The course helped me realized that biology was not for me. That being said, Professor Kittlesen taught it well and offers plenty of opportunities to improve your grade, and there are plenty of opportunities to get help at office hours and P2L sessions.

The class itself is not particularly difficult, but you need to put in the work and study regularly and efficiently. Do not try to pull an all nighter one or two days before an exam, because there is a lot of content—be sure to begin studying and rewatching lectures the week of the exam at a minimum.

There is an e-text, but you honestly don't need it—all of the information on the exam can be obtained through lecture and Mastering Bio. I stopped reading the textbook after exam 2 and did fine. While studying, focus on answering the learning objectives he gives you, and use the textbook as reference when you need additional explanation. Follow Prof. Kittlesen's suggestion and try to explain concepts while studying so you know you fully understand them.

Some people say that the exams are unfair and use random, obscure information from his lectures, but I did not really find that to be the case. While it's true that the exams can be difficult, all of the content is directly related to the provided learning objectives—it's just a question of how effectively you studied them and if you know how to apply them. Ultimately, as long as you study EFFECTIVELY, getting an A in this class should not be too difficult.

I took this class in fall 2022 when he took away the drop and online exams. I got an A+ in the class and my biggest suggestion (that worked for me at least) would be to listen to the lecture audio recordings twice before each test. For the first time write down literally every word he says. The second time just listen. I went over the mastering biology questions and the learning objectives too, but spent most of my time with the lectures. I did the reading in the beginning of the semester, but eventually stopped as it didn’t help me much but it couldn’t hurt. This is what worked for me in the class, but as everyone’s different I recommend trying everything. I thought the first test was the hardest, so don’t be discouraged after getting your first grade back.

Kittlesen is a nice man but boy was this class rough.

He assumes everyone learned the basics in high school of each topic that he teaches, so he goes super in depth into random examples about a topic, but not the facts/details about the topic. For example, we would learn about replication, but instead of learning about the process he would talk about a random disease that had to do with it. Lectures were pretty unorganized. Here's my approach to success (A-):
-Type EVERYTHING he says during lecture. literally like a speed race while he's speaking just dictate it.

-go to class- his slides are all pictures, so if you skip you have to listen to the transcript and it's basically impossible when all he says is "This then slides in here and attacks this..etc". Also you get poll everywhere points (but make sure you don't miss ONE- I missed a single lecture of the entire semester when there's 3 a week and I got an 85% on pollev. If I had gotten a 1% I would have an A :(

-Type and talk out his LOs for each exam WELL in advance. This is his strategy for success and it's somewhat helpful.

His exams are pretty unreasonable if I'm being honest. I know even the smartest people who just didn't do well because they are so random and detailed about stuff that just shouldn't be in an intro bio class. I mean seriously as a 2nd year this class was kind of the bane of my existence. Just try your best and start studying in advance for exams. Def possible to get an A if you cushion your grade with a high lab grade (20% of your overall grade) and high mastering bio grade (10% overall). Don't get discouraged because BIOL 2200 is much easier and more straightforward.

All I have to say is, I hate Dave's exams. So much. I took this class as a second year, after I had already taken biol2200, and was expecting it to be a breeze. My year was the first to have fully in person exams with no opportunity to drop your lowest (in any circumstance). I completed all the learning objectives, would study for hours, transcribe his lectures, read the textbook, all to no avail. I found the exams to be unreasonably specific and complicated, and felt like I was constantly fighting a war. I do not know what else I could have done to be successful. It is the worst pre-med weed out I've taken at UVA and I feel like the war is over now that I've completed it. Just put your head down, try your best, and get through it.

Kittlesen is great professor. He's very organized and is always emailing with updates and reminders. His lectures are clear and understandable if you know what he's talking about. He includes little stories and jokes which breaks up the info. He records them and I recommend relistening to them before the exams.
However, this class is really hard. I would not take it unless you have to or really like bio. An A is attainable if you're willing to put in the work. Best part about the class is that the tests are not cumulative. Definitely go to class and keep up with the material or you will struggle. For the exams, it's not enough to memorize the material, you have to understand it. There isn't much work outside of studying for exams (except for the mastering bio hw), but during exam week I spent probably 25 hours studying. If you do bad on one test you can still get an A but you have to grind. Even though the class is hard, it's fair and he tries to give extra credit where he can.

This class sucks. Kittlesen is a nice guy but his lectures are unorganized and very hard to follow. His slides have like 2 words on them and it is pictures so I would definitely read the chapters before class. This class is NOT easy even if you do read. The topics are super confusing and the labs do not help. His exams are very difficult and I know a majority of people getting C's on them. There is a lot of material on each exam and you need to study and be able to teach other people so many miniscule details to do well. People that are acting like this class is easy is LYING. It is not at all and the spring semester of bio is soooo much easier.

Dave was a great guy and you could tell he cared a lot about what he was teaching about, but this class was lethal for me. I took it first semester first year, and I was wholly unprepared. I approached it like a high school class, and that just didn't work. I felt that no matter what I did to study or prepare for exams, nothing was enough. I barely passed the class. Thankfully, he does curve the exams, and he curved the final grade. It got to the point that I was happy if I got a 70 on exams. I put in so much work (notes on every lecture, reading, and studied for hours before each exam). If you take this class, be prepared to throw yourself into it, especially if you're a first year.

Kittlesen was a fun professor who was really passionate about teaching. His homework assignments can be really long sometimes, especially if you read the textbook. Personally, I would try to answer the homework using my notes and refer to the textbook when I didn't understand something. His exams can be quite tricky in the wording though. I recommend you study with a partner for his exams, and try teaching each other. He will recommend the same thing. He uses his learning objectives to create exam questions, so try making a study guide off of them. When studying, try to explain his learning objectives, and if you can do that, you'll be fine. He says his exam averages are usually around a B, but they are hard. He drops the lowest midterm exam score. He offers extra credit via iClicker questions (based on accuracy) and a post-exam reflection. The only pre-lab reading from the manual was for the first chapter, and otherwise we didn't touch the lab manual. The lab is fairly easy with a good TA. (P.S. Don't pick the 5:30-8pm lab time, you won't get dinner some nights).

This review is specific to the summer course because it is a completely different beast. I did not take AP Biology, but I did get an A in Bio 2200 (as reference). I also got an A in this course.

Some changes to summer vs during the year (there are more but this is brief):
- He did not offer office hours.
- Much smaller class (really get to know Kittlesen and make friends)
- We had in-class learning activities (I'm not convinced these will stay). They were worth 20% 

Advice:
1) Study each day. If you want an A, you will have to study/work every single day of the summer course. He predicts on the first day that it takes 20+ hours a week. That is a very accurate assessment of the time put in by successful students. This may be different if you have a lot of biology experience.

2) During class, you need to write down everything he says. He does include some details that you will need on the exam. He is not as specific as Manson, but he still has his moments. In brief, listen to every example and understand it.

3) Watch Khan academy or other videos to supplement the harder material. The course is condensed, so you need to do a bit more than read and go to class. It can really help to watch videos when Kittlesen rushes (which will have to happen given the nature of the course).

4) LEARNING OBJECTIVES!!!! Go through the learning objectives as you learn the material. It takes more effort, but you will be thankful when you are studying for the exam. There was an exam every week (except week three but then we had 2 exams for week 4).

5) Make sure you understand all the diagrams from his powerpoint. Be able to walk through each diagram and be able to explain it.

6) Grade boosters: get as close to a 100% as you can on Mastering Biology, get help on every lab and get the TAs to help you get a good score, and answer his poll everywhere questions (will give you bonus points that greatly increase your grade if you try)

If you're planning on majoring in bio then you quite literally have to take this class. Came into my first year thinking I wanted to major in bio, then realized I no longer wanted to so I lost focus and class got boring for me. Nevertheless, Dave made me enjoy this class. He is pretty interactive with class examples and demonstrations as well as iClicker questions. Lab for this section is pretty easy, nothing too strenuous. Downsides to this class are the large amounts of reading for the online textbook and the annoying Masteringbio questions (homework assignments). I found it a bit hard to keep up with the course, it goes pretty fast, but as mentioned before, I also lost interest in the subject matter. In and of itself the class really isn't that bad. If you have questions go to office hours, work on assignments (not test though lol) with friends, and try to stay up to date with readings.