Does anyone have any tips to prepare for the midterm? I have done the review, but there's an overwhelming amount of information presented in this course. Does anyone have any study strategies or remember what kinds of questions he likes to ask? I heard the prof likes to ask questions about numbers and it seems like he likes math, but I'm just at a loss as to what's important. And since there's no multiple choice, I'm a bit intimidated, since the prof likes to ask tricky, very conceptual questions!

Any help would be appreciated

Oh shit, I should start studying for that. Maybe Sunday.

I also have a Psych 2H03 midterm that day, so I need to be efficient, haha. I think 2F03 is definitely going to own me though.

-Memorize any number he mentioned, at any point. When I did the test, there was literally a full page of questions just asking for random numbers from the course (number of neurons in the brain, length of a synapse, thickness of the nodes of Ranvier, etc).
-Redo any question from the assignments that involved math, make sure you know the concepts.
-Understand the formulas (he likes to put questions in that ask you to justify why a certain variable is in a certain spot).
-Redo all other questions from the assignments, make sure you know the concepts.
-If the same question could be asked for another part of the course, learn how to do that.
-Be able to do lesion problems (ie, identify where a lesion is from which nerves aren't working, and be able to do the reverse).
-If physics can be used for one of the concepts, learn it. (An example, on our midterm last year he asked us about how fish eyes would differ from human eyes, why you needed to wear goggles in water to see clearly, etc, and explain it with diagrams showing the refraction of light).
-I also recall a large question asking about the full pathway of how we see (you'll need to know all the messengers, cascades, etc).

Goldreich's midterms can be pretty rough, its very unlikely you'll feel confident about it when you walk out of it. That said, you will quite likely be pleasantly surprised by your mark (everyone I knew in that class walked out feeling they did bad, most of us actually did pretty good). Don't stress too much about it, but you do need to know your stuff.

I don't think it will be that bad. Very brief questions should be free marks, since any one-word answer will likely be a neuroscience or anatomy term, or description of a concept (ie: increase, decrease, outwards, inwards, etc) that we went over. There's no debating over which multiple choice question seems more correct, and any calculations should be relatively painless (once you've discerned what the question is asking). Application may be tricky, but we've had practice in the homework and lectures.

He does like numbers, but only for the 0.5 mark questions on the first page. The first page of the test consists of a list of statements/questions that require a one word answer usually, and all the number questions are here. Know the most trivial numbers too! Also, from what I remember, the 10% of textbook questions will be in this section as well as the "very-short-answer" questions.

The main questions of the test really test your knowledge. You really have to understand the complete concept and know the details and key words so you can explain it well. For example, completely understand the process of light going through your eye; every detail, every protein he emphasized, etc...

I make it sound really difficult, but in fact I found it to be a really fair and good test. It's difficult if you study and strictly memorize. If you study and understand, you should be set.

Some really good practice would be your homework questions and brain teasers. If you can answer those with ease and really explain all the processes and are also able to manipulate the question to try and answer it from different perspectives, you should have a fair understanding of the course.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Thanks guys; this actually was very helpful! I'm still pretty scared, but I'm just gonna study like crazy and hope for the best.