ever been for BIOM20001. This has been put down to a few reasons: the new student centre structure obviously hasn't been as effective in getting its message across; lecture attendance is essentially the lowest it's ever been in the subject's history; and the cohort that does regularly turn up is the noisiest the lecturers have ever heard it, meaning we're not taking enough of the information in. Minimising the number of lecture recordings available is being considered.
• In terms of the overall results curve, the graph was bimodal, which has never happened before. There was a large bell-shaped curve centred around 23 and spread between 18 and 30, and then a smaller one centred between 5 and 14. There was a small trough in the 15-17 range.
• Overall, the median was 23/30 and the average was 20/30, which, in itself, is not that bad. The big concern is this second tier of students sitting below the pass mark.
• Five students got a score of 30/30.
• When the questions in which less than 50% of the cohort answered correctly, an interesting statistical adjustment revealed that ~90% of the top quartile were getting these questions correct, whereas the bottom quartile often collectively chose the same incorrect answer.

I don't know if I've forgotten or accidentally misconstrued anything since I didn't take any notes down. Today's workshop was more interesting than it was useful, but I guess it foreshadows some changes for the way our cohort is managed in the future.

[Shenz0r]

I'll try to be detailed for the sake of those who weren't there today, since it wasn't recorded.

From what I recall:

• In 2011, the staff were noticing a rise in the fail rate over the 2009-2011 period; it was enough to warrant concern and therefore an intervention. Following then, the MDHS student centre ramped up it's campaign on ensuring students understood the demand of the subject's workload, and noticed a steady decline in the fail rate over the 2012-2014 period. In 2014, the fail rate hit its lowest where it was just 4.7%. However, for our cohort, the fail rate was 14.3% - the highest it's ever been for BIOM20001. This has been put down to a few reasons: the new student centre structure obviously hasn't been as effective in getting its message across; lecture attendance is essentially the lowest it's ever been in the subject's history; and the cohort that does regularly turn up is the noisiest the lecturers have ever heard it, meaning we're not taking enough of the information in. Minimising the number of lecture recordings available is being considered.
• In terms of the overall results curve, the graph was bimodal, which has never happened before. There was a large bell-shaped curve centred around 23 and spread between 18 and 30, and then a smaller one centred between 5 and 14. There was a small trough in the 15-17 range.
• Overall, the median was 23/30 and the average was 20/30, which, in itself, is not that bad. The big concern is this second tier of students sitting below the pass mark.
• Five students got a score of 30/30.
• When the questions in which less than 50% of the cohort answered correctly, an interesting statistical adjustment revealed that ~90% of the top quartile were getting these questions correct, whereas the bottom quartile often collectively chose the same incorrect answer.

I don't know if I've forgotten or accidentally misconstrued anything since I didn't take any notes down. Today's workshop was more interesting than it was useful, but I guess it foreshadows some changes for the way our cohort is managed in the future.

Your cohort sure has a reputation for being noisy - didn't you guys cop it in numerous first year subs too?

I think minimising the number of lecture recordings would be a bad move. For many of the lectures you really do need to listen multiple times to be honest, since *anything* that has been mentioned can be examined. While more students may actually attend lectures, people are going to not pay attention if they just spend time talking to the friends.

Have they removed anything from the course compared to previous years? They did in 2013 to try make it easier.

[vox nihili]

I'll try to be detailed for the sake of those who weren't there today, since it wasn't recorded.

From what I recall:

• In 2011, the staff were noticing a rise in the fail rate over the 2009-2011 period; it was enough to warrant concern and therefore an intervention. Following then, the MDHS student centre ramped up it's campaign on ensuring students understood the demand of the subject's workload, and noticed a steady decline in the fail rate over the 2012-2014 period. In 2014, the fail rate hit its lowest where it was just 4.7%. However, for our cohort, the fail rate was 14.3% - the highest it's ever been for BIOM20001. This has been put down to a few reasons: the new student centre structure obviously hasn't been as effective in getting its message across; lecture attendance is essentially the lowest it's ever been in the subject's history; and the cohort that does regularly turn up is the noisiest the lecturers have ever heard it, meaning we're not taking enough of the information in. Minimising the number of lecture recordings available is being considered.
• In terms of the overall results curve, the graph was bimodal, which has never happened before. There was a large bell-shaped curve centred around 23 and spread between 18 and 30, and then a smaller one centred between 5 and 14. There was a small trough in the 15-17 range.
• Overall, the median was 23/30 and the average was 20/30, which, in itself, is not that bad. The big concern is this second tier of students sitting below the pass mark.
• Five students got a score of 30/30.
• When the questions in which less than 50% of the cohort answered correctly, an interesting statistical adjustment revealed that ~90% of the top quartile were getting these questions correct, whereas the bottom quartile often collectively chose the same incorrect answer.

I don't know if I've forgotten or accidentally misconstrued anything since I didn't take any notes down. Today's workshop was more interesting than it was useful, but I guess it foreshadows some changes for the way our cohort is managed in the future.

Also probably worth saying that our cohort was incredibly supportive of each other through MCB. There was an enormous amount of collab between students. I mean, they second anyone found anything useful it was straight up on the Facebook group. Our year did well because everyone was working really well together, and partly because the student centre frightened the shit out of us.

[Rod]

Ugh starting to fall behind in lectures because of all the assignments (I have 5 this week). Do you guys think its okay to save one week worth of lectures and go over them on the weekend? Or should I just try my best to go over them while doing all these freaking assignments!?

cheers!

[silverpixeli]

Ugh starting to fall behind in lectures because of all the assignments (I have 5 this week). Do you guys think its okay to save one week worth of lectures and go over them on the weekend? Or should I just try my best to go over them while doing all these freaking assignments!?

cheers!

I regularly stockpile a week's lectures and watch them in one go on the weekend. I find that pushing through 2-3 lectures in a row for a subject helps the ideas fit together more. one-hour doses of material every few days usually means I don't really remember stuff (but that might just be me)

[Rod]

I regularly stockpile a week's lectures and watch them in one go on the weekend. I find that pushing through 2-3 lectures in a row for a subject helps the ideas fit together more. one-hour doses of material every few days usually means I don't really remember stuff (but that might just be me)

Ahh sweet! thanks for the tips!

I still attend the lectures, its just usually I get back home and go through all the stuff I didn't get or needed to consolidate so I'm fully confident that I've got that lecture down pat. Just not having the time anymore to do this though.

But yeah I'll be doing that this weekend and see how it works for me!

[silverpixeli]

Ahh sweet! thanks for the tips!

I still attend the lectures, its just usually I get back home and go through all the stuff I didn't get or needed to consolidate so I'm fully confident that I've got that lecture down pat. Just not having the time anymore to do this though.

But yeah I'll be doing that this weekend and see how it works for me!

Good luck

[Stick]

Your cohort sure has a reputation for being noisy - didn't you guys cop it in numerous first year subs too?

I think minimising the number of lecture recordings would be a bad move. For many of the lectures you really do need to listen multiple times to be honest, since *anything* that has been mentioned can be examined. While more students may actually attend lectures, people are going to not pay attention if they just spend time talking to the friends.

Have they removed anything from the course compared to previous years? They did in 2013 to try make it easier.

Yeah, we have been told off a number of times about the noise. It is starting to get really annoying though.

In terms of content, I don't think anything has changed from last year. Your year level's excellent results is a fair indicator that the subject, while demanding, should not be impossible.

Also probably worth saying that our cohort was incredibly supportive of each other through MCB. There was an enormous amount of collab between students. I mean, they second anyone found anything useful it was straight up on the Facebook group. Our year did well because everyone was working really well together, and partly because the student centre frightened the shit out of us.

I don't think it's an issue of the year level not working together; if anything it's more the second point you've raised. Or it's just the students and their personalities in general. I'm not sure.

[sjayne]

Yeah, we have been told off a number of times about the noise.

In contrast to my first yr science lectures where everyone is still too scared to talk aah