Coming from a person who didn't do any ATAR bio, it was definitely a larger workload than expected. Even though they make up a small percent of your grade, pretty much the entire course is taught from the textbook. The Textbook readings are really long and tedious, and lectures can sometimes be hardly relevant. Would recommend keeping track of each TBR with notes, and use a 'bio vocab' list for those who haven't studied bio in a while. Unit management with that many students makes the online forum quite messy, and we were given vague and inconclusive data for the major report.

This unit is not suitable for online learning as valuable lab work was missed. We had to write reports on experiments based on videos and pics. The whole unit was unorganized and based on a book rather than teaching content written by lecturers which is lazy. The TBR's in the book were hell! They were way way too long to the point where u stopping learning anything because u just wanted it over. The exam was also based on this book so u had to endure it. Reports were harshly marked, most are in their first semester but we were expected to know how to do reports. No support or instruction. I had no idea what we were meant to do in regards to the data, there was just absolutely no instruction whatsoever. This unit needs to ditch the book nd not run it until classes resume in person. I don't recommend this unit its horrible. You have to have studied biology before or u will be lost completely as it's heavily content rich and there's so much to remember u feel your brain will explode.

This unit is ridiculous. It's a low scoring unit due to the harsh marking of reports but they don't provide specific enough instructions for them so when you look at the feedback it is not enough for you to improve just a vague "more needed" (when the word count is low so it's not really possible) or "yes but we wanted this" (which wasn't told to you in the briefings). Maybe its better when you actually get to do the labs yourself but honestly the reports felt ridiculous to write and kinda irrelevant to the lecture topics. The TBRs seem to be lazy unit management, they take too long for what you get out of them, which is not much. It would be better to do an hour long LMS quiz if they could be bothered to actually write questions themselves. The timing and organisation of everything in this unit felt off, from due dates for quizzes and reports to the layout of and navigation on LMS, which was critical for online learning to being able to view scores and feedback. Would not recommend unless you have to for your degree.

This unit was probably my hardest unit, and my lowest scoring (at 73%). I felt that all the labs were really irrelevant and didn't really help with the lecture content. There was an in-class quiz after every lab with really low class averages, if you do the pre-reading and go through the pre-lab material you should be okay. There were 4 reports, the first 3 weren't assessed but they gave useful feedback, and the people who didn't do them generally scored quite low on the final report worth 20% of the final grade. I found the exam really tough because a lot of it was so specific, but if you keep up with the content from week 1 and do the practice exam provided then it wasn't too bad. The unit coordinator was really unorganized and often power point slides or pre-lab information came out too closet to the lab date, but there will be a different unit coordinator next year. I do recommend getting the textbook because there's a lot more detail you need than what is provided in the lectures. Overall it's a good unit though.

This unit requires a lot more time spent on it than you would think. You need to be up to date with the textbook readings in order to score well in the quizzes, while the lectures were only needed for the final exam. The content itself was easy enough to learn. Labs were a little pressed, time wise, but interesting enough. For the final exam - you need to look at both lectures AND textbook readings/chapters.

The lab reports were strictly marked (average of 5-6/10) with little to no feedback from tutors. Most of us only noticed our mistakes in our lab reports after being marked down for 3 reports. In addition, marking was inconsistent with some markers being way too strict on minor mistakes. Furthermore, the content in lecture were not enough for the MCQ exams with questions testing concepts untouched in lectures. Do not take this unit if it’s not a core unit for your major.

I didn't watch any lectures as I decided to focus on the quizzes and textbook. This didn't negatively alter my results. The unit is very content heavy and difficult if you don't have a background or interest in biology. However, if you put effort into the 4 lab reports (40%) and pre-lab quizzes (10%), and complete the weekly quizzes (10%) then you can wing the multi-choice exam. The frequent lab reports had little guidance and feedback, so some may find them challenging. Overall, I didn't enjoy the unit because I have no interest in biology. However, I didn't have to wear myself out by memorising all of the content for the exam due to my excellent lab report/quiz results. Therefore, it was an easy pass.

The lab reports require a lot of effort if you want to do well. There were 4 which was 10% each. However, the content isn't hard to learn, this is coming from someone who never took biology or human biology in high school. The exam was 72 multiple choice questions, was worth 40% and it was not too difficult. You also get 10% for just completing quizzes every week. There is also 10% for pre-lab quizzes which are not hard if you read the pre-lab material and understand what the lab requires you to do.

If you picked up this unit because you thought it was going to make for a simple Intro to Bio unit and an easy HD elective, think again. I spent way more time than I expected to on this unit - mainly because of lab reports that were due pretty much every 2-3 weeks, based on our in-lab results and are very detailed. These were marked very strictly (worth 10% each) and the average for each report was usually a 6/10, which isn't even a Distinction. If you're like me and enjoy writing and generally like doing reports, this may work to your advantage but be prepared to really put in effort for each of them to get a decent mark or you could risk pulling down your overall grade. This unit was not the best organisation-wise, and the lecturers were very hard to understand, but the final exam is all MCQ. The content is really tough to learn alongside other units IF you are someone with little to no biology background - don't put yourself through this unless necessary. However, if you have good knowledge of Biology and basic Ecology from beforehand, you should be able to get atleast a 70% on the paper with minimal revision.

was great, learned loads