Hi everyone! This last half of the semester has gone by super fast, and I can’t believe it’s a month of uni, and then first year will be all over!

I thought I might give you a rundown of the courses I’m taking this semester, which could be helpful for all you health sci and nursing students, as well as any other students who might be interested!

Pro tip! If you look on student course review, you’ll find heaps of courses which have reviews. Some of them are excellent, while some of them I find at least, exaggerate a bit and really scare you from taking the paper. So I thought I might give the rundown, about whether I think it’s a bit of a lie or if it’s pretty true (however, this is just my experience! Depending on who you are, you could feel completely differently which is cool.). I also really like the course reviews on SAMS (Student Association for Medical Sciences), which provides a more comprehensive analysis 🙂

Maori 130 -> Also Natasha covered this pretty well 🙂

Putting those $17.25 highlighters to good use 👩🏻‍🎨

Course load – 2 hour lectures on Mondays, 1 hour tutorials on various days

This is probably by far, one of my favourite courses this year. I admit, that I was kind of hesitant to take this paper because I thought it would be really boring and a waste of time. However, this was the exact opposite! I really enjoy the course material, it really opens your eyes about the inequality and injustice that Maori have suffered due to colonisation, and I think it makes you appreciate more the issues that Maori face everyday. The lecturers are really passionate about what they’re talking about, and you learn a wide range of topics (my favourite probably being about the te tiriti o waitangi and Te Matatini). It’s also pretty cool taking a paper with heaps of different people from different faculties. There are too many great reviews on student course reviews, and I would say almost all of them are 100% accurate.

‘best paper I have taken at Uni’  – Yup, I definitely agree!🙋🏻‍♀️

Health Psychology 122

Behold: The textbook I still haven’t opened since the start of semester :))

Course load – x2 1 hour lectures on Tuesday and Thursday, 2 hours tutorials on Wednesdays

I really have a love-hate relationship with hlth psych. On one hand, it’s really interesting (there’s a bit of course overlap with medsci 142 which does help), but on the other, the fact that you have to go to 8am lectures is a big downer. Depending on what you’re interested in, this course will have a bit of everything. You learn about mental health issues, cognitive development, memory and other stuff. We get to do a behavioural modification assignment (mine was about whether I could modify my behaviour by eating 5 fruit and veges everyday). Overall, it’s alright. It’s not my favourite paper, but I do enjoy it (at least when I’m fully awake).

‘SOOOOOOOO MUCH CONTENT’ – Yea, I’m gonna call this one out. It’s honestly not that bad. Like most stuff is pretty basic and straight forward. I mean this person might find it difficult, but in my opinion, it’s a bit of an exaggeration 🤷🏻‍♀️

Population Health 102

*Insert picture of something relatable to POP102, but can’t find anything, so think of ethnic inequalities, models of health and socioeconomic status*

Course load – 2 hour lecture on Wednesday, 1 hour tutorial on Wednesday

Again, another love-hate relationship. It’s a good course, I do like it. It’s just that ride to Tamaki and spending around 6 hours there can be a bit exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, heaps of the stuff is really interesting, just sometimes I do kind of wish I could do something else. Otherwise, it’s a good course, I enjoy the essays and the presentation (it’s really amazing when you’re really lucky and you have a great team to work with).

I really liked the lecturers in this paper. All of them made their content interesting and engaging. The content is straight forward and provoking, I learnt a lot. – Yep, agreed. The lecturers are fantastic, and most of the content is pretty interesting. 🙆🏻‍♀️

Medical Science 142

This is honestly the best course guide I have ever had and I love it so much and I’m so proud that it hasn’t fulled apart yet like my other course guides (cough, biosci 107, cough)

Course load – x4 1 hour lectures, 3 hour labs every fortnight (gosh, I don’t understand why people play that game)

Ahhhh, here’s what all of you have probably read this post for. The infamous medsci 142! This course is by far, one of the most interesting, difficult and fulfilling course I’ve done. The labs are pretty cool to go to (although I still can’t believe that 10 MCQ’s can still make me want to cry), and the lecturers are all really fantastic (having lecturers who include cats in their lectures and sing songs is a true blessing). A lot of the material is concept based, which I realllllly like, but also kind of visual as well (bring those coloured pencils!).

One of my favourite sections of Medsci 142 has got to be the neuroscience section, and I’m really pleased that in the physiology degree, there is a 2nd year neuroscience paper as well as another 2 in 3rd year (and a neuroscience-ish paper in psychology!). People say that medsci 142 is difficult, and I think it is, but I feel like if you enjoy the content and are on top of things, it’s certainly worth it and a good course to take. The course co-ordinators are also really good, and I’ve definitely changed by study habits for the better because of this course 🙂

‘they will completely own you in the mid semester tests.’
‘you will lovvveeeee the labs (super exciting dissections) and there is the most awesomest lecturer for neurology.’

Very hard and content heavy, but the content quality was so amazing and interesting! Completely blew my mind. Not for the faint of heart or anyone wanting to “take a break” that semester.  – Yea, these are one of the papers which really depend on the person and their motivation. I think most of the reviews on here are pretty legit 💁🏻‍♀️

Again, if you have any more questions about courses, some great ways to choose them is to talk to others, look at the course outlines and forums/etc.  If I could re-iterate what I said from last semester, I know that for health sci, biomed, food science etc. you probably don’t get much choice in the papers you take. However; please,please,please take a gen ed course that you will genuinely be interested in, because not only will find it much more enjoyable but you will probably find it easier as well! (That goes for all your courses for that matter.)

So there it is folks! Thank you again for reading my posts, I love getting questions (it’s a great way to procrastinate from my work) and hopefully, you find my reviews useful 🙂

– Lily