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CHEM1011 or MATS1101? (1 Viewer)

addoil

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I am studyin engineering and need to choose electives.

MATS1101 is the recommended one but i am trying to decide between this or CHEM1011. The handbook descriptions sound like similar content ..is there an acrual difference?

What if I choose both? Is that even possible?

Advice/past experience? Thanks!
 

D94

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MATS1101 is half hsc chem, half hsc engineering studies.

You can do both.
 

Mr Slick

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neither

or maybe both

but math is good, ppl who are smart do maffs, go for maffs champ :)
 
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traiwit

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yeah same problem here, i'm doing petroleum engineering
i think i will do chem in the next semester as it gives me a better timetable :D
 

RazorICE

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MATS1101 is half chem, half materials. I mean half literally, half the course you learn chemistry in chemistry lectures, and in the other half you learn about material properties and whatever else. See the course outline here: http://www.materials.unsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/MATS1101.pdf There's a Materials strand and a Chemistry strand, each worth 50%.

I didn't do CHEM1011 so I can't compare directly, but I can say that at best, MATS1101 covers half of the chemistry covered in CHEM1101. In terms of which is more useful for engineering students - honestly, I'd have to say MATS1101, even if it may be a somewhat "easier" course. That is, MATS1101 is more useful unless you plan on specialising in materials in your field, in which case the deeper understanding of chemistry is probably a lot more helpful. But if that's the case, you should be doing Materials Science/Engineering rather than Engineering.

The Materials strand I found to be much easier than the Chemistry strand, but it was also a lot more useful. I'm still regularly using things we learned in the Materials strand to this day in my Engineering courses, whereas I've literally not touched organic chemistry, chemical reactions, oxidation, or any of the stuff in the Chemistry strand since MATS1101.
 
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kaz1

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CHEM1011 especially if you did HSC chem should be a breeze and a half, I only got 80 in HSC chem, skipped half the lectures for CHEM1011 and still got a HD

I didn't do MATS1101 because the contact hours are more of a pain and my friends said the materials part was pretty hard
 

RazorICE

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CHEM1011 especially if you did HSC chem should be a breeze and a half, I only got 80 in HSC chem, skipped half the lectures for CHEM1011 and still got a HD

I didn't do MATS1101 because the contact hours are more of a pain and my friends said the materials part was pretty hard
I agree. For something like petroleum engineering, I would definitely pick CHEM1011, since it's much more important than learning about material fracture, tearing, yielding, etc.
 

traiwit

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wow, seem like BOS has many petroleum engineering students huh ;)
 

4025808

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They say that MATS1101 is the recommended one you take, although CHEM1011 is the acceptable one. (Never took chemistry in high school)

Not sure if I should switch back to CHEM1011, seeing as I haven't taken chemistry in high school.
 

traiwit

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They say that MATS1101 is the recommended one you take, although CHEM1011 is the acceptable one. (Never took chemistry in high school)

Not sure if I should switch back to CHEM1011, seeing as I haven't taken chemistry in high school.
my friend never studied chem at all in his life, and was okay in CHEM1011 last semester
 

lawstu

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Personally, I would do CHEM. Given that you study engineering, maybe MATS is a better fit.
 

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