BIOL 3410

Kopeny is a nice guy and genuinely interested in anatomy and physiology but his lectures are the absolute most boring thing I've been to at this University. This class is not an easy A because of the amount of time you have to spend reading and memorizing the textbook. Overall, I would recommend only reviewing the preview slide content and really understand / memorize concepts from the textbook for the exam to do well. The labs and lab quizzes were fair and not difficult.

Kopeny is the most unorganized professor I have ever had. His lectures are just 75 min of him reading things off slides and jumping from one thing to the next in no particular manner. His exams are straight from the book and require complete memorization of all details, but don't correlate with stuff he emphasizes in lecture. I got my best grade on the exam i didn't go to a single lecture for, so that tells you how useless lectures are. lab grades can help your overall grade so don't miss those easy points!

I do not understand why people complain about this course so much. I attended the lectures but ultimately taught myself the material through thoroughly reading the textbook, and I did very well in the class. The tests are extremely manageable if you keep up with the reading - that is the best advice I have. If you rely solely on Kopeny's lectures to study, you will not do well. The lab is extremely low stress which is a nice breath of fresh air compared to other biology classes. I honestly feel like I learned a lot of important, relevant information throughout the semester. Well worth it for anyone who is pre-med, pre-dent, pre-PA, etc....

Though professor Kopeny clearly knows a lot on the subject, this lecture was horrible. Besides being all the way in McLeod and later in the afternoon, he pretty much reads out each of the powerpoint slides to the point where it's not even worth going to class. The test questions come directly from the textbook so unless you can memorize each chapter word for word, don't worry about showing up to the exams. I was told that this class would be a great option for somebody coming in who placed out of intro Bio but still wanted to take a biology class, which I can confirm is incorrect!! Don't take this class unless you have to.

Read all the other reviews with a grain of salt. Kopeny is an approachable professor and tries his best to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. Because of that he does jump around a lot during lecture, but if you go and listen carefully, he will highlight EVERYTHING that is on the tests. He will cover some material and then say go look at this topic on your own, but has resources and slides for every topic he covers if they are not already in the textbook. The topics themselves are interesting although he does tend to just read off the slides. The lab is pretty annoying. My suggestion is to study the material before you go to the lab sessions so that you can do well on the quizzes in lab. This class was neither my favorite nor my least favorite class, but the general topics were helpful for the MCAT.

Don't take this class unless you have to. Going to lecture is pointless, the professor just reads off the slides the entire time and doesn't speak into the microphone so you can't even hear him. His powerpoints have words overlapping, unclear questions, pictures that are cut off, links that don't work, and they don't follow the order of the textbook. The exam questions are not related to what he focuses on in class whatsoever, so if you want an A you basically need to memorize the textbook word for word. He curves the exam scores at the end of the semester, but before that the class average for each test was about a 75. The labs are not related to lecture at all, it's just memorizing body parts and functions and then being quizzed on it at the end. Sometimes the lab material is on the exams even when he says it won't be, and he doesn't even follow the syllabus so you need to check Collab before every class to see what he is going to talk about. This class is a lot of unnecessary work and incredibly frustrating, even if you like anatomy.

Kopeny is a very nice guy and is super easy to talk to after class and in office hours, but this class has so many issues. 1) Labs are good in theory (to learn the anatomy) but they're structured to where you have to memorize a large amount of anatomy in class from a book and then get quizzed on it at the end, and the quizzes were very inconsistent in terms of difficulty. 2) Questions on the test were not difficult, but often not from an area of focus which made studying extremely difficult and almost pointless. 3) The textbook shouldn't be the key to success, because we pay to go to this school, but alas if you do not read it there is no way you can pass a test. 4) Lecture can get dry and its hard to sit through, especially since its 3/4 empty, but if you take this class try to go.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS UNLESS YOU HAVE TO! The material itself is interesting, but the class structure is insanely hard. I studied for hours/days/weeks on end for these exams, and it never helped. It was all just memorization, and weird big concepts honestly. If the material was split into smaller parts, then it would have been doable. But, there was just a CRAZY amount of stuff to memorize for the exams. I came into this class thinking that all I had to do was memorize and I would do great, according to the previous reviews, but that was not the case at all. The exam questions were specific and detailed, which was frustrating when you have to know so much. The labs were ridiculous as well. It was just memorization for 2 hours, and then you take a quiz at the end. Definitely prepare beforehand for the lab, because you'll know the study guide. All in all, lab is doable, but the exams were ridiculous. I really felt like I was studying fort his class all the time, for either the exams or the lab. This was the hardest class I ever took, and a huge regret. Kopeny is a good guy, and means well, just the exams. Nothing paid off in this class.

Kopeny is a very understanding instructor and really enjoys teaching the material. His course is extremely interesting if you're pre-health, and it is objectively the fairest biology class I've taken at UVA. He usually doesn't try to trick you on exams like most biology professors do. If you're willing to sacrifice an entire summer, take the series in the summer. It was really helpful to be able to ask questions during and after class because the class size is so small, and the exam averages are a lot higher than during the school year. However, it is a lot of work and you can't slack off.

If you want to do well: Go to class. Read the textbook. If you're taking other hard classes, don't waste your time going over preview slides in depth before class because you can guide your reading to what he goes over in class. Anything is usually fair game on the Powerpoints for exams (unless he says not to worry about something), but if he glosses over something and you don't think it is important, study it anyway because he could easily ask about it on the exam. He has office hours where he can answer any questions you have, but Google is also a very useful resource if you're still confused. If he references an outside text or image, read about it (except you'll find that not all of the resources he posts on Collab are useful-- he didn't reference a majority of them with us). Make sure you have a good lab TA that can effectively communicate the material and set you up for success on the lab quizzes. The lab quizzes can be quite tricky and sometimes unfair, but study for at least an hour or two to prepare for each quiz. Waiting to study in lab won't be enough. Lab grades can make or break your grade, but first semester lab is a lot easier than second. The class is extremely manageable if you can devote a lot of your time to it, but if you have other priorities, you may find it difficult to pull an A or A-. He likes to see a wide range of grades on exams and in the class, so try your best to do above average on the exams. The class takes some getting used to, but try to learn quick. Make sure you do well on exams that are worth the most. Good luck!