Lectures usually involved being spammed with information. With Prof Ho Bow, he tries to teach the classification system of microbiology but all you think you hear are the ramblings of an old man. He does emphasise on the concept of knowing the basics though, such as the groups which various bacteria are classified by Bergey’s Manual. Dr Amy Choong has a sense of humour and keeps plants simple, and whie Dr. Ng basically reads off the slides, the most interesting part of her lectures would be her personal anecdotes, which can be shocking, gross or hilarious or all three at once. The lectures are not essential to attend if you have an idea of what you’re already studying.
Practicals are a chore, depending on what you’re doing. The microbiology labs are interesting, but my TA was as clueless as us as to what was going on since they modified what we were supposed to do from the practical handout. Mostly involved gram staining, methylene blue staining, inoculation and plating, very basic stuff. You had to write a report at the end but they provide a set format for you and it’s nothing much. Microbio also had a final CA involving 10 really short, really easy questions that you can get if you read through your lecture notes and listened during lectures, very basic things that he emphasised during the classes. It ended with a session of sitting down with Prof Ho Bow and asking him whatever questions you wanted, and realising that there’s more to him than the slightly inane microbiologist that people perceive him to be lol.
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