This is a review for the new (2024 version) of this subject: So much content! Hard! Seminars (you don't have lectures you have these instead) are difficult and not recorded! Slides also are not posted! So if you get confused or can't keep up during the seminar you cannot go back and look at the slides. Do NOT do this subject unless you need it as a prereq! Ruined my love for biology first year chem and psych are run so much better do them instead. I cannot believe a uni that claims to be the 'best in the state' would allow a subject to be this badly run. You do not get practice tests or exams. Most of the limited practice questions do not have answers. They admitted they marked one of the multiple choice in our first quiz wrong and its been weeks and they still have not updated the marks.

There is a LOT of content covered in not much time. It's confusing and not very well set out. There are not really any exam questions provided or any options for applying the information we are meant to be learning. Basically just a shite ton of memorisation. I found that as soon as I finished one weeks worth of pre-recorded lectures videos, the next weeks lot was out so basically no time to actually sit down and learn the material. My advice would be just to try and pass. At the end of the day this is just a pre-req for your future subjects.

I went into this subject thinking this would be a simple subject for people who had no background in biology but needed it as a prereq, and i was so wrong. There is soooooo much content covered in so little time. And tutorials were literally an hour a week, we barely even finished all the planned activities in time. Workshops weren’t that useful, and you don’t miss much if you don’t go. Labs are sooo long but fine if you have good lab partners. The tutors were all helpful though, but its really tough to keep up with all the lectures especially if its your first semester at uni. The exam was pretty tough and I think you have to revise a lottttt if you want a good mark.

A warning to all who choose this subject - the workload and sheer amount of lecture content means that a H1 in this subject will need considerably more effort than H1s in other subjects. Lecturers and tutors were good, but this fails to make up for the sheer amount of content. Khan Academy is super helpful for a lot of topics and so would suggest using it if aiming for H1. The final exam I believe is usually scaled up if taking the introductory version of this subject; however do not get complacent / rely on scaling as you do need a good understanding of all topics covered. Use the textbook too for the diagrams and explanations; do not bother about doing the entirety of prescribed readings as this is a waste of time, as it often talks about concepts not in lectures. Annoyingly a lot of the content in lectures is actually not examined - this is probably because the exam is 2hrs and it isn’t possible to examine everything in that time. Nonetheless certain exam questions were in depth, e.g. diagrams of male reproductive system, so you do need to know the content well. In summary, lecturers and tutors are good and helpful, attend your tutorials, use khan academy, use diagrams and certain explanations in textbooks and you should be fine

Trash

Horrible

Worst subject i've done and will ever do

Absolutely terrible subject. I’ve never met more useless subject coordinators. Only do this subject as a prerequisite!

This subject is relatively difficult in my opinion, especially because I haven't done biology since Year 9. The scope of the subject is way too broad for an "introductory" subject, and the content, from what I've heard, is way too close to the normal Biology: Life's Machinery. Granted, some of what we learnt was interesting, but because of the large amount of content, it became a chore to do some of the lectures, especially when they had over 50 slides. The Module quizzes were somewhat useful for consolidation of knowledge, and the majority were pretty simple to get a decent mark on as long as you'd done the lectures and went to the tutorial for that week. In terms of the tutorials specifically, some were more useful than others, but they are definitely worth attending if you struggled with the content for a particular week. They were also worth attending nearer to the end of the semester as they look over some practice exam questions that are helpful in learning how to answer the questions. Practicals varied from being engaging to being a waste of 3 hours and taking up a large portion of the timetable. The written practical report was alright as an assessment especially because you could get feedback from the submission of the draft, although the word count was limiting. The exam was definitely more accessible than I expected and was similar to the practice exam provided, the multiple choice questions were simple to some extent, and the short answer section was also fair although it was time pressured. There were a few more difficult questions in this section though. Overall, a heavy subject that probably isn't worth it unless you need it for your major/degree. If needed, I'd suggest creating summaries at the end of every lecture because it'll help in the revision process, and do the questions given in tutorials as well.

This subject was relatively easy for me. It does cover a wide range of biology. However I do have a strong biology background and I saw many people struggle to keep up with the sheer amount of content covered over 12 weeks. I don't think there is any way to fix this but the structuring of the content could surely be better.