Enroling in Arts Subjects + Timetabling Advice

[literally lauren]

UoM (Arts) First Year's Guide

So I've had a few PMs asking about the enrolment process (it's almost as though the process is really counter-intuitive -.-) more in relation to Arts, but some of this will apply to Science/Commerce etc. students as well.

This is mainly geared towards those struggling with first year enrolment, but there also might be some useful bits and pieces for others. Keep in mind, this is mostly stuff I've intuited having wasted many days stuck in a loop of portals, phone calls, and the "helpful" explanations on the unimelb site back in my first year. As such, there might be parts of this that are wrong or don't explain things as clearly as possible, so I'd welcome others' input. In fact, this process and the study plan layout has actually changed since I first had to deal with it two years ago, so this might be subject to change too :/

Some lingo and definitions for the uninitiated:

Course

= the big, overall thing you are enroled in, e.g. Bachelor of Arts

Major

= a collection of subjects forming the majority of your study plan, e.g. History, Linguistics, etc.

Minor

= a collection of subjects with fewer restrictions than a major that form a significant, but not dominant part of your study plan. If you complete a major, you must do a capstone subject in the last semester of your last year, which is generally a prerequisite for further Honours and post-graduate study. Those completing Minors do not have to do this capstone, and so tend not to pursue this area of study further.

Subject

= the individual class you enrol in that lasts for one semester e.g. Introduction to Macroeconomics, Law in Society, etc.

Subject Code

= four letters + five numbers; each subject gets a unique code that tells you what part of the university runs the subject (eg. BIOL10004 is run by the Biology department; ENGR30002 is part of Engineering - some of these are a little less intuitive, eg. DASC or HPSC but you'll grow accustomed to the ones that apply to your area of interest, and that's enough.) The codes also tell you which level they are a part of, as explained below.

Levels

= Broken up into 1, 2, and 3, each subject exists on a certain Level. Traditionally, you will complete Level 1 subjects in your first year, Level 2 in your second, and so on. Subject Codes beginning with 4, 9, or any number other than 1, 2, and 3 are Honours or post-graduate subjects, and we won't worry about them for now. However, the reason these aren't called 'first year subjects,' 'second year subjects' etc. is because you can enrol in subject levels that don't necessarily match your degree. For instance, you might complete a Level 2 subject in your first year, a Level 3 subject in second year, and then give yourself a nice easy Level 1 subject in your third year. You must complete 100 points of study at each level, but the order of this is up to you.

Study Points

= each subject is worth a certain number of 'points,' usually 12.5, though sometimes 25 if it's a particularly difficult or hectic intensive subject. Each year, most full time students will complete 100 points of study, with at least 75 of those being part of their course (i.e. not breadths) as the completion of a three year degree requires 300 points all together.

Elective/ Discipline Subject

= a subject you complete as part of your course, e.g. an Arts subject

Breadth Subject

= a subject you complete that is part of a different course e.g. a Music subject, a Science subject, or a multidisciplinary subject (beginning with the Subject Code UNIB, eg. UNIB20007 - Genetics, Health, and Society) which are available as breadths for any course, meaning that an Arts student, a Commerce student, and a Science student could all select a UNIB subject as their breadth. You are required to complete between 4-6 of these over the course of your degree. This is a good place to search for breadth subjects as it allows you to search via area of interest, or just every available course.

Handbook

= this thing; a digital record of all the subjects at UoM, and your go-to resource for official subject information. Searching subjects through the handbook can be a steep learning curve at first, so most people find it easier to search for disciplines first on google (e.g. 'Criminology unimelb handbook') and then be taken to the relevant page for that area of study that will contain a list of related subjects.within that area.

Class Types

Lectures

= involve sitting in a lecture theatre and being talked at for around an hour. Some smaller subjects involve participation, but for the most part, you're just passively absorbing content and taking notes. Almost all subjects have recorded lectures, which is ideal for days when you can't make it or have clashes, but they won't all have visual recording as well as audio, so there's a chance you might miss some things. Also, recordings will occasionally be corrupted, lost, or might just be of dodgy and barely audible quality, so don't depend on these too much if you can avoid it.

Tutorials

= are more like the high school 'classes' you'll be familiar with. These are in smaller rooms with groups of around 20 students or less, and could involve anything from group discussion, weekly exercises, class presentations, group work, or even just individual reading and writing exercises. You'll also have a tutor, who will probably be the one marking your assessments, and should be your first port of call if you have questions about the subject. Almost all Arts subjects mark tutorial attendee as a hurdle requirement, meaning that if you do not attend ~80% of tutes without a valid reason, you can't pass the subject.

Seminars

= differ from subject to subject, but are usually kind of like a combined lecture and tutorial. So the lecturer will be delivering content, and then either afterwards or throughout will call on students to question or discuss important points.

Practicals

= are are rare for Arts subject, but can occasionally be present instead of or alongside your tutorials in courses like Psychology. How these run will depend on the subject, but there tends to more 'hands-on' experience, like a lab experiment or visual demonstration of some kind. These are also likely to be longer than tutorials, which only typically run for one hour, whereas practical sessions might be two or three hour commitments depending on the subject.

Workshops

= which function like either tutorials or practicals. I've never come across these in any Arts subject other than the Foundation ones, where you'll have six workshop sessions in addition to the weekly lectures and tutorials. Like practicals, workshops tend to be a bit longer (though the Foundation ones are still only an hour) and also vary in their distribution across the semester. For instance, you might have lectures and tutorials from weeks 1-12, but the workshops would only run from weeks 4-10, or something like that.

Contact Hours

= are the amount of hours which you are required to attend classes. For instance, you might have 14 contact hours a week, meaning you might have 9 hours of lectures and five hours of tutorials. This doesn't include the gaps in between classes (e.g. a day where you have a lecture from 10:00-11:00 and a tutorial from 2:00-3:00 is a day with two contact hours, not five). The handbook will also list the total contact hours for that subject, as well as a 'Total Time Commitment' which factors in the amount of recommended time you should spend studying and doing readings. For example, a subject with 34 contact hours might have a total time commitment of 170 hours, meaning you'd be expected to spend 136 hours outside of class studying. If this seems a bit generous, that's because it is I've never spent that amount of time on any one subject, and my guess is that they just provide that really broad guess of 170 hours to encourage people to work. Treat it as a very rough guideline, not a requirement.

Office Hours

= are the hours outside of class time that your teaching staff will be available to field questions about the subject content or assessment. They'll usually flag these in the first lecture or tute so you know when to swing by, but it's often best to send them an email ahead of time to book an appointment so they know to expect you. Supposedly these office hours will be times when they'll be in their offices in case any students want to stop by, but I've been caught out a couple of times when tutors just haven't been there, so send them a quick 'Hi ___, I just had some quick questions about this thing in this week's readings that I can't quite get my head around and was wondering if I could come by during your office hours to ask you a few things' email to be sure.

Also, some staff don't have office hours or prefer you to book appointments, so in these instances, you'll have to email them anyway.

Note: be sure to send emails via your @student.unimelb.edu.au address and not your personal one, as some staff will have an auto-block on any email addresses that don't contain the @unimelb domain name.

I - Making sense of the Study Plan

PART I

So for starters, if you go to the main student portal, which is your starting point for most uni resources and links:



we're mainly going to look at the study plan section, but I might come back and explain the timetable or LMS features if I can be bothered. For now, let's just go to the main study plan site. This has to load twice. I don't know why, but it'll refresh itself after a few seconds and take you to the proper page.



This is what you'll see if you click 'collapse all,' or just press the little '-' next to the drop down tab with your degree title.

Rather than expanding everything and having to go through it bit by bit, we're just going to break this down into three main sections shown below.

EDIT: I have been informed that some study plans look a little different. This might be a 2016 change, or it might only apply to certain students. For this reason, I'll split this next part into versions A and B. The A section will be for everyone whose study plan looks like:

and B for these ones:


I'd recommend reading through version A anyway for a fuller explanation of the different components of the study design, and then, if needed, the explanation of version B will build on that.

VERSION A

Now, (and I seriously wish someone had told me this two years ago) if you're in your first year, JUST CLICK ON THE LEVEL 1 SECTION AND DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE OTHERS! I must've wasted so many hours thinking I had to plan out my whole degree, when in reality you only need to officially enrol in subjects for the upcoming semester; everything else is flexible.

In other words:


Expanding this Level 1 tab gives you:



In order to explain what these things mean, let's look at a sample study plan for a first year Arts student:



Note: this was just a table drawn up in Word, not some official UoM thing, but I'd recommend doing something similar for yourself just as a point of reference.
The PINK box is for our Foundation subject. This is something unique to the Arts faculty and basically consists of an 'intro to uni'-style subject {out of: Identity, Language, Reason, and Power which are all in Semester 1, or Aboriginalities, and Representation.}
These subjects take you through things like referencing, submitting uni assessments, and general tips regarding academia and essay writing. For our purposes, we're going to look at Power which is one of the more popular Foundation subjects, though if you wanted to choose a Semester 2 one, then this would simply swap to the second row, and you'd fill in the Semester 1 gap with a different subject.

The BLUE boxes are for all of our Arts discipline subjects. Note that you do not have to know or select your Majors until the end of your first year! Because we're only enroling in our Level 1 subjects, there's no requirement to nominate an official major/minor, so you're free to select a sample platter of different disciplines that you might be interested in. The only thing you need to be careful of is prerequisites! Some majors (though admittedly very few in Arts compared to Science/Biomed) will require you to have completed certain Level 1 subjects in order to continue studying at Levels 2 and 3. Let's say you wanted to complete a Politics Major. If you look at the Handbook entry for that Major and scroll down to the structure, you'd see that:

you have to complete a Foundation subject - which is pretty standard for Level 2 and 3 Arts subjects, meaning that you should do the Foundation in first year at some point - and you need to complete a Level 1 Politics subject. Some Majors will list specific subjects that you must complete, like how MULT20003 - Critical Analytical Thinking Skills is listed as a core Level 2 unit for Politics, but other areas of study will be more flexible.

Finally, the GREEN boxes are for our Breadth subjects. Here, we've got one per semester, but you'll notice that we've got a Level 2 breadth in second semester instead of a Level 1. This is perfectly fine, though, and this is why our study plan lets us account for this:



So, working backwards through this list, the Level 1 Breadth Subject and the Level 1, 2 Breadth Subjects tabs should open up a single subject slot, which will take you to the subject selection portal discussed in Part II. The Level 1 Discipline Subjects tab opens up four subject slots, which would be all the subjects we've got in our second and third columns in the sample table above. The process for selecting these subjects is the same as it is for the breadths, but there will be a different window of subjects from which you can choose.

There are two remaining tabs: the Arts Foundation Subject tab and the Arts Foundation or Arts Discipline Subjects tab. The first is easy - a single subject slot that will take you to a screen from which you can select one of six Foundation subjects. The second though, can be a tad confusing if you don't understand what it's referring to. Basically, you have the choice of doing either one or two Foundation subjects. If you are doing two, then this tab is where you should select that second one. The majority of students instead prefer to do an Arts elective here, so they have that option as well. In the sample table, our student has selected a Philosophy elective, so that's what would take this spot on their study plan. Note that there is no difference, then, between this discipline elective and the other four mentioned previously; it's just that this one could be taken up by a Foundation subject if you wanted it to be.

So that's the basics of the study plan; the next parts will take you through the subject selection process, and later we'll revisit the other Major/ Minor tabs just so you know what to expect from those.

VERSION B

For this version, instead of all of your Level 1 selections being contained within the first tab, there's instead a split between:
- Foundation and Discipline Subjects (75 points) - which will normally be 6 out of your 8 first year subject, excluding the two breadths
and
- Breadth, Majors, and Minors (225 points) - which will be everything in your second and third year, plus the first year breadth subjects you do.

To put this in a more visual context...



Everything highlighted in yellow falls under the first yellow box, and all the rest ('M/m/D's and Breadths) come under the second. So you'll be prompted to select the first six - being five Level 1 discipline subjects + your obligatory Foundation subject - when you click Choose on the first one. Then, for the second, there'll be a couple of different options.



The first dot point pertains to those choosing one or more of Chinese, Economics, or Psychology as a Major.

Explanation from the Handbook

• Students who undertake a major in Chinese from entry point 1 (beginners level) must complete ten Chinese subjects (125 points) taken as Arts discipline subjects.
• Students who undertake a major in Psychology must complete ten Psychology subjects (125 points)comprising eight subjects (100 points) taken as Arts discipline subjects and two subjects (25 points) at later years taken as breadth (12.50 at level 2 and 12.50 points at level 3).
• Students who undertake a major in Economics will complete nine Economics subjects (112.5 points) comprising three subjects (37.5 points) taken as Arts discipline and six subjects (75 points) taken as breadth.

If this applies to you, I'd advise referring to Examples 4 and 5 on this page, as well as the handbook pages for the relevant Major, be it Chinese, Econ, or Psych.

The second, third, and fourth dot points all pertain to the style of degree you are choosing. You'll have to pick at least one Major, and then it's up to you whether you choose a) a second Major, b) a Minor, or c) Arts Discipline subjects. Note: Part III of this guide goes through the differences between these different degree styles in more detail and with examples, so check that out if you're unsure.

II - Selecting, Enroling in, and Withdrawing from Subjects

PART II

There are three main colours that your subjects can appear in on your study plan, and they are:
- YELLOW = for subject slots that have not yet been filled, or ones you have selected, but not enroled in (meaning that if you're super organised, you can select all your third year subjects in first year and just enrol in them later when the time comes.) Note that selecting a subject does not lock you into that subject. You can always withdraw and change things around if you need to. This will be explained below.
- GREEN = for subjects that you are currently enroled in and completing this semester, or this year.
- BLUE = for subjects that you have already completed and received a mark for.

We can see all three of these below, ignoring the white boxes which are just drop tabs



The yellow subject slot has a big blue Choose button on the right side, and clicking it will take you to the Selection Pages.
Note: loading times are frequently very slow here, be prepared to wait a minute or two, especially during busy periods (like when thousands of first years are trying to enrol, for instance.)



If you scroll down, you should see a bunch of subjects listed alphabetically by subject code. Unfortunately, navigating this can be very slow and very messy. Sometimes you won't have too many pages to get through. If you're just selecting a Foundation subject, for instance, you'll only have six to choose from and they'll all be on the one page. Even the Level 1 Arts subjects don't take too long to get through, but certain tabs, like the one I'm currently selecting a subject for can be quite lengthy...



There is a search bar up the top if you already know what Subject or Subject Code you're searching for, but you may also discover new subjects by just clicking through each page and noting down any that look interesting to you.

So, now let's say you've found an interesting one - how can you find out more information about it? Well, clicking the 'Availabilities' hyperlink will tell you which semester the subject is offered in:



but aside from that, there's not a lot to be gleaned from this page, so we'll have to look elsewhere. You could always check out the ATAR Notes reviews, but unfortunately not all subjects are covered, and Arts is a little less well-stocked than Science is at the moment. The simplest way to find out more is to select the subject code and name (e.g. 'PHIL20030 - Meaning, Possibility and Paradox' and googling that, plus 'unimelb handbook 2016,' or replace 2016 with whatever year you intend to study that subject.) Sometimes searching the subject code or name is enough, but this will ensure you're always getting the exact right result. The one we're looking for is:



Sometimes the most recent Handbook entry will be a pdf, other times it will look like a regular unimelb page. No one really knows what rules govern this, but the information is the same either way.
Some of that information will be important, but other parts are ones you can pretty much just ignore. For example:



Here we can see, in descending order:
- how many credit points the subject is worth (12.5 - the standard)
- what Level it is (which we knew from the Subject Code anyway, because we're clever)
- the semester and location (pay attention to which semester a subject is in - you don't want to plan the perfect schedule and then realise you've put a bunch of Semester 2 subjects in Semester 1 slots. Some subjects run for multiple semesters, particularly Commerce units, but most Arts ones only run once. Also, be careful if selecting Music, Drama, or UNIB subjects as some of these operate via the Southbank campus instead of the Parkville one. It's only about a 10-15 minute tram journey, but you'll need to account for this when timetabling.)
- the number of lectures, tutorials, seminars, or other commitments. Note: almost all subjects "recommend" 170 hours of total study, but this is a very lose estimate and not one I've ever come close to meeting
- any prerequisites. If these have not been met, you will not be able to enrol in the subject unless you have express permission from a subject coordinator or your student centre
- any corequisites, i.e.  a subject that should be studied alongside this one, but may be completed earlier like a normal prerequisite in some circumstances. I've never come across these; I guess they're more common in Commerce or Science
- any subjects or areas of study that might give one an advantage in this subject. This won't formally prevent you from picking up a subject, but is something to be wary of if you have no background in this area - you might be on the back foot for awhile, but this can easily be circumvented by studying and chatting to your tutor about what's expected of you
- any subjects that disqualify you from studying this one - sometimes there'll be VCE subjects listed here, or courses at other unis, but more often it will just list any higher level or equivalent subjects. These function like anti-requisites, so you won't be able to enrol if you have completed them
- "core participation requirements" ignore this; it's just a copy+pasted thing all subjects have to include
- who to contact if you have any questions. For most subjects, the coordinator will also be your primary lecturer, and maybe even your tutor, though this isn't always the case, particularly for the bigger 'Intro to ___' first year subjects

Next, we have the subject description, which is your first port of call if you want to know what this subject is all about:



Some are more detailed than others, but generally this will give you a good indication of what kind of content will be covered. They're usually written by the subject coordinators, but I'm yet to come across any that have misrepresented the subject in any way - they all seem to be pretty close to the mark.

Scrolling further, we see:



- "learning outcomes" - skip these, they're mostly waffle
- assessment; obviously one of the most important things; this will give you an outline of all major essays, assignments, exams, presentations, online quizzes, and anything else that contributes to your mark. Almost all Arts subjects require 75% or 80% attendance at tutorials as a 'hurdle requirement,' meaning that you will not pass the subject if you don't meet this (without a valid reason, that is. Serious medical and personal concerns that warrant special consideration are another matter.)
- any assigned texts that are studied over the course of the semester. Some of these will be used often, but other subjects "recommend" hundred dollar textbooks that are never actually used in class. Your best bet is to find someone else who's done the subject or check to see if anyone on here has reviewed it before. Otherwise, I'd recommend waiting for the first few weeks of classes to determine what is and isn't necessary. Then you can check out places like The Book Depository or the VIP Exchange to see if they have cheaper or second-hand copies
- breadth options, this is fairly intuitive, e.g. a Philosophy subject is probably going to be an Arts dicipline subject, meaning it's a breadth option for any other degree but Arts. Not too important unless you're checking to see if something is a viable breadth for you
- fees, links, related info not very useful

So basically, the main things you want to look at are the Subject Information section and the Assessment outline. Most other info is secondary.

To return to our study plan now, let's say I'm utterly smitten with this subject based on what I've just found out, and I now want to enrol in it. I'd simply find that subject in the selection window, and then click Add to study plan on the right:



Now we're back at this window:



only this time, our chosen subject (or subjects in this case, as there are certain tabs that will let you select 25 study points, or 37.5 study points) can be seen at the top. If I've clicked the wrong subject accidentally, I can just hit 'remove from study plan' on the right, but I'm happy with that selection, so all that remains is to click Save at the bottom.

We're then booted back to the main study plan portal, and now if we scroll down to that subject slot, we'll see:



it's still yellow, because we haven't officially enroled in the subject, but we have selected it. Now, some more options are available. If this subject was one that was offered in two or more semesters (i.e. something available in Semesters 1 and 2, and as an intensive during the Summer and/or Winter break) then there'd be a little drop down box for us to select the availability. As it stands, this subject is like most Arts ones in that it's only available during a particular semester, so the choice is made for us, hence the 'You are unable to change the availability from the default selected for you.' message on the right.

And there are now two blue boxes: Change, functions the same as the Choose button before and will take us back to the selection window. If you wish to change a yellow subject (i.e. one in which you are not yet enroled,) then you'll have to click Change, then click Remove from study plan next to the subject currently listed. Then you can select what you want to replace it with, and just follow the process we went through above. If we're ready to enrol in this subject, then we can tick the Enrol box and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Enrol.



You can do this for multiple subjects at once, if you wish. The site will only let you enrol in subjects that you have ticked though, so if you want to save some time, select all your subjects first, and when you are happy with all four (for this semester) or eight (for this year,) then you can tick them all and enrol.

Now we're at the Potential Enrolment section, shown below:



If there are any prerequisite, corequisite, anti-requisite, or recommended background knowledge for this subject, then they will be listed here. But all we have to do is tick the box, and click save.



Done! We can now chose to Close which will take us back to the study plan where our subject/subjects will now be green, because we've enroled in them, or we can click Register for classes which will take us to the timetable page. Registration usually opens around a month before classes are due to start.

The other option here is to withdraw from subjects, which is what we'll examine next.

Let's say I've changed my mind about one of my subjects. Maybe a friend has told me it's really boring and difficult, or maybe I've realised it'll clash with something else. Whatever the case, I can just scroll down to the bottom of my study plan and click Withdraw. This will take me to the Withdrawals page:



Here, I can tick the boxes of the subjects I want to withdraw from, and I will then be taken to the following page for confirmation:



The Census Dates listed on the right are the cut-off dates for withdrawals. You can withdraw after that date, but you will still have to pay for the subject. Most Semester 1 subjects will have March 31st as the census date, and Semester 2 subjects have August 31st, but check to be sure.

Clearly, I've got heaps of time, so I can click withdraw, and I will be sent back to my study plan free to choose a new subject and enrol in that one instead.

Hopefully that's everything you need to know about the enrolment processes. Next up, we'll look at the remainder of the study plan and the process of choosing Majors and Minors for your degree.

III - Selecting Majors and Minors

PART III

There are three main possible structures to the BA at UoM.
1) Two Majors
2) One Major and one Minor
3) One Major
This should be fairly self-explanatory if you already know what Majors and Minors are (see: definitions at the start of this post) but can be confusing at first. A list of the available Majors and Minors can be found here, but may be subject to change in future, so google a more recent one if needed. The only thing this really changes is the amount of study you do in each area. To explore this, we're going to look at three case studies, the alphabetical friends Albert, Bertrand, and Claire.

Albert - Two Majors

Albert is man of narrow interests. He's always known he wanted to go to uni, study history, and become a delightful tweed-jacket-wearing academic one day. He's also quite interested in philosophy, and the application of historical theory, so to complement his Major in History, he also decides that a Major in the History and Philosophy of Science would suit him well. He consults the necessary handbook pages and observes the restrictions and prerequisites, then devises the following study plan:



Evidently, Albert's two majors, highlighted in medium and dark blue, are going to take up most of his time. He's got his foundation subject sorted, and conveniently, he's also able to fulfil something of a breadth track given his interests in Ecology and Climate Change align neatly with some available University Breadth subjects, highlighted in green. However, he has chosen to only complete four breadth subjects so as to devote more of his time to his two majors. At each level, he is fulfilling the necessary requirements that are imposed by each area (e.g. 37.5 points of Level 2 HPSC subjects,) and he'll finish both of these off with their respective capstones at the end of his third year.

However, not all subjects can be credited towards his Majors. For instance, his History and Philosophy of Science Major requires one Level 1 subject - in this case, HPSC10002 - Science and Pseudoscience - which means that the other HPSC subjects Albert has selected will simply form part of his collection of Arts electives at that level. The same is true of his History Major; he has selected one Level 1 subject, and, in order to meet the required 37.5 points (i.e. three subjects) at Level 2, he will complete the Level 2 subject HIST20060 - Total War: WWII in Semester 2 of his first year. The differentiation of Majors and elective subjects would be made clear in his study plan based on where they were situated.

Hence, Albert is on track for a career, or perhaps some post-graduate study in the realms of History and Philosophy with his subject selection reflecting his specific interests. His double Major selection means he doesn't have to waste time studying other electives that he knows he won't enjoy, and allows him to prioritise the areas he cares most about.

Bertrand - One Major and one Minor

Bertrand wants to be trendy. Perhaps, one day, he will live up to the awesomeness of his name. Until then, he's keen on Media and Communications with the aim of working for some kind of magazine industry or publishing company one day... just so long as it's hip and cool. Thus, a natural fit for him is the Media and Communications Major. But he's also looking to polish his Creative Writing skills in order to be a competitive candidate for post-grad employment, so the Creative Writing subjects are also looking pretty tempting. The trouble is, he's only interested in a few of them, and there are a heap of other electives he wants to experience as well. So, Bertrand has the opportunity to credit Creative Writing as his Minor, and then fill his study plan with other interests too, like so:



Bertrand has selected two Foundation subjects, as well as an assortment of breadths. Although there are six breadth subjects on his study plan, though, these don't have to be one-per-semester. Instead, Bertrand has put two breadth subjects in Semester 2 of his first year, and then nothing but Arts subjects in Semester 2 of his second.

His Media and Comms. Major in medium blue is clearly the focus, but there are other complimentary electives in light blue to match. You'll also notice that Albert's dark blue subjects (representing his History Major) tally up to seven overall, whereas Bertrand's Minor in Creative Writing only consists of five subjects, and no capstone. The exact number of subjects may vary, but in general, the Major will always demand more subjects than the Minor.

This outline will allow Bertrand to experience a wide variety of subjects in both his electives and his breadths, whilst still ensuring the necessary direction and skills he needs for his prospective employment.

Claire - One Major

Claire is like a meerkat with a very short attention span. The Melbourne model appealed to her, and she knew she was more humanities-inclined, so Arts was her first preference, but she's interested in a wide variety of subjects and areas, spanning from Music to Agriculture. She isn't entirely sure what her Major will be right away, but after a sample-platter in her first year, she's considering Anthropology, but still intends to wring all she can from her uni experience by selecting electives and breadths from a wide array of disciplines, as seen below:



Here, Claire has her Foundation and breadth tracks looking normal, but where she differs from Albert and Bertrand is in her blue boxes. She only has the medium blue Anthropology Major, and then light blue electives comprise the rest of her degree. As such, she is able to span Psychology, Art History, and German Baroque Music.

However, Claire has also chosen to do some overloading and underloading. Specifically, she has overloaded in Semester 2 of her second year by doing five subjects instead of the regular four, and then has underloaded in her final semester of third year when she'll only have to do three. There are many reasons why students opt for this; sometimes it's purely because of the kinds of subjects you want to study (i.e. too many really good ones in Semester 2 and not enough in Semester 1) or it might be because of other commitments. For instance, students who tutor VCE might choose to overload in Semester 1 when they're not too busy, and then underload in Semester 2 when they're dealing with their students' exams as well as their own.

To overload, you will need to consult your student centre and request a form. If you're struggling with, or worse, failing, certain subjects, then there's a chance you won't be allowed to do this. However, most people just have to lodge the application and wait about a week for approval.

What this means is that Claire's study plan will still look the same as Albert and Bertrand's, but at the start of Semester 2 in second year, she will enrol in five of her subjects (selecting four from her normal Major/Level 2 Elective/Level 2 Breadth sections, plus an additional one from her Level 3 Elective section). Manually, this won't be possible and will throw up an error message like 'You have selected 62.5 credit points where only 50 are allowed' and your student centre will have to override this once you contact them.

But that suits Claire just fine, and she's now free to pursue her varied interests at her leisure, and without the pressure of a more narrow study plan.

Hopefully now you have a better idea of what each of these streams looks like, and which one might best suit your intended path of tertiary studies. Next, we can start to look at how this is represented on our study plan page.

To recap:



We've covered the Level 1 tab in Part I and are now ready to consider the Major and Major 2, Minor, or Disciplines tab. Let's first look at the Major since that'll be the same for everyone whether your degree looks more like Albert's, Bertrand's, or Claire's.

Just follow the prompts for choosing your Major, which works similar to the subject selection process detailed in Part I, only it will take you to a list like this, instead of a collection of subjects. Once you have selected and confirmed your Major, it will look something like this:



For my Major (English and Theatre Studies,) there are no core units - only electives. As such, I now have a choice of tabs for Level 2 and Level 3 subjects, as well as the compulsory capstone. I also have to select some breadth subjects as part of this tab.

This is where things get kind of confusing, so let's go through this bit by bit. Back in Level 1, we already selected two breadths for our first year. Recall that you can complete 4-6 breadth subjects over the course of your degree, so in the tab called Level 1, 2, 3 Breadth, we have the choice of committing to two, three, or four additional breadth subjects. If we are choosing to do one or two Arts electives instead of breadth subjects, then this is also where those will be placed. Thus, if we expand this tab, we get:



with the opportunity to put one subject in each of the first two slots, and then two in the last one.

Note that the subject selection windows will automatically restrict your subject selection to Level 1, Level 2 etc. So if a tab says you have to choose a Level 1 or 2 subject, you will only see Level 1 and 2 subjects offered when you go to select and enrol in one.

So that's the first Major tab covered, now on to the second.

This time, there'll be a two step process before you can get to your subject selection.
First, you will have to nominate whether you want to choose a second Major, a Minor, or just have elective subjects (i.e. do you want to be an Albert, a Bertrand, or a Claire?)
If you have chosen another Major or a Minor, then you will have to go and nominate which specific one you wish to study (which words exactly the same as selecting your Major did in the previous tab.)
Once you're done, it should look something like this:






Here, I've chosen my second Major in Linguistics, so I can progress to selecting subjects. If I'd chosen a Minor, then my tab breakdown would look very similar to the English Major above, but without the capstone requirement.

Now, Linguistics is a Major that does have core subjects at Level 2, so you'll notice the breakdown looks a little different from the English one.



However, the basic process remains the same, and again, the subject window will do the necessary restrictions for you. Thus, when I'm selecting something for my Linguistics Level 2 Core Subjects tab, I'll only have core Level 2 Linguistics subjects to choose from. Once I've done that, my study plan will be complete, and I can now turn things into a more easily navigable table on Microsoft Word that lets me plan out my semesters.

Parts IV, V, & VI are here

Input welcome, especially if I'm wrong or unclear about something!
Also happy to take suggestions for other stuff to cover, but there's still a lot I don't know, so I may not be able to help with things I haven't directly or indirectly experienced.

Also, let me know if any of the images screw up, or if any of the links stop working

[Joseph41]

Mad respect.

UoM students are lucky to have you!

[heids]

You do images real good.  Teach me your ways.  Dat duplicate account brought into play

...a-a-a-and is it just me, or do you mean... 'plumbing the depths'?

[tashhhaaa]

I logged in just for the purpose of finding some enrolment help, and here it is

Lauren, once again you are a lifesaver

plz bump into me on campus

but I'm not doing Arts soz

Environments, anyone?

[FitzUnknown]

Thank you so much, this is so helpful!!!

[literally lauren]

You do images real good.  Teach me your ways.  Dat duplicate account brought into play

Abusing imgur so much it kicks me to one of those 'prove your not a robot' captchas :'D
Actual answer courtesy of MightyBeh.

Environments, anyone?

I know one person doing Environments from my year level! They do exist! Though apparently there is a noticeable drop off after first semester and the end of first year when people transfer to other courses You guys have the coolest buildings though, and some really interesting subjects!

When I'm not in the biomed library pretending I do biomed, I'm usually in the design building pretending I do design.
MSD is so pretty and ergonomic o.o

[QFS]

I logged in just for the purpose of finding some enrolment help, and here it is

Lauren, once again you are a lifesaver

plz bump into me on campus

but I'm not doing Arts soz

Environments, anyone?

I'm a 3rd year Environments student! Ask me anything!

[pi]

I've never timetabled in my life but this thread makes me want to transfer to UoM B.Arts immediately omg wow

[literally lauren]

I've never timetabled in my life but this thread makes me want to transfer to UoM B.Arts immediately omg wow

Swapsies?

[tashhhaaa]

I know one person doing Environments from my year level! They do exist! Though apparently there is a noticeable drop off after first semester and the end of first year when people transfer to other courses You guys have the coolest buildings though, and some really interesting subjects!

When I'm not in the biomed library pretending I do biomed, I'm usually in the design building pretending I do design.
MSD is so pretty and ergonomic o.o

that was sort of my plan :p but, I've fallen in love with the course now so I'm reevaluating... and MSD is definitely a plus...

I might just stay

I'm a 3rd year Environments student! Ask me anything!

PM coming your way

[heart]

I've never timetabled in my life but this thread makes me want to transfer to UoM B.Arts immediately omg wow

Why not hedge fund managing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Burry

[achre]

tl;dr save yourself the trouble and come to monash.

I'm kidding, great thread
can I play the tiny font size game too

[QFS]

that was sort of my plan :p but, I've fallen in love with the course now so I'm reevaluating... and MSD is definitely a plus...

I might just stay

PM coming your way

Same thing happened to me

[Orb]

Why not hedge fund managing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Burry

Someone's been watching The Big Short

[literally lauren]

(remaining parts below)

IV - Timetabling

PART IV

There are two main portals we're going to be accessing to sort out timetables. The first is the official registration one, found on your my.unimelb page here:



This will take you to the place where you register for your classes, so this is our obvious first port of call as soon as registration opens.

                Note: the dates and times for Semester 1 2016 are as follows:
Graduate and Honours          = Jan 29th, 10:00am
Level 2 Subjects                     = Feb 1st, 10:00am
Level 3 Subjects                     = Feb 1st, 1:00pm
Level 1 Subjects (first 80%)    = Feb 2nd, 10:00am
Level 1 Subjects (other 20%)  = Feb 19th, 10:00am

So if you're enrolled in a subject like, say, BOTA20004 then you'll know it's a Level 2 subject and you'll have to log on on the first of February at 10:00. If you've got all Level 1 subjects, which is typical for first year students, then most of the places for your classes will be released the morning of Feb 2nd, though there are staggered releases in case you miss a spot.

In previous years, there have been issues with crashes and error loops that saw students refreshing for hours before getting in, but that was before some genius thought 'maybe we shouldn't have ALL the undergraduates logging on at once,' and since the switch has been made to split release dates for the different levels, things have been a lot smoother.

That said, you should still set aside an hour or so for the process. If you're lucky, you can be done with it all in under ten minutes, but throw in some slow loading times or some uncertainty regarding a subject's contact hours, and you could be there a while. Luckily for you, being aware of ATAR Notes' existence means that you can can post questions in the UoM chat thread, the Ask unimelb thread, or even make a new topic if it's a serious problem - all of which will save you the pain of calling up unimelb and waiting ages on the phone. Under some circumstances, you may just have to call them up anyway, but be patient with them! There'll be thousands of people seeking clarification and advice around that time of year, but they're usually able to help or direct you to somewhere where you can get help.

So, let's first examine the features of the timetable and go through a mock registration, and later we'll look at the second vital resource; the Master Timetable.

Prior to registration opening, your timetable will look something like this:



with your own codes and subject names taking the spot of 'SUBJ10001 - Subject 1' and so on. Note that as of 2016, it's possible that you will have been auto-enrolled in 'single class activities;' (that button in the top right used to be there to do it manually for you, but you might still have to click it for some units). I'd recommend doing this anyway since it'll save you a bit of time once registration opens. Basically, because you'll have no choice when it comes to certain classes (e.g. lectures,) you can register for them ahead of time. 

If that's the case, then some of your subjects will be slotted into place, as seen below. These bubbles will only fill up the space for their designated time, so you'll have to hover over them if you want to see additional information like which building and lecture theatre or room the class will be held in:



guys, don't stalk me pls

Shortly before registration opens, you will be kicked to a special static page in place of the registration portal that'll look something like this:



...only with different times and Subject Levels listed depending on when you're attempting to log in. There are some other unimelb functions that will be down at this time in order to make the registration process run as smoothly as possible, so don't stress if you can't access something. Having said that, it seems like this year you can still access your Study Plan during registration times, which means you can alter subjects if you need to (though you definitely shouldn't leave it that late, as you'll likely miss out on all the good spots!) so hopefully you won't have any issues there.

Then, once registration does open, the following link will appear:



which will take you to a 'Log In' portal. Don't worry if this process takes a while; just be patient! Eventually you'll be taken to your timetable as it was before, only you will now have the option to register for each subject - and you will have to do each one individually.

(no visuals yet from this point onwards, unfortunately, because the portal is hella broken, but I'll try and update this before Tuesday morning if it's fixed before then!)

That will take you to a selection window where the available classes for that subject will be shown in colour on your timetable. If you have already selected classes for other subjects, they will be shown in grey just so you know not to double-book if you can avoid it.

The first step to actually nominating your classes is to know how many require your attention. For instance, if a class has two lectures and one tutorial per week, then you know you have to enrol in three classes in total (and that you should prioritise your desired tutorial time, since the lectures have a bigger capacity and will not fill up as quickly). Or, if you've got seminar/practical sessions to worry about, know that you'll have to pick those classes too, even if those classes don't actually start until Week 4 or whatever.

In the class selection window, there might be tens of potential slots open, especially for big first year subjects like Economics, Psych, or Politics, which is why your 'optimal timetable' that you've hopefully designed using the Master Timetable (process outlined below) is going to be very useful here. Rather than having to make a decision as soon as you see what time the classes are, you should ideally know which slots you want ahead of time, which will let you register almost instantly. Just don't get too overwhelmed if you see a tonne of options - know what you need to select, and make a beeline straight for those classes.

To formally select a slot, hover over it, and you should see it highlighted along with other classes on the timetable are viable alternatives for the one you've selected. For instance, if I were to hover over a tutorial slot, then all the other tutorials for that subject would be lit up too. But if this subject had two lectures (i.e. two different lectures with different content, not repeats) and I hovered over one of them, nothing else would vibrate because that lecture is a unique class that I have to enrol in. Strange as it may seem at first, this is actually a good way of working out how many unique classes you need to select... however, we're the kind of bright cookies who already know what's what, so we won't have to depend on the magical shakey classes to determine our enrolment.

Next, you'll need to 'pin' you desired class to your timetable by clicking the green circle in the top right corner.

But we're not done yet; you still have to save your changes, and until you do this, you have not formally registered for the classes. Confirm this, and you'll be taken back to the timetable in order to select classes for your next subject.

Note that you do not have to save each individual class as you go! Rather, select all your desired classes for that subject (incl. lectures, tutorials, seminars/practicals/workshops) and THEN click Save/Confirm (I forget what the button says, but it'll be obvious).

And just repeat this process for each of your other subjects.

(visuals to be added later - sorry guys, blame ISIS )

See the end of this part for general queries regarding class allocation and what to do if you have problems.


Now, you're probably wondering, since I can't see the available classes until registration opens, is there any way of planning my timetable or knowing when certain classes will be ahead of time?
Enter: the Master Timetable - a thing I did not know existed until well into my second year This function lets you search for many things, but the only one of real importance to us can be found by clicking the Subjects link:



This will let you look up any subject and (if you know which things to select) will bring up a timetable for that subject.

This is a three step process:

1. Search for and select the subject

For starters, we're going to be dealing with the first three boxes on this page.



Generally, the second box will be the most useful one though. Let's take it from the top:
First, you have the option to select a 'department' or 'school' within the university. Under old versions of this system, you had to select the department to see the available subjects, but in a rare act of mercy, they got rid of that feature Now, if you know you're looking for subjects in a certain discipline, you can select the appropriate department and the selection window (i.e. the third box) will only display the relevant units, as opposed to all available subjects, like so:



If you're unsure what school your subject is a part of, sometimes googling it will give you some indication, but often the Arts ones are all over the place. Luckily, you can basically just ignore this first window though, as the second is far more precise.

This second window will allow you to find subjects based on their name and/or code. If you know both, for instance, 'LING10002 Intercultural Communication,' then you can search exactly that and you will see it in the selection window below.

Note: if you are using this search bar, make sure the first window for department searches is on 'Please select...' as anything else will narrow your results. So, for instance, if I were to type in the code for a Linguistics subject while I had GSHSS (The Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences) selected, I'd receive no results because Linguistics belongs to a different department. You also have to be careful not to have any extra spaces in your search (e.g. typing [LING2 ] with a space at the end would yield no results). Sometimes it can be fussy and case sensitive too, so it's best to do this with the handbook pages or some other list of full subject names on hand so you can be sure you're typing the right thing in. If in doubt, just put one key word or the first few letters of the subject code in rather than conducting hyper-specific searches that may accidentally exclude what you're looking for. This is one of the genuine improvements that have been made in recent years, though; you are now able to do 'partial searches' by just inputting part of a subject code. Let's say I needed to do a Level 1 elective and wanted to nominate a History subject; I could simply search 'HIST1', and it would fetch a list of relevant options, as shown below:



Note that my first window is on 'Please select...' because, if I don't know which department History subjects fall under, I don't want to narrow my search.

You can even just search the subject code with no numbers at all to see all available subjects in that area:



Note here that the codes also provide information about when the subject will take place (i.e. /JAN = January intensive; /SM1 = Semester 1, and so forth). This will become important in later steps.

A brief aside

Sometimes you will get fun errors. I was treated to four different kinds just while attempting to get screenshots for this guide.

Here's my favourite:



Is it just me, or is that ellipsis super suspicious.

These errors are like people; they come in all shapes and sizes, and many of them are completely inexplicable and will give rise to much frustration when they refuse to go away. And, like people, there's often not much you can do about solving their problems besides waiting for things to fix themselves. Maybe you've done something wrong. Maybe it's a problem on their end. It's likely a problem on their end. But maybe it's just one of those random spice-up-your-life events that make the enrolment process so exciting. Maybe it's character-building. Maybe it's Maybelline.
Just be patient, and keep your hands and feed inside the selection windows at all times. Refresh sporadically, and if that doesn't work, come back in a few hours and see if things have changed.

Once you've found what you're looking for, just click the subject and it will turn blue. Then, you can progress to the next windows.

2. Choosing the time period

Here, we're going to be focusing on the next two boxes, with more attention paid to the first than the second:



If you are choosing subjects that are taught as regular Semester 1 and 2 units, this part is very straightforward. Simply select the Semester that aligns with your desired subject, using the subject code if you are unsure of this.



Again, ensure that this information is accurate, or the end result will be invalid.

If you are doing a Summer or Winter intensive, or any other unit taught at an irregular time, then scroll through the Select Period(s) window until you find the appropriate option (e.g. February, June, etc.) Right at the bottom, you will be able to select things week-by-week if necessary, but the other choices are usually preferred.

Next: the Time Period.
I have never come across a subject for which the default Teaching Day (7:00 - 18:30) did not work, but if you know you're doing a class that only has early morning or late night contact hours, or if you only want to view options within a certain time frame for some reason(?) then you can alter that here.



For the most part, just leave this one alone though.

3. Selecting the type, and interpreting the result

Finally, we get to the last box. There are three options here.



The Grid Timetable is the best, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. You can click on all three if you want to see, but be warned that the Master Timetable is just a more confusing version of the Grid one, and the List form can be good for subjects with a greater amount of classes, but in general, the Grid option gives you the clearest visualisation.

Let's look at an example by selecting the Grid option and clicking View Timetable. This will bring up a new tab that looks something like this:



Note: I've zoomed out here to give a broad overview; we'll zoom back into these specific classes later to go through what all the codes and descriptions mean.

So this is a timetable for a subject with just two lectures and one tutorial per week. The dark blue boxes (lectures) are locked in no matter what, and you can then decide which of the light blue boxes (tutorials) best aligns with your desired timetable. Going through this process and opening up tabs for each of your subjects that semester is highly recommended, as you'll be able to get a much better overview of when your classes will run, as well as locate any potential clashes or big gaps you'll want to avoid. Unfortunately there's no way of automatically combining these, so you might want to draw up your own version on paper or in Excel so that you can create a mock-timetable prior to registration.

This is probably as simple as subjects get. Many others have more complex components.
For instance, some subjects will run repeat lectures, or have multiple lecture streams, meaning the same content will be taught twice a day (or more for especially large cohorts). For instance:



This subject has four lecture slots, but the two afternoon versions are repeats of their morning counterparts (and we'll go through how you can tell later). So when registration opens, you'd just have to nominate your preferred option on both days. Based on prior experience, you can usually 'switch' streams by just going to a different lecture anyway, so if I wanted to get into the morning sessions but they filled up too quickly, I'd just enrol in the afternoon ones and go to the morning ones instead. Maybe other subjects are stricter about this, but I've never had any problems

Now let's look at what some bigger subjects might look like...





AREN'T THEY GLORIOUS!? Really, this is more complicated than it needs to be, and the colour-coding system tells you that you won't have to concern yourself with most of it. Just identify which components are the compulsory lectures or seminars and work around those.

To work this out, let's zoom back in on one of those smaller subjects and then come back to the bigger ones later.



You'll notice that each of these blocks has a string of letters and numbers at the top. If your timetable is too cluttered, you can click on these boxes and you should get a small pop up that will show you all the information you need.

To decode this, let's examine the following:



I've brought up the pop up here, but luckily the necessary information is visible in the original too.
So, breaking it up by slashes (/), we've got some unimportant bits and things we already knew:
- LING10001 = the subject code
- U = undergraduate... presumably? This is unimportant anyway.
- 1 = I have no idea. I've never found a subject that doesn't have a '1' here. Guesses are welcome.
- SM2 = Semester 2

...and the important information!
- L01 = this code gives you the type of class (e.g. lecture (L) tutorial (T) etc. See the list of definitions at the start of this guide if you're unsure what these refer to) and a number that is used to separate different content. So, if it's L01, then it's a lecture, and it's the first one of that week. Some subjects might also have L02, which would be the second lecture containing different content from the first. This is distinct from repeat content, which is indicated by...
- 01 = the second number that tells you which 'version' of the class you're dealing with. Thus, L01/01 is the first lecture of that week; L01/02 is the same content as the previous one, but is the second stream or repeat. Compare this with L02/01 which would be the first of the second content block for that week. Once you've got your head around this, you should be able to look at something like 'T03/08' and know that it's the third tutorial and the eighth option. What this means is that if a subject requires three tutorials per week, you would have to enrol in one 'T01,' one 'T02,' and one 'T03' NOT any three tutorial slots. The content covered in, say 'T02/04' and 'T02/11' would be identical - it's just that the former is the fourth 'version' and the latter is the eleventh.

If you enrol in 'L01/02,' that does not mean you must enrol in 'L02/02' though. You could go to the second 'version' of the first content block, and then go to the first 'version' for the second one - it doesn't matter.
There are a handful of subjects that do this a bit differently, particularly Summer and Winter intensives, but you will be informed of this in advance. Plus, all you need to do is select 'streams' or 'versions' that end in the same two digit code.

There's also other useful information in these boxes, like where the subject is held (e.g. Old Arts, Theatre A) which can be very useful if you're planning back to back classes and want to know how long it'll take you to get from one place to another. It'll also show the exact start and end times in case the timetable is too convoluted and you can't tell.

Now, onto some general advice and FAQs for timetabling your subjects:

Why does it say 'Classes not available'?

Look a little to the right, and there's your answer...



You're probably too early! If registration hasn't opened yet, you won't be able to see the available subjects, which is why the Master Timetable is there to help you plan things out beforehand.

It's also possible you'll get something like this:



which means that your registration has already been partially completed. This is because subjects can automatically slot you into the compulsory classes (like lectures, in this case) because there's nothing for you to select. Things like tutorials and practicals/workshops though, or subjects that have multiple lecture streams or repeats, will require your attention once registration opens.

Don't panic if this isn't the case for you. Some subjects don't do this auto-registration, even when you click the Register into all single class activities in the top right. Also, this only tends to happen in the weeks or even days prior to registration opening, so it's possible this will sort itself out later. If not, you'll just have to enrol in these classes like any other.

Pro-tip: register into your preferred tutorials and workshops first! You're pretty much guaranteed a spot in lectures, but other classes fill up quickly, so you should prioritise those as soon as registration opens.

What do I do if I have clashes?

Firstly, work out whether attendance is compulsory for the two (or more) clashing classes you've got. Let's say there's a one hour lecture for a Politics subject running at the same time as a lecture for a Theatre Studies one; if both are recorded, and neither state that lecture attendance is a requirement then you can just go to either one each week and watch the other online.
If you've got a lecture on at the same time as a tutorial, try to find any other available tute times. If that's the only viable one, or your alternatives aren't ideal (e.g. an 8am class that you'll have to get up waaaay too early for) then just enrol in both, go to the tutorial at that time and watch the lecture online.
If you've got two compulsory classes that can't be skipped or watched online, you have a few options:

1) If these subjects aren't prerequisites for a Major or aren't wholly important or interesting in the scheme of your degree, you can just pick a different subject for that semester and maybe come back to the other one later. I've ended up doing this a lot; if there was ever a subject I wanted to do that had tute slots that overlapped with all my other classes, I'd just withdraw and pick something else from a later spot on my study plan. So I ended up doing a 2nd year subject in 1st year, a couple of 3rd year subjects in 2nd year, and a 1st year subject in my 3rd year. Luckily, the lack of prereqs in my two Majors gave me quite a bit of freedom, but you'll have to check your own subjects' handbook to be sure. Also, if you've got clashes for a random elective or breadth that you're not too invested in... well... by all means take this world-weary 3rd year's advice with a grain of salt, but you could always just drop anything that's not convenient for you e.g. there was a subject I wanted to do this year, but the tute slots were all either at 8 in the morning, or midday on Fridays which is my one day off, so I just ended up picking a different unit. Sometimes you'll have to grin and bear it when it comes to core units or really interesting subjects, but hopefully your study plan allows for a bit of flexibility.

2) If you're in first year or a Level 1 subject is one of the ones that's clashing, see if there are any other extra places that will open up later. After the first 80% of classes come out on Feb 2, there'll be another 20% on the 19th for Level 1s, so you could just wait it out and hope for the best. There's also a chance people will be unenrolling or changing their timetables over the next couple of weeks, so check back occasionally to see if a place opens up before then.

3) There's this thing called CREM (Class Registration Enquiry Management) that lets you submit any problems you're having for review. So if there's a clash between subjects that a lot of students take at the same time (e.g. there's a huge overlap between first year Psych subjects and things like Criminology or Law and Society, so overlap in those class times would obviously be an issue). This is also a good place to come if there are other related problems with timetabling. You can search for your subject's code to see if anyone else has lodged a similar issue and then Subscribe to that concern to receive notifications when it's resolved, or just submit one of your own. But, chances are, this will get kind of clogged up once registration begins. Generally, responses are fairly quick though, and the people addressing those concerns will be able to either fix things for you, or tell you how you can fix things yourself.

4) If all else fails, book a time to see your Student Centre (instructions for this will be in Part V) and talk to someone in person about your clash. If possible, they'll manually enrol you in a different class (even if it's filled up, as they can override this) or will help you find another solution. Treat this is a last resort though, especially because the Student Centres are always extremely busy in the first few weeks.

Is it a good idea to put gaps in between my classes?

People tend to be kind of divided on this. Some really like having 'swiss cheese' timetables with plenty of gaps for them to eat, study, or catch up with friends in between classes. I'm an advocate for back-to-back classes though, since I'd rather get classes out of the way and rest later or on a day off. It's a matter of personal preference, and it really does depend on your subjects. For instance, I wouldn't find it too taxing to sit through three or four lectures one after another, but if I had to do a two hour practical session, two tutorials, and then another two hour prac... I might be a bit tired :/

Also, if you're concerned about actually getting to classes on time, note that most of them will start at five minutes past the hour and conclude at five to. There are exceptions for classes where you'll be completing pieces of assessment, like in language tutorials or science pracs, but otherwise, provided you're not having to go to the Southbank campus, or run from FVAS to Building 747 or David Caro to The Spot (literally the far corners of the University) then you should be fine.

I've only got one class on a certain day... can I skip?

Official answer: it's best not to skip classes, even if it's just a lecture and you have every intention of listening to the recording later. Ideally, you'll be able to devise a timetable that doesn't require you to come in for a single class, but it travel times aren't an issue or you intend to come into uni to study or hang around with friends, then you should be fine.

Unofficial answer: you can probably afford to skip classes.You'll get a sense in the first couple of weeks of how essential your lectures are, so if you know that they just rehash material from the readings or they're delivered by really slow speakers, then maybe you can afford to skip occasionally. However, if you're struggling with a subject or finding uni a bit overwhelming at first, skipping classes is likely going to exacerbate any other problems you're having. Perhaps, if you know a couple of people in your classes that are in a similar situation, organise a note-share system whereby, let's say, out of a group of four, one person attends a lecture each week and then uploads their notes for the other three.

Skipping tutorials or workshops is risky because of the attendance requirement, so be careful you don't slip below the 75% or 80% limit for your subjects. Lectures are more flexible though, and will vary from subject to subject. If lectures are really content heavy or involve a lot of visual stimulus that isn't picked up on in the recordings, then you should probably make the effort to attend, but if they're just going over the basics and leaving the meaty stuff for tutorials, then you can usually rely on the recordings.

That said, recordings will occasionally get corrupted or cut off, and there's very little that can be done in those scenarios. Also, there are a few (rather infamous) subjects that are run be people who refuse to make recordings available because they'd rather people attend, so be wary of that possibility.

It's taking me ages to log in and register - what should I do?

According to UoM, don't keep refreshing the page as this sends you to the back of a queue with thousands of people in it. Quote from the Unimelb Adventures blog:

You are still in the queue if you see the spinning wheel of death.

If you see an error message that says 'Page cannot be displayed' or 'Appplication error,' then refresh your screen.

One of my classes is full... what now?

You may have the option to join a waiting list. Otherwise, you'll have to go to the Student Centre and get them to sort it out. The information accompanying the timetable puts it succinctly enough:

I can't make it to >class< because of >reasons.< What do I do?

UoM isn't great with exemptions, and they don't tend to consider things like 'I really want a day off' to be valid reasons However, there are a few things they will take into account, most of which will necessitate an application for Special Consideration.

• Employment commitments
• Medical or health-related reasons
• Elite athletics or performance commitments
• Religious observances
• Personal circumstances

Still to come:

PART V - Using the LMS and other my.unimelb features

There is nothing here

PART VI - Using the Library and Discovery

No really