This unit is very easy, but nonetheless one of the most fun in UWA stem. Weekly cadaver labs - outstanding tutors and great support. Lab book prep work takes max an hour, but watching aclands (dissection videos) can take up a lot of time if you really want to understand the concepts. About 1.3 embryology lectures a week on average. There is not a whole lot to these introductory lectures apart from some vigorous memorisation. Exam was mostly gross anatomy and not as much embryology as the UCs led the cohort to believe. Sage wisdom would lead your exam preparation to consult first Aclands and your lab book; only once this is understood supplementing sparingly with the embryology lectures for the broad concepts. UCs are great, compassionate and not trying to trick you. 10/10 would look at bisected penises again.

This is my favourite unit ! Despite it being a difficult unit, Fiona and Vanessa cover almost everything in the lectures and do a very nice job of associating human development and embryology structures with the adult body. However, some embryology topics are very difficult to grasp and I think the lectures could do a better job of explaining these because I had to supplement them with multiple embryology textbooks .The lectures are more embryology focused and are then paired with the Acland’s videos which are only 3 mins each. The lab demonstrators were all super knowledgeable and very helpful and Fiona and Vanessa check your lab books which pressures you to finish the lab work before class. This is amazing because then after the lab you can consolidate and fill in any gaps in your knowledge with textbook/ internet knowledge. Overall, this unit had very engaging lectures, the content and the labs increased my passion for anatomy and it has the best unit coordinators !

love this unit, full of content and quite extensive. the best recommendation is to study from the first week, go to your labs and buy the unit books. Tom, Vanessa and Fiona are some of the best things that UWA has.

Tough unit, true to its reputation, but the content is honestly some of my favourite I’ve learned so far at uni. The essay isn’t too bad if you are willing to put the research into it and the repeatable quizzes give your average a nice boost (and are a useful learning tool). The lectures could sometimes be a battle to get through as pretty much every topic involved complex visualising and detail, so this really is not a unit you want to be cramming the week before the exam. I’d also highly recommend actually going to the labs and just sticking with the demonstrators, since the lab exam was basically testing how well we remembered everything they taught us and its weighted 30%.

This unit is really great but you HAVE to put the effort in throughout the semester otherwise you will not do well. It’s not an easy distinction or HD. I went into it not realising how much of the unit focuses on embryology (which I find to be a difficult topic). However, the coordinators are amazing and the labs are super fun (pls listen to them when they say to do the prep work for labs!!!). Very content heavy and a lot to remember but they make it really interesting so it’s not too bad to get through.

2 lectures a week, great coordinators, easy HD.

This unit was my favourite unit that i've done at university so far. It was also the hardest unit that i've done and I wouldn't be surprised if it's harder than all of my third year units too. It scared the crap out of me in the first few weeks because embryology is a nightmare to get your head around and a 1 hour lecture can turn into 3 hours of writing and rewriting notes, and drawing complex diagrams. It honestly gets so much better though. I advise really getting interested in the content being taught, and making sure to go to labs having already gone through the book and with questions prepared because the tutors are absolute angels and go above and beyond to help you learn. Doing this unit during COVID was really helpful in my opinion because the online zoom sessions meant that the tutors basically spoon fed us all the information that we needed to know and we were provided with really good cadaveric images. The essay was quite disappointing because I worked really hard and it did end up getting marked quite harshly and after comparing my essay with my friends, it was clear we were all marked quite inconsistently, with some of us writing virtually the exact same things and scoring totally differently. The exams were definitely quite fair, especially the theory exam. If you'd worked hard and learnt what was expected during the semester then I think getting a score of 80+ on the exam was very achievable. I worked soooo hard for this unit and only just managed a HD. If you're doing this unit in the future, I recommend getting a solid study plan worked out because your other units will suffer and you will need to spend a lot of time learning the content if you plan on doing well. The unit coordinators and all of the tutors are so hardworking and lovely though so if you need any help, definitely approach them.

I finished this unit on a 78 but it felt like a nightmare! Tom was a good lecturer but sometimes I felt like the way he broke things down on his slides just confused me. It is SO content-heavy and it was VERY VERY HARD. I hate embryology haha. You can't breeze through this unit from half watching the lectures. You need to do the work and you need to go to the labs. My labs were online as I did this unit during COVID lockdown and it was so much harder not being able to go into the labs. When I completed this unit one of the assessments was an essay. I worked from the rubric as best I could but didn't score that highly because it didn't go into super thorough details. You might think I sound stupid writing that, but it really wasn't that clear in the rubric the level of detail that was needed. A lot of people I know scored poorly in the essay and one of my friends failed this unit. If this is a core unit that you need to complete, you'll just have to battle through it like the rest of us. If you are looking at this unit as an elective or a broadening unit... RUN!

In the very first lecture, the unit-coordinators emphasised that this unit is HARD and it is no joke. It may be two lectures and one lab each week, but it's packed and overflowing with content. The lecturers and demonstrators are great and tried to help us a lot, especially when everything was shifted to online. Despite the mass of content causing lots of stress, learning everything with the demonstrators there made it a very enjoyable experience. Assessments include 5 VATS worth 20% total - they require lots of studying to do well. The essay well, for me I bombed out on it and it served to be a good thing to learn from. It is marked very harshly, but I think it did well in preparing me for the future. There is a theory exam (30%) and a practical exam (30%). They said it was achievable and I agree - albeit you have to put a lot of effort in. If you're interested in this unit, just be prepared, and get ready to put in some effort to get the marks you want.

I don't think I've ever taken a unit where I've been so confused as to what I'm supposed to be learning about. Lectures are incredibly crammed full of information, of which only some of it you need to know but this is not made clear at all so you have to waste time studying everything. Concepts that are glossed over end up appearing in tests, and concepts that are copiously explained never appear in tests. Labs often seem removed from the lecture content and ask questions that were never taught. The marking for the essay was a joke, I was marked down for supposedly not including facts that I did include, just not in the order of the marking key. My referencing was also marked as incorrect when I followed the guide to a T. The exam is also weighted too highly. 60%? Come on, UWA. Many other unis have implemented a 50% max weighting for exams. Stressing out your students doesn't contribute to their academic experience.