Monash General Chat

[peanut]

Hi, jaffy here. I won't be able to attend my course's (Bachelor of Computer Science) "compulsory orientation session". Will I be missing out on any actual compulsory stuff, like filling in forms and whatnot? Or is it just an information session and "getting to know you" activities?

[Springyboy]

Hi, jaffy here. I won't be able to attend my course's (Bachelor of Computer Science) "compulsory orientation session". Will I be missing out on any actual compulsory stuff, like filling in forms and whatnot? Or is it just an information session and "getting to know you" activities?

Hey peanut, you'll be fine. For me, my course info session was just listening to the dean of the faculty speak for a bit and listen to the library staff talking about referencing and borrowing, so not too much. You do have to fill out some forms for the second part of the session, which is usually the next day and is an enrolment session, however that you can usually do on your own, or if you can't then book an appointment with a course adviser from the I.T. faculty and they should be able to help you out. Don't stress if you can't make the session, as you won't be missing out on that much as it's much more of the second type of "getting to know you" activities than filling in forms specifically.

[The Special One]

Imagine not getting a single one of your preferences...

' over 70% of students get their first preference'

What a load of boloney I wish unis weren't so afraid to implement first come first serve systems these days.

I know RMIT used to have it but even that's gone now

[Sine]

Unit guides for 2018 semester 1 are being progressively released if anyone is interested. They give a good outline of the assesment tasks (such as due dates/weighting) and the workload of the unit. If the 2018 edition hasn't been released you could have a look at 2017 which usually gives a decent indication.

Sadly for me none of my unit guides for this year have been released yet 

Unit Guide Manager

[cookiedream]

When I went to the Clayton campus for my interview in early Jan, I had sushi and coffee with my mum and brother.

According to my mum, Monash has the best sushi she's ever had!! Also Grafali serves 10/10 coffee imo

[AngelWings]

Imagine not getting a single one of your preferences...

' over 70% of students get their first preference'

What a load of boloney I wish unis weren't so afraid to implement first come first serve systems these days.

I know RMIT used to have it but even that's gone now

Have you tried the forcing clashes trick?

[K888]

Also Grafali serves 10/10 coffee imo

They also do really good hot chocolate!

[Sine]

Re: timetables

I think I got all my first preferences (mind you for the first time ever) every other semester my timetables have been seemingly random even if I tried to force clashes.

I definitely would rather a first come first serve system tbh

[The Special One]

Have you tried the forcing clashes trick?

Nope never heard of it. Could you please explain the concept and execution of this said trick?

I have an idea of how it works going by the name but it sounds risky if you just pick your units so that they clash and  hope the system  then gives you  the times you want

[VanillaRice]

Nope never heard of it. Could you please explain the concept and execution of this said trick?

I have an idea of how it works going by the name but it sounds risky if you just pick your units so that they clash and  hope the system  then gives you  the times you want

Basically, you look for activities that only have a single timeslot (for example, the only lecture is at 10am Monday). You then try to clash your preferences with this 10am Monday slot. Since the system wants to avoid clashes, it most likely won't allocate you that preference. Using this method, you essentially have reduced the number of preferences you have from say 6, to 5.  (Hope that makes sense ) I don't really use this myself, but I've heard it work for some, but not for others.

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Also update: it seems most units have enabled access to their Moodle pages

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EDIT: Also, can't remember where this was discussed, but it seems that instead of activities running from 5 past the hour to 5 to the hour (e.g. 10:05 - 10:55), they are indeed starting on the hour and finishing 10 to the hour (e.g. 10:00 - 10:50). Confirmed in the unit guides, and lecture recordings now seem to run from 9:58 - 10:53 to suit.

[Sine]

Went to the new education building today, it looks really nice although totally misses the mark in terms of seating for studying.

[Joseph41]

Went to the new education building today, it looks really nice although totally misses the mark in terms of seating for studying.

What sort of options do you have?

[sweetiepi]

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Also update: it seems most units have enabled access to their Moodle pages

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EDIT: Also, can't remember where this was discussed, but it seems that instead of activities running from 5 past the hour to 5 to the hour (e.g. 10:05 - 10:55), they are indeed starting on the hour and finishing 10 to the hour (e.g. 10:00 - 10:50). Confirmed in the unit guides, and lecture recordings now seem to run from 9:58 - 10:53 to suit.

My faculty has done something on time for once- my units appeared around 10 this morning!

Also I was the one who mentioned it! Glad it's not just my faculty then! ^_^

[Sine]

What sort of options do you have?

Mainly lounge type seating like circular tables/soft seating and occasional booths . Although can't complain since it's not a library but a faculty.

[VanillaRice]

Update for Clayton students who take public transport to and from the city:
From today, part of the Huntingdale Station car park has been transformed into a bus loop (when you exit the tunnel, turn left). All buses going to Monash uni now go through this bus loop. This means that you no longer need to cross the road to catch the bus to uni (601/900/630) Super convenient, and pretty well planned on the council's part.

Also I was the one who mentioned it! Glad it's not just my faculty then! ^_^

Guess this means I'll get to go home 5 minutes earlier!

Mainly lounge type seating like circular tables/soft seating and occasional booths . Although can't complain since it's not a library but a faculty.

I didn't quite understand some of the seating setups. Some of the booths were closed off on 3 sides, meaning if you sat against the far side and someone else sat next to you, you'd have to ask them to move if you wanted to get up. There's also a few large tables with seats all around, but I'm not sure how well the middle part of the table can be used. That being said, there's now heaps of study spaces available, which is pretty good  The small touchscreens outside each room detailing availability/bookings is also a nice touch.

It seems Monash has decided to replace the (7?) lecture theatres from the old Rotunda building with only 1 new 'tiered learning' room (read: modern lecture theatre), meaning less lecture spaces. I'm doing CHM1011 this sem, and it seems they've reduced the weekly lectures from 3 to 2, while adding 1 hour of pre and post lecture work. Given, there are heaps of new classrooms, and you can obviously tell they're going for a flipped classroom learning approach.

P.S. For anyone interested, you can check out the new building here.