BCom/LLB questions

[vashappenin]

Hi guys,
Sorry for all these questions; I am a jaffy after all I'm just thinking about how to go about with the commerce component of my double degree because I already know which law subjects we have to take this year.

- What's ETC1000 like? Is the maths really hard and is it a time consuming, workload-heavy subject? Would you recommend doing it alongside ACC1000 in first semester or should I just push it off to do over the summer?
- How would you place the 5 compulsory subjects from easiest to hardest?
- Which ones are best to do together; or in other words, which ones should I make sure I don't do together so as to increase my workload more?

I want to major in accounting, so I was planning to do an accounting subject and a compulsory subject alongside it; or, I might just get 4 core units out of the way this year and then do the 5th over the summer or as a 5th subject if I overload ... Not too sure yet but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Reckoner]

I don't think any of the Clayton versions of the 5 cores are offered in the summer unfortunately, so you'll most likely have to overload or take an extra semester.

ETC1000 isn't too bad. I actually quite liked it. There is a little bit of maths, but you can mostly gloss over it, and don't have to go very in depth. Most of the unit is interpretation from what I recall, with the odd calculation on the side. The notes are very comprehensive, and you get heaps of past exams. The lab classes for it can be pretty fun if you have a good tute. Brett's lectures are pretty entertaining too. You get given a CD with pre-recorded video lectures, so in the main lectures he just tells stories and goes through examples.

Well normally, people say that business law is the hardest of the core commerce units, but you don't have to do that one. If I had to rank them from "hardest" to "easiest", (bare in mind I haven't done management yet)

ACC1000
ETC1000
ECC1000
MKC1200 (just rote learning a bunch of definitions)
MGC1010 (open book exam)

I'd avoid doing marketing and management in the same semester though. Not because it'll be hard, just really boring.

But honestly, don't worry too much about the difficulty. It is so subjective, and they are all of similar difficulty. Also, they won't seem hard or time consuming at all compared to your law units.

If I were you though, I'd do accounting and micro in first semester, then stats and either marketing, or ACC1030 (the second accounting unit). You can change your second semester units after first semester though, so just put something in now, and change it later.   

[vashappenin]

I wasn't gonna overload in first year Haha! Sorry if I made myself unclear; I just meant in the future, although I guess summer units are better anyway

[dossie58]

Is it a good idea to follow Monash's guideline?
http://www.law.monash.edu.au/current-students/enrolments/undergraduate-information-booklet-2014.pdf
Page 17.

[ninwa]

Is it a good idea to follow Monash's guideline?
http://www.law.monash.edu.au/current-students/enrolments/undergraduate-information-booklet-2014.pdf
Page 17.

Page 17 is for straight law. You want to go to page 15 for com/law. And no, it's not necessary to follow the course plan, but you should definitely follow it for first year because that's when you get most of the pre-requisites out of the way (i.e. ILR, RAW, contracts)

[dossie58]

Page 17 is for straight law. You want to go to page 15 for com/law. And no, it's not necessary to follow the course plan, but you should definitely follow it for first year because that's when you get most of the pre-requisites out of the way (i.e. ILR, RAW, contracts)

Thanks Ninwa,
It's page 17 on my computer (I checked after you said that), perhaps it's different on your browser/device.
Would you or anyone doing commerce recommend doing the commerce recommend the commerce units in the order advised as well?

[vashappenin]

Ok thanks for the help guys! I'm thinking of doing it like this; the law unitss are already set, I'm mainly talking about the commerce units. Hopefully it sounds ok!

Semester 1
- LAW1101: ILR
- LAW2101: Contract A
- ACC1000: Principles of accounting and finance
- ETC1000: Business and economic statistics

Semester 2: (for now)
- LAW1104: Research and writing
- LAW2102: Contract B
- ACC1030: Introduction to financial accounting
- ECC1000: Principles of microeconomics

EDIT: Changed etc and ecc around

[Reckoner]

@vashhappenin: Yeah, that looks pretty good.

Would you or anyone doing commerce recommend doing the commerce recommend the commerce units in the order advised as well?

There's no real need to follow the course structure exactly and do all of the core units at the start of your degree for commerce (different for other degrees I think). Having done the marketing unit isnt going to help you a great deal in a finance major for example. If you know what you want to major in, you can leave a few of the core units that aren't relevant to that major until the end of your degree and have a bit of a lighter workload then (as long as you meet any pre-requisites). But if you're not sure on what you want to major in, best to do the cores early so that you have a taste of everything. So just pick the ones that look the best/most interesting/what you possibly will major in for your first semester units and see how you go from there.

Remember, you don't have to have your whole degree planned out right now, just have some idea. The course map (at least, for commerce anyway) is just to give you somewhat of an idea of how your degree could be structured. It is by no means set in stone. That being said, I think it's good to do accounting, microeconomics and stats fairly early just because I think they are the most useful of the core units. 

[Kuchiki]

Ok thanks for the help guys! I'm thinking of doing it like this; the law unitss are already set, I'm mainly talking about the commerce units. Hopefully it sounds ok!

Semester 1
- LAW1101: ILR
- LAW2101: Contract A
- ACC1000: Principles of accounting and finance
- ETC1000: Business and economic statistics

Semester 2: (for now)
- LAW1104: Research and writing
- LAW2102: Contract B
- ACC1030: Introduction to financial accounting
- ECC1000: Principles of microeconomics

EDIT: Changed etc and ecc around

Do ECC1000 in semester one. Stephen King is the best lecturer.

Did you do Accounting in VCE? If so, ACC1000 (and ACC1030 to a small extent) will be much easier. If not, you might struggle a bit because it goes through the course very quickly.

ETC1010 throughout the semester is mostly really easy and has a light workload. It's almost all on Excel, with step-by-step instructions in the notes. There's very little maths. Just watch out for the three online quizzes and the final exam, as it's the theory component that trips most people up.

[Reckoner]

Do ECC1000 in semester one. Stephen King is the best lecturer.

Oh, I didn't realise that Stephen King only did semester 1! Definitely do ECC100 in sem 1 in this case, very entertaining lectures.

[Rohmer]

I pretty much agree with what's been said so far.

I don't think any of the 1st year commerce units are that hard, however some of them do move fairly quickly. Accounting may take a bit of work if you haven't done it before - if you've done VCE accounting it will be easier, although from what I remember about half of the course (maybe more) isn't covered in VCE. On average accounting may be the hardest unit, although stats can be a bit of a challenge depending on your maths ability (if you did well in methods then you should find it relatively easy, although still try and keep up with the work as parts of it will be different, even though they probably aren't as hard). I'd then rate Microeconomics next, you'll be ok here without any VCE eco. (VCE eco. is apparently useful, but not that useful). Like Accounting, it moves reasonably quickly, and can be a bit dry. It is however easier, in that ROTE learning can be done to a greater extent (you'll be looking at a lot of supply/demand curves etc. - even if you don't understand them you can just regurgitate answers). Lastly, Marketing and Management - easy units, really. The only things that can go wrong here are (1) Your ability to write an essay (2) Your ability to follow instructions on the assessment sheet (following the instructions regarding referencing etc. is half the work for a management essay). Don't leave these assessments till the last minute and you should be fine. Exams for these subjects are basically ROTE learn stuff, nothing too different from VCE.

As 1st year law students your only real tough subject is Contract Law, which has a fair workload for a first year subject. The key to understanding decisions and principles is the principles book, although you should also try and read the cases from the case book so you know the facts well.

[vashappenin]

Ok I've got a lot to think about now, considering that I never did accounting in VCE, so I don't wanna end up doing 2 hard commerce units :S

[Rohmer]

Ok I've got a lot to think about now, considering that I never did accounting in VCE, so I don't wanna end up doing 2 hard commerce units :S

They aren't really that hard, it's more that Marketing/Management are just easier subjects in my opinion. Having said that, some people find marketing/management to be quite boring and therefore more of a hassle (e.g. 3000 word essay on 'Competitive strategies' or leadership etc.). If you keep up with the weekly work in accounting/stats (and it's not that much for a 1st year commerce subject) then you'll be ok; a lot of people won't have done VCE accounting/economics and although it's an advantage it's not a big advantage.

[vashappenin]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I have another question. Do we need to buy all prescribed text books for each unit? Are they all useful or am I better off only buying the recommended ones?

[brenden]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I have another question. Do we need to buy all prescribed text books for each unit? Are they all useful or am I better off only buying the recommended ones?

Prescribed > recommended. Prescribed is like "get this" and recommended is like "you can if you want"