BMS2052: Microbes in health and disease

Theory examination (40%), Practical examination (25%), Mid-semester test (10%) and laboratory and tutorial assessments (25%)

As an overall this unit is pretty good. There are certain things however that do need more careful attention.

Lectures
The unit has a total of 32 lectures which span a wide array of topics. The first 9 lectures cover the fundamentals of Microbiology and Virology, there's an emphasis on bacterial characteristics, how they're classified and what exactly makes certain bacteria "pathogenic". At the end of these core lectures you will see a bit of Virology but this is quite basic and expands only a little further than what you would have already been exposed to in first year biology.

You then get a set of 9 lectures which cover vaccinations, molecular techniques and immunology. Six of these lectures are specifically devoted to Immunology, 3 will cover innate immunity and another 3 will cover adaptive immunity. Here's the thing, these lectures are almost identical to what you learn in IMM2021 so if you're trying to pick electives IMM2021 wouldn't be such a bad idea because it makes approaching this part of the course a lot easier.

There are 4 lectures on epidemiology and antimicrobial agents, these are pretty basic and the former is just a reiteration of BMS1042. The antimicrobial lectures were fantastic and this is the first time in the BMS course where you get a real taste of drug design (this is backed up in the end of BMS2062 in which you cover rational drug design).

Lastly, you get 9 lectures in which you cover parasitic functions, clostridial infections, fungal infections and Helicobacter pylori. The parasitic lectures were not too interested and you focus mainly on 3 types of parasites with not a lot of depth; these lectures felt a bit odd and were probably the ones I enjoyed the least throughout the course (although they were delivered very well). The clostridial and H. pyrlori lectures are great and you learn a lot more about pathogenesis and biochemistry comes into play a lot because you will be learning how secretion systems work and how toxins have an effect on a cellular level. The fungal lectures were again great because you learnt about various fungi but this was backed with how fungal infections are treated.

Overall I would have to say my favourite lectures were the ones revolving around Virology and Antimicrobials. All of the lectures were delivered well and I really don't see any issues here. The lecturers were all nice and approachable and replied promptly to emails regarding lectures.

Pracs/Tutes
The course is split up such that you get 6 weeks of tutorials and 6 weeks of labs, depending on which stream you may have labs in the first 6 weeks or in the last 6 weeks. Personally I found the labs to be hectic and I really didn't gain a wealth of knowledge as I was expecting. The labs felt rushed and you were often conducting 2-3 experiments at the any one time. When looking at samples under the microscope you often felt rushed due to time constraints and the labs usually lasted the full 3 hours or went overtime. Despite this you get exposed to some cool types of media that you can use to differentiate certain organisms. The labs are just 6 weeks of learning how to plate things properly, obtain pure cultures and tests to employ when identifying certain organisms. Although it felt rushed, in retrospect if sets you up pretty well for 3rd Microbiology/Immunology.

Comparatively, the tutes were very well organised and you often finished in 40-80 minutes. My tutor was fantastic (and from what I heard from other students all the tutors were good) and really knew how to explain some of the more complicated topics in a really easy-to-understand way. In tutes you will mainly be consolidating what you learnt in lectures and an emphasis is placed on learning about the techniques we employ when identifying particular microbes. You learn about Elek's test, the Nagler test and a few others.

25% of your unit mark comes from the tute and labs. This is where the problems in the unit are; 5% of your lab marks come from two 2.5% lab tests that ask you short questions on the techniques you use. Often these tests asked some obscure questions and there was a large discrepancy in the difficult levels among different sessions, i.e. some groups got very easy tests while other groups got harder tests. Another 5% of your mark comes from what your demonstrator thinks of your ability in the lab, this is standard and these are accessible marks for anyone, as long as you paid attention in the labs! 10% of your mark comes from a lab report, this is report had a huge discrepancy in marking and unfortunately it wasn't very clear what was expected and even adhering to the guidelines you were set didn't guarantee a good score as it was basically a case of "does the tutor like the report or not". Given this I'd highly suggest doing the practice report to gauge what your tutor expects of you.

Another 5% of your mark comes from 2x2.5% tests in your tutes. These are quite straight-forward and all of the assessable content is given through the tute anyway.

Mid-semester test
This was your standard Microbiology/Immunology MST. It was pretty pushy for time and unfortunately you get 0 sample questions. The MST covers the first 18 lectures and the questions were quite fair. All in all the MST was okay if you had studied and made sure you really understand the foundations of the course it okay.

Theory examination
The theory exam is worth 40% and is comprised of over a hundred MCQs for which you had 2 hours. This was one of the more difficult Biomed exams I've had to sit. There was A LOT of content covered, some topics had more specific focus than others but the exam certainly went into some nuances of the course. I don't think the textbook is necessary for the exam but I definitely think in order to perform well in this exam it's important you understand the specifics of every lecture. You get no sample questions provided, which again raises another slight issue as the format was quite ambiguous until I actually sat in the exam. I'd suggest maybe getting a study group and making questions yourself, this is one of the units in which you can definitely do that.

Practical exam
This is worth 25% and it's based off the lab and tute content. I have to say this exam was quite straight forward and although you get two hours most people left after an hour. As long as you have a basic understanding of the molecular techniques used in the lab and the different tests we employ to identify certain bacteria and viruses, then this exam is straight-forward.

Overall Comments
A fairly enjoyable unit in terms of content but 6 labs and 6 tutes did feel a bit unnecessary and this could have been cut down on. There was some problems with the assessments but hopefully these get weeded out soon enough. For all the Biomed students you have to take this unit so no choice there! I would however recommend brushing over the basic characteristics of bacteria and viruses over the winter break so that the foundations of the unit will not seem as overwhelming.

Too many to recall

No. There are no practice exams or practice questions provided

3.8 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Don't need any

3x1hour lectures and a 3 hour lab for 6 weeks and 2 hour tute for 6 weeks

2015, Semester 2

N/A