physiology.

[simpak]

Hey guys, a quick question!

Is it a bad idea to take Human Physiology and Research Based Physiology at the same time (ie, both in the same semester)?  I would prefer not to, but it's possible my exchange situation will require me to take them both in Semester 1 next year...
Trying to sort out this exchange application is so annoying...

I might also look into finding an Animal Physiology match-up o/s if this isn't a good idea.

Thanks

[Edmund]

I did both subjects in the same semester and had no problems coping. There were textbook readings in both subjects which overlapped and I found this saved a lot of time. There isn't much theory to cover in RBP anyway, by the time the exam comes, you would have already covered everything in the Human Physiology subject.

[simpak]

This is great news!  How about taking both of those subjects plus Anatomy plus Biochem all in sem 1?  Cramming so many prerequisites into the one semester just makes me nervous, but it's administratively easier if I take them all here and use electives and breadth while I'm overseas.  I don't want to have to find a whole lot of exempt credit match-ups.

[Edmund]

Well it depends. I know I would struggle if I did them all together since the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry subjects are pretty full on.

Also, one of my Physiology lecturers mentioned that they've made the 2nd year Physiology assessments much harder (i.e. exams assess on a wider range of topics and in much more depth) given it is a prerequisite for postgrad health science courses. I assume this will be the same for anatomy and biochemistry. Peedles completed the Physiology and anatomy subjects last semester so he might be able to confirm this.

[mikee65]

Yes it does seem 'full on', good luck!

[Russ]

I had anatomy and physiology in one semester and it's not terrible as long as you're on top of it. Since they complement each other so heavily, if you fall behind in one, the other becomes tougher as well.

Adding biochemistry into the mix would make things pretty tough though, that's a pain of a subject when it comes to memorization and it wouldn't help with anatomy learning!

[Peedles]

Well it depends. I know I would struggle if I did them all together since the anatomy, physiology and biochemistry subjects are pretty full on.

Also, one of my Physiology lecturers mentioned that they've made the 2nd year Physiology assessments much harder (i.e. exams assess on a wider range of topics and in much more depth) given it is a prerequisite for postgrad health science courses. I assume this will be the same for anatomy and biochemistry. Peedles completed the Physiology and anatomy subjects last semester so he might be able to confirm this.

Personally, because the content between RBP and Human Physiology completely overlapped I pretty much considered it as one subject. I didn't look over anything before the RBP exam at all because there was a COMPLETE overlap with Human Physiology. By the time you've finished the assignment for RBP, you should be VERY VERY VERY set for the exam. Edmund is right about the course change for Human Physiology (read my course review for information about that)

Anatomy I found difficult (but that was only me; most people found it easy). The course for anatomy has changed considerably as well where they've completely scrapped the Flagrace component where you identify particular muscles, bones on real specimens which many people ie)Edmund found very difficult. This has now been replaced by online quizzes which are relatively straight forward (15% in the bag).  The exam format made doing very well in it quite easy too, coupled with lecturers providing alot of choice in questions when it came to the exam. Hence, lessening the work load of Principles of Human Structure considerably.

My exam period was light. I didn't feel stressed at all. You definitely COULD do BCMB20002 and do extremely well in it (having seen your track record of grades). Last semester 210 students out of about 600 students got a H1 grade for the subject (based on stats given in the introductory lecture) FYI .

I would definitely encourage doing the two physiology subjects together so that you can free more time for anatomy and biochemistry subjects which can be quite content heavy so that you can still be able to satisfy 4 science subject credit points . (and score well across the board too)

Why I mentioned the bit about Edmund (who did anatomy 2 semesters before i did) was because the assessment and grade distributions across tasks may change next year. The subject structure of Anatomy and Physiology has changed considerably from 2010. It might even be even more different in 2012 so make sure this is something you look at before enrolling. =) Hope this helps

EDIT: I lied when i said I wasn't stressed at all. I was stressed a bit xD

[jasrulz63]

Last semester I had Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Human Physiology, Principles of Human Structure and my breadth was Business Finance. The three science subjects were all pretty full on, with 3 lectures a week each, there's a lot of content to be covered. If I had my time again, I'd definitely have done Research-Based Physiology last semester. But as long as you keep on top of things, it's not too bad a semester. I got H1's for BCMB, ANAT and FNCE, but my PHYS score was 74, which I was disappointed in. I heard too (from the lecturer, Charles, awesome lecturer) that they marked the physiology a lot harder.

The BCMB exam was actually pretty good, quite straight forward questions, different lecturer's have different formats in the exam. For example the kinetics section of the exam was like 4 MC questions worth 3-4 marks each from memory, while the proteins section was a 10 mark question, and then 10 marks allocated to one-word short answer questions.

Among my group of friends, we found anatomy the easiest (reflected in our scores too). The questions were quite straight forward (pretty much rote-learned stuff). And as peedles mentioned, you get a lot of choice in questions, so if you have a weakness (i.e. Virgina Grossman and her embryology lectures, the horror!), you can just choose another question.

My weakness when it came to physiology was definitely my mid-semester exams, mainly the second one where I scored 18/30. The exam itself wasn't bad, though I had a horrible miscalculation in time during the exam, and spent twice as long as the first question as I should've. The questions are the hardest ones in my opinion, cause it's situations where you have to apply knowledge to the question, instead of just spilling out rote-learned answers.

EDIT: Looking at your sig peedles, we're doing the exact same six science subjects

[simpak]

Thanks so much guys!  I'll have to think about it.  I guess I can take one of Biochem or Anatomy in 2013 if I need to, when I come back from exchange as it's just a prereq for med and not the major, as far as I know.  So definitely things to consider, but I'm glad the news about physiology is good news as that's really what I was concerned about.  Thanks again

[Peedles]

EDIT: Looking at your sig peedles, we're doing the exact same six science subjects

Oh wow !! Well I'm surprised we havn't met yet. Good luck with your studies this semester !

[jasrulz63]

Oh wow !! Well I'm surprised we havn't met yet. Good luck with your studies this semester !

Only difference is I'm doing Research-Based in this semester as opposed to last. Good luck with yours as well