Chapter 45--Review of year 4 sem 1

Time again for the biannual review of my school life...

GEK1541-Reproductive health-What one must know

Although quite a number of people might giggle or turn red when they heard about this module, to me it is just another human biology module. Anyway, there's aren't many physiological aspects about the reproductive system which was a bit of a disappointment to me because I was expecting to learn more about the physiological aspects of reproduction in the context of pregnancy and lactation(something which was not extensively covered when I studied reproductive physiology in yr 3 human physiology). Needless to say, there are practically no coverage at all about the pathophysiology of the reproductive system such as the development of certain gynacological cancers. But then again, maybe I was being a little too demanding since this is afterall just a general education module(and a level 1000 one) and that the lecturer has to cater to those without scientific or biology background as well. However, there are certainly a few take home messages from this module. I was for instance, quite amazed that there are so many different types of contraceptives available(mostly to women) even though I am aware of the main ones. Who knows there could be so many different types of intrauterine devices available when in the past I thought that there was just 1 type to prevent implantation. The number of different types of oral contraceptives was also pretty mind boggling and I am certain that the ones we learned are not exhaustive. The real pity is that we do not get to learn about the procedures of vitro fertilisation even though it is an option that has been gaining more approval from the government recently.
The lecturer is however quite a experience gynacologist whom not only got advanced degrees in the medical sciences, but possess an arts master degree in population studies as well so perhaps it came as a no surprise when we were tasked to tackle the problem of low birth rate in Singapore for our project assignment. Glad that we did well in it although the final exam questions was pretty well...unique...

LSM4211--Toxicology

A "thunder loud, rain drop small" module that proves to be a major disappointment. I have learned practically not much toxicology knowledge in this supposedly "highly anticipated" module. What 2 of the lecturers care is to finished teaching the content they are covering as fast as possible so that they could take their coffee breaks..I gave them some of the lowest rating since yr 2 when one of the lecturer also got a poor rating from me. A real pity beacuse toxicology is supposed to be a more advanced branch of pharmacology(which perhaps explain why it is a year 4 module) covering the opposite aspects of pharmacology which deals with therapeutic purposes instead.

LSM4232-Advanced Cell Biology

A follow up module from our year 2 cell biology, this is a module which I have a love hate affair with. Anyway, have to take 1 module which falls outside of my concentration so I chose this module over tumor biology although I did have a hard time deciding which one to took initially. The only good thing is that the final exam is pure MCQ which makes it one of the rare LSM modules that have such format for the final exam(and which also explain why I eventually chose this module). Some of the topics were nevertheless rather interesting and I particularly enjoyed the last section of the module whereby we learned about the various theories of aging processes.
"Live Fast die young" is one message that I no doubt will be bringing it home with me.

LSM4222- Advanced immunology

Total Disappointment. Period.

Regards,
Yongster

Live the life you want. Many more good years ahead.