Endocrinology

[625233]

I'm planning to take endocrinology next semester with a notoriously hard professor, but how hard is the actual material? This is my first upper level btw. Thanks fam.

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[Glandzburg]

Have you taken biochem? At my school, endo was pretty similar in terms of learning about many regulatory pathways, without the level of detail about chemical/enzyme mechanisms. But considering that this could vary widely by school, I would ask somebody that has already taken it at your institution.

 

[NeuResurgens]

Agreed. It can vary from institution to institution, and from student to student. I found anatomy easy while others found it very difficult, and vice versa for physics. It's the same with any topic. Some people have the kind of brain which takes to some material. Have you taken physiology or another biology class with an endocrine section in it? That could tell you something of your particular affinity for the topic. I know that endocrinology in particular is very puzzle-like - here are the signs, where does the problem originate? It requires some deductive reasoning.

 

[625233]

Bump

 

[Lawpy]

I'm planning to take endocrinology next semester with a notoriously hard professor, but how hard is the actual material? This is my first upper level btw. Thanks fam.

I didn't take endo, but I know people who did. As mentioned previously, the course is entirely professor-dependent, so you may be out of luck having a difficult professor. The material itself is very similar, if not complementary, to biochemistry and physiology, so you should do fine. Interestingly, the endo prof at my uni used Boron and Boulpaep (the same book used in medical schools), so you can imagine how the course went.

 

[625233]

Damn, it seems like no one has ever taken endo :/

 

[AlteredScale]

I'm planning to take endocrinology next semester with a notoriously hard professor, but how hard is the actual material? This is my first upper level btw. Thanks fam.

I took endo with a retired MD/PhD OBGyn, it was pretty intense. You learn the physiology, histology, cell and molecular biology/biochem of each endocrine system and learn the MoA of the hormones. Then you learn the pathologies (and go over the main symptoms) of each and go over some basic pharm on how to manage them.

IMO it was interesting enough to make the class "easy".

I did not need to memorize entire hormone synthesis pathways.

 

[Catalystik]

I'm planning to take endocrinology next semester with a notoriously hard professor, but how hard is the actual material?

I took it as an undergrad, taught by an Internal Med/GI doc with non-Native English speaking ability. It was very difficult and I bull-dogged through the densely-written, non-pictoral text with pure memorization. But something stuck, as the same topics in med school seemed pretty intuitive. In agreement with others above, I suggest you check out the professor teaching the course and find out how harsh the grading policy will be. Also, look at the text ahead of time and see if it resonates with you.

 

[625233]

appreciate the feedback fam