Importance of WAM? (3 Viewers)

[halapenyo]

from what i understand of WAM. its just the average of all your marks in the subjects done for your degree.

but i dont understand if it is important from an employer's viewpoint. wouldnt a person who did harder subjects at uni have a lower WAM, so how can it be used to distinguish between applicants?

in short i just want to know how important my WAM is in the long run. bcuz a lot of people have been telling me that actuarial subjects are 'WAM killers' and to avoid them.

 

[TheStallion]

Of course it's important, most decent companies have a WAM cutoff, i.e if your WAM is lower than the minimum they want, the resume is just automatically binned. With WAM, 2nd year subjects are worth twice as much, 3rd year 3x as much etc, so that's why people often say if you fuck up first year, nobody gives a shit since you can still save your WAM easily with good marks later on.

People don't do *harder* subjects at uni, for example everyone in Mech Eng will do almost exactly the same subjects, so it provides a great comparison. With degrees with lots of electives, yeah, it's less fair, but suck it up and don't pick hard electives if you don't want to risk your WAM dropping.

 

[halapenyo]

Of course it's important, most decent companies have a WAM cutoff, i.e if your WAM is lower than the minimum they want, the resume is just automatically binned. With WAM, 2nd year subjects are worth twice as much, 3rd year 3x as much etc, so that's why people often say if you fuck up first year, nobody gives a shit since you can still save your WAM easily with good marks later on.

People don't do *harder* subjects at uni, for example everyone in Mech Eng will do almost exactly the same subjects, so it provides a great comparison. With degrees with lots of electives, yeah, it's less fair, but suck it up and don't pick hard electives if you don't want to risk your WAM dropping.

cool. tnks for the response . good to know that 2nd and 3rd year subjects are more important.

 

[Tortilla]

Are you sure 2nd & 3rd year subjects are worth more? in commerce? wheres proof?

 

[4025808]

Are you sure 2nd & 3rd year subjects are worth more? in commerce? wheres proof?

He meant that 2nd and 3rd year subjects are qualitatively worth more to the employer, not quantitatively worth more.

 

[unsw-maths-guru]

The WAM that appears on your transcript is just a straight weighted average of your marks. It is all done automatically which means that it sometimes gets it a bit wrong. (For example, if you do a full year subject like maths honours you enrol in one 24 UOC subject each session, but only one of those subjects ever gets a mark attached to it. Course transfers can cause problems too.)

Anyway, no-one takes the WAM too seriously cos its pretty impossible to compare one in law to one in engineering. Employers do worry about how well you have done, so having a crap WAM will make it harder to get a job. If you've failed 5 subjects and ended up with a WAM of 52, you are going to have to work really hard to convince someone that you are going to be a better employee than someone with straight HDs. But they are interested in a lot more than what your average mark was.

 

[TheStallion]

He meant that 2nd and 3rd year subjects are qualitatively worth more to the employer, not quantitatively worth more.

No. Both. https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/academiclife/assessment/WAM.html

Can't believe you can't even google search this shit, it's all over the UNSW sites. The WAM is not a straight average, even thought about what WAM stands for? WEIGHTED average mark. Fail the shit out of the first year, won't matter much at all as long as you dominate the other years.

 

[wantingtoknow]

No. Both. https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/academiclife/assessment/WAM.html

Can't believe you can't even google search this shit, it's all over the UNSW sites. The WAM is not a straight average, even thought about what WAM stands for? WEIGHTED average mark. Fail the shit out of the first year, won't matter much at all as long as you dominate the other years.

lol what, I can't tell if you're serious...
WAM is a straight average esp now that they've gotten rid of the subjects that were only worth 3units

 

[soloooooo]

TheStallion is correct. 2nd year courses weighted at 2x those of first year, third year courses weighted at 3x those of first year etc.

WAM is important if you want to do honours/masters/PHD.

 

[TheStallion]

Tbh thought the link I posted is shit, lemme find a better one

EDIT: Found one, here we are http://www.mech.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/Calculation-of-WAM.pdf

That's faculty of eng though, it's possible that some faculties don't weight like that, so check with your faculty.

 

[unsw-maths-guru]

What Stallion's link points to is the Engineering "Faculty WAM". This is NOT what appears on your transcript - even in Engineering. Engineering use it to hand out Honours as they don't have a separate honours year.

The Weighted in WAM generally refers to weighting by units of credit, not by year. (There are still some subjects that are not 6UOC, like MATH2620 (3UOC) and MATH4601 (24 UOC))

 

[maheenreza]

Say I had a really bad first sem in Uni,and my WAM drops to somewhere between a High Credit and a Low Distinction.Is it possible to take it upto a HD if I work start studying regularly.Btw,doing Bachelor Of Commerce(Actuarial Studies).

 

[Shadowdude]

Say I had a really bad first sem in Uni,and my WAM drops to somewhere between a High Credit and a Low Distinction.Is it possible to take it upto a HD if I work start studying regularly.Btw,doing Bachelor Of Commerce(Actuarial Studies).

You know what WAM is? Your average mark. Build your marks, and your WAM will grow. Simple.

But if you start off with 70-75 WAM, good luck getting it to HD territory.

 

[maheenreza]

You know what WAM is? Your average mark. Build your marks, and your WAM will grow. Simple.

But if you start off with 70-75 WAM, good luck getting it to HD territory.

Yes,its just that I was not here for the first 4 weeks of uni and so fucked up in math1151.Missed all the online tests and everything.
It was a suggestive WAM,its the lowest I still think I can go.
I am pretty sure I can get a close to 90WAM in semester 2,year 1.If its close to anything like sem 1.
Just wondering if it was possible to get that kind of WAM in year 2 and 3 for actuarial students.And what electives should be taken to get that sort of WAM.
Hope I am clear.

 

[halapenyo]

Yes,its just that I was not here for the first 4 weeks of uni and so fucked up in math1151.Missed all the online tests and everything.
It was a suggestive WAM,its the lowest I still think I can go.
I am pretty sure I can get a close to 90WAM in semester 2,year 1.If its close to anything like sem 1.
Just wondering if it was possible to get that kind of WAM in year 2 and 3 for actuarial students.And what electives should be taken to get that sort of WAM.
Hope I am clear.

nah 90 WAM is supposed to be like impossible in actuarial.

and cant believe its been so long since i created this thread lol. anyways my WAM is down the drain. looking at 60 for this sem. hopefully can get that up to a 70 by the time i graduate.

 

[maheenreza]

nah 90 WAM is supposed to be like impossible in actuarial.

and cant believe its been so long since i created this thread lol. anyways my WAM is down the drain. looking at 60 for this sem. hopefully can get that up to a 70 by the time i graduate.

Like all I want to know about is ,like what is a good WAM for the end of first year.
Something that will keep you in with the best of the crop.
Since I have had a shit first sem.Doing really well in sem 2 is a must.
So needed to know what people usually get for their WAM in the first year if they are doing Actuarial.
Am I clear?
Sorry Im just too depressed knowing how I may have fucked up the whole 4 years,with this one shit semester.

 

[bladeys]

Sorry Im just too depressed knowing how I may have fucked up the whole 4 years,with this one shit semester.

Lol dont be such a drama queen.

 

[someguy12]

Say I had a really bad first sem in Uni,and my WAM drops to somewhere between a High Credit and a Low Distinction.Is it possible to take it upto a HD if I work start studying regularly.Btw,doing Bachelor Of Commerce(Actuarial Studies).

Well, if you have 70 at the end of sem 1, you would need to average 88 in the remaining 5 semesters to finish the degree with an 85 wam. That's certainly possible, but it would be a pretty big turnaround. Don't forget actuarial subjects (as in exemption subjects, not that piece of piss actl1001) are very hard. You're competing against some seriously smart motherfuckers at the top of the class, and they make the exams difficult enough so that only a few people get HDs. You'd want to be doing lots of WAM boosters for your free electives.

 

[steffanie1]

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[maheenreza]

Well, if you have 70 at the end of sem 1, you would need to average 88 in the remaining 5 semesters to finish the degree with an 85 wam. That's certainly possible, but it would be a pretty big turnaround. Don't forget actuarial subjects (as in exemption subjects, not that piece of piss actl1001) are very hard. You're competing against some seriously smart motherfuckers at the top of the class, and they make the exams difficult enough so that only a few people get HDs. You'd want to be doing lots of WAM boosters for your free electives.

Ok.But being around 80 should be good I guess?
But is it like possible to get that sort of a WAM in the following years for actuarial students.
And what is like the WAM that people doing actuarial usually graduate with?Any ideas?
I have acct 1501 tomorrow.and I am actually being too much of a drama queen here.Rather try and get it up higher to actually get this semester into a higher then 75 WAM.lol.