Originally Posted by epikness

can someone kindly explain how the 2a03 labs work? i understand that u have a lab, and a report due in a week time frame. but what is it exactly about the labs that makes them "hard"? where do students typically lose marks? what kind of things one needs to watch out for?

They mark the labs pretty strictly, the jump from first year to this course is just ridiculous. Definitively not enough preparation during first year for this course. Just ask your TA what they expect and follow the biology book you got in first year on how to write reports (It's part of the 1A03/1M03 package).

Originally Posted by jhan523

They mark the labs pretty strictly, the jump from first year to this course is just ridiculous. Definitively not enough preparation during first year for this course. Just ask your TA what they expect and follow the biology book you got in first year on how to write reports (It's part of the 1A03/1M03 package).

Agreed 100%. The difference between first and second year labs was very different. Especially since all they said in first year was "write everything" with including useless things like catalogue numbers and such. But with second year, it gets more into content and it really depends on your TA and what their expectations are. A huge chunk of your lab grades is based on your TA, so you can only hope to get someone who's a little clear with expectations and a little more flexible with their grading.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Bio 2C03- Has tutorials, no labs. So there's 10-11 tutorials with questions that you do in tutorial and hand in at the end of the 3-hr session (almost all of them didn't last 3 hours!). Also, there will be group presentation at the end of term which is presented in tutorial as well. These are weekly not biweekly.

tutorials were 3 hours? this year it seems like we only have 1hr tutorial... weird i guess they changed it?

Originally Posted by cjdzl

tutorials were 3 hours? this year it seems like we only have 1hr tutorial... weird i guess they changed it?

Hmm, they must have removed the presentation portion of the marks then...

what about biology 2D03? it has labs every week, and i'm wondering about whether you hand them in the day after.

Originally Posted by rkb12

what about biology 2D03? it has labs every week, and i'm wondering about whether you hand them in the day after.

There aren't any formal lab reports, you just have to answer the questions and the TA will check random ones for completion. There's a lab test though.

Originally Posted by jhan523

There aren't any formal lab reports, you just have to answer the questions and the TA will check random ones for completion. There's a lab test though.

Really? 'Cause for us they checked every single one. They had a checklist for you to get your full 10% for labs.

All you need for Bio 2D03 is to take pictures or draw them if you wish and label them for the TA to check them in the following week's lab.

Originally Posted by cjdzl

tutorials were 3 hours? this year it seems like we only have 1hr tutorial... weird i guess they changed it?

Hmm, you're right. It looks like Dr. Campos changed it around to tutorials worth 20%. For us, the tutorials were 10% and the other 10% was the presentation.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Really? 'Cause for us they checked every single one. They had a checklist for you to get your full 10% for labs.

All you need for Bio 2D03 is to take pictures or draw them if you wish and label them for the TA to check them in the following week's lab.

Maybe they changed it after I took it then.