Absolutely horrible. Tests and exams are unnecessarily hard. Tutorials are useless and give more work to do, especially PBL, which is useless. Professor Dushoff's section is bad, but Kolasa's section is worse. I would say that the whole course can be expressed as useless.

Evolution and ecology

Don't take this course if not needed, as it is a waste of time.

People whine way too much about this course. Just ask questions and do your work! Dushoff section is difficult but the first test is weighted only 7.5% with one of the grading schemes, and so even if you bomb that test, you can definitely make up for it with the final. The final has mostly questions from Kolasa's section, that if you're willing to grind, are all extremely easy. It's not hard to 10/11 this course imo.

Eh...the content is kinda boring. Dushoff section expands on evolution from grade 11 bio. Kolasa section has some of population dynamics from grade 12 bio (if you did that unit) and then delves into geography and climate change. Tutorials were frankly really annoying to deal with biweekly, especially the dreaded PBL project but you do get some skills (citations in a new format, writing a paper, presentations) that can be useful. I hated them while they were happening and it was annoying not acing the post-tutorial assignments, but in hindsight, if you just put in effort its not that bad.

Dushoff was an amazing prof who delivered the content super well and was frequently available to clear up concepts in office hours. His test questions were tough but like, its university LOL no one told you it was gonna be easy :P Kolasa was very boring and frankly his lectures were horrible. However his test questions were pretty easy (midterm had a few bad questions, but they ended up removing those for everyone), and the exam was super free if you grinded peerwise (student-created question bank that he pulls questions word for word from).

Read the textbook for Kolasa. Do all of dushoff's practice questions from his website and then try to really nail down the concepts. Some of his questions come straight from lecture notes, so make sure you really know those. PICK A GOOD PBL GROUP OR YOU WILL HAVE AN AWFUL TIME. I made the mistake of walking in late and ended up with a group of total bums. I ended up 12ing anyways cuz I locked in for the final, but I lost 1.5% off of my final mark from this project.

Tutorials are a absolute waste of time and give you no work for no reason. Pbl sucks. Both tests had to have questions removed because they were either unfair or just straight up wrong so teachers need to work on that. Lastly the lectures are honestly useless. I stopped going after Test 1 and just read the textbook and still 12ed. So honestly just read the textbook.

Evolution and ecology

Dushoff - not bad, knows how to get to the point Kolasa - can barely hear him, and it was hard for me to even know what I'm supposed to be learning

READ the TEXTBOOK

Insanely boring course. Only take it if you absolutely need it for your spec.

Concepts are pretty light (i.e evolution, very basic phylogeny, natural selection). You could almost say that this class is just an extended version of grade eleven biology. The midterms were on a whole different level, however. They are so unnecessarily difficult (especially Dushoff's section). His tests are like riddles, and you have to really decipher what he's saying. Surface-level memorization is not enough, you need to be able to thoroughly understand the topics. Kolasa's midterms are significantly easier, but beware as he often puts poor-quality questions. Exam is light though (probably to make up for the bad midterms).

Lots of reviews saying they liked Dushoff, but I personally just couldn't stay engaged in any of his lectures. Kolasa is very softspoken, it's usually very hard to hear him.

Try to avoid taking this class with the two. Not downright a nightmare, but definitely a lot harder to do well.

Dushoff's handouts were okay as they made you listen to what he was saying. Kolassa's lectures are basically useless as he goes right off the textbook and you can barely hear what he's saying. It's more productive to jsut take notes off the book. PBL project is absolutely horrible and takes up way too much time. Dushoff's questions are hard for no reason on exams, and there is not a lot of practice questions that are of the same difficulty as the exams.

Dushoff is defintely better than Kolassa but overall both are okay, have their pros and cons

It's similar to grade 11 bio so it's not impossible to do well

This class is dreadful and anyone who willingly takes it amazes me. The tests are made WAY too hard and on niche topics that barely even got looked at, when you start the course you'll think dushoff is bad but just wait till the second prof comes in. Don't take this course if u don't need it.

not to take it.

Pretty dry content and often copied straight from the textbook. Then the exam questions were about the most obscure examples that were only mentioned once. Probably the most skipped lecture of first year.

Dushoff can be very entertaining at times and made the content bearable; Kolasa made some very funny jokes that offered moments of entertainment but the way he lectures puts you to sleep.

Don't take it as an elective.