Recommendations?

[seretide]

Hey Guys

Going into next year (my second year), I've been sort of trying to create for myself a template to follow in terms of what subjects I should have together to compliment each other or just make it easier - not having all the "hard" subjects together.

BCMB20002: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
BCMB20005: Techniques in Molecular Science
PHYS20008: Human Physiology (1)
PHYS20009: Research Based Physiology
ANAT20006: Principles of Human Structure

These are the subjects I think I might be looking at for next year.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[jasrulz63]

In my opinion, definitely put the two phys subjects together, they compliment each other well. You'll be a bit behind at the start in research-based until human phys catches up, but when studying for exams, there's a whole lot of overlap.

[Peedles]

Yeah, Jas is right. I did Human Physiology and Research Based Physiology together and did really well because of the overlap of content in the exams. But that was back when I did it in Semester 1, 2011. Apparently the exam format for Research Phys was changed?

I don't think it would have made a difference if you did Biochemistry concurrently or separate to Techniques. I felt that each subject was pretty "stand-alone". I did these two subjects concurrently and thought it was very manageable. If anything it might be of benefit because some of the techniques you learn for the prac subject fortifies things that you may have seen in the theory subject.

I'd also recommend doing Exploring Human Disease - Science. The content was quite easy to grasp. There were no tricks in assessment. The format of the final exam was 40MCQ and 3 short essays in 2 hours. Sounds tricky, but if you write a few template essays before hand and memorise them like I did then you should be fine. The exam prompts are predictable based on the past papers you are given access to.

For breadths: Definitely Music Psychology and Music and Health are easy H1's. I would say do Gamelan 2 Ensemble but they've changed the assessment so its quite difficult to get a H1 now.

You may even want to consider doing Principles of Human structure in semester 1 and the third year Viscera and Visceral systems subject in Semester 2. A number of friends of mine who were in 2nd year who did it when I was in third year said that it followed on very well with the Visceral component of Principles of Human Structure. There is alot of content but the content is not difficult to grasp and just relies on you studying consistently for it.
Hope this Helps!

[seretide]

Thanks guys for the responses! I will definitely be following your advice. And thanks for mentioning a breadth - I was stuck trying to figure out my main subjects that I didn't think of it. Between music psychology and music / health which would you recommend? As well, are they subjects that will continuously drain the life out of me?

[mankay]

For the first biochem subject, you can literally be assessed on any slide presented during the lectures, so if you're looking to get a very high score (>90), you'll need to dedicate a lot of time.

[Peedles]

For the first biochem subject, you can literally be assessed on any slide presented during the lectures, so if you're looking to get a very high score (>90), you'll need to dedicate a lot of time.

Why would you be aiming for a high 90's anyway . But the questions are quite repetitive. If you do all the practice exams then the final exam should be easy. I kept up to date and just did the exams for study and got 87 so its not that bad of a subject. The easiest out of the 3 prerequisites i believe.

Music and Health and Music Psychology are very similar. The latter offered in semester 1 and the other in semester 2. The assessment is slightly different. It isn't really reliant on you attending lectures so in that respect it won't drain your life. I have written a review on Music Psychology a while ago so maybe you want to read that. Music and Health differs assessment wise in that they have 2 essays (50% and 40%) and 10% blog participation as opposed to 40% quizzes and 60% essay. Personally I didn't find these subject interesting but a H1 was very achievable.

Hope this helps!

[mankay]

Why would you be aiming for a high 90's anyway .

There's an award if you get the highest aggregate score in that + techniques in biochem. Would look good on a CV

I managed to get 95 in it, but I didn't go as well in techniques...

[simpak]

Prac subjects always screw u ova.
I'm taking Biochem next semester! Yayyy, now I'm taking classes with people who graduated high school TWO years after me!