Like the unit ATS1247 from semester 1, this unit is a survey course which means you will cover multiple ancient civilizations this time during the iron age. This includes Assyria, Egypt (Late Period), Persia, Greece & Hellenistic empires, Rome & Australia. Unfortunately since it's a first year subject it's compulsory, so you just have to grin & bear it and look forward to 2nd year when you can actually start to specialize in an area you actually like. Wasn't the biggest fan of the lecturer, but I liked my tutor (had him last semester as well). Assessments are very simple and it's easy to do well in this unit provided you take detailed notes during the lectures & video modules.

Summary of this unit is breadth with no depth. A LOT of content is covered - I'm talking 2 civilizations per lecture some weeks. We did Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, Phoenicia, Carthage, The Eurasian Steppe etc etc etc, not to mention the individuals like Alexander the Great, Phillip II, Caesar and many others who sometimes were only discussed over two slides out of a whole PowerPoint slideshow. It's supposed to be like a taster of all the possibilities you can home in on in 2nd years, but it really is quite overwhelming at times. The tutorials were also a bit useless as we discussed things that had nothing to do with the lectures - the tutes were almost like their own lectures. You would think with the break-neck speed we were racing through the Mediterranean they would enforce the ideas glossed over in the lectures - but no. Also, 'Ancient Civilisations' is a deceptive title if they're only going to discuss the Mediterranean and its colonies - nothing about Asia, America etc. They had a short spiel about Australia but it felt like they were only shoving it in to be politically correct as it didn't tie in to anything else. A better title would be something like The Mediterranean Iron Age. There is an annotated bibliography a major essay of 3000 words and an exam (short-answer). Granted, I do know what I want to do next semester, but I kind of already knew my interests before this course. There is no textbook and the lecture slides are kinda useless sometimes as they just put pictures up and read off their own notes, so studying is a little tricky. Make sure you take good notes the first time otherwise you'll be listening to all the lectures again on MULO before the exam -__-