Learner Profile
Suguna Sundaram

HMX Courses

Physiology, Immunology, Biochemistry, Genetics

Suguna Sundaram is currently an associate research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with plans to make a mid-career switch into medicine. She took HMX courses as a way to learn the necessary science needed to pursue her goals, while continuing to work full-time.

I was actually searching for overseas pre-medical courses, and that’s when I discovered [HMX]…it’s online based, so you can actually have flexibility with your time to go to the lessons and learn more about the fundamentals from the computer anywhere you are. I had to juggle work and family and still learn about the basic sciences I’ll need to know in the future.

I’m thinking of applying to a local medical school in Singapore in a year or two, so the MCAT is part of the process. I have tried other prep courses that are offered by some commercial agents, like test prep, but they were not very useful because they were usually rushed, and there wasn’t much time to pick up the basic sciences. And it was also tiring to go to the classes after work. There were no assessments in those classes, unlike in HMX Fundamentals where there were assessments for every topic and there’s a final exam, so it actually keeps you on track with what you’re learning. So that was a big difference with HMX Fundamentals.

I was pretty good with physics and chemistry at a high school level, and I took up biology when I was at university as an elective. So my biology’s not that great, but I did have some background in physics and chemistry.

I would say the most challenging [course] was genetics, that was really – it has a lot of content and it was also new, because it actually goes deeper into the topic. But the other three topics [physiology, immunology, biochemistry] were quite manageable and the content was easy to understand and follow through.

It was so well-designed…the case studies, and interactive applications within some of the topics, especially within physiology, those are really helpful in helping to follow up on the content that was being taught. There was one on scuba diving, which was used to explain partial pressure, and there was one on the cyclist cycling uphill and how that relates to heart rate, pressure, and all those concepts. So those are really helpful.

I’ve already started preparing for the MCAT, so I think that is one of the critical areas I will use the knowledge gained for, because a lot of the concepts and content covered in HMX Fundamentals is also present in the MCAT curriculum. Especially biochemistry. So I think that’s where the application will be.