Originally Posted by Radar

Hi,
I'm going into the third year physiology specialization, and still need to take Bio 2F03 and Bio 3U03. They conflict this fall, but does anyone have an opinion on putting off 3U03 until fourth year? Just wondering about the course load because I will also (hopefully!) have a thesis to deal with in the fall of fourth year.
Thanks for any input!

Bio 3zz3 also conflicts with Bio 2F03... and half the physio course list conflicts wwith the other half.


Small programs always get screwed

Originally Posted by marcie

I love it when people bring up Bio 2EE3 on this forum just cause it gives me another chance to publicly bash it. God, I hated this course, and I love bashing it. As mentioned above, the testing is hit and miss (but more so 'miss' than 'hit'). I studied profusely for both the midterm and final and still had to guess >80% of the questions. Think questions like this:

What is the highest magnification of a field microscope?
a) 0.001 nm
b) 0.01 nm
c) 0.1 nm
d) 1 nm
e) 10 nm

Ridiculous questions that don't test your knowledge of the subject, nor your ability to problem-solve.. but rather, how well can you recall this meaningless fact that appeared once on this obscure page of the textbook that doesn't even correspond to your lecture notes. IMO, anyone who actually sits down and memorizes this stuff is stupid. It's a test of stupidity.


There are two good things I will say about this course
1) The course material itself is amazingly interesting. The mechanism of how HIV invades cells... how beer/cheese/chocolate are made... how DNA is replicated in a prokaryote... awesome.
2) Marks are bell curved insanely. I think I should have failed the course (based on how many questions I had to guess/b.s. on the exam.. I literally wrote "derp" as one of my short answers) but ended up with a grade above 10.

There are definitely pros and cons to this course but if you want to preserve your sanity I would certainly not recommend not taking it unless you have to (i.e. you are in Mol Bio & Genetics and it is a requirement). Otherwise, stay far far away. Or if you're genuinely interested in the subject, just get a microbiology textbook from Chapters and read/learn about it on your own time. You'd probably learn more that way.

Worst structured course I've ever taken at McMaster.

That's weird, I calculated my grade going into the exam, and from my final grade and how I believe I performed on the exam, I was definitely not shifted in grade either up or down.

Thanks for all the advice! I guess I can try talking to department, but seems pretty set and summer school would be a great solution but sadly doesnt work for me. And britb, yeah I plan on missing one ecology lecture a week seems like the only way with 3ZZ3 as need 2F03 as prereq for courses I want to take in second semester and fourth year. Ecology as a night class would actually really help right now...

stats 2D03 was ok for the first few chapters. it involved probability, counting, etc. but then later on it was just a bunch of formulas that I really had no interest in (I hate stats). I was lost for like the last 2 months of the course, and absolutely died on the exam, but thats because I had no motivation to do the work. other people did really well because for the most part it is fairly easy as long as you know the material

Originally Posted by Freak705

That's weird, I calculated my grade going into the exam, and from my final grade and how I believe I performed on the exam, I was definitely not shifted in grade either up or down.

Haha, weird indeed. It's possible you just looked at the course with more of a level head. I have a history of thinking I do waaaay worse on tests/exams than I actually do.

But you don't think it was fishy that NOBODY failed our midterm, and the lowest mark was like a 51%?

Originally Posted by RankNullity

stats 2D03 was ok for the first few chapters. it involved probability, counting, etc. but then later on it was just a bunch of formulas that I really had no interest in (I hate stats). I was lost for like the last 2 months of the course, and absolutely died on the exam, but thats because I had no motivation to do the work. other people did really well because for the most part it is fairly easy as long as you know the material

Yeah, I find that to be the case as well. The material is easy as it's presented, but if you care about the 'big picture', it's really difficult. That's because probability theory involves a whole lot of measure theory and other stuff we wouldn't have addressed properly until a more advanced real analysis course...

I heard 3AA3 was a joke.

Originally Posted by VoyozooT

I heard BIO 3P03 is the hardest physio course out there..

No, I found it quite easy. If you're all about memorizing then you're going to have a hard time. There isn't much content and if you can reason things out it's actually fairly simple.

Bio 3zz3 also conflicts with Bio 2F03... and half the physio course list conflicts wwith the other half.


Small programs always get screwed

They still didn't fix that? That was our major complaint when they tricked us into going into a meet and greet.

Hi,
I'm going into the third year physiology specialization, and still need to take Bio 2F03 and Bio 3U03. They conflict this fall, but does anyone have an opinion on putting off 3U03 until fourth year? Just wondering about the course load because I will also (hopefully!) have a thesis to deal with in the fall of fourth year.
Thanks for any input!

3rd year was hard, but my 4th year was definitely the worst. You'll need 3U03 to make 4X03 easier. Leave 2F03 until 4th year.