Monash 2014 Jaffy Tips & Questions Thread

[slothpomba]

Great tips guys! Keep them coming, ill write some more of my own every few days as well. I'm surprised echo has any lectures up, they usually take them off a few days after exams finish. You guys got lucky to have any up at this stage :p.

I'd echo the safety and legal thing. It's not just that though, sometimes theaters are packed to capacity, if you have people coming, they push out the people who are meant to be there and it makes the experience worse. One year there were two biology spots, an early one and a really choice one. I was luckily enough to be allocated to the choice one but lots of other people who weren't enrolled in it showed up. It made it very hard to get a seat and people often sat in the aisles. Not to mention it makes it harder to ask a question/takes up more of the lecturers time. I guess its also the principal of the thing too. If everyone acted in that way (showing up to lectures theyre not enrolled in) the entire thing would just break apart. You can only act in that way cause most other people don't (granted its mainly because they cant be fucked/don't want to). That said, it usually empties out a few weeks in for almost all subjects and theres definitely no harm in going to these i guess (but you could always just stream them too).

[ShortBlackChick]

With regards to the online recordings on Echo, its probably good to note that not all units are recorded onto Echo. It's totally up to the lecturers discretion if they want the lecture to be recorded. Some dont record because they'd prefer people came to the lectures instead of skipping them and watching them online. If you have a clash, you might want to email the lecturers of both units and ask if they record their lectures.

[slothpomba]

With regards to the online recordings on Echo, its probably good to note that not all units are recorded onto Echo. It's totally up to the lecturers discretion if they want the lecture to be recorded. Some dont record because they'd prefer people came to the lectures instead of skipping them and watching them online. If you have a clash, you might want to email the lecturers of both units and ask if they record their lectures.

I've never had this happen. Twice i've had audio only recordings (which is a bit annoying but you can still try keep up with slides). Is this common for your units?

We should all thank our lucky stars, when i started (2011) a lot less were recorded, it was only after a campaign by the MSA that a fair few more get recorded. It's definitely worth hassling the lecturer to record them as well. Even if it's just for study purposes later on during exam time.

[ShortBlackChick]

I've heard it happen in Commerce units, and probably Arts as well. I wouldnt say its common, just depends on the lecturer.

My friend emailed one of her lecturers, asking if his lectures are recorded coz she has a clash (she's in Comm) and he just replied with a 'no'. LMAO

I'm assuming seminar type classes arent recorded as well?

[d3stiny]

Here's some tips (mostly for engineering kids),

• Get a copy of at least Microsoft Office and MATLAB, they are essential for your entire degree. Learn Latex if you can. Wolfram|Alpha is awesome for step-by-step solving but don't rely on it.
• You will probably hear this a lot but join lots of clubs and get involved in extra-curricular activities. Employers love to hear about this stuff on a resume and its what separates you from the rest of the crowd.
• Don't just copy a formula down, write a quick explanation of how it's used/what its for. Define each variable if its not obvious and assign appropriate SI units to use for each one.
  
• Your first year units will probably not be that difficult, you'll have a lot of high school material in there. That gives you the opportunity to figure out how to balance life and uni. Get into the habit of socializing, eating right and exercising in addition to keeping on top of all your homework and projects. If you can get this down early, and get into a good routine, you'll find it much easier to balance everything when you're in your later years.
• Find a good way to take notes. The most common methods are pen + paper, highlighting on lecture notes, typing on a laptop, using tablets etc. Find one that's suitable for you and stick to it.
• Coffee is your best friend. Working out/exercising is also a great way to get a quick boost of energy before a drainer of a class.
  
• Buy prescribed textbooks (second hand preferably). In some cases you may only need them for a semester but they are prescribed for a reason so they are usually worth getting. Some books will last you more than a semester and in that case you'll need to listen to what a lecturer has to say about that. It's generally good practice to keep a library of books/references for later on in your engineering life. or just borrow from library/torrent
• With being said, look online for solution manuals to textbook questions. These q's may pop up in tute questions or quizzes so if you do use the solutions, don't just copy the answers and hand them in. Use it as a guide and check your answers. Try and do them on your own first then refer back to the worked solutions if you get stuck.
• Go to class everyday for at least the first month. Some classes aren't worth going to - some are extremely helpful. Some lecturers just derive formulas from the book - others will actually go over example problems and exam questions. A lot of the people I've talked to that failed their eng units say they didn't go to their tutes regularly and consider that to be a defining factor in their failures.
• Be nice to everyone, even if they're assholes. We're all in the same boat, doing one of the toughest courses you can do and people can get stressed as hell, especially during exam time. Try to ease the pressure; remember what goes around comes around.
  
• Go to as many social events as possible during the first semester. Ideally you want to do this and also maintain good study habits. Making friends is crucial in uni life (and passing assessments). Also, don't complain about it being a complete sausage fest. Venture into other faculties and mingle with girls before you complain about being single.
• Last but not least, embrace the shit out of studying engineering/arts/comm/whatever you're doing. You made it this far to get a place at monash and there's certainly more hard work to do to finish but hey, at least you're doing it in an environment you like with people you like.

[NothAU]

7. Students are entitled to various pieces of free software, most of them are stuff the average student wouldn't want but some are great.

Thanks for that one, I was seriously considering dropping the money on Mathematica, now it can go to more important things... like alcohol

[achre]

Hopefully should be my last jaffy query - can you do a subject and its prereq simultaenously (if there aren't any prohibitions)? Like how Methods 3/4 is a prereq for Spesh 3/4, but if you're doing methods at the same time as spesh, it's allowed.

[drake]

do lecture theatres have plug points to charge laptops? and in regard to "lecture notes", does the lecturer give out notes to us or do we just have to make our own while he/she talks?

[pi]

do lecture theatres have plug points to charge laptops?

Not really, and not for med anyway.

does the lecturer give out notes to us or do we just have to make our own while he/she talks?

Usually the slides will be uploaded to Moodle a couple of days before, but many of your lecturers will be clinicians so some may be uploaded late (ie. after the lecture) or not at all if they have patient pics etc. Complain to your year 1 MUMUS academic rep when you get one and get them to chase up on lecture slides.

It's up to you whether you want to use the slides for notes.

[Reckoner]

Hopefully should be my last jaffy query - can you do a subject and its prereq simultaenously (if there aren't any prohibitions)? Like how Methods 3/4 is a prereq for Spesh 3/4, but if you're doing methods at the same time as spesh, it's allowed.

It is possible to enroll in units if you are yet to do the pre-requisite, but you have to get permission from the governing faculty in most cases. I' not sure how common it is to be approved in your first semester however. Email the Unit coordinator/faculty to find out. If the unit is a co-requisite though, then you just enroll in them in the same semester. No permission is necessary


Tip: Make an active attempt to try remember the names of the people you meet. You meet so many new people in the first few weeks, so it can be easy to forget them. It makes things easier later on. But if you do forget someone's name, just ask them again on the second time you bump into them. No-one likes the awkward conversation in week 11 of "OK, I'll add you on facebook.... what was your name again sorry?" or whatever reason it may be.

Also, please don't eat stinky food in libraries/lectures. Please.   

[NothAU]

No-one likes the awkward conversation in week 11 of "OK, I'll add you on facebook.... what was your name again sorry?" or whatever reason it may be.

I've already forgotten so many peoples names in my hall, I just ask if I can add them to facebook, and hand them my phone with the search bar open

[samsiexD]

Hi there, on the 24th theres a compulsory science welcome and faculty orientation that goes from 11-2. Just wondering if its worth going to? Will i be missing a lot if i cant make it? What do they even talk about?

[slothpomba]

Hi there, on the 24th theres a compulsory science welcome and faculty orientation that goes from 11-2. Just wondering if its worth going to? Will i be missing a lot if i cant make it? What do they even talk about?

If you're a very cluey student, you dont need to go. It goes into a lot of the requirements like picking subjects, support services, there's talks from people representing all the science areas, etc. It's not absolutely essential but if you've got nothing else big on, i'd go anyway.

[Chazef]

have I misunderstood the meaning of those percentages? I thought they represented the capacity of the slots and if somebody puts a slot as their first preference then it would consider that when calculating the capacity. So under that model you'd have the average percentage being 100 percent assuming everybody's chosen a first preference and the capacity is based on the max students a room can hold with there being an equal number of students in each slot. But clearly here the average is >100 percent so whatthehell.jpg

[slothpomba]

have I misunderstood the meaning of those percentages? I thought they represented the capacity of the slots and if somebody puts a slot as their first preference then it would consider that when calculating the capacity. So under that model you'd have the average percentage being 100 percent assuming everybody's chosen a first preference and the capacity is based on the max students a room can hold with there being an equal number of students in each slot. But clearly here the average is >100 percent so whatthehell.jpg

They might be overcapacity or it might be some kind of calculation/allocate quirk. Sometimes the number of students is higher than anticipated and they add in more lectures/labs. Of course you can only know something like this *after* you get a bazillion people signing up.