I absolutely loved this subject. It was a chance to be hands-on and apply what you have learnt. Although I did this as a pharmacology major, this subject can really be done by anyone. The practicals were really straight forward (and even if you didn't really know the techniques/machines, you could easily search up what they were prior to the prac). Lots of chances to do well in this subject to secure a very solid H1. Please note that this subject is aimed at teaching lab skills, it is NOT expecting you to generate perfect results. You could completely mess up your whole major assignment but still get 100% if you explain where you went wrong (even if it was preventable). If you understand this, H1 is basically guaranteed. Also I don't think you need to study in this exam (as least I didn't but you may need to so don't take this as face value) as the exam is testing logic rather than knowledge recall. Only bad thing is being stuck with the same group the whole semester but if you make a genuine effort to try and communicate/complete tasks to the best of your ability, you will do well. Lastly, I recommend taking this subject in semester 2 for two reasons. Firstly, you can get more tailored help from staff (less students in the cohort - only ~63) and secondly, if you're doing a pharmacology major, this subject complements PHRM30008 (structured in the exact same way).

Grade: 85. I don't understand the positive reviews honestly. This was not a good subject. The staff were lovely, but that's where it ends. The pracs are boring and we're given bare-bones guidance in them (in the entire subject in general, actually). The lab manuals most weeks were too vague and poorly written (1 manual was 3 pages and 1 was the cover page). A lot of workshops which should be used to teach us the prac theory and prepare us for the actual pracs were used in "Industry workshops" which were just random people working in Pharma companies telling us about their life story, which is not assessable by any means and frankly felt like a waste of time. 1 or 2 would have been a good add on, but there were too many of them, and while some were interesting, they shouldn't replace the actual learning of the subject. And the other workshops didn't actually go through what we would be doing during the prac, so a lot of us would show up with a very vague idea of what we'd be doing. We got 0 personalised feedback on any assignments or the MST (average of 60%), so it was very hard to know why you lost any marks and where, making studying for the exam very difficult as it was hard to narrow down your revision. We got 1 comment for an assignment that basically said "you did everything well" but we still lost 11 marks. Why? wish I could tell you. 3 weeks are also made up of an "independent research project", but really they should rename it to "re-do experiments from earlier in the semester but with different drugs that you choose from a list we give you" cause that was exactly what that was. There is very little choice in coming up with a project and a lot of the groups ended having very similar projects, because duh. I would much rather them come up with fun pracs for us to do, and teach us the tools that we'd need to do a real independent project in honours or even BIOM30003, rather than this poor excuse of an "independent project". There was always something going wrong in the pracs, too, either the drugs being too old, cells being too old, machines not working properly...it was just a mess. I did this is an elective and many times I wished I didn't. Not to mention that 50% of your mark is group work based. You're placed in a group of 3-4 at the start of semester and you'll be working with those people on pracs AND assignments for the entire 12 weeks. I was lucky that I had a good group, and I still hated the subject. I can only imagine what it's like if you get a shit group, too. If you're majoring in pharm you have no choice but to take this, but if you don't have to do it, don't, it's really not worth it. If you want a good practical subject that actually trains you for biomedical research, do BCMB30010.

This subject doesn't require a lot of memorisation of concepts, but it's more about building practical skills and using logic to solve problems that you might encounter in a practical/laboratory setting. It wasn't a subject that required a lot of notes, but rather required you to think. If you like problem-solving and you're good with logic, then you can do quite well in this subject..

Not a hard subject and the staff are extremely knowledgeable, but don't expect to be anything particularly stimulating. The pracs are quite monotonous on the whole and there's not a whole lot of content extension from prior subjects.

It really wasn't too bad. Also, members in your group play a very important role so hope that you get grouped with students who are actually interested in the subject and proactive (also it helps if they're smart)

This is a practical subject, very relaxed, heaps of time to finish the practicals. The staff were very friendly.