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'What papers should I do at UoO for graduate entry' Chat, Enquiries and Help
- Thread starter Ramza
- Start date
Well don't just take my word for it, lol, I haven't done any 'normal' path papers. @koochkooch is bound to know someone who has, though.
Path is interesting, but as far as biosciences go it's among the most intense, it's probably the most conceptually difficult thing I've come across in medicine yet (not that that's necessarily saying much, haha).
But yeah, I'd take the advice of one of the grad kids over me, in this case. It's just that the idea of voluntarily subjecting yourself to a path paper (especially when you need a good GPA) would scare me a little
D
Deleted member 4350
Guest
ANAT241 is 30% internals (terms tests) and 70% final (MCQ, SAQs, Essays). PHSL233 is the same.
I suggested looking at these threads:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
The PATH paper is not yet well established, and its too soon to tell whether it will be profitable enough to take. The material seems too out of reach for securing solid grades. I'd play it safe and stick with the advice of our graduates here on MSO. At this stage of the game, reading about past experiences is your best approach and this forum has a wealth of advice ready for you to sift through. After HSFY, you're basically thrown into a cave and you have to find your way through to the light. There have been many students who have learned the hard way, through trial and error (including myself) whos advice I would've LOVED to have when I was in your shoes. The departments are no where near as consistent in their delivery of lectures, marking of assessments and difficulty/scope of questions. Trust us. We are your only light source in that cave
All the best
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Ok, I get where you're coming from [MENTION=10716]frootloop[/MENTION]. I probably will play it safe as [MENTION=4350]koochkooch[/MENTION] says. Especially since the split between the internal and external portions of ANAT and PHSL would take the pressure off for finals.
Haha, I like how you said "after HSFY you're basically thrown into a cave...We are your only light source in that cave". Too true!
Oh, and thanks for the links- will definitely be going through that information.
Haha, I like how you said "after HSFY you're basically thrown into a cave...We are your only light source in that cave". Too true!
Oh, and thanks for the links- will definitely be going through that information.
D
Deleted member 4350
Guest
Its cold, dark and scary. You're stepping on sharp rocks and there are bats flying about, sometimes slapping you in the face. Occasionally you'll slip over a cliff face and fall 10 metres down into a lake. You can avoid all of this by looking for the light. We can give you guidance and comfort. Its a beautiful thing
AppleMac22
Member
Hey, I've done PATH201 this year... the final exam was pretty straightforward (6 essays), I didn't do so good in the midterm though (I didn't have time to go over the lab material which they examined a ridiculous amount of (due to 300 lab reports)) - but the mid term was pretty easy in that it just covered things literally word for word from the lecture slides (well the majority of pictures were from the slides) and the lab material was also really easy you just had to read the book which I made the mistake of not doing. It was my lowest mark this year (86%) but if you actually do the lab work I think it's not too hard of a paper.
More specifically - the internals consist of MCQ exit tests (10%) that are really really easy, and a rat race (20%) (which I've discussed earlier in this post). Lecturers are pretty bad, i.e. slides are designed pretty badly so you NEED to record the audio. Content seems like a lot but it actually flows really well so it's really a matter of the first time being troublesome. I personally found the content they taught really fascinating. Overall I think if you don't make the same mistake I did A+ should be reachable. However I think it might be better to take the paper during 2nd year than 3rd year so you can actually go through everything thoroughly.
edit: with regards to the final they are expecting you to know A LOT, the questions are really broad too, and they are said in the review lecture that they expect EVERYTHING for a good mark. The detail they go into is similar to some of my 300 level papers lol, I guess that's just path for you though.
More specifically - the internals consist of MCQ exit tests (10%) that are really really easy, and a rat race (20%) (which I've discussed earlier in this post). Lecturers are pretty bad, i.e. slides are designed pretty badly so you NEED to record the audio. Content seems like a lot but it actually flows really well so it's really a matter of the first time being troublesome. I personally found the content they taught really fascinating. Overall I think if you don't make the same mistake I did A+ should be reachable. However I think it might be better to take the paper during 2nd year than 3rd year so you can actually go through everything thoroughly.
edit: with regards to the final they are expecting you to know A LOT, the questions are really broad too, and they are said in the review lecture that they expect EVERYTHING for a good mark. The detail they go into is similar to some of my 300 level papers lol, I guess that's just path for you though.
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Hi! Props for the info!
Are the exit tests done after a lab or are they more like the GLMs in HSFY? And I'm not too sure what a rat race is?
And this seems like one of those papers where a good mark may be achievable if you're really interested in it....right now I'm considering all the possible options however, it seems safer to stick with ANAT and PHSL.
Also, cheers for the heads up about recording lectures. I will probably buy one of those electronic note-takers before semester 1 starts.
Are the exit tests done after a lab or are they more like the GLMs in HSFY? And I'm not too sure what a rat race is?
And this seems like one of those papers where a good mark may be achievable if you're really interested in it....right now I'm considering all the possible options however, it seems safer to stick with ANAT and PHSL.
Also, cheers for the heads up about recording lectures. I will probably buy one of those electronic note-takers before semester 1 starts.
AppleMac22
Member
Hi! Props for the info!
Are the exit tests done after a lab or are they more like the GLMs in HSFY? And I'm not too sure what a rat race is?
And this seems like one of those papers where a good mark may be achievable if you're really interested in it....right now I'm considering all the possible options however, it seems safer to stick with ANAT and PHSL.
Also, cheers for the heads up about recording lectures. I will probably buy one of those electronic note-takers before semester 1 starts.
Hey, no problem!
Exit tests are based solely on the lab material (with the exception of one question that came from the book, people complained however and they are changing that according to the main lecturer), and are done at the end of each lab (out of 5 marks). These are seriously nothing to worry about, my friend did no lecture work throughout the semester and still did really well lol, getting 5/5 is the norm. The questions are also pretty straightforward sometimes the answers are literally written in the lab book and oh I forgot to mention they are open book.. so yeah...
Basically for the "rat race" it isn't like the ones in ANAT with real models, instead they show images on a projection and they ask you to identify the cell/pathology etc. For example they may show you a picture of a neurotrophil, and then ask you questions pertaining to it's features/functions. None of the images are examined in the final though (which trust me is a good thing, there's a lot of histology.. and they are expecting you to memorize all the images and understand the features by yourself, they don't help with this aspect of the course - funnily enough we didn't even know it was a rat race until a week before which was a tad bit of a shock).
I would pick ANAT243 and the PHSL's over PATH201, haven't done 241 but I imagine it's probably easier since it's an introductory type paper. However I would do path201 over papers that have odd assignments (like some of the HUNT papers), simply because PATH is at least clear cut in terms of its assignment scheme.
p.s. nerf infestors
AppleMac22
Member
Labs are stated to be 4 hours, however this is hardly ever the case - however in MICR labs you need to pay attention and study them thoroughly as there are assessments in MICR that are solely based on the lab material!
Haha! Starcraft???
Awesome, the exit tests don't sound too harsh then. And oh, ok. I'm glad I'm hearing about "rat races" now instead of getting surprised about them next year!
Cool, thanks for all that. I've been told to steer clear of HUNT papers lol so I don't have to worry about that. I think I've sorted out my papers for next year! ANAT and PHSL should be fine unless I suddenly get the urge to do PATH haha.
Awesome, the exit tests don't sound too harsh then. And oh, ok. I'm glad I'm hearing about "rat races" now instead of getting surprised about them next year!
Cool, thanks for all that. I've been told to steer clear of HUNT papers lol so I don't have to worry about that. I think I've sorted out my papers for next year! ANAT and PHSL should be fine unless I suddenly get the urge to do PATH haha.
AppleMac22
Member
Haha yep!
Watching dreamhack?Yeah, if you end up doing PATH201 if i'm still around I could probably help you out a little (I remember the mid term and exit tests pretty well to detail), you should be OK anyway though... they might even make the paper easier since the internal marks were really bad this year (considering this is the first year it's been run). I've only done HUNT221, which is relatively easy (especially the final exam), but I think that's basically the only HUNT paper that's safe to do (if you just want a good mark and don't have an innate desire towards learning about nutrition).
NAMPOLEON
Member
OTAGO: PHSL 232/PHSL 233 from a 2012 student's perspective (danny)
PHSL 232: Cardiovascular and respiratory physiology
An extension of the cardiovascular and respiratory physiology from HUBS 192. Enjoyed the paper as it was interesting, although it was the most time-consuming and a bit more harder than the other 2 PHSL papers that comprise the PHSL major. For you BBiomedsc guys who don't have to take this paper (unlike the PHSL majors who do) and want to do "easier" papers, I'd suggest PHSL 231/PHSL 233 over this one. Of course if you have interest in this area, with a bit of work, A+ is manageable.
Basic outline is as follows:
Module 1 (6 lectures): Wigger's diagram, cardiac action potentials, ECG, excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle, intrinsic and extrinsic control of cardiac function.
Module 2 (6 lectures): Vascular control (vascular design, aorta, arterioles, capillaries, veins), reflex control (think hemorrhage), regional circulation, fetal circulation.
Module 3 (5 lectures): Alveolar gases and diffusion, blood gas transport (oxygen and carbon dioxide), and acid-base balance.
Module 4 (5 lectures): Mechanics of breathing.
Module 5 (5 lectures): Integration/exercise physiology
Module 6 (5 lectures): Pathophysiology, such as atherosclerosis, systemic hypertension, and pulmonary hypertension.
There are 2 terms tests, each comprising of 20 standard MCQs and 10 assertion MCQs. The terms tests are worth 15% each.
Terms test 1 had an average of ~80%. Quite a few people got A+, and no one failed.
Terms test 2 had an average of ~57%. Only 4 people managed A+ in a class of 168. 51 people failed.
After the terms tests before finals, they uploaded a document with terms results for the whole class. Only 5 people had a terms of 90 or above.
Final exam is worth 70%. Examines 32 lectures and 6 labs, comprised of 40 MCQs and 6 long answer questions (each with parts eg. abc). The finals for PHSL 232 was probably the most difficult of the PHSL finals I sat this year, not necessarily because the exam was super hard or anything, but because time-management was difficult compared to my other exams. I spent twice as long as I should've on one question in the finals which meant towards the final 30 minutes of the finals, I was rushing, panicking, just writing like a madman. Walked out feeling like the lecturer marking my last question is just going to laugh upon seeing my answer. It just happened to be one of those more "vague" questions which seemed a bit too broad, so I was even more unsure.
Ended up with A+ overall (despite frenzy at the end). One of the things I think that really contributed to my grade was the fact that I knew how to draw every single graph (that I considered important/seemed potentially examinable). I think it was around 25 graphs or so. If you look at past exams, the exam questions ask for "accurate graphs" so axis, title, trend, and certain hallmark features (such as P50 - youll find out what this is later) must be adhered to. I didn't do HUBS 192 last year (because I didn't do HSFY at Otago), but I have seen some of the past papers for HUBS 192 and they don't ask you to reproduce graphs. Unfortunately that changes. Upon understanding the physiology behind the graphs, I then drew them a few times and it just stuck. In the exam, I answered 2 questions which had a graph-drawing part, and being able to draw these graphs really quickly (and accurately) helped me to save time to somewhat make up for my blunder of spending far too long on a previous question. Regarding finals, time-management for 232 is key. I also did past exam questions (not all of them), and there was one "copied and pasted" question for the integration module. Also thanks to my decent terms average, I had a bit of a buffer to lose marks in the finals.
Recording lectures throughout semester was also a contributing factor - aids in making notes. I personally prefer to just sit in lecture and listen carefully and write nothing, and then go home to listen to the recorded lecture again with the printed lecture slides to make notes. I don't think many people do this, it has worked for me so far though.
Ending this post on a quote from another Otago MSO user @AppleMac22 who wrote on one of my previous posts regarding PHSL 231 and MICR 221 in the NZ graduate entry subforum: "No paper is easy and no department is good, if you listen to the audios + take good notes you will get A/A+ regardless of the paper." Good way to think of things going into 2nd year.
PHSL 232: Cardiovascular and respiratory physiology
An extension of the cardiovascular and respiratory physiology from HUBS 192. Enjoyed the paper as it was interesting, although it was the most time-consuming and a bit more harder than the other 2 PHSL papers that comprise the PHSL major. For you BBiomedsc guys who don't have to take this paper (unlike the PHSL majors who do) and want to do "easier" papers, I'd suggest PHSL 231/PHSL 233 over this one. Of course if you have interest in this area, with a bit of work, A+ is manageable.
Basic outline is as follows:
Module 1 (6 lectures): Wigger's diagram, cardiac action potentials, ECG, excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle, intrinsic and extrinsic control of cardiac function.
Module 2 (6 lectures): Vascular control (vascular design, aorta, arterioles, capillaries, veins), reflex control (think hemorrhage), regional circulation, fetal circulation.
Module 3 (5 lectures): Alveolar gases and diffusion, blood gas transport (oxygen and carbon dioxide), and acid-base balance.
Module 4 (5 lectures): Mechanics of breathing.
Module 5 (5 lectures): Integration/exercise physiology
Module 6 (5 lectures): Pathophysiology, such as atherosclerosis, systemic hypertension, and pulmonary hypertension.
There are 2 terms tests, each comprising of 20 standard MCQs and 10 assertion MCQs. The terms tests are worth 15% each.
Terms test 1 had an average of ~80%. Quite a few people got A+, and no one failed.
Terms test 2 had an average of ~57%. Only 4 people managed A+ in a class of 168. 51 people failed.
After the terms tests before finals, they uploaded a document with terms results for the whole class. Only 5 people had a terms of 90 or above.
Final exam is worth 70%. Examines 32 lectures and 6 labs, comprised of 40 MCQs and 6 long answer questions (each with parts eg. abc). The finals for PHSL 232 was probably the most difficult of the PHSL finals I sat this year, not necessarily because the exam was super hard or anything, but because time-management was difficult compared to my other exams. I spent twice as long as I should've on one question in the finals which meant towards the final 30 minutes of the finals, I was rushing, panicking, just writing like a madman. Walked out feeling like the lecturer marking my last question is just going to laugh upon seeing my answer. It just happened to be one of those more "vague" questions which seemed a bit too broad, so I was even more unsure.
Ended up with A+ overall (despite frenzy at the end). One of the things I think that really contributed to my grade was the fact that I knew how to draw every single graph (that I considered important/seemed potentially examinable). I think it was around 25 graphs or so. If you look at past exams, the exam questions ask for "accurate graphs" so axis, title, trend, and certain hallmark features (such as P50 - youll find out what this is later) must be adhered to. I didn't do HUBS 192 last year (because I didn't do HSFY at Otago), but I have seen some of the past papers for HUBS 192 and they don't ask you to reproduce graphs. Unfortunately that changes. Upon understanding the physiology behind the graphs, I then drew them a few times and it just stuck. In the exam, I answered 2 questions which had a graph-drawing part, and being able to draw these graphs really quickly (and accurately) helped me to save time to somewhat make up for my blunder of spending far too long on a previous question. Regarding finals, time-management for 232 is key. I also did past exam questions (not all of them), and there was one "copied and pasted" question for the integration module. Also thanks to my decent terms average, I had a bit of a buffer to lose marks in the finals.
Recording lectures throughout semester was also a contributing factor - aids in making notes. I personally prefer to just sit in lecture and listen carefully and write nothing, and then go home to listen to the recorded lecture again with the printed lecture slides to make notes. I don't think many people do this, it has worked for me so far though.
Ending this post on a quote from another Otago MSO user @AppleMac22 who wrote on one of my previous posts regarding PHSL 231 and MICR 221 in the NZ graduate entry subforum: "No paper is easy and no department is good, if you listen to the audios + take good notes you will get A/A+ regardless of the paper." Good way to think of things going into 2nd year.
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NAMPOLEON
Member
PHSL 233: Gastrointestinal and renal physiology
An extension of renal and gastrointestinal physiology from HUBS 192, with some cellular physiology and protein trafficking. I thought this was a fairly easy paper, and a little more boring than the other 2 PHSL papers.
Basic outline:
Introductory lectures (3 lectures):
Module 1 (4 lectures): Cellular physiology including diffusion, Fick's law, permeability, membrane transport, electrochemical gradients, related equations, diffusion potentials, equilibrium potentials, resting membrane potential, nernst potential, GHK equation, osmosis, tonicity, and osmolarity.
Module 2 (4 lectures): Cellular signalling including epithelial cell structure, signal transduction (G-protein coupled receptors, ligand-gated ion channels, enzyme-linked receptors).
Module 3 (4 lectures): Protein trafficking including epithelial cell polarity, post-translational modification, sorting signals, endocytosis, experimental evidence for certain sorting pathways, protein turnover with ubiquitin-mediated degradation.
Module 4 (8 lectures): Renal physiology including GFR, renal clearance, filtered load, glomerular filtration barrier, water handling, glucose handling, sodium handling, potassium handling, calcium handling, renal pathophysiology such as Liddle's syndrome, Bartter's syndrome, nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.
Module 5 (9 lectures): Gastrointestinal physiology including regulation throughout the GI tract, stages of GI regulation, GI motility patterns, the various GI secretions (gastric, salivary, pancreatic, biliary), peripheral regulation, GI coordination, digestion and absorption of fluid, electrolytes, sugars, fats, and vitamins.
Module 1 is really basic content, should mainly be revision (with maybe a little bit of extras?), module 2 is also quite basic and straightforward. Anything new you learn here is quite easy. Module 3 for our year was taught by a lecturer who normally doesn't teach the module (because the lecturer who does was not available this year), and I felt that it could have been presented a bit better. Everyone I talked to seemed to have complaints only for that particular lecturer. I daydreamed A LOT in his lectures. However he did upload a whole pile of scientific articles (perhaps there was a hidden agenda behind his teaching
), and I did read some of them which provided me with better understanding. The scientific articles are intimidating a little bit at first but once you read a few, they aren't that bad. I referred to Boron and Boulpaep at times as well, just for a quick read. Module 4, the renal guy was really nice in the sense that almost everything ~95%+ of what we needed to know was on the slides. He reads off them. Finally, we had a mammoth module on gastrointestinal physiology and it was a very dense module. Quite content-heavy: comparing 4 lectures of gastro with renal, and the former takes far longer to get through. Thankfully the material itself wasn't too hard, just lots of it.
Assessment schedule is the same as PHSL 231/232 for both terms tests and finals.
Terms test 1 had an average of ~72% with quite a few getting A+.
Terms test 2 had an average of ~65% with less students getting A+. No huge drastic changes from first test (unlike 232)
Regarding terms averages for the class of 149, 12 people had averages of 90 or above (not bad right?)
Finals was slightly strange for this year (2012). We had a new lecturer teaching cellular physiology and cellular structure/function (so it wasn't just the protein trafficking guy). His questions had 0% resemblance to questions for that topic from the past 4 years. They have never (before this year), asked for diagrams in questions in any of the cellular physiology/cellular structure and function topics. These diagrams weren't obvious ones like cell diagrams by the way. He asked for a drawing of an experiment which would illustrate the development of a resting membrane potential. As simple as that may sound, it actually cost me a lot of time. I spent about 7 minutes trying to flick through all his slides (in my head of course - no cheating) and tried to remember pictures which could fit the bill. Clearly I did not expect that to even come up so I hadn't really paid much attention to it. I don't know if they will upload the 2012 exam up to exam database or blackboard for next years class, but I hope they do. They had always asked for a signal transduction pathway in the past 4 years (usually worth big marks too), and they asked none this year. So if they don't upload the 2012 exam, remember the 2008/2009/2010/2011 exams may end up not having much resemblance at all for certain topics. Apart from some vague/broad questions here and there, the rest wasn't too bad. Gastro which was my main concern, was actually very straightforward. I can remember most long answer questions so if they don't upload, you can PM me. (especially the "weirder" ones I didn't expect)
Ended up with A+ overall. This paper is a good pick for those of you who may opt for "easier" 200-level papers. I believe it is a good candidate because apart from GI, there isn't that much content, and there wasn't anything particularly challenging. Well, maybe protein trafficking, but hopefully the original lecturer will be back and it hopefully won't be a problem. Even if protein trafficking is a little bit difficult (only a little), it's still worth it. Although you may not have to deal with being able to reproduce graphs like PHSL 232, you will need to learn (and memorise) quite a lot of cell diagrams through renal and gastrointestinal physiology. Trust me, learning all those cell diagrams will help you out. I had to draw 4 cell diagrams (I think?) in the finals (and im sure I had learnt at least 20+ (ie. all of renal/gastro ones since you don't know which one they may ask).
And like usual, record lectures, do practice exam papers, and you are welcome to PM me or ask on this thread if you need anything.
Oh and by the way, for you students who are doing 200-level in 2014 and are looking for an easy A+, I'd really really REALLY recommend MAOR 110 (since most of you would've done the HSFY favourite MAOR 102). Took that paper from advice I found on MSO, easiest 95% of my life.
An extension of renal and gastrointestinal physiology from HUBS 192, with some cellular physiology and protein trafficking. I thought this was a fairly easy paper, and a little more boring than the other 2 PHSL papers.
Basic outline:
Introductory lectures (3 lectures):
Module 1 (4 lectures): Cellular physiology including diffusion, Fick's law, permeability, membrane transport, electrochemical gradients, related equations, diffusion potentials, equilibrium potentials, resting membrane potential, nernst potential, GHK equation, osmosis, tonicity, and osmolarity.
Module 2 (4 lectures): Cellular signalling including epithelial cell structure, signal transduction (G-protein coupled receptors, ligand-gated ion channels, enzyme-linked receptors).
Module 3 (4 lectures): Protein trafficking including epithelial cell polarity, post-translational modification, sorting signals, endocytosis, experimental evidence for certain sorting pathways, protein turnover with ubiquitin-mediated degradation.
Module 4 (8 lectures): Renal physiology including GFR, renal clearance, filtered load, glomerular filtration barrier, water handling, glucose handling, sodium handling, potassium handling, calcium handling, renal pathophysiology such as Liddle's syndrome, Bartter's syndrome, nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.
Module 5 (9 lectures): Gastrointestinal physiology including regulation throughout the GI tract, stages of GI regulation, GI motility patterns, the various GI secretions (gastric, salivary, pancreatic, biliary), peripheral regulation, GI coordination, digestion and absorption of fluid, electrolytes, sugars, fats, and vitamins.
Module 1 is really basic content, should mainly be revision (with maybe a little bit of extras?), module 2 is also quite basic and straightforward. Anything new you learn here is quite easy. Module 3 for our year was taught by a lecturer who normally doesn't teach the module (because the lecturer who does was not available this year), and I felt that it could have been presented a bit better. Everyone I talked to seemed to have complaints only for that particular lecturer. I daydreamed A LOT in his lectures. However he did upload a whole pile of scientific articles (perhaps there was a hidden agenda behind his teaching
), and I did read some of them which provided me with better understanding. The scientific articles are intimidating a little bit at first but once you read a few, they aren't that bad. I referred to Boron and Boulpaep at times as well, just for a quick read. Module 4, the renal guy was really nice in the sense that almost everything ~95%+ of what we needed to know was on the slides. He reads off them. Finally, we had a mammoth module on gastrointestinal physiology and it was a very dense module. Quite content-heavy: comparing 4 lectures of gastro with renal, and the former takes far longer to get through. Thankfully the material itself wasn't too hard, just lots of it.Assessment schedule is the same as PHSL 231/232 for both terms tests and finals.
Terms test 1 had an average of ~72% with quite a few getting A+.
Terms test 2 had an average of ~65% with less students getting A+. No huge drastic changes from first test (unlike 232)
Regarding terms averages for the class of 149, 12 people had averages of 90 or above (not bad right?)
Finals was slightly strange for this year (2012). We had a new lecturer teaching cellular physiology and cellular structure/function (so it wasn't just the protein trafficking guy). His questions had 0% resemblance to questions for that topic from the past 4 years. They have never (before this year), asked for diagrams in questions in any of the cellular physiology/cellular structure and function topics. These diagrams weren't obvious ones like cell diagrams by the way. He asked for a drawing of an experiment which would illustrate the development of a resting membrane potential. As simple as that may sound, it actually cost me a lot of time. I spent about 7 minutes trying to flick through all his slides (in my head of course - no cheating) and tried to remember pictures which could fit the bill. Clearly I did not expect that to even come up so I hadn't really paid much attention to it. I don't know if they will upload the 2012 exam up to exam database or blackboard for next years class, but I hope they do. They had always asked for a signal transduction pathway in the past 4 years (usually worth big marks too), and they asked none this year. So if they don't upload the 2012 exam, remember the 2008/2009/2010/2011 exams may end up not having much resemblance at all for certain topics. Apart from some vague/broad questions here and there, the rest wasn't too bad. Gastro which was my main concern, was actually very straightforward. I can remember most long answer questions so if they don't upload, you can PM me. (especially the "weirder" ones I didn't expect)
Ended up with A+ overall. This paper is a good pick for those of you who may opt for "easier" 200-level papers. I believe it is a good candidate because apart from GI, there isn't that much content, and there wasn't anything particularly challenging. Well, maybe protein trafficking, but hopefully the original lecturer will be back and it hopefully won't be a problem. Even if protein trafficking is a little bit difficult (only a little), it's still worth it. Although you may not have to deal with being able to reproduce graphs like PHSL 232, you will need to learn (and memorise) quite a lot of cell diagrams through renal and gastrointestinal physiology. Trust me, learning all those cell diagrams will help you out. I had to draw 4 cell diagrams (I think?) in the finals (and im sure I had learnt at least 20+ (ie. all of renal/gastro ones since you don't know which one they may ask).
And like usual, record lectures, do practice exam papers, and you are welcome to PM me or ask on this thread if you need anything.
Oh and by the way, for you students who are doing 200-level in 2014 and are looking for an easy A+, I'd really really REALLY recommend MAOR 110 (since most of you would've done the HSFY favourite MAOR 102). Took that paper from advice I found on MSO, easiest 95% of my life.
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D
Deleted member 4350
Guest
This may be true for most papers in 2nd year, but things really start to become shady in 3rd year. They begin to expect you to read outside the scope of lectures and venture into the research article realm (ick!). In third year its very unpredictable how to guarantee success in any chosen paper. There are only a few exceptions to that rule which have been reiterated many times here - ANAT332, MICR337, PHSL345 etc - audio and slides may suffice for most modules of these papers, but wider reading really is necessary for those higher marks in 3rd year. Once you finish your degree, you will look back on 3rd year and really begin to understand why its weighted so heavily.
But yes, at the second year level, the advice from @AppleMac22 on sticking with slides and audio is good.
EDIT: congrats on the A+. PHSL232 is the hardest 200 level PHSL paper, and an A+ in any 200 level paper, let alone the hardest one, is really quite an achievement. So well done and keep up the good work!
But I wish I could actually go!!scarfie151
Member
Firstly, I recommend ANAT332- Cell biology. This paper is quite easy, I don't understand why it is called a 300 level paper at all.
Also, ANAT 331- musculoskeletal anatomy, is quite an easy paper to score good marks in. It's 'anatomy' after all. you can't go wrong with being spoon fed. I find learning human structure and function quite interesting. Also the laboratory section involves dissection. Great fun.
I was always interested in cellular and molecular biology, so I chose my papers with that theme. Hence I chose PHSL341, ANAT332, BIOC223 in my third year.
PHSL341 is a good paper, the lab component is amazing. You get to choose which lecturer you want to work with, to conduct a research project. It's an awesome group experience, you write a proposal, design an experiment, conduct the experiment, write a lab report, and do a presentation.
It was an absolute joy, great way to gain some insight into the field of research in your third year. Not only that, many people got A+ in their internals.
As for the exams- you need to read the right articles, and be able to regurgitate the experiments in the exam. - definitely podcast the lectures, if they're hard to understand.
Therefore you really have to focus on your interests. Besides a select few anatomy papers, 300 level papers are quite difficult to score A+ in. It can be done, but you need to study smart, rather than study hard. 200 level papers are much easier to get A+s.
Also for summer school, choose HUNT if you want easy marks.
Also, ANAT 331- musculoskeletal anatomy, is quite an easy paper to score good marks in. It's 'anatomy' after all. you can't go wrong with being spoon fed. I find learning human structure and function quite interesting. Also the laboratory section involves dissection. Great fun.
I was always interested in cellular and molecular biology, so I chose my papers with that theme. Hence I chose PHSL341, ANAT332, BIOC223 in my third year.
PHSL341 is a good paper, the lab component is amazing. You get to choose which lecturer you want to work with, to conduct a research project. It's an awesome group experience, you write a proposal, design an experiment, conduct the experiment, write a lab report, and do a presentation.
It was an absolute joy, great way to gain some insight into the field of research in your third year. Not only that, many people got A+ in their internals.
As for the exams- you need to read the right articles, and be able to regurgitate the experiments in the exam. - definitely podcast the lectures, if they're hard to understand.
Therefore you really have to focus on your interests. Besides a select few anatomy papers, 300 level papers are quite difficult to score A+ in. It can be done, but you need to study smart, rather than study hard. 200 level papers are much easier to get A+s.
Also for summer school, choose HUNT if you want easy marks.
scarfie151
Member
Wow, good job on the PHSL papers. Getting A+ in them certainly aren't easy.
Good luck for third year =D
Good luck for third year =D
doctorhopeful
Member
Hey Danny, wow. A huge congratulations on your marks! You obviously have the knack (y)
I wonder if you can help me over the confusion of my mark in PHSL232. I learnt the lectures completely in detail off by heart and did all my readings. Like you I was rushed in the exam, (and also spent too much time on one question) but I felt like I got to the finish line with full answers all including the main points on the slides. I was completely stumped when I received an A-. I lost about 5% on the internals mainly because of that one hard test, but I still feel like I aced that exam.
What did you do differently? Did you include material from the readings or journal articles? Even if I could have added detail from readings I simply didn't have time. I'll definitely go and view my script!
Cheers
I wonder if you can help me over the confusion of my mark in PHSL232. I learnt the lectures completely in detail off by heart and did all my readings. Like you I was rushed in the exam, (and also spent too much time on one question) but I felt like I got to the finish line with full answers all including the main points on the slides. I was completely stumped when I received an A-. I lost about 5% on the internals mainly because of that one hard test, but I still feel like I aced that exam.
What did you do differently? Did you include material from the readings or journal articles? Even if I could have added detail from readings I simply didn't have time. I'll definitely go and view my script!
Cheers