Subject Code/Name: PHYS1121 - Physics 1A Contact Hours: 3x 1-hour lecture, a 2-hour laboratory and a 1-hour problem-solving workshop each week.
Assumed Knowledge: HSC Physics and Mathematics Extension 1 or equivalent. (however, in my opinion, math 2u is just fine)
Assessment: 10x weekly laboratory excersises (15%, 1.5% each)
10x weekly pre-laboratory online quizzes (5%, 0.5% each)
6x fortnightly online quizzes (10%, 1.67% each)
2x invigilated quizzes based on the fortnightly questions (20%, 10% each)
Final exam (50%)
Lecture Recordings? Yes (but the blackboards weren't so it made it difficult to rewatch)
Notes/Materials Available: A
really well made online set of videos based on the content, weekly homework question booklet.
Textbook: Halliday, D., Resnick, R., & Walker, J. (2014). Fundamentals of Physics, John Wiley & Sons. A really good textbook, but with the content this course provides, it isn't needed.
Lecturer(s): Lecturers: Dr Dimi Culcer (first half), Dr Elizabeth Angstmann (second half)
Year & Semester of completion: 2018 Semester 1
Difficulty: 3.3/5
Overall Rating: 4.7/5
Your Mark/Grade: 78 DN
Comments: This is a really great course.
First off, this course mainly consists of mathematical questions, a vast contrast to HSC physics. This course has online videos which go over all the content in the course; they are short, succinct and very informative. They are also integrated into non-assessable quizzes which allows you to recognise if you have understood the concept. These videos are very entertaining and engaging, and a really great idea that I think should be used more often in other courses.
Out of the 687 different questions asked on the forums, 680 were answered by staff (most within 12 hours), which is absolutely amazing, the staff have really been on their toes. The forums also included weekly updates on the content that will be taught, and what we are expected to do in this week, which was really nice.
For the content itself, it really isn't
that complicated, both the thermal and wave/oscillations topics are both pretty standard, the questions are all very similar, and the content itself isn't that difficult to understand. However, the difficulty does come with the mechanics side of the course. It at times is conceptually difficult to grasp, and the questions that come out of it can be almost anything, and at times, very difficult to understand. The mechanics questions are the ones that normally trip most people up in the final exam.
The lectures were great, it had a good balance between the concepts and questions, and it included regular practicals/demonstrations that were actually really cool, and probably the highlight for me. It was these demonstrations that will allowed me to think back and analyse my answers in exams to see if I got the expected result.
As for the lecturers, Dr Culcer was really great at showing applications to the concepts and completed questions at the end in a clear manner which was great. However, when explaining concepts, he does "blabber" on and it can get very easy to lose track on what he was saying which made it quite difficult to catch up in the lecture.
Dr Angstmann really had a lively environment and brought energy into the lectures, her explanations for the concepts were extremely clear, and had other resources to help. She was really engaging and really explored how fun physics is. However, the only complaint I had was the fact that we couldn't review what she was writing on the board, so it was difficult to revise. (luckily she had prerecorded ones anyway, but it would have been nice)
The workshops were quite nice and really empty, but I do emphasise the importance to at least look at the worksheets given out and to know how to answer them and to get the answers, these questions are like the final exam questions so if you don't understand a certain concept which they are covering in the workshop, go. These are in place to really help, and they do
When it comes to the assessments, it is really easy to get high marks and should be easy to receive a 40+/50 in the finals marks.
The labs, in my opinion, are really really really fun, they are just so fascinating, but are mostly simple. However, they are all assessable and are given about 2.5 hours of work to do in 1.8 hours, so if you don't know what you are doing walking in, you will not finish and lose marks. You are required to do this with a lab partner, so my recommendation is to find a good partner which you work well with and these marks are quite easy.
The fortnightly questions can be redone, and the highest mark counts, so this is really easy to get 100% (10% overall) I really liked these, it really allowed you to know what sections you were struggling with, this was the first year with these quizzes, so it did have many errors in it, but should fine fine in future years. Although the questions are more on the difficult side, you need to understand each question. Otherwise, you will struggle in the invigilated quizzes, and these are worth 20%. The invigilated quizzes are probably the only thing that I didn't enjoy in this course. They do consist of 4 question from the online quizzes, but the range of difficulty was large, some questions were incredibly difficult, while some were deadset easy. It felt a bit like chance where you were hoping you got the easy questions, because if you got a question which you found significantly difficult, you could say goodbye to 2.5% of your overall mark.
The final exam does not have any multiple choice but consists of questions such that it asks you to find certain properties (e.g. find the total work done) The exams normally don't have a consistent difficulty, and tends to spike occasionally, some of the questions are really enjoyable and really makes you think. The thing most people struggle with here is time, and most people struggle to even finish 80% of the exam and is the reason why I didn't achieve as high as I could've. You are also unable to double check your answers due to this time restraint.
I worry that this course may struggle in trimesters as the course worked out really well with the 14-ish weeks, it allowed for a consistent timetable that made it easier to know what was due, and also made it flow from one concept to another really easily.
Overall, this course was bloody good, it has been nurtured and the staff really really care about this course, it is clear that so much time and effort has been placed in this course to make it as prestigious as it is.