Philosophy Breadth?

[mikee65]

Is anyone doing it or know people who do, Im considering as a breadth track next yr.

[Russ]

I did one, not a whole track, but what do you want to know?

[mikee65]

I did one, not a whole track, but what do you want to know?

Interesting? difficulty? how did you end up doing?

[Russ]

I did History and Philosophy of Science, which has actually been cut I think but it's pretty similar to the others. It was interesting, not fascinating but it was kinda boring in sections.

It wasn't overly difficult, there were 10 weekly tasks of which your best 5 were counted towards your mark (10% each). And then there was a 50% essay due at the end of semester. The essay topics weren't the best but were fairly good. It was a tough subject to do well in unless you put in a lot of time, because essays require research and the weekly responses were deceptively hard.

Not a breadth to do if you're just looking for an easy mark, only if you're actually interested (I got 74)

[mikee65]

I did History and Philosophy of Science, which has actually been cut I think but it's pretty similar to the others. It was interesting, not fascinating but it was kinda boring in sections.

It wasn't overly difficult, there were 10 weekly tasks of which your best 5 were counted towards your mark (10% each). And then there was a 50% essay due at the end of semester. The essay topics weren't the best but were fairly good. It was a tough subject to do well in unless you put in a lot of time, because essays require research and the weekly responses were deceptively hard.

Not a breadth to do if you're just looking for an easy mark, only if you're actually interested (I got 74)

I see, what breadth subs do people usually take to boost their gpa?

[EvangelionZeta]

I'd assume History and Philosophy of Science is a bit different from the straight Philosophy breadth, actually.  Philosophy requires a lot of analytical thinking, and above all else, it's not something you can really "wing"; what they want you to develop are your own ideas and reasons, rather than comprehensive summaries of things that you've learnt.  I'd recommend it if you want to exercise your mind a bit, or if you're wanting to get a career in Law or Politics, but if you're just interested in high marks then it's probably not a good choice.

[Russ]

It focused around the philosophy of scientific reasoning, discovery etc., so it wasn't a purely theoretical subject but it did have those analytical elements. You had to discuss the theory behind the case studies and draw meaning out of that but it was centered on people like Kuhn and Lakatos and less so on principles of philosophy (I think the only one we did was falsificationism)

With respect to scoring high marks, people do stuff like Finance 1, Introductory Microeconomics, Accounting Reports and Analysis, Principle of Business Law and a few others

[mikee65]

Im just looking over all the philo breadth options, theres so many I have no idea which one to choose

[Russ]

From Plato to Einstein or The Great Thinkers are introductory subjects that cover a fairly broad range of content

[rustic_metal]

I did History and Philosophy of Science, which has actually been cut I think but it's pretty similar to the others. It was interesting, not fascinating but it was kinda boring in sections.

It wasn't overly difficult, there were 10 weekly tasks of which your best 5 were counted towards your mark (10% each). And then there was a 50% essay due at the end of semester. The essay topics weren't the best but were fairly good. It was a tough subject to do well in unless you put in a lot of time, because essays require research and the weekly responses were deceptively hard.

Not a breadth to do if you're just looking for an easy mark, only if you're actually interested (I got 74)

I see, what breadth subs do people usually take to boost their gpa?

GPA? What do you need a GPA for?

If you're talking about your weighted average, it depends what you need it for. Every faculty calculates it differently, so breadth might not even be counted. I've been told that breadth doesn't count towards your weighted average when applying for the Masters of Engineering, for example.

Just pick what you enjoy/find useful.

[mikee65]

I did History and Philosophy of Science, which has actually been cut I think but it's pretty similar to the others. It was interesting, not fascinating but it was kinda boring in sections.

It wasn't overly difficult, there were 10 weekly tasks of which your best 5 were counted towards your mark (10% each). And then there was a 50% essay due at the end of semester. The essay topics weren't the best but were fairly good. It was a tough subject to do well in unless you put in a lot of time, because essays require research and the weekly responses were deceptively hard.

Not a breadth to do if you're just looking for an easy mark, only if you're actually interested (I got 74)

I see, what breadth subs do people usually take to boost their gpa?

GPA? What do you need a GPA for?

If you're talking about your weighted average, it depends what you need it for. Every faculty calculates it differently, so breadth might not even be counted. I've been told that breadth doesn't count towards your weighted average when applying for the Masters of Engineering, for example.

Just pick what you enjoy/find useful.

I need a gpa because its used to judge entry into post grad degrees, Im fairly certain that breadth does contribute to the average?

[mikee65]

From Plato to Einstein or The Great Thinkers are introductory subjects that cover a fairly broad range of content

Yea I looked over those, I think however I prefer the ones that teach logic and analysis instead of rote learning

[mikee65]

Russ, what do think of this course https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/view/2011/PHIL30047

Looks good

[rustic_metal]

I need a gpa because its used to judge entry into post grad degrees, Im fairly certain that breadth does contribute to the average?

Oh, are you planning to go overseas/interstate for graduate courses?

I can check about the average thing, but I've been told almost universally that breadth isn't counted towards the weighted average that gets you into masters degrees (at least for science, I don't know about others). I've even been told by mates in third year and above that it's only your major's core subjects that count (i.e. if you're doing mechanical systems as your major and take second year physics as a science elective, it won't count towards your weighted average for masters entry).

I've also just been accepted by the precinct for exchange, which requires an average I wouldn't be over if breadth counted towards it. So it looks like breadth doesn't count there either.

I don't think this applies to honours calculations, however

[zhenzhenzhen]

do Logic: Language and Information!! awesome