Undergrad Human Physio

[NubianPrincess]

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This class is known for being the most difficult class in the natural sciences department at my school. I personally found vertebrate anatomy to be challenging, but even my professor said that anyone who barely passes his class would drown in human physio. Why, in general, would an undergrad human physiology class be so difficult? Is there anyone out there who took it in their school and share some experiences? Or can someone link me to their practice exams to help me understand why the class is so notorius?

 

[bewitched1081]

i never heard that physio was the hardest class. most people complain about biochem. i personally think it's a waste of time to listen to or tell others about how difficult a class is. just take the class and adjust the studying to your needs. don't worry about what others say. concentrate on what the professor wants you to know and your own understanding.

 

[bewitched1081]

oh, one more thing. physio was one of the most interesting bio classes that ive ever taken. im a bio major and i usually dont like bio classes so that's saying a lot. if youre interested in medicine, this should definitely be one of the more useful classes in undergrad.

 

[Heal&Teach]

Hey NP,

Physiology can be the best subject in the world when taught well, and the bane of your existence when taught poorly. Unfortunately, I didn't have the greatest experience in that class and scraped by somehow. The class had a bank of old exams with no answers (you can't have everything). The professor's teaching was the most boring that I've ever experienced, and it was painful to sit in class - so I stopped going mid-semester xcept for review sessions. Now that I look back on it (I took the class in 99), I could've done a lot better with more effort. It's so much simpler to want to learn the material if you have a good professor. The moral of the story is that you can still ace the class with a lot of self-motivation if your professor sucks.

H&T

 

[Amy B]

Originally posted by NubianPrincess
Why, in general, would an undergrad human physiology class be so difficult?

Because obviously this professor thinks he is high and mighty. There is no reason for a Physiology class to be so hard students "drown" WHat a travesty to the students. I took that class at my school and found it quite interesting. It was challenging but no more than my other classes. Plus the info I learned was abig help to me on the MCAT.

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by NubianPrincess
This class is known for being the most difficult class in the natural sciences department at my school. I personally found vertebrate anatomy to be challenging, but even my professor said that anyone who barely passes his class would drown in human physio. Why, in general, would an undergrad human physiology class be so difficult? Is there anyone out there who took it in their school and share some experiences? Or can someone link me to their practice exams to help me understand why the class is so notorius?

Because, it depends on the professor really. At my school too, Human Physiology is considered the most difficult course as well. We had an 80 question test every other week and a 200 question multiple choice test as a final. Our 8 hour labs were an entirely seperate course almost from the class itself. No anatomy, almost completely histology and some animal surgeries.

Questions are of course multiple choice, but formatted so if you don't know every detail about what it's asking to even whether or not a compound is hydrophilic or not, you stand a good chance of choosing the "not-so" correct answer.

While it sounds bad, I enjoyed my experience in it. It was incredibly challenging and demanding and the information sticks in there really well if it's that hard and you make the effort. Yeah, I thought vertebrate anatomy was a bitch too, our school has an accelerated anatomy system where it basically compresses a years worth into ten weeks. But the work required in a hard physiology class makes it look like grammar class.

Which makes it REALLY mind-boggling as to HOW some schools can let students take anatomy/physiology when they haven't even taken general biology, let alone organic, biochem, molecular and cell.

The topics we covered were: The nervous system, Endocrine, Digestion, vascular and motor. By the end of the course, I filled TWO TRASH BAGS with my NOTES from class (no re-written notes) and lab.

 

[Chet Rogers]

I was looking into taking Human Physiology, would you suggest taking this class without taking anatomy and physiology? HP is upper level compared to A&P being lower level.

 

[Amy B]

Yes, take the upper level one. Or you can take both. The lower level one ususally is more anatomy than physiology

 

[Chet Rogers]

I was just going to take HP, no time for A&P in my schedule.

 

[gildas]

Hey, I am a student at Arizona State University. I took this class last fall. I gotta tell you it wasn't easy even though it is very informative and interesting. I realised it wasn't the class that was hard, it was the professor. I gotta a B and the average of the class was low C. From my experience, I will recommande that you focus more on stuffs taught by your teacher than what is in the book.

 

[Heal&Teach]

You can definitely take HP without taking A&P (many people don't). A&P is moreso focused on structure as it relates to function, versus the advanced course which is more detailed and strongly focused on physiological pathways and feedback mechanisms (e.g. too much of this hormone will increase/decrease urine output, etc.). This is why folks have found HP esp. helpful for the MCAT.

 

[jbish]

Human Physio was the only organismal bio class I took (the rest being cellular courses for my biochem major)...so I'd never had any anatomy and I did fine. (I did already have organic and biochem)

What was a bit daunting was the neuro stuff (most of my classmates were neuroscience majors and had therefore already taken Neurobiology..a midlevel class..before Human Physio..an upper level class so I was on my own in terms of brand new material) and the lab---labs were not only long and difficult (the kind where if you mess up towards the end you have to start over from the beginning. boo.) but required HUGE lab reports which took a long time and were turned in as group assignments which meant getting together with people and coordinating that mess.

 

[bellajoy]

Originally posted by Heal&Teach
You can definitely take HP without taking A&P (many people don't). A&P is moreso focused on structure as it relates to function, versus the advanced course which is more detailed and strongly focused on physiological pathways and feedback mechanisms (e.g. too much of this hormone will increase/decrease urine output, etc.). This is why folks have found HP esp. helpful for the MCAT.

I took my undergrad's Human Anatomy and Physiology class...there's a couple A&P courses at my school, one lower level one for the non-bio majors and one upper level one for the bio-majors...I took the upper level one. And, it did focus a lot on physiological pathways and feedback mechanisms, as well as all the anatomy. It was a relatively hard class. The tests were all on the lecture, so you had better come to class, and they were half multiple choice and half essay. And, the essays are what got you, cause points were taken off for tiny things. But, I still loved the class...it's one of my favorites, especially the lab. We used cadavers mainly for the anatomy portion and small animals like frogs and turtles for the physiology portion.

 

[Chrisobean]

my physiology exams were 20 questions, multiple choice. there were 5 statements, and you had to choose the false one. what a pain in the butt. there were 3 prof's, 1 sucked. the teacher makes a HUGE difference.