Devising and Planning out your Uni Timetable

[WTFBBQCheesecake]

Hey there,
As uni is soon approaching and timetable registration for first year science students opening in a bit over a week, I was just wondering what the best way to fit in all your lectures, classes and pracs together would be? Best way, times and days to put breaks/days off? Any past student tips would be appreciated. I will be doing Chemistry for Biosciences, Calculus 2, Foundations of Computing and Biology of Cells and Organisms, if that helps, however, any tips regarding timetabling would be helpful for myself and other soon to be first year students on this forum.
Cheers guys

[dddknight]

Um i think this will be very dependent on you honestly. Do u usually wake up early or prefer waking up late? Are you alright foregoing a meal till 2pm? Are u alright moving from one class to another within a 10 min gap? Once u can answer questions like these, i think it'll be easier for u to decide.

[M909]

As dddknight mentioned above, breaks and days off comes down to personal preference. I had my semester 1 day off on Monday, and semester 2 day off on Wednesday, and would probably recommend Wednesday to break up the week, but I honestly don’t think it made too much of a difference in terms of study/organisation.

A big thing I didn’t factor in in first semester was travel time, which can become very draining if you have a significant (1hr+) commute, so I’d definitely recommend taking this into account when choosing long days and days off vs more shorter days. It sounds like you’re doing subjects with large enrolments, so you should have a decent variety of lecture and tute times to pick from.

Also, in case you didn’t already know, in the subject handbook for each subject, if you click the timetable link, it gives you a list of proposed (most of them usually run) lecture and tute times, which is definitely worth checking out and trying to plan out your timetable (eg https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/subjects/mast10006 ) before hand.

As for the actual registration process, registration in tutes for first year subjects usually fills up pretty quickly, so I’d recommend registering in tutes/pracs before lectures. Honestly, unless lecture attendance is taken, if you miss out on a spot in your ideal lecture time, you can get away with still going to the one you want unless it’s 100% full (which is unlikely, unless for some reason physical attendance is required). Also, if you do miss out on your ideal time for a lecture or tute, keep checking the registration, as spots usually open from people changing their minds.

Good luck with uni

[WTFBBQCheesecake]

Um i think this will be very dependent on you honestly. Do u usually wake up early or prefer waking up late? Are you alright foregoing a meal till 2pm? Are u alright moving from one class to another within a 10 min gap? Once u can answer questions like these, i think it'll be easier for u to decide.

Cheers for the reply dddknight When you say moving from one class to another within a 10 min gap, do lectures/tutes usually start at the designated time on the dot? Like if I were to have a lecture at say 11 am for an hour and then a tute at 12 pm, would I get to the tute late and would the person taking the tute mind?

[WTFBBQCheesecake]

As dddknight mentioned above, breaks and days off comes down to personal preference. I had my semester 1 day off on Monday, and semester 2 day off on Wednesday, and would probably recommend Wednesday to break up the week, but I honestly don’t think it made too much of a difference in terms of study/organisation.

A big thing I didn’t factor in in first semester was travel time, which can become very draining if you have a significant (1hr+) commute, so I’d definitely recommend taking this into account when choosing long days and days off vs more shorter days. It sounds like you’re doing subjects with large enrolments, so you should have a decent variety of lecture and tute times to pick from.

Also, in case you didn’t already know, in the subject handbook for each subject, if you click the timetable link, it gives you a list of proposed (most of them usually run) lecture and tute times, which is definitely worth checking out and trying to plan out your timetable (eg https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/subjects/mast10006 ) before hand.

As for the actual registration process, registration in tutes for first year subjects usually fills up pretty quickly, so I’d recommend registering in tutes/pracs before lectures. Honestly, unless lecture attendance is taken, if you miss out on a spot in your ideal lecture time, you can get away with still going to the one you want unless it’s 100% full (which is unlikely, unless for some reason physical attendance is required). Also, if you do miss out on your ideal time for a lecture or tute, keep checking the registration, as spots usually open from people changing their minds.

Good luck with uni

Thanks a bunch M909!!! For me personally, commuting to Melbourne Uni is definitely not an issue as I literally live like 10-15 minutes away in Collingwood haha I've made a sample plan using the handbook a couple of days ago, the annoying thing is that for Foundations of computing they run two of the three lectures only on tuesday and thursday which were days I was trying to take off lol. Do tutes/pracs fill up super quick? I've heard from friends that some fill within 10 minutes of opening registration but I have no idea if they are exaggerating. Also what are "breakouts"? Thanks again

[dddknight]

Cheers for the reply dddknight When you say moving from one class to another within a 10 min gap, do lectures/tutes usually start at the designated time on the dot? Like if I were to have a lecture at say 11 am for an hour and then a tute at 12 pm, would I get to the tute late and would the person taking the tute mind?

Whatever session it is, it will begin 5 mins later and end 5 mins earlier than intended to give people adequate time to move.Your lecture would start at 11:05am and end at 1155am. Your tute should then start at 1205pm. Be weary that some lecturers may not remember and keep going. You're free to leave when u want.

[sweetcheeks]

Cheers for the reply dddknight When you say moving from one class to another within a 10 min gap, do lectures/tutes usually start at the designated time on the dot? Like if I were to have a lecture at say 11 am for an hour and then a tute at 12 pm, would I get to the tute late and would the person taking the tute mind?

Classes start 5 minutes after they are listed on the timetable and end five minutes early. So if a lecture says 11-12 it will begin at 11:05 and finish at 11:55. This ensures that you shouldn't be late to your next class (although if you have to walk all the way across campus it may be challenging) and sometimes the lecturers do go over time. Tutors don't mind people running late, as long as they don't interrupt the class.


First year registration does fill up pretty quickly. Fortunately, all level 1 subjects have another date where a certain % of spots in each time slot will become available.

Breakouts I believe are when the lecture theatre cannot hold as many students as required and another room is opened up where the lecture is streamed.

[M909]

Thanks a bunch M909!!! For me personally, commuting to Melbourne Uni is definitely not an issue as I literally live like 10-15 minutes away in Collingwood haha I've made a sample plan using the handbook a couple of days ago, the annoying thing is that for Foundations of computing they run two of the three lectures only on tuesday and thursday which were days I was trying to take off lol. Do tutes/pracs fill up super quick? I've heard from friends that some fill within 10 minutes of opening registration but I have no idea if they are exaggerating. Also what are "breakouts"? Thanks again

Yep, unfortunately the pracs and tutorials in the “good” time slots usually fill that quickly, if not in less time.  However if you check back in the day or so more due to people changing, or the coordinators adding more tutorials due to demand, you can usually get closer to your preferred time if you don’t get in first time round. As an example, last year for ARA which is a core commerce subject with 1000+ people, by the time I got to enrolling in the tute, the only spot I got was at 6:15pm, however after checking back a couple of days later, they added heaps more and I got in one at 9am.

Also, haven’t heard of the term “breakouts”, sorry

[moni-k]

I personally recommend have a few classes back to back. I've found the 10 minutes in between classes (as sweetcheeks mentioned) to be fine and much more ideal than constantly having a full hour in between classes. If you're going from one side of the campus to the other (worst case), just speed walk and you should be fine.

It also means your days can be shorter if you schedule everything well. As someone mentioned, definitely check out the timetable for each subject in the handbook and maybe make an excel sheet with a mock timetable that suits your needs perfectly. I've been doing those before every semester and so far everything has been smooth!