2018 Unit/Subject Selection Thread

[areejh]

Hi, I'm starting Bachelor of Psychology (Hon) this year, (nervous as heck), does anyone have any recommendations for electives? Also, since I haven't done VCE Biology before, would it be advantageous for me to take the Biology Bridging Course?
Thanks

[VanillaRice]

Hi, I'm starting Bachelor of Psychology (Hon) this year, (nervous as heck), does anyone have any recommendations for electives? Also, since I haven't done VCE Biology before, would it be advantageous for me to take the Biology Bridging Course?
Thanks

What interests you? There's heaps of electives to choose from, so it will depend on what you like
I would consider BIO1011 and BIO1022 (part of your first year) to be introductory biology units, and will have a lot of overlap with VCE Biology. As such, I don't think the biology bridging course will be necessary. Don't worry - your course organisers won't leave you high and dry. If VCE Biology was key to success in your course, it really should've been a prerequisite. The lecturers understand that everyone is coming from different levels, so will do their best to cater to those who haven't had experience with biology before
 Is the Biology Bridging Course recommended by your faculty? If anything, I've heard from others that a good biology textbook will suffice

[www]

Hi, I'm starting Bachelor of Psychology (Hon) this year, (nervous as heck), does anyone have any recommendations for electives? Also, since I haven't done VCE Biology before, would it be advantageous for me to take the Biology Bridging Course?
Thanks

Congratulations! It's normal to be nervous, but you'll get in the swing of things sooner or later.

Your 2 elective units for first year can come from any faculty, so it really depends on your interests. Take a look at this list of areas of study to see what you might like to dabble in, then try to find their respective units in the handbook. Personally, I recommend taking up a language you may have some interest in. A lot of people seem to pick introductory units of languages as electives, and they're quite fun.

I don't think there's a need to take a bridging course. I can't speak about the Biology units, but for the two Psychology units (PSY1011 and PSY1022), there were plenty of people who didn't take up VCE Psych and could still manage to do well. Having VCE knowledge could help you here and there with understanding some concepts, but it is definitely not required to do well. First year units are very much designed with the idea that everyone is new to it, at least in my experience. If you have questions about PSY1011 and PSY1022, I'm happy to answer them through a pm or here.

[areejh]

What interests you? There's heaps of electives to choose from, so it will depend on what you like
I would consider BIO1011 and BIO1022 (part of your first year) to be introductory biology units, and will have a lot of overlap with VCE Biology. As such, I don't think the biology bridging course will be necessary. Don't worry - your course organisers won't leave you high and dry. If VCE Biology was key to success in your course, it really should've been a prerequisite. The lecturers understand that everyone is coming from different levels, so will do their best to cater to those who haven't had experience with biology before
 Is the Biology Bridging Course recommended by your faculty? If anything, I've heard from others that a good biology textbook will suffice

Thank you for the reply!! I'm thinking of taking Political Psychology and Understanding Human Behaviour as electives this year. The Biology Bridging Course was recommended in the acceptance email I got from the faculty and my parents are bugging me to do it since they know how much I hate bio and haven't done it in two years I was thinking the same as you, preparing with a good Biology textbook before the semesters starts should ease me in.

Also, I'm following the course map for my degree since it's way easier that way, I've heard some people recommend not following it??

[areejh]

Congratulations! It's normal to be nervous, but you'll get in the swing of things sooner or later.

Your 2 elective units for first year can come from any faculty, so it really depends on your interests. Take a look at this list of areas of study to see what you might like to dabble in, then try to find their respective units in the handbook. Personally, I recommend taking up a language you may have some interest in. A lot of people seem to pick introductory units of languages as electives, and they're quite fun.

I don't think there's a need to take a bridging course. I can't speak about the Biology units, but for the two Psychology units (PSY1011 and PSY1022), there were plenty of people who didn't take up VCE Psych and could still manage to do well. Having VCE knowledge could help you here and there with understanding some concepts, but it is definitely not required to do well. First year units are very much designed with the idea that everyone is new to it, at least in my experience. If you have questions about PSY1011 and PSY1022, I'm happy to answer them through a pm or here.

Thank you I've decided to take Political Psychology and Understanding Human Behaviour as electives after 5 long hours of research  I'll defs PM you if I have any questions about PSY1011 and PSY1022!

[VanillaRice]

Thank you for the reply!! I'm thinking of taking Political Psychology and Understanding Human Behaviour as electives this year. The Biology Bridging Course was recommended in the acceptance email I got from the faculty and my parents are bugging me to do it since they know how much I hate bio and haven't done it in two years I was thinking the same as you, preparing with a good Biology textbook before the semesters starts should ease me in.

Also, I'm following the course map for my degree since it's way easier that way, I've heard some people recommend not following it??

They're free electives, so go for it!

A (free) biology resource you might find useful is this. It was suggested as a resource for me last year. I used it for a week or so, but found I was able to follow along with the lectures even without it. I was in a similar situation with biomed (didn't do VCE bio), and honestly I got through first year fine.

Do you know why those students suggested not to follow the course map? You don't really have to follow it, but it's just a bit more work if you don't since you need to order your units so you can meet unit prerequisites, etc.

[areejh]

They're free electives, so go for it!

A (free) biology resource you might find useful is this. It was suggested as a resource for me last year. I used it for a week or so, but found I was able to follow along with the lectures even without it. I was in a similar situation with biomed (didn't do VCE bio), and honestly I got through first year fine.

Do you know why those students suggested not to follow the course map? You don't really have to follow it, but it's just a bit more work if you don't since you need to order your units so you can meet unit prerequisites, etc.

That's pretty awesome that you sailed through Bio in a biomed degree without taking vce biology
I read on another thread that following the course map doesn't let you explore your degree or something but i think it depends on the degree. BPsych is pretty tightly structured so I prefer the course map.

[AngelWings]

What interests you? There's heaps of electives to choose from, so it will depend on what you like
I would consider BIO1011 and BIO1022 (part of your first year) to be introductory biology units, and will have a lot of overlap with VCE Biology. As such, I don't think the biology bridging course will be necessary. Don't worry - your course organisers won't leave you high and dry. If VCE Biology was key to success in your course, it really should've been a prerequisite. The lecturers understand that everyone is coming from different levels, so will do their best to cater to those who haven't had experience with biology before
 Is the Biology Bridging Course recommended by your faculty? If anything, I've heard from others that a good biology textbook will suffice

Would also recommend BIO1011/1022. I didn't do VCE Bio (actually I didn't do Year 10 Bio either) and ended up with an extended major in genetics (ie biology). BIO1011/1022 made me go for Honours (now about to start Honours) and I also really enjoyed that biology sequence.

[occidit]

Hey just a question about biomed electives. Can I enrol in language electives now, or do I need to submit an application for a diploma of languages before that?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is in the wrong place.

[Professor Polonsky]

Hey just a question about biomed electives. Can I enrol in language electives now, or do I need to submit an application for a diploma of languages before that?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is in the wrong place.

If you have room in your degree for out-of-faculty electives, then you can just use those. Assuming that this is your course, it seems that you have 36 points' (6 units') worth of free electives that you can use on languages (or other things).

The diplang adds a year to your study, by allowing you to essentially complete a majors in language - see here.

[occidit]

Ok, thanks for that!

[crimman]

Hey everyone I'm starting a bachelor of Arts at Clayton this year
So far these are my choices
Semester 1
ATS1873 Introduction to International Relations
ATS1261 Understanding Human Behaviour
ATS1281 Understanding Crime: An Introduction
ATS1325 Contemporary Worlds 1
If anyone has any tips or experience in these units I would be happy to hear it

[brenden]

Make sure y’all do Life, Death, Morality in first semester!!!!

[Coffee]

Make sure y’all do Life, Death, Morality in first semester!!!!

Can confirm it's a brilliant subject!

Also, Toby is an amazing lecturer.

[brenden]

Can confirm it's a brilliant subject!

Also, Toby is an amazing lecturer.

Toby is legit the best lecturer at Monash.