Tips for studying uni-level human biology or biology in general (1 Viewer)

[sweetalmond]

Hi,
I'm a Macquarie student and at our uni we are required to take People and planet units which are subjects in a different faculty to our degree or area. I decided to choose human biology as it sounded like an interesting unit and it stated it was designed for students without any background in hsc biology.
The lecturer has already uploaded the first three lecture ppot slides on my student portal before semester has started and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the massive amount of content and how to effectively study for this science subject as I did not do any sciences for my hsc. (I am primarily an arts/ humanities person so I've become accustomed to studying in a particular way that suits those subjects)

If anyone could give some pointers or tips on studying for human biology and preparing for exams, committing content to memory as there is a lot of content like biological terms I need to commit that would be so great! Thanks

 

[InteGrand]

Biology generally involves a lot of rote learning as there is usually a lot of content. (You can try using mnemonics etc. to help memorise things.)

 

[BLIT2014]

Maybe try flashcards?

 

[Queenroot]

try to understand it instead of rote learn it helps

 

[alphabetafeta96]

I did this subject last year. You will really enjoy it, the lecturer is great. The major assignment is an essay ( 2000 words) - last year's options were on a) emergence of new diseases b) origins of life c) cancer and what makes cancerous cells different to normal cells. Make sure you dedicate time to this essay and make sure the paper's you reference are newish. The end of semester exam wasn't too hard. MC was easy, some of the shorter answers towards the back where more ambiguous.

 

[sweetalmond]

I did this subject last year. You will really enjoy it, the lecturer is great. The major assignment is an essay ( 2000 words) - last year's options were on a) emergence of new diseases b) origins of life c) cancer and what makes cancerous cells different to normal cells. Make sure you dedicate time to this essay and make sure the paper's you reference are newish. The end of semester exam wasn't too hard. MC was easy, some of the shorter answers towards the back where more ambiguous.

Hi, thanks alphabetafeta96 for your positive input and advice.
Just wondering, did you have a science/ biology background prior to this subject and do you think that if I haven't done any sciences before for hsc it will be disadvantageous. Because while the course is designed for students who don't have knowledge of hsc biology but I'm looking at the first three lecture notes and there are A LOT of biological/ scientific/ biochemistry terms that I have had to look up so I just wanted to know how in-depth does the lecturer go in explaining these biological terms like phospholipids or polysaccharides or vesicle formation to a total newbie.

What I have been doing so far is reading through lecture notes and noting down terms I don't know and looking them up, which is quite time consuming in order to have some idea of what concepts like lysosomes and Endoplasmic reticulum are.
Do you suggest this is an effective method for learning this subject as I haven't done science since year 10!

Any other advice on preparing for the exam (seeing as you've done it) or the subject would be so much appreciated!
Thanks again

The essay questions definitely sound really

 

[alphabetafeta96]

I did Senior Science and Biology for the HSC and Chemistry for Prelim. I'm not going to lie to you, the people who did sciences in the HSC will have an advantage over you. However, if you apply yourself there is no reason why you cannot match or even exceed their marks.
The lecturer is really good at going over technical terms, so don't worry about that.

The hardest thing you will ever have to learn in this course ( in my mind) is the Kreb's cycle and the process of glycolysis. Start looking at some khan academy/youtube videos on this now so you don't get confused later on.

Stay calm for the exam, do the MC first- it's easier that way. Be prepared to think on your feet- last year there was a question on female scientists which was a bit weird in the last section. I'll send you over some MC that I collated before the exams to study from the practice questions.

Out of interest, what other units are you doing?

 

[sweetalmond]

I did Senior Science and Biology for the HSC and Chemistry for Prelim. I'm not going to lie to you, the people who did sciences in the HSC will have an advantage over you. However, if you apply yourself there is no reason why you cannot match or even exceed their marks.
The lecturer is really good at going over technical terms, so don't worry about that.

The hardest thing you will ever have to learn in this course ( in my mind) is the Kreb's cycle and the process of glycolysis. Start looking at some khan academy/youtube videos on this now so you don't get confused later on.

Stay calm for the exam, do the MC first- it's easier that way. Be prepared to think on your feet- last year there was a question on female scientists which was a bit weird in the last section. I'll send you over some MC that I collated before the exams to study from the practice questions.

Out of interest, what other units are you doing?

Hi alphabetafeta96, thanks so much for all your advice, it was really helpful and MC questions would definitely be helpful as I don't have a lot of an idea of the style of biology questions).
My other units are all law and arts. I'm doing a global politics unit, a law unit and a critical thinking unit (people unit). So as you can guess I'm more of the humanities geek.

While human bio is my planet unit, and my degree is in arts/ law so that will always be my primary focus, I am determined to put in the effort to try and get at least a credit average in human biology (not sure how hard this will be). I primarily did it out of interest to better understand the human body and modern science a bit better.

Thanks for the headsup on the kreb's cycle and process of hlycolysis, I'll definitely look these up on khan academy or youtube.
Thanks again!

 

[Queenroot]

The crash course videos on biology are helpful

 

[alphabetafeta96]

Hi alphabetafeta96, thanks so much for all your advice, it was really helpful and MC questions would definitely be helpful as I don't have a lot of an idea of the style of biology questions).
My other units are all law and arts. I'm doing a global politics unit, a law unit and a critical thinking unit (people unit). So as you can guess I'm more of the humanities geek.

While human bio is my planet unit, and my degree is in arts/ law so that will always be my primary focus, I am determined to put in the effort to try and get at least a credit average in human biology (not sure how hard this will be). I primarily did it out of interest to better understand the human body and modern science a bit better.

Thanks for the headsup on the kreb's cycle and process of hlycolysis, I'll definitely look these up on khan academy or youtube.
Thanks again!

That's great. If you are interested in some other easy science units, I recommend BBE100- Brain, Behaviour and Evolution. It had a 50 MC end of year exam. And if you are a humanities geek then you have to try out Greek Heroes and Heroines- my favorite course ever XD

 

[CeliaTomoros]

I had zero science background when doing this unit and i really really enjoyed it. The lecturer is GREAT and makes hard concepts easy to grasp. The tips on this forum are all very helpful. I also suggest going to PAL if it is running this year. I found that concepts i didnt really grasp in lectures really sunk in at PAL. Hopefully you get the same leader i did because she was amazing. I was like you at first, because i too didnt have a science background, but the unit is great, you will do fine

 

[sinophile]

if you didn't take any sciences in high school you wont be disadvantaged greatly, its mianly just the scientific way of thinking you need to get used to if all you've done is humanities so far. sciences are very strict on facts and evidence. much of the content in bio is rote learning of concepts. make lots of summaries and use the textbook and you cant go wrong