r/unsw

I know that a high wam is better for opportunities, and going into post-grad (which im not sure if i even want to do) but i feel so unmotivated to study and was wondering, why is a high WAM good?

Visiting UNSW soon for a short amount of time and want to have some fun whilst I'm there. Any good places to pick up around campus? 33f Caucasian if that helps, so not so much the younger crowd at the roundhouse presumably.

Basically, a friend of mine told me about someone taking 3 courses this term, and is planning on moving all of the exams back through special conditions. I'd like to know if this is even possible, and how the uni doesn't detect how strange that is. Thats all, thanks

Unimelb’s 37th btw

Source: https://www.shanghairanking.com/rankings/arwu/2026

im currently in yr11 was looking through degrees and actuary at unsw seems quite interesting (my best subject is math and im prolly gon do ext 2 in the yr 12 course) i had a couple questions:

1. Whats the job hiring/prospects for actuary, apparently its supposed to be one of the jobs thats gonna be safest from ai but im not sure

2. I was looking at the double degrees and might be interested in the bachelor of science. advanced math honours double with actuary, would that be a good choice and how heavy would the workload for that be? and what are good double degree combos with actuary ?

3. Why do most people dropout (is it that hard???)

4. What do actuaries actually do, I searched it up but not am entirely sure whats it about

5. Apparently u need to do more years of self-studying until u become a full actuary, how hard is that, how time consuming, how long does it take ?

Thank you everyone for answering !!!

I cannot even solve a single past paper question without looking at the solutions. Exam is in 4 days.

At this point, what should I prioritise if my goal is just to pass? Should I keep working through past papers and learning the solution patterns, or go back through the course content first?

I think this might genuinely be my first course fail 😭 Any advice from people who have been in a similar position / passed COMP3311 would be appreciated.

Hey everyone!

I’m an international student and I’ll be joining UNSW in Term 3, 2026. I’ll be travelling to Sydney soon, and I’d love to connect with other students who are also starting at UNSW around the same time.

I’m thinking of creating a small group where we can get to know each other before/after arriving in Sydney whether you're an international student, domestic student, or just new to UNSW.

Would be great to connect, grab a coffee, explore Sydney, help each other settle in, or just have people to talk to when we first arrive.

If you’re joining UNSW in Term 3 2026, drop a comment.

Would especially love to hear from other students coming here !!!

As someone who wants to be Louis Litt in the future, I must plan ahead. How hard is it for a first year to get into a subcommitee role

I’m going to start in a week and I haven’t finished my final acceptance letter (due to me needing my financial guarantee but it’s almost done) and I don’t even have a laptop and I’m going into mechanical engineering, im so scared I’m going to fuck something up and I’m going to ruin everything over myself

Anyone knows where I can get a laptop good for engineering? I know a couple of stuff about PC’s but I’ve never had a laptop before
Also can somebody just give me a rundown of what I need to do once I start? Like what I need to bring, what I need to do, where to do it, it’s 10pm and I can’t sleep because this is all in my mind sorry yall for the stupid post but I honestly don’t know where to go any form of help is greatly appreciated I’ll try to get myself some sleep now hopefully things will get better tomorrow

For engineering/stem students feel free to drop some advice or tips based on ur experience below.

^^ Essentially I've no we've realised courses are getting harder. Most mates and classmates during post-exam debrief had been complaining about MATH2099 and DESN2000 for elec stream. And probably 2133 soon. It's come to my attention that it's not an issue with the course. One of our classmates said "This was nothing related to past papers". I thought about it and realised thats the exact issue. I feel like we've been overreliant on past exam styles that system gets destroyed when exam questions become unique or test understanding. I agree that these tests got harder. But I also agree my study approach is flawed. Honestly I shouldve known this since ELEC1111 Arash last year and Elec2134 last term. I am a survivor of those tests but maybe those tests are now the norm.

Not sure how I made it out up to this point but I need to find a new efficient method or else I wont survive future elec courses. The simplest solution is like to stay up to date with lectures and tutorials weekly. But we all have work-life-balance and burn out so missing lectures can quickly snowball. Another problem might be studying using AI to check your answers not give you the steps. If u have an alternative method or outline I would love to hear it below. Thanks

Just wanted to ask people how much they use AI for assignments. My tutors have said a lot of the class missed the point of the assignments because it was clear they were using AI of some kind. I didn't think that many people used it for assessments but it seems like they do?

I never use it maybe because I'm a bit older and feel like i want whatever mark I get based on my work, but I'm curious to know how many people actively use it, in what way and how much...

How did everyone find that exam? Lowk hoping for a pass, was so much harder than the past papers we were given, though that may be a result of being under an immense level of time pressure.

how was it?

Kinda relieved tbh I might be too dumb to realise what I was wrong about but that felt really chill compared to the notorious fail rate

The University has shifted its messaging and policy to reflect the reality that many forms of assessment can be outsourced to genAI, yet that outsourcing cannot be reliably detected.

That means that you can write many reports or essays without any real fear of running afoul of academic misconduct (if you are even slightly competent).

You can, but you really shouldn't.

If not for the sake of your future abilities then at least for the sake of your marker's sanity.

The stink of slop on your work can't be scrubbed away by a "humanizer" app. The abiding ugliness of AI writing is far more repulsive than any awkward grammar you "polish" away by feeding your work into Anthropic or OpenAI's trash compactor.

It's not saving you work, it's not saving you time, it's not making your work look more academic. It's setting you up for future failure by convincing you that the mid mark it gets you means anything.

Out there, in that terrifying future beyond graduation, there is nothing so thoroughly unremarkable and low value than the ability to ladle up slop. I am observing the way that workplaces are increasingly disdainful of anything that even has a whiff of genAI and that's only going to increase as time goes on.

And even if you get in, and score a job at the ladle, is that really what you want for yourself?

I might delete this post as sentimental and bitter, but I have never met a student who wasn't capable of more than the kind of cardboard that these machines spit out. It's thoroughly depressing to drown in it when I open the LMS, knowing you're all capable of so much better.

I get it: the factors pushing students towards outsourcing like this aren't their fault. They're more mine than yours at least. So don't take this as a moral judgement from the dubious high horse of having to write my own dodgy essays in undergrad.

Do take it as a sincere request that you back yourself and give actually learning a go. Because at this point I'd rather take up trepanning as a hobby than read another ChatGPT authored summary.

So yesterday during my comp exam , the person next to me get caught cheating by the invigilators. What will actually happen to them (just curious). I just saw them left the exam room after that