Did anyone take a comparative chordate anatomy course?

[mh2002ny]

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If you did, how hard is it? Approximately how many hours per week did you have to study for it? Also, was it an interesting class, or more of a boring one? The one I'll be taking has three lectures per week and a 3 hour lab each week.

I'm interested in taking this class since my school doesn't offer a formal human anatomy course. We have comparative chordate anatomy and human physiology. Would these courses adequately prepare me for the MCAT, or should I take a formal human anatomy course at another school? Thanks.

 

[lessismoe]

Honestly, a human PHYSIOLOGY class is much more helpful on the MCAT. Anatomy wouldn't be much help at all, I don't think.

 

[PaddyofNine]

We did a few weeks of comparative chordates as part of our biology course. In a word.....

boooring! 😴



Um... hope that helps!

 

[subtle1epiphany]

i took a comparative vertebrate physiology course for my pre-med requirements and i must say, it was quite useful. an anatomy class would be somewhat useful, if you learn or teach yourself the function of what you learn in the course and the physiology.
anatomy in any form isnt really necessary for the MCAT, if you are just taking courses for the MCAT, you'd do better with another biology course, as lessismoe said human physiology.

best of luck

 

[umass rower]

My school also has comparative vertebrate anatomy (although we did discuss chordates briefly) and human phys. I found that I really enjoyed the class, but then again, we were taught by a guy who is essentially a living legend in the field of morphology. Basically, I found that the lecture didn't require a ton of studying, but the lab was more intense. The amount of time studying depends on how much work you put into the daily dissections. I found that I spent about 10-12 hours studying for each of the 2 lab practicals, but there were some people who needed to do much more. It was a personal thing, more or less. I found that I had an easier time learning it section by section, and just getting drilled on everything by a classmate.

 

[ForensicPath]

Originally posted by umass rower
My school also has comparative vertebrate anatomy (although we did discuss chordates briefly) and human phys. I found that I really enjoyed the class, but then again, we were taught by a guy who is essentially a living legend in the field of morphology. Basically, I found that the lecture didn't require a ton of studying, but the lab was more intense. The amount of time studying depends on how much work you put into the daily dissections. I found that I spent about 10-12 hours studying for each of the 2 lab practicals, but there were some people who needed to do much more. It was a personal thing, more or less. I found that I had an easier time learning it section by section, and just getting drilled on everything by a classmate.

Sounds exactly like my comparative vertebrate anatomy course. We dissected a lamprey, a shark, a necturus, and a cat. I enjoyed the lectures because we basically compared the anatomy from an evolutionary perspective. The lab practicals were definitely difficult, but the lecture exams were pretty straightforward. All in all, I enjoyed the class, but it did require some work.

 

[TTSD]

Comparative Anatomy gave me a concussion from the amount of knowledge it dropped on.

We had all these skeletons we had to memorize we just made my mind boggle trying to keep the pecularities of each species right. The visceral/internal parts of comparative wasn't that bad at all. The lectures were pretty intense too. A lot of physics oddly enough.

 

[JulianCrane]

I took Vertebrate Structure last year and it was one of the best classes I've taken. Extremely challenging, but it was nice to finally take a class whose material I was totally interested in.