[Lois]

The professor (Dr. Nurse) was great. He went slow and was sure to explain his points thoroughly. The TAs and tutorials were wonderful sources of information. Make sure you attend them to do well.

The questions were fair. There was plenty of time to complete questions. Dr. Nurse only has written answers and the questions really tested your knowledge of the course -- not how well you can memorize everything.

I cant seem to find the course outline for 3p03, does anyone know if Dr. Nurse uses a textbook for this course?

There is a textbook, “Cellular Physiology of Nerve and Muscle” by G.G. Matthews (3rd or 4th Edition). Here's the course outline

Originally Posted by precious

I cant seem to find the course outline for 3p03, does anyone know if Dr. Nurse uses a textbook for this course?

He uses the text, but it's mostly for reference if you don't understand things from class. If you're interested in saving money, just check out the relevant sections from the course reserves.

I can't seem to figure out whether this course is decent or not. I've spoken to another friend who gets fairly good grades, and he told me that the questions were pretty weird. Everytime he'd walk out of the midterm thinking he aced the test, but when marks came out, he seemed to have bombed the test. It was one of his lowest marks in uni. I would greatly appreciate more feedback in order to decide whether or not I should take this course. Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by aliatehreem

I can't seem to figure out whether this course is decent or not. I've spoken to another friend who gets fairly good grades, and he told me that the questions were pretty weird. Everytime he'd walk out of the midterm thinking he aced the test, but when marks came out, he seemed to have bombed the test. It was one of his lowest marks in uni. I would greatly appreciate more feedback in order to decide whether or not I should take this course. Thanks in advance!

Some people found it difficult. I was told that "it was the hardest course ever".
The tests are all long answers. Going to tutorials and class should be sufficient to do well in the course. Studying with a friend to review concepts helps as well.

On tests there's a definition section. The True and false questions make you think. The short answer questions are mostly focused on application.

Aside from the definitions, nothing is based off of regurgitation of lecture notes. If you can think through a question and reason things out, it's easy and interesting.

This course is definitely NOT an easy course, despite what others may say. I took it last year and while the material you learn is easy, the application of it is not. Nurse tests how well you understand the material and how well you can apply the principles to challenging situations. For example, 1 of the first things Nurse covers is osmotic pressure and electrochemical gradients. While this stuff has been drilled into science students since high school, the questions he asks are mind-benders and they really make you think and apply concepts. Overall, you need to practice and really grasp the material to be able to do well in the course.

My TA suggested that we use last years tutorial questions to practice for the exam. IF anyone took the course last year I would greatly appreciate it if you can post past tutorial questions for extra practice.
Thanks

Overall
If you are interested in the mechanisms in which excitable cells operate (i.e. action potentials) and signal transduction pathways, (i.e. second messengers for voltage-gated channels, ion channels, and pumps) this course is great. I would highly recommend this course.

Professor
Dr. Nurse is very enthusiastic about this subject and it definitely shows during lectures. He is very willing to answer questions, and the TAs are very helpful as well. The notes are sufficient, and the textbook is not needed unless you want a firmer grasp on the concepts, however is only used from chapters 1 through 9; mostly in the beginning of the course.

Evaluations
There are two tests, each comprising of around 10-12 lectures of material, each worth 25%. They are very fair and easy to do well in, granted you understand the concepts; therefore attend your tutorials. The tests are all short answer, no multiple choice. They are all the same format: definitions, short asnwers (2-3 marks), and true or false. The exam was very fair, Dr. Nurse marks this though, and has no definitions section. The tutorials are mandatory as they are worth 10% and you can get pop quizzes, they are also where you'll learn how to apply the knowledge you learned in lecture. Every week they release a set of tutorial problems and you go over them in tutorial.

Bio 3P03 is marked based on the following components: 2 midterms, tutorial participation, tutorial quizes and an exam.

The material on the first midterm was definitely more challenging than that on the second midterm but was not too difficult if you took the time to focus on the concepts presented in Dr. Nurse's lecture slides. He tends to favor conceptual questions on the tests rather than memorization.

The tutorials were an integral part of this course and cover questions similar to midterm questions. The tutorial quizes were not too hard.

Finally, the exam was of a decent challenge level. It was even more conceptually focused than the midterms.

Access to previous tests is an advantage in this course as he tests very similar concepts over the years.

Dr. Nurse is not the most exciting lecturer but he is available for questions and goes through a logical flow throughout the course.

Overall, I found the course to be easy but very boring.

I honestly found this to be one of the best courses I've taken during my undergrad. Dr. Nurse is a great prof, and as opposed to most biology courses which require memorization of minute details, this course generally tests your ability to apply general concepts. The lecture notes posted are more than sufficient to study the material, and I would say going to tutorials is a must, as the TAs really help in making sure you understand the concepts. When I took the course last semester, we were told the quizzes would be generally straight forward and the exam much more challenging and conceptual. I didn't find this to be the case. I thought the quizzes and exams were both pretty straight forward, and found the exam to be relatively easy if you really understood the concepts. With sufficient effort and a thorough understanding of the material I would say a 11 or higher is easily possible in this class.

does anyone have the course outline?

Originally Posted by leafy

does anyone have the course outline?

You can find the previous course outline here: http://www.biology.mcmaster. ca/ugrad_cours.htm#300

This course was pretty good! It was hard and it forced you to put on your "thinking cap". This is not a traditional biology course where you have to memorize, rather you have to understand the concepts.

Going to tutorials is a must! I wish the tutorial section was more frequent and lectures time slot was less because you learn wayyy more in tutorials!

I would recommend this course if you like applying your knowledge and enjoy thinking/problem solving.

Some things we talked about over and over again: PKC phosphorylates potassium channels, close K channels, cell depolarizes, open voltage-gated calcium channels, calcium causes release of neurotransmitter vesicles.
Inward, outward current...driving force, conductance, and many other things!

TIPS: make sure you understand the CURRENT and CONDUCTANCE graphs!
know the signalling PATHWAYS (ie: G-protein, IP3/DAG pathways)

If anyone wants an 'up to date' full review of this course let me know. But for now, I'll just add my two cents. I took this last year and honestly it was one of my favourite courses in undergrad. I would say it was kinda hard and required a lot of thinking, but everything I learned made a lot of other courses I took before or after make much more sense. This may be because I'm in BioPsych so it was relevant to courses Neuroscience. Overall, I loved the course, material was interesting and Nurse does go really slow. His tests aren't easy though.

I would say, take this course if the material covered seems interesting to you. Other friends I know who took the course did not enjoy it as much as I did so it's definitely a personal opinion thing.