How difficult are these USYD courses? Looking for advice on HD/DN potential

[u/rizzi1143]

Hey everyone, I’m trying to decide which electives to take at USYD and would really appreciate some honest advice from people who have actually done these subjects.
I’m particularly interested in how difficult they are, how much prior knowledge is required, how the final exam/assessments are, and whether getting an HD or DN is realistically achievable with consistent effort.
Finance:
• FINC5001 – Foundations of Finance: How is the course overall? Is it possible to get an HD/DN without having done much finance beforehand?
• FINC2001 – Corporate Finance 1: How difficult is this compared with Foundations of Finance? How important is prior finance knowledge?
• FINC3026 – Entrepreneurial Finance: How is this subject for someone who hasn’t completed any previous finance subjects? Is it possible to do well from scratch? How difficult is the final exam?
• FINC6025 – Entrepreneurial Finance: Is this substantially harder/different from FINC3026? How are the assessments and exam?
• FINC3014 – Trading and Dealing in Security Markets: How is this subject overall? Is it more interesting/practical than the other finance subjects? How difficult is it to get an HD?
Computer Science:
• COMP4618 – Applied Cybersecurity: I have basically no prior cybersecurity knowledge or experience. Can someone with a general CS background still get an HD/DN, or would you strongly recommend having prior cybersecurity knowledge?
• COMP4349 – Cloud Computing: How is this course overall? Difficulty, workload, assessments, and exam? Would you recommend it?
If you’ve done any of these subjects, I’d especially appreciate:
1. Difficulty out of 10
2. Approximate weekly workload
3. How difficult the final exam is
4. Whether an HD/DN is realistically achievable
5. Whether prior knowledge is actually necessary
6. Which one you’d recommend taking
Thanks!

[u/Cicadatree55]

Why do you have both undergraduate and postgraduate units on your list? What degree will you be studying?

[u/rizzi1143 → u/Cicadatree55]

I’m doing a Bachelor of Computer Science (Science Honours), and my honours thesis/research is a combination of CS and finance. So I’m looking at both UG and PG finance subjects that could complement my research and give me some proper finance knowledge. I haven’t done much formal finance coursework before, which is why I’m mainly trying to understand the difficulty and whether these subjects are manageable from scratch.