GENE20001: Principles of Genetics

3 x MST (10% each), 1 x 2 hour exam (70%)

Please refer to either (or all of) Mr. T-Rav's, Shenz0r's, or Stick's reviews for this subject. I do not wish to quadruplicate the same information.

Yes, with screen capture

A. Andrianopoulos, R. Lee, P. Batterham, C. Cobbett, H. Bugeja

1998-2013

3.5 out of 5

I did read parts of the textbook, but found it useless

Despite Phil giving us a sheet of derivations for the formulae used for population genetics, I cannot say that I was impressed with this "teaching style." I would have preferred to learn where the equations come from and why they are relevant. Physics does a wonderful job of presenting an equation and explaining why it is used and this leads to a deeper and more robust understanding.

The tutorials were the highlight of the subject. The subject tutor, Steve, was fantastic to consult, and he was very approachable. I found his discussions very much integral to my learning, especially with respect to the more difficult concepts that Ronald discusses in his lectures. I found phage to be interesting even though I did not think that I would. Kudos to Alex - he made what could have been a very boring three-ish weeks thoroughly engaging. Also, Ronald was especially kind with helping me via email; thanks to his generosity with his time, I finally was able to comprehend translocations and inversion heterozygotes!

Dragons. There is a reason why they don't exist! Also...8 mark multiple choice questions are abhorrent. Especially when you spend almost thirty minutes on it in the exam only to find out that most people had to guess what the answer might have been.

I would only recommend this subject if you want to know more about genetics. I took this subject because I thought it would have less of a dependence on ROTE learning, which is true, but did not enjoy it all that much. In a word: Genetics simply isn't my niche.

36 x 1 hour lecture, 10 x 1 hour tutorial

2015 Semester 1

H1

Three MSTs each worth 10%, 2 hour exam during the exam period 70%

If you're looking for an easy selective, this truly is it. It's easy to the point that I suspect some people do badly because they took it for granted and did no work (I suspect that's what will happen to me—was written before I got my mark). The concepts are not difficult and the questions are very straight forward. You're also not expected to know tiny little details. Everything is a principle, everything has a purpose. This fact is actually great because it makes the subject feel like it is testing your thinking and testing your ability to science, rather than just seeing how much useless information you can spit up.

Yes, with screen capture

Ronald Lee (2-9) on Mendelian Inheritance
Chris Cobbett (10-12) on Non-Mendelian Inheritance
Alex Andrianopolous (13-22) on Bacterial, Viral and Special Eukaryotic (fungal) Genetics
Phil Batterham (22-35) on Population Genetics

Yes, a stack of them from previous years. More than you'd ever need, but no answers of course.

3 out of 5

Introductio to Genetic Analysis (Griffiths). Not need in the slightest.

3 x 1 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial each week

Semester 1 2014

80 (H1)

There are 3 online multiple choice tests staggered throughout the semester worth 10% each, there is then a 2 hour multiple choice exam

This subject was really well coordinated and I found that all of the lecturers were engaging and this was bolstered by interesting and approachable content. I found Ronald's lecture material the most difficult to understand as it is a really big step up from first year genetics and involves complex genetic problems including inversion mapping/translocation mapping/advanced genetic problems involving multiple loci with epistasis/lethality and the material in the problem classes is also really difficult in this section. I found Alex's lecturing style really fantastic - he was definitely the most enthusiastic and easy to listen to and although I was not really interested in phage genetics by the end, at least he was engaging. This section of the course was most easily supplemented with the text book so I suggest you at least loan it out at the library if you are having trouble understanding what is quite a complex/unfamiliar area of genetic analysis. I understood Phil's lecture material the most out of all of the lecturers despite thinking that I would absolutely hate it. At the beginning of his sequence he sends out the exam formula sheet which basically looks like a mess of about 20 or so mathematical formulas related to population genetics. Do not fear! All of these are explained by Phil and he is really easy to understand and a really great lecturer. My only criticism of this subject is in the weighting of the exam - like many science subjects 70% of the assessment was reliant on a good exam result, the online quizzes (bar Ronald's) were easy to score above 80% in given that they are open book but I would have honestly preferred a closed book MST under exam conditions to rid myself of his lecture content for the exam. Ronald is a really great guy but I found myself struggling a lot with the difficulty of some of his problems throughout the semester! The exam was not very well written and luckily for me around 7 whole questions from Ronald's section were stricken due to a printing error. Phil's section is the easiest to do well in as it just involves plugging in numbers to what look like really daunting (but are actually quite simple) equations. Alex's exam questions require a little more thought but they were not unreasonable. Anyone that is interested in genetics should do this subject - I had a love/hate relationship with it throughout the semester given that it was a big step up from first year problems but overall it was quite enjoyable. Make sure you attend the problem classes as many of the online quiz questions are recycled from the problems discussed in these classes and answers to these questions are not posted online!

Yes, with screen capture

Ronald Lee (3 weeks): Mendelian genetics
Alex Andrianopoulos (4 weeks): Bacteriophage genetics
Chris Corbett (1 week): Extrachromosomal (non-mendelian genetics)
Phil Batterhan (4 weeks): Population genetics
Steve Hardy (Problem class presenter)

Yes, roughly 8 practice exams were available on the LMS.

4/5

There is a textbook prescribed that is really only useful for Alex Andrianopoulos' lecture material on phage genetics as it explains things quite a bit clearer than he does.

3x1 hour lectures per week, 1x1 hour problem class per week

2013, Semester 1

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