Hi ephie, are you available in reviewing some courses? such as CAPS 301?
CAPS 301 – Human Physiology
Instructors: various, including Kwok, Osborne, Mason, Accili
Grading: 40% December exam, 5% timed online quizzes (2), 55%April exam (cumulative). All exams are multiple choice.
I have to say pretty upfront that this is one of the coursesI hated the most in my entire degree. Unfortunately it was also my first realtaste of the major I’d chosen, which left me feeling really doubtful by the endof 3rd year. Had I made the right choice?
CAPS 301 covers all the major body systems and brings invarious instructors most of whom are researchers who specialize in those areasso that you’re taught the most accurate, novel information. The exact contentand emphasis may differ from year to year and from winter to summer courses, becausethe people teaching are different. I’ve heard that CAPS 301 in the summer tendsto be easier, but this answer isn’t 100% agreed-upon. While the topics rangebroadly throughout the body, it tends to get very microscopic, especially whenKwok is teaching. There are many pathways you’re expected to remember for Kwok’ssections mostly; I’ve found that he likes details and memorization (compared toOsborne who mostly tests broader concepts and understanding), which gave me alot of trouble, especially since he taught half the course in my year. The factthat the course was cumulative made it even tougher. That being said, I knowmany people who did fairly well in the course. It’s a hard course to doextremely well in because most of the marks come from exams (can’t really padyour grade with homework assignments). I do think that for myself, I wasn’treviewing enough throughout the year, which I was warned time and time againwas important to do. This led to about a week of frenzied cramming duringfinals season – not the best study plan.
The course gives you a pretty thorough understanding of thedifferent systems, but a criticism I have is that they’re very separate. Especiallysince the course is taught by different instructors (who oftentimes don’t knowwhat the other instructors are teaching), the different topics aren’t verycohesive. This doesn’t get better in 4th year CAPS courses which arecompletely separated by body systems, so that’s an even broader criticism I havefor CAPS overall.
All in all, I disliked this course quite a bit. If you needto take it, clear out your schedule a bit. If you’re considering taking thisvs. 390 + 391, and you don’t care about material, just difficulty, I’d recommend390 + 391.
