Arts subject selection

[aw123]

Just wondering - If you choose a major, such as English, and after a semester/year you really dislike it, how difficult is it to swap majors? Would this mean your course is lengthened to catch up on units you missed out on in your new major? Is swapping even at all possible?

[simpak]

Don't do the IDF Homer to Hollywood, the subject Culture, Media and Everyday Life or the subject Professional Writing or the IDF Globalisation.
Do take Literature.

I was thinking of taking Globalisation. Not because I particularly wanted to, just because I'm thinking it might be useful for a politics students. What didn't you like about it?

I didn't take it but the assessment and the premise are ridiculous.  Tbqh, there is no subject that you can take where you won't learn about globalisation anyway.  My friend took the subject and she was under constant pressure (more so than everyone else, haha) and she claimed it was a nightmare - you have to do a referenced blog entry every single week and you have stupid assignments.

Do you know anything about the other IDF subjects. And I was thinking of literature, but the stuff they study seemed quite obscure and difficult.

The Literature and Performance subject is really good, and if you've done lit in vce you already know how to do the assessment.
All the IDFs are crap, I didn't take any because my course is oldgen but they are all shit and yes, Democracy and Understanding Asia are the best ones.

[schmalex]

Don't do the IDF Homer to Hollywood, the subject Culture, Media and Everyday Life or the subject Professional Writing or the IDF Globalisation.
Do take Literature.

I was thinking of taking Globalisation. Not because I particularly wanted to, just because I'm thinking it might be useful for a politics students. What didn't you like about it?

I didn't take it but the assessment and the premise are ridiculous.  Tbqh, there is no subject that you can take where you won't learn about globalisation anyway.  My friend took the subject and she was under constant pressure (more so than everyone else, haha) and she claimed it was a nightmare - you have to do a referenced blog entry every single week and you have stupid assignments.

Do you know anything about the other IDF subjects. And I was thinking of literature, but the stuff they study seemed quite obscure and difficult.

The Literature and Performance subject is really good, and if you've done lit in vce you already know how to do the assessment.
All the IDFs are crap, I didn't take any because my course is oldgen but they are all shit and yes, Democracy and Understanding Asia are the best ones.

Hm....you have tempted me. Although I've already studied a few of the texts, it could be quite interesting. I'm never going to make up my mind...

[simpak]

You only spend a week on each text though so best to read them before uni starts.

[schmalex]

Well then it's a very good thing I've already read Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations, which are probably among the longer texts there....if I decide on this subject :S

EDIT: Great Expectations and P+P actually took me a really long time to read the first time. Particularly Great Expectations. I dunno if I'd be able to read through all of that if I hadn't already read them once.

[simpak]

The good news is you don't have to read all the texts because you choose which ones you do the assessment on.
One of Romeo/Juliet and Othello for Assessment 1.
One of Romeo/Juliet or Othello or Romantic Poetry for Assessment 2.
And any of the texts for assessment three, two of them for a comparison.

But you can't do the same text twice.

So I did my assessment on R/J, romantic poetry and then P+P and A Doll's House.  I only technically had to read those four.

[IM_DEAD]

Globalisation - I actually thought it was pretty good. The blog thing is just easy marks, I got 100% on the blog because it is so straight forward. The lectures get a bit boring towards the end, but there are some great lecturers in the subject. The main english guy was great. Really informative. I would definitely choose this over Self and Other

Homer to Hollywood - Absolutely hated it during semester 1. Still the worst subject I have done at Uni. However, I did literally not one minute of study for the exam, was sitting on about a 60% average for the year and still managed to get an 80. As did all of my friends. This is quite possibly the easiest marked subject in Arts. So if you have any passing interest in literature, reading, film then maybe this is a decent choice.

Intro to Cinema Studies - Great subject. Good for easing into Arts, and the movies they choose are really interesting.

[zomgSEAN]

I'm thinking of doing Self and Other and Knowing Nature, or whatever they're called.

I liked the subject descriptions.

Self and other made me think of Identity and Belonging Context, haha.

[simpak]

Self and Other is alright, I wrote a Self and Other essay for my friend without doing the subject and she got a 79 (y)
The assessment was shit easy though.

[marr]

Sorry for bringing up an 'oldish' thread but I'm contemplating what arts subject I'm going to take next semester. I'm currently tossing up between 'Media, Culture and Everyday Life' and 'Intercultural Communication'.

I went through this thread and read that Media, culture and everyday life was terrible and I was wondering what's so bad about it? For anyone who's done it, what are the assignments like? (reading through the subject description for it on the handbook, it says the assignments involve a multimedia essay, an advertisement/storyboard/video and an essay/video).

On the other hand Intercultural Communication involves 2 research essays (which I don't really like writing) worth 70% and an exam worth 30%. Has anyone done this subject? What exactly is it about/like?


Essentially I'm trying to find another area to major in other than Psychology. Linguistics I'm not entirely sure about considering I don't know all that much about it, whether I'll be passionate about it or where it could lead. Conversely, Media and Communications as a major could lead me into journalism which I think would be interesting although I'm worried because I have no interest/no nothing about politics and I wonder whether this will affect how much I enjoy the subjects. I've look through the list of majors within BA and nothing really sticks out. English possibly although I'm worried about the reading load. I'd be interested to know what other people doing BA are majoring in.

So yeah, any opinions are welcome .     

[simpak]

Okay well here's the deal.  If you take CMEDL, you will get an easy H1.  However, you will become severely frustrated with your life and hate every part of university because the subject is so horrible and everyone things it is a massive waste of time.  I did not choose to do it, it was a core.

The assignments are relatively easy, especially because the media students could recycle sources.  The blog could be alright depending on how much you enjoyed writing that way and keeping up with it.

It's the actual content and the lecturer that are awful.  The tutes are a massive waste of your time, yet a hurdle requirement.  We watched youtube videos in ours.  And the subject matter is boring and dull, mostly about...leftist ideals and how much capitalism sucks.  Which is probably why I hate the lecturer so much, she is a leftist feminist lesbian who annoyed me with her pretentious academia.  The other lecturer is the most boring speaker you will ever encounter and will send you to sleep.

The readings are huge and the biggest bane of your existence.

I spoke to one person who enjoyed CMEDL and knew about fifty taking it because of it being a core for my degree.  And I don't think CMEDL will lead you in to a Comm major anyway!  You'd be better off trying out Professional Writing (or whatever they call that subject now) since CMEDL leads into screen and cultural studies which is a major a couple of my friends are taking now.

Good majors I hear nice things about include:
- Criminology
- English
- History

[marr]

Haha thanks for the honest review!

You've swayed me somewhat as having done Homer To Hollywood, I would hate to do another subject that will make me frustrated with life and is a massive waste of time. Are the lectures even helpful at all? As in could you just skip them and still do well? I'm really not sure what to choose anymore.

I think they've changed the course such that to do a Media & Comm major you need to do one of the following 1st year subjects:

CICU10001 Introduction to Cinema Studies (SEM 1)
SOCI10001 Understanding Society (SEM 1)
CICU10002 Culture, Media and Everyday Life (SEM 2)
HIST10008 The World That Made Us: 1945 to Today (SEM 1)
DEVT10001 The Developing World (SEM 1)
HPSC10001 From Plato to Einstein (SEM 2)
ASIA10001 Language and Power in Asian Societies (SEM 1)
PHIL10002 Philosophy: The Big Questions (SEM 1)

So if I do want to persue a major in Media & Comm I'll need to do either CICU10002 Culture, Media and Everyday Life or HPSC10001 From Plato to Einstein.

Hmm ... Criminology and History I don't think I'd be interested in but I was considering English for a while. Just worried about all the reading involved with it, in that I'm not sure I'd be able to keep up. Thanks for your honest opinion though! It's given me a lot to consider.

I wish I knew someone who does linguistics ...

[saaaaaam]

ICU10001 Introduction to Cinema Studies (SEM 1)
SOCI10001 Understanding Society (SEM 1)
CICU10002 Culture, Media and Everyday Life (SEM 2)
HIST10008 The World That Made Us: 1945 to Today (SEM 1)
DEVT10001 The Developing World (SEM 1)
HPSC10001 From Plato to Einstein (SEM 2)
ASIA10001 Language and Power in Asian Societies (SEM 1)
PHIL10002 Philosophy: The Big Questions (SEM 1)

I'm doing The Developing World and it's my biggest regret. I thought from the description in the handbook that it was going to be case study focused. In reality it's a heap of theories that I think is pointless. Plus the tutorials are used for individual presentations on developing countries so there's no time for discussion or to clarify the lecture, which is horrible because the lectures aren't the easiest to listen to and understand.

[lexitu]

@ marr - what sort of a career are you looking for after your degree? As we've discussed I'm going to be following a similar course to you - I think Psychology is well complemented by subjects within the Philosophy and even Linguistics domain (when you discuss semantics, development of language, etc.). As I mentioned I'll be doing Intercultural Communication next semester. I can see how linguistics can become quite dry, though, I know someone at Monash that complained of that. Criminology I also hear good things about.

As you were considering before, I don't think there's much wrong in just doing a minor in another area (or just filling things up with subjects that interest you if you're allowed), especially if Psychology is your main focus.

[marr]

Psychology is pretty much my main focus so I guess it doesn't matter too much what I decide to do with my other subjects as long as I can do well in them to get good enough grades for 4th year Psych. The subject Intercultural communication interests me however if I do choose to do the major, some of the later linguistic subjects don't seem all that great. Are you planning to do a linguistics major?

That's true. I've been contemplating just doing a psychology major and what other random subjects I would choose to fill in the gaps. The only problem I've found is finding 2nd year subjects that don't have 1st year subject pre-requiresites and are interesting.


Also, for the 3rd year psych elective subjects in which we are supposed to choose 2:

PSYC30017 Advanced Studies of Human Cognition
PSYC30016 Developing Persons in Social Worlds
PSYC30018 Neuroscience and the Mind
PSYC30012 The Unconscious Mind
PSYC30022 Advanced Personality & Social Psychology
PSYC30019 Development of the Thinking Child
PSYC30015 Organisational Psychology
PSYC30020 Psychology of Sleep and Emotions
PSYC30014 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

Are these all considered arts subjects or are they science? What I'm really trying figure out is if I decide to do 3 of these subjects, will the extra one be counted as part of my arts degree or part of my breadth if it is considered a science subject.

ICU10001 Introduction to Cinema Studies (SEM 1)
SOCI10001 Understanding Society (SEM 1)
CICU10002 Culture, Media and Everyday Life (SEM 2)
HIST10008 The World That Made Us: 1945 to Today (SEM 1)
DEVT10001 The Developing World (SEM 1)
HPSC10001 From Plato to Einstein (SEM 2)
ASIA10001 Language and Power in Asian Societies (SEM 1)
PHIL10002 Philosophy: The Big Questions (SEM 1)

I'm doing The Developing World and it's my biggest regret. I thought from the description in the handbook that it was going to be case study focused. In reality it's a heap of theories that I think is pointless. Plus the tutorials are used for individual presentations on developing countries so there's no time for discussion or to clarify the lecture, which is horrible because the lectures aren't the easiest to listen to and understand.

I've heard that it's really dry and has heaps of readings each week. I'm really trying to go out of my way to avoid these subjects since I've been having a bad experience with Homer to Hollywood at the moment. I guess it's good to learn what field areas you are interested and not interested in early. What major are you planning to do, if you don't mind me asking?