Year 1 Classes: Fall 2020

by Posted on

If you haven’t already seen my post about my undergraduate courses, this is the second installment of a series about the classes I have completed over my most recent semesters along with my advice for them. This post is going to discuss the classes I took in the first semester of my first year of the program. I want to reiterate that my first semester looks different from the majority of the class because of my undergraduate credit.

  • Anatomy 219 – Functional Anatomy I (Lecture)
    • Instructor: Dr. Tara Allen: Dr. Allen is hands down the best professor I have had so far at UMKC and one of my all-time favorite teachers. Everyone loves her. She does a phenomenal job explaining the content during lectures and study sessions and she truly wants to help you learn. She motivates and encourages her students in a way that is actually effective. I had a big surgery in the middle of this semester and Dr. Allen was one of the biggest reasons why I didn’t give up.
    • There are weekly homework assignments and quizzes. The homework is pretty easy, but the quizzes were difficult to adjust to in the beginning; you will get used to it after a while. She asks poll questions at the beginning of every lecture that will serve you better to answer them.
    • 4 unit exams and a final. Your score on the final can replace your lowest exam score and she drops your worst 2-3 quizzes and one homework.
    • This class will push you. I haven’t studied for any class more than I have for this one and I had to reevaluate the way I studied, too. It wasn’t enough to just have a single method; you need to expose yourself to the material in a variety of ways so that you get a whole picture of the content. For example, it worked best for me to be taught/teach others, use the pomodoro method when I studied alone, rewatching the lectures, and flashcards for repitition. Just be prepared to study a lot.
    • Most people find the first two units to be the most challenging and I would agree. The hardest unit for me was unit 2 not only because of the content but also because I had a surgery in the middle of it. The last two units are still tough but they were more manageable in my opinion. PLEASE keep refreshing yourself just a little bit every once in a while on old material to prepare for the final at the end of the semester. It may be stressful but even taking 30 minutes to look back on previous chapters will take a lot of stress off during finals week and you will need that.
  • Anatomy 219L – Functional Anatomy I (Lab)
    • Instructor: Dr. Rachael Allen: Dr. Allen is pretty chill, I liked her because she explained things well (a little too well, sometimes) and she was patient with her students. She likes to make little jokes every now and again which makes things a little less boring. Overall, she’s a good professor.
    • I’m sure the lab was different this year since it was online, but all we did was fill in blank boxes on some models on a PowerPoint. I really wish UMKC made a bigger effort to give have this class in person so that we could work with the real models. There were weekly quizzes and 4 unit exams, no final.
    • My advice for this class would be to pay attention during class no matter how boring it may get. It makes it easier when you go back to review for the exams. The quizzes are easy and you get two attempts, as well as the exams and final.
  • Medicine 9110 – Fundamentals of Medicine I
    • Instructors: Dr. Mark Allen & Mr. Nathan Driskill: There’s not much to say about these professors other than that they are both nice people. It took a long time for things to get fully graded sometimes.
    • I think this class would have been a lot more fun if it weren’t online. The lectures were pretty long and mostly consisted of Dr. Allen reading material straight off the slides. I found this frustrating because the slides repeated themselves often and it’s almost something you could have done on your own.
    • Biweekly quizzes over articles or videos, a midterm, and a final. The exams are fine but the questions are worded weirdly and sometimes poorly which was found to be a common frustration among a lot of students. As long as you study the quizzes and slides and understand the major concepts beforehand, you should be fine.
  • Medicine 9115 – Medical Terminology
    • Instructor: Dr. Nicholas Norgard: I’ve never directly spoken with Dr. Norgard but he did a good job sending weekly announcements and keeping things up to date.
    • This class was meant to be online to begin with and it’s really easy in my opinion. It’s pass/fail, meaning if you receive at least a 70% in the class it will show up on your transcript as a pass rather than a grade. There are weekly quizzes, a midterm, and a final. Don’t stress about this class at all but also don’t entirely neglect it.
  • Statistics 235 – Elementary Statistics
    • Instructor: Dr. Nadeesha Mawella: Dr. Mawella was a good instructor. She was fast to respond to e-mails and provided helpful feedback about questions regarding homework or tests.
    • This is an 8-week course and it is a requirement for the biology major. I thought it was pretty easy because everything is open-note. She posts pre-recorded lectures and it might be tempting not to watch them because they’re boring and long, but if you put them on 2x speed and take your own notes it’s not that bad and helps a lot during tests.
    • Expect weekly homework assignments and quizzes. There is a midterm and a final. The questions on the exams are extremely similar to the quizzes and homework so as long as you do those and understand them, you will be fine.
  • Sociology 101 – Introduction to Sociology
    • Instructor: Dr. Stephen Christ: Dr. Christ is a really good professor. He is very passionate and enthusiastic about sociology and manages to make long lectures entertaining. He’s really nice and flexible. If you are able to take sociology with him, do it.
    • At first, it was optional to attend the lectures in person but after Thanksgiving break, all the classes transitioned online. It was a pretty laid-back class, just have a good idea of what’s going on and don’t stress too much about it.
    • There are weekly quizzes, a midterm, a final, and 2 essays.
    • I don’t have much to say about this class because it was pretty easy, but again don’t neglect it and stay current with the material and you will be fine. This is a class first-years usually take later on.

So there you have it, my fall 2020 semester at a glance! I hope that it gave you a good idea of what to expect from these courses. Good luck!

Published by Kat Schneider