Brent Stockwell

This year we've had 2 take home midterms on Canvas that we can collaborate with others on as well as use notes and internet. Both were fine, though the second one was significantly more difficult than the first. Corrections are available on all assignments including homework quizzes, all exams except for the final, and you can get half credit back. so, if you get a 90/100 you can bump your grade up to 95, if you get an 80 you can bump it up to a 90, etc. This makes up for the fact that the grade boundaries are strict (93.99 is an A-, 94 is an A) and there's no curve. This is great because in a class full of premeds no one is trying to screw anyone else over because it literally doesn't matter how other people do. Also, Professor Stockwell is such a kind teacher. Whenever I review the lectures or video lectures I'm reminded of how genuinely he cares about his students - in one lecture someone was asked to draw a product on the board and she was like "I don't know if this is right or not," and he goes, "that's okay, right or wrong doesn't matter, this is an opportunity for all of us to learn together." Most recently, he ended the video lecture by saying "I look forward to seeing you in class." These are little things but are unique for a professor in a large science lecture. In my experience, professors like this, though they are very smart, can be arrogant and uncaring about te…

This is the class for majors and graduate students. We are all taught the same, but the grad students have an additional assignment (mini review paper) to complete. I'm an undergrad, so I'm not sure how that experience was. Stockwell has made this full flipped classroom. What this means is that there is HW for every single class. However it's not traditional psets. Sometimes, it's a reading. Othertimes, it's a video of Stockwell explaining a topic (20-30 minutes long). There's usually a short multiple choice quiz associated with it that you can work on with other people. Some of these questions can be tricky, others are straightforwards. Be sure to read the wording carefully and clarify anything you need to clarify on Piazza. They're very responsive! I think the course benefitted greatly from flipped classroom. Some topics are just too rushed during the class period, e.g. glycolysis. It's better to come into class with a bg knowledge. You're also quizzed in class too via LearningCatalytics, which is a iClicker platform that you can use on your phone. Access to this platform is cheap, ~15 bucks. It keeps you on your toes. Attendance is mandatory and LearningCatalytics counts for 15% of your grade. There's also an end of the class quiz done with a team (you are either assigned or can choose if you know people). This is worth also a big chunk of your grade. There's 4 midterms all…

The course has changed drastically since the last review as Prof Stockwell has implemented a "flipped classroom." Although this means more day to day work (hwk quizzes, in-class questions, team problems), I feel that it has drastically improved the course. I thought biochem was going to be an agonizingly detailed look at mechanisms, but was pleasantly surprised when the material was relatively conceptual and brain-teaserish at times. The only downside is that there is no curve, but the drop policy is fairly generous so an A range grade is very doable.

I want to begin to say that I did not fail this class, nor did I do amazingly well. Now that the end of the semester is winding up, I will probably get at least a solid B in this class. Which isn't great for premed, but I honestly don't give a rat's ass anymore. Words cannot describe the amount of hatred I have towards this class. But let's start with the bright side: The Good: 1. Stockwell himself is a nice guy. He actually cares about his students, and he does have office hours for those foolish enough to want to spend even more time with him. He also remembers everyone's names. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. IN A 200+ LECTURE. Which is impressive, but terrifying. He can also be humorous (if you appreciate awkward jokes). 2. The class itself is really easy to do well in. Stockwell gives a lot of opportunities to accumulate points in the class that are not dependent on exams (haha. more on that later. just wait for this). 3. Exams are pretty straightforward if you like to do bitch work and just memorize his goddamn slides. 4. The class itself if rather organized, and this class was had one of the most elaborate Courseworks pages I have ever seen. The Bad: 1. The homework. Either a 30 minute long video of just Stockwell sitting there, reading off a goddamn slideshow, and trying to make the course more interesting by including raps about the TCA cycle during the video (but he fails to se…

Stockwell's class was very dry and his lecturing style is boring, but he's very straightforward, clear, and concise. Also, although he provides his PPT slides online, he leaves many blank slides with just a title, and he actually fills it in during class. Stockwell uses a projector for his slides - he doesn't use a computer powerpoint in class, so he writes on the slides, projected onto the screen, so you just copy him on your printed out slides. This forces you to pay attention and gives some incentive for going to class (although you could always just copy a friend's slides). Besides that, you basically don't need to take notes on anything unless he writes it on the slides himself. So it's very straightforward. Plus, what he quizzes on is all found in the slides. I probably averaged a 9/10 for Stockwell's 4 quizzes and I never touched the book...and to give you an idea...the average for all 4 quizzes ranged from a high 6 to a 9...so I'd say I did pretty well by never reading the book. Plus, the things I missed it was just cause it was some tiny detail or cause I didn't explain something clearly...not because I was lacking info from the book. A HUGE word of advice: make sure you understand EVERYTHING on the slides. You'll end up with 11 lectures...30 slides each about...of information, so that seems like a lot, but remember that many slides are just pictures or sometimes rand…

Painful. Although this professor tries to make things more straightforward and intelligible than his first-half counterpart, this part of the course is still pretty boring. To his credit, Stockwell does try to keep it more interesting by bringing in some outside topics, unrelated to memorizing organic mechanisms, but this doesn't change the fact that your at-home studying mostly includes a lot of boring mechanism memorization. Moreover, unlike orgo, this class doesn't necessarily focus on the general themes of reactivity (although some attempts are made to point out what aspects of the chemistry are repeated). Instead, you pretty much need to memorize how to get from one molecule to the next, what those molecules are called, and what the enzymes are that do the catalysis. Not exactly a stimulating experience.

Stockwell's half of the course was slightly better than Tong's, but not nearly good enough to make the class worthwhile. He's somewhat better at explaining the material than his first-half counterpart, but not much. He still inundates the students with new material in each lecture and expects them to figure out most of it on their own. Quizzes are tough and cover mostly the obscure points of the lectures; the final covers all the essential points of the course's second half and is also pretty tough. Some students in the class are also extremely passionate about it so don't plan on having a low mean to hold up your grade. The bottom line: only take this course if you're extremely passionate about biochemistry or a pre-med needing to fulfill a requirement. And be ready to teach yourself an entire semester worth of material.

Stockwell's lectures are comprised entirely of his extensive Powerpoint presentations, which he posts online. If you've taken orgo and understood it, there's really no reason to go to class apart from forcing yourself to keep up with the material to take the annoying weekly quizzes. Stockwell reads straight from the Powerpoint in a very poised and deliberate manner, occasionally redrawing the electron-pushing arrows that are already on the slides to begin with. Everything he expects you to know is on the powerpoints, and he expects you to know pretty much every single slide. If you're looking for a rousing lecturer, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for a thorough intro to biochemical processes, take this class and you'll be satisfied. Other than that, he's very good at answering questions both during and after lectures.

Unlike Tong's section on structural biology which requires no knowledge of organic chemistry mechanisms, Stockwell inundates you them. Each lecture covers one or two major biochemical processes, which all have numerous structures and mechanisms to memorize. Though his explanations are pretty clear, his quick pace through the material and his monotone make it difficult to decide what is most important. So, to study for his final, I recommend reading through ALL of his powerpoints, drawing out the key mechanisms until you know them cold, and repeating the process for at least five days. (It sounds simple, but it helped get this weak organic student an A in the class.) It was his first semester teaching at Columbia, so the amount of material and its presentation could change next year. Bottom line: Biochemistry (the whole semester) is an exercise in self-learning. It's not nearly as draining as bio, but be prepared to work through some pretty difficult material.

Stockwell teaches the orgo-focused half of C3501. The actual lectures weren't that great--if you weren't falling asleep ten minutes in, you certainly were by the end. He teaches by Powerpoint and the class is just a lot of arrow pushing of biological reactions. Everything starts looking the same after a while because it's all just small molecules and the same similar reactions happen over and over. I think this was his first semester teaching this class, and he covered a LOT of material--at the beginning, he started with 40/slides per lecture, and then realizing that was too much, got it down to around 20 by the end of the semester. He's big on having people learn for the material and not for testing. Having said that, the final (surprisingly) did not test nearly as much material as he had covered. The textbook is not that useful; most of the information is on the powerpoint slides anyway. TAs are generally helpful. Overall, I learned a lot from this class, and I think at the end it really gives you an intuition on how certain biochemical pathways proceed. Despite this, I wouldn't take another class with Stockwell. His teaching style is too boring and his voice is too monotonous. Throughout the lectures he didn't manage to give any brilliant insights or comments.