Wow, thank you very much - both for the detailed reply and for the good news! 
To be honest, physiology wasn't the one I was worried about: it was definitely my strongest out of the three in second year, and it ties in with my major from Biomedicine. In comparison, my recall of second year anatomy is not great and I barely remember anything from biochemistry at all. Since you reckon it's not necessary to do that much, I'll probably hold off on reviewing all of that content in the remaining weeks of these holidays. Instead, I was thinking of maybe just doing some light reading over my notes from second year now. In particular I'm thinking I should probably leaf through my biochemistry notes from BIOM20001 and maybe the anatomical principles content from BIOM20002 (i.e. the part before we delved into systems anatomy where we had to learn all the structures). It might just help me get back into the rhythm of studying again, and if I get stuck at least I might have a rough idea of where I can go for further information. Do you think that's about right, or still way too much?
You can definitely have a bit of a skim over the stuff, particularly the anatomy. But all the anatomy really starts from scratch, and with the exception of one lecturer who only does a few lectures, is taught really, really well. Jenny Hayes really does do a fantastic job with the anatomy and delivers it in such a way that you'll find it pretty easy to pick up on.
I wouldn't worry too much about the biochem though. From memory, the only actual biochem you cover is:
-structure of haemoglobin
-fat transport (similar to Alana Mitchell's lecture in Frontiers)
-alcohol metabolism
-haemoglobin metabolism (so basically production of bilirubin etc)
-metabolism of foods (similarish to the Joel Bornstein lectures from second year)
-type two diabetes (insulin signalling, pathogenesis of type two diabetes etc—awesome lecture)
Then in semester two you cover:
-three lectures on carbohydrate metabolism (very different to second year, they don't want you to rote learn steps, just to get the key concepts and understand how metabolism is different in different organs and in cancers)
-thyroid hormone production and signalling
-steroid hormone production and signalling
I've probably missed a couple. It'd be handy to have some basics of molecular biology and have the bear basics of protein structure. So it'd actually be more fruitful to skim the basics of cell biology, if anything at all.
It looks like a lot of this is metabolism, and it is, but it's completely different to what you experienced in second year. You have to learn some steps, but only the ones with genuine clinical relevance. The focus shifts from rote learning the crap out of everything, to actually understanding the biochemistry in the context of your broader knowledge. If you understand the concept of a rate-limiting step and the idea that metabolic pathways overlap (as well as the basic substrate product crap) then you're really set for the biochem.
The good thing about the cores is that they're really well taught, with perhaps the exception of physiology at some points of the year. They've really gone to a lot of effort to make things manageable.
So sure, skimming is fine to get your head in the right place, but don't worry about it tooo much
Home
Help
Search
Login
