LSM3223 Immunology

Interesting module to learn about the body's immune system. T cells, B cells, Lymphocytes, antibodies and everything else. I would say this is an essential module for everyone because it ties in with so many other modules like LSM3212 Cardiopulmonary system, LSM3224 Molecular basis of human diseases, LSM3211 and even LSM4243 Tumor Biology. We learnt experimental techniques like immuno-blotting and flow cytometry which are really common techniques, as I came to know in the semester just past. Really useful for interpreting data from scientific papers and even data included in the lecture notes. So I'd say immunology is an essential module, better to take in your first semester of year 3.

Content wise, it was quite heavy, considering each lecturer had 2 sets of notes for one lecture. You can imagine them rushing through, and not to mention that this module was not webcasted which means that once you miss something, you really miss it. I bought the textbook because I couldn't catch what the lecturers were saying so I would say the textbook is useful for that purpose. And most diagrams were taken from the textbook as well, so I just read the captions to understand the diagrams since the lecturers really go too fast.

But I liked this module more than pharmacology because it was much more interesting than drugs which was more of biochemistry. It was interesting to learn about how long it takes for your body to make various antibodies and how they are made, B cell and T cell maturation and all. The worst part of the lectures were the lectures on hypersensitivity and the content covered by Prof Chew. I was seriously lost and dreaded the lectures. Didn't understand a single thing yet Prof Chew kept going on and on. The worst thing was that he said he would be testing application questions. Like what? I don't even understand what needs to be known and you want me to apply? And the reason why I was so lost was that his content cannot be found in the textbook. Lost means lost.

Lecturers: Prof Wong, Prof Chew FT, Prof Gan and Prof Grotenbreg. (Lecturers are different for different semesters)

Exam format: 1 CA (I think 30%) and 1 final exam (70%) (On a random note, sometimes I dislike modules that have such heavy weightage for the final exam because of the stress, and I found immunology questions really hard. But I guess if you like it enough, it's fine) Practical sessions not graded, no lab reports to do, so lab sessions were fun (for me at least) since it's not graded so my lab partner and I were rather slack although we still managed to get the desired results. We did immuno-blotting, blood coagulation and ELISA.

Not an easy module (maybe I'm just not smart enough) for sure, but I still recommend it because it's interesting and useful.