Sort of a rehash of the "Easiest Papers" thread.

So for the benefit of others yet to take papers you may have already taken here is your opportunity to either deter them or encourage.

List them, rate them, describe the workload, workcontent and annoying lecturers.

Im really fuckin hungry so Ill put my list up later.

www.ausa.auckland.ac.nz/altcal

Ok but I meant the craccum forum version :P

Make it look pretty and its yours!

I'm only listing the ones from my first year, for the sake of modesty.

Maths 108
Grade: B-
Not too hard, just pay attention

Physics 120
Grade: B-
Can be difficult, but not overly. Watch for Dr Conway blow stuff up

CompSci 101
Grade: A
Piece of piss.

Maths 208
Grade: D
Don't do a Calc paper at 8am. Ever

Physics 150
Grade: B-
Step up from 120. More challenging, but more interesting, especially the modern physics.

CompSci 105
Grade: B-
Boring as fuck, but kinda valuable, in a sick perverse nerdy way.

ACCTG101
A- > If you have done accounting before very easy, just watch out for the finance part

MATH108
B > As tempy says pay attention and stay upto date and you will be sweet

ECON101
A > Easy as, even if you have never done economics all you need to know is "when supply increases demand decreases"

LAW101A
TBA > Quite wordy

:ninja:

english121-reading writing texts. easy as fuck if you can write at all. example of assignment : 'take a photo of yourself and write the story behind it'. decent workload, you could do basically as many readings as you wanted to. i didnt go to lectures, got a B+ (because of the final exam which i really put no effort whatsoever into and left after just over an hour).

ftvms100 boring as fuck. dont take it. just dont. the multichoice exam might make it a tempting option, but just dont. the exam would be much easier if it was in essay form, trust me. the 2 hour lectures will kill a little part of you each week.

music (?) basis music techniques: light workload (depends on how good your music theory is) the course is extremely freaking boring though, its like beign in a 5th form classroom and you have to sing and learn stupid hand signals for which note to sing. the exam, however, requires no more than 10minutes of hard study, unless you are completely musicallychallenged.

YR1
Philosophy of Metaphysics: If you're into this kind of stuff, it's a great introductory course, and pretty easy to get good grades in.

Philosophy of Human Nature: Was cool, good component to mix up with Metaphysics.

FTVMS 100: Okay, if you can cope with all the pretentious assholes. Oh yeah, and as Maniac states above - it's fucking multichoice. You'd think that would be easy. It's not.
FTVMS 101: Was better than 100 (which is more media focussed than film focussed) but it's still full of wankers.

Politics and Media: This was quite interesting, but the lecturer made it one of the most boring papers I have ever taken. Thank god for tutors.

English 109 From stage to screen: This was a cool paper for the study of adpatations such as A Streetcar Named Desire and other such cool, obscure plays by genii such as Brecht.

YR2

Hollywood and it's Others: I went into this paper with mixed views due to it's title. But it was pretty much the opposite of what it connotes. It just sort of dealt with Hollywood through the ages, but we did a lot of festival films and new wave stuff like Happiness and Easy Rider.

Philosophy of Religion: This was cool, it expanded on some of the theories I'd already studied in Metaphysics. Like the Argument from Evil and Nietzsche's theories as well as new stuff like Buddhism and Hinduism, which was fucking rad.

Sociology of Popular Culture: This has been my favourite paper so far. It was totally fucking rad.

FTVMS200: Meh, this has been slightly crap thus far. I've decided that all the base papers for ftvms, though compulsory, are the crappest and that it's only when you expand on this component of the arts that you get the fucking golden ones.

English 257 Argument, Criticism and Literacy: Awesome, thus far.

Yep. All of them have been pretty good. FTVMS are the only ones that I tend to get pissed off or bored in, and that's only because some obnoxious bastard is pissing me off, or it's just uninteresting.

this semester so far:

eng109=really quite cool, but i didnt go to the first two weeks as wasnt enrolled, so i actually am rather clueless as to whats going on.

ftvms101=uberchouette, lots of fun and wayyy better than 100. agree about getting annoyed in lectures, but for me this is due to people rocking all the seats in our row, or talking really loudly (which oops is me when im sitting next to sez, actually, its her doing the talking not me)

psych108= interesting, most seems common knowledge, teh only hard part is memorising names of psychologists.

english 257= heyyy im taking your paper yehls. this is cool, again, i didnt go to the first two weeks so sort of feel a bit behind, but its ok coz my tutors cool (he has a mo and a tattoo :clap:

First semester

BIOSCI 100 - antartica the blue continent

managed a B with only turning up to under half over the 5pm, full multichoice exam and midsemester, complete piece of piss.

BIOSCI 101 - From genomes to organisms
Harder than i thought it was gonna be, didnt study for midsemester and paid for it with 40% :( i passed tho just at the final. The course was not too bad looking back on it, i underestimated it tho cos it was a prerequisite for every second stage pretty much. Just listen in lectures and u'll be sweet

BIOSCI 104 - NZ conservation and ecology, simple. field trips were fun for about 5 mins then the remaining 3+ hours got tedious. kinda boring about trees and shit.

I'll cover some of my more recent papers (2003/2004). I can't remember the specific papers of the names, but I can remember the numbers. Probably Templar is the only person who can make use of this advice, anyone else here majoring in compsci?

Compsci 372: Computer graphics

Kind of fun, but the assignments are fairly difficult (as you would expect for a 3rd year compsci paper) and it has some fairly serious calculus. Remember that shit you did in 7th form calc and thought "man, I'll never use that shit"? You'll use that shit.

I do believe this paper goes on record as the most difficult paper I've done at uni. This is one of the 3 papers I failed, but while I maintain that I failed the other two because they were both far too boring to study for (and had very shitty notes), I concede that I was simply not man enough to pass CS372 the first time around. I sat it a second time and passed though.

Compsci 340: Operating systems

Being the boring person that I am I quite liked this paper and found it fairly interesting, this was my highest grade for a 3rd year compsci paper probably because of this interest. Has very time consuming assignments though... the main file in one of my assignments ended up being about 1200 lines of code (less than 5% was skeleton code IIRC... maybe even none). Only 3 assignments though rather than the usual 4.

Compsci 314: Data communications

City version: good. Tamaki version: bad. It has no programming, so it's a good way to fill in two points of stage 3 compsci without getting even more pwn3d by assignments.

Compsci 334: Internet programming

One of the most useful papers I've done, actually teaches you useful things rather than more theoretical shit you'll never use. Not too difficult either when compared to other stage 3 papers, don't let the fact that it used to require a b+ average fool you (I got in once they lowered this restriction :P).

In my view you want to do those papers which actually teach you useful things rather than academic no-use-in-the-real-world crap... of course many theory based papers are prerequisites, so you'll have to go through some of that. From stage 2 compsci and infosys the following papers actually teach practical things:

* Compsci 210, until it starts covering assembly code which no one in their right mind uses
* Compsci 230
* Compsci 280 (I have not done this but it teaches VB, which is handy to know I suppose).
* Infosys 220
* Infosys 222
* Compsci 334
* Possibly infosys 224

Econ 232 - Development of the International Economy - This is an awesome course. The lecturer is relaly keen on discussion and getting to people to develop their own ideas. The content is ever changing and relevant. Excellent.

Econ 241 - International Economics - Pretty useful but can be boring as fuck. Looking at trade and exchange rates and policy and stuff. Alright.

Politics 231 - Media Opinion and Propaganda - The lecturer can be dull but the content is pretty interest and relevant to loads of courses. The tutorials are way better and there have been some really interesting discussions from them.


That's all I have done. Looking at stage 2/3 politics/econ/int bus papers next semester if anyone knows anything about them.

Wow thanks guys, those are all very good and thought out reviews.

It also made me realise just how many papers I have done... oh jeez.

From the beginning:

Acctg 101: Accounting Information
If you've never done Accounting before at High School (like me), never fear this is actually a pretty interesting paper. The workload isnt too bad and although I did it some 3 years ago, I remember the section on Shares and the Stock Market very helpful.

Compsci101: Principles of Programming
Warning, if you have never done programming before you will most likely find this paper hard (well the last few assignments anyways) Make sure to befriend someone that knows what they are doing. If you have done programming before (no HTML doesnt count) you will find this paper a piece of piss.

Maths102: Mathematics 2
yes I didnt do Bursary Calc and so was made to do this piece of shit easy ass paper, no comment, Im pretty sure even the hambeast could pass it. (oh yeah I had to do it to get into Maths151 which I needed to do to get into 2nd stage CS)

Compsci105: Principles of Computer Science
As tempy said, compared to 101 its very very boring. But you need to stick out because if you are taking it, its probably because you are majoring in CS. Your first introduction to the internal workings of a computer and bits. Also once you go binary, you dont go back.

English 100: Introduction to Chaucer and Shakespeare
What What What?!?! Yes I did an English paper, this was before I converted to a conjoint and was still deciding my degree. I took this paper with Alec, its on Shakespeare and Chaucer and was actually pretty interesting now that I reflect on it.

Maths151: Mathematics 3
Had to do this to get into 2nd Stage CS, if youre majoring in CS you will to (or you could take the pussy route and take Maths108, which is slightly easier but basically the same stuff). I got a B but felt like I was going to fail, the lecturer looked like he just walked in off the street and made no sense, everyone in the class looked like they didnt know what the fuck half the time and I think I may have failed a few assignments. Its a fucking hard paper and I honestly dont know how I passed it, oh yeah, textbooks are good when youre lecturer is crap.

Philosophy101: Introduction to Logic
This is a must do Easy A-Pass paper. Not much more can be said but that.

Econ101: Microeconomics
Pretty average as papers go, I found it fairly boring and cant really remember much from it today. I took it in Summer School, no assignments. Bonus!

Acctg102: Accounting Concepts
Foolishly I majored in Accounting for my Commerce side of the conjoint despite never having done it in High School. What was I thinking? This paper was the bane of my existence, I showed up to every lecture only to space out because the content just wasnt intersting. Its all practical but not hands on. An assignment every fucking week makes it workload very not fun and despite cramming what little knowledge of accounting I could, I failed with a D+. Needless to say I switched Commerce majors after this. In conclusion, if you have never done accounting before, expect this paper to be very hard unless your'e some freak with a hardon for numbers.

Comlaw101: Law, Commerce and Government
Some of the lecturers were the most boring I had ever encountered at this university and by contrast one of them involved the students so much it got to the point of "oh god please dont ask me". Be prepared to do a lot of reading and memorising for this paper. It can be interesting and boring at the same time. Try to stay positive and youll get through it.

Compsci230: Software Design and Construction
The most fun 2nd year CS paper in mine and a lot of my friends oppinions (excluding tempy). It takes 101 to the next level, by giving you more knowledge to work with in the form of Swing and Inheritance, Polymorhpism etc etc.

Mgmt101: Organization and Management
Only slighlty more boring than Comlaw101. Also my first introduction to group participation in Tutorials. Try to score a tutorial with people that can actually speak english. Do lots of reading and youll be fine.

Compsci210: Computer Systems
Like Oob says, its alright up until you do Assembly, then it all turns to shit. Youll find yourself wondering why you're majoring in CS as you stay till 10 in the labs screaming at your PC for throwing a "Miss Native" exception. Take heart, youll never use Assembly again (not even in 330) so dont fret if you dont completely get it. Just find someone who does, get their help to pass the assignments and get some help with the stuff you dont get from the tutors, youll pass fine.

Compsci220: Algorithms and Data Structures
I despised this paper the most out of the 2nd year CS papers I did. Mostly because it contained a lot of Math. Well not a lot, but the one thing I remember was "Telescoping" which I still dont get. A lot of this stuff relates to the 3rd year comp graphics and AI papers so again dont worry if you dont really get it all, just get help, scrape a pass and go do those 3rd year internet programming papers.

Econ111: Macroeconomics
I was told this was harder than Micro. I found it easier and by far more interesting. I actually enjoyed this paper so much I considered doing Econ211. Also the lecturer is fucking hilarious

Compsci280: Applications Programming
If you do this after all the other 2nd year CS papers youll find yourself feeling a little "above" everyone as what makes immediate sense to you, takes significantly longer to sink on others. This is because this paper is meant for Commerce and IS majors (I can say that cause I am one). But beware, halfway through the course shit gets hard so make sure you show up to lectures.

Compsci330: Language Implementation
DO NOT TAKE THIS PAPER: Unless you have friends taking it that know what they are doing, or you know what you are doing. I passed it, but only just. It was another of those "How the fuck did I pass that?" papers. Also expect your unimail to be spammed heavily as Bruce Hutton will go out of his way to make sure students understand whats going on. To his credit I dont think I have ever seen one lecturer so dedicated to making sure students pass his paper before. From extra tutorials to hangin out in the lab answering questions.

Compsci334: Internet Programming
THe most fun paper I ever did here. And like Oob said, everything you learn and do is helpful. Also very popular so make sure your GPA is high enough to get in, if not I hope youre good at giving head.
Bonus Points: Multichoice Test and Exam!
Not so Bonus Points: Working your'e schedule around the Tamaki hours.
More Bonus Points: You learn a little about hacking in PHP.

Infosys220: Systems Analysis and Design 1
Pretty damn boring, average workload. But most importantly. Make sure you pick some competent group members for your final group assignments.

Compsci335: Distributed Objects and Web
This paper is so similar to 334 that the lines are kind of blurred. Youll find yourself experiencing a lot of De Ja Vu. Its a little bit harder and more boring than 334, but still useful (except for CORBA).
Again Bonus Points for Multi Choice Exam and Test
But Non Bonus Points for Tamaki scheduling.

Econ204: The Economics of the Internet
I stumbled across the paper when looking for electives to do to fill credits on my commerce side of the conjoint. Its a fairly easy paper and really very interesting. Youll learn all about how to scam online auctions, and get ideas as to what kind of E-Business is best to setup. Highly recommended.

Infosys222: Database Systems
Less boring and less harder than Infosys220, however it still has a group assignment at the end. So again pick your group members wisely. Youll be learning SQL. And doing lots of reading.

Pysch108: Introduction to Psychology Part 1
The most interesing of the two stage 1 pysch papers. Make sure you show up to lectures or youll get lost. Going to Labs and Tuts are also mandatory.

Stats 108: Statistics for Commerce
I did this at summer school, I fucked around too much, what should have been an easy A+ became a B. Recommended to be taken directly after high school in your first year when 7th Form stats is still fresh in your mind. Youll ace it no problem. Oh yeah minitab sucks balls.

Compsci314: Data Communications Fundamentals
Taking this at the same time as Infosys224 is a really good idea, its like doing a 2 for 1. Its a pretty boring paper otherwise, actually, its a VERY boring paper. Make sure you read a lot because youll be spacing out in lectures.

Infosys224: Data Communications
See above: Exceptions, slightly more dumbed down version of CS314, making it more understandable in parts, the weekly Cisco Tests however are fucking annoying. But no assignments for the win. But yeah make sure you actually study for the Cisco tests, you fail the cisco component, you fail the paper.

Pysch109: Introduction to Psychology Part 2
I had no respect for this paper. It was pretty boring and hard to study for. Consequently I only got a C+. Not much more can be said than that.

Stats220: Data Technologies
Another Must Take Easy A-Pass paper. Your'e assignments consist of 3rd form quality webpages and Php docs. You delve a little into R near the end. I hardly showed up to lecturers and still got an A.

I wont mention the papers Im currently doing.

I'll cover some papers which others haven't covered.

Stats10x- easy, easy, EASY! Didn't turn up to 1/2 the lectures, got an A+. Multichoice exams and test. Notes given to you PLUS narrated lectures on CDRom

Stats20x- EASY, EASY EASY!! Kinda have to turn up and listen but the lecturers are actually interesting ones! Multichoice test. Try to do this paper immediately after Stats10x so that stats is fresh in ur mind. I managed an A+ for the paper and i left the exam 1 1/2 hrs early.

Stats330 - Advanced Statistical Modelling - Do not do if u do not want to be dealing with R all the time. Otherwise its ok.

Compsci 345- Human-Computer Interaction - I found this o.k. Had issues with the uncertainty involved but i passed all the same!

Mktg201 - Basic Marketing.. can't say it was easy...hard work needed to get good mark. But once u get the fundamentals and just repeat the 4P's u shud be fine

Mktg202 - If you do Stats20x and Mrktg201, do this paper (if youre not majoring in marketing), if you are, u have to do it anyways. But Do it in summer school. Lecturer is way cool and plus they usually scale up the summer school results. Managed to get an A for it!

Mktg301- Strategy - UGHH...Dont touch this paper if you dont have to. Hard, vague, crappy, enough said.. I managed a decent grade for it but was the bane of my existence last sem.

Mktg306 - Advertising - It was ok. Just go to lectures and u shud be fine

Mgmt223 - Do this paper if you have a spare 2 points!! Lecturer is a crack up! One of the most interesting ones ive had. She writes the test and exam questions only after WE tell HER what we want plus for the essay assignment, she practically tells us what to put in it. Doing it now, loving it. Although it is a bit "wtf" sometimes in lecturers when u come out.

Comlaw201- Commercial Contracts - Doable paper. Hate the tutorials tho. Had a booooring lecturer for 1/2 of it. Study off the txtbook and u will be sweet.

Comlaw 203 - Company Law - BORING.

Comlaw 313- e-Commerce and the Law - Loved it. I think me and a couple of ppl managed to get 100% for the whole semester! easy A+. Open book exam as well! Pre-wrote my answers.

Comlaw 320 - Intellectual property - Interesting but was hard. Do it in lieu of taxation or somethign else boring.

Comlaw 303 - Receiverships and Reconstructions - 8am starts i do not mix. Grrr.......Upside is the lecturer tells u whats in the exam. Downside is that it is a hard paper.

show-off.

Pol 107 [NZ Politics]
A
It was pretty cool having a lot of celebrities and has a lot of interesting content, but on the same note has a fair bit of pretty menial stats-chomping political stuff.

Chinese 100
B
Way too much stuff to learn for any Westerner, too early lectures, and things always seemed really tense in the learning style. I dunno, it was still really useful.

Span 205 [Latin American literature]
B+
This is cool if you speak Spanish very well, otherwise it's a real fucking mission and is extremely difficult.

Haha some of the stuff on here is pretty funny!

If I were to list all the papers I have done with blurbs i'd run out of posting space.

English 257s pretty freaking easy so far, i got an A- in the only assignment weve done so far. and i shouldnt, in theory, be doing the paper for another two years.

I think I did that one.

Compsci 101
Grade: A+
This paper is the easiest paper I've ever done. The paper is about how to program, nothing else. They do this by teaching you the Java programming language. You get introduced to the features of modern programming languages and how various constructs in these languages work. Then when you move on to other languages later in your career you'll find that basically they have alot in common.
If you've had any exposure to programming before you too will find it piss easy. Make sure to take it in the first semester, where assignment 4 is a game, and not the second, where it's some essay on ethics and shit.
The test and exam are similar in format and the type of questions they ask, so if you have problems in the test this is a clear sign that you need help because it won't get any better (it also won't get any worse)
This is one of those papers which divides itself among different lecturers, so you'll run across those like Paul Denny, who are fun and enthusiastic and motivated, and those who make you want to go to sleep. So it not only introduces you to programming, but also introduces you to how different lecturers can be.
Workload consists of 5 assignments and weekly labs. Assignments will tell you what to do and how to do it. This is also a good paper for experimenting with assignments and labs, adding features, changing how the programs work, etc. The 4th assignment encourages this by holding a competition to see who can make the best game.
The only paper I've done where the assignments have bonus marks for early completion.

Compsci 105
Grade: B
Okay fun's over. This is where reality sets in and you learn that computer science is more than just programming. You'll learn about algorithms and data structures, what makes a good computer program and what makes a bad one, etc. It's boring but it's all stuff you need if you want to go further.

Compsci 210
Grade: B-
This is a very low-level paper. Low-level in that it gets close to the nuts and bolts of computer programs and how they work. If you want to know how a program gets turned into machine code you need this paper to make your way into 330.
Unix, C, operating systems, it's all good until you get to Assembly. This section suffers not so much because of it's content, which is hard, but because Patrice is a French arsehole, which makes it harder.
If you've done well so far then do what I did, switch off, do half arsed work on the assignments and essentially avoid this segment of the course.

Compsci 220
Grade: B
Whatever happened in this paper I don't remember any of it. I must've done well though.

Compsci 225
Grade: A
I can't reliably comment on this one, as I stopped showing up to lectures after the break. This is only because the second half has alot in common with 220. The first half is pretty into logic and mathematical proofs. It was hard and boring and I didn't understand it all that much.
I have no idea how I got a fucking A on this paper, it must have something to do with 220.

Compsci 230
Grade: B+
I loved this paper and it's another one you really need to take if you want to be a programmer as it introduces you to alot of important things like Threading and Graphical User Interfaces. The first part is fairly par-for-the-course for compsci papers, boring lectures mixed with sort-of understanding. You'll probably find that it's the assignments that make the knowledge stick in your head.
It was at the client-server programming that I really got into it and started having fun. Richard Lobb, who has unfortunately moved on to somewhere else, ranks up there with the best lecturers ever. (heheh, "do as the oob says.")
This is another paper where playing with the assignments is encouraged, I believe Yen had a competition for who could make the best Swing application and IIRC Dr_Steve won something ne?
With different lecturers I gather the paper is subdued somewhat but it's still good to take.

Compsci 334
Grade: B-
This is actually a mix of two different topics. Xinfengs section is on how to make different computer programs talk to each other, either over the net or even on the same machine.
Ulrichs section is for web developers. If you are interested in how modern webpages are put together and how the technologies work then this is the bit you need.
Ulrich is probably the better lecturer but Xinfeng has better assignments. I had much fun with Xinfengs multiplayer tic-tac-toe game (I added battleships and connect four)

Compsci 372
Grade: B-
Yet another paper where the assignments are fun to play with. However for this paper you need maths. And not just any maths no. You need Linear Algebra. Make sure you've taken one of the stage 1 maths papers before this (I recommend Maths 151) otherwise you're essentially learning two things at once and you'll be screwed.
The paper is an introduction to computer graphics and teaches you the basics of how 2D and 3D scenes are stored, manipulated and output to the monitor. You go from simple quick 2D drawings to fairly complex but simplistic ray tracing routines. I'd have appreciated some knowledge of rendering textures and texture mappings (normal maps, hight maps, bump maps, etc) but maybe that's covered in 375.
I rank this as the second hardest compsci paper I've done.

Compsci 335
Grade: B
This paper is about web applications, don't get it confused with web development. It's about how programs communicate over the net, how many clients can connect to many servers, how they keep their information updated and concurrent and secure, etc.
The paper is essentially one big lesson in how to use Microsoft .NET to create applications that work together online. It's also an overview of these technologies. You'll learn how to use them but not really how any of it *works*. Boring and gets quite hard at the end.

Compsci 367
Grade: B-
*This* is the hardest paper I've ever done. If you think it's going to be learning how AI works and programming robots and shit, Forget It.
The paper is on working out how to represent knowledge in manners that allow computers to act on it and learn from it. There is some hardcore statistical models and calculations used and I hardly understood any of it. It's only near the end when you get to AI techniques that are more human like and intuitive that it starts to make sense. If the exam had focused more on the first section and not the second I'd have been screwed. Avoid like the plague.

Compsci 314
Grade: A
Basically a paper on how the Internet and related communication services work. The devices, the mediums, the protocols. It's all boring but fairly easy. All the assignments are written and for some of them the answers can be googled or wiki'd.
You need to be a geek to understand it but if you've got this far then you have to be a geek anyway. This is one of those papers I think everyone takes. Either because they didn't want to take the Infosys versions (again) or they just want to know how their LAN works.
Remember, every IT admin is a failed Computer Scientist.

You're pretty bored aren't you Synopsis?

Like a dog without his chew toys.

Ooh yeah! Nice one. I've been pretty slack with that paper so far, but I too received a pleasing result for that essay. I love my tutor - even though we've never met. Teehee. He's the blonde mohawked dude.

I didn't get a single A while I was at uni, and guess what? The real world doesn't give a damn! :hilarious:

Hurrah for no wasted effort.

hes my tutor too-he has a tat on his arm- and i love him as well :P

hes awesome. he 'really enjoyed reading (my) essay and it was very original' :)

and i put in as little effort as possible, oob.

With arts you can do that and still get a's. With science you get b's and c's when you do that. Now I'm not mocking arts here, but rather it's because arts tends to be more interesting than science (or at least computer science, which is 90% boredom), and if you're anything like me you do better in those papers you find interesting.

I would disagree with that. A lot of jobs require you to put fourth a transcript of your grades.

Well mine didn't, hardy ha ha!

I need a good GPA at the end of this semester to get a fees scholarship for postgrad. Even if I didn't need that high GPA I'd still put in the work though - if I have to do something like an assignment, at least I can get some satisfaction out of doing it really well.

FTVM 100 - if you dont need this paper for a major or minor in FTVM then do yourself a favour and give it a miss. Words cannot describe how boring the lectures are, how inane and tedious the 'exam' is and that would be the case even if they could manage to either not have multiple misprints/typos on exam papers, or could fix them all in one go instead of interrupting us endlessly while we were supposed to be doing the crappy thing. That the people in charge of maintaining order in the exam room both felt the need to spend most of the exam time cellotaping who only knows what to desks down the front of the room, and were somehow able to produce sounds from a role of cellotape that I previously believed on fingernails on a chalkboard could produce probably wasnt much help.
Least informative paper I have taken
Most boring paper I have taken (lectures and test)
Most inane test of utterly irrelevent rote 'facts' ever
Most noisy disruptive test I have taken
Only test where we were interrupted periodically for up to 5 minutes at a stretch in order to make midtest adjustments to the misprinted test papers...
Basically the most crappy low (read no) quality course/paper/class I have ever taken not excluding community education classes, and primary school.
(Turnitin.com used for this paper)

History 10something or other...well you either are into history or not, apparently I am not.
(tutor said turnitin.com used previously and might be reinstated in later classes)

Anthropology (I think 101) Intro to cultural anthro - I enjoyed this paper. Not too difficult (although some amount of 'anthro-jargon' to learn).
(Lecturer suggested possible future use of turnitin.com)

Philosophy 10something or other (intro to formal logic) ok if you dont like maths type stuff or are dyslexic, this may not be the paper for you. However if you are quite good at maths it's probably a fairly easy paper. I personally got the text about 8 months before I took the paper, and still missed out on A+ (by one frigging point). That might sound ok, but I literally spent hours every single week for 8 months before the class even started, working my way through the course text/workbook, and trying to train my eyes to 'see' the brakets and signs and stuff. Multiple coloured pens are a good idea for dyslexics and others who have trouble interpreting heaps of little symbols when lots are all together in the same place.
Of the two lecturers, Rod Girle is the less interactive and slightly more 'boring' if you prefer a lecturer who asks the class questions, that said Rod Girle's tests are much better, cleanly set out, ruled lines to keep your 1's and 0's in vertical and horizontal line....the other lecturers tests look like they'd been drawn up by a blind drunk goblin with amnesia.

Anthropology 2something or other (anthropological perspectives on gender), I personally enjoyed this paper, but a lot of people in my class seemed not to. So I dont know if I would recommend it generally.
(lecturer suggested future classes might include use of turnitin.com)

Anthropology 2something or other (methods in anthropology or some such). Enjoyable paper, tutor was great, lecturer was really good. I quite enjoyed this paper, I dont of anyone in my 'class' that didnt enjoy it and the people I met/knew in the class either appeared to enjoy it, or explicitly stated as much.

Community Health 2something or other (community health ethics or something). Basically a philosophy based course. Good lecturer, interesting subject matter, however it is at Tamaki. Words cannot describe how very wrong Tamaki campus is...

MPI Health 2something or other (Introduction to maori and pacific island health or something similar)
Ok, but once again it's at Tamaki...if you have not done a Tamaki paper, my advice is dont break a good habit. That place is just wrong, very very wrong.

Anthro 2something (debates:anthropology today) seemed like a good paper, the course reader was interesting, the one lecture I attended was good, but with the cost of petrol and heading out to friggen Tamaki all the time, I didnt attend any tutorials and only the one lecture. Probably worth checking out.
(Turnitin.com used for this paper)

thanks meatnmilk! whats your major??

some detailed reviews:

compsci 101 - super easy

compsci 105 - easy

compsci 210 - easy, super boring

compsci 220 - less easy, super boring

compsci 230 - easy

compsci 345 - easy, total crap

compsci 334 - easy

compsci 335 easy but less so than 334

compsci 375 - easy

compsic 380 - tricky/easy depending on the subject



maths 151 - easy

maths 152 - less easy

maths 253 - hard

maths 260 - easy


Physics 120 - easy, Mark Conway

Physics 150 - easy

Physics 220 - less easy

Physics 230 - less easy

Physics 250 - quite hard

Physics 315 - hard

Physics 325 - Hard

Physics 350 - Fucking Hell

^^ for a better asssessment on most of those compsci papers, see my post earlier on in the thread

I'm gonna have to show you guys my CompSci 220 exam after I do it this arvo... CROSSWORD :hilarious:

I'm majoring in anthropology for my BA, and I'm supposed to be doing a conjoint degree with law....I've applied for 2nd year law for 2006 but my GPA is a bit borderline....hopefully I'll scrape in.

^ ditto with the law GPA

ECON111 -> God awful paper, made me want to vomit. Full of baseless assumptions and boring essays. DO NOT TAKE THIS PAPER unless you have to

LAW101B --> good to learn some more about the Treaty, overall an interesting paper if you're into that kind of thing.

STATS10X --> Not as bad as once thought. A if you put the work in, downside (or plus side for some) is that its 100% multichoice, if thats your thing then good, if not too bad :(

ACCTG102 --> good solid practical based accounting paper, it's even helpful for doing your own personal books. Dont bother taking it unless you're majoring in ACCTG or Finance

COMPSCI101 - I will just reiterate how if you are computer literate and can think logically then this is a fucking piece of piss. Even better if you have prior experience programming (heck even if its just fiddling at home it will make this paper unbelievably easy).

Ok lets try to remember.

Programme BA

Semester one
History 109 : Realms to Nations
B
Took it to test if I liked history, not bad paper, but I found out I didn't like history too much. Semi interesting, but the reading kinda got to me.

Math 108
C
Ok, thats quite an embarrassing mark now that I'm actually enrolled in stage 3 math next semester. Basicly out of school for a few years, couldn't remember jack and didn't know anyone in my class and didn't ask for help when I needed it. Should have enrolled in 102 first or made friends with people who could help me.

Phil 100 - Introduction to metaphysics
B+
I liked this paper. Quite easy, two essays + exam, three sections. Also three lecturers (I hate it when classes do this) Tim Mulligan (I think his name is) is an excellent and funny lecturer. Covers stuff like the existance of god / mind body problem, problem of good and evil, meaning of life, that kind of stuff. Julian Youngs text book is really good (Death of god and the meaning of life) even if his lectures aren't as interesting. Bit of reading involved however.

Phil 105 - Critical Thinking
A-
Easy as piss, three tests no exam, I actually passed the paper on the first two tests alone. Basicly if you can think logically you can get a good mark.

Semester two

Math 162 - Intro to Applied and computational maths
B
I should have got a better mark as this is an easy paper. Easy but also interesting. If you've passed 108 or 150 then you'll find this simple. Covers a bit of matlab programming which is a piece of piss if you can already program, if you've never learnt a programming language before, maybe comsci 101 is a good idea to do first. I found the problems interesting, covers preditor prey, host-parisite and population models, as well as a bit of probability, some matrix transition stuff. Some calculus required.

Math 208
D
Ummm.... did I mention I should have done 102 ?
Also it was really early in the morning, so umm.. I guess I got kicked in the arse. Differential equations screwed me.

phil 214 - Topics in chinese and japanese philosopy
B+
Kinda boring, (lecturers fault, good tutor however) rather poetic style philosophy, rather diferent from western thought and structure. Zen stuff was kinda cool.

phil 215 - 20th Centry french philosophy
B-
This is the hardest philosophy paper I have taken. Lots of different ideas and lots of different philosophers, Satre is a bastard to read. Structuralism is kinda easy though, 2 hr phil lectures are a bit of a struggle sometimes.

Semester 3
MATHS 208
B-
Yay for me.

Phil 101
B
Lots of stuff has been said about this paper. I didn't try. Probably should have got an A.

Phil 209 - Schopenhauer and Nietzhe
A-
Cool paper, Schopenhauer rules (reminds me of garfield) covers metaphysics, the general pointlessness of the world then contrasts with nietzhe and his 'life affirmation' theory. Nietzhe is a bit hard to get around particulally because hes quite self contradictory, but he has some good points.

Socialogy 102 - Becoming modern
B+
Semi-interesting covers the french revolution and enlightenment as well as the industrial revolution. Helped that I did a history paper first. Took it to see if I liked socialogy 'cause a friend of mine recommended it. Decided I didn't like socialogy.

Semester 4
Compsci 225
A-
Hard. You will need to study to pass this paper. Has a 40% fail rate aparently.

Math 250
A-
Finally got my A into G and worked out that I'm not naturally brillant and I have to do the assignments as well as read the course book and text book and ask questions if I dont understand whats going on. And hang out in the assistance room. Studyed my ass off before the exam.

Math 260 - Differential equations
A-
Easiest math paper in existance. (After doing 208 or 250) Just pay attention. Text book is particully well written, but expensive as hell.

Phil 212 - Philosophy of art
B+
Lots of non-philosophy students take this paper. I felt it was a little dumbed down and not theoretical or metaphysical enough. (Applied philosophy maybe?) Semi-interesting, but not to the point of actually studying the subject. Lectures were good.

Pol 106 International Relations:
Absolute cock and balls, but not in the good way. Sucks hard member all night long. Jizz in face. My tutor was the biggest bitch in the world. Came off as 'a made up subject'.