PHYC10006: Physics 2: Life Sciences & Environment

Practicals (Prelab + Lab report completed during practical) - 25%
Ten online weekly assignments - 10% (1% each)
One written assignment (Interactive Writing Task) - 5%
End-of-semester 3-hour exam - 60%

Before doing this subject I was really surprised to find out that there wasn't a single review of it here. Considering the relatively large cohort with both biomed students and science students, I didn't know if it was simply a coincidence or people were just so bothered with physics that they just wanted to get it over with. Now that I have finished it, my overall attitude towards this subject is positive. You will be provided with enough resources for learning and assessments. The coordination of this subject is not sublime but they do a decent job. Assuming that you have done physics in high school, you won't find this subject challenging if you keep yourself up to date with the content.

Lectures:
A/Prof Michelle Livett and Prof Ann Roberts are both good lecturers and they present their content in a very clear fashion. For the majority of lectures you won't need to memorise much. It's not necessary to memorise formulas for they will be provided in the exam. But you must pay attention to any derivation shown on slides or handwritten by lecturers on camera because they can be assessed. In-class demonstrations are also examinable. So make sure you know what happens and why it happens. The only part of course which involves some memorisation is radiation and imaging. But it's really nothing compared to biology.

Problem-solving sessions:
I find myself unqualified to comment on them because I have never been to any one of the sessions. I heard that they didn't take rolls and the only thing you did in class was to solve questions in group on board. So I figured why not just do those questions on my own. Now you can be as lazy as me by not going to the sessions (which is highly not recommended), but you can't go further by not doing questions on problem-solving sheets. Because in my year the examiners decided to put two of those questions directly onto the final exam paper. Even if it won't happen anymore, you will still find many questions in the exam to be variants of those from problem-solving sessions. So be sure to do the questions.

Practicals:
Personally, I never enjoyed any of the eight practicals. And this is predominantly why I gave the rating of 4 out of 5. When I was reading reviews of this subject on studentvip, some student mentioned how 'awesome' the practicals were. So I walked in the lab with some expectations but gosh did it turn out to be disappointing. The time management for pracs was weird. They were 2.5-hour long when they were supposed to be 3-hour long. And for the first prac everyone was rushing in the end. Some students went 20 minutes over time to finish their report. Then for the second prac, most people walked out 30 minutes early. Furthermore, the criteria for lab performance is ridiculously arbitrary. You can lose mark for 'distraction' during pracs even though nobody knows what it means. You can possibly lose mark for asking your demonstrator questions because it shows that you are unprepared for pracs, which leads to my next point that your practical experience and mark hugely depends on your demonstrators and they are nowhere near as good as those in chemistry last semester. I asked my demonstrators quite a few questions each prac and never lost a mark for that. But some people in other labs weren't that lucky. As for the report, it's basically copying stuff from the manual and answering questions. Prelabs are done online. They are mostly multiple choices with few questions where you need to fill an answer. Overall my tip for practical is to write your report as well as you can and hope for the best.

Assignments:
1. Weekly online assignments:
These online assignments come out every Friday and are due next Monday if I'm not mistaken with the schedule. Your best ten results will be picked for the 10% final mark. I think the thing worth noting about these assignments is that some if not most of the questions are harder or even much harder than those you get on the exam. Don't stress too much if you are stuck with some questions or you think you've spent too much time on them. It always took me quite a while to finish one assignment. Moreover, in my year, one question from assignment showed up on the exam paper. Therefore do take your time and work through them.

2. Written assignment:
Somewhere around the middle of semester you will get this IWT (interactive writing task) assignment. The purpose of this assignment is to help you familiarise with essay-style question which will show up in the final exam. You need to choose one of three topics for your piece. Topics include guideline questions so you are basically still answering questions and putting them together fluently. Your first draft is not marked but reviewed by two other students and a tutor. You will also review drafts of two other students who work on different topics. Your reviews are marked so don't just say stuff like 'good job'. Be as constructive and considerate as you can. After receiving the reviews you will develop your draft based on them and submit your final piece which needs to include how you use the reviews. Everything is done online. Your reviews and final piece are what are marked. I don't know what the weighting is but I think I wrote more for reviews than for my final piece. Feedback and sample pieces will be provided later in the semester.

Exam:
You might be thinking that with three questions being given before the exam from problem-solving session and online assignment, the final exam in my year should be easy. But the most challenging part of the exam is the sheer amount of stuff to write. There should be quite a few students who weren't able to finish in my cohort. In fact, if I spent any time thinking of those three questions, I wouldn't be able to finish on time considering I only had few seconds left. There won't be too much time for you to think so try to write as fast as you can. As for difficulty, I think it's fair. It's easy to spot some patterns in the way they write questions from the past exam. For example, thermal physics is usually about someone walking, running or cycling and how heat processes are occurring, electricity is very likely to have a question on a three-point-charge system and radiation and imaging is probable to have an essay-style question. You won't see anything you haven't seen before. Therefore the best preparation is to go through your lecture slides and make sure you know how to solve all the questions you have seen in problem solving sessions and assignments.

Overall, this is a decent subject which is not too hard to do well in. From what I've heard it is better coordinated than Physics for Biomedicine. Therefore for biomed students, if you are eligible for Physics 2: Life Sciences & Environment, do pick it. And if you have any inquiry about this subject, feel free to PM me .
Edit: Apologies for being misleading here. Students with study score of 25 or more in VCE Physics 3/4 or equivalent have to do Physics 2: Life Sciences & Environment. I thought we had a choice but apparently I was muddled .

Yes, with screen capture.

A/Prof Michelle Livett covers thermal physics, fluid and radiation and imaging. Prof Ann Roberts covers electricity and magnetism.

Yes. Past exams up to 2012 are available but only past three years' papers are provided with solution.

4 Out of 5

The prescribed textbook is Physics for Global Scientists and Engineers, Volume 1 or Physics for the Life Sciences 3E. I 'found' the latter one but only used it once. So they are not really necessary. Aside from textbook you will definitely need to buy the lab manual for pracs and problem-solving sessions and a logbook for writing reports.

3 x 1-hour lecture per week
8 x 2.5-hour practical
1-hour problem-sloving session per week

Note: the schedule of practicals is given on the back cover of your lab manual. And I know on the handbook it says pracs last for 3 hours but when we were doing them they only gave us 2.5 hours. It might be different in the future so just be mindful of it.

Semester 2, 2017

H1(89)