PSL - Physiology Courses
A&S Physiology Course Descriptions
PSL201Y1- Physiology
Can you say biiiiiiiiiiiiiiird. Haven't been to class once all semester. If you plan to never take any physio courses, take this. So cash.
Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5
PSL350H1 - Mammalian Molecular Biology
Marking Scheme: 30% midterm, 20% presentation/write-up, 50% final.
Program requirement. This class seems random. I feel like I just learned a bunch of random stuff. It is too hard to rate this rate now because I only know 30% of my mark. It just seems, random. Some professors I liked, some didn't, but it just doesn't feel like I really learned anything in this class. It does not seem difficult, but is not rewarding either.
PSL372- Physiology Lab
Marking Scheme: (3 reports, 15/20/20 + TA mark /10 + Final /30)
Felt like an old-school lab course the entire semester and not in a bad way. The physiological concepts were fundamental and the write-ups required a considerable amount of research/understanding/applying knowledge to explain basic (this doesn't mean easy) phenomena.
You only write up 3 of the 12 labs you perform but the incentive to fully understand everything in every lab is there since anything can be on the final exam. I found Ganong's Medical Physiology and Silverthorn's book from PSL302 incredibly useful to brush up on stuff I had forgotten from 302 (which I finished a full year before starting 372).
Incredible learning experience if you study the right way -> enforces mastering/understanding of PSL302 material in a very nice way (and in my opinion goes much further since you do your own homework and can get as detailed as far as you want). PSL420H -
Reproductive Development. 1 midterm @40%, 1 exam @ 60% (essay answers). Topics include sex differentiation, steroidogenesis, male and female reproductive systemroductive Development. 1 midterm @40%, 1 exam @ 60% (essay answers). Topics include sex differentiation, steroidogenesis, male and female reproductive systems, preimplantation embryo development. This was my favourite course all year. I think you just have to be interested in the material though - its really easy to do well if you want to learn about reproductive physiology. There is no text, you don't need to read the assigned articles (unless you want to). It's a great way to learn about current research too. My favourite part was the guest lecture by dr.caspar on assisted reproductive technology.
Reviewer Rating: 5/5
PSL421H1 - Pregnancy & Birth
Pregnancy and Birth. 1 midterm @ 40%, 1 exam @ 60% (essay answers). This is a follow up to psl420, but you don't need one to do the other - except it might make your life easier. This course is slightly different because there is a different prof every week who comes in to generally present a topic about pregnancy/birth/fetal physiology, but then also to discuss their own research. It's pretty cool, but sometimes hard to follow how all of the lectures relate to each other. For tests, each lecture corresponds to 1 question, so you don't really need to understand the big picture anyway. A little less organized than psl420, but still just as interesting.
Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5
PSL440Y1 - Neuroscience: Systems & Behaviour
Have not written the 50% non-cumulative exam yet (just spring term) but so far my favorite class this year. A more indepth PSL300 with SA/LA format midterms. Class of about 20-25 students, maybe 5-6 graduate students. Topics include basically MacKay's section of PSL300, some neuroanatomy, somatosensory, visual, auditory, vistibular, learning/memory, etc. 25% midterm first semester, 25% second midterm during exam week (non cumulative) and 50% test this exam period non-cumulative. Questions are SA/LA, very straight forward, no tricks. I found all of the lecturers to be good, they all seemed to <3 their research and approachable. I'm biased because I love the material, but honestly, awesome class. Sitting at an A- right now.PSL302-
My opinion of this course depends on the day- some days I hate it (when studying for or blanking out at an exam) and other times I really enjoy it. The profs. are hit and miss (luckily the bads ones don't stick around for more than a few weeks). Overall, second semester profs are better than first semester profs (Permulla is the best). Make sure you stay on top of the material or it becomes really overwhelming. Test questions are tricky but theion of this course depends on the day- some days I hate it (when studying for or blanking out at an exam) and other times I really enjoy it. The profs. are hit and miss (luckly the bads ones don't stick around for more than a few weeks). Overall, second semester profs are better than first semester profs (Permulla is the best). Make sure you stay on top of the material or it becomes really overwhelming. Test questions are tricky but there are alot of repeat questions from year to year.
PSL443H1 - Motor Control Systems
Bill Mackay
Marking Scheme: Midterm (40%), Final exam (60%)
This is one of the few courses I really looked forward to taking as an undergrad. I saw it in the calendar a few years ago and decided I have to take it. If you're thinking of this course, then you've taken PSL302 and know how Mackay is as a lecturer. When I first enrolled in this course, I expected there to be a great deal of overlap between PSL302 and this course, with PSL443 going in to much more detail. On the contrary, there are plenty of different topics covered in this course that go in to a fair bit of detail. I learned a lot more than I expected to. I will say that it is fairly difficult. The term test, on the surface, looked very simple. But Mackay is very strict with the marking. Regardless, I don't think it is all that difficult to do well. Also important to note that there are many guest lecturers for this course too (including my PI! ). The majority of them are great but I missed a few so I can't discuss all of them. Anyways, this course is/was great. Any interested in motor control has to take this.
Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5
PSL452H1 - Membrane Physiology
Feng, but team-taught
Great course. Somewhat disorganized a bit, I felt frustrated at times because I could not follow along or understand what was required of me at some points, but I learned a lot in this class and a lot of really basic techniques and research methods that I think will really stay with me. I really enjoyed the material and small class size (about 10-12 students, including 3 grad students). The midterm and exams were easy and fair, but it was frustrating to study for. 30% midterm, 30% final (non-cumulative), 30% paper (on an ion channel), and 10% participation (just come to class).
Topics like: ion channels, ion channel gating, electrophysiology, ion channel diseases, role of calcium in membrane physiology, HH model of AP's, heavy emphasis on techniques and methodology (<3). Final average was an A-.
Feng was hard to understand, but she is an awesome prof. She really wants you to understand, and when I went to her office hours (something I have never done in undergrad), she really helped me with a lot of concepts. Very nice!
PSL472H1 - Sleep Physiology
R. Horner
Very interesting course, so much to learn about your sleeping habits and why you have them. And it's so important to know about this stuff, b/c we get taught very little about how sleep affects basic physiology. 2 Assignments were a little bit hard. 2 Tests - short answer/long answer - not bad. I really loved this course, but it was a little hard for me, maybe cause I don't have as much Bio background as Psy. It wasn't so hard understanding the material, it was hard to explain that material/regurgitate physiological mechanisms on the tests in a short 2 hours. It's pretty difficult to get over 85 in this one. I still give this course 4.5/5 for the experience. Tip: Go to Gerstein and get the major book he takes the material from: Principles and Practices of Sleep Medicine, 3rd, soon 4th Edition. It really helps for the assignments.
