*Updated 6.9.26*
So what is all this about?
The points system
In the physiology course, before each colloquium, you start with negative points (around -14 points, not sure of the exact number). Each week you have the possibility to earn up to 4.2 points:
- 1 point from the in-person class
- 1.2 points from the weekly test
- 2 points from the weekly protocol
First of all, why would you care about these points? There's two reasons:
1. If you get to positive points (e.g. +3 points), those points will be added to your colloquium points. So if you happened to get 54 points (fail), you would have 57 points in this case (pass). Many students rely on these points.
2. If you have negative points, if you need to retake the colloquium, you will have an extra question in the colloq.
Let me give an example from this semester. Half of the semester wouldn't have passed the first colloquium of semester 3 if it wasn't for the weekly points.
Unfortunately, the points are only eligible for the first attempt. So if you don't do it on the first try (even if you had a sick note!), you won't be able to get any of the weekly points added to your colloquium points. So, as much as I hate to say it, pull up sick to the colloquium...
Now, how to get these points?
In-person class
Each professor does this differently (which I think is unfair). With some teachers, you need to learn the material beforehand and answer a question in class to earn the point. For example, my first professor in physiology had a peculiar structure to the classes. She wouldn't teach things in class, but rather she'd always have a powerpoint presentation that just had questions about the lecture. For example, one slide could just look like this:
And you'd need to be able to list all of this:
And obviously, there's a lot of students per class. There's a few groups in each class, and not as many questions. That meant that each class, you would have to raise your hand immediately after the question pops up on the screen. Oh and you had to have your laptop closed, phone and ipad away. So you couldn't just check the answer.
Basically, each class you were fighting to get a point for the class.
For other teachers, e.g. for my current professors class, the rules are different. We just have to participate in class as we do tasks together, and answer some questions. Even if you can't answer, it's okay.
It all depends on who's your teacher whether you'll get a point for each class or not.
Weekly test
Each week there is a weekly test that is done at the same exact time (for the whole semester). You have the possibility to get 1.2 points if you do well in the test. It has a 14 minute time limit.
But there have been some problems with this test, too.
*Update 6.9.2026* The head of department of physiology changed the weekly test from having to be done at the same exact time every week (which had previously led to servers crashing) to having a 2-hour-window within which you can do the test! :) This change is great and everyone is super thankful for how the head of department heard us out.
Weekly protocol
In the weekly on-site class, you will usually do some kind of experiment. Usually you're measuring some kind of data in class, or doing some kind of simulation. Then, you need to fill in a protocol with the results of the experiment. These protocols can be anywhere from 3 to 10 pages long... And after filling them out... my longest one was 16 pages. And it takes a while to fill them out. The whole semester has the same deadline for the protocol each week. For example, this semester it's Monday 6:00 AM. Yes, it's in the morning. Don't make the mistake of reading "Monday" and expecting it to be at 23:59 PM like every other course has it...
Anyways, you can either get 0, 1 or 2 points for each protocol. It all depends on the teacher, honestly. Some professors give only 1 point if you have a few mistakes. Other professors don't really care.
If you get 0 points (failed) for a protocol, you need to resubmit it corrected before the colloquium. No, you won't get any points for it, but you need to do it in order to do the colloquium.
This semester there was some issues with the protocols as well (surprise surprise). On Easter holiday weekend, the protocol submission deadline was changed 2 days before the deadline to Sunday 6:00 AM. That meant that many students, when trying to submit the protocol on Sunday, were unable to do so. This was obviously startling. There had been no information on this change of deadline provided to us. So again, our lovely semester leader had to contact the physiology department with the help of the group leaders, and they successfully negotiated a deadline extension to Monday 18:00. But again, there was no official information about this. No email. Nothing on e-studies. We had to rely on the semester group chat to inform us on the deadline change.
*Update 28.5.26* The head of the physiology department sent us all a long email addressing our concerns this semester, and in this email apologised for this incident. So I think it is a good sign moving forward :)
Anyway, I would recommend submitting the protocols many days before the deadline.
You should under no circumstances, share your protocols with someone else. If you get caught doing this, or using someone else's data, you will get -6 points. So, I wouldn't risk it.
What to study for the colloquium?
I recommend focusing on the protocols for the colloquium, because a lot of the questions are heavily related to them. So learn all the graphs, and possible calculations if there are any.
There are also scripts of the lectures, so it's good to read those while watching the lectures.
The colloquiums are difficult, I won't lie. Even though I felt like I had a relatively strong grasp on the material for this semester's first colloquium, I struggled. Luckily, I didn't have to retake (because 75% of those who did the retake failed that one as well...). Regardless, you should really prepare for these colloqs. The questions are very specific.
Good luck on your physiology course.
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