planning on taking it this summer. Its not required for anything, but i figured it would help with pre-med. Am I wasting time by taking this class or will it really help with MCATs and premed?? any advice would help!

3/28/2006 3:07:17 PM

I took it last summer with Marta Klesath, the class is beast to take over the summer. You have a test every Friday, and pop quizzes during the week.

She gives you a course pack with the notes, however leaves blanks so you have to come to class and pay attention. If you have taken any upper level classes (i.e. physiology, biochem) than you will be bored with the lack of detail (memorize the facts, no mechanism presented for further understanding). That being said her quizes are easy if you read the notes from the class before and the tests really aren't that bad if you study for the pop quizzes.

A major part of your grade is the LAB (i think 40% of your final grade). The lab is terrible, you have it 2x a week and she requires that you stay the whole time. Since it's over the summer you will receive a list of bones to memorize on a Monday and then on Wednesday you have a practical covering all the bones of the body (and it's not just bones, its all the bone markings). Then Wednesday after the practical you may have a list of all the muscles and next Monday you have a practical covering all that information. This is somewhat overwhelming, so if you are taking another class that requires any large amount of time or working you may want to reconsider taking this class.

I will say that this class has made Zo 421 (physiology) seem very easy and it really did tie a few things together for me.

Hope this helps.

3/28/2006 3:26:29 PM

If it's not required, don't take it. I took that class and don't remmember anything the semester later.

3/28/2006 6:11:29 PM

ya thats true, didnt remember a whole lot...the best way to prepare the mcats is to use those kaplan books and take zo 421

3/29/2006 8:33:23 AM

I strongly disagree...I took the class and I aced the DAT after taking the class. It'll help you on your MCAT. The workload is heavy for a summer course, but you learn a great deal and you also get the best professor ever. Also helps you for ZO 421.

3/29/2006 8:57:52 AM

I wasn't required to take the course either, but I'm glad I took it!

3/29/2006 8:58:29 AM

What kind of grades you guys end up with, how's her grading policy, any curves, anything i need to be aware about...

3/31/2006 1:45:11 AM

B

4/2/2006 6:40:02 PM

B+ , not alot of people got A in that class if I remmember correctly.

4/2/2006 9:51:09 PM

Marta is a whore and if you dont like being smarter than the teacher, yet not making an A in the class without hours of studying every day, dont take the class. Its not worth listening to that stupid bitch talk and not being able to tell you why you missed a question on her test because she didnt make the mother fucker up thanks to a nice question bank.



/rant


I'm sure you can read the book front to back a couple of times and make an A....that just wasnt in the cards for me.

4/2/2006 10:18:12 PM

lol, the class is full of pre-med, pre-dental students. Full of overachievers.

4/2/2006 11:03:15 PM

I thought Marta was awesome...very pleasant to work with and she answered why I didn't get a problem right on an exam. Don't you remember her setting aside half of the class period (~45min) just to answer exam questions? If you just did what she asked you to do, you would have had no problems with the class.

4/3/2006 2:05:59 PM

I specifically remember her not giving real answers to why the questions were wrong.

Sure, she could tell you that this answer is right because of "blah", but it wasnt a full explanation and she couldnt tell you why other answers were incorrect...which i keep saying because there were lots of ambiguous answer choices. I always did very well on the essays, so the wrong answer choices killed me in the MC.


She claims its a physiology class, but couldnt tell you the mechanism behind the processes. Do you not remember her half assing the Nervous system because she couldnt explain it, then asking ridiculous quesions on the test about it?

Or how about the endocrine system, and just blatently not explaining the renin-angiotinsen-aldosterone system. If it weren't for the TA's, I'd have failed the test....they were even shocked that she didnt explain it in class.

I could go on for days. She's retarded.

[Edited on April 3, 2006 at 2:26 PM. Reason : ]

4/3/2006 2:23:23 PM

No, those claims are unfounded. I specifically remembered the multiple choice coming from the book. She always managed to back up her answers by locating the information in the book. You have to remember, it's a summer class, so she had to cram a 4 credit hour class in a 5 week period. The labs were difficult because we couldn't meet as many times as we would in a normal semester, so the labs were crammed with material too. I admit the work was difficult, but one could put forth the hard work and make a good grade. I think Marta did a great job about trying to be reasonable with students because of the time constraints of the class, but she also had a responsibility as a professor and make sure the students get exposed to all of the material. If it wasn't for this class, I don't think I would have done as well as I did on the DAT.

4/3/2006 4:49:27 PM

^so you did what I said earlier...you read the book front to back.


I was taking 2 classes at the same time, and I drove home on the weekends to work, so that had a little to do with the bad grade, but I still think she's an idiot, and my claims are NOT unfounded. She blatently said that her tests come from the notes, not the book...which fucked me up for the first test or 2.

I didnt mind the lab though...there was too much material, but I had a B+ average in the lab.

You have to do 2 things to make a grade in this class, and I refused to do either. Study 24-7, and kiss her ass. Studying for over 2 hours a day when you're in class for 3-8 hours every day is just too much. I guess if you had the time it wouldnt be so bad....but I already stated that earlier in the thread.



Plus...I stopped paying attention in class every time she started talking about her damn kids. That made me mad too, cause it was usually when we were on difficult material.

I shouldnt really be complaining too much...I made a B in the class, but I just hated her guts so that hurt my grade cause I was like "fuck this class" and I should have tried harder.

4/3/2006 5:03:45 PM

could anyone please post the lab assignments due next lab? i forgot my binder in the lab during open hours friday. Also, if you could post Jason's email that would be great

6/17/2006 6:09:46 PM

mjwingat@ncsu.edu

21: 1, 3, 5, 6, 18, 19

22: 1, 12

23: 1, 8

24: 1, 15

6/18/2006 2:55:27 PM