I wish I could ask you on all of the 2nd year subjects I will be doing but I'll just ask a few: Do you have notes for Immunology or Haemotology? Molecular Biology? Metabolic Chemistry? Do you have any tips/advise for these subjects? How did you go? What would you different if you knew what you were doing?
My last semester was a pretty lazy one I didn't do as well as I wanted but then again I never failed anything either. I have notes I made for Haematology (which was my favourite subject) but I didn't make notes for Immunology, Molecular Biology and Metabolic Biochemistry purely because I had access to some notes I got somewhere else. I did pretty well in Molecular Biology and Metabolic Biochemistry.
Tips:
Molecular Biology - The lectures are given in such a way that notes are included in the lecture material presented these often contain a lot of jargon terms and are written as though you 'should' know what is being discussed. After each experiment you have to hand in a 'lab report' which is literally a bunch of questions relating to the experiment you just did you can find some past reports posted online with answers however each year the questions change. My biggest tip is don't skip lectures like I did go to each lecture and leave with a good solid understanding of what the lecture was about then go home and go over it again. You really need to keep up with this subject or you will be left behind.
Immunology - The lectures for this subject are very content/theory heavy I found myself dozing off during the lectures and not really taking in what was being presented. The concepts are very interesting and the prac classes are good. This subject is perfect if you're doing other more intense subjects which require more assignments etc because this class only has a few small tasks that you can easily complete throughout the semester. For example 10% of your mark is ensuring you have filled in your prac book and another 15% was for a quiz. These are easy marks. My main tip for this class is understand EVERY concept in detail because when the final exam comes around you will be given very specific multiple choice questions relating to the lecture material (there was no extended response questions in the final exam)
Haematology - I suggest buying the recommended textbook and the microscopic haematology book as they are VERY helpful during prac classes and for the final exam. Understand the theory but it's also very important to understand the different characteristics of diseases and what they look like on a blood film. Get a solid foundation of what everything looks like, what you would expect to see in a certain disease and that will lead you to being able to diagnose it based on what you see on the film. Understand most of the theory but I would say understanding the pracs is more important purely because some of the theory is not necessary to understand Haematology. An example of a question you might encounter in the final exam could be what type of Leukaemia would you expect to see Auer rods? (AML). I guess my biggest tip is to understand all the precursor cells (bone marrow) and what they look like and what they differentiate to then the whole subject will just come together.
Metabolic Biochemistry - This subject is very content heavy they post the lectures on youtube which you can watch from home then go to the lecture and reinforce that information (I'm not a fan of this system as I am VERY unproductive at home). The practicals are pretty much rinse and repeat each time try and understand what is going on each time. Ensure you have a good understanding of all the metabolic processes and that essentially sums up the whole subject. While you're on your break you should revise dilutions/serial dilutions as this will be used a lot in practical classes and might even be part of the first practical. You have to do a report based on an experiment that is very close to the end of the semester so that can be stressful purely because you only have a week to complete the report since it's based on an experiment complete the week before. I did well in all of the reports but the final exam was pretty difficult it was one of those exams where you look up and give an evil stare to the course coordinator who is in the exam room.
this is sad, i want to study longer at UTS!
