– by Grace Lucchesi
Last week my lab partner asked one of the lab techs in our Animal Biology 2 practical:
“How much of this do we need to know?”
“Everything,” she said. She offered no reassurance.
Coming from a small town “liberal arts” school in the states, I expected a lot of differences when studying at the University of Edinburgh. My own college experience barely translated to that of my high school friends’ studying domestically at schools 20,000 students strong- ten times what I was used to. I knew I was lucky working personally with professors and never having to experience lecture halls. I knew Edinburgh would be harder in the sense that nobody would be holding my hand.
One of the course instructors described Animal Biology 2 specifically as a “survey course,” so I have no idea how other biology courses at the University of Edinburgh compare to this one. It’s worth noting that Animal Biology 2 is a lower-level class (for first and second years), and upper-level biology classes are likely much different. However, the following is my experience with how a biology course at the University of Edinburgh differs from one in my home school, and some survival tips for a course that, compared to what I’m used to, feels comparatively desolate.
Course Material:
– Biology courses at my home university are focused primarily on application of topics. The most memorization we’re required is vocabulary words, and even then, more important than the term is the concept. In a lot of cases, points can be earned by describing a biological phenomenon without even needing to name it. In this course, the main focus is memorization. Memorization of species names, memorization of structures, memorization of facts. Very little application of concepts is done in the learning process.
– Taxonomy of animals is very important. All the animals. In the introduction to the course, the organizer said students complain about there being “too many animals,” to which I thought, what a dumb complaint. It’s not. When you have to learn phyla, classes, subclasses, and even specific species within those larger groups, it’s a lot.
– Surprisingly, we discuss few contemporary biological studies in the course. At my home university, reading and analyzing scientific articles was a common practice for both class and lab work, however, the only studies discussed in this class so far are historical, and very little data analysis is done. Graphs and figures are shown only to illustrate concepts talked about in lecture, but they are only representations and aren’t taken from actual data sets.
Assessments:
– Expect lots of multiple multiple choice questions where there can be multiple correct answers, and you don’t know how many. I have almost never had to deal with these at my home university, and they’re hard. While the U.S. school system teaches test-taking skills exclusively for single multiple choice questions, all of those skills go out the window for multiple multiple choice.
– Expect some fill in the blank questions, and get this: spelling matters. If you misspell the scientific name of a group of animals, you won’t get the marks. Also if you use the plural by accident, so, strangely enough, grammar matters. In a biology class.
– Don’t expect short answer questions. The majority of biology exams I had at my home university were split as such: half multiple choice, half short answer, where we were provided questions and would answer in a short paragraph. There are none of these in Animal Biology 2. There is no way to talk your way into getting marks, justifying your answers, etc. If you’re not right you’re wrong.
Picture during practical instruction: instructors are in dark blue lab coats, students in white. Each student is required to put their bags and coats in a locker before lab and wear a provided lab coat during lab.
Practicals:
– Lab reports: In my home university, almost every weekly lab is accompanied by a graded lab report (sometimes bi-weekly). In Animal biology 2, there are no lab reports. I’ve heard that they don’t require lab reports until higher level stem courses, but have no way to verify that, so for this course specifically there are none.
– Practicals aren’t conducted in experiment form like they are in my home university. Because of this, there is no data. There’s not really any way for your lab group to do it differently than another group: everyone has the same specimens and they write down the same notes. The majority of the information from practicals is done by creating diagrams of specimens you see in person so that you can recognize diagrams and pictures in the practical exam.
– Instead of experiments, expect lots of dissections. This was surprising, as I’d actually never done a dissection before coming to the University of Edinburgh. The last opportunity I had was in high school, when my biology class had the choice to dissect pig fetuses, which I was sick for. But halfway through this semester, we’ve had a dissection during almost every practical. They smell, they’re messy, and there’s no way to get out of them. But a small school like mine would never have the resources to provide every student with a squid to dissect, so I’m very grateful for the opportunity.
Tips:
1. Meet your Instructors:
I didn’t realize, for the first three weeks, that I had to sign an attendance sheet before leaving the lab. In smaller classes, the teacher naturally takes attendance by themselves at the beginning of lab period. So remember to do that. But that’s not the tip. Attendance, I’m told, doesn’t really matter here unless you’re on a student visa, which I am not, but with strict attendance policies at home, I figured it was better safe than sorry. I emailed one of the instructors who agreed to meet with me, look over my notes, and revise my attendance. While I had to travel on my day off to do this, it ended up paying off, because the instructor had several tips for the practical exam at the end of the semester, the biggest being to make a cheat sheet of taxonomic classifications before the open-note practical test. While that in itself is a life-saving tip, If you’re from a school like mine and the academic culture of a big university is overwhelming, definitely arrange to meet with one of the instructors for a chat. The advice they can give after years of running classes is invaluable.
2. Practicals and Exam:
One of the parts of one of the practicals we did involved looking at preserved zooplankton underneath a microscope. This activity was comforting, to me, as last semester I was involved in a research project where I spent several hours identifying and counting soil invertebrates under a microscope. Like during that project, we were supplied pictures of the types of zooplankton we were looking for, so they were easy enough to identify. Well, one of the lab assistants came over and started questioning my and my lab partner’s drawings. She asked what type of zooplankton we were looking at, and I told her, and she asked how I knew and how I would explain it to someone who couldn’t see it. The truth was, I couldn’t. She explained that when making drawings, the accuracy and artistic detail of the drawings weren’t important. The drawings should be big- big enough to show the distinguishing features of the organism, which, should, in turn, be exaggerated. For example, the zooplankton we were looking at when she came over had a large head and two large spines coming out of it in either direction, which she accentuated in her example diagram. These tips are essential to making diagrams in all practicals, as the important part about the diagrams isn’t their accuracy but their ability to help you in the practical exam at the end of the semester.
3. Lastly, pretend you know nothing.
As a third year student in a first-year course, I didn’t go into it with the attitude I should’ve. I thought the semester would be a breeze, as lectures mentioned concepts I’d already learned, and with several different research experiences under my belt, I thought this type of “survey course” was beneath me. It wasn’t. I was swiftly schooled in the second practical by my freshmen lab partner, when we disagreed about the sex of our squid specimen, she called the instructor over, who confirmed she was right. Ego bruised, I realized I still have a lot to learn, and those lessons don’t necessarily come from the places I expect. Even when you think you’re learned in a topic, someone might still have something to teach you.
– Grace
Study Abroad Blog 
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