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'What papers should I do at UoO for graduate entry' Chat, Enquiries and Help

duftlagl said:
Could somebody share their experiences on PHSL 300-level papers? I need to take four out of PHSL341, 342, 343, 344, 345, and not sure which one to not take.
Also, thoughts on ANAT331 and BIOA301 would be really helpful

Thank you :)
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I took PHSL342, 343, 344, and 345 in 2017 so this information might be a little bit outdated. My advice would be to pick the 4 that you find the most interesting, especially since these papers have a focus on reading a fair amount of primary literature for the assignments. Each paper had a mixture of assessment including laboratory reports, poster/powerpoint presentations, and final exams. Each paper usually has 3-4 lectures that will take 5-7 lectures which have an assignment attached to them and one essay question in the final exam. Overall, none were particularly easier/harder than the others so go with what you think you will enjoy the most!
 
Hello! Has anyone done PHAL211 and would like to share their thoughts/advice on this paper? I've been told it's a 'hard' paper but a couple of people said it was manageable so I'm not sure what to think of this paper. Is the content and workload heavy?
 
eee123 said:
Hello! Has anyone done PHAL211 and would like to share their thoughts/advice on this paper? I've been told it's a 'hard' paper but a couple of people said it was manageable so I'm not sure what to think of this paper. Is the content and workload heavy?
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Hey, so I did PHAL211 last year.
Originally I was steering wide of pharmacology as I'd heard that it was challenging and I didn't really like the look of it, but I happened to meet a couple of people who were pharm majors and got into med as postgrads, and they convinced me to take it, and now I am majoring in pharmacology! I agree it was probably one of the harder papers in terms of learning unfamiliar pharmacology concepts and a reasonably heavy content load, but it is definitely worthwhile if you think you will find that area interesting, and tbh no paper is super cruisy! It ended up being my favourite paper, and I managed to get an A+ in it without the grade bump. Bottom line is you can pretty much do well in any paper regardless of whether people say it's hard, you just have to put in the work, which is easier if you enjoy what you are learning. If you want any more info or have any specific questions feel free to dm me! :)
 
Hi guys, just wondering if anyone took EDUC252? curious on what you thoughts are on this paper. Any feedback is appreciated : )
 
If anyone could please please please reccomend a first semester 200 level paper that I could add preferably one that isn't too time consuming (yeah I know thats not really a thing these days as any paper requires a good amount of time) would be really appreciative. Any papers that are rote learning style would be great as this is a strong point of mine. Currently enrolled for BIOA301, MICR331/335. much appreciated!!!
 
mideasyrole said:
I was looking for a paper like that and decided to go with BITC201 - can't comment on it though as I'm taking it this semester.
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Can recommend BITC201! Content is not heavy at all, and the lecturer tends to give lots of hints about the essay topics (which are often repeats from other years) before the final, making it very easy to prepare exam essays and do well.
 
Neurd said:
Can recommend BITC201! Content is not heavy at all, and the lecturer tends to give lots of hints about the essay topics (which are often repeats from other years) before the final, making it very easy to prepare exam essays and do well.
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awesome, how was the marking of the internals? Was the class average good and do you reckon its easy to get any type of A grade? thanks!
 
I love musculoskeletal (MSK) so ANAT331 was very enjoyable but defs not easy. My final grade was 3% lower than my PHSL342/345 papers so perhaps may be slightly more difficult than PHSL. ANAT331 was very content heavy so you really need to stay on top of work. If you hate memorising and rote-learning, stay away! There are 3 modules - Upper limb by Phil Blythe, Head/neck by Ming Zhang and lower limb by Stephanie Woodley. All are lovely, decent lecturers. In terms of assessment, there is a 4% eWiki and 10% OSPE (rat race) on upper limb, 10% OSPE on head/neck, and 16% report (normally w a dissection that we didn’t do coz covid) on lower limb. The eWiki is marked mostly by your peers and everyone is generally very reasonable (average was 3.4/4). You sign up for an upper limb muscle, bone or joint and write 1 page on it. The upper limb OSPE was quite tough, the class average was 7.4/10 and nobody got full marks. The head/neck OSPE I found a lot easier and the average was 7.8/10 and a few people got full marks. As for the lower limb group report….She was really harsh marking the report and the average was 12.8/16 with the highest mark being 15.6/16. The final exam was okay. Phil always has 1 whack (but cool) question (e.g. ours was about designing PPE equipment) which is not repeated over the years. You can try to prepare for this by looking at some research articles to get an idea of HOW anatomical studies are done e.g. how do they measure muscles, how do they measure range of motion, what participants should be recruited. Apart from this little research aspect along with Ming’s 2 ‘self directed learning’ articles that you do in labs, there is barely any additional reading up on research articles unlike PHSL where nearly every lecture has an additional reading. Ming and Steph normally repeat exam questions with no obvious surprises. Steph had some strange questions last year though it was to accomodate for the fact that we had our exam open book so I don’t think she’ll bring out weird questions again. Overall, would say it was quite a tough paper but as I like MSK and loved the dissection labs, was enjoyable! :)
duftlagl said:
Has anyone done both ANAT331 and BIAO301? Or just one of them? I really cannot decide which one to do in first semester
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milo8867 said:
Would like to hear about ANAT331 also!!
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bigboy210 said:
awesome, how was the marking of the internals? Was the class average good and do you reckon its easy to get any type of A grade? thanks!
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I found the marking pretty fair - it's not too hard to get an A if you can write a decent essay and follow the guidelines they give. I can't really remember class averages tbh (I took it in 2019), I think most people were happy with their grades. It's probably not the absolute easiest paper I've done but definitely possible to get good marks! Another perk is that once you've got an understanding of the basic ethical principles they teach, I found they teach very similar concepts in other BITC and CHTH ethics papers - which makes it quite easy to get As and A+s in those if you ever do them in later years or summer school :)
 
student2828 said:
I love musculoskeletal (MSK) so ANAT331 was very enjoyable but defs not easy. My final grade was 3% lower than my PHSL342/345 papers so perhaps may be slightly more difficult than PHSL. ANAT331 was very content heavy so you really need to stay on top of work. If you hate memorising and rote-learning, stay away! There are 3 modules - Upper limb by Phil Blythe, Head/neck by Ming Zhang and lower limb by Stephanie Woodley. All are lovely, decent lecturers. In terms of assessment, there is a 4% eWiki and 10% OSPE (rat race) on upper limb, 10% OSPE on head/neck, and 16% report (normally w a dissection that we didn’t do coz covid) on lower limb. The eWiki is marked mostly by your peers and everyone is generally very reasonable (average was 3.4/4). You sign up for an upper limb muscle, bone or joint and write 1 page on it. The upper limb OSPE was quite tough, the class average was 7.4/10 and nobody got full marks. The head/neck OSPE I found a lot easier and the average was 7.8/10 and a few people got full marks. As for the lower limb group report….She was really harsh marking the report and the average was 12.8/16 with the highest mark being 15.6/16. The final exam was okay. Phil always has 1 whack (but cool) question (e.g. ours was about designing PPE equipment) which is not repeated over the years. You can try to prepare for this by looking at some research articles to get an idea of HOW anatomical studies are done e.g. how do they measure muscles, how do they measure range of motion, what participants should be recruited. Apart from this little research aspect along with Ming’s 2 ‘self directed learning’ articles that you do in labs, there is barely any additional reading up on research articles unlike PHSL where nearly every lecture has an additional reading. Ming and Steph normally repeat exam questions with no obvious surprises. Steph had some strange questions last year though it was to accomodate for the fact that we had our exam open book so I don’t think she’ll bring out weird questions again. Overall, would say it was quite a tough paper but as I like MSK and loved the dissection labs, was enjoyable! :)
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Just saw this now. We had the ANAT331 Upper limb OSPE a few weeks back and the class average grade was only 5.6/10. A massive drop from when you did it! Hoping the next assessment is a bit easier because this paper is shaping up to be quite tricky otherwise haha
 
AspiringMD said:
Just saw this now. We had the ANAT331 Upper limb OSPE a few weeks back and the class average grade was only 5.6/10. A massive drop from when you did it! Hoping the next assessment is a bit easier because this paper is shaping up to be quite tricky otherwise haha
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Just to add on to that, I did PHSL345, 343 and 344 last year. I didn't do any of the pre-readings or additional readings in any of the 3 papers nor did I use research articles in the exams but I still managed to get an A+ for all 3, so personally I found that we didn't need to include these in our answers but who knows, they might be more strict this year.
 
Can anyone who has taken PHSL341 or PHSL342 (or 300-level physiology in general) explain the expectations of the exam? I know we are expected to go beyond the lectures and provide more insight than simple repetition of facts. How do you go about this?
Do you need to reference external studies or can you show an insightful understanding from bringing together ideas discussed within the lecture? The lecturers keep saying we are taking a step up from 200 level but I don't fully understand how to do that or what that means in terms of constructing an essay in the final exam.

Pretty much how would you recommend approaching the lecture content and integrating new concepts (if needed)?
 
I am considering on taking ANAT 242 neurobiology paper? Any advise on if it is a good paper or not, the work load and any tips on how to study for it. Also are there any suggestions for 200 level papers that may be do able if i want to replace ANAT 242.
 
jabawoki said:
I am considering on taking ANAT 242 neurobiology paper? Any advise on if it is a good paper or not, the work load and any tips on how to study for it. Also are there any suggestions for 200 level papers that may be do able if i want to replace ANAT 242.
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It's a cool paper and has a lot of memorizing like most ANAT papers. Asian Archaeology (ANTH203) is also a really good paper for boosting the GPA, but the essay requires a lot of time investment; the exam is easy!
 
ScarlettK said:
Hey! I just finished my double major in Anatomy and Physiology. Highly recommend PHSL231! probably the easiest of the 200-level physiology papers :) If you have done MAOR102 - then i also recommend MAOR202! MAOR202 was by far the easiest paper ive taken and an easy A+.

ANAT331 - fantastic paper. if you put in the work you'll definitely get a good mark
ANAT332 - was also a good paper, the lecturers are really nice and the material is pretty straight forward
ANAT335 was a huge workload. Luckily it will be reduced from 5 module to 4 modules for 2021 :) so hopefully that will make a massive difference.
BIOA301 - great paper. Same as 331, if you put in the work you can definitely get the marks needed :)
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Hi ScarlettK! Just wondering how did you find the difficult of MAOR202 in comparison to MAOR102?
 
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