This class goes through a lot of information, so it can be kind of hard to grasp in the beginning but it gets better later on. There weren't too many assignments, just about 4 really short quizzes, 1 longer summative quiz (about 20 questions), and an adaptive quiz. There were 3 tests, one for each teacher, and no cumulative final.

Professor Yan's information was the most difficult for me and I felt that he did not explain very well. His test had many of the Learning Catalytics questions that we went over in class. Professor Spielbauer and Keiser were really good at explaining and I feel that I learned a lot in their classes.

I used SmokinNotes to study for the test and they helped a lot, so I would recommend getting that for this class.

The course is not extremely difficult, but the professors can make it difficult. Learning Catalytics were used by Oppenheimer and Houser, but not Baer. Attendance can help you, but smokin' notes is vital for this class.

The homework was through an online portal and was usually easy. The work was very light honestly (3-4 assignments due a week that would take at most an hour to do). The exams were oftentimes brutal compared to the course work. EXAMS 2 AND 3 WILL CATCH YOU OFF GUARD. I did pretty good on Exam 1 despite that being the most difficult material, however Exam 2 was way too complicated for what it actual entailed and Exam 3 was a joke with the way it asked the most random questions. Try to do very good on Exam 1 and 2 with Oppenheimer and Hauser because Exam 3 is a guaranteed trainwreck with Baer. He asked questions from Exam 2 material and about things NEVER covered in class nor in the textbook. The curve is absolutely huge on this exam and I believe most years averages about 30 points.

Oppenheimer was a decent lecturer, although his slides were very similar to the TB. Hauser was very monotone in lectures but had some more relevant info in lectures. Baer was a good lecturer but didn't cover anything relative to the Exam in class.

Get Smokin' notes and really push Exam 1 and 2.

Probably went to class a total of 3 times, so I can't really speak much about the professors. However, there was very bad communication between the TAs and the professors which caused us to make mistakes on exams and get them back graded a whole 2 weeks after we take them. Apart from that, I used smokin notes a couple days before each exam and that was enough to end with an A. On saturdays there were homeworks and quizzes due, but most of it was online. Overall, I put maybe 9 days total of effort for the exams and would do the homework on Saturdays. Some of the teacher required learning catalytics which were in person questions due at 9 pm, but I'd just ask the group me the days the teacher did it. That's pretty much it. Study for the exams (Every detail) and you'll be fine. 2 extra credit...read more

Course was not too bad, but having three different professors can really mess people up if they aren't prepared for it. Each professor teaches one section of the course (Oppenheimer- Cells, Baer- Genetics, and McDaniel- Evolution). Smokin' Notes helped in most sections but Baer is in a world of his own so nothing we could do there.

McDaniel was the best lecturer out of the three hands-down. His lectures, slides, and LC were very helpful in preparing for his exam- and made me enjoy learning Evolution. Oppenheimer wasn't bad but his slides were just copy pasted from the textbook and he tried his best to elaborate. Baer is the worst lecturer and the information he went over in class and what was on the exam did not correspond to each other at all. Not surprised to learn that the exam average was a 45% for his section- we were all very thankful for the 30 point curve.

I would recommend studying each weekend and just going through the material instead of trying to cram before the exam. It can be hard to adjust to three different teaching styles, but if you're prepared beforehand you shouldn't do too bad.