lol...its a bludge
no no...its actaully a fair amout of work, even though i choose not to do half of it
umm there are 4 core units
in first semester you study both psychology and sociology in the unit called "Introductory Behavioural Health Sciences" the sociology strand is a bit boring but the psychology is really interesting and fun, especaily towards the end of the term when they show you all these case studies and videos. The lecturers change a lot because everyone obviously has their own specialty and the last guy who takes you for "developmental psych" is awesome..very funny guy...
there also a unit called "environements,health and society" which IS so so so boring it cannot be fathomed, basically a whole bunch of random information going back to 5000years about the current medical system(it sucks but ironically it was my best subject) it has very little relevance to anything! but the research assesments are really fun becuase you get to research a disease/health issue and assess its sociological impact.
next comes "human biology and biochemistry"which is also commonly studied with people from OT, HIM etc etc...basically as the name suggests you study human biology ( usually with a guy called Dr peter knight-hes awesome, you're likely to have the same lecturers as me this yr) which deals with all physiological functions of the body...theres also some fetal studies which i loved. Apart from that theres also how homeostatic disturbances affect the body( some of this you will have covered in yr12 bio) as well as an introduction to disease and cancer etc etc...DNA and chromosome work on a larger level..etc etc
The biochemistry aspect to this part of the core topic is good, the first couple of weeks are dead set boring becuase its a repeat of yr 12 except in a short amount of time and theres a large focus on the things i found boring in chem like hydrocarbons...but you need to understand this for the "biochem"section which is awesome and you focus on various proteins, lipids in the body and how how they're produced and affect bodily system and function...this part is fun
but the lecturer for the first month and a half is a total bitch..dont leave her lectures in the middle becuase she'll scream @ you in front of a lecture hall of 200 people (yes im talking from person experience
)
the last core topic was most hated by me and many of the people in the course...
"basic sciences for health science"
i dont know why they call it BASIC when its not...lol...but its a mix of normal, organic and biochemistry as well as physics. Good news is that there is some overlap between the biochemistry studied in this core topic and in "human biology and biochemistry" so it becomes easier to understand. Once again there is a lot of relap from year 12, but its good becuase i realised that i forgot half the stuff that i had learnt in yr 12 becuase you're away from uni for like 4 months and you definitely dont open up a chem book in that time...lol..Anyway STUDY this core unit VERY WELL, and in first semester there is a midterm exam thats based only on the phyics lectures and pracs (yes you have pracs for both phyics and chem topics..they are SO boring and useless..so dont get excited..and they make you hand them up for marking every week-dread) anyway...the exam is short but kinda weird and you may find it hard...well i did..and i failed it
(but its only worth 20% so you make up for it in the end of semester exam...which i aced
...)
The guy who usauly teaches the physics components is really fun though, and he gets excited over finding out how many M&M's you'll require based on weight and kj intake to climb mt everest....freaky..but funny nonetheless
Ummmmm..what else...hours are a dread-lots of 8am lectures...and some 5pm finishes, and theres a day where you're likely to have a 4hr break and have nothing to do, you can't even go out for lunch or shopping becuase it's lidcombe and its a hole!!!(unless you want to cross the road to the largest cemetary in the southern hemisphere
)
Its the least "hands on" of all the courses offered in health science..compared to say OT and speech pathology and physio...where theres lab work with cadavers, lots of dissections
...some people like me love that sort of thing..others dont...hence the reason i want to transfer to something more practical and the end of the year...dont know what yet...
as for marks, uai this year was...god i don't even remeber what i got!!(after yr12 the word UAI disappears and no one talks about it!!) it was somewhere around 78 this yr (check UAI handbooks or the website)...it keeps increasng (like it increased by 3 points because in 2005 it was 75) and all the lecturers say its going to continue increasing, so id be aiming for somehwere around 80-85 if you're dead set keen
this semster im studying..
-Professional Practice and Communication
-Human Behaviour and Behaviour Change
-Structure, Function and Disease A
-Microbiology and Biotechnology
ill let you know how that goes!
hope that helps
