5th Year 2016 W Term 2 Review

5th Year 2016 W Term 2 Review

BIOL361 - Physiology of Sensory, Nervous and Muscular Systems class average = 73

I would say that this course provides good foundation in physiology - the content itself is not too difficult and seemed like a slight extension to BIOL 260. You really learn about those systems in the course title for the whole term starting from scratch and can be boring at times because you think you already know those concepts (ex. took half of the term learning about axons and action potentials), but it does get more interesting as you progress through the term. In terms of grading schemes it is composed of clicker questions + prereading quiz (10%), midterm exam (30%), and final exam (60%) - I heard this could change up to your preferences/performances as you can choose not to write the midterm exam and make the final exam worth 90%, or do better on the final exam than midterm exam, making the final exam worth 90%.
I took this class with Dr. Lacombe, and the lecture slides can seem too detailed and exhaustive, but if you put effort in going to 8:00 am classes, she does hint you which slides are important and should be memorized. I would recommend this course to those who enjoyed BIOL 260 as it doesn't deviate much in terms of difficulty and exam format. 

BIOL363 - Laboratory in Animal Physiology class average = 77

I think the course title should give you enough information on what kind of contents will be dealt in this course. The grading scheme is composed of participation(10%) prelab quiz(10%), 2 regular reports (25%), 1 formal report (25%), and final exam (30%). 

Every week there is a lab session (4h) and a lecture session (1h). There will be lab sessions almost every week, but you will only have to write reports on 3 of the topics (2 regular reports + 1 formal report). The rest of the topics that you collected data for will be tested on the final exam, so I suggest that you always review what you did in that week, ask questions on concepts that aren't clear, and keep good notes because trust me, by the time you are studying for the final exam, there will be a lot of data/notes to prepare. Thankfully, there isn't much to do for prelabs unlike most other lab courses, however, the formal lab report takes a long time to finish (took me an entire week, and I think my lab-mates said the same thing), so just watch out for that. The regular reports don't take a long time and you get to work with your partner too.

I guess taking BIOL361 allowed me to study less for the BIOL363 final exam as many of the concepts overlap. For those who didn't take BIOL204 and wishing to take BIOL363, I would say go ahead because I myself who didn't take BIOL204 didn't really have much difficulty understanding the concepts in the lab :) 

CPSC301 - Computing in Life Sciences class average = 81

Initially I was a little bit scared because I didn't do so well in high school programming classes, but I took it to overcome my fears in computer science. As it turns out, this course was a delight. Because this course was designed for students with no computer science background, the pace of the lecture was quite slow and the lecture itself was not very hard to follow. You learn about python pretty much most of the term (first two weeks with Scratch) and will have weekly lab sessions. The grading schemes is as follws: clickers (4%), in class group activities (4%), labs (25%), midterm exam (22%), and final exam (45%). Lab works can be frustrating and take a lot of time, but people usually do well on the labs contributing to the high class average and can also be fun. Final exam was more difficult than the midterm exam, but the sample exams were more difficult than the actual exams, so I guess you can prepare for exams that way.

FNH355 - International nutrition class average = 75

I initially registered for this course because I simply couldn't find any other electives to take - but I think I really learned a lot about international nutrition from the course. Most of the information being taught were quite useful and practical (ex. current health issues facing the world like micronutirient deficiencies, breastfeeding, impact of food on climate change etc, and possible solutions). I found exams to be quite challenging because it is not just based on rote memorization of facts on slides, but also asks for your opinion on subject matters discussed in class. Overall though, I think it was worth a struggle as I find myself more informed than before which is not the case for many of the electives that you take :)