i've had more mental breakdowns in this subject than all of my past subjects combined - and we're not even up to the final assignment yet 😭 like i've definitely learnt a lot of useful skills and the demonstrators are so lovely but oh my god i wish it wasn't a prereq for physiology

I rarely ever comment, but almost feel like there is an obligation to, given the bundle of joy this subject was. It's not even that terrible, but just shouldn’t exist. The subject design and workload is just insane especially at the beginning. Don't take it if you don't have to, because the workload is dry and high, and marking so harsh and pedantic that it is simply absurd. PhD students have less work — this stuff is literally like that but crammed into shorter timescales, with negligible supervision. With 100+ students to 1 teacher it's hard for students to ask personal questions, especially if they come up mid-report as natural research goes. The scope and style of questions asked are also so skewed and different to Phys20008 it's laughable since they sold it to us as a “sister subject”. As for groups, no choice, but it’s bearable for 3 hrs every week. However, for all the work done every week in that time and tutes leading up to it, group work only accounts for a measly 5% of your total grade. The effort-return curve is also so rigged that you probably stand a better chance LeBronning your way to the NBA. Before the die-hards say "Oh but I enjoyed it, if you struggled then you didn't put enough effort in; team-bonding, gem teachers, organised..." Yea nah… that can literally describe every subject. This kinda gunner, gaslighty comment is exactly what makes people doubt themselves. All subjects take time and effort, so why should Phys20009 -- just by its satanic design, be entitled to rob other subjects of their time? Sometimes it is not you or your effort, but rather the system. This subject should not exist, and the only reason it continues to is simply because subjects do not have to pass rigorous exams to be checked off like students do. This time, it’s the designer, not us. Best of luck, but not recommended.

This was overall a very fun an enjoyable subject. Mel is an absolute gem and the subject is very organised, making it a quite pleasurable experience. The people who struggled the most with this subject treated it as a throwaway and didn’t pay attention to much of the content until the assignments were due. The work is more than manageable if you keep in top of it by doing the pretute activities and watching the tutes. There are a lot of small assignments worth small amounts that require a decent amount of work, but if you put aside enough time to do them they become really useful practices for the final report task. The social aspect of this subject was my favourite part of the semester; spending three hours with people for twelve weeks really makes you get close to them. Overall, a subject I would definitely recommend. Give the assignments the time they deserves and you will undoubtedly do well in it.

Grade: 89 - Pretty good subject, the demonstrators are very helpful but its not an easy subject and the workload is high. If you get a good group it should be a good experience though. The assignments are marked harshly but the demonstrators drop a lot of answers in class so make sure you pay close attention.

Extremely well taught and coordinated, but unbelievably boring. Every little mistake is penalised harshly (eg not italicising individual letters or words). This means you end up spending most of your time in this subject learning how to format information correctly rather than actually learning about physiology. To be fair, the staff for this subject go above and beyond to help out, and it's not their fault that they have to be so pedantic. At the end of the day, research is always going to be dry and technical

Good subject, I learnt highly valuable skills important for research. The content was interesting, and the final assignment engaging. However, the workload for this subject is insane. I have completed my degree, and this subject was harder than all of my 3rd year subjects combined. The weekly EOS assignments are much much too difficult, and way too long. I also feel they are very harshly graded. The final assignment was also a lot of work, but I feel it was much more fairly graded (mine was at least), I have heard that quite a few people do not feel this way however. I would recommend only doing this if it is part of your major, or you want to go into research

Workloads were EXTREMELY crazy. DON'T take this subject if you don't have to. The quality of teaching was quite good, and the contents were interesting especially when you take phys20008 concurrently you get to see things you've learned happen in real life. Angelina is great But it feels like 5x harder than phys20008 as you have lots of reports to write, and a huge final assessment (research paper in the style of the journal of physiology). I put similar efforts in both phys20008 and phys20009 and screwed up the latter badly. Got low H2B in phys20009 and high H1 in phys20008. I am not even sad seeing my mark I am just glad that it was over.

Not a good subject. I don't comment on subjects like this, and usually I understand that the grades I get are a reflection of my effort, but in this case I can honestly say that I felt cheated. After physiology in semester 1 (PHYS20008), I was really excited for it, but this kind of killed physio for me. I worked so hard for this subject and in keeping up with weekly submissions, but its hard to not feel like you're drowning with the amount you have to do. It's easily the most overwhelming subject I've done so far, and it's not even like the EOS assignment was the hard part - there is constantly so much to do and so much to prepare for and learn (in terms of techniques and report writing), I feel as though my grades for my other three subjects suffered because of it. Assignments were really quite harshly marked and while my demonstrator was really sweet, I felt as though I was being told different things by different people. As for the final assignment, the feedback every week seemed to be helpful to begin with, and I corrected my mistakes accordingly, but my mark on my final was extremely harsh. I really don't think it reflected what I'd done. Also, the demonstrator that marks your final assignment is different to the demonstrator you've been with for entire semester? It's supposed to take away potential biases in marking, but it made zero sense to me? You spend the entire semester refining your submissions and work to the standard of your particular demonstrator, then you're marked terribly by somebody else in your final who has completely different standards. I can honestly say the communication between the demonstrators and coordinator was terrible. There should be some form of standardisation with this subject across markers, but there wasn't. Furthermore, Angelina was extremely unprofessional in how she communicated with me in emails and in her comments at the end of the semester- essentially gaslighting me. Take this subject if you have to I guess, but be wary of it.

Angelina is a great coordinator but taking this subject once is enough for me.

Probably one of the worst subjects I've taken at uni. Angelina is unorganized, lectures barely have any relevance to the assignments. Took more effort than all my third year neuroscience subjects! Assignments are very harshly marked, with no feedback given before the due date of the next one (All feedback for 3 assignments that were done throughout the semester were given two weeks before the due date of the final assignment) Final assignment experiment was not setup correctly so all group found barely any relevant results.