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Owlbird83:
Subject Code/Name: PSY2071 - Developmental Psychology

Workload:  One 2h lecture per week (recording not livestream).
One 2h tutorial per fortnight.
Three 2h recorded seminars (stats) throughout the sem.

Assessment:
- Developmental Report [20%] - 1000 words. Watch videos of a made up scenario where a person is talking to a psychologist about their childhood/relationships/family and write structured report about their history + attachment style. (Mostly simple because there are clear guidelines about what to write in each section)
- Laboratory Report [25%] - 1500 words. Write concisely because it's difficult to get all the important info in within the word limit.
- Data Analysis Exercises x3 [30%] - Last 3 tutorials go through how to do these on JASP very clearly, so I recommend attending. All MCQ and drag&drop, so aim for as high as possible because they are a lot easier to get high scores on than the assignments.
- Exam [25%] - 6h take home open book exam. 20 MCQ, 4SAQ (100w each), 3 Extended Response (400w each).

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, all pre-recorded videos

Past exams available:  Given around 8 practice questions (SA /extended response).
Textbook Recommendation:  "Human Development: A Cultural Approach". I didn't really use this until the exam, I think you can get away with using only the lectures to learn everything, but still useful to have. I regret not using it sooner, it's written very simply, easy to read and interesting.

Lecturer(s):
Miss Carrie Ewin, James Coxon, Dr Beth Johnson, Matt Staois, Prof Peter Anderson, Dr Ian Harding, Dr Megan Spencer-Smith

Year & Semester of completion: 2021 sem 1

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: might update

Comments:
-Corequisite-> must be taken with PSY2061 Biological Psychology
-The content is pretty light and easy to understand. Weekly content doesn't really require a big time commitment, assignments take up some time (more so lab report).
-I recommend focusing on the bigger ideas, rather than small details due the how the exam is structured (if they keep it the same), because you have open book so need to write responses that demonstrate deeper thinking/insightfulness.
-the textbook is actually really interesting, but lectures do seem to cover most of the important info.
-the tutes are really helpful for preparing for assignments and DAEs.
-they ran weekly non-compulsory "flipped lectures" on zoom where there was more application of the content and class discussions. I regret not going to them, please go if you have time. These lectures would be the most helpful for preparing for the application style exam questions. Also it's useful how they relate/apply the theories to real life examples and get everyone to think & discuss.

Owlbird83:
Subject Code/Name: PSY3051 - Perception and Cognitive Psychology

Workload: One 2h lecture per week. One 2h tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment:
-Oral presentation [10%] - In partners. Present findings of a study related to an area covered in lectures (most people did one of the cognition topics), goal was to mold how you present to the specific audience you get. These occur from weeks 5, 7, 9, 11. Definitely recommend trying to pick an early week to get it out of the way before assessments build up.
-Perception article [20%] - 2000 words in the style of an article for a science magazine. Try to get the info to flow like a narrative, tie your conclusion back to your intro (and maybe title too).
-Cognition Proposal [20%] - 1500 words. Recommend going to tutorials (4 & 5) as it is thoroughly explained. Keep writing simple and concise as you are writing to convince someone to use your memory or attention intervention (limit jargon). Be persuasive and use evidence.
-Mid sem exam [25%] - Perception content. Lockdown browser, non invigilated. 30MCQs, 6SAQs (1 or 2 words), 2 extended response.
-End of sem exam [25%] - Cognition content (wks 7-12). Lockdown browser, non invigilated. 28MCQs, 6SAQs (couple of words), 5 extended response.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes, pre-recorded videos.

Past exams available:  1 "mock exam", but only a limited amount of questions just for practicing the format. Weekly "check your knowledge" quizzes with ~15 questions similar to exam questions.

Textbook Recommendation:  "Perception and Cognition" - I didn't use it. The exams are very closely related to the lectures, specifically the lecture slides, they are the most important. HOWEVER, weeks 9 & 10 (knowledge & attention) lectures are more based on the research rather than key concepts, so just using the lectures for these weeks will not make you very prepared for the exam, the textbook should (needs to) be used for these weeks.

Lecturer(s): A. Prof Matt Mundy, Dr Trevor Chong, Prof Mark Bellgrove, Méadhbh Brosnan, Dr James Coxon, Dr Joshua Hendrikse

Year & Semester of completion: 2021 sem 1

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: might add

Comments:
-having the midsem exam is helpful as you only need to revise 6wks each time. The exams are easier to get higher marks in than the assignments.
-perception (wks 1-6) is very biology-y which some people might find more tedious. The content from biological psych (PSY2061) is useful for these weeks.
-as I said further above, (with the exception of weeks 9&10), exam is closely based off lectures, so I recommend basing your notes off the lecture slides.
-Perception article might take longer than expected so try starting early! Having a mediocre title can loose you marks. Adding in a made up interview can be a helpful way to get to the word count, and present more info in a different way.

hairs9:
Subject Code/Name: CHM1051 - Chemistry 1 advanced 

Workload:  1x 1 hour workshop per week, 1x 3.5 hour lab every two weeks, and roughly 1-2 hours of recorded lecture content every week

Assessment: 
10 x preworkshop quizzes worth 1% each
Lab worth 35% altogether consisting of:
6 x lab reports worth 15% of lab grade each
6 x prelab quizzes worth 1.67% of lab grade each
Exam worth 55%

Recorded Lectures: 
Lectures were only available recorded. Workshops were also recorded with screen capture

Past exams available:
There were 2 practice exams available, being written to match the format of the final exam

Textbook Recommendation: 
Chemistry: Atoms First (2019) and Blackman et al., Chemistry (2019)
Both textbooks are available for free online via the links the chem faculty provide. Atoms First is referred to frequently, while I think I may have only opened the other book once.

Lecturers:
A/Prof Chris Thompson, Dr Alison Funston, A/Prof Rico Tabor

Year & Semester of completion:
2021 semester 1

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 87 HD

Comments:
I liked this subject a lot. There is a lot of prework assigned. You are expected to read the preworkshop material, do a pre-workshop quiz, and watch the prerecorded lectures. The pre-workshop quiz has two attempts, so is very easy to do well on.
The workshop is a cross between a lecture and a tutorial, with the first 10ish minutes being spent on giving an overview of the material, and the rest being spent on going through questions. The great thing about the prework is that by the time you get to the workshop, you should have a pretty idea of the material, and what things you might need more help with, so that you can ask the lecturers, who float around during the workshop.
The material is split into three sections, taken by different professors for each 4 week block.
The first 4 weeks are taken by Chris Thompson, who teaches about the periodic table and structures of atoms and molecules. A lot of this content is similar to unit 1 VCE chemistry, with a bit of physics added in. Chris is brilliant. He puts a lot of care into making sure we understand the content and his lectures are always engaging.
The second 4 weeks are taken by Alison Funston, who teaches molecular bonding, thermodynamics, and gases. Content builds upon unit 3 AOS 1 VCE chemistry. Alison's lectures are quite long but generally good for understanding.
The last 4 weeks are taken by Rico Tabor, who teaches equilibrium and kinetics. Content builds upon unit 3 VCE chemistry rate and yield, as well as adding some acid/base and redox. I found Rico to be especially helpful in answering questions.
All 3 lecturers are very knowledgeable in their field and their explanations were easily followed

There were 6 labs, although one was online. Lab content generally reflects the content of the lectures/workshops, although is done before you actually learn the content. I found that although labs sometimes enhanced understanding, the main purpose was to develop general lab skills, like how to use all the different pipettes. You get a lot more independence than in high school, with you being expected to develop your own standard solutions. Two experiments are IDEA pracs, which means you design your own experiment, although you get a lot of hints and get a basic method. Labs rarely ran for the full 3 and a half hours and we were sometimes finished before the CHM1011 lab groups, just because we could work more independently and often had an understanding of the basics of the experiment that wasn't expected from the other groups.
Before each lab, you have to do a prelab quiz and a bit of work to understand what the experiment is. The quiz goes towards your grade but you can repeat as many times as you like.
After every experiment, you complete an online lab report. There isn't a lot of actual writing, and the majority of the report is either filling in tables, answering questions, or uploading lab notes. You do have to write a discussion and a conclusion. The discussion is the biggest challenge, as you have to fit everything you need to say in 300 words.
All in-semester assessments are marked on Moodle, with only your discussion/conclusion of your lab report being marked by a human. My biggest advice is to not be afraid to dispute a mark because sometimes people or computers may make mistakes and sometimes the person marking your work may be harsher than standard.

The exam was online, non-invigilated and open book. It was definitely a challenge, with questions on the hardest parts of each section but overall, that's to be expected with an open book exam.

Like with a lot of advanced subjects, there really isn't a huge difference between the regular and advanced version. The biggest difference on paper is that we have 5% extra allocated to our labs and the 1011 cohort has two tests in semester. I do think that having no test in 1051 throughout the semester does negatively impact learning, as you don't ever really review the content until exam revision.
Like I've mentioned, the 1051 labs generally involve less hand holding than the 1011 ones do. Most of our labs are similar except the first in-person one. There is also some extra content but not a lot

Ultimately, if you've done high school chemistry and got the mark needed, then you will be capable of doing this subject and doing quite well at it, especially because the in-semester assessment is pretty easy to do well at

hairs9:
Subject Code/Name: FIT1045 - Algorithms and programming fundamentals in python

Workload: 
2 x 1 hour lectures
1 x 2 hour tutorial
1 x 2 hour lab

Assessment: 
Tutorial prep questions-8%
Laboratory work-19%
Test 1(weeks 1-3): 3%
Test 2(weeks 1-8): 8%
Assignment part 1: 10%
Assignment part 2: 12%
Exam: 40%

Recorded Lectures:
Yes with screen capture

Past exams available:
Yes, 1 practice exam based on the 2020 exam.

Textbook Recommendation: 
The following textbooks are recommended:
Introduction to the Design & Analysis of Algorithms 3ed UK edition by Levitin A
Introduction to Computing Using Python: An Application Development Focus 2ed by Perkovic L

Both are used as "recommended reading" at the end of lectures but I personally never used it and you can get by without them

Lecturer(s): Mario Boley and Buser Say

Year & Semester of completion: 2021 Semester 1

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 96 HD

Comments:
This subject frames itself as an introductory coding and algorithm analysis unit. I think it does semi-well on the algorithm analysis part but the actual coding introduction is not great. Best advice is to go onto a free coding website and try to teach yourself something beforehand, so you at least have a small understanding of Python or the general basis of code.
The content consists of basic Python, data types, analysis, computational problems, algorithms to solve certain problems, and strategies used in creating new algorithms. I found the content mostly interesting but definitely challenging at times.
The two lecturers take 6 weeks each, with Mario taking the first 3 and last 3 weeks, and Buser taking the middle 6 weeks.
Mario taught most of the coding and some of the more complex strategies to create algorithms. I found that he talked really fast and his content was pretty hard to understand
Buser focused more on an understanding behind how Python works, teaching algorithms to solve computational problems and the analysis of them. He recorded lectures in advance, as well as doing live ones. Because of this, his lectures were less rushed as if he didn't get through the content, he'd just link the rest of the recorded lecture. I found Buser a lot easier to understand and much preferred his teaching style.
Although you are not required to attend tutorials or labs, you should attend tutorials. The tutors generally give a much better explanation than the lecturers do and I often found myself confused by a concept until a tutor explained it. Although you can ask questions in lectures, tutorials are where you can actually get a proper answer because there's a lot more time to properly explain it. The tutors are also a lot more experienced on what students struggle with and so are able to spend more time on difficult concepts.
You don't need to go to most of the labs. You spend two hours working on code and many leave early once they are finished with the work. The only reason to go is to be able to ask questions if you are stuck. However, there are two labs that form part of your assessment and so are mandatory to go to.

In terms of the assessment, they try to give a lot of easy marks. 8% is for tutorial prep questions. Every week, there is a question to be answered before your tutorial and you get a mark for giving a reasonable attempt to answer the question. There are 11 questions to be answered and only 8 possible marks, so there's a bit of a buffer.
19% of the mark is for lab work. The work you do in your lab is submitted the following week to be marked, with most being worth a total of 2.5 marks. Some weeks were marked by a tester, which they provide you with so you can maximise your marks. There are a total of 24.5 marks available so there is a buffer.
The two tests are probably the hardest in-semester assessment. The questions are very similar to exam-style questions and they are good opportunities for revision. Ensure you do what you can properly and learn from anything you get wrong
The assignments were quite a challenge to understand and took a long time to figure out but it isn't excessively hard. The staff did provide support to assist in understanding what the assignment was. It's basically a bunch of code that works together to solve a larger problem. You also have to do an interview to explain your code, which isn't too hard. Ultimately, if your code works and you can explain it, you will probably score quite well.
The exam was an invigilated online exam. It is split into three sections: basic understanding, analysis, and using algorithms to solve problems. I personally found the analysis the most difficult, but many students struggled with the last section. They provide you with a coding workbook, which contains many practice questions similar to exam questions and is a really helpful resource that I'd recommend using to prepare.

This unit was not run very well. It took us 6 weeks to receive any marks after basically begging the teaching team to upload them, even though they told us it would be uploaded earlier in batches. Many students new to coding really struggled with this unit, especially with the fast pace. They also weren't going to give us any practice exam answers until we begged them to do an explanation video of the practice exam. However, the tutors really go above and beyond. One created a whole website to help us with an assignment. Another wrote extra practice questions for the entire unit to discuss, just for the fun of it.
So, the biggest advice is to work with your cohort to peer pressure the faculty and to use the tutors to your advantage.

hairs9:
Subject Code/Name: MTH2010 - Multivariable calculus 

Workload:
3 x 1 hour lectures
1 x 1.5 hour applied class

Assessment: 
5 quizzes worth 1% each
4 assignments worth 5% each
1 midsemester test worth 10%
Lecture poll participation and applied class participation worth 5%
Exam worth 60%

Recorded Lectures:
Yes, lectures were done over Zoom so the Zoom recording with screensharing was uploaded.

Past exams available: 
2 sample exams, one from 2020 and one written for 2021.

Textbook Recommendation: 
Calculus, Metric Version (8th edition) by James Stewart
Not really necessary. The lecturer uploads weekly extra problems without answers, but the answers can be found in the textbook. That's really the only use for it, unless you have a specific interest in looking up proofs.

Lecturer(s): Norm Do

Year & Semester of completion: 2021 Semester 1

Rating: 5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 97 HD

Comments:
This subject was really great. It explores calculus in 3 or more dimensions, looking at vector functions, multivariable functions, and vector fields. It's a natural extension of the calculus already learned. This subject uses some more complex integration strategies (mainly substitutions, trigonometric identities, and a little integration by parts) but complex strategies are either shown in the lectures first or hinted at. The lecturer would often encourage us to "integrate like a champion", thinking of u substitutions as a backwards chain rule.
The lecturer is excellent. Norm is very engaging and focuses on an intuitive understanding behind the mathematics. It was his first time teaching the subject and so he would be writing the notes while he taught us the content. This helped the lectures to be well-paced. Unlike past lecturers, Norm did not focus on proving any of the theorems, making the unit more accessible to people with all sorts of mathematical backgrounds.
The applied class involves working with a group to solve problems on a whiteboard, and is usually pretty helpful in understanding some of the more difficult concepts.

The quizzes were done on paper and usually were pretty easy to do, often taking a similar style to questions done in the applied class.
The assignments were more challenging, sometimes extending the questions beyond what was on the applied class material, but many were similar and used similar strategies.
5% of the mark was split between answering lecture polls and participating in applied classes. You had to correctly answer 75% of the flux poll questions asked on the lectures, with there being a 48 hour time period after each lecture to answer it. I thought this was mostly pretty reasonable. You had to attend and participate in 8 of the 11 applied classes to get the marks.
The midsemester test was pretty easy. A practice test was given and the actual test was very similar, just with a few numbers changed around.
The exam was also not too hard, also being very similar to the sample exam. Basically, to do well on the test and exam, ensure you can do the practice test really well and understand everything.

Overall it was a really well run unit and very enjoyable. Some of the integration towards the end was more challenging but it ultimately was all accessible.

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