This course is a moderate course; it is harder than BIOL 121 but easier than most first-year science courses. Pre-reading quizzes, in my opinion, are the most tedious part of this course, and the midterm is considered significantly more difficult than the final. However, the hardest part of this course is the adjustment from high school, as the problems focus less on memorization of minor details and more analysis and application. Other significant parts of this course are the tutorials (smaller classes where you learn secondary content from the TAs) and the Mastery Learning Modules (MLMs), which are the hardest topics from the tutorials that the professor tests you on further to ensure understanding. Lots of chances to succeed with both of these, even if you don't do so well on the exam...read more

The course consists of three units. It consists of three parts: biological molecules (mostly review from Anatomy and Physiology 12), DNA transcription/translation/replication, and metabolism (photosynthesis and cellular respiration; the hardest part of the course in my opinion). It is highly applicable to higher-level biology courses, most notably BIOL 200 which is essentially a much harder sequel to this course.

Great professor, very approachable in class and office hours and explained a lot of concepts in lecture.

You are granted a cheat sheet on exams, but do not overload it with information as the exam format means you will hardly use it. Because most of the problems are application-based, you are much better off committing many things to memory, so only include on your cheat sheet content you are likely to forget so it comes in very handy when you need it. The most important chemistry concepts you need to remember for this course are intermolecular forces/polarity (CHEM 11) and redox (CHEM 12). These concepts may be worth reviewing, as they are not thoroughly retaught in this course.