I definitely recommend this subject to anyone interested in chemistry ! There are only 6 weeks of lecture content (3 x 1 hr per week), which means the final exam is based on only half as much content as other subjects (from my experience). The lectures can be a bit dry, a tad monotonous, but should evoke some interest and reference to at least SOME aspects that interest you. The topics are the earth, data & measurement, the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere and resources. I definitely wasn't super into a lot of the content, but I found multiple aspects interesting, and the 18 lectures rather than the typical 36/24 made it super palatable and flexible (since I could fall behind at week 4/5 to focus on MSTs etc and catch up later in the semester as there is no MST but only an exam). Another key aspect of the subject is of course the practicals, which start in week 4 and run until week 11/12 (I can't remember exactly). All but two practicals in this subject requires a partner and every practical requires a report, however these reports are not overly demanding as they are maximum 3 pages and the method is a flowchart of images. From my surroundings, all the demonstrators seemed knowledgable and they were all quite nice - my demonstrator was Maddison who was very chill. The reports are marked out of 10 and are due one week after the practical is completed and personally, I found them very achieveable to do well in, which is good because this component is 40% of the subject. My main recommendation is to ask the extent of the calculations to complete as I had no idea to include every single one or just one and in what format... I was really confused about this and there was not much guidance so I would either start the pracs early so you can ask for help in person or over email or to just ask your demonstrator from the get go, as I lost a few easy marks on the reports from this, but once I understood the requirements I didn't lose any notable marks afterwards (something along the lines of using the formula and worked out calculation for mean, sd, CI and then just writing the formula and final answer for each of them). Additionally there is a 20% weighted assessment which consists of a three page individual report + group assignment. Essentially, there are an assortment of topics released for you to choose from on canvas (proportional to the amount of students enrolled with a multiple of four i.e. 88 students = 22 topics). Following the release of topics (in like week 4 maybe? Around that time), you go on canvas and can enter a group based on which topic you like. After that, you have from this point onwards to prepare an individual assignment and group project to submit and present in week 12. My group did basically all the group work in like week 11-12, while some groups met through the semester and did it over time - it depends on your group. As for the exam, it is broken up into 120 marks with 20 specifically for each topic, and the exam is in order of topic 1 then topic 2 etc. Some of the questions were a little weird to me, as opening the first page of the exam to a 10 marker that required you to remember the entire nitrogen cycle (fine in itself) with the specific numbers with proportions (this detail felt a bit rough) BUT, in the week 1 tutorial Brad (the coordinator and lecturer) did say that you'd have to ROTE learn and regurgitate a cycle in the exam, so that's on me for thinking I wouldn't have to remember the specific numbers (the flashcard was too hard and I rushed revision). There was also a 5 marker which he went over the tutorial once and it didn't really come up again and it wasn't part of the tutorial questions for revision it was just in a random week 2 lecture, however it was free marks if I revisited it, so it's not too harsh. While these questions are frustrating, the a high exam score is extremely achievable, as a high amount of marks (maybe 65-85% of the total marks) were literally questions copied and pasted from the tutorials (of which there are only 6 - ideally don't miss any of these if you can since he goes over some useful questions and information sometimes - I missed the first one since the subject information was a bit outdating and convoluted. In terms of the actual difficulty of the questions, it is not hard at all - some questions are just year 12 chemistry level e.g. RICE table, gas laws. Overall, it is pleasing to only have 6 weeks of lectures and tutorials (even though the content isn't overly engaging). The practicals aren't difficult to complete, score well in and most don't run for 3 hours. The group assignment is okay, depends on your group a little bit. I definitely recommend this subject for anyone interested in chemistry ! I give this a 4 star but it's not far off from 5 and I'd probably give it closer to a 4.5 if I could, with the main issues being content engagement and clarification of some aspects of the subject.

As a science student intended to major in chem, i do not know why this subject is recommended in the course plan. It seemed to rehash year 1 chem and high school science, felt like all content (again, for a science student) could be condensed into 2 weeks. Yeah its a wam booster but dont waste your money on this subject as a sci student. Pracs were a nice touch though.

I really enjoyed this subject! The content was interesting and you can tell Brad is very knowledgeable and passionate about it. The content is relatively easy, there is some maths involved but it was manageable (I did this as a science elective with a more psych/bio background). The practical component required a lot of work and was challenging at times, but was overall very interesting. My only issue with this subject is that Brad is a great researcher, but as a lecturer he can be a bit dull sometimes and you may have to ask him to clarify things as he often assumes you understand him straight off the bat. We also had an issue with the second lecturer refusing to release revision questions for us to prepare for the exam, and his content was less well structured and a bit all over the place at times. The group assignment was relatively painless if you get a good group and the exam was fairly reasonable, but it was long and poorly organised. Overall, it was a little challenging and dry at times but I really enjoyed it!

Took this subject hoping it would be a wam booster and was not disappointed (got H1)! Due to quarantine, we did all of the experiments online and it was a bit of a hassle to write the lab reports weekly for 6 weeks in a row but those reports ended up helping my overall score so much. And they offer lots of help for report writing so it was fine. I didn't particularly enjoy the content as I'm more interested in biology-based subjects but some of the things we learned (especially in the second half of the semester) was interesting. Also the exam was almost exactly the same as the tutorial questions.

One of the best subjects I've done so far. High H1