In order to survive the onslaught of Histology, you'll need some help. The handouts prepared by the lecturers, as well as the transcripts for the class, were very complete, but many students also used the textbook by Junquiera . For visual learning, the Gartner and Hiatt atlas is helpful, while the Menton Collection is a must. This is a collection of slides put together by Dr. David Menton for each of the topics in the course. The professors and TAs are very helpful in the lab, and those few hours can be a good time to actively learn and flesh out all of the information from the lectures.
Exams consist of both a written and a practical component.
The midterm practical this year was given in the auditorium with overhead slides, and the final was 'scopes galore up in the labs. Much of the first half of the course is devoted to learning the basic tissue types, which at times isn't a lot of fun. Once we dove into the organs most people thought the class was more exciting. Many of the organ system sections were nicely coordinated with the Physiology course. This increased the relevance of Histology, as well as adding a visual perspective to the Physiology course.