BIOL10005: Genetics & The Evolution of Life

If you are precise about this assignment, it shouldn't be too hard. It was kind of like "should it really be this easy, did I do something wrong?" but at the same time a lot of people messed it up pretty badly because what was expected of us wasn't very well explained. We had to use an online program to generate the outcomes of a certain combination of genetic crosses and then write a genetic hypothesis and report about the results. Then there was an in-class test that involved generating another genetic hypothesis based on some given data and answering some questions relating to the assignment.

A lot of info already covered in the previous sections. This subject is basically compulsory if you want to do anything relating to life sciences in your B-SCI so it doesn't matter too much what I thought of it. Probably more useful to offer advice, for when you do have to take it:

-There is a buttload of content in this subject..... get on top of it and stay on top of it early. Use the MST to get on top of the first 4 weeks of material and use the mid-semester break to catch up on the middle section of the semester. Make sure you have watched every lecture at least once and taken notes by the time you get to SWOTVAC so you can get into the nitty gritty detail and have time for the concepts to settle. Everything kind of links together eventually if you give it enough time to mingle together in your brain, but if you try to cram it, you'll just be memorising hundreds of facts that seemingly aren't that related.

-Make sure you do all the online things (pre- and post- prac tests, and ILTs). They are essentially free marks and you can get like 15% of the subject just by remembering to sit at your computer for 20 minutes and do them.
-Pracs are a hurdle requirement and whilst they aren't as fun as BIOL10004, they're still fine. There isn't a heap of content to learn from them except maybe the main Botany and the main Zoology one (pracs 4 & 5).

As long as you don't forget to do these, they are an easy 5%. Just click through the information on the online tutorial, then do the questions at the end, get more than 80%.

Yes, with screen capture. Copland Theatre SUCKS to have lectures in (if you can get a seat, they are like instant nap time, or if you manage not to fall asleep, you'll have someone really annoying talking in your vicinity because the theatre is big and they think they can get away with it). I stopped going half way through the semester and just watched the Echo recordings.

Dawn Gleeson (Genetics) - mostly really awesome, sometimes kind of skims over stuff or seems to think we already know it. Jumps around between topics a lot on occasion which gets kind of confusing but overall her stuff is well-paced. Her lecture slides are really really crap and hard to decypher so you really have to take your own notes and listen to her lectures.
Theresa Jones (Zoology) - pretty cool lady, most of her content is straight off the slides. Interesting topics covered (main animal phyla and their characteristics, ecology, evolution, selection).
Rick Wetherbee (Botany) - I love Rick, he's enthusiastic and entertaining, clear and precise with what he expects from us. His questions are quite specific and can be challenging but it's partly because his stuff isn't exactly difficult so he has to make you think a little bit more abstractly or detailed sometimes.

Usually about 20 questions, and covers the content in the first 11 lectures (4 weeks-ish).
This is notoriously quite difficult, so do study for it, and it will make your revision at the end of the semester SO MUCH EASIER. The remaining course content is rote-heavy and it's a real relief to have a solid understanding of the first 4 weeks of content before you hit SWOTVAC.

There was one sample exam with lots of sample short essay questions. Dawn also provides you with lots of additional Genetics problems and you have your Lab Workbook with lots of questions too.

Pre-prac tests are 1 mark, Pracs are 5 marks, Post-prac tests are 4 marks. DON'T FORGET THE POST PRAC TESTS. I've probably lost my chance at a H1 this semester because I forgot about 2 post-prac tests. You get a password in the prac itself and you NEED IT. It's not that hard to get full marks in the prac themselves. In fact, if you don't forget to do post-prac tests, you should be able to really own this 25%.

5 Out of 5

R B Knox, P Y Ladiges, B K Evans and R Saint, Biology, An Australian Focus 4th Ed. It's a great textbook so I bought it but I didn't use it heaps, the diagrams in it are excellent, but the lecturers scan the diagrams and put them in the notes anyway.

3 x one hour lectures per week, 1 x 1hr tutorial and 1 x 2hr Practical every fortnight. 1 x 1hr workshop every other fortnight. Approximately 24 hours of online learning.

Semester 2, 2013

Don't have it yet.