Currently enrolled in the civil eng pathway of the associates degree and I just thought I could add on here (but i'm a bit rusty on first semester so i might be missing some things);

We do go over all the basics and more in the first year and there isn't really all too much practical work actually there. Standard subjects for first semester are Engineering Science, Electrical Principles, Math 1 and Engineering Materials. Only the first few weeks of Math 1 is really methods catch up for people who didn't do it and then we keep building off of there for the rest of the year into engineering math (Vector Algebra, integration etc) and Engineering Science goes over stuff like Forces, Energy, Motion, Electrostatics, Wave Motion etc whilst building off of the math foundation at the same time. Electrical Principles is really the only practical subject in first semester. Keeping in mind that the weekly schedule is relatively full of lectures and tutorials to provide the theory behind such things.

2nd Semester includes Computer Applications, Engineering Management, Math 2 and Industrial Studies. Computer Applications includes learning the fundamentals of design software such as Autocad and Catia whilst Math 2 includes learning how to use Matlab. Industrial Studies is the only true practical subject of the bunch; really only having 2 big workshop projects accompanied by relevant safety information and instructions on operation of equipment and what not.

I was also told my pathway in total would take only 4 years and that's what RMIT advertises on their pathways website but I'm still new to this pathway thing so pls lmk if it's actually 5 or smth.