It has currently been one whole week since I left Uni Hall for the holidays, which means it has been one whole week since I have left what I feel is a new life #newcitynewme #newyearnewme. This separation has allowed me to reflect on the past 6 weeks and the reason I am there, to get a degree. As a result, here is a lil overview of my papers so far.
Law 121 – Law and Society
Firstly, I have the Law 121 paper. For the past 5 weeks we have focused on the branches of government and the historical background e.g. Treaty of Waitangi, as well as cases relevant to these themes. I’ve been told many times that this is a very content based course and I wouldn’t disagree. At times the readings can get confusing however if you continue to work through them it is easy enough to grasp what the main points are. Helena, our lecturer, also incorporates the main points of the reading into the lecture so this definitely clears things up and she is very understanding that we are first year law students so reiterates the important points we need. This course is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and has two streams, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If you know you like to sleep, definitely choose the afternoon stream.
Law 121 has both a test which we had in the final week and an exam in June. Since Law 121 offers plussage, the exam could either count for 80% or 100% of our grade. This is dependent on whether the exam grade is better than our test grade (plussage is your friend). So far Law is definitely my favourite and it doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of pressure or a giant workload like it is made out to have.
Politics 113 – Politics and the Media
I was very excited for this paper as politics is one of my main interests however, it focuses more on the media side of things opposed to the politics side. If you are wanting something more politics based and you only have one paper free for semester one, I would suggest choosing Politics 106, but if you are wanting something broader I would recommend this course. Even though this paper wasn’t fully what I was expecting, it is still interesting as it shows the impact the media has on politics. Unlike Law there is only one stream and it is on Mondays and Thursdays at 9 am. (I’m definitely not a huge fan of those 9am starts). In regards to assessments, there is a test, a research assignment and an exam. Personally I like the range of assessments and that the percentages aren’t too small or large. Overall this paper isn’t what I expected, but I still find it interesting and worthwhile.
History 103 – Global History
History was always one of my favourite subjects throughout high school so when I needed what I would call a filler paper, this was my pick. Big regrets. I have found the lecturers style doesn’t work for me and I find it hard to pick up on what is important and relevant so I have been drifting along. We also focus on a different piece of global history each lecture so it is difficult to see progress. The tutorials are also run in a different way to my others where we each get given a different question and discuss in a group. The assessments for this paper are made up of quizzes at the beginning of each tutorial, these involve a lot of reading for little reward, an essay and an exam. Please bear in mind these are only my opinions on this course and although I’m not enjoying it, it doesn’t mean you won’t!!
Sociol 100 – Issues and Themes in Sociology
Sociology was a paper I took as it was a prerequisite for criminology. However, it has taken me by surprise how much I actually like it and how interesting it is. Sociology is about how social constructs affect each other and individuals. It makes you look deeper than what’s on the surface and question why things are happening. The sociology tutorials are also the most beneficial tutorials I have attended for all my courses as they are not just recaps of the lectures but build on the main points and allow for discussions. Plus, Clark is cool and knowledgeable.
