B Science/B Arts (1 Viewer)

[Snarkie]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone who does this course could tell me what the workload is like. I'm interested in doing psychology as my major for science and english for the arts conponent. What's the timetable like? How many hours, etc.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but in first year we have to take compulsory math, two science electives and one arts elective? And we pretty much finish off the science degree in the first three years before completing arts in the last two?

Thanks!

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Hey I'm doing this course too now!

Um, as a general guide for contact hours.

Maths (3cp) : 3 hrs per week
Science (6cp) : 7 hrs per week
Arts (6cp) : 3 hrs per week

But that's just from my experience, so it may be different for psychology units. I've found that science units have about double the workload of an arts unit, so bear that in mind.

As for your plan, I don't think you have to do anything in any particular order (they're merely guiding you) as the only thing they check by the end is if you've done all the units, but again, don't quote me on that because I'm not sure. I know that my degree structure is going to be way out of sync with the guide.

 

[thenothing]

Why did you switch out of education? didn't like it?

Last year I was doing between 22-27 (or 28?) hours a week. But second semester I wasn't doing any arts subjects and the molecular bio labs made the hours a fair bit longer.

If you do what they reccommend, that is 6cp maths, 12cp science and 6cp arts you'll have around 22 hours a week (depending on your subject choices).

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

Nah, I still want to do an education thing, but if I do an english and science major then I believe I can teach both, well, that's what i've been informed anyway. even if that's not the case, the english stuff is interesting enough to keep doing it anyway.

 

[Snarkie]

Thanks so much for your replies! I never thought I'd be going to USYD so I didn't ask these things at the open days so thanks for the info!

I hope that you could also better explain this to me.

"To qualify for the award of the pass degrees in the BSc/BA course a student shall complete units of study to a total value of at least 240 credit points including:

• at least 96 credit points from Science subject areas;
• at least 12 credit points from the Science subject areas of Mathematics and Statistics;
• at least 24 credit points of Junior units of study from at least two Science subject areas other than Mathematics or Statistics;
• no more than 96 credit points from Junior units of study;
• a major in a Science area; and
• at least 72 credit points of Senior units of study in Arts subject areas, including a major from Part A of the table of undergraduate units of study in the Faculty of Arts."

In plain English, how much science and how much arts would I be doing? I mean, I know that a plain BA is 144cp, so if I do the combined degree, how much less of arts? I don't know whether to major in English or History and was hoping to just be able to both for the arts component... is that possible in a combined degree?

Also, if I decided to just do a BA, do I still have to finish a year of the Bsc/BA before I can transer? Or can I just stop doing the Bsc anytime? I love science but I'm just not sure whether I can withstand 5 years...

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

cp means credit points.

You need 40 subjects in total (240cp, 5 years)
You need at LEAST 16 (96cp, 2 years) science subjects (including maths)
You need at LEAST 12 (72cp, 1.5 years) arts subjects
You need at LEAST 4 (12 cp, 3cp each) math subjects
You need at LEAST 4 (24cp) junior (ie 1000 level) science subjects that aren't math subjects (ie chemistry, biology, physics etc)
And the rest (ie: 12 subjects, 72cp, 1.5 years) can be from either science or arts

Make sure you do at least 4 subjects from a senior (ie 3000 level) science (your science major)
Make sure you do at least 4 subjects from a senior (ie 2000 or 3000) arts subjects (your arts major)

Make sure you don't do any more than 16 junior subjects
Make sure you don't do more than 10 senior subjects from one arts subject area (ie english, sociology etc)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Best to print out one of those planners they have on the handbook website, and plot out exactly what subjects you'll be doing, and when.

 

[adistar85us]

cp means credit points.

You need 40 subjects in total (240cp, 5 years)
You need at LEAST 16 (96cp, 2 years) science subjects (including maths)
You need at LEAST 12 (72cp, 1.5 years) arts subjects
You need at LEAST 4 (12 cp, 3cp each) math subjects
You need at LEAST 4 (24cp) junior (ie 1000 level) science subjects that aren't math subjects (ie chemistry, biology, physics etc)
And the rest (ie: 12 subjects, 72cp, 1.5 years) can be from either science or arts

Make sure you do at least 4 subjects from a senior (ie 3000 level) science (your science major)
Make sure you do at least 4 subjects from a senior (ie 2000 or 3000) arts subjects (your arts major)

Make sure you don't do any more than 16 junior subjects
Make sure you don't do more than 10 senior subjects from one arts subject area (ie english, sociology etc)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Best to print out one of those planners they have on the handbook website, and plot out exactly what subjects you'll be doing, and when.

I'm doing the same course.

For the science part i.e 16 subjects;

just making sure, I need 4 junior science subjects right, but it has to have at least 2 different ones? So, like this:

-psych1001
-psych1002
-any other junior science
-any other junior science

with the remaining 8 science subjects, I can just narrow them down to psych ones?

For the maths component, if I did stats its 6 cp's per subject, so I just need two because it says at least 12 cp? Or do I still need to do 4 maths subjects?

For the arts part i.e 12 subjects;

nothing really.

For the electives i.e 12 cp's remaining;

can I elect all arts/humanities for this one?

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

If stats is in the maths department, and it's worth 6cp then you'd only need to do 3 maths subjects. I was under the impression that all maths subjects were only 3cp, but if stats is worth 6cp then maybe I won't have to do as much maths either. That'd be a relief!

Regarding psych, yes you can do that if psych units are listed as a Faculty of Science subject. I assume that they are? As I said, just make sure you do 4 junior science subjects that aren't maths. So uh, technically your first year plan would look like this.

S1:
Psych1 (6cp)
Math (6cp)
science1 (6cp)
elective1 (6cp)

S2:
Psych2 (6cp)
Math (3cp)
Math (3cp)
science1 (6cp)
elective 1 (6cp)

Your remaining senior/intermediate subjects can be all psych, yeah, as long as the school of psychology allows that and whatever.

And yes, you can do all arts/humanities for the electives.

 

[adistar85us]

Ty for that.