Chinese as breadth at Melbourne Uni; worth doing?

[Shenz0r]

There is a review of Chinese 7, if you want to see what uni Chinese is like.

[ChickenCh0wM1en]

Hmm. I highly doubt that I'll be overwhelmed by sciences. The last time that happened was when I had to learn pretty much the entire first year Melbourne Uni chemistry course (plus SOOOOOOOO much more................) in two weeks at the chemistry summer school because I had five hours of sleep everyday. I trust university life isn't like that and that I'll get more sleep

I'm a narrow minded person. It sucks, but it means breadth makes me feel uncomfortable. I have no idea what to choose, and as ShenzOr says, I may well end up dropping it immediately. I don't want to do that.


I do quite enjoy Chinese in general; I find it more fun to watch Chinese TV series and all the music I listen to is in Chinese. However, my parents have revealed to me how shocking my written expression is, and that has already scared me a lot. Also, VCE Chinese has put me off Chinese so much it's unbelievable. I don't think uni Chinese could POSSIBLY be worse than VCE Chinese.

Dunno about getting more sleep in uni, I feel like a zombie most uni days as I live up to 2 hours each way...

From most my friends who picked Chinese as breadth, they found it like chinese school all over again, check the thread on the Melbourne Uni subject reviews for Chinese to get a feel for it. As Levilamp and others have stated, the exam for Chinese is pretty much regurgitation of the prescribed textbook used. Essentially if you memorise the text, regardless of how crap one may be in this language, they have the potential to do reasonably well. Thus, I don't feel that it is an accurate indication of ones proficiency in this language.

[tonychet2]

strongly strongly recommend principles of business law, you basically learn the fundamentals of law through cases that are quite interesting (knew nothing about law before this breadth)

Only two contact hours per week - no tutorials or classes
Didn't really have to put in much effort, lecturer was funny and enjoyable, and came out with a bunch of knowledge on how cases work

45% is based on multiple choice every 3 weeks throughout the sem (3 tests at 15% each) (40 mc questions)
55% final exam 1 hour and 40 minutes consisting of 40 multiple choice questions

Low(ish) work load, highly enjoyable content, good knowledge to know if you ever need to go to court, all multi choice  = win

[LeviLamp]

nliu, rather than find something you dislike that you think you'll be able to do well at, find something you think you'll enjoy, do something that complements your degree that you don't dislike or pick something that looks easy AND enjoyable. Have a proper look through the list of subjects available and really think about what you might do, because breadth shouldn't have to be about a forced necessity and salvaging a good mark. If you apply yourself properly you'll usually get a good mark, and in the rare event where applying yourself properly isn't enough (for example, the calculus subjects for first years were unusually hard this year and many people underperformed), you just need to push a bit more, and with your work ethic it seems like you'll be able to. Nothing at uni is actually impossible
I think the posts here are going to end up going 'round in circles soon, so just take a gander at what's available and keep an open mind while looking!

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/faces/htdocs/user/search/SearchResults.jsp

The above is a complete list of undergraduate subjects for your browsing pleasure, but you can narrow the fields down with the Advanced Search so it shouldn't be hard to cull this further.

[charmanderp]

I might be a tiny bit biased but if you're not a commerce student economics is the best breadth you can do. It's really not difficult at all to do well in if you keep up with the course material + do practice questions semi-regularly (which are plentiful), and you learn some really crucial and fascinating stuff as well.

[lzxnl]

nliu, rather than find something you dislike that you think you'll be able to do well at, find something you think you'll enjoy, do something that complements your degree that you don't dislike or pick something that looks easy AND enjoyable. Have a proper look through the list of subjects available and really think about what you might do, because breadth shouldn't have to be about a forced necessity and salvaging a good mark. If you apply yourself properly you'll usually get a good mark, and in the rare event where applying yourself properly isn't enough (for example, the calculus subjects for first years were unusually hard this year and many people underperformed), you just need to push a bit more, and with your work ethic it seems like you'll be able to. Nothing at uni is actually impossible
I think the posts here are going to end up going 'round in circles soon, so just take a gander at what's available and keep an open mind while looking!

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/faces/htdocs/user/search/SearchResults.jsp

The above is a complete list of undergraduate subjects for your browsing pleasure, but you can narrow the fields down with the Advanced Search so it shouldn't be hard to cull this further.

Sigh. I'll have to ask around then.
Although I didn't mind Chinese school too much when I went, and if the exam is just repetitive like that, sure I'll take it
I don't have an open mind -.-

I might be a tiny bit biased but if you're not a commerce student economics is the best breadth you can do. It's really not difficult at all to do well in if you keep up with the course material + do practice questions semi-regularly (which are plentiful), and you learn some really crucial and fascinating stuff as well.

Hmm. Easy to do well for a person who is downright horrible at commerce?

[REBORN]

Yes, do Introductory Microeconomics.

[blank]

I got put in chinese 7 bc I got a ss of 35 for chinese sl in vce but I don't speak chinese at home, (I speak Vietnamese) so I thought chinese 7 was too hard for me (it was quite scary actually haha). So I asked the teacher to let me go to a lower level and I got put in chinese 5. It was pretty chill and since I never got the chance to learn about Chinese history and topography, I was learning about it for the first time and in chinese (at a very basic level of course). It was interesting and being around other non-chinese speakers who were so interested in the language was quite inspiring and fun. Yes, the assessments are heavily based on memorising things from the textbook but that means its easy to prepare for! Also, the exam and orals require you to use the phrases you've learnt so there is an application aspect to the assessments. I got 80 for this subject and I did minimal amount of work so if you're still vaguely interested in chinese after vce, it's worth a shot

[gummo]

I respectfully disagree with those who are saying economics is a great breadth. You might like it if you are a logical/methodical thinker or if you are fairly good at maths, but there are many more breadths out there that might suit you more! I did VCE Economics and found it fairly enjoyable but economics at uni was a nightmare. It just looked like a bunch of random numbers, nonsensical graphs and extremely theoretical scenarios. A few of my Biomedicine friends loved it though. I guess it might suit you if you have a logical mind???

[vox nihili]

It's all well and good that you believe that you're a really narrow minded person, but as has already been said, breadth is designed to make you try new things. To try to cheat the system and find ways of avoiding that is really to cheat yourself.

There are breadth subjects that incorporate elements of science into them, specifically the Uni Breadth subjects, and some arts disciplines such as linguistics are relatively scientific in nature.

I don't mean to discourage you either, but it is a really bad idea to be so cocky that you'll find science such a breeze. It is not a breeze at all, and even the Chancellor's scholars struggle from time to time. I have friends from all ends of the ATAR spectrum at UniMelb, and all of them find it a challenge. It's also worth saying that ATAR hardly correlates to achievement at Uni. There is no such thing as breezing through any uni course, and if you feel that that's what you're doing, then you're wasting your time.

[lzxnl]

It's all well and good that you believe that you're a really narrow minded person, but as has already been said, breadth is designed to make you try new things. To try to cheat the system and find ways of avoiding that is really to cheat yourself.

There are breadth subjects that incorporate elements of science into them, specifically the Uni Breadth subjects, and some arts disciplines such as linguistics are relatively scientific in nature.

I don't mean to discourage you either, but it is a really bad idea to be so cocky that you'll find science such a breeze. It is not a breeze at all, and even the Chancellor's scholars struggle from time to time. I have friends from all ends of the ATAR spectrum at UniMelb, and all of them find it a challenge. It's also worth saying that ATAR hardly correlates to achievement at Uni. There is no such thing as breezing through any uni course, and if you feel that that's what you're doing, then you're wasting your time.

I think you misunderstood my statement about breadth dragging down my gpa. The intention was that breadth has a much higher chance of negatively impacting my scores for the same or slightly higher workload. Just take English Language this year.  I probably spent three times as much time on English than I did on my other subjects combined but my English score is probably going to still be lower. That is what I'm fearing. However, I get your point.
Ideally I wouldn't do breadth (imo) but that's not an option so the point of the thread is to work out a viable breadth track for me. Cheating the system isn't going to happen.
And I never said uni was going to be a breeze either, just that breadth has the potential to make it much harder than it already could be.

How definition-based is commerce? The commerce I did in year 10 was notorious for that. Also many things that are explained by 'common sense" such as supply and demand trends, although conceptually simple for others, don't stick in my mind at all.

[LeviLamp]

I think the best thing to do is just stop thinking about the ups and downs this much and jump in and try something; you haven't even had a proper uni experience yet (you said yourself physics was all taught at your highschool). You might end up struggling in a science subject and excelling in your breadth, for all you know.

[vox nihili]

I think you misunderstood my statement about breadth dragging down my gpa. The intention was that breadth has a much higher chance of negatively impacting my scores for the same or slightly higher workload. Just take English Language this year.  I probably spent three times as much time on English than I did on my other subjects combined but my English score is probably going to still be lower. That is what I'm fearing. However, I get your point.
Ideally I wouldn't do breadth (imo) but that's not an option so the point of the thread is to work out a viable breadth track for me. Cheating the system isn't going to happen.
And I never said uni was going to be a breeze either, just that breadth has the potential to make it much harder than it already could be.

How definition-based is commerce? The commerce I did in year 10 was notorious for that. Also many things that are explained by 'common sense" such as supply and demand trends, although conceptually simple for others, don't stick in my mind at all.

There are breadth areas that will allow you to apply and use your natural attributes. Some of the ones I mentioned will do so. As will some of the others that are actually based on having a science background. Such as language and computation (which is essentially a computer science subject), or communicating in science and technology, which is a breadth subject only for science students.

Breadth really is fantastic. It provides an amazingly necessary break from science, science, science! All of us would go crazy if we had to do four science subjects each semester! Three is too much in my opinion

[lzxnl]

Hmm. Where would I get a list of breadth subjects that fit into that category? It seems interesting

And does 4 sciences per semester really drive people nuts? I was planning on potentially overloading second year with five sciences in a semester if allowed. You're saying that would likely drive me crazy? I hope it doesn't. ..

[Dismounted]

Hmm. Where would I get a list of breadth subjects that fit into that category? It seems interesting

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/faces/htdocs/user/search/SimpleSearch.jsp

Tick off "Breadth Tracks" and chuck "*" into the search box. Pulls up groups of related breadths that may (or may not) be interesting. Do check that something you like is approved as breadth for B.Sci.

And does 4 sciences per semester really drive people nuts? I was planning on potentially overloading second year with five sciences in a semester if allowed. You're saying that would likely drive me crazy? I hope it doesn't. ..

I did 4 sciences per semester (8 sciences total) this year. Pretty okay during semester, though expect to be at uni every day due to the long pracs - you'll have three full days and two half days. Come exam time is when things get exciting... 4 three-hour exams per semester is fun...

5 sciences may be asking too much - and may also be quite impossible to schedule in fact (dependant upon your choice of subjects). At second year, I'd expect the difficulty to kick up a notch too, so may not be the best idea to overload...