Genetics · Biological Sciences
Most of the material in this course I learned in neurogenetics.
This class is very much a "drinking out of the firehouse" class. So rather than knowledge, you are always swarmed by a need to do well. I took this class as I am very interested in genetics but with 4 midterms + a cumulative final - its just not worth it and probably killed any interest I had in the class in the first place. The instructors just glaze over the concepts in class and then expect you to somehow know everything during a time-crunch exam, which all just snowballs and isn't fun at all.
3-4 midterms + final. No homework, but you must keep up or you'll be completely lost.
Moderate to heavy, you need to stay on top of the problem sets. Memorization and a thorough understanding of his lectures is the key- use Griffiths to supplement what you don't understand, but take good notes and use the TA's like its going out of style. 3 exams and a final (the final is optional, if you did well on the first three exams you don't need to sit the final).
light. Two fairly easy midterms and a final.
Medium for a bio class for undergrads. Weekly problem sets (mostly from the textbook, which makes it easy if you have the solutions manual, but they take off points if it's obvious you just copied the answers). Five 10-minute, MC quizzes throughout the semester. Two midterms and one final. Participation is taken via the clicker (so you can't miss too many classes).
fairly heavy, 2 midterms, 1 final. all pretty hard.
Lots of information about genetics both in humans and bacteria. Many efforts were made to show how genetics fundamentals relate to genetics research going on today.
approaches to genetics, bacterial genetics, methods of research, etc.
Engaging professor, but Yin should not be teaching. As sweet and good-intentioned as she is, she's a horrible teacher. Aviv is interesting, though goes really fast. If you miss a beat, you won't get the rest of the lecture. The subject material itself isn't extremely captivating, at least not the way it is taught. The textbook was much more interesting, at least to me. If you're the kind of person who needs to get a lot of details to work into the general, the book would be useful. Professor Aviv, I know you're reading this so PLEASE put up some sort of powerpoint BEFORE class. As much as you are opposed to this, it'll be a huge help those who are a bit slower at picking up material. And slow down during the Lambda phage lessons. You went way too fast there and did not break up the different stages distinctively enough.