Arts & Human Sciences Subject Review Thread (2 Viewers)

[Hatake88]

Unit Code: LAW115
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Carlos + Guest Lecturers / Other unit conveners
Tutor: C. Greentree
Year and Semester Taken: 2012 S2
Workload :Moderate
Comments:Making a new review as the subject has been overhauled. It is now a Pass/Fail unit, but that doesn't mean no work is involved. Make sure you learn everything and take advantage of the multiple assessment submissions. It should help you develop skills that you will require in the future for LAW subjects. Does not cover Islamic / Aboriginal law anymore, which I think is probably great.

Assessment Breakdown: 6-7 Assessments with multiple submissions

I wonder how this unit is counted towards GPA. Is it a 100 or a 0

 

[MrTammoth]

Unit code: HLTH108
Difficulty: Extremely hard
Lecturer: Goran.S
Tutor: Michelle & rada & ben etc
Year and Semester taken: 2015 s1
Workload: extremely heavy
Comments: 20% of cohort fails each year this is because of laziness and lagging behind in content. Reiterating that this course is extremely heavy content and if you are not interested in human anatomy and physiology you're going to lag and find this course difficult. When you start 1st year in s1 you need to learn the basics e.g. cell structure etc - good to keep revising each day to let the information sync into your brain and permanently stick there. Lecturers and tutors are nice and strict. They are only strict to help you succeed and achieve HD. A lot of people fail PRACTICAL EXAMS! So this is where you take advantage and pursue.

 

[TrentsUnicorn]

I wonder how this unit is counted towards GPA. Is it a 100 or a 0

It doesn't contribute to your gpa at all

 

[InsoulvencyReaper]

Unit Code: LAW115
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: Didn't attend any, so I wouldn't know
Tutor: Paul Maluga
Year and Semester Taken: 2015, Semester 1
Workload: Light/Moderate
Comments: Easy Subject, just do your exercises and pay attention to detail. These exercises are designed to introduce you to legal research and reasoning. If you're stuck, don't be afraid to ask questions.
Assessment Breakdown:
You get a couple of goes at getting these right. Just pay attention to your referencing and review your answers before submitting.
- Academic Honesty & Referencing 10%
- Statutory Interpretation 10%
- Case Brief 10%
- Research note 10%
- Hypothetical Problem 20%
- Group Project 20%
- Group Project 2 10%
- Reflective Case Analysis 10%

Unit Code: LAW109
Difficulty: Moderate - I only got Pass for this subject but that was because I got lazy and didn't put the effort I should have, into the unit.
Tutor: Kevin Yee
Year and Semester Taken: 2015, Semester 2
Workload: Moderate/Heavy
Comments: This subject is an easy D/HD if you put in the effort and time into the tasks. Classes are not compulsory. This is to ensure that if there are any topics that may cause offence or be distressing, students have the option of simply missing the class rather than having to explain themselves.
Assessment Breakdown:
Task 1- Exercises (30%)
These tasks are designed to develop legal research and analytical skills, which are crucial for the rest of your degree. It will help you understand legal principles, and contextual understanding of criminal justice. These tasks require that you budget enough time to tackle each question as best you can. Each question is worth 2% and needs to be 100% correct to get the mark (do not stress, just do the research and pay attention to your referencing).
- Task 1.1: Q1-5
- Task 1.2: Q6-15

Task 2- Group Task: Hypothetical (20%)
This assessment has three parts:
1. Individual Submission
2. Group Consensus Report
3. Group Presentation

This one is really easy to get full marks. I got 20/20 overall.

Task 3- Textbook Chapter (50%)
You'll be given the focus concept in Week 2. From experience (I did poorly in this), you need to start early and think about this throughout the semester while you are doing your other Tasks. Ultimately, these tasks will mesh together. You should by the end have a clear understanding of general legal principles, statutory interpretation and construction and have formed some opinion (of course which can backed by relevant sources) on legal policy reform/ understand contextual issues and the interconnectedness of decision-makers and stakeholders. Just take the time to develop your ideas, and maybe get someone else to read it for you.

Unit Code: LAWS104
Difficulty: Easy
Lecturer: No Clue - But his voice was mighty soothing which made listening to the iLectures easy.
Tutor: Lucy Bylhouwer (Formerly a practising lawyer)
Year and Semester Taken: 2015, Semester 2.
Workload: Moderate - Weekly Case Briefs (You get these from the case book) and Weekly Exercises
Comments: Do the exercises every week, add to your notes every week and do the case briefs. The final exam is open book. So if you have yourself organised with neatly set out answers, case briefs and your principles/main cases summarised you will do well.
Assessment Breakdown:
- Early Assessment 10% - multiple choice quiz
- Assignment 20% - hypothetical
- Final Exam 60% - open book hypothetical based
- Class participation 10% - attend classes, put your hand up and participate - these are easy marks

Unit Code: MKTG127 (People Unit)
Difficulty: Moderate
Lecturer: No Clue - Heard the first week, lady had a thick asian accent, did not bother to watch again
Tutor: Sheruni
Year and Semester Taken: 2015, Semester 2
Workload: Light - Weekly exercises and some personal study
Comments: I'm mathematically challenged so I actually found this difficult. If you've got a decent ability with numbers and have decent writing ability this subject is an easy D/HD. In one of the assessments I got 53% in the number based component, whereas the essays I got 95%, so clearly you can see where I lack. Just do the work consistently, write some notes and review past papers. They provide all the past papers of previous class and final exams with worked solutions.
Assessment Breakdown:
- Assignment 1 20% - Two parts- calculations and theory
- Class Test 15% - content from weeks 1-6
- Assignment 2 25% - Two parts - calculations and theory
- Final Exam 40% - all content tested

 

[TrentsUnicorn]

Hey InsoulvencyReaper, I did 115 in first sem as well!! You a first year too??

 

[InsoulvencyReaper]

Hey InsoulvencyReaper, I did 115 in first sem as well!! You a first year too??

Hey! I was doing B Comm at UNSW and transferred into Law at MQ. So yes, I've just finished my "first year" [emoji1] woot

 

[Elixir]

Unit Code: LAW115
Difficulty: (Very) Easy
Lecturer: Many different lecturers from the Macquarie law faculty - stopped going after week 4 though.
Tutor: Kevin Yee - such a great tutor would highly recommend him to anyone.
Year and Semester Taken: 2016, Session 1.
Workload: Light-Moderate.
Comments: This is a pass/fail unit and honestly you don't need to go to the lectures at all. However, the tutorials are a must and really engaging.
Assessment Breakdown: Taken from the iLearn site:

Task 1 - Academic Honesty and Referencing Quizzes (2 online quizzes) (Due Week 3). [Students need 100% to pass; unlimited attempts before due date]

Task 2 - Core Skills Assignment (Due Week 5). [Students need to pass all criteria in rubric; Feedback released in middle of mid-semester break; Resubmissions due Week 9]

Task 3 - Legal Research Quizzes 1-5 (Due Week 6). [Students need 70% on each quiz to pass; Must attempt each by due date; Unlimited attempts to achieve 70% until Week 13]

Task 4 - Hypothetical Problem in Public Law Assignment (Due Week 7). [Students need to pass all criteria in rubric; Feedback released Week 9; Resubmissions due Week 11]

Task 5 - Law and Policy Project 1 - Group Wiki (Due Week 8) [All students need to contribute meaningfully; Tutors may require students to submit supplementary work if not satisfactory]

Task 6 - Law and Policy Project 2 - Group Presentations in designated tutorial (weeks 9-13 for internals; OCS Day 2 for externals). [Students need to demonstrate meaningful contribution to the team's research outcomes; Tutors may require students to submit supplementary work if not satisfactory]

The hardest things for me were: AGLC and finding the ratio and obiter of cases. If your group isn't bad then this unit will be a breeze for anyone. One of the unit conveners said you actively had to try to fail the unit and I couldn't agree more.

 

[LightOfTheSeven]

Unit Code: CHN157 (Contemporary China)

Difficulty: Easy

Lecturer: Dr. Kevin Carrico

Tutor: Dr. Kevin Carrico

Year and Semester Taken: Semester One, 2017.

Workload: Fairly Light- 1 hour lecture, 1 hour tutorial per week.

Comments: This unit is interesting: it's strong point is that Kevin is a great lecturer who encourages his students. His marking feels fair, and although I have not got the exam results back I can say with certainity that it would get the marks it deserves. This unit is about 'Contemporay China' and covers the issues that faces China today. We discussed economics, religion, ethnicity, politics, nationalism (my favourite area). I liked the emphasis on case studies, the readings posted online are pretty good. I found having a lot to talk about at home, and even the current events assessment was fun researching about it. It's theory based, and rather academic. We see China through a scholar's eyes, not necessarily a person who lives in China. Which is okay, because the discussions we had in class- people would share their own personal experiences in tutorials and Kevin clearly knew what he was talking about.

What I had issues with- was the textbook, the cohort and group presentations. The textbook, The China Reader (Sixth Edition) is heavily biased and fails to reach an objective consensus. It's disappointing especially in regards to Taiwan, I felt the other perspective wasn't explored. It's a thick, big textbook and there is good content in it, I just don't think we were supposed to think critically on the textbook. Which is a shame, because as this is part of a 'Chinese Studies' major or an 'International Studies' degree- we need to think more critically about the world in which we live in.

Then there was the cohort. Look, I get that it's first year. I get there was only so much Dr. Kevin Carrico could do (and he did try to encourage the class) but it just got so discouraging at times. In the final tutorial before the final exam, less than half the class showed up. Class discussions were just four people in a room of 25 people, and it wasn't like they were 'dominating' the conversation, its just that the rest of the cohort weren't willing to put up their hands and give discussion a go. But generally, the people doing this unit were nice people but I have to mention the cohort because it does impact on my experience with the unit. It's sad that people didn't really care or get involved.

Then there was a presentation. Easy enough, you do some research, present it to the class and ask three questions. Each presentation goes on for 15 minutes... and you've got 3-4 presentations, there goes the whole tutorial. Asking the questions was rather sad, because alot of students wouldn't put up their hands and Kevin tried his hardest to encourage thought and discussion. Maybe the presentations should have been small. Would have liked more time for class discussion. But not having an essay was a welcome alternative to alot of first year units.

Overall, I enjoyed this unit and would gladly take a class run by Kevin again.

Assessment Breakdown:
-Participation / Attendance: 20%
-Current Events Presentation: 20%
-Mid-sem exam: 25%
-Final exam: 35%

 

[STUDENT K]

isys100 anyone?

 

[BLIT2014]

MAS214 “Free Cultures”
Year and Semester Taken: 2018 S2
Lecturer: Steve
Tutor : C
Difficulty:* Easy/Medium
Workload: Depends on what you are aiming for.
Pass/Credit = Low
Credit/Distinction = Low/Medium
Distinction/High Distinction = Medium/Heavy (Depends on person)

Tutorial Quizzes : 50%

I was initially concerned about these quizzes, but once you’ve had the first one you realise that they aren’t that bad, and it is nice to get a significant proportion of the marks out of the way in tutorial activities. Grammar/spelling is not the focus, merely your holistic understanding of copyright-related concepts required for that week question. You should aim to write a page to a page and a half in order to gain the maximum/high marks. Focus on writing as much content as you can that is relevant to the question.

Pro-tip make sure that you read the question for the quiz that week (sometimes there are two parts of the question) so you don’t fail to answer all the question as that will cap your marks. Additionally Steve uploads what he is going to say on iLearn before or just after the lecture, so you might want to put your tutorial a couple of hours or so after the lecture, or later in the week. Quizzes typically focus on the content of this weeks lecture, and you may be able to tell when the next Quiz will be. Put contemporary/past examples of copyright concepts that you have come across by yourself (or in readings etc) in the quiz to demonstrate an outstanding awareness of course content.

Tutorial Participation: 10%

I was impressed with the level of engagement that occurred with respect to participation, at times it was even challenging to get a word in for many of the weeks!! If you don’t want to say anything then it probably would be easy to disappear in the class. I found it intellectually stimulating, and it was interesting to hear other individuals points of view. Read the lecture notes, attend lectures if practical, and do some of the weekly reading or read about related concepts for that week. I would suggest sitting near the front if feasible, as that makes it easier to force yourself to participate I’ve found. Some group work/discussion through the semester, that explored some difficult issues around the more grey areas within the discourse.


Essay: 40%

Essay is typically due Friday of week 13. It appears to have the same essay questions for the last few years, so maybe have a look at the essay questions before deciding to pursue this unit? Essay questions are uploaded at the start of the semester (with a rubric?) so technically you can start whatever time you want. I feel like that it would be beneficial to start after week 9 or so, and do as much of the reading as you can ( a lot of reading/videos etc are posted each week) as this helps in ensuring that you have a greater understanding of the language used within the discourse. Make sure you look at the rubric, and ensure you have the minimum amount of books and peer reviewed journal articles. I think the essay requirement is now 2000 words so not that bad in terms of word length.


Comments:

Misleading/confusing name, the course delves into copyright/intellectual property through a media inspired lens (tis a media unit after all!). The name comes from a book by Lessig called “Free Cultures”. It covers digital creativity and consumption, copyright, property, fairness and fair dealing, sampling, creative commons, fan-fiction, piracy, consumers, business models, stealing content, and much more!

Although I enjoyed it pretty much all of it, others found aspects dry and uninteresting. The lecturer Steve is entertaining and presents the concepts in interesting and engaging manner. Additionally, if you are struggling with anything the lecturers/tutors are very helpful and approachable which I think is a real credit to the University/department. It also has the benefit of i) being a people unit, ii) no final exam and iii) no group components which is important for people/planet unit selection. Have a read through the unit guide of previous semesters as a method of guiding your decision making. Some people think the session 3 condensed version is also really good and easier to get high marks in, but I cannot comment on that myself.


Additionally if you enrol for this media unit, Macquarie may send you more opportunities for exchange opportunities which you might like. Plus who doesn’t want to pretend to be an art student, and only have one hour worth of lectures, and a single hour of tutorial each week whilst complaining about all the readings you have to do. . Another great benefit is this unit does not have a textbook requirement, all readings are either freely available through creative commons licences or through Macquarie library. A fair bit of reading but unless you are chasing an HD then I'm sure most of it can be avoided.

 

[BLIT2014]

AHIS140 “Myths in the Ancient World” (People unit)
Year and Semester Taken: 2018
Lecturer: A variety of lecturers, that contains the unit convenor and guest lecturers. Some of them had very soporific voices which does not help when some lectures were either boring (for pretty much most people).
Tutor: E?
Workload: Lowish
Difficulty: Easy (Assuming you can write essays/short answers)


Assessments:

Online Quizzes 20%:

13 online quizzes that were each weighted 1.67%. This was good if you stuffed up a quiz or the quiz stuffed up and wouldn’t let you move forward due to internet issues or whatever. Quizzes were 15 minutes, and for the most part had sufficient time to answer them. Make sure you have read the appropriate chapter of textbook, plus also listened to the lecture /taken notes on the lecture slides that you’ve printed out. Have the lectures open, and make sure you are aware of any pictures on the slide that have gods/goddesses etc or other pictures of tombs etc. Online quizzes can be done and are open till week 13. This means if you want you can complete all the quizzes when you have the most time available.

Tutorial Paper 20%: Due Week 6

Unlike previous years, you do not get a choice of which tutorial papers and are expected to submit one in week 6. If you are good at writing short answer responses, you should be fine here. Remember to write down all ancient and modern sources, peer reviewed articles (/Articles that were discussed in class, the textbook) and pretty much all sources that you have come across. Foot noting is meant to be used which is a pain in the next so do not leave this to the last minute. Use the Oxford (humanities? Style) referencing for this and the essay.

Essay 40%: Due Week 10

Pay attention to the essay question that you have chosen, it will specify which culture (i.e ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman etc myths that can be used within the essay. You will be penalised if you refer to an Ancient Egyptian myth in 2 out of three essays as you aren’t meant to reference these myths in them. Foot noting is meant to be used which is a pain in the next so do not leave this to the last minute. Use the Oxford (humanities? Style) referencing for this and the essay.

Participation 20%:

Individuals who undertake this course seem to be on the quieter side, which reaps dividends if you want to participate. In saying this, at times it was “soul destroying” that no one really wanted to speak, and even the people who were speaking the most still left a lot of awkward silence. It felt that the tutor at times stole the more easy stuff to talk about, leaving us with limited stuff to participate in terms of course content. I’d advise doing the homework questions/writing dot points and trying to explore the concepts in more out of the box, by trying to make reference to myths/concepts that explored in the course.

Comments

Lectures were pretty boring for me as it used to be something I was into but pretty much nothing new was introduced. This is not the fault of the course, just an observation. Did learn some interesting stuff on middle eastern myths that I did not know which was cool. No tutorials for weeks that had stuff like essay or tutorial papers due. Overall, if you are a decent writer with respect to short answer and essays, then you are likely to get a distinction or high distinction with not too much effort. If you want you can get this unit pretty much entirely completed by week 10 leaving you plenty of time to focus on your other more interesting or units more relevant to your degree.
Probably helps to buy (or have access to the textbook).