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Rating

Total average

81/100
Learning Materials ( 86.9 )
Learning Activities ( 79.3 )
Blackboard Management ( 88.9 )
Course Content ( 83.4 )
Course Structure ( 72.2 )
Contact Availability ( 82.1 )
Course Difficulty ( 61.8 )

Reviews (9)

Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 82.1

I took this course in Semester 1, 2021 (external mode).

At first, I found this course quite challenging despite having done HL biology for IB because of the immense amount of textbook reading. They say that textbook readings are essential and I did complete all of them (which I don't recommend because this is very cost-ineffective) but I am aiming for graduate entry medicine so I didn't want to risk it. The textbook readings took me hours and hours per week because I tried to learn everything. But all you really need to do is focus on lecture, EdX, tutorial and practical material. The textbook is really just to supplement because there are rarely topics that are only covered in the textbook but not anywhere else e.g. miRNA and siRNA.

Although this course is quite content heavy, it was my best course in the semester and I ended up getting 98 overall. It was actually relatively easy because the 3 mini tests and the final exam were all open book as I did this course during COVID, and they reuse past exam questions quite frequently. Try to aim to get as high as possible for the mini tests because it makes you stress a lot less for the final. The mini tests are very straightforward and do prepare for all the mini test questions. For my semester, as I did it during COVID, they increased the number of deep thought questions that we need to prepare from 13 or 14 (when it was closed-book) to 28. There's a lot to prepare and although they do say they won't use the questions, you'll actually end up getting the questions you prepared for. This is actually quite a scam because Lois Eden the prac coordinator keeps saying they won't give us past questions for the mini tests but they did.

For the other components, we had to do a scientific paper summary and it was slightly challenging to find a suitable journal article and understand it. But I just kind of ended up baffling my way through and made up stuff because I felt like the tutor wouldn't search up the article read through it closely. Your tutor marks it so it's better to ask for their advice although my tutor really give me much guidance but she still gave me 91 out of 100.

Lecturers are not very responsive on Piazza compared to other courses but they will still answer questions (perhaps very briefly). However, I found Piazza to be kind of useful because students would help each other out. Also, since the course material isn't that difficult, as in it's not that hard to do well in this course, this makes up for the lack of responsiveness of the lecturers.
Semester taken

Long Long Ago!

Your program/major

Biomedical Science

Is lecture attendance necessary?

Yes

Is the textbook necessary?

Yes-ish if you want to make sure you know your stuff

Positives
  • Easy to score well in mini test and final
  • Practical and tutorial tutors willing to help
  • Repeats past exam questions a lot
Negatives
  • Lecturers not that responsive on Piazza
  • Sometimes questions might left unanswered because lecturers and tutors both either don't know or are not willing to give the correct answer
  • Not that many pieces of assessment items so if you mess up one mini test it might coast you a large percentage of your overall score
Posted on June 30, 2021 12:43 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 68.4

DONT do this course unless you absolutely have to, as someone who got a 6 in this course i highly reccomend you stay away. the content is so much but what is worse is the way its set up. everything you have to learn isnt present in the lectures, you have to do a massive amount of textbook reading which is all examinable but is never covered, you also have to do this online learning which is also examinable. but what is worse is the 4 mini test youll have to do over the semester. th youll be given a list of potential questions (12-16) that will be asked, these questions are called "deep thought" questions and can range from being piss easy to ridiciolously difficult. however you will randomly get two of them in the actual mini test, every persons mini test is different, so the questions youll get can once again range from being piss easy to difficult. hence luck plays a huge part in your overall grade for these test as what you questions you get determines how well youll do. and whats worse is each test is worth 10% so thats 40% of your overall course grade which basically luck.
the final exam is meh, and do recycle alot of past exam questions to which answers arent given so make a study group and exchange answers
but once again, i do reiterate stay away from this course!!

btw did it in sem 1 2018

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2017

Your program/major

bsc

Is lecture attendance necessary?

highly reccomended but i watched most of them online

Is the textbook necessary?

probably, never used it and still got a 6

Positives
  • if your blessed with easy minitests then yay
  • pracs are easy marks, just rock up
Negatives
  • basically the rest of it
  • cell biol is soo boring omg
Posted on July 8, 2018 2:21 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 75.6

BIOL1020 was my first experience of biology since year 10 science. Being a content-heavy course, it can be initially daunting if you haven't studied biology in high school, but if you figure out how to plan your time to do readings etc. then you adapt pretty quickly *makes evolution pun*.

Pracs are straightforward and chilled, albeit a bit boring at times (but hey early marks are great). Pre labs were easy marks, and the mini quizzes weren't too difficult if you did the deep questions and looked over the textbook (hint, the MCQ's are taken from the textbook).

Lectures were an absolute waste of time as they were summaries of the textbook, which you had to read anyway as textbook content was assessable. Only lectures worth going to are the genomics/genetics lectures as they did examples of exam questions.

The final exam wasn't too difficult, but there were definitely some surprises. Just reinforces the idea that you have to know everything going into the exam and don't skip out on learning information just because you don't think it will appear on the exam.

Overall, this course is a good introduction into biology, and essential for any biological majors. The content at times was a bit boring, but essential to know nonetheless.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2015

Your program/major

BSc (Biomedical Science)

Is lecture attendance necessary?

No

Is the textbook necessary?

Yes (it\'s an online version)

Positives
  • EdX (online learning) was an easy source of marks
  • Content not difficult
Negatives
  • Lot of content and memorisation
  • PASS is compulsory (attend different sessions until you find the right one)
Posted on February 17, 2016 11:02 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 82.9

This course is pretty fundamental but does cover a huge amount of content. Some may be learned in high school but the amount you need to know is still A LOT. It is not hard to get a 7 if you put some effort because there are many easy marks you can collect in the mini tests. The pracs are not particularly fun and you have to attend every single week which is a bit frustrating. The final exam was not well designed in my opinion because too many questions are repeated from previous exams. The tutorials are really helpful and fun though. Overall this is a okay course that did not left me with many words to say. I took it along with BIOL1040 and it's fine, not as terrible as how people say it would be.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2015

Your program/major

Biotechnology

Is lecture attendance necessary?

yes

Is the textbook necessary?

yes

Positives
  • tutorials are good
  • mini tests are easy marks
  • easy to get 7
Negatives
  • pracs are time consuming and boring
  • too much content
  • quality of final exam can be improved
Posted on November 20, 2015 1:23 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 89.0

Really interesting course if you are prepared to put in a little effort - if not, be prepared to be left behind! The pass classes were really helpful for going over the more difficult content and the pracs were an easy way to boost your grades coming into the final exam.
Semester taken

Semester 2 - 2013

Your program/major

BSc - biomedical science major

Positives
  • materials available
  • help available
  • textbook covers everything
Negatives
  • fast flow of content
Posted on July 12, 2014 7:35 am
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 83.3

The lecture content was generally quite interesting and fast paced. It was very heavy on content making it difficult to study for. However understanding the topics they seemed to linger on or bring up in PASS classes made the EOS and midsem a bit easier. The essay/ oral was easy marks and the online quizzes were not graded. It's important to complete every deep question prior to your mini test as you are tested on two of them and a few extra multichoice questions. The prac's were quite easy and sometimes fun, rarely taking the full 3 hour session. The textbook is a good study tool for topics you didn't understand or the end of chapter quizzes if you can be bothered.
Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2014

Your program/major

Bachelor of Science - Biomed major

Positives
  • Piazza is helpful
  • Simple to understand content
  • Easy essay and oral
Negatives
  • Quite difficult exams
  • PASS classes overload with worksheets
  • Heavy content
Posted on June 24, 2014 10:13 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 81.0

I enjoyed BIOL1020 - I had never studied biology before and found the course very interesting. It was quite content-heavy, but had a reasonable workload and I liked the combination of learning activities (readings, online activities, practicals, and PASS sheets).
Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2014

Your program/major

Science/Biomedical major

Positives
  • good variety in learning activities
  • textbook is very good resource
  • lectures were very interesting
Negatives
  • limited 1-on-1 time with PASS leaders
  • limited feedback from PASS activities
Posted on June 9, 2014 9:41 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 90.0

Great course. Really interesting topics that were taught well and supplemented with good pracs.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2011

Your program/major

BPharm

Positives No positive points
Negatives No negative points
Posted on May 29, 2014 12:09 pm
Anonymous
   
BIOL1020 – Genes, Cells & Evolution 76.7

It's really interesting content once you finally understand what's being taught.

Semester taken

Semester 1 - 2014

Your program/major

Bsc/Ba

Positives
  • Very interesting content
  • Online quizzes not going towards final grade (they're good to check your knowledge once you're up to speed)
  • Piazza rather than blackboard forum
Negatives
  • Teaching method makes the content difficult to understand (spending hours on youtube each day helps to understand what's actually being taught)
  • Mandatory pass classes
  • Ambiguity in what needs to be learnt for tests (way too much content)
Posted on May 29, 2014 12:47 am

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