the first year's guide to commerce

The First Year’s Guide to Commerce Nelson Tang & Joyce Lu

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COMMERCE HANDBOOK A guide for the first year UNSW Commerce Student!

Structure:

1. GETTING INVOLVED - Nelson Tang 2. GETTING GOOD MARKS - Nelson Tang

3. RUN THROUGH OF ALL 4 CORES a) Microeconomics 1 - ECON1101 - Nelson Tang b) Accounting and Financial Management 1A - ACCT1501 - Catherine Hu c) Business and Economics Statistics - ECON1203 - Joyce Lu d) Managing Organisations and People - MGMT1001 - Kelly Li

4. NETWORKING AND DEVELOPING PROFESSIONALLY - Joyce Lu

5. GENERAL TIPS AND ADVICE – Everyone

Co-Authors: Nelson Tang & Joyce Lu Collaborators: Catherine Hu & Kelly Li

Editors and Formatting: Nelson Tang


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UNSW COMMERCE HANDBOOK

[DISCLAIMER] - Before you begin reading, just know that I am not speaking on behalf of anyone or anything, nor do I think I am some beast at Commerce. I wrote this just to share my experiences and personal insight on what I learnt during my first year of university! So feel free to use it however you like but this is nothing official.

GETTING INVOLVED It’s more than just picking up one or two opportunities, it’s seeing what you can do and

challenging yourself. Generally speaking from experience, there are no opportunities that will never benefit you. Everything will be beneficial, whether it’s going to career events, meeting HR representatives or even up to taking on leadership and volunteering roles, everything is beneficial. Taking on leadership roles is not easy, sometimes like a job people only look for those with experience, but every once in a while you will get lucky and get one. Essentially you should always try for anything and everything. (Of Course don’t put too much on your plate)

WHY?

So why get involved? There are always new opportunities you can apply for, or volunteer and sign yourself

up to. Having no idea what to do is never an excuse; research and figure out what opportunities there are for you.

If someone else can pick up the same role, why can’t you?

Essentially this means that you need to take the first step and try; Take initiative. How many times have you told yourself - ‘I can’t be bothered’ or ‘I know I’m not going to succeed/get it.’ - If you don’t make it, then analyse what you did wrong.

Revise over how you can improve, and always ask for feedback. Learn from your mistakes, your rejected applications, the stumbles in your interviews and simply poor impression management can always be improved. You can learn from everything.

Commerce is about connections, the more roles you take the more people you will

meet, the larger your network. Taking roles will build your resume, and essentially be able to credit you to future employers. Plus, you never know, that person sitting next to you in your MGMT1001 class might end up being the Human Resources Director of the future company you want to work for!

Finally the most important aspect is personal development - besides the superficial

credentials - ‘resume building’ - there is a sense of personal achievement. You learn from experience, you learn from challenges and you learn from taking on roles.


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Through taking on leadership roles and pushing yourself to try new things you will be able to develop personally and gain new skills.

HOW? 1. MOTIVATION - The first step to getting involved and the MOST important step, is be

motivated to get involved. If you don’t want to do something, there is honestly no point of you doing it, you might as well go home and take a seat. But take a seat and find reasons why you should get involved! (I.e. list above).

2. SCOUT - Find opportunities that you would enjoy taking on! Look around, my best

suggestion would be to ask people that have been in commerce longer than you. - Figure out what you should be looking for and how to look for it. These opportunities aren’t hiding, student societies want to find individuals to step up and apply. I would suggest getting active on Facebook, stay updated and be aware with societies pages (the list below & more). - You will find Facebook events and groups promoting open leadership positions! - Make sure you join all the relevant groups and like their pages. There are also many opportunities that will be advertised on the Arc Website - http://jobs.arc.unsw.edu.au/default.aspx?g=forum (Take a look every so often) Another easy way to make sure you aren’t missing out on any events is by subscribing to certain pages and societies. To do this – go on your Facebook, click your events tab, and scroll down to the bottom. Then you will be automatically notified whenever any page you subscribe to makes an event!

(Something else I do is have a sheet that I’ve created with some friends – and we just keep track of all the opportunities that are released and can apply for.)

3. APPLICATION - Now on to applying! - Before you even touch the application, you need to

understand why you have a passion for what you are applying for. Now obviously you won’t have a passion for something you don’t know about, but take a look at the heart of the organisation. You need to understand what the organisation’s vision is. What do they want to do? What do they strive to achieve? Your vision must align with theirs, and finally you need to show commitment and dedication. While you may not exactly ‘love’ the cause, you need to show that they can count on you. For example, the vision of the Business Society would be to provide many opportunities for the business students, and depending on what role you applied for, it would focus on either personal or interpersonal development, career progression & learning skills and

http://jobs.arc.unsw.edu.au/default.aspx?g=forum


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being involved with volunteering and philanthropy. (Disclaimer – this is my own personal interpretation) Before you apply for anything, just make sure you know what the role is about, and what exactly the society focuses on achieving for the students. Think about what you bring to the table, an application is more of an analysis of your skills, your attitude and what culture you stand with. Essentially, what type of person you are, your values and finally the experience that credits these values. Now how I go about actually writing an application, usually follows these steps. I always link a skill they are looking for – either in the job description or just general company culture – to an experience that I’ve had. I start with soft skills, such as leadership, team work and managing then go onto hard and technical skills – such as administration or case competition/consulting experience. Of Course, depending on what they want out of you, the application will be different. If a role requires a more fun and flexible personality – such as Arc Street Team - you want to lean a bit more to the outgoing side but still be serious about the position. Be yourself and let your personality shine through your application. On the other hand, if the position is very technically based (require specific skills) - such as the ‘Blitz TV’ coordinator you will need to focus on your previous experiences that will ensure you can do your job. Explain your experience with marketing, video editing, back it up with personal projects, positions or general experience. Make sure it is structured and explain why you are good enough, but at the same time, make sure your personality can be seen and that you are genuine and humble.

4. INTERVIEW - This is the time where you can show them what you are truly made of,

display charisma and be yourself. The interviewers already know you can do the job, but the problem now is, why you over all these other applicants? They know your experience or lack of experience, and they’re interested to see what else you offer. What values do you truly hold, how you present yourself and a practical application of how you deal with obstacles, whether it be problem solving or everyday people. Like many of us we go into Uni with NO EXPERIENCE, and your resume isn’t as attractive compared to some other people. This doesn’t mean you can’t try and pick up the position or role, you just need to make sure you have personality. Essentially meaning that you need to have 10 times the motivation, eagerness and desire to learn from these roles in order to even be considered. Don’t sit around in the interview boasting about how many causes you’ve volunteered for, or that you’ve had many jobs or connections. While you can state what you’ve done, you should always link in what YOU’VE LEARNT from these experiences. They’ve read your resume, that’s why you’re in the interview.


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Ultimately you cannot just wing an interview, you need to practice what you are about to say, not like memorising an essay but being clear with yourself where your vision lies and what you believe in. Have the examples of your experiences ready in the back of your head, and know what you have gained - i.e. leadership skills, team work, interpersonal development or management skills - always be ready to link experiences to skills. The way I and many other people tackle interviews is using the STAR Method, the star method is very straightforward on paper, but when it comes to the actual interviews a lot of other factors make it harder. Situation - Outline the surroundings and external factors of the situation, Task - What are your responsibilities, what are the general technical skills required, and the literal situation, when, who ,why and what? What was the problem that needed to be solved? Action - Explain the steps you took, who did you talk to, what thought processes did you take? Why did you do it? - This part is the most reflective on you, it shows the listener what type of person you are and how you tackle problems. Result - How did your contribution improve the situation? What was the result, what did your actions achieve? Finally the most important aspect is how did you grow as an individual? The goal with this structure is the show – 1. The experience you’ve had, what have you got written on your resume? - 2. What is your experience, what do you do? – 3. What type of person are you, are you likable, can I work with you? – 4. What values do you hold and what are you trying to gain from this experience?

5. RESULTS -

This is the time where either the good news or the good news comes. And yes I did not make a typo here, it is good news whether or not you get the role. Of course firstly, congratulations! If you’ve just secured your first role in a subcommittee position, selected for an ambassador role or just to help out and volunteer! Make sure you make the most out of your opportunity, develop your skills, make more friends and take initiative. Soon you will find yourself wanting to do more, and always keep challenging yourself! Now if you get that email or call saying you didn’t get the position, this is still good news. Always ask for feedback, there is no point doing the whole process if you have not learnt anything from it, always email the interviewers or even call to ask about feedback from your interview or application. Find ways to improve on the aspects listed, for example if you weren’t empathetic enough for a peer mentor role, change your perspectives and attitudes to be more empathetic. If you aren’t organisational, keep it in mind, organise your life, study harder and improve yourself to become more efficient. Find ways to develop a culture and work ethic that


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shows your management skills and organisational consistency. If you don’t know enough about their organisation or cause, learn more about their organisation and cause - do research, figure out if they align with your work ethics and values. Interviewers are people too, they know if you don’t really want to do something or if you’re just applying for the sake of your resume, so ultimately applying for this you are interested in is another important factor, only apply for things you can see yourself enjoying or being committed to! At the end of the day if you aren’t accepted into a position you simply weren’t good enough, but that means there is room for growth and there is always something you can improve on. Find these aspects and keep developing and slowly but surely you will be able to get places!

General Opportunities people look for within UNSW Commerce: These roles can range from subcommittee, director positions, consultant positions and volunteering. These are the main ones that come to mind, however any role is good experience.

UNSW Business Society UNIT FMAA MSOC UMCG UCC BusinessOne Consulting 180 Degrees Consulting Blue Shirts - UNSW Business School Inside Enterprise Much more!

General opportunities as a UNSW Student:

ARC Jobs and volunteering Yellow shirts program AIESEC United Nations Society Arc Street team Black Shirts Green shirts Hub Applying for PASS Leader and also as tutors for the university

At the end of the day experience is experience and there is no right or wrong role to take on, we all start somewhere and everything will be beneficial depending on what you do with your role. The potential and expectation that the role has is completely up to you, it’s up to what you make out of the opportunity.


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[DISCLAIMER]: These are NOT the ONLY societies that are worth going for, there are many opportunities out there and feel free to ask me about them all! Just didn’t want to clog up this section! Further Notes: Starting into university, many societies are looking for subcommittee members. I believe this experience is great in developing yourself as an individual and really enhances your soft-skills. Such as event planning, managing people, leadership and a lot of team work skills. So definitely: When you first start off – looking to get involved – look for subcommittee positions! Most of the societies I listed above do have these positions. You can ask anyone, they are truly a platform for growth.


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Getting good marks! By far the most important aspect of commerce

Out of everything you can be doing within commerce, achieving good marks is one of the

most important (This is the general case for most degrees). Never compromise marks for

other things. Taking on too many society roles and getting bad grades is much worse than

getting good marks and no roles. But in saying that taking on extracurricular roles are just as

important as marks. It is about finding a good balance between the two.

Think about it this way, how many people are studying a commerce degree at UNSW? How

many people will graduate out of UNSW Commerce? Probably most of them and you need

the marks as well as the leadership experience to stand out.

Essentially you need a fine balance of maximizing your marks and building your resume.

Companies do look at marks – but usually after the phone interview, many companies blank

out the academic transcripts and it’s up to your previous experiences that will build you up.

HOW?

Knowing how to study shouldn’t be a problem, it changes from subject to subject but

ultimately depends on your own work efforts. In university you get lazy, but at the

same time you need to try keep you marks up with minimal efforts (I don’t

recommend). You should have good study regimes for your personal self.

Be able to manage your time well, understand your time - plan your days and your

study. Make sure you have enough time to get enough study done but also be able to

balance out your other commitments. So part time work, sports, extracurricular

societies or volunteering. Always UNDERESTIMATE your time, you will always end up

using more time than expected, so it’s good to not expect to do too much in the time

you have.

There are also resources OUTSIDE of your own, be able to network with your

classmates. Utilise each other's resources and develop your own, this does not mean

to be a parasite and have a one-off leech off others; but rather to have more of an

exchange relationship where you help each other build resources and advise each

other on the same subjects and future ones you might both study.

I myself have good friendships that I have made, not with the intention of using the

other person, but rather to have them help me develop as a person in many aspects.

Build friendships where your friends motivate you, and are always pushing you to do


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more with your life! It might make you feel more pressured but the right people will

always do more than just pressure you, they will put their hand up to help you. I can

confidently say these friends are more than just connections, they are lifelong friends.

Pass Classes! - Pass classes are essentially extra tutorials run by the uni, to re-explain

concepts that are found difficult to learn in each subject or just questions that you are

confused about. I really do recommend going to PASS Classes for subjects that you

find harder to learn, or if you just want a recap on the content learnt that week.

Finally relax! Always make sure you have some downtime for yourself or maybe with

some friends just to wind down and just do whatever you want

Lost - During my first year of uni I often found myself quite uninformed at times, I didn’t know

what the latest resources were or the set of notes that everyone were using. I didn’t even

know who Cheryl Mew was until the end of the first semester! (If you don’t know who she is

well… you can ask me HAHA).

Essentially this wasn’t that big of a problem, the solution as you can guess was... to simply ask

for help. I realised that asking people for information was the best way to learn, best way to

get where you want. Honestly the worst thing that someone can do, is say no. Things like,

asking for notes for a subject or asking what to expect in a course before you enrol is not a

big deal at all!

I’m more than certain if you’re in first year and you ask a second year for their experience in

say MGMT1001, they’re more than happy to describe their horrifying memories of, the climb

to the top of mount Everest, the bullshit essays and forgetting what a word meant in the final

essay question. (What is contingency theory???? am I right)

Peer Mentoring Programs: There are also peer mentoring programs from multiple societies,

such as BSOC, ASOC, EcoSOC and many more! The programs usually run 1-2 hours a week,

where you just get to sit down with other first years and mentors that will share their

experience with you to get your comfortable in university. Anything from sharing notes,

advice on what majors to take, where certain buildings are or even just good food on

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HOW DO YOUR MARKS WORK? - WHAT SHOULD I FOCUS ON?

I remember going from high school to university and I was still quite lazy, and I was just doing

whatever was needed to get by HAHAHA, how I put it. Uni study is weird, just imagine that

your study life in uni (for most of your commerce subjects) as two trains. Now you and your

study pace are one train and the other train is well… how fast the course itself is moving at.

At the beginning the of the semester you will find your train at the same pace, maybe a little

behind or maybe a little ahead of the other train. After a while into your first semester you

will be hitting your first assessment and you will have to stop your train to study for this

assessment. But the thing is, your train might have stopped but the lecturer’s or the course’s

train has no stopped at all, in fact it probably has gone a bit faster. And you will find yourself

after the assessment racing your train to catch up with the other train, and by the time you

do catch up, you guessed it another assessment happens and the cycle continues!

NOW WHAT TO FOCUS ON

1. Always look at the marking allocation - which I’ll talk about later on, but each subject

has a course outline and it’s always good to just make sure you have details set

clearly. - It’s under ‘Assessment structure’ in your course outlines (I’ll run through the

4 cores further on)

2. Outline the core dates that you need to watch out for - certain assessments or final

exams - be sure you gauge their level of difficulty, by just seeing what the assessment

entails or even asking someone who’s already done the subject or even your tutor!

This is just an easy way to set certain amount of time to start studying before a date

(even though you should be studying all the time).

3. Make sure you maximize easy marks - So anything ranging from homework marks to

class participation, there are marks that you can easily avoid losing.

- Participating in class (Class Participation marks) is fairly easy, just make sure you

actively answer one or two questions in class, it might be a little intimidating at first

but it’s worth the extra mark, I remember having a WAM of 84.75 and with that one

more mark in any subject I would have gotten a proper 85. Every mark counts!

- Homework is fairly simple - you might as well do it, because it is often checked and it

just allows you to stay up to date with the content, it is very important to understand

what you are learning in your lectures and tutes.


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4. PRACTICE - Papers and questions! - It’s just the same as high school, practice is what

solidify concepts into your head, and it’s the only way to learn for some subjects. The

best way to do well in an exam is to do past papers and practice questions, now there

are past papers out there if you know where to look. Feel free to just ask people! –

(Resources spread around very quickly)

‘Writing notes... is it necessary?’ - A Lot of the times in my first year I asked myself the same

question, it was a big change from high school because HSC was all about me writing notes

and that seemed to be the key ingredient to getting that Band 6.

Uni felt a little different, no one really wrote notes, and for me personally I found there

wasn’t a lot of time to write notes but I still ended up doing it anyway for some subjects and

it helped! – It allowed me to solidify concepts in my memory.

The big thing was to type down ONLY what I truly understood rather than copy straight from

the textbook. - To effectively write notes you need to know exactly what every sentence

means in that document and I would suggest to try change it up a little to match your own

style! So not just paraphrase but actually change it to your own personal language, how you

articulated the concept. - If I didn’t understand I would stop typing and find a way to figure it

out.

[TLDR] - Write notes if you have time, if that’s the way you learn, and if it helps you.


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Run through of all 4 cores A step by step guide on how to approach each subject!

ECON1101 - MICROECONOMICS 1

Now most of you guys will start university with Microeconomics as one of your first subjects.

For those of you that did HSC economics you will come to notice very similar concepts in the

subject. One of the more enjoyable subjects, with a great lecturer, you will come to find

Microeconomics as a subject that eases you into university.

Microeconomics is an in-depth analysis of simply why do people buy things? It analyses

trends of purchase and whether supply meets demand. It analyses how companies choose

their prices, depending on what type of market they are in, whether their goods are superior

or homogenous and things like international trade barriers and long run supply.

ECON1101 - MICROECONOMICS Course Structure

Contact Hours: There are 3 contact hours in total, and from memory the lectures are divided

into 2 separate 1 hour blocks rather than a full 2 hour block, usually on two separate days.

(P.s. enjoy Alberto)

Amount of workload: Overall, micro had a relatively small amount of workload that was due,

so things like actual handing in homework and assessments we’re fairly light, however study

was the same as any other subjects.

Group work: No group work was required, so if you don’t like people as much, perfect.

Essay intensity: No essays required, however there were long answer questions, could go

from half a page to a full page - Maximum.


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Calculation based or theory based: I found that Microeconomics was a good balance of both

theory and calculations throughout the semester, it had both theory to a good level (I found

it was less theory than HSC economics) and quite nice calculations, found that studying the

calculations made it very easy to pick up. The concepts weren’t too hard to learn either. I

would say a 50/50 balance.

Differentiating Factors: The biggest difference between Microeconomics and other subjects would be the combination of runescape and The Sims that you had to play in order to score marks. While it is a little tedious I still bless it, it’s fairly easy to get that free 20% so just make sure you’re consistently working on it every so often! General Factors:

There are no class participation marks Homework is not checked or marked - But you should do it, it’s useful, I recall

semester 1 did have 3-4 random homework checks

GENERAL COURSE STRUCTURE:

1. So starting off the 2 tutorial tests - these are generally very fair to follow, they consist of a variety of short to medium answer questions that tie to the previous chapters. So your first tutorial assessment will assess Chapters 1-4 and the second tutorial assessment will assess Chapters 5-8. - Generally speaking the assessments are fairly easy to study for, you just need to be learning each week's worth of material leading up to the assessment and have a final preparation and study session recapping the topics concepts- - ‘How to study in the short term’ (right before the assessments) - One of the ways I found to prepare for this was by going back to do all the homework questions from the weeks before. I found that it was recurring and fairly easy to follow, so the questions in the assessments were quite similar to the ones found in the exams. - I also found past papers from friends and did a few questions, and I believe the lecturers uploaded their own too. - Honestly I believe a good study tactic was just going back to relearn everything. - The concepts, just being able to refresh the concepts and apply them.

2. Playconomics - Here there is nothing for me to explain, I think you should just follow the

instructions, run the program and get the marks. Do it overtime, so it doesn’t stack up. Essentially, Playconomics is an online application of your economics theory, so using demand and supply equations along with calculating your allowed resources in order to find out how many time you need your online character to buy, consume or harvest products. Like I said before, it’s pretty much a combination of Runescape and the Sims, you will find out what I mean later.


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3. Final exam - The past few exams from Microeconomics have been a series of 50 multiple choice questions. Now just because they are multiple choice doesn’t mean they are easy, the concepts assessed and level of difficulty is what you would expect from any other exam. The exams are usually a run through of all the chapters in the course, they will go through most, if not all concepts, so there are no chapters that are ‘less or more’ tested but there are similar styled questions that appear quite often. Essentially the application of a question is easy to remember, as long as you practice a few times. You will notice the questions are styled quite similar. – Also they give you a textbook, so don’t buy one.


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ACCT1501 - ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 1A This is arguably the most popular First Year course, and most people studying Commerce will

do this in their first semester. Because there are so many students taking the course, you will

find that course materials, guides, as well as resources from older students will be plenty and

it is not a lack of materials that will be the problem. For those of you that may have taken

Commerce as an elective during high school, you may have studied basic accounting

principles. A Balance Sheet for example, and credit and debit calculations.

However, a key point is to not fall behind as the simple concepts very quickly snowball

together and it is very difficult to cram, if you have not learnt the basics. It is typically

considered one of the simpler first year subjects- for students that keep up to date; and one

of the more difficult for students that do not.

Broadly, you will cover basic financial and sustainability reporting, analysis, control accounts,

adjusting entries and financial statements (balance sheets and income statements), Inventory

calculations, Non-current Assets, and Management Accounting.

ACCT1501: Course Structure: Contact Hours: Fairly Scheduled. Each Lecturer will have their consultation hour(s) as well as

all the tutors. Please refer to details provided by your Lecturer/Tutor.

Amount of Workload: Manageable. Tutors often checked for homework randomly, but usually

workload was minimal to moderate. Would highly recommend staying on top of topics and

not getting too behind.

Group Work: There is group work in a group presentation. It is not too serious, in that the

weightings are minimal and easily achieved full marks if moderate effort is put in.

Essay Intensity: Next to no essays, minimal extended responses. Mostly short answers,

calculations and multiple choice.

Calculation based or theory based: ACCT1501 is almost all calculation-based material, but the

‘calculations’ are through words and theory. For example, adjusting financial entries will

require minimal mathematical skill, however many calculations will be needed to figure out

the final answer. It is primarily based around knowing your accounting theory to be able to

able to correctly calculate the final amounts.

Differentiating Factors: Unlike other subjects you might encounter in later semesters or years,

ACCT1501 has an abundance of resources available from study guides to past questions. Pick

what you use sparingly; the ACCT1501 Study Guide is particularly helpful for students who

want to practise their skills.


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General Factors:

- Homework is randomly checked - Online quizzes must be completed on time and you only have one attempt - Final exam is significantly weighted, so last minute ‘cramming’ is not a good idea. - Also for the Management Supplement, ask around or ask your older university

friends. (Just ask before you do anything to retrieve one).


1. Tutorial Participation (10%):

a. Homework checking (4 marks): your tutor will randomly check homework on certain

weeks. If you have completed it you get the marks.

b. Class Participation (3marks): To get 3 marks you must attend between 10 – 12

tutorials and actively answer in 6 tutorials.

c. Group Presentation (3marks): Essentially compiling answers to a case in the textbook

that will be assigned to you. Options include making a presentation or PowerPoint.

2. Multiple Online Quizzes (15% total):

Each will be on material learned up to that week and will be open for a week before closing.

Make sure you keep an eye out for the deadline as you cannot do the test after it has been

closed. There will be 3 quizzes in total, the first starting in Week 5. The quizzes themselves

have only one attempt – so it’s definitely worth spending a lot of time (for me 2-3 days) just

checking my answers and making sure I could pick up every single mark.

There are no timers for these quizzes, so you can simply open them – and do them over time.

A good way I did these quizzes was by printing the page (on your internet browser – from

Moodle) saving them as pdf’s and printing them out to do! It was convenient to have the

questions in front of me and I could ask my friends for help if I needed.

Collaborating with friends was also a good way to tackle these quizzes, just being to have

multiple perspectives on the same questions limited the amount of error in our responses.

Ultimately it was good to be able to learn from others as well.


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3. Mid-session Test (20%):

This will be conducted during the tutorials and will be testing materials in Lectures from week

1-6. Go to the PASS Classes that are available for ACCT1501. 1A has a large number of PASS

classes so that you can go to whichever suits you best. Personally, I found them to be very

helpful for all of my exams and my PASS tutor was very helpful and taught well.

4. Final Examination (55%)

This will cover everything that you have learnt in the course and will be quite extensive.

There will be everything from short answers, multiple choice, journal entries, balance sheet

entries, and general calculations. Also, many of the students struggled with time constraints.

Pace yourself through the exam and know your content well. Please keep in mind that this is

something that is very hard to cram for. Keep a steady study routine and you should find the

final easily manageable.


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ECON1203 - BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS STATISTICS

Stats (ECON1203) is arguably the most challenging of all the compulsory first year courses for

Commerce, particularly if you hate maths (like me). Firstly, it’s crucial if you’re doing a double

degree (particularly sciences) to check if you even need to do this subject. You might be able

to avoid it altogether (you’ll definitely regret it if you’ve done it for no reason).

ECON1203 focuses on interpreting data and drawing information from it to help decision

making. The course will expand on the basics that you learnt in Year 7-12 (qualitative and

quantitative data, graphs/charts and probability) but also introduces new concepts such as

random variables, regression and hypothesis testing. These topics are calculation-heavy so

make sure you remember how to apply the formulas and which ones to apply in order to get

the information that’s asked.

ECON1203 – Business and Economics Statistics Structure

Contact hours: There’s 6 contact hours across a fortnight; 2-hour lecture (weekly) and 2-hour

tutorial workshop (fortnightly). If you can you should try to put the workshop at the end of

the week since that’s when the project is due so the later the better! (I made the mistake of

putting it at 11am on Monday L)

Amount of Workload: I’d say Stats has the most workload, there’s weekly homework as well

as tutorial plus the fortnightly quizzes that can take quite some time to do. My suggestion is

take the time to do it all and stay on top of the content so you can do well in the quizzes.

Group work: In a bid to make the workshops more ‘fun and interactive’ there might be some

group discussion. A really useful tip is to establish a stats study group with your friends; to

help with content and the fortnightly quizzes as well as the project. (Studying with your

friends is good for any subject.)

Essay intensity: NO ESSAYS! WOOHOO!

Calculation based or theory based: Definitely more calculation than theory especially the final

exam but it’s always important to understand the theory so you can apply the formula. You’ll

be spending a lot of time trying to make sense of the notation too!


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Differentiating factors: In this course the PASS classes are probably more useful than the

lecture and the workshop combined. The lovely leaders will guide you through sample

questions and go at a pace that’s much easier to follow. Even if I couldn’t make the PASS class

that week I’d always get a friend to get me a worksheet, they’re super useful come exam

time.

General factors:

Participation is measured with in-class (contribution and weekly homework checks) as

well as online using MyStatLab

Lectures: Make sure you go to at least one lecture to get a feeling for it! It’s up to you

whether you find them helpful or not, otherwise you can substitute them with PASS

classes or online recordings!

PASS Class: I feel like I can’t stress it enough, it’s your greatest asset so make sure to go

and you can even go to more than one a week, which is what a lot of people did

(including me)

MyStatLab: Unless you buy your textbook brand new, you’ll have to purchase MyStatLab

separately via the Pearson website, just google “MyStatLab”


1. MyStatLab Fortnightly quizzes- your best friend and worst enemy! This online tool is

what you’ll be doing your quizzes with. They’re due at the end of each fortnight on

Sundays at 5pm but are open earlier so you can get it done ahead of time. It felt really

good having it done a few days prior especially if you didn’t do that well you still had

time for a second attempt as opposed to cramming it in last minute.

Each quiz covers at least 4 chapters of the textbook (2 per week) which you can find

out by checking the course outline. The questions are relatively straight-forward,

calculation or theory, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Make sure to

take advantage of handy revision tests and the huge database of practice questions

before the quiz since many of the questions repeat or are very similar. The hint and

walkthrough tools teach you step by step how to answer the question as well! Don’t

forget that all your progress is recorded and can be seen by your tutors as online class

participation.

2. Project – Although this is considered one of the most difficult assessment tasks of the

whole first year course, there are some ways to make sure you do as well as possible.

Firstly, you should take the time to thoroughly break-down the information to know

what data you need and which statistical inferences you need to make and what is

the best way to represent them. I had no idea how to use Excel to sort the data they

gave us and make graphs from it so I found it really useful to go to the Excel

workshops run by the tutors as well as some business societies. Make sure to check


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the marking criteria to see where the marks are allocated and use it as a checklist to

ensure you have all the information to get 20/20. Looking at exemplar projects from

previous years and working with friends also makes the task easier. In a sentence,

start this assessment early so you have time to do it thoroughly.

3. Online and in-person participation - Fairly straightforward, just answer questions in

the workshops (raising your hand as well as Learning Catalytics) and do your tutorial

questions every fortnight. On top of that, spend a little extra time on MyStatLab by

completing practice questions and revision tests during the week which can be an

easy way to study for finals and keep up to date.

4. Final Exam – I know that a lot of people found that doing well in stats was more a

result of hard work and effort rather than how smart you were. Stats is a course that I

found really hard to cram, there’s so much content and a lot of formulas. Thankfully,

there’s a formula sheet that they give you in the exam! It doesn’t have every single

formula but most of the hard ones to remember are there. You just need to focus on

how to use them and realize what the question is asking. The best advice I have is to

practice, practice, practice! The more types of questions you expose yourself to the

better you’ll be prepared. More often than not questions are recycled or are very

similar to those from previous years so just make sure you can get your hands on

some! (PASS classes are a good place to go, simply ask your leaders)


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MANAGEMENT1001 – GUIDE FOR FIRST YEARS Management is one of the core subjects you will do in your first year of university. With

assignments being predominantly essays – you will feel like you’re taking HSC Mod C all over

again, and consequently is one of the most complained about courses. Fundamentally,

management is the study of how and what conditions people can work efficiently and

effectively. Many models will be studied, specifically social experiments.

The good news about management is that it isn’t rocket science – once you understand the

general gist of the subject everything will fall into place. You will study the evolution of

management from the 1900s (work harder not smarter) to modern theories (work smarter

not harder). Focus is then emphasized on the essential characteristics of a productive and

functional team and the ideal traits of a good leader. This is then put into practice with a

simulation – known as Everest, where you are put into groups to perform a task which tests

the strength of your team during virtual and real life communication.

MGMT1001 – Managing people and organisations structure


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Contact Hours: There are 3 contact hours in total:

- Two hours of lectures (lecture slides were not supplied to us – you have to go to

lectures to write stuff down or good luck studying from the brick that is the textbook)

- One hour of tutorials – lots of discussions and activities in groups

Amount of workload: Management requires minimal to no homework for tutorials, however

there are two large essay assignments and one group presentation. The final exam requires

the same amount of study as other subjects.

Group work: Group work is required for a lot of this subject – however your group marks

don’t have a significant impact on your own (if you’re conscientious you’ll be fine with a not-

so conscientious group). The Individual Everest Report (which is 30% of your total marks) is

based on your reflection and understanding of your group work rather than the performance

of your group.

Essay intensity: Four essays in the subject in total – two during the semester as assignments,

and two in the final exam (thesaurus.com is going to be your best friend again).

Calculation based or theory based: 100% theory based – the only calculations you’re making is

how many % you need to pass the final.

Differentiating Factors: The biggest difference between management and other subjects

would be the Everest simulation where there is significant group work and that lecture slides

aren’t provided for you.

General Factors

There are class participation marks

There are two surveys you have to do near the end of semester – don’t choose the

one you can do online they’re so much harder (choose ones where you go into uni

and have to actually meet David Cheng)

GENERAL COURSE STRUCTURE: 1. Individual Essay Short writing Task - This essay will have a broad question – each

semester changes (we’ve had CSR and decision-making). You will have to learn how to

use the online library database via ‘MyLibrary’;

https://library.unsw.edu.au/borrowing/record.html - to find online journals to support

your ideas (ProQuest is the most helpful one).

For this assignment – it would be more efficient to do general research/finding

journals and sources initially (the textbook is helpful). Start your drafting after you

have a general idea and after the lectures have covered the topics you’re assigned for


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the task. As it’s a waste of time to start writing and then figure out the things that the

lecturer mentions is so much more relevant.

NOTE: Learn how to bibliography properly – MGMT1001 is very specific about this

and marks will be deducted if you don’t follow their guidelines.

2. Individual Everest Report - This essay will reflect your experience during the Everest

simulation – make sure during your simulation that each team member has a chance

to speak as EVERYONE has a different screen that contains different bits of vital

information! Similar to the first essay – research is super important. This essay is

worth more than the first so take all the negative feedback from your first essay and

fix it up here!

A lot of students taking on this essay will find it very different when trying to get a

good mark. My warning that I will provide is that this essay is not easy. They will

always ask a specific question that will incorporate two or more topics. My advice

would be to not just talk about the random topics that you are told to talk about to

complete the report – rather attempt to continuously answer the question with every

single sentence. Always build evidence for a conclusion – link your points to a defined

and set answer.

3. Final exam - The past few exams from MGMT1001 have been 30 multiple choice and

two essays. Previously they provided a stimulus in which you study before the exam,

and then essay questions are based around the stimulus HOWEVER second semester

last year (when I did it) they provided no stimulus.

Thus, basically they can ask you any question based around the topics in MGMT which

seems seriously overwhelming and a ton of content. The simplest way to study is to

really understand the links between each topic and to memorise the main social

experiments/models for each chapter. All chapters are tested either in MC or in

exams so all things should be studied. Would highly recommend to make a flowchart

with the chapters and examples (draw arrows between all the chapters that are

related).

ADDITIONAL MENTIONS (MGMT1001):

Within the course of MGMT1001, you will also be asked to complete a task of

creating a video between your groups. The video is supposed to display what

challenges you had faced in the task of climbing Everest. This section is different but

manageable – it would be best to have everyone in the group actively take part in

creating the video to maximize marks, explaining the challenges and things you


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learnt.

- Be Creative, you can show the challenges you had through different means, ASWELL

as straight up saying it. I.e. having the group falling on the ground in distress as a

representation of the miscommunication in your first attempt.

Always use the information from the textbook – In every assessment you do, this

means that you can’t just rely on the sources you find – the textbook information is

assumed knowledge and you need to apply their principles. My advice would be to

have a list of all the principles and rules of each chapter, for example contingency

theory.


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Networking and Professional

Development Tips on how to really jump start into the professional industry!

BUILDING YOUR CONNECTIONS EARLY

Although it may seem like graduation is a lifetime away when you’ve only just started

university, I assure they’ll fly by like a dream. For most of you it’s only going to be a three-

year affair while for others in combined degrees you’re looking at four years or even more.

Penultimate year, being the year before you graduate, is usually considered the most

important. This is when you’ll be doing your internships, placements, vacationer’s programs

and anything else you can get your hands on to spruce up your CVs before graduate positions

start opening up. This is a highly competitive time and you’ll hear about some students who

aren’t successful in penult picking up a second degree to give themselves more time. This is

why first year can be crucial at times.

If you’re able to begin building connections and developing your personal brand at

networking events or via LinkedIn as early as possible you’ll be able to establish yourself for

the future. Recruiters tend to remember keen faces so this can certainly set you up for sweet

internships at some of the largest companies.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

There are honestly so many different ways to immerse yourself in the professional aspect of

university. Your societies offer countless professional networking events throughout every

semester as well as workshops to help get you started on your career path.

Here are some top tips:

Consider applying for subcommittee particularly the careers/sponsorship focuses

ones (I found it to be an extremely valuable experience)

Keep a look out for Facebook events sponsored by companies such as PwC, EY,

Microsoft, Google, CBA

o Company recruiters and representatives will be present to answer questions

as well promote any opportunities to get involved with their firm (maybe even

offer you a job if you really impress them)


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Stay in the loop with social media – Like their pages on Facebook or follow them on

LinkedIn, more often than not this is the first place they’ll share info about their

programs

Attend and even volunteer at careers fairs run by societies as well as UNSW Business

School

Apply for networking events (e.g. Business Rebuzz by BSOC)

Click going! (And make sure you actually go! There’s usually free food involved so if

that’s not an incentive, I don’t know what is!)

BASIC NETWORKING ETIQUETTE

Some simple, easy-to-follow pointers that’ll get you on your way to becoming a recruiter’s

dream:

1. Be confident – Always start off with a firm handshake when introducing yourself. If it’s

a group networking situation don’t barge in rudely but casually join the group and

make eye contact or wait for a break in conversation to introduce yourself

2. Initiate - When introducing yourself make sure to include what course you’re doing

and what year you’re in

3. Network with purpose – Are you looking for advice on majors, where your course can

take you in the corporate world, or just trying to get your foot in the door? Identify

what your goal is so that you can the most of your time and get the answers you

want!

4. Research – I know for a fact that recruiters and reps are impressed if you know what

you’re talking about. You can do this by keeping up to date with the news and doing

research on the sponsors beforehand e.g. programs, culture, service lines. The extra

effort shows that you’re highly interested and makes you a memorable candidate.

Some useful but fairly generic questions to keep in mind (pretty useful if you’re stuck on what

to say):

o What distinguishes your company from other firms?

o What’s the application process for the internship/graduate program?

o What skill sets are you looking for in your area?

o What was the most memorable day on the job for you?

o What do you like the most? What do you dislike?

o What have you found the most challenging?


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Topics to avoid:

o Questions relating to pay, promotions, hours, bonuses etc.

o Negative company coverage such as lawsuits, write downs

LINKEDIN 101

So for starters, if you didn’t already know, LinkedIn is the professional equivalent of

Facebook, almost like an online CV. It’s where you connect with your peers, colleagues and

potential employers, see their latest updates and follow industry news. You’re probably

wondering why you should bother, I’ll keep it short and sweet for you, it basically lets you:

o Promote your brand

o Build networks

o Career research

o Connect with employers and alumni

o Keep up to date with industry

o Find job/intern opportunities

o Land a potential job

You can follow your favorite companies as well as entrepreneurs to get top tips and

inspiration on how to launch your career to become the next Elon Musk (Tesla, Space X) or

Jane Lu (ShowPo, UNSW Alumni).

As well as being a professional facebook, LinkedIn has many job opportunities listed and is a

very easy way for your future employers to get a look at you (your display icon) and your

experience. Personally, I’ve had HR representative of companies add me on LinkedIn after

submitting my application, it has allowed me to exchange emails with professionals after an

initial connection, and also just keeps me up to date with the opportunities out there. – By

seeing what my fellow connections are doing.

BELOW IS JUST A FEW FEATURES OF LINKEDIN TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU SET IT UP!:

Aspect Purpose Tips

Headline Let employers what you’re

currently doing e.g. working

for XYZ place, studying at

UNSW.

o Try and make it unique to set

you apart from your peers.

o Be strategic with what you put

in this space.


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Profile picture So visitors can recognize you

as well as a display of your

professionalism.

o Generally a portrait shot,

clearly showing your face,

should be in professional

attire.

o This isn’t Facebook so you

don’t want friends in it

o Must be appropriate

o Don’t selfie

Summary Overview of your goals,

achievements and

motivation. It’s a chance to

express your personality

o Short and concise

o Show a bit of personality but

still keep it professional

o Have a conversational tone

o Consistent formatting and font

But, to really set yourself apart from the other 85% of the workforce on LinkedIn you should:

1. Make sure your LinkedIn reflects how you are in real life, you want to your online

profile to be as genuine and authentic as possible – your personal brand!

2. Connect! Add your colleagues, uni friends, recruiters and reps you’ve had a meaningful

chat to at networking events. Don’t add irresponsibly!

3. Comment/like/share content to show your awareness and interest

4. Invest time into sprucing up your profile – you want to make it as professional as

possible without it being dry! Add your skills and get your friends to endorse you!

PERSONAL BRANDING

Personal brands may sounds pretty pretentious but it’s an idea that’s highly relevant for both

your personal and professional endeavours. Think of personal branding as what you’re known

for… a reputation of sorts. Being able to manage your personal brand has many advantages.

For instance if you’re known for your professionalism, reliability and hard work recruiters or

employers might be more inclined to offer you opportunities and give you greater

responsibility. And of course you’d definitely be hired before some who lacks commitment or

always late!

Some tips for managing personal brand include:

Being genuine and authentic

Think about your goals, how do you want to be seen?

Dressing for success (you don’t need to fork out a butt ton, just looking polished and

professional is enough)

Get feedback, ask your friends and colleagues how they see you and work on it!


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FROM THE RECRUITERS

This is just a small snippet on what recruiters are looking for when talking to students! After

talking to countless recruiters over the years, this is the general consensus. They look out for

student who are:

Researching above and beyond the general information surrounding the firm

o Where the company is looking to go in the future rather than what it does

right now

o What are its passions and areas of development

Knowledgeable about current affairs and the market surrounding their industry

Multi-disciplinary and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) back

grounded students

Extracurricular activities, volunteering and student society involvement

o Many recruiters have moved away from judging solely on WAM and results

(which is pretty good in my opinion)

It’s really not much because more often than not it’s your personality and potential shining

through that makes you stand out. The rest just comes with practice and experience!

During first year I was super involved with BSOC, as Career’s subcommittee

and I went to every social event I could (BSOC and Roundhouse) as well

as Uni Games. I was and arguably still am the epitome of a keen bean!

(This was mainly to make up for the fact I’d be working full time as a

cadet this year). Nonetheless, I found getting involved and approaching

uni with the willingness to make the most of any opportunity a great

way to make friends and lasting memories. way to make friends and lasting memories.

Now is the time to be who you want to be! - Joyce Lu

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/nelsontang2

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/kellyxli

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/joycelu1

LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/catherinehu2

University for me was my chance to take initiative, it was really a

platform for me to explore and grow and I encourage you all to do

the same. The best advice I got in my first year was to start early and

get involved. Definitely make the most out of Uni and challenge yourself.

Also remember. take time and effort to build relationships with friends.

Oh yeah, there’s this secret passage way that takes you from the ASB

to the quad, find it. - to the quad, find it. - Nelson Tang

Uni allows you to meet a lot of new people who share similar interests

with you, so take the opportunity to make friends, create networks which

will inevitably help you settle in. Your peers will play a massive part in your

social life whether it be joining societies together or knowing when

assignments are due. Immerse yourself in as many groups and activities as

you can, meet as many people as you can. Speak to people in older years and

ask all the questions you possibly have. - ask all the questions you possibly have. - Kelly Li

Don’t be scared. Uni will be as much as you make of it. Unlike high school

where everything was pretty much set out for you, like your timetable,

assignments, classes, friends and cohort - university provides the bridging

between high school and full time work.

Try everything and apply for as much as you can! The key is to make the

most of the experience, by making new friends and meeting new people.

You’ll learn more in the one year than you could ever imagine! - You’ll learn more in the one year than you could ever imagine! - Catherine Hu

GENERAL TIPS AND ADVICE

the first year's guide to commerce

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