[paula112]

I took this course with Dr.Farquharson in 2012 winter term (I believe he's now the head of medical physics department)

This course introduces you to:
X-Rays and X-ray ImagingElectromagneti c waves,
x-ray photons,
atomic structure,
XRay production/interactions,
image receptors,
diagnostic image production
Computed tomography (time permitting)
Nuclear medicine( Nuclear structure, radioactive decay, pair production).
diagnostic image production.
Single photon computed tomography,
Introduction to
positron emission tomography (PET).
Magnetic resonance imaging.
Relaxation mechanisms,
pulse sequences image
production.

The course break down:
2 assignments :15% each
tutorial participation:15%
iclicker:5%
final exam:50%

The iclicker is done in class. The participation really depends on TAs. Some TAs want you to actually participate in class and some of them will give you 100 just for showing up. Also out of the 15% of the tutorial participation. 7.5% is from the question sets (you get it through avenue and hand it in during the tutorial)

There is no midterms however there are 2 assignments that are worth 15% each. This course is pretty new and it is keep changing (this is what I heard). The prof told us that the assignment 1 went really bad for the previous year so he changed a bit so that it is well structured. For us, the 1st assignment was 3000 word paper (had to be 3000 max) and the paper had to include all the answers to the questions provided on the assignment info sheet. The 2nd assignmnet was a problem set. Compare to tutorial questions sets, this was much longer and harder, but managable if you started early enough. Some were calculations but some were questions where we had to know the concepts. Overall, the assignments weren't hard. (got 90% on the 1st one and 85% on the second)

As for the exam, I'm not sure if it was easy or hard... I thought it was ok, but I got a 40 on it so my mark went down from 12 to 6. I'm guessing the exam were marked harder because everyone did well on the assignments and tutorial.

Oh, and for iclicker, basically if you go to class and do the iclicker, you get the marks. Sometimes he puts questions like: Are you here today? a)yes b)no c)maybe and even if you press b, you'll still get the mark.

I took this course because I need this for my program. Overall, the contents were somewhat interesting, and the assignments were easy. Since I don't know how people did on the exam (my friend and my brother both did very poorly on it, but I don't know how others did it so..) I gave 8 on the easiness rating. (oh and btw great professor he's funny and teaches very well)

I rated it but it doesn't show for some reason :S

I am thinking of taking this as one of my electives would yu suggest this course?
I want to know whether it is easy or not.
I dont want to take any hard electives first year and if you have any other electives in mind please feel free to mention them...
Thanks in advance

I took this in 2013 and Prof. Far. was teaching it, It was a little hard to get up for 830am classes but overall it was a great course. No past physics is needed, it focuses on broad topics and gets more in depth for overall how MRI and other machines work. Tutorial is marked for participation and usually as long as you go and talk you get full marks. Assignments were a little tricky depending how hard you worked on them (I worked fairly hard and got an average of 90 on them), Mammography assignment was marked well. Overall if you go to class, review your notes and work hard on the assignments its an easy 12. I'm going into the exam with ~97%. Take this course!

Was the exam multiple choice? Or was there short answer questions instead/as well?

This is a bird course of all bird courses. First, I'd like to say I am the laziest person you'll ever know and my university marks reflect that (a CA of around 5.7) and I can easily get a 12 in this course without doing anything but read.

Year: Winter 2014
Teacher: Dr Farqurson
Breakdown: This has changed a lot, but for the better
Assignment 1 - 25
Assignment 2 - 25
Participation - 5
Tutorial - 15
Exam - 30

So the assignments are so easy. It looks very difficult at first, but the teacher provides a COMPLETE breakdown on what is required. For example, my two assignments were on Mammography and Ultrasound. With the assignment sheet, he gives a rubric. The rubric basically outlines the questions you have to answer and how many marks it is.

Example:

(1 mark) What is the problem in breast imaging?
(5 marks) What is the solution?
(2 marks) Name the X-­‐ray sources/filters/differences in focal spot
(1 mark) Why do we use these sources

The teacher actually encourages other student to post up books and sources that they found useful for these assignments so that others can use it as well. I started these the night before it was due, and got 88 on each. The assignment says 3000 words max, but the TAs don't actually recommend writing that much. I only wrote around 1500.

That's 50 percent of your mark right there.

The 5 percent participation is iClicker questions during class. Sometimes they are class related, sometimes just dumb random questions. He actually only expects you guys to be there for 75 percent of the class and he will give you the full 100 percent.

Out of the 15 percent tutorial, 5 percent is actually being present in all the classes. The other 10 percent is homework questions sets (around 3). Also quite easy. There was this one question that was like 2 paragraphs long, but the actual answer was a number using a very simple formula.

If I didn't write the exam at all or got a 0, I would still pass this course with a 60.

The physics in this course is very basic. The formulas you need are so simple, and all the variables will be outright given except one - the one you would be calculating for. Teacher also provides FULL detailed notes, not Power Points, but documents of all the information you need. There are Podcasts, and he invites guest lecturers for like every unit completed. I think we got about 4 guest lecturers, and 2 TA lectures which wasn't going to be on the exam. Another thing he did for us is exclude like a week's worth of lectures off the exam just so we could relax and actually pay attention instead of worrying about it (it was a difficult topic). No textbooks for this course so yeah, no expenses there.

The final exam is written answer, but you only need to complete 4 out of the 5 questions. Questions were basic outright knowledge based questions. He won't make you apply the information, just repeat it.

All in all, great course!!! Take it!

How was the exam for this course?

Any recent reviews on this? how is this course?

Hi,
Just took this course in Winter 2016, the review above given in 2014 is completely accurate, not much has changed, except that there are no podcasts, but there are modules that the prof posts that are useful and summarises what he says in class. His lectures are interesting to listen to, I recommend going to class because he explains the concepts so well, it gets ingrained in your mind better.

Also the prof mentioned that for the next coming year they may be adding a topic that is necessary because of advancements in research of the field of medical physics and important for students intending to move on in upper years in med phys. He said the topic is slightly tricky, but not too bad. I think he will make it fairly straightforward to understand considering how well he explains things. Do go speak to Dr. Farquharson after class he is very approachable and very understanding.

easy course
boring lectures for anyone not interested in radiation physics and how imaging works