Anatomy vs. Biochemistry vs. Physiology

[96n_n]

Hi! My question is for the people who took all the following subjects or if not two of the following subjects: ANAT20006, BCMB20002, PHYS20008.

Between these three subjects, which one did you guys struggle with the most and which one required more work/effort outside lectures, tutorials and practicals? Which one did you enjoy the most? + do you have any tips from your experience to excel in these subjects? Thanks. 

[EspoirTron]

I did the Monash equivalents. I found that Anatomy had the heaviest workload, to which close second was biochem. Physiology on the other hand was more relaxed and not as intense. Anatomy and biochemistry required extensive amounts of study outside of uni, whereas I found most of what I learnt for Physiology was done in lectures.

[MelonBar]

Anatomy was the hardest in my opinion cos it was mostly rote learning and you had to put in a lot of hours to get the marks. But if you do the work (learn the lecture slides and the ADSLs), you can almost guarantee yourself the marks Physiology was mostly about understanding concepts e.g. how a stimulus will affect a system and some exam questions made you apply what you learnt to unfamiliar situations. Biochem is somewhere in the middle of the two but it also rewards people who put in the hours and go through all the lectures. I liked biochem the most and I so ended up taking biochem subjects every semester after that.

My biggest tip would be to prepare to study a lot harder than what you did in year 1 because they are really big step ups from first year biology. For physiology focus on understand rather than rote learning all the examples. For anatomy you should take your time to go through everything if you can because you can't wing anything. For biochem make sure you know your amino acids and glycolysis, and focus on understanding the logic where you can as this will save you time from rote learning everything (E.g. instead of just learning where an amino acid tends to be in a protein, try to understand how the property of the amino acid contributes e.g charged AA's tend to be on the outside of proteins where they can interact with polar solvent).

[Whynot123]

I struggled most with anatomy because it is all rote learning/memorising which is something that I do not enjoy that much. Having said that, I found the exam questions for anatomy fairly straight forward. You just have to constantly review your content and you will be fine (make sure you do your ADSL worksheets, I didn't lol).

Biochem also involved lots of rote learning, but less than anatomy. If you attend lectures and tutes and don't fall behind you should be fine. I found some of the lecturers dry though, but the content was interesting so didn't have a problem studying.

Phys was my favourite of the lot. Although at first I hated it and complained of it being hard, I actually found it the easiest of the lot (or just second to biochem). The questions in Phys require you to think, so they're not as straight forward as anat or biochem. It requires you to use logic (which I love), rather than memorise. And plus you'll have Charles, so I'm like 99.9% sure you'll like this subject the most !

[dannyjay]

Which 2 subjects should be taken together/which two complement each other? I am looking at doing phys and anat in semester 1, and biochem in sem 2? Is that a good combination? Will Phys help with Anat and vive versa? Cheers

[sjayne]

hijacking this a little haha but- any advice for choosing b/w phys or anat?

[EspoirTron]

hijacking this a little haha but- any advice for choosing b/w phys or anat?

As in which one to take, or which semester to take each in?

[sjayne]

As in which one to take, or which semester to take each in?

which one 

[EspoirTron]

which one 

I would say Physiology would be more applicable to other major areas. It teaches many fundamental concepts that can be applied quite widely. I'm not saying that Anatomy does not, but Physiology allows you to learn specific processes whereas Anatomy can sometimes heavily just be rote-learning muscles (that's exclusive of the developmental stuff though).