BudapestStudent.com
My second year 2004/05 - Physiology
My physiology professor was professor Nadasy.
The ultimate goal of this subject is to learn how a fully functional human body works.
It is huge, but oh so interesting. I loved it, but it does require a lot of studying.
The weekly lectures were really good. Not only did they publish an overview of the entire semester (with pdf files of the upcoming lectures!) on their website, but the material covered during class was well presented and the department allocated the time for each section properly. Of course, one would always like to have more discussion around each particular subject, but we also had weekly labs, where we could ask questions to the professor/lab assistant.
Our lab assistant (an older student working for the professor) was Saci. She was the best! All the students loved her and she was herself a student, so she knew exactly what we were going through and gave us helpful advice on how to study. I actually met Saci during my 5th year internal medicine rounds. She was then working in the Semmelweis University 1st Department of Medicine. Good job!
Midterms
We had two midterms each semester and the time is announced well in advance (it is on the subject calendar on their website).
They cover parts of the subject during the year and then the semi-final exam and the final exam covers the first semester and the entire year, respectively.
We were given bonus points for doing well on the midterms, which were added to our total score on the semi-final or final exam. We had to pass the semi-final and final exam in order to the bonus points to be added, but they were sometimes enough to bump the grade up one step once you passed it.
Semi-final
This exam wasn't too bad. Most of the students that failed it only had to try one more time to pass.
I think the format was largely the reason why some of my classmates had a hard time passing it. The exam was multiple choice with three sections consisting of 20 questions in each section, and the student had to get at least 50% on each section to pass. 100%, 100% and 40% was a failure of the entire exam and everything had to be repeated. The sections were randomized.
I think most people did ok on the semi-final, because the material was straight forward. We discussed action potential, cardiac function, muscles, circulation etc., so the material was easier to grasp and some of it had been introduced during the first year.
Final exam
It was in the same format as the semi-final, with three sections and at least passing grade in each section was required.
The second semester was a bit trickier, since topics like sleep, pain, cerebral function etc. were introduced and I had to study a lot at home to fully understand everything covered in class.
The final exam covers the entire year, not just the second semester.
Lab
We also had a weekly lab, where we did experiments and had a quiz (the scores were added up and we were given a practical grade for the lab work).
As I mentioned, we had a lab assistant that was wonderful - Saci. She was a student in the Hungarian program, but her English was great and she was so helpful and kind. She even invited us to a barbeque at her family's place after the second semester!
Studying physiology is simply fun! Since we aim to become doctors and dentists, we want to understand the human body and that is exactly what we get from this subject.
The three core subjects of the 2nd year - Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy - do make up a really heavy load of material that is required of you to know well, but physiology probably feels the lightest, because a lot of it is intuitive (compared to Biochemistry, at least).
My best advice is to study well during the semester, so you can ask questions during lectures and lab! Try to skim over the material in your book before going to class, you have the opportunity, since they announce the topic of each lecture well in advance.
For my notes in this subject, please click on My Notes on the frontpage.
