Pick a different subject, you'll thank me later. A H1 is possible but very difficult. Trust me you'll have an easier time doing Human Structure and Function than companion animal biology - it is definitely NOT a WAM booster. Assessment includes: Intra-semester test (10%) Product Review Assignment, 1600 words (30%), Product Summary (20%), Exam (40%). FYI the exam format is 1 long answer question and 4 shorter answer questions. Basically 5 mini essays in 1.5 hours. A/Prof Ian Bland is definitely very passionate about the subject which I admire - but with this passion comes inevitably harsh marking. I put in lots of effort into this subject - attended every lecture in person and all the weekly workshops but it was just not enough to achieve high marks. It's no doubt an interesting subject, but the amount of effort I put in exceeded that of subjects with content that was comparatively more difficult to conceptualise... but without the good grades. The marking is not really criterion based but it is what he feels that you deserve based on vibes. With arbitrary guidelines you will probably gain a certain amount of marks but not clearly know what you could've done to make it better. Rather than individual feedback you'll get a 20 page document of feedback for the whole cohort - the feedback we received as a focused on grammar, punctuation and spelling, and one of the points was ironically about lack of connection between paragraphs. But from the assignment instructions we were told: You are allowed to use a maximum of four instances of words of transition words such as "furthermore", "in addition", "on the other hand" etc. You are not allowed to use the word "moreover". The lecture slides for the most part were just pictures and we didn't receive key learning outcomes to guide us, a practice which is common in most science disciplines. I understand wanting to teach in a way that is more free for the lecturer but this creates space for digression which makes it unclear what aspects of lectures are going to be assessed.

Ok, mixed reviews here. First off, if you're looking for a subject with interesting content, but don't care about your WAM, then take this subject. You learn about history of domestication at first which was very boring, but then later on you learn about how to train your dog, animals in film, animal nutrition and pedigree dogs. It was very interesting to learn about as an animal lover for sure! But, unfortunately university makes it so that we have to care about grades more than the content we are learning :/ This subject is not an easy H1. Ian is a VERY harsh marker. When I say very, I MEAN very. Some tips: - the essay: don't have too short or too long paragraphs. - don't have complex terminology - have pictures that are big enough on the word document for him to see - make sure referencing is consistent - have a title Poster - the overall visual effect rather than the specific content you're putting in is important Exam - I would say the practice exam is a very good guideline! - focus on some specifics from the lecture on aquariums MST - I studied very hard for this MST yet still didn't do well. Make sure to remember the COI's and some statistics on dogs vs cat population! Anyway, H1 is difficult, but the content was interesting.