Coming from a fresh-from-high-school perspective, History/Theory is the easiest subject this semester out of all the cores. It's basically weekly analysis of Architectural texts for the first few weeks, then you get started on planning and making your historical sites/buildings out of Balsa wood for your final group presentation. Lots of critical writing at home and discussion in class, and is pretty similar to art theory in high school. Protips: - If you have Ross as your tutor, lucky you because he pretty laid back and doesn't go too hard on you if you're late in submitting weekly stuff here and there. However don't make the mistake of doing the weekly readings the night before because there is simply a TONNE of reading material to go through and you won't get any sleep at all. - Printing. Super important. Camp out beside the printer early in the morning or DIY at home because there is no worse feeling in the world than having to print something and seeing 10 other students in front of you with 5 minutes until class starts. - If you're reading this before uni has begun, mess around with Balsa wood and make some models, even if it is as simple as a box. It will help you get started about thinking with the material, and it's limits and capabilities. Buy balsa. Make models. Go on Youtube. Cry about how bad your model is. Rinse and repeat. The best (and most complex) models I have seen were all layered with many individual parts, so don't go in thinking you're going to be Michelangelo freeing the angel from the balsa cube. It's long, arduous work, but ultimately rewarding.

Anonymous, Semester 1, 2013