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| Anyone remember this movie? :) |
This semester, I'm taking all upper div classes (thank goodness) which include: IB 132, IB 132L, IB 113L, and Soc 189 (as well as IB191- research for units). I decided to wait to put up this post until we got our midterm results back so I can tell you about the difficulty of the classes, midterm format, etc. with more personal experience haha :)
IB 132: This is an upper div physiology class, and it's taught by two professors: Professor Kaufer and Professor Lehman. There's reading assigned for every lecture (usually one chapter, sometimes two, sometimes a section of a chapter) and there's an i-clicker quiz at the beginning of each lecture from the assigned reading. The final class grade is made up of two midterms (~50 questions each), a final, i-clicker scores, and Mastering Physiology (online homework). Overall, the class isn't that bad as far as difficulty goes- they seem to test on main concepts so I think the best strategy for this class is to focus on their lectures and do the readings to supplement the lecture material (since questions on lecture and reading are fair game for the exams). With that being said, personally, I feel like it'll be a bit difficult to pull off an A in the course, unless you do extremely well on the midterms since there doesn't really seem to be a curve. The grading scale is slightly lowered so that an 87% is the cutoff for an A-, which isn't leaving too much room for error. I enjoy professor Lehman's lecture style more because he's more laid back, funny, and gives personal examples and demos whereas Kaufer more or less sticks to the powerpoint and doesn't digress much.
IB 132L: I was really fortunate to have gotten in this class as a 3rd year (at the same time, I feel slightly guilty since I'm taking up potential space for a senior...). So far, I enjoy it- far more than the other labs I've had to take at Cal so far. This lab meets once a week for three hours, and focuses largely on writing lab reports. They start you off slow, with writing just the intro or methods first, and then gradually you work up to writing a full on lab-report, which is not too bad i suppose. The labs themselves are interesting and fun -one lab was on dissecting a frog, another was on stimulating motor units by sending voltages through your arm, etc. There are also two independent investigations in this course, where you work with your group to create your own question and experiment using the techniques we learned in lab, followed by a presentation and lab report. Like most labs, grading in this course is strictly based on your GSI, and there doesn't seem to be a curve here either (it didn't say on the syllabus anyway haha).
IB 113L: There doesn't seem to be too much info about this class on either courserank and/or ratemyprof, so I was really glad to be able to give you a more in-depth look into this class. This is a paleobiology course taught by Professor Charles Marshall. As far as the class goes, it's very dense. The professor goes through a lot of slides, which are packed with information. And it wasn't the kind of information I was expecting (albeit, I had little prior knowledge about what a paleontology class entailed..). To put it broadly, this class focuses on the processes of evolution and fossilization, the concepts that go into compiling the fossil record, and what that fossil record can tell us about the past... basically, it's a lot of graphs, charts, and diagrams hahaha. However (and this is a big 'however'), the professor knows the student's don't have a paleontology background so he doesn't expect us to know the specific details of the lecture- just the main concepts. His midterm was roughly 25 questions, all short-response, and they asked about the concepts we learned in class (albeit, they weren't easy concepts and there were a lot of them..). The class also has a lab component to it, which meets once a week for three hours. It's set up so that there are stations around the room, and we're given a packet with questions for us to answer at each of the stations. There's no quiz at the beginning or homework at the end, and the GSI is constantly in high demand throughout the lab since no one really knows how to answer the questions hahaha. The overall class is made up of one midterm (25%), one final (35%), lab (25%) and a lab midterm (15%). One last thing, the professor is probably one of the best professors I've had at Cal. He's extremely passionate and enthusiastic about the subject and it seems to rub off on the students, including myself. He does a great job of relaying the concepts to the students and bringing in real-world examples when the concepts get too difficult. He's a terrific professor and I'm even planning on taking a class next semester just because he will be teaching it! (By the way, this class counts for both a 'Group' major requirement and a lab requirement!)
Soc 189: I believe the topic for this class varies with each semester and who's teaching it, but this semester, it's on The Global Elite, taught by Professor Szonja Ivester. This is my first time taking a soc class (for international breadth), and I really enjoy it. The class is 40% participation (i-clicker) and 60% exams. I'm not sure if each exam is worth 20% or if the final is worth more- it doesn't specify on the syllabus... Anyway, the professor is absolutely great- if you get a chance to take a class from her, take it! She's very funny (and swears a lot haha), laid back, and really gets you thinking about the material. The course focuses on what makes the elite, elite (does that phrasing make sense?), and it brought up points that I've never really considered before. We're not talking about how the rich and powerful get their money and how they spend it (well.. not all of it anyway haha..). It's more focused on distinguishing characteristics of leaders/followers, reproduction of elites, social closure, upbringing, culture, etc. Overall, it's a very fun and interesting class, and gives me a much-needed break from science classes :)
I'll give another update after final grades are out! Hope everyone is having a good semester so far and like always, leave comments or questions below and I'll try to respond as soon as possible!
Best,
K
