UoM General Chat

[Aaron]

but I think Turnitin similarity checks are usually conducted without references included.

Correct. Run Turnitin again without your reference list and that will be a more accurate answer. For my education essays, we've been instructed to remove the reference list (Monash not Melb, but given its the exact same system I fail to see how its any different).

If the similarity is coming from the reference list only, you are fine. It's just that the same reference has been used in many previous papers.

Do you actually have to submit your assignment through turnitin to be marked, or is there an additional submission area?

[notveryasian]

any past Acc maths students:
how are we supposed to write out stuff in written assigments?; not sure what the layout is like and how much working/explanation we should show
does anyone have any examples of responses?
also, what is the marking criteria?

Threw out most of my AM1 stuff a while ago, but for assignments, just show all your working (excluding any calc work since you want to be concise) like any maths problem/questions you would do on the boards in tutorials. If you have any proofs, state any assumptions you made, ensure your arguments make sense etc. Don't worry if your assignments go on for many pages, it's pretty normal. As long as you're neat and clear with your working, you won't need to worry about any format issues.

When I did the subject only some of the questions were marked. It was generally easy to tell which ones they were, since some assignments had some pretty hard proofs and there were questions that tested knowledge of the course material much better. Can't really say much about the marking criteria otherwise. Hope this helps. 

[vox nihili]

Is 17% similarity for turnitin bad? And its saying most of the similarity is due to the references...

If you're going to get into any trouble for it, your lecturers will actually have a closer look at the report before having a go. So if it's due to references, you're completely fine, don't worry about it.

One time I had a similarity of 50% and I know that they definitely looked at it, but decided that I hadn't plagiarised (I actually hadn't either) so there's definitely some commonsense in all of this.

[Stick]

If you're going to get into any trouble for it, your lecturers will actually have a closer look at the report before having a go. So if it's due to references, you're completely fine, don't worry about it.

One time I had a similarity of 50% and I know that they definitely looked at it, but decided that I hadn't plagiarised (I actually hadn't either) so there's definitely some commonsense in all of this.

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought 17% would've been bad at all. It all depends on the subject, but I've heard that similarity calculations as high as 40% can be tolerated, especially in cases where the topic is fairly narrow in scope (and allowing for references as well).

[Mieow]

My biochem prac reports have ridiculously high similarity scores and no one has ever said anything about it (yet). The lowest score i've had thus far was a 24%. I imagine it'd be impossible to get low scores for practical reports because TurnItIn highlights titles and names such as "Aim" "Hypothesis" "restriction enzyme" "E.coli" etc and it all adds up so I also think that the tolerance depends on what subject you're doing

[cameotodd]

I think our assignment has to be submitted through Turnitin, and yeah, basically its saying all the similarity (with the exclusion of 2 small sentences from my the real work) is from the references, and also a little bit from the actual essay topic question (lol?).

[sjayne]

Anyone know who to turn to at uni when you're really struggling with your health and keeping up? I've already dropped one subject

[MelonBar]

Anyone know who to turn to at uni when you're really struggling with your health and keeping up? I've already dropped one subject

Hi sjayne, the student equity and disability support services can help you out. They're the point of contact for if you have a health concern impacting on your ability to get through the course. They can advocate for you to make adjustments to assessments etc to support your learning. But, I'm sure they can chat to you about what your options might be if that's not exactly what you're after. Good luck to you

[That Nice Guy]

In regards to Bio for biomed prac 2, does anyone have a good idea on how to design a good experiment to find out which blood substitute would be ideal, because i'm kinda lost on this one.

[spectroscopy]

Hi sjayne, the student equity and disability support services can help you out. They're the point of contact for if you have a health concern impacting on your ability to get through the course. They can advocate for you to make adjustments to assessments etc to support your learning. But, I'm sure they can chat to you about what your options might be if that's not exactly what you're after. Good luck to you

ye theyre really nice definitely talk to them if youre having any long term health issues

[chysim]

Anyone know who to turn to at uni when you're really struggling with your health and keeping up? I've already dropped one subject

The uni offers counselling and runs mental health workshops each week. Can't vouch for them personally but they're free and I've heard good things (although I think they're a bit understaffed). Check out these links:
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/individual
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/community/students/workshops

Also check out the umsu welfare facebook page. They run a bunch of free BBQs/pizza seshs with board games and shit, as well as mental health events. It can be a little daunting to just turn up to one of those things at first but the welfare officers are champs and will make you feel welcomed.
https://www.facebook.com/UMSUwelfare/

[Mieow]

I was never a big fan of pracs, hated it in its entirety in Bio, Chem AND Eng (it gets better in BCMB) but doing practical simulations in MCB CALs just feel ridiculous. Might as well have made us do the actual thing in a lab but oh well, at least I get to do PCR from the comfort of my own home and in fast-forward lel

[uoiea]

Any accounting people here who do ARA (assignment 1)?

Need help/check answers, tfw 2nd year so I don't know anyone doing the subject

What did everyone get for profit before tax?

[vox nihili]

I was never a big fan of pracs, hated it in its entirety in Bio, Chem AND Eng (it gets better in BCMB) but doing practical simulations in MCB CALs just feel ridiculous. Might as well have made us do the actual thing in a lab but oh well, at least I get to do PCR from the comfort of my own home and in fast-forward lel

CAL=can't afford labs

[mahler004]

My biochem prac reports have ridiculously high similarity scores and no one has ever said anything about it (yet). The lowest score i've had thus far was a 24%. I imagine it'd be impossible to get low scores for practical reports because TurnItIn highlights titles and names such as "Aim" "Hypothesis" "restriction enzyme" "E.coli" etc and it all adds up so I also think that the tolerance depends on what subject you're doing

Prac reports always have very high similarities. There's only so many ways you can write "The insert was cut with BamHI and analysed using a 1% agarose gel."