Monash University - Subject Reviews & Ratings

[hairs9]

Subject Code/Name: MTH2032 - Differential equations with modelling

Workload: 
Three 1 hour lectures and one 1.5 hour applied class per week

Assessment:
6 quizzes worth 2% each, 4 assignment quizzes worth 2% each, 1 midsemester exam worth 20%, 1 final exam worth 60%.

Recorded Lectures: 
Yes, with screen capture

Past exams available:
Yes from 2014 and 2015.

Textbook Recommendation: 
None required

Lecturer(s):
Ngan Le took the first 6 weeks, which were on ODEs and Mark Flegg took the last 6 weeks, which were on PDEs. There were also recordings available of parts of Jerome Droniou's previous lectures on ODEs.

Year & Semester of completion:
2021 semester 2(in lockdown)

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 94 HD

Comments:
This unit was not well run. There were a lot of issues with cheating in the past and as a result of trying to combat that, we ended up with a much worse and unfair unit.
The assessments were mostly done in class. This had some perks, as it meant there was less to do outside of class. However, because classes ranged from Monday to Friday, people who took the Friday classes had 4 extra days to understand the content. The assessments also meant the classes were cut shorter and there was less time to complete the actual questions.
The assignments were very strange. We were given a prompt with some information and basically had to prepare everything we could to answer some multiple-choice questions. Once again, these quizzes were done in class so some people had a lot less time than others to complete it. The quizzes also had the problem of answers being in a certain format, and with only 5 minutes to do the questions, if you didn't use the right format, you were screwed.
There was not a lot of communication between the tutors, with some allowing notes for the assessments and others not.

In terms of the content, the ODE half was pretty interesting and at a good level. Jerome's parts of lectures were very useful and made Ngan's seem redundant, as she went through the same content(albeit a little slower and less put together), only adding a couple of examples. The PDE half was very strange to me, as it felt like there wasn't a lot of procedural content(eg how to solve equations etc), and instead we were just studying the same three equations over and over and over again. It seemed like anything we learned was only used in a specific context. Mark spent a lot of time doing long-winded examples that I didn't find particularly useful. A lot of his explanations were also very confusing to me.

Biggest advice is to read the notes and get a Friday applied class. Also, don't use Chegg or cheat in any other way(which you shouldn't be doing anyway) because Mark will hunt you down.

[hairs9]

Subject Code/Name: MTH3051 - Introduction to computational mathematics

Workload:
Three 1 hour lectures and one 1.5 hour applied class per week

Assessment: 
11 x applied class participation/problem task worth 1% each for a maximum of 8%. The task is to be sent in before the applied class(does not have to be correct) and you have to go and participate in the applied class to be counted.
12 x weekly quizzes worth 2% each(20% in total, only the best 10 are counted)
4 x assignments worth 3% each
Final exam worth 60%

Recorded Lectures: 
Yes with screen capture(all over zoom)

Past exams available: 
There was a sample exam that was also our week 12 quiz so was included in our assessment.

Textbook Recommendation:
No textbooks are required, but I believe you could buy a paper copy of the notes if you needed to.

Lecturer(s): Janosch Rieger

Year & Semester of completion: 2021 semester 2(all online)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 81 HD

Comments:
This was both my favourite subject and my most stressful one. The main topic covered were errors, solving linear and nonlinear systems using algorithms, data fitting, and using types of data fitting to help do various mathematical things. Basically, a lot of learning how computers do things that we know how to do manually.
Janosch was ok. He explained things very visually, often using various drawings to illustrate his point. There weren't always a lot of examples though, and it was harder to try to apply the content to actual questions as a result. I found that generally going through the notes helped. The content was surprisingly theoretical but the theory was interesting. There were a lot of proofs involved, but we were only expected to be able to replicate a few of the shorter ones for the exam.
In terms of the assessment, the applied class participation was basically a free 8%, which I was very grateful for. The assignments weren't too hard if you've ever done coding before(and I think from next year you need to be able to anyway). The marking scheme was basically "if the code works you get full marks, otherwise 0 for the question". It was good if you did everything right but annoying if you had one slight mistake in the code. The quizzes were very annoying to me. They were done at the end of the week, before applied classes, which meant you had to try and have a grasp of the content with little opportunity to ask questions or practice questions. I thought having 50% of the insemester mark being based on your understanding of work before you had a chance to look at it properly was a little unfair. What was most annoying was that there was negative marking involved. Every quiz had at least one "tick the box" style question in which you had to tick all the correct answers, but if you ticked an incorrect one, you'd lose marks. For example, if there was 2 correct answers and you ticked one correct and one that was incorrect, you would get a 0, despite having some understanding. Was not a great system. The negative marking also applied to the exam, which sucked but at least by then we were used to it.
Biggest recommendation is to ask a tonne of questions whenever you get space, don't just settle if you don't understand something. And also, make sure you test out your code before submitting.

[Geoo]

Subject Code/Name: French Introductory 1 - ATS1061

Workload: 
1 x 1 hour tutorial
1 x 2 hour tutorial
1 x 1 hour grammer lecture (online)
1 x 1 hour culture lecture (until week 1-8) (online)

Assessment: 
Language assessment 1 = 12%
Language assessment 2 = 15%
Culture assessment = 25%
Listening assessment = 8%
Weekly activites= 5%
Oral test = 15%
Final assessment = 20%
All of these were take home assesments. They were untimed, and were suppose to take 100 minutes, but most times you would need a little longer.

Recorded Lectures: 
All the lecutres were recorded in 2020, and are still used. 

Past exams available: 
No, as there are no exams for this subject.

Textbook Recommendation:
 Alter Ego+ A1, Méthode de français
You do use the textbook alot in class, for listening activites and reading comprohension. I didn't use it much outside of class however, and didn't use the online portal that I had access to from the textbook,
They also recommend a workbook, which I did findhelpful, but it was hard to keep up with as the workload increased during the semester.

Lecturer(s):
Jessica Chakowa

Year & Semester of completion: Semester 1 2022

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 83

Comments: I had a lot of fun with this subject, and thought it was an great introductory to le launge de français. I thought the lectures were very informative, although a bit slow so I did put them on 1.5x speed without an issue. Jessica was fantastic, she really cared about the students, and was always happy to answer questions. The 1 hour tutorial is mainly talking about what the grammar lectures covered, and going over listening comprehension. Sometimes they are helpful, but other times they didn't feel like the greatest use of time. Tutorial 2 was the more action packed one. It was 2 hours of speaking and writing activities, along with more reading/listening skills. The biggest weakness of this subject is the lack of opportunities to actually speak, once we get over the roles we play, we only speak french for around 10 /15 minutes total out of the 2 hours sometimes.
The assignments were on the easier side, although the reading comprehension was relatively difficult as you had to look up many unfamiliar words. All assignments were take home except for the oral, which was 5 minutes of talking French with your tutorial 2 teacher. I believe they may be returning to in class tests in the coming semesters, but nothing is confirmed. The rest was a listening section, writing section, and just so many verb conjugation exercises.
This was a nice break to my other subjects, and I do plan to carry on. If I had any advice,  know your verb conjugations, they catch up with you very quickly, do all the weekly study activities, even the noncompulsory, and try to involve French activities in everyday life.

[Commercekid2050]

Subject Code/Name: MGF1010-Introduction to Management 

Workload:  1 hr of Lecture (Was not really a lecture just reading some article and making notes)
                               2 hrs of tutorial

Assessment:  20% for weekly individual quizzes and team worksheet- Not too bad were always related to the article which was to be read that week
                                     10% for individual essay skeleton. Assessment was due in week 4, it was not too bad it was just. a page where we had to outline how we would do our essay
                                    40% Essay- This was relatively hard we had to write a 1,500 word  essay
                                   30% Team Report- This was possibly the best assighment win the unit. We had to make a 1,000 word report. We had to write a report on how or what owner of a failed business had to do to save their business.

Recorded Lectures:  No lecture

Past exams available:  No exams 

Textbook Recommendation:  No textbook, though we got a pdf version of books each week for particular topic

Year & Semester of completion: 1 semester 2022

Rating: 3 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 66 (C)

Comments: Not the biggest fan of the unit. It is a compulsory unit in bachelor of business. The unit though was not too tough but the content was sometime really dry. The asseuesnt were also not the greatest especially individual essay where the topic which was given was really ambitious. The content which was mainly taught in the unit were fine but as said earlier it sometime got really dry. It was also pretty bad that there were no lecture so it was mainly self taught. The good thing was the fact that there were no exams for the topic

[Commercekid2050]

Subject Code/Name: ACF1100 - Introduction to Financial Accounting 

Workload:  2 hrs of lecture
                               2 hrs of Tutorial

Assessment:  3% Quiz- Was for week 1 to week 4 topics mainly covered theory for the accounting topic
                                    10% Manual Assignment- Was a really good assignment we were each given a business and transaction related to that business. We had to record those transaction and make 10 column worksheet, balance sheet and income statement for the business in excel. It is one of my favourite assignments.
                                   10% Xero Assignment- Similar to manual we have a business and we have to record business transaction but in Xero accounting software.
                                  12% Mid Semester Exam- Did not find it too bad. Though the exam was pretty long for it to be only for an hour.
                                  15% Group Assignment- Was a fun topic had to use different accounting ratios to understand if people should invest in the business (had to also make a video presenting it)
                                 50% Exam- Was pretty difficult exam. I know many people had struggle in few questions.

Recorded Lectures:  Yes.

Past exams available:  3 Practice exams. From 2 semester of 2020 to 2 semester in 2021

Textbook Recommendation:  Financial Accounting: Reporting, Analysis and Decision making. The book is must as tutorial question generally came from the book

Year & Semester of completion: 1 semester 2022

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 92 (HD)

Comments: This was honestly a great unit. I really enjoyed this unit with generally all the topics being interesting though in some case it can be dry. Though the topic thus go towards ice Accounting it would be beneficial to have done it as the lecturer goes towards the topic relatively fast. The unit is also generally recommended for Accounting majors.