Microbiology and Human Development...difficult?

Railgun · May 9, 2011

Human development was cake. It's a fluff course in my experience.

Micro was a lot of fun for me and didn't require much studying. A lot of my cohorts complained about it but scraped by with B's. As long as you put some time into reading and studying you'll be fine.

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · May 9, 2011

Human development was cake. It's a fluff course in my experience.
Micro was a lot of fun for me and didn't require much studying. A lot of my cohorts complained about it but scraped by with B's. As long as you put some time into reading and studying you'll be fine.

Was Microbiology similar to general Biology? And did you like Human Development?

I hope to take both of these courses, just to get them out of the way before taking clincals.

Railgun · May 9, 2011

Was Microbiology similar to general Biology? And did you like Human Development?
I hope to take both of these courses, just to get them out of the way before taking clincals.

Format wise micro and general biology were very similar. The content was very different and labs were much more detailed. There are a lot of skills to learn such as culturing organisms and how to identify said organism. It's a much more in depth class. There's more to memorize but your mileage may vary based on instructor. Oh, and get used to smelling beef agar.

I really enjoyed Human Development. Surprisingly it's helped me in nursing school. Remember Maslow's Hierarchy and Erikson's stages of development and you'll do fine in the class and have a good base for writing psychosocial careplans that please your instructors later on.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · May 9, 2011

Micro is more in-depth than gen bio. You'll get to know bacteria pretty well. Human Development is actually pretty easy, depending upon the focus of it. With Micro, the hardest thing is making sure you employ good technique to prevent contamination of your sample. This is harder than it sounds... I did well in my Micro class, but I definitely did have some contamination issues a few times. If you do the reading and learn how to do the various testing, you'll do OK. You might even learn how to identify an unknown bacteria! The other thing you learn in micro is why it takes 2-3 days to get culture results...

Personally, I'd think it would be OK to take these courses at the same time, as long as there's enough time to study for them. Just to be on the "safe side" when figuring your study time for micro, a good rule of thumb is add one unit hour (so a 5 unit becomes 6) and then multiply that by 3 to get a rough idea about how many hours per week you might want to set aside for homework and studying. As the class progresses, you can certainly revise that up or down as necessary. Human Development is basically how people grow and change mentally and physically as they age. At my college, we called it "Lifespan Development." It was a 3 unit course. Do the reading, study a bit, write a bit. I probably did 4-5 hours/week studying, doing homework, and writing in that class.

However, I must advise caution: I've already been through the college experience once and I have learned how to study to best retain information in a way that works for me.

One more small bit of advice about micro: don't dread it. It can be a very fun class! I actually enjoyed growing some bacteria and learning how to kill the stuff. Approach it with a smile and a "can do" attitude and you might just surprise yourself!

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · May 9, 2011

Thank you both for the advice! I really appreciate it. :)

I did pretty good in Biology, but I've just heard some awful things about micro. These are the only two classes I plan on taking this summer. But thank God I'm taking this at a community college and not at my university, so it won't affect my gpa!

Once again, thanks!

leenak · May 9, 2011

That is going to be my fall schedule! I'm part time but plan to take development and micro.