UTS Subject Reviews

[RuiAce]

UTS Subject Reviews

This thread is a collection of subject reviews and ratings for the University of Technology, Sydney. Only reviews can be posted in this thread;  for all other purposes, use the general chat thread or message the person who posted the review.

We encourage everyone to review any/all subjects they have taken, even if other reviews for the course already exist. The more reviews we have, the more useful this collection will be!

Scroll down for the review template!

Note: The views expressed in these reviews are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of the university or ATAR Notes.  Keep in mind that despite best efforts, information provided may not be accurate.

Index

Click the spoilers below to see the available reviews for each faculty (this index will be updated regularly)

Faculty of Analytics and Data Science

Faculty of Business

21129: Managing People and Organisations
22107: Accounting for Business Decisions A
22207: Accounting for Business Decisions B
23115: Economics for Business
25622: Quantative Business Analysis
26100: Integrating Business Perspectives
26134: Business Statistics

Faculty of Communication

54000 - Citizenship and Communication
54020 - Stories from the Street
54050 - Self and Society

Faculty of Creative Intelligence and Innovation

Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Health

Faculty of Information Technology

Faculty of International Studies

Faculty of Law

Faculty of Science

Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation

Template

Use the following template for your reviews (copy and paste into your reply, then fill in the gaps!)

Code: [Select]

[b]Subject Code/Name:[/b] [url=insert link here]SUBJECT CODE - SUBJECT NAME[/url]
Insert the handbook link for the subject, and replace SUBJECT CODE SUBJECT NAME with the appropriate details)

[b]Contact Hours:[/b]  Specify how many lectures, pracs, tutes ect. and their duration

[b]Assumed Knowledge:[/b] Prerequisite courses, or knowledge that is useful heading into the course.

[b]Assessment:[/b]  Give a rough/detailed outline of the various assessment methods, and if possible, their weightings.

[b]Lecture Recordings?[/b]  Yes, Yes but audio only, No (etc)

[b]Notes/Materials Available[/b]:  If possible, provide links to any resources available to help with the subject.

[b]Textbook:[/b] What is the textbook? In your experience, is the textbook required, recommended, or completely useless?

[b]Lecturer(s):[/b] List your lecturer(s)

[b]Year & Trimester of completion:[/b] EG - 2016/2

[b]Difficulty:[/b] Out of 5

[b]Overall Rating:[/b]  Out of 5

[b]Your Mark/Grade:[/b] If you wish to provide it

[b]Comments: [/b]
Give your comments on any and all aspects of the course (refrain from overly denigrating lecturers, keep it objective)

Here is a duplicate version of the templates without the descriptions, for the sake of convenience in copying and pasting. However, please use the above descriptions as your reference

Code: [Select]

[b]Subject Code/Name:[/b] [url=][/url]

[b]Contact Hours:[/b]

[b]Assumed Knowledge:[/b]

[b]Assessment:[/b] 

[b]Lecture Recordings?[/b] 

[b]Notes/Materials Available[/b]: 

[b]Textbook:[/b]

[b]Lecturer(s):[/b]

[b]Year & Trimester of completion:[/b]

[b]Difficulty:[/b]

[b]Overall Rating:[/b] 

[b]Your Mark/Grade:[/b]

[b]Comments: [/b]



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Subject Code/Name: 22107: Accounting for Business Decisions A

Contact Hours: 1 x 1hr tute, 1 x 1.5 hr lec

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspectives

Assessment: Tutorial participation, Mid sem exam, final exam (60%).

Lecture Recordings? Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture slides,  tutorial Q and answers.

Textbook: ACCT2 Financial: 2nd Asia Pacific Edition, Fundamentals of Business Law UTS CUSTOM

Lecturer(s):  Jonathan Tyler

Year & Semester of completion: 2013 /1

Difficulty: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4/5 

Your Mark/Grade: 60

Comments: This subject has one of the highest fail rates for a first year subject! This is due to the fact that there is lots of information. You are introduced to lots of concepts in a little amount of time. The final exam isn't too bad if you have studied throughout the semester.  The lecturer is quite hilarious and has a reputation.

This subject needs lots of practice. It’s a very practical subject, if you don’t constantly practice your journals and financial statements, you will struggle!

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Subject Code/Name: 21129: Managing People and Organisations

Contact Hours: 1 x 1.5 hr lec, 1 x 1.5 hr tute

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspectives

Assessment:  One presentation, one essay, one final exam

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture notes, tutorial questions

Textbook: Fundamentals of Business Law

Lecturer(s):Ace Simpson

Year & Semester of completion: 2014/1

Difficulty: 2/5

Overall Rating: 4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 75

Comments: This subject isn’t too hard, has a good pass rate and the lecturer is great. The content is quite interesting as you learn about the different psyche and what makes people tick. This subject is something that you can rote learn (though, it is easily understood). The textbook deviates a lot from the lectures. I’d avoid it.
 
The lecturer is interesting and he applies daily examples, to drill concepts in your mind. The final exam is just a lot of multiple choice and the essay is around 2500 words.     
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Subject Code/Name: 24108: Marketing Foundations

Contact Hours:  1 x 1.5 Lec, 1 x 1.5 Tutorial

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspectives

Assessment:  2 x quizzes, 1 x group assessment, 1 x final exam.

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Practise exam questions, lectures slides and tutorial questions

Textbook: Marketing, 3rd Edition

Lecturer(s):  Ingo Bentrott

Year & Semester of completion: 2014/2

Difficulty: 1/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Your Mark/Grade: 82

Comments: This subject is mildly interesting. Some of the things mentioned are a repeat of HSC Business Studies.  The subject is rote and cram learnable.  Content is of a manageable level, not too many slides. The lecturer is quite funny and interesting, who makes the subject very interesting. The textbook is good and does deepen your understanding, though... you can do really well without it.

On a final note, the subject has a reputation for being one of the easiest subjects, with easy exams and minimal effort. The final exam is sort of like a repeat of some tutorial questions (some MC, some short answers).  The quizzes are a breeze and the group assessment is basically where you come up with a mini marketing campaign.

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Subject Code/Name: 23115: Economics for Business

Contact Hours: 1 x 1.5 lecture,  1 x 1.5 tutorial

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspective

Assessment:  1 x final exam, 1 x portfolio

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lectures, tutorials, online problem sets

Textbook: Principles of Economics, 7th edition

Lecturer(s):  Massimo Scotti (City), Mei Dong

Year & Semester of completion: 2013, 2

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 86

Comments: This subject is quite interesting! Part of it, you would have covered in HSC economics. The lecturer has genuine passion, interest and expertise in the field and it shows. He is excellent in his examples and explanations of concepts.

The number of concepts in each week is manageable and there are around 30-40 slides. This is a more practical subject and reading does not just cut it. You need to do the online exercises and understand the reasonings behind answers.

The final exam isn't hard at all, you just need to know your concepts and then reproduce it! It's about 10- 15 MC, followed by some short answer questions.
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 Subject Code/Name: 25300 - Fundamentals of Business Finance

Contact Hours: 1 x 1.5hr  lec, 1 x 1.5hr tute

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspectives

Assessment:  2 x  online quiz, 1 x case study, 1 x final exam

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture slides, Tutorial answers. Tute q’s

Textbook: Essentials of Corporate Finance

Lecturer(s): Scott Walker

Year & Semester of completion: 2014/1

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 4/5 

Your Mark/Grade: 83

Comments: This subject is one of the most difficult first year subjects and it requires you to put in some effort. It is definitely a practical subject that requires you to understand your tutes and lectures. The lecturer is good, isn’t too monotone and is quite helpful!

As for the assessments, the online quizzes are short (you should be fine if you study). The case study is pretty difficult as you need to figure a lot of things out yourself. Many things in the case study are related to the lecture content, you just need to be able to make the connections.. in order to finish the assessment. The final exam is a mix of different type of questions from the tute. This isn’t a breezy subject in general.

PS, beware capital budgeting and the time value of money, it catches lots of people off guard.

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Subject Code/Name: 26134: Business Statistics

Contact Hours: 1 x 1.5 hr lecture, 1 x 1.5 hr tutorial

Assumed Knowledge: Integrating Business Perspectives

Assessment:  1 x group report (20%), 1 x mid sem (20%), 1 x final exam (50%)

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture slides, tutorial q & a

Textbook: Australasian Business Statistics 4th Edition

Lecturer(s): Ingo Bentrott

Year & Semester of completion: 2013/1

Difficulty: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Your Mark/Grade: 89

Comments: This subject can be a bit dry if statistics isn’t your thing. The level of maths isn’t too hard at all, it’s more about applying and understanding concepts.

Understanding the concepts for this subject CAN be difficult as the proofs for statistics are tricky. I personally did not understand all of the concepts behind statistics.  The lecturer is quite good as he makes things into a digestible sort of level.

As for the textbook... that’s a big fat mess to try understand and I didn’t bother (after a while). 


In general, rote learning this subject may be easier than trying to fully understand the concepts and this subject doesn’t have the highest pass rate.

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 Subject Code/Name: 26100: Integrating Business Perspectives

Contact Hours:  1 x 1.5 hr lec, 1 x 1.5hr tute

Assumed Knowledge: None

Assessment:  Portfolio (40%), Project (group -  30%) and final exam (30%)

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  lecture notes, workshop material

Textbook: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers.

Lecturer(s): Melissa Edwards

Year & Semester of completion: 2013/1

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Your Mark/Grade: 69

Comments: This subject isn’t difficult, but it’s a bit airy fairy (abstract).  The lecturer is good, speaks clearly and is passionate about teaching.  The content isn’t structure too well and sometimes the assessments don’t relate much to the lectures at all. Though, the amount of content isn’t too heavy (more on the lighter side).

As for the textbook, it is good and you can learn off it.

Finally, onto the assessments. As I mentioned before, the content is airy fairy, so … the assessments are too! They take some abstract thinking. The final exam is just a series of mini essays!

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 Subject Code/Name: 22207: Accounting for Business Decisions B

Contact Hours:  1 x 1.5 hr tute, 1 x 1.5 hr lecture

Assumed Knowledge: Accounting for Business Decisions A

Assessment:  Online quizzes (20%), final exam (55%), Case study

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture notes, tutorial q and A

Textbook: ACCT2 Financial: 2nd Asia-Pacific Edition, ACCT2 Managerial: 2nd Asia-Pacific Edition

Lecturer(s): Prabhu Sivabalan

Year & Semester of completion: 2014/1

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Overall Rating:  2/5

Your Mark/Grade: 66

Comments: The lecturer knows his stuff and teaches with a lot of passion.  The content isn’t too tricky, but it requires a lot of practice. This is a practical subject, where you need to know your basic accounting principles, how to apply them and where!  For example, how to do budgeting, and then applying that budgeting figure to the financial statements.

This is not a rote learnable subject, but one that requires understanding.  The textbook helps a lot with that (I’d buy it). 

PS, accounting isn’t really my forte or interest, that’s why I gave it a 2/5.

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 Subject Code/Name: 25622: Quantative Business Analysis

Contact Hours: 1 x 2hr lec, 1 x 1hr comp, 1 x 1hr tute

Assumed Knowledge: 26134 Business Statistics

Assessment:  Group assessment (20%),  quizzes (30%) and final exam  (50%)

Lecture Recordings?  Not sure

Notes/Materials Available:  Lecture notes, tutorial q + A, excel examples

Textbook: Quantitative Business Analysis: Mathematical Methods for Business and Finance

Lecturer(s): Otto Konstandatos

Year & Semester of completion: 2015/1

Difficulty: 4/5

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: 78

Comments: This subject is notorious for being difficult. There is a touch of 3U and quite a bit of 2U in there.  The first week  is only a review of algebra and functions, then it goes onto logs, matrices, derivatives, uni variate optimisation, partial differentiation and inference in the simple linear regression.  Understanding this subject is quite hard (especially the more abstract concepts like optimisation) and z planes.



As for the quizzes, they aren’t too hard (basically an application of class content). The group assessment is fine (given that there a few people doing it with you). It should be something like a hypothetical case study, with data.

The final exam does require quite a bit of study as the concepts aren’t straightforward.

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Subject Code/Name: 54000 - Citizenship and Communication

Contact Hours:  One weekly 45 minute lecture and 2 hour tutorial.

Assumed Knowledge: Really there's nothing you need to know! Although if you had some understanding of how democracy works that would be helpful as well as different political parties and ideologies. Otherwise you just learn it which is fine!

Assessment:  Annotations of readings (20%), 1500 word essay (30%), New Society Board Game (50%)

Lecture Recordings?  No but there are powerpoint slides put up on UTS online.

Notes/Materials Available:  I have some notes but this subject did not require much note-taking at all. The lectures were relatively self-explanatory. Most notes would apply to information from tutorials.

Textbook: No textbooks! Just weekly readings which can be accessed via UTS Library online.

Lecturer(s): Jenna Price, Christina Ho

Year & Semester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  3/5

Your Mark/Grade: No idea! We haven't got all our results back and don't do exams either.

Comments:
Some parts of this subject are very interesting as it explores how young people can be active citizens in their local community. The one criticism of this subject would be the board game assessment which was intended to be fun but really wasn't - it was too hard to try make a board game on politics that contained theory fun. As hard as our tutor tried, the majority of our tutorial stayed quiet during class discussions so that made the tutorials pretty boring at times too.

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Subject Code/Name: 54050 - Self and Society


Contact Hours:  One weekly 45 minute lecture and 2 hour tutorial.

Assumed Knowledge: Really there's nothing you need to know - I went into it knowing nothing about sociology at all. You will learn that you actually knew a lot already but you probably didn't think it was social theory as much of it is normalised/ingrained in society.

Assessment:  Online Quiz (40%), Interview transcript and coding (20%), 2500 word analysis essay of interview (40%)

Lecture Recordings?  No but there are powerpoint slides put up on UTS online.

Notes/Materials Available:  I have some notes but this subject did not require much note-taking at all. The lecture slides were thorough and available online and provided all you needed to know.

Textbook: No textbooks! Just weekly readings which can be accessed via UTS Library online.

Lecturer(s): Lucy Fiske

Year & Semester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: No idea! We haven't got all our results back and don't do exams either.

Comments:
I found this subject really interesting at times as it challenged aspects of society I had never thought of before. At the same time, I felt like it seemed to be teaching students to be overly politically correct by over-analysing innocent parts of society that don't have a hidden meaning. Regardless the content was still quite intriguing and discussions in tutorials were very interesting too.

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Subject Code/Name: 54020 - Stories from the Street


Contact Hours:  45 minute lecture, 2 hour tutorial (once a week)

Assumed Knowledge: Nothing! They teach you the basics of journalism. Just have a general idea of how to write (although if you excelled HSC English you are no guarantee to automatically be a great journalist - the writing style is quite different).

Assessment:  Local area news story (20%), Out-of-area news story (30%), Q and A presentation (20%), feature article (30%)

Lecture Recordings?  No but lecture slides are uploaded to UTS online.

Notes/Materials Available:  You don't really need many notes for this subject at all. All I have is a couple of documents of various tips you will get.

Textbook: None! Just watch and read the news. I recommend AM and PM from ABC but if you want a more entertaining wrap of the news I 100% recommend getting Triple J's The Hack and also The Signal. All are podcasts and free to download.

Lecturer(s): Jenna Price.

Year & Semester of completion: EG - 2018/1

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: Haven't got all my marks and no exams either!

Comments:
The assessments in this subject are fantastic! You don't write essays or anything like that - you actually go out and find news stories, call sources who you don't know and knock on doors. It is such great practice and really makes you put yourself out there! There is also a weekly visit from industry professionals (eg. Jan Fran from SBS, Sophie McNeil from ABC Four Corners, Fatima Kdouh NRL reporter at Daily Telegraph etc) which is again great experience. It is a very practical course! The tutorials are not that helpful aside from pitching ideas to tutors and getting their advice. If you want to be a journalist this subject is for you!

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Subject Code/Name: 22107 - Accounting for Business Decisions A

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours tutorial + 1.5 hours lectures (per week).

Assumed Knowledge: Basic maths. I did General Maths 2 in highschool and thought this was sufficient.

Assessment:  Option A includes- Mid Semester Exam (40%), Final Exam (60%), or Option B (recommended)- Homework (10%), Mid Semester Exam (30%), and Final Exam (60%). There is also an optional screencast assignment for all students regardless of what option for 10 bonus marks meaning you could score a 110!

Lecture Recordings?  Yes with audio and slides.

Textbook: ACCT Financial and ACCT Managerial. Both these textbooks and a definite requirement (Hard copy) as the final exam is restricted open book in the case that they let you bring a hard copy of both these books. For those doing option B for there assesment, homework questions are also found in textbooks.

Lecturer(s): Jonathan Tyler and Nelson Ma

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 4/5

Overall Rating:  2/5

Your Mark/Grade: 56

Comments: This is definitely in my opinion the hardest Business Core subject for the Bachelor of Business degree for the reason that accounting is naturally hard to learn as a rookie. I definitely recommend that everyone does Option B and the optional screencast assignment as it is a great way of scoring easy marks and due to difficulty, could be the difference between passing and failing. Lecturers are quiet good and i do not blame them for the negative perception of this subject.
Mid Semester and Final exams are both quiet hard, but should be fine if you know your stuff.

Subject Code/Name: 23115 - Economics for Business

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours Tutorial + 1.5 hours Lecture per week.

Assumed Knowledge: I personally came into this subject not having any prior economics knowledge and have done General Maths in high school and thought it was not too difficult.

Assessment:  Online Quizzes (20%), News Analysis (20%) and Final Exam (60%).

Lecture Recordings? Yes but are in audio.

Textbook: Yes there is one, but is not required but it is useful at times.

Lecturer(s): Peter Siminski (Micro half) and Chris Bajada (Macro half).

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  3/5

Your Mark/Grade: 59

Comments: This subject requires students to make sure they are organised and are on top of there quizzes as there is a quiz almost every week (from memory). Peter in my opinion, is one of the worst lecturers as he had a very soft monotone voice, does not move around and is very boring. He also spoke about previous weeks topics every week at the beginning of each lecture for 15 minutes (should not take longer than 5 minutes). Chris however who took over the second half of the semester was quiet good at relating the content in real life situations which i enjoyed, and was much more motivated than Peter. Id say the was the reason i passed! Quizzes were easy to get marks in and helps keep up to date with lecture material. The news analysis was similar to the quiz, but were much harder and were worth 10% each. We were given a practise exam for the final exam and in the end was quiet similar in content but was much harder.

Subject Code/Name: 21129 - Managing People and Organisations

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours Tutorial (compulsory) + 1.5 hours Lecture (attendance is taken but not compulsory).

Assumed Knowledge: No assumed knowledge required.

Assessment:  Group assignment essay+ presentation, Individual essay, Final Exam

Lecture Recordings?  Not available.

Textbook: I purchased the textbook but only used it for the assignments and the final exam. Also weekly readings from the textbook is assessable.

Lecturer(s): Cannot remember her name. Sorry.

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 2/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 76

Comments: Great subject, although the lectures were slow and sometimes boring, the content was interesting and easy in difficulty. My tutor wasn't the best and was swearing a lot purposely to get our attention a lot lol. Only things you will struggle on is the assignments as they can be time consuming and hard to find information resources other then the textbook, lecture materials and readings. The final exam consists of entirely multiple choice with questions relating to lectures/tutorials and weekly readings. In my opinion, the final exam is very easy and does not take a lot of preparation if you know have done the hard work through the semester. When the 60 minute mark in the exam hit, everyone had put there hand up and asked permission to leave early so please, take your time and try your best.

Subject Code/Name: 26100 - Integrating Business Perceptions

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours tutorial + 1.5 hours lecture.

Assumed Knowledge: None.

Assessment: 3 Individual Assignments (linked with group assignment), Group Assignment and Final Exam.

Lecture Recordings?  Yes- audio and visual.

Textbook: Not essential but i personally have read the book entirely and enjoyed it.

Lecturer(s): There are multiple lecturers. The main one was Stephen Scweinsberg.

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/1

Difficulty: 1/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: 79

Comments: Everyone hates this subject due to the nature of the group assignment which is the main focus of the tutorials and the consistency of assignments. However, i thought it was a great subject was interesting and i enjoyed almost every moment of it. This is probably the easiest core Business subject of the Bachelor of Business degree. The group assignment is all about inventing something that would benefit Business Students at UTS which you must at the end of semester, pitch your innovation (similar to what would occur on the TV show Dragons Den or Shark Tank). The individual assignments are all about consumer development and research of the problem plus the design stages. The lectures have very low attendance although i attended most of them anyways with the occasional no show due to having Accounting A the next morning. The final exam is quiet easy and are all short answer questions based off lectures.


Subject Code/Name: 22207- Accounting for Business Decisions B

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours tutorial (compulsory) + 1.5 hours lecture.

Assumed Knowledge: Accounting for Business Decisions A (pre-requisite).

Assessment:  Random Homework Checks (occur 3 times) (10%), MYOB Assignment (15%), Final Exam (55%).

Lecture Recordings?  Yes- both audio and visual.

Textbook: ACCT Financial and ACCT Managerial. Are required in order to do homework questions. There is also an MYOB guide textbook that is in my opinion extremely essential in completing the assignment effectively.

Lecturer(s): Nelson Ma

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/2

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Your Mark/Grade: (awaiting results).

Comments: You would probably think that if Accounting A was hard, this too was gonna be harder. Don't worry, i thought the same, however this subject is actually much better than Accounting A in terms of both difficulty and relevance to my future career. Nelson was a great lecturer and was attentive in lectures. My tutor was also great and went out of her way to help us with extra materials to revise, and also hinted us a few times when she was gonna collect homework randomly the week before . MYOB assignment was very time consuming and hard to get used to, but is very easy in gaining marks in. The final exam is hard however, especially because you have to memorise all the formulas + procedures, which i hope they change in the future of this subject.


Subject Code/Name: 25300 - Fundamentals of Business Finance

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours Tutorial +1.5 hours Lecture.

Assumed Knowledge: According to the Lecturer, Accounting A would be recommended. Otherwise General Maths for high school as a minimum.

Assessment:  2 Online Quizzes (20%), Group Assignment (20%), Final Exam (60%).

Lecture Recordings?  Yes- both visual and audio are available.

Textbook: There is one but however, i couldn't find one to purchase second hand. Im assuming based of that inference that its not that important.

Lecturer(s): Vinay Patel

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/2

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating:  3/5

Your Mark/Grade: (Awaiting results).

Comments: Pretty average subject. Starts off easy but gets harder as the weeks progress. The lecturer was great and i liked the funny terms he used to describe things. "chuck in that bad boy" (referring to the formulas) . The quizzes are pretty good okay difficulty and should be a minimum pass mark. The group assignment looks as if you can all finish it within an hour, however, it was extremely time consuming and almost took 6 hours to complete after constant friendly arguing within the group on the correct answers. One thing i will criticise about this subject is that peer review is not used for the group assignment. We had one member who did not show up to any group meetings, not reply to our messages and did not do any work and we were not aloud to remove him from the group or complain about him. All he did was reply the day before it was due and offer to hand in the assignment for us. Finally, the final exam was not too bad either and was medium difficulty. You do not have to memorise formulas and are aloud to bring 1 double sided a4 paper with formulas and any material on it to the exam, which makes things a lot easier. My advise it to just get it off the internet because it takes a long time to write down everything on the paper which you can better usr that time for further study. On the exam day, i noticed everyone around me had the same formula sheet as me.


Subject Code/Name: 24108 - Marketing Foundations

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours lectures, 1.5 hours tutorials per week.

Assumed Knowledge: None.

Assessment:  2 Quizzes held in Tutorials 30%, 3 Market Research participation/3 short assignments (3%), Group assignment (27%), Final Exam (40%)

Lecture Recordings?  Not available.

Textbook: I purchased one and was supposed to bring it to every tutorial for the questions. however, the tutor was kind and put them up on the board anyways for us to refer to. My advise is buy one if you wanna ace this and depending on your tutor, or if you wanna save some cash, dont bother.

Lecturer(s): Geetanjili Saluja

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/2

Difficulty: 1.5/5

Overall Rating:  3.5/5

Your Mark/Grade: (still awaiting results).

Comments: Easy subject, and should be easy to pass and learn effectively. Lecturer was boring and most of the lecture would walk around giving out chocolates and letting students speak in the mic. Must of been some sort of marketing strategy (incentive) to participate in lectures, how ironic. Quizzes were actually quiet hard and was probably my worst performance out of all the assignments. Group's and roles are assigned and not chosen yourself but however was a great experience to get to know fellow peers. The 3 market research participation are said to take an hour each to complete, however, based off my experience, if you check each week and wait, some of these participation are 30 minutes and can all be completed online instead of having to physically attend an hour session. Final exam is also medium difficulty, and would be essential to study for if you want to maintain a good mark.


Subject Code/Name: 26134 - Business Statistics

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours lectures, 1.5 hours tutorials.

Assumed Knowledge: General Mathematics from the HSC would be good as a minimum.

Assessment:  Mid Semester Exam (30%), Group Assignment (20%), Final Exam (50%).

Lecture Recordings?  None available.

Textbook: Is essential as the mid semester and final exams are both completely open book (printed/written materials only). Bringing the textbook in would be useful.

Lecturer(s): There were 2 depending on your timetable. I had Ingo Bentrott

Year & Trimester of completion: 2018/2

Difficulty: 3.5/5

Overall Rating:  1/5

Your Mark/Grade: (still awaiting).

Comments: Very dry subject. I attended most lectures but would not have attended them if i was at uni anyways for a class before and after this one. Lecturer was very boring and off topic at times. My tutor however was funny at times and was very good. He even took the effort on learning names. Mid semester was easy if you studied. Group assignment however was hard, we had trouble with it and received a poor mark. Make sure you choose group members wisely, as we had to remove a members name for not participating. The final exam was alright. Try keep your exam materials as small as possible. You do not want to waste time browsing through notes and panicking at the same time.

[codsta769]

Subject Code/Name: 24202: Consumer Behaviour

Contact Hours: 2 hour lectures + 1 hour Tutorial (per week).

Assumed Knowledge: 24108 - Marketing Foundations

Assessment:
- Individual research report (30%)- a 1000 word (max) report mainly on identifying core marketing problems of Coles supermarkets from research of journal articles.
- Group video (10%)- where you and group members record a 5 minute video consulting your 'big idea' for Coles.
- Group report (20%)- 3000 word (max) group report, which is basically an expanded version of your group video to explain your campaign to improve Coles.
- Two individual quizzes (40%)- 20 multiple choice questions (10 marks) + short answer questions (10 marks) based both off lecture material and case studies.

Lecture Recordings? No.

Textbook: Consumer Behaviour 1st Asia-Pacific Edition. I purchased this but rarely used it. If you want to do really well i'd say purchase it, but consider purchasing the e-book if you cannot find a second hand hard copy for a good price.

Lecturer(s): Adrian Camilleri

Year & Trimester of completion: 2019/1

Difficulty: 2.5/5

Overall Rating:  4/5

Comments: Definitely a great subject that has a good opportunity to do well in for those who try. Adrian was a great lecturer and incorporated great case studies in his lecture along with the content of the subject. He also listens to the students EFS and SFS surveys and tries his best to help the students. The only issue i had with this subject were the assessments where our semester was the first to not have a final exam in this subject (is good thing) which was replaced an individual assessment which in my opinion was poorly designed with the word count being too low and restrictions of journal's that you could use for the assignment. The video we had to make was a little pointless where it took about 5+ hours to complete for only 10%. The quizzes were also very hard and required specific answers even though Adrian gave us hints. If you want to do well in the quizzes, i would definitely recommend attending lectures as i attended almost all of them and probably would have failed if i didn't because of how relevant they were. This was evident because attendance was usually low at the lectures, and the average was a low pass mark for the two quizzes which is really bad considering that they make up 40% weighting.



Subject Code/Name: 21555: Introduction to Human Resource Management

Contact Hours: 1.5 hour lecture + 1.5 hour tutorial (80% tutorial attendance required or automatic fail).

Assumed Knowledge: No assumed knowledge required but is basically a HSC Business Studies repeat.

Assessment: 
- Individual portfolio (25%)- every lecture, they will release 2x500 word questions. by week 5 you will have 10 questions to chose 5 from to answer and submit.
- Group presentation (20%)- your tutor will allow each group to chose a question out of a list (1 question per group per tutorial). Groups who present first will get to chose their question first. This will be all organised in one of the first few tutorials including group formations.
- Individual assignment (55%)- 2000 word report of an organisation where you can gain primary research information. It is recommended that you do an organisation that you have currently or previously worked for to obtain this information. The first half you must identify key HRM functions that occur in the business, and the second half, provide recommendations on how to improve these functions for effective HRM practise.

Lecture Recordings?  Only for the first weeks lecture (we were given off) and for public holiday weeks.

Textbook: Human Resource Management 9th Asia-Pacific Edition. I purchased it but barely used it. Probably not needed.

Lecturer(s): Mihajla Gavin

Year & Trimester of completion: 2019/1

Difficulty: 1.5/5

Overall Rating:  4.5/5

Comments: A very interesting and easy subject that introduces HRM concepts to beginners. The lecturer was really good and enthusiastic. The best thing was her lecture slides which were simple and had a good ratio between images and words. All three assessments were all easy in difficulty to complete if you start early and work little by little. One issue for the portfolio assignment was the marking as i though that they marked a bit too hard with the portfolio questions, and also the time it took to receive our results back for the assignment (5 weeks). However the group presentation was very easy and fairly set as if you chose to present first, you had first dip on the question. The final individual report can be distressing considering it is worth 55%, but will be fine if you have effective time management.

[codsta769]

Subject Code/Name: 21510: Introduction to Strategy

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours lecture + 1.5 hours tutorial (80% tutorial attendance required or automatic fail).

Assumed Knowledge: None.

Assessment: 
- Group Research Report (15%)- your team chooses a business that has potential to be successful in Australia that you must conduct research on and come up with strategies to ensure the chance of success.
- Group Presentation (15%)- same as the research report except this time you must present it to your tutorial. These two group assignments are due at the same time.
- Individual Report (30%)- similar to the group task but instead you must chose an organisation that operates in Australia, but is not 'mainstream' (Apple, Google, Disney etc).
- Final Exam (40%)- consists of pretty much the 8 chapters of the textbook and the lectures.

Lecture Recordings? No. The lecturer explained that he does not do recordings because in a previous semester he did them and nobody turned up to lectures .

Textbook: Fundamentals of Strategy Fourth Edition. Definitely would recommend to purchase the textbook as you will need it to revise for the final exam. So you might as well buy it at the start of semester in case you need it for an assignment. Maybe get the ebook version if you wanna save some money.

Lecturer(s): Dr Charles Okumu

Year & Trimester of completion: 2019/1

Difficulty: 2/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

Comments: This is an alright subject that is useful for life after your degree. It allows you to be able to improve businesses in terms of performance and reaching objectives. The lecturer was alright and was very adamant in attendance regarding lectures. Make sure you try to attend lectures because every week, the lecturer gives hints on slides that will appear in the final exam (this is pure gold). I noticed my tutor was a little racist and was always picking on the international students to read out homework answers lol. However, he was a very generous marker and wasn't that bad overall. The assignments shouldn't  be a problem if you are organised and good at planning out time to work on them. The final exam is basically pure rote learning and tests whether you are able to memorise the textbook. If you attend all the lectures, take the lecturers hints and study on them, and ofc read the textbook, this exam will be easy D as a minimum. All the questions for the final exams are the same "<concept and maybe a short explanation>, name and briefly describe 2 factors in detail" for the short answers section.

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Subject Code/Name: 21407: Strategic Human Resource Management

Contact Hours: 1.5 hours lecture + 1.5 hours tutorial (80% tutorial attendance required or automatic fail).

Assumed Knowledge: 26100 Intergrating Business Perspectives (pre-requisite)

Assessment:
- Online Multiple Choice Quizes (30%)- after every lecture (which are recorded) there is a quiz based on the material discussed and usually comprised of 3 questions. These quizes happen for 10/12 weeks of the semester from memory. You also get a grace week, so the lowest score will not count.
- Reflective Exercises (30%)- a question is given as tutorial prep work, which requires you to write a reflection (autoethnography/ vignette) aproximately 200-300 words long about the topic from the week that relates to your personal experiences. Dont worry, they will teach you the basics of how these reflections should be like. The tutor checks that this is completed in the tutorial. Each week is out of 3 marks and is pretty easy to achieve full marks if you put the effort in. They also give you a grace week, so the lowest mark wont count.
- Critical Reflection Individual (40%)- This is a group assesment but you are marked as an individual. Similar in the sense of the reflective exercise but you chose a human resource concept to talk about as a group and each member writes their own autoethnography of 1500 words long. Then you must come together as a group and make a presentation about the similarities and differences, and link the reflections to the course content.

Lecture Recordings? Yes, audio only.

Textbook: None that need to be purchased. There are readings that are posted on UTS online.

Lecturer(s): Dr Helena Liu

Year & Trimester of completion: 2019/2

Difficulty: 1/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: Probably the easiest subject i have done at UTS so far. If your organised each week, and spend time carefully doing the weekly quizes and pre-tutorial work, its a gurenteed pass, or even easy mark of 60. To top it off, you will have more marks to make up for completing the major assesment. Another good thing is that our major assesment is due in week 8, meaning you will have less work load in week 10/11 when most other assignments are all due. Furthermore you will be done by then because theres no final exam either, and will only need to focus on weekly activities. Lecturer and tutor are also great. The purpose of this subject follows the theory that employees are humans that have emotions, and that understanding or being aware of those emotions help you become a better HR manager. The way that this is intergrated throughout this subject was very nicely done and was beneficial for my future career.


Subject Code/Name: 23409: Marketing Research

Contact Hours: 2 hours lecture + 1 hour tutorial/computer lab.

Assumed Knowledge: 26100 Ingergrating Business Perspectives, 24108 Marketing Foundations, 26134 Business Statistics (pre-requisites).

Assessment:
- Mid-Semester Tutorial Test (22%) - 22 multiple choice questions (worth 1% each question) for everything that has been taught up to that point. In my semester, it was up to week 4 from memory. Thought this was medium difficulty.
- Subject Pool Participation (3%)- same as what you would have done in Marketing Foundations. You have to participate in 3 research acitvities on SONA, which each is worth 1% and is usually 1 hour long. My previous advice in my Marketing Foundations review was to wait it out till the end of semester for shorter ones to appear which are usually 15-30 minutes long however, this did not happen this time around, and although shorter ones did appear later on, they reached enough participant sign ups and was later full or unavailable. My advice is to start to worry about this in the middle of the semester.
- Group Research Project (35%)- requires you to conduct multiple research activities. This includes conducting a 30 minute interview with someone, doing a survery and having 50 people complete it, secoudary research, SPSS analysis, analysing results by making graphs to include in a presnetation.
- Final Exam (40%)- includes 16 multiple choice questions, 12 definition questions where your given the word and you must write its definition, 5 statisitcal output questions, and a short essay about the group project about 2 pages long.

Lecture Recordings? There was for the first week, but none for the rest of semester.

Textbook: Marketing Research 4th Edition. Some questions from the final exam that are not discussed in lectures/tutorials may be derived from the textbook, so it might be a requirement. Get an e-book if you want to save some cash.

Lecturer(s): Dr Kyuseop Kwak

Year & Trimester of completion: 2019/2

Difficulty: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Comments: Was thinking this was gonna be the exact same as Business Statistics which i hated, but was actually an ok subject with mostly theory rather than mathematics based. The lecturer was great, really liked his teaching style, and tried his best to make the subject interesting. Just to further explain on the format of this subject, up to mid semester STUVAC, tutorials are classroom based, and after for the rest of the semester (except for the last week), is in a computer lab where you use a software called SPSS, which you would usually have to pay for but is already accessible for free on the UTS computers. The group assignment was actually based on a real client of Katar the biggest market reseach company in the world, who we had to do research for their client Jack Daniels (Alcohol Brand), which made things interesting. Really liked how the proffessors connections payed off in this manner as the top group and runner up got to recieve $1000 to be shared amongst the group and be invited to an event (even though this was cancelled after the assignment was due). The mid semester exam wasn't too much of a problem, except that the version i got had all the hard questions in the beggining, and got easier as i went which gave me quiet the shock lol. Final exam was very short, as i left 45 minutes early, but was tricky, and had lots of mistakes (one of the MC questions repeated twice (not sure if this was intended) and silly questions as well.