I'm just wondering why everyone seems to think that this class is so hard. I'm taking it in the fall and am a little worried because all of these people have mentioned that it's a lot of information and a lot of memorizing. However, I spoke to a family member that mentioned that his human physiology class was also difficult conceptually. A lot of people had already told me that biochem was hard, which it definitely was. I found biochemistry to be a lot of memorization with some application of chemistry concepts. So how difficult would human phys be compared to biochem?
why is human physiology so hard?
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There's a lot of memorization. A lot of small details that you're held accountable for that can easily slip by you. some of the organ systems like renal can be confusing, if you don't know how to study it's extremely difficult. map out the organ systems, list neurotransmitters and hormones and how they apply to each system. you need a big picture understanding as well as knowledge of the intricate details.
basically flashcards, flashcards, and draw out and review each system and how they connect is my tip.
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Its obviously a function of your professor but I found human physio to be "easier" although I managed to get A+ in both. Human physio was very minimal memorization compared to biochem. Its much more concept heavy. Understand the concepts and you will be golden.
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It's a lot of information that not only requires memory but integration in knowing how cellular functions achieve the eventual macro-motary fxns (made up word I know). It's really the first time you do a systematic overview of the body. The first thing I did was read, a lot. I'd try and gain a comprehension and mastery of the material to the level that I could write out most of everything on the board. Then I'd see how I could alter things and see what the out comes were (disease wise). Then work on practice problems and take not of your weak areas and re study those. Renal and Neuro portions of this class were a bit tougher. Neuro had some analytical stuff and renal had a lot of just odd parts in the nephron study.
Biochem stays at the molecular level with some correlation to systemic overview but mainly just memorizing fairly large amounts of material and trying to connect that dots much like physiology. I liked human phys because it had a bit more organization. At some point, biochem was messy and it seemed that certain molecules were everywhere (acetyl coA, succinate).
You should at least have some curiosity in them because you get to retake these classes at the medical school level. Which from what I've heard, is much more difficult than UG BC or HP.
I've been a TA for biochem twice and will be doing human phys this coming year so PM if you have or need any support and study techniques! Good luck!
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Yeah really depends on school. My school offered Anatomy and Physiology combined classes. Questions were like 'What happens if Vagus nerve was severed? What are possible remedies?' Man I hated this class so much. I had to spend all of my weekends studying for this class
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I agree that this is probably highly professor dependent--Our biochem 2nd semester was much harder than physio. I knew kids who are otherwise top chem/phys majors who were getting killed in biochem because ours was so heavy on research methods.
For physio, IMHO the key is actually not to only memorize but to seek to understand how things really work on a slightly deeper as well as holistic level than what pure memorization would call for. For example, if you are memorizing parts of the brain, it can be worth the time to learn about how the pathways are actually connected and how different diseases and studies gave us knowledge of how each part functions independently and interdependently. Plus you get to learn a lot more diseases which I think is fun. Or if you are doing the electrophys part of neuro it might be worth it to dig into the physics/math just a bit so that all the graphs and equations actually make sense from a conceptual perspective. It's more upfront time for sure, but you retain the knowledge for much longer and it's immediately relevant to medical school. It's not like the prereqs where you learn it once and never need it again (ochem.......)
For physio, IMHO the key is actually not to only memorize but to seek to understand how things really work on a slightly deeper as well as holistic level than what pure memorization would call for. For example, if you are memorizing parts of the brain, it can be worth the time to learn about how the pathways are actually connected and how different diseases and studies gave us knowledge of how each part functions independently and interdependently. Plus you get to learn a lot more diseases which I think is fun. Or if you are doing the electrophys part of neuro it might be worth it to dig into the physics/math just a bit so that all the graphs and equations actually make sense from a conceptual perspective. It's more upfront time for sure, but you retain the knowledge for much longer and it's immediately relevant to medical school. It's not like the prereqs where you learn it once and never need it again (ochem.......)
I found physio pretty fun actually. I don't want to say it was easy, but it was interesting material so I found it easier to prepare for the tests because I was naturally interested in it.
Biochem was brutal. So many little details that we had to know that didn't really matter. By far the worst class of my undergrad tenure.
Biochem was brutal. So many little details that we had to know that didn't really matter. By far the worst class of my undergrad tenure.
