I felt that HSF was a difficult unit (even for my fellow peers with prior knowledge of human biology from high school) for first-year students. Although the information was genuinely interesting, I felt that there was too much content that students were expected to learn, understand, and apply in each compendium. Most compendiums would cover 1 body system a week (like the cardiovascular system one week and the urinary system the next) and move on without ensuring that students had a solid understanding during class. In my opinion, the lecture slides did not have enough detail alone to do well on the assessments. As a result, I turned to the textbook for more information, but I was overwhelmed by the level of depth and breadth the textbook contained. The tutors and the unit outline did not make their expectations clear about how much information we needed to know in order to do well in the unit. If you followed the recommended readings and took notes from the lecture, it was simply too much information to memorise each week (let alone memorise 12 compendiums for the exam). The learning outcomes were quite vague (ie. Describe the function of the kidneys) because in the textbook, it would go into a lot of detail but it turned out that I didn't need to know that much when I was tested. Essentially it was a waste of effort when I could be focusing on relevant areas that would be tested. I don't think that many students can easily absorb information from this unit as it requires a considerable amount of study and preparation each week compared to other first-year units. However, I did appreciate the effort that my tutors put into each workshop to engage the students and simplify the topics. However, they were too vague on how much we were expected to understand. Simply understanding the learning outcomes and being able to answer the compendium questions were not enough to do well. In some of the eTests, there were questions that I had no idea how to answer because we were not explicitly taught. In my humble opinion, I feel that the lecture slides and workshop content gave us enough information to have a medium level of understanding, but some of the assessments required much higher-level thinking, which was difficult to achieve when some students were just aiming to understand everything - let alone apply the knowledge to complex situations. The main resource to support learning that was made available were the formative questions for each compendium. They were helpful in preparing me for the types of questions in the tests. In most compendiums, they did have audio glossary flashcards from Quizlet, but most of them were outdated (it would say that I was studying old notes) so I was unable to utilise them. I did genuinely want to do well (or decently) in this unit, but I will honestly say that is was the most difficult unit out of my 4 units for occupational therapy as it took the most time, preparation and "brain power" essentially to stay afloat. This may also be due to the fact that my strength is not in rote memorisation, but I do know that for a fact, other students were also struggling in this unit. Overall, this unit was difficult and perhaps too demanding for first-year students. It did provide a good foundation for the human body and function, but at a steep cost compared to the expectations of other first-year units. The expectations for the unit could be made clearer, so that students can have more focused study goals which align to the assessments, rather than trying to understand everything in the textbook readings and the lecture slides.

A great amount of content covered in this unit that is definitely manageable with proper ongoing revision techniques. I did not study ATAR Human Biology in Year 11 + 12 however I had done an Anatomy & Human Bio unit at UWA before studying this unit. A lot of effort has been put into constructing the compendiums which are a great source to answer practice questions and apply your learning. I believe the group work component can have a huge effect on your mark, whether it be positive or negative and therefore, your end of unit results aren't quite accurate to your standard, however, I see why this group work assessment is necessary when working in health. I think I was put at a major advantage having studied that anatomy unit at UWA as we had tutorials with about 14 students so it was a lot more engaging and interactive, not to mention more time with the tutor to help enhance your understanding. I think having two tutors to 60 students at Curtin studying this unit is not suitable. The online classes (impacted by COVID) was more like watching a more interactive lecture with hardly any engagement. Class sizes need to be reduced for this unit for optimal student outcomes.

A hectic unit. The group case study was a mess. No backtracking in the online exam which was stupid. Yes you learn a lot but also you dont have much time.

I did Human bio for ATAR and this unit was basically Yr 11 and 12 packed into one semester. It covers a lot! Assessments: 2 e-tests, One group case study, and a 120 multiple choice exam.

I personally thought the work load for this unit is too much for a first year unit.Although utors did fascilitate understanding through engagment with the content, it was not enough. So much content to cover in minimal time.

The two teachers I had for this unit for tutorials were excellent. They teach in a practical style, and high class involvement and demonstrations, which make understanding concepts more realistic and applicable to everyday lives. Also they are very approachable so I didn't feel afraid to ask any stupid questions. You will definitely pass this unit and if you don't then thats totally on you because its really easy to do.

I personally prefer physics, not a big fan of biology haha. I thought HSF would be easy, even though I didn’t take Human Biology in school. I heavily underestimated the difficulty. The eTests they prepare for you are unnecessarily hard (probably to account for people cheating in the tests). The group case study relies on each member to carry their weight, unless you have one member that can answer all of the questions. My group had 3 members, 2 of us (including me) did not have a background in human bio. The 3rd who did said they didn’t do very well in it at school. All of us heavily unprepared for the case study and did not do very well. The exam is weighted quite heavily, so if you want to improve definitely try for the exam. I much prefer HSF over Foundations and MIRA, I had my HSF class at 8am so it was hard to focus.

Quite a difficult unit. I did amazing in Atar human bio and even I struggled a little. I honestly think there is too much content for a first year unit, it’s very difficult if you have no previous human bio experience. It is quite well run and the assessments are pretty good. Just be prepared to work hard to stay on top of this subject.

I loved this unit. I loved the amount of support, the compendiums, the lecturers. Biggest shame was there was so much to learn in so little time. Workshop stations need to be structured better.

Subject was fun and the eTests were much easier than I had first anticipated. Group assessment was a little difficult but nevertheless tha tutors ensured all your queries were met.