BIO 153 or 155 @ UBC

Hey Angel,

I believe to get into UBC nursing, you need to take BIOL 153 instead of BIOL 155 because they require the lab component. I took BIOL 153 a few years ago and the same prof is still teaching it and he's awesome! The lab component isn't too difficult and just as long as you study for the quizzes and write the lab reports, it's not that difficult to get a good mark if you study for it. Usually the lab helps boost up your final mark because it's worth 40%.

BIOL 153 is all about human anatomy and physiology so it's completely different than bio 11 in high school where you learn about plants and invertebrates. It's a lot closer to bio 12 in high school with all the human systems. There's A LOT of memorization in the course but personally, I found it super interesting. It's not too difficult if you do it in the summer but you have to make sure to study/review after each class because he goes thorough a lot of material each class but it's definitely not impossible.

Hey Smiles!

Thanks for letting me know. Could you give me a little bit more detail about what the lab components consists of? Is it similar to high school biology labs where you're asked to dissect stuff?

Did you take it in the summer/winter?

Thanks,

Angel :heartbeat

The lab depends on if you're focusing on either anatomy or physiology that week. If it's about anatomy, you usually have to study for a short 10 min quiz with no lab report due. If it's about physiology, you usually do some experimentation and measure some variable with regards to some human system and write up a lab report about it. I don't think we ended up doing any dissections at all the year I took it.

I took it during winter but some of my friends took it during the summer said it wasn't too bad...although a lot of condensed studying.

I took Biol 153 during summer this year. I didn't find it to be too hard, as it was mostly Grade 12 Biology, just with more details, mechanisms and elaborations. I found it to be rather interesting actually--One instructor has a knack of making the lectures animated. He's a very good prof, and makes concepts crystal clear. There is quite a bit of workload involve--you have three classes a week, each class being 3 hours long. Essentially you are covering one week's worth of material in one class...it can get quite overwhelming at times. You have a lab every week, and they divided it up into "wet" and "dry" labs. "Dry" labs are usually accompanied by a quiz, and activity involving the computer, whereas "wet" labs are more hands on. The lab portion was super duper easy in the summer--no formal write up required. Exams are fair, but you do have to study. A good grasp of basic Grade 12 Biology would definitely give you an advantage in this course.

For the nursing admission, both 153 and 155 are accepted (it says so on the UBC Nursing Site), but I would recommend Biol 153...just because that's what nursing students had to take in first year of nursing before UBC Vancouver suspended direct entry from high school to the nursing program.

By the way, are you two applying this year?

Cheers =)

Hey Simplicity Girl,

I don't think I can apply this year since I do not have the pre-requisite yet. I spoke to the advisor and she said that even if I do the pre-requisite during the summer, I won't be able to apply until the following school year. She also mentioned that instead of accepting students in both September and January, there will only be a September intake in 2010.

So assuming that I get accepted, that will be in September 2010. Which is after I graduate with the current degree I am working on. And if that's the case, I think I'm gonna work a bit with the degree before I decide I want a complete different career. This way, it will give me some time to consider whether nursing is right for me.

Angel :heartbeat

Hey SimplicityGirl,

I applied last year and I will be starting nursing at UBC in January. Are you thinking of applying for next year?

oooh, that's so cool.

I am planning on applying for next year's intake (they changed the intake to September only now)...you'll probably see me with more questions closer to the date of application =)

I'm currently taking Biol 155 at UBC right now in the summer session. Professor Harris has already uploaded everything into this website and after looking at the content I was just shocked at the amount of content there was... Since most of you have taken Biol 153/155 before, do you guys have any suggestions as to what I should emphasize on during my studies? More on the powerpoints? More on the lecture notes?

There are also rumors that he doesn't change his finals/midterms... is that true?

Thanks in advance!

Hey Gemini! (I'm a Gemini too!)

I took BIO 153 last year (if I remember correctly, that's the one with the lab?). I found that for his exams, I have to pretty much study everything. I mostly focus on the lecture notes and if there's something I didn't understand (e.g. the female reproductive system - which was actually quite complicated) then I would read the lecture notes because they explained it a little better.

The rumor is somewhat true. A lot of questions repeated from what I've experienced, but there were also some that were quite new and I've never seen before.

Just make sure you study everything :)

Hello to all of you guys...

I'm currently in Bio 153 (winter session) and I've totally failed my first mid-term.

Prof says he'll omit the first exam IF I do decent with the rest of the remaining exams...

but I still feel hopeless!!!

I'm wondering if I should take it during the summer (because then I can commit my whole time into it...whereas right now I'm still adapting to university:( )

or if I should remain in this class?

Wow... I didn't think that this thread would come alive again. I haven't posted on this forum in such a long time.

I'm really sorry to hear about your last midterm exam. Whether or not you should withdraw now and take it during the summer is totally up to you. The problem is that when you take it during the summer, although you can focus on just that one course, it goes in a really fast pace. You will still continue to have 4 exams in total in like 3 months. So be prepared to be studying for an exam every 3 weeks.

I don't think taking it in the summer is necessarily going to be all that much easier, but if you feel that the issue at the moment is that you are too distracted by all your other course load, perhaps choosing to take it in the summer would be ideal.

I know I didn't really provide much of an answer there, but I hope everything goes well for you. :)

by the way, does anyone know how long the summer course for Bio 153 will be? (I'm guessing beginning of May ~ end of June)...

Thanks!