Monash General Chat

[keltingmeith]

FINALLY, THE MID-SEM BREAK. Lecturers seem to have decided to give me a shit-ton for over the break, though. >.>;

[alondouek]

How was everyone's "mid"-semester "break"? (Very funny, Monash)

I've become decidedly less enamoured with genetics this semester so I'm 99% sure I'm going to switch my majors* to Psychology and Developmental Biology. Has anyone done any psych units? How are they?

[brenden]

How was everyone's "mid"-semester "break"? (Very funny, Monash)

I've become decidedly less enamoured with genetics this semester so I'm 99% sure I'm going to switch my majors* to Psychology and Developmental Biology. Has anyone done any psych units? How are they?

Monash has a pretty shitty Psych department from my experience and what I've been told. Haven't met anyone that thought Intro to Psych A+B was good, my best friend spent all of last sem telling me how absurdly horribly organised 3rd year Neuropsych was, telling me this semester that Social psych is curiously run but decent overall.

[ninwa]

How was everyone's "mid"-semester "break"? (Very funny, Monash)

I've become decidedly less enamoured with genetics this semester so I'm 99% sure I'm going to switch my majors* to Psychology and Developmental Biology. Has anyone done any psych units? How are they?

Oh boy. My friend majored in psych at Monash. I would ask her for you, but I don't have time to listen to one of her 3-hour rants about the Monash psych department right now.

tl;dr she wanted so badly to avoid Monash that she accepted an offer from Latrobe for a counselling-type masters, over an offer from Monash for a clinical psych-type masters (which is the type of psych she wanted to do)

[alondouek]

hahaha thanks Brenden and Nina! That does make me the slightest bit hesitant, but I'm still pretty sure it'd be the best thing for me going forwards. People in my double degree only get to pick from a fairly small list of science majors which is a pain and a half, and psych is really the only thing that 1) I could qualify for without having to cancel any existing credit and 2) I'm either interested in or don't suck at.

If it's the organisational and bureaucratic side of things that puts people off... well, if biomed teaches you anything it's how to cope with a massive, circular bureaucracy lol

[keltingmeith]

hahaha thanks Brenden and Nina! That does make me the slightest bit hesitant, but I'm still pretty sure it'd be the best thing for me going forwards. People in my double degree only get to pick from a fairly small list of science majors which is a pain and a half, and psych is really the only thing that 1) I could qualify for without having to cancel any existing credit and 2) I'm either interested in or don't suck at.

If it's the organisational and bureaucratic side of things that puts people off... well, if biomed teaches you anything it's how to cope with a massive, circular bureaucracy lol

I dunno - if psych is even half as bad as the physics department (and it sounds like it could be a good match), then you may get well and truly turned off psych. Is that something you're okay with?

[alondouek]

I dunno - if psych is even half as bad as the physics department (and it sounds like it could be a good match), then you may get well and truly turned off psych. Is that something you're okay with?

In all honesty, I have no idea because I've never done psychology before. These are my options for an initial major (with developmental biology being a secondary optional one):



The only ones there that interest me at all are computational science (but I'm not great really shit with computers and I've never coded before), materials science (but I suck at chemistry). Financial and insurance maths was something I briefly thought about but then remembered that I like maths far more than maths likes me!

So, I reckon I'm willing to put up with faculty bullshittery if needed and give psych a go. I'm hoping it'll give me a taste of the clinical side of things in case I decide to go down the med pathway in the future.

[keltingmeith]

... You can do atmospheric science and astrophysics in a Biomed/sci degree? O.o What would that combination even do for you? (considering it looks like there's another 7 majors you can't do...)

[ChloeCameleon3]

How was everyone's "mid"-semester "break"? (Very funny, Monash)

I've become decidedly less enamoured with genetics this semester so I'm 99% sure I'm going to switch my majors* to Psychology and Developmental Biology. Has anyone done any psych units? How are they?

I don't think Psych is as bad as others here have said, but after all, it is personal preference! I have found a some units to be better than others... I enjoyed the Biol&Dev Psych last semester probably the most out of any psych unit I have done. For most units, I have generally found that 6 out of the 12 weeks are enjoyable, the rest are pretty unpleasant...  For this semester's Person&Soc Psych I have only found like 2 weeks enjoyable, the rest I find to be uninspiring and quite boring to be honest!

The assignments have changed over the past year (for the better!). I remember having strange Critical Thinking Exercises and ridiculous online class participation assignments. Now I think it is more focused on lab reports, essays and the exam.

They've done a big overhaul on Psych subjects this year, completely restructuring a lot of them and changing content and assignments. After the years of criticism, I think some of the negative comments must have sunk in! I am always brutal in my evaluations and I know that my friends are too.

A big plus: Only 6 hours of classes a fortnight (Y)

[alondouek]

... You can do atmospheric science and astrophysics in a Biomed/sci degree? O.o What would that combination even do for you? (considering it looks like there's another 7 majors you can't do...)

Exactly, it's a really really fucking stupid idea to limit biomed/sci students from any regular medical- or health-related life science major. Students have told the faculty this time and time again for years now but they're having none of it. Their reasoning is "you cover all that stuff in biomed anyway, so why do it again in science?" which is wrong and ignorant because A) The material and teaching approaches are always different between biomed units and their science counterparts because they have different learning objectives and B) We only spend maximum one unit on a given area of study, so why prohibit us from majoring in an area that we want to learn more in?

All-in-all it's bloody ridiculous and it's easily the worst part of my double degree and the only reason I wouldn't recommend it to others.

I don't think Psych is as bad as others here have said, but after all, it is personal preference! I have found a some units to be better than others... I enjoyed the Biol&Dev Psych last semester probably the most out of any psych unit I have done. For most units, I have generally found that 6 out of the 12 weeks are enjoyable, the rest are pretty unpleasant...  For this semester's Person&Soc Psych I have only found like 2 weeks enjoyable, the rest I find to be uninspiring and quite boring to be honest!

The assignments have changed over the past year (for the better!). I remember having strange Critical Thinking Exercises and ridiculous online class participation assignments. Now I think it is more focused on lab reports, essays and the exam.

They've done a big overhaul on Psych subjects this year, completely restructuring a lot of them and changing content and assignments. After the years of criticism, I think some of the negative comments must have sunk in! I am always brutal in my evaluations and I know that my friends are too.

A big plus: Only 6 hours of classes a fortnight (Y)

Well that's heartening haha! And yeah, the relatively low contact hours are also pretty attractive in all honesty. Assuming I do 2 BMS, 1 DEV and 1 PSY unit in a semester, that amounts to 19-21 contact hours per week which isn't too bad. Cheers!

[EspoirTron]

I'm just going to say this, being a fellow Biomed/Science degree student, your contact hours are 24/7. Honestly, out of that whole list Psych seems pretty attractive.

[alondouek]

I'm just going to say this, being a fellow Biomed/Science degree student, your contact hours are 24/7. Honestly, out of that whole list Psych seems pretty attractive.

Kieran we need to flood the faculty with angry letters

[brenden]

Yeah tbh I'd take Psych looking at that list. As bad as it is, I'm still planning to take Psych subjects next semester because I know I can HD them (so, if somethign as fickle as a grade is enough to overcome the shitness, something as strong as 'not taking a horrible major' should be enough).

[BigAl]

a minor in maths doesnt hurt guys..consider that!

[EspoirTron]

a minor in maths doesnt hurt guys..consider that!

My major is Maths at the moment, and it is very difficult to manage on top of Biomedicine. Given that Biomedicine is already so content dense, it's difficult to dedicate the right amount of time to Maths, as unfortunate as that is.