Health Science Reviews

By Danielle Naicker Change by dictionary definition refers to the process of transitioning from one form or situation to another. When it came to doing my honours this year it meant choosing between one university that was on the opposite end of the country and another that was a 10-minute drive away. The decision wasn’t…

by Pheziwe Mshunqwane This year has been one of the most challenging years yet the most fulfilling year. I have laughed until my stomach hurt; I have cried until there were no tears coming out. I have also prayed like I have never prayed before. This year has taught me two most valuable lessons that…

by Limpho Thipane This year was a journey I was not ready for! From when I arrived in Cape Town, I struggled with accommodation, and I kept telling myself that I majored in Psychology, so I know how to counsel myself and deal with it. However, there is a famous saying “a doctor, cannot heal…

by Casey Valentine As the year draws to the end and there are only final presentations left to go, I find it is the perfect time to really reflect on how this past academic year has treated me and what I have learned from it. Before starting the year, I was filled with excitement. I…

by Yanelisa Pulani Perhaps I should begin by saying that this year has been a serious rollercoaster ride – fun, scary, stretching, yet rewarding.  My path to becoming a clinician scientist began only a year ago. Or perhaps I’m lying. Perhaps the journey began in 2013 and 2014, and most recently in 2018. In 2013,…

by Sethu Poswa It was Valentine’s day when we first met, and I remember being excited to have been introduced to them. As soon as we had met, I did not expect to move as fast as we did. I found myself spending more time with them, finding out more about them and gaining a…

by Jeanice Rose Bourobou Boukamba I am tempted to write that 2021 was not so bad, but after deep reflection I will say it was great! It’s the year when I finally managed to free myself from my bad anxiety and panic attacks. It started on a good note, I made some awesome resolution, after…

by Siphamandla Ngwenya I’ve always found it hard to express my thoughts, be it in writing or properly articulating what I’m thinking. As hard as my honour’s year has been, I have to say it has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my life because it has allowed to me to grow…

by Micaela Louise Swart At the end of last year, upon the completion of my undergraduate degree, I was faced with an incredibly difficult decision. The decision was whether to pursue my honours degree in Medical Microbiology, or in Biomedical Forensic Science. You see, I had majored in Medical Microbiology during my undergrad and was…

by Darshni Naiker I completed my undergrad in the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Medical science: Anatomy, thereafter I moved to Cape Town, where I got the opportunity to study in the University of Cape Town doing forensic science and as much as this as always been a goal of mine the difference in level…

by Katelyn Kalil The undergrad experience is no doubt a stressful one. There are always numerous assignments that need submitting, tests every other week and practicals that seem to last entire evenings. The combination of this stress with the drop in marks from high school that the majority of us experience, also frequently leads to…

by Petra Makua The journey of moving to Cape Town from another province and another university happened so quickly. I don’t think it has sunk in yet that I’m a postgraduate student at UCT. I never saw myself changing universities to pursue a career in neuroscience. Honestly, I think I spent the first half of…

by Siphenathi Ntoba Everyone is subject to challenging situations but those who trust in Almighty always rise like an edifice above them. This is how I live, and all life is spiritual and a mystery, but it is responsible for everyone to discover purpose in this life and walk worthy of it. This reflection communicates…

by Tasneem Toefy As many of you very well know, the period from the year 2020 up until now had been a real nightmare. While I won’t dwell on the dreaded p-word (if you aren’t thinking “pandemic”, then you’re my type of person), I would like to reflect on my experience academically from thereon. My…

by Kristen Sandys-Thomas Honours is a super fun year! What I love most about it is that we are physically contributing to the body of science through our research projects and this is how it’s so different from undergrad studies. I think it’s really important to go into honours with a positive mindset and aim…

by Tayla Kebonte Being a part of the honours Neuroscience & Physiology class of 2022 has been a great privilege. My curiosity about the brain and its mysterious workings has been nourished by lecturers and my peers. I particularly enjoyed the Advanced Cellular Neuroscience module – I felt that I was learning something completely new…

by Asande Vilane At the beginning of last year, myself and a number of my 3rd year MBChB peers enrolled into the Molecular Medicine program: an adjunct course which aims to give aspiring clinician-scientists a background in basic science knowledge and techniques. This journey has since taken us into the honors year, and has seen…

by Precious Kunyenje Listening to good girl by Lucky Dube with my father while he escorted me to the airport, is but the last memory I have from home. Where his words could not reach, music was the way he could explain what was in his heart. The mixed emotions he had, being proud of…

by Anonymous This reflective piece could give you an additional 5% on your Assignment 2 mark. 5% is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and yet I found myself ruffling my feathers, so to speak, scrambling for a topic to write about – seeing my classmates have already spread their wings, covering…

by Alice Piller As an undergraduate in Genetics and Statistics, I felt utterly torn between the biological side and the “mathsy”, analytical side of science. Of course, that was a naïve view on science as its fields are not discrete but intertwined. I stumbled across a strange new word in my first year of studying…

by Zea Leon When reflecting on the year 2021, I feel a sense of accomplishment and gratitude. I am grateful for the space I find myself in today and realize that I am exactly where I want to be at this stage in life. Sometimes I find myself dreaming too small, selling myself short, and…

by Jabulisile Mthethwa This year has been full of doubts and tears for me. I honestly still feel like I did not make the right study choice. I’d be lying if I can say I am enjoying my honors year. It comes as a surprise if a day goes without me shedding a tear, crying,…

by Zahraa Ahmed 2022. A year with a lot of change, but change is necessary to grow, to experience, to learn and to mature. I have lived at home my entire life with little to no freedom or independence, so moving to a new city to complete my Honours degree was like having my tectonic…

by Palesa Tjale For the longest time, I’ve always worked towards perfection and made sure that I get the outcome I want. Sometimes I just feel like I was able to accomplish perfection because all the materials have been handed out to me but this year has been different. I visited my childhood traumas unconsciously.…

by Anjani Rama  It’s funny now that we think back on the year 2020 and 2021, where the entire world had to stay locked in their houses and seclude themselves from everything and everyone. How prior to these years, the words “lockdown” and “COVID-19” weren’t even in our day to day vocabulary. During these 2…

by Jamie Meyer In July of 2021 I had no idea what I wanted to do! I was almost finishing my BSc and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. In 2019 started that BSc for a specific reason and I knew exactly what I wanted to do… then slowly I realised…

by Sanelisiwe Fourteen magine moving from having an income back to having to depend on an allowance. Moving back into a school residence after living on your own. I won’t even go into not being allowed any visitors. After the pandemic and lockdown was announced a few weeks before my undergraduate graduation, I decided to…

by Elizabeth Hlagala To say it has been a tough year would be an understatement. I moved almost a thousand kilometres from everything and everyone I have ever known with just a bag on my shoulders and a registration letter. Little did I know the challenges that await on the other side of that acceptance…

by Dimpho Mphaka The year twenty twenty-two (2022) was the most challenging year I have ever had since I started my university life journey. It is intriguing how every student face challenges such as getting funding, transitioning from one university to another and facing difficulty in adapting to a new environment. These challenges are more…

by Kayla Lesch In 2021, I completed my BSc degree in Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape with a Magna Cum Laude and did exceptionally well in all my modules. Although everything was online due to COVID-19 including lectures and exams, it was still tough. Somehow, 2021 was one of my greatest academic years.…

by Imraan Dixon There’s a cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect first described by two aptly named researchers, David Dunning and Justin Kruger (funny how things always line up like that, huh?). Essentially, it causes people with limited knowledge to overestimate the extent of that knowledge. Regardless of how true to life the Dunning-Kruger effect…

by Caylin Mc Farlane I realized I needed to pace myself when it comes to how much I put into my studies. People had told me Honours was going to be difficult, but this is much more difficult than what I expected. The course I chose is Clinical Anatomy and we had our first techniques…

by Gomolemo Molope Hey, I am Gomolemo. A young individual from Gauteng who is aspiring to be a scientist. I cannot share a whole lot more about myself right now, but I will share something in particular. The final semester of my undergraduate studies was the most nerve-wracking time of my life. I would try…

by Thando Kubheka With this piece, I am going to take you back to the very beginning and set the scene, it’s 2021, I am in my room preparing for the final exams of my undergraduate studies and I received an email that had me smiling for the rest of the day, it read: “Congratulations!…

by Bianca Rijkmans Patience. That is what the past couple of months have been teaching me. Patience. Waiting over 6 weeks for equipment to arrive in order to start your experiments for your thesis tends to do that, I think. In the meantime, I have thrown myself into learning as much as I can with…

by May Krause I was born and schooled in Johannesburg. Big, bad, crazy wonderful Joburg, I was a Jozi girl through and through. When I moved to the quaint and historically beautiful town of Stellenbosch for university, I happily donned my Matie shirt and threw myself into my own independence. Last year, after graduating I…

by Husnaa Bux The amalgamation of twenty-twenty and twenty-twenty-one can only be separated by levels oflockdown, like waves of an unexpected tsunami – isolated, estranged, remote, and restrained.Entering twenty-twenty-two, the anchors were loosened, masks were lifted, and we were ableto come up for air. Life returned, or rather resumed, to (a new) normal – yet…

by Anna Jellema-Butler I entered this Honours program expecting to walk away with the field-specific knowledge and technical skills required to become an excellent scientist. However, as I have come to realize over the past six months, the primary outcome of our Honours year has little to do with a degree in science. The real…

by Pearly Joubert An unexpected stormWild and unpredictableSuch an unusual formBut undeniable Wind, hale and rainIncreasing world-wide painHelp! The children are cryingScientists and doctors were tryingBut Covid couldn’t care less; did its best,And put people to rest Hospitals overcrowdingMade the beds limitedBusinesses drowningHumans became intimidated So, we created lockdownsMorning, afternoon and evening, we stayed in…

by Keegan Mills Transitioning from medicine to science this year has been interesting. I have found that science has involved more thinking, understanding and application as opposed to the memorization that is required in medicine. I have been tasked with analysing and interpreting data this year and learning about and figuring out how different experiments…

by Samantha Kuphe Honestly, the first 3 years of my undergraduate were filled with experiences attached to a lot of regret. I was leading my life based on the lives of my friends and my personal growth and goals took a backseat. I remember consoling myself saying ‘this is what university is for, to completely…

by Warwick Pitman My honours year thus far has been a very different year compared to my years as an undergraduate. The first thing I noticed is that there is more freedom given to students to learn about the science they want to learn about. I often found myself going down different rabbit holes, spending…

by Kaitlyn Sparks There is a test tomorrow. It looms in front of you. Nothing exists but the slides containing the information that surely should be in your brain by now. Your research write-up is due next week. You can’t bear to think about that right now. Assignment deadlines accumulate like neutrophils around you. All…