Microbiology - Summer 2008

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Starting up early! Anyone have any advice as to what to expect? What can we review prior to beginning the course?

I'm taking it during the summer and a lot of people have told me to look for something else but there isn't in terms of pre-reqs that I can take in order to apply to a couple of schools this fall!

So if anyone else is taking this class over the summer feel free to join in on the conversation!

Hoping to get this placed in the locked sticky thread! Good luck everyone!

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Dug this up from the last Micro thread, hoping to find more useful stuff in there:

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i just finished Micro in the spring & i LOVED IT!!... i actually ended up with like a 105 in the class so if you need any help throughout the summer just ask cause i would love to help!!

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Im taking Micro and APII this summer. Just had 1st Micro class yesterday. What an awesome class, labs are going to be tedious but there is so much to learn.

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i just finished Micro in the spring & i LOVED IT!!... i actually ended up with like a 105 in the class so if you need any help throughout the summer just ask cause i would love to help!!

What are some of the things we have to look forward to? Like what should I be reviewing to be better prepared? I have yet to get my book as my CC was lost by a bar tender over the weekend :flmngmd:

(at least all my drinks were free :D)

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my teacher was really good about putting power points on line and i still have them so if yall would like yall can tell me what your doing or if your having trouble with something and i can email it to yall.. or i could even email you all of the chapters... with the PP i didnt even need my book really... and he did practice test that also are online. Just let me know!

Micro is really a good class because i know alot of people in my class decided nursing was for them or not. you learn so much stuff i mean alot of it is gross but you learn alot about bacteria. like when you open a 20 oz bottle you know and put your top on the table or whaterver, what all germs you get when you but it open side down, its pretty discusting.. and now i never do that ha!!

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hi there,

I just finished micro this spring and I loved it! Here are a few tips that helped me...

When you can, get your book and start flipping through it, just to get an idea of some of the topics you will be covering. Has your instructor posted a syllabus yet? You can check that out too. Also, some books come with a supplemental CD-rom; they often have helpful animations and practice tests/quizzes for every chapter.

These are some of the things we covered in my class. (Naturally every school is different, but many times the information is the same)...

- microscopy (esp in the lab)

- prokaryotic vs eukaryotic cells (cell structure, shape, etc)

- staining (gram stain, simple stain, etc)

- microbial growth and control

- microbial metabolism (glycolysis, Krebs cycle, ETC, respiration)

- microbial genetics (a DNA refresher would be good if your class is covering this)

- antimicrobial drugs

- viruses/viral life cycle

- immunology (refresh from A&P) and HIV

- epidemiology and pathogenicity

There is probably more but that's all I can think of from the top of my head.

This class was very interesting, but there is a lot of information to be memorized. If you can, find out how the instructor does their exams. Ours were 70-80 multiple choice questions and also an essay. Our entire grade was based on only 4 exams so you really had to do well on each one. No extra credit!

I hope that helped somewhat. Good luck!

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I hope that helped somewhat. Good luck!

Thanks! It does!

I also just went thru the entire Spring 2008 Micro thread and found some useful stuff as to what to expect (I think):

For those of you who have not started Micro my best advice is to brush up on cells, basic physiology and anatomy of one. A and P is REALLY coming through these first few chapters, as far as cells go.

I just saw someone posted www.vangonotes.com on another thread. Under the nursing link they have the same Micro book I am using by Tortora, 9th edition. Just ignore this if someone already posted this. I just never heard of vangonotes before. Anyway, you download notes by the chapter and can then listen to them on your computer or ipod. I already downloaded it. I think it will be a great aid for me. I usually always tape my lectures but I am taking it online so I won't be able to do this for Microbiology. I am so glad I found this site.

I think physiology was a lot harder than microbiology. Micro was actually fun for me. When I took the class, my instructor recommended to take chem 1st. However, I dont think it was necessary. I think the only thing we used in micro involving chem was the empirical formula and scientific notation here and there. Like any science course, micro requires a lot of reading.

listen to the notes via the audiobook download from iTunes. There are a lot of microbiology podcasts on iTunes for those who like to listen to lecture. I'm a better listener-learner than reader-learner.

Is anyone else finding a lot of chemistry popping up in their micro class? We are using the Tortora book and are nearly finished with chapter 5, microbial metabolism. I can't believe how much chemistry I'm seeing here - enzymes, electrons, protons, glucose, not to mention all the hyper/hypo tonicity, selectively permeable membranes and diffusion/osmosis from previous chapters!

At any rate - I was thrilled to get a 99 on my first exam!! I think it's only going to get more complicated from here....

the vango notes for the microbiology are great, I run around with my ipod listening to them, and plug it in the car stereo, too. The vangonotes for my A&P class were not worth the money I spent though.

BusyMom:

I do feel like taking A&P prior to Microbiology did help me a lot! The first few chapters of Micro was a review of the microscope, cells, and stuff that I just felt like I knew from Biology & A&P1-2.

You will be fine with whatever you decide to take first! They are both overall so different in the end.

I agree, it is such a long thread. Just finished Micro lab this semester having taken the lecture the semester before. Dilutions was in our finals cause we bombed on it as a class in midterm. I can't point out a site for this specific problem but I frequently visit http://www.austincc.edu/microbugz/index.html it has pictures of common lab exercises for microbiology.

As for the dilution problem, as I understand it---the starting concentration for antiobiotic is halved every time you use another tube. for the math part, I either divide the previous amount by 2 or do a fraction/cross mutiply deal to find the new concentration.

Hope you do well.

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I had my first day yesterday and we covered chapters 1 & 2. It was funny because every student in the class was either taking this as a prereq for nursing, or as part of their nursing program. Seems like there is going to be a lot of work and a lot of reading over the summer.

Our prof already told us that since we are in the summer session we will miss 3 to 4 of the labs that a regular semester would do, that kind of sucks but oh well, I could go without having to type up all the lab reports.

Anyone else taking Micro over the summer? Or are there just a few of us?

I've already signed up for Microbiology Place and have peeked around in there. Looks like a lot of useful info.

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I am starting Micro this monday morning. 4 days a week, for 8 weeks, 8am to 12:20pm. Our class has 24 seats, thank goodness I have one because there are 23 people on the waitlist. The instructor has already sent out an email telling people that if they are not serious then do not show up on Monday. It will be interesting to see the class on Monday.

I have already started reading the first few chapters and listening to the chapters on itunes. I like that because I can take my ipod with me to listen while I taxi my son to his baseball games. We have to be there an hour so I can use that time to study.

Lets keep in touch over the summer!

Jennifer

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Hi,

I'm planning to take Micro this summer too. But I'll be taking it in July. What I'm worried about is the amount of labs and information. Is it too much? I mean, since it is in the summer and its just one class I figured I would spend more time studying for Micro. I guess it also depends on how much you're willing to put into it.

I went on ratemyprof.com and read that my Micro prof is a really good teacher, so hopefully that would help me. :)

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Hi,

I'm planning to take Micro this summer too. But I'll be taking it in July. What I'm worried about is the amount of info and all the labs. Is it too much? Or maybe I'm just scaring myself. I mean if everyone else can do, I can right? :)

I read on ratemyprof.com that the prof I signed up for was a really good teacher so hopefully, they're right!

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