On A Mid-Semester Evaluation

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Round II of midterms have just ended for me, so I thought I'd post my thoughts on my current classes before my final grades kill all of my positive attitudes towards them ;)

1. Bio 1A Lecture: Not as bad as chem 1A as far as conceptual work goes (but still quite a bit)- not as straight forward and easy to study for (in terms of knowing exactly WHAT to study) as chem 3A- extremely detailed- a ton of reading- online assignments (Aplia), etc. Other than that, it's  your typical bio class, but on steroids... :D Because it's an 8am class and it's webcasted, no one really goes to lecture, but I still feel like it's worth going to. This class is taught by three professors, and this semester, it was taught by Doudna, Fischer, and Machen. Doudna (who covers photosynthesis, cellular respiration, etc) just read straight from the powerpoint- kind of a dry lecturer. Fischer (genetics) was/is the best of the three. He's really short and kind of old, which makes him adorable. You can tell he's very passionate about the subject and explains the material well. He's the only one of the three that writes on the boards, which is very helpful. Machen (anatomy and physiology) so far is o.k- his explanations and lectures are in between Doudna and Fischer- no aplia assignments for him, which is both good and bad..

2. Bio 1A Lab: If you've read on courserank, ratemyprof., and/or any other class description websites, you will have read that Bio 1A lab takes up way more time than it's worth (2 units). This, I'm afraid to say, is 100% true. The weekly quizzes you take at the beginning of every lab are difficult (depending on your GSI) and studying for the midterm was a nightmare since most of it was based on genetics. Treat the midterm like the final because while the midterm is worth 100 points, the final (practical) is only worth around 65 points. Everything in this class is curved, relative to how your section (quiz and exams) does compared to other sections, but don't rely on that too heavily. I studied for about 18-20 hours for the midterm, and luckily did well on it. I'm scared for the practical though..

3. Stats 2: This is an intro to stats class, but I haven't taken stats in high school so this was/is a bit rough for me. The professor (Ibser) is a great lecturer but his exams are fairly difficult, the average on the midterm being around 60%. The material isn't too dense as long as you keep up with it, but make sure you understand all the concepts for the exams because they'll likely be more conceptual than not.

4. English R1B: (for those of you wondering, you can take R1B before R1A, but it's not recommended by the counselors) I passed out of R1A (although I have to take another semester of english for med school) and I'm taking R1B with Ben Cannon (Victorian Era). For this class, the main books we're reading are Jane Eyre and The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a few short stories in between. I looked up the GSI before signing up for this class because I didn't want to take a class with a subject I wasn't interested in, and I just happened to read both books before taking the class :) Ben is a great GSI- he's very engaging, grades papers fairly, gives great feedback/constructive criticism, and is very lenient on the topics you write about (albeit being from the Victorian Era)- being extremely good-looking doesn't hurt either ;)

Once finals are done and grades are distributed, I'll do another update on studying tips, grading, etc.- the what-not's and how-to's for these classes :)
Until then, if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask!

-K