Pretty poorly run unit, though some of the content is interesting. A lot of the types of questions asked in the exam / tests are just rote memorisation (e.g. size of headers). The lectures are very dry and far too long (2 hours to cover content that should take 45 mins, the lecturer speaks slowly and repeats every single sentence 2-3 times). The textbook is good but doesn't align very well with the study design. Tutors were not that knowledgeable and tute retention was pretty low (around 4 people in mine by the end of semester, compared to 25 ish at the start and probably far more enrolled). A huge variety of content is crammed into the lectures but no real depth is given. Lots of facts to memorise without regard for why things are how they are. I didn't feel like I was being assessed on the important things, the focus was on trivia that can easily be googled. I talked with some other people after one of the tests (which again, was mostly just about memorisation) and they all barely passed. These were the people who were *actually going to the tutes*. I can't imagine what it's like for everyone else. I've done some networking before outside of uni so I did okay, but it was far harder to prepare for since the questions were so random. One of the questions was a multiple choice that didn't even have valid units in any of the answers (expecting bits per second, all the answers were percentages...), and I never managed to get a clarification on it. The assignment was pretty interesting, but the requirements were very vague and the scope was huge (beyond that of the unit) so I constantly found myself in territory I had no idea about. I asked a lot of questions in the forums and mostly the response was "we didn't mention this but don't worry about it". I went to the consult and asked a few more questions, the tutor in the consult said he didn't know (e.g. what assumptions to make) and that I should ask the head lecturer. It's a shame this unit was so bad because networking is a really interesting topic. I learned far more from watching YouTube videos filling in the gaps than from the actual unit. Definitely one of the worst run IT units I've done so far.

Anonymous, Semester 1, 2021