BIOL BC2100

2 midterms and a final for the Mendelian half, a problem set due every other week that was pretty involved (start early)

2 midterms, a final. Bi-weekly problem sets.

This is a heavy science course, not an elective about genetics!! I liked this course a lot, but would not reccomend if someone just wanted a brief overview of the topic.

Going into this class and reading CULPA reviews made me nervous to say the least. I can't say Prof Morton was always 1000% clear with his teaching. he was also sometimes quite dry, and his problem sets and tests were difficult. that being said -- professor morton was one of the kindest professors i have ever seen who was so incredibly dedicated to helping his students succesd. his tests had much memorization but were relatively straight forward, and he gave a ton of partial credit if you showed yiu studied and knew something. would 10000000% take him over mansfield if you have the choice

Shepard was a pretty good professor. It's biology, so what do people expect? She tries very hard to make sure we learned everything. The first exam was pretty easy for me because probability and math comes naturally to me. However, on the second midterm I did pretty bad because I just can't remember and memorize facts-- which is something you have to deal with in any bio class. The final was reasonable. Her multiple choices were a bit annoying. In terms of the problem sets, they were okay. if you got stuck the TA sessions were helpful. I really enjoyed that class. It was very interesting; particularly the stuff we learned.

I don't understand the negative reviews for Prof. She is very nice and very enthusiastic about genetics, a good teacher (she does have an accent, but is not confusing). The lectures help understand the content, and she is a very fair grader. A good section of the class has above a 100 with the extra credit and curves given out. The tests are hard but very fair. The pSets are hard, there are only 5 and one is dropped. If you attend office hours they are much easier. Shes a good teacher and a great person who cares about her students.

A problem set due every other week (definitely not enough graded practice), a ton of reading (because you will have to do it more than once), lots of practice problems that won't really help because she will find a way to make it harder and less straightforward on the tests

The overall workload is not horrible, but only if you are able to scramble to get things together for a class. Problem sets are hard but only 5 are provided. Lectures are difficult to understand. Exams are fair. There are journal article discussions for participation.

Professor Morton is wonderful--you can tell that he really cares about his students and he makes himself very available for questions, both in his office hours and by email. This class is hard, but it's definitely doable, especially if you make use of the great app he makes for it. You should definitely go to lectures because he manages to cram an absurd amount of information into each one, and it will also help you know what you do and don't need to study within the app. The problem sets can take some time but they're great prep for the exams. Start going to office hours early in the semester if you are confused about anything because it can be a hard class to try to catch up in since it is so information-dense.

Don't be fooled by the silver nugget next to her name or the reviews below that rave about her. Kristen Shepard is just not a good professor. However, (unlike now) there were no true reviews of her ability when I took Genetics with her. I guess when she was teaching Bio BC 1001 she was easier on those students since they were mostly freshmen and it's a course for people who don't have a strong background in bio, but she was HORRIBLE for Genetics. First of all, she is very rude and for no apparent reason. It's nice that she gives you a print out of the slides she uses in her presentations and that she tries to learn everyone's name, but I would much rather prefer good teaching over both of those things. The clicker questions were thrown at us in class as we were being introduced to the information and if a large percentage of the class got it wrong she would say things like "how she didn't understand why we don't understand" and then would tell us to talk over our answer with the person next to you, which wasn't very helpful because most of the time, they guessed too. The problem sets were hard and there were so few questions that getting 3 wrong would give you a C. The tests were ridiculously difficult and LONG. Expect to be in the middle of a problem in the last 2 minutes. I also spent a majority of the test trying to figure out what she was even asking and got a lot of point…