BIOL 2100

Everything about this class is super easy EXCEPT for the exams, which unfortunately count for 70% of your grade. Dave says that you need to know exactly what is written in the learning objectives, but this is a bit misleading: the learning objectives are often broad and you need to know everything he talked about relating to that learning objective (not just what that objective is explicitly saying).

Most of the questions in the exams aren't too hard as long as you remember what you're suppose to remember -- but there's always 5 questions or so that really stumped me, and missing 5 questions can easily bring your grade down. My advice is to start EARLY and do the memorizing in advance so that you can focus on the finer details when the exam approaches. There's hardly any work during non-exam weeks, so take that time to study in advance.

Also, I think the amount/frequency of the exams kind of sucks because you hardly have time to get really interested/curious about a topic, or explore related topics that aren't part of the learning objectives, which makes this course a lot less interesting than it could be. Don't let that deter you from continuing with biology, though!

This class ruined my semester. As a fourth year going into it with a 4.0, and having taken multiple other advances stem courses here, I BARELY managed a B-. Kittleson is very nice, and obviously intelligent, but his exams are completely designed to trick you. Instead of testing you on the content of the unit, you are stuck trying to understand what his question is even asking. Furthermore, 90% of the class cheated on every single exam by opening extra tabs or going to the bathroom and looking things up. Extremely frustrating course, but I'm thankful it's over and I survived.

The grade is 10% homework, 20% lab, and 70% exams (5 exams, 14% each). Our exams were slightly curved but this apparently isn't always the case (depends on class averages). There was also extra credit summing to at least a 1% boost of the final grade.

The homework was on Pearson. It was generally easy and honestly helpful but you only have so many attempts which is annoying. Most people get very close to 100% in this category per Dave.

Labs were super useless, although fun if you have a fun group. I also had an incredibly chill lab TA. Everyone in my lab section probably got 100% but I've heard stories of people with non-chill TAs having to work for a good lab grade. For us, there was no work for lab outside of class (except brief readings which nobody did).

Since exams were 70% of the course grade, I'll talk about this the most. I was able to get an A+ in the course without high school AP/IB bio because I figured out how to do well on the exams. Here's what worked for me:

- Attending lectures in person and taking light notes, really just trying to focus on what Dave's saying (some people were ferociously taking notes and I can imagine you would miss a lot of important details). Then after the next class I would go back and listen to the recording from the previous one (e.g. lecture on Monday, lecture on Wednesday, relisten to Monday lecture on Thursday, Friday lecture, relisten to Wednesday lecture on Saturday, and so on). I took more extensive notes this pass AND wrote study questions for myself based on the learning objectives. I basically tried to put myself in Dave's shoes as I wrote these questions and tried to "trick" my future self. Then, the week of the exam, I would (sometimes) go back and answer these. I think the exercise of making the questions was more impactful than going back and actually answering them, if I'm being honest.
- Triple or quadruple checking my exams. I would finish in 30-40 minutes and then carefully read over every single question and every single answer choice at least twice. Dave's questions aren't necessarily meant to trick us (although sometimes I thought they were), but they are written in a way that required nuanced analysis. I was always one of the last people to leave my exam hall but it was well worth it, and I would catch many mistakes each time.
- Other smaller tips: 1) don't be distracted during lecture. It sounds simple but I would see people doing absolutely everything but paying attention. Kids would come to class on scroll on reels the entire time. Like I said, Dave's questions require nuanced analysis, so getting a "big picture" idea isn't always suficient, you need to hear the details. 2) Don't quizlet the mastering bios. I know its incredibly tempting but they actually helped me learn the content a lot. However, unfortunately you only get so many attempts so be careful. 3) This goes against Dave's advice, but I did not read the textbook before class (or ever) after exam 1. I thought it was better to use that time to rewatch every lecture. You could do both, but the exam is only based on lecture content so I thought the textbook content was frankly a waste of brain space.

You CAN do well in this course! I didn’t take AP Biology, and the last time I studied biology was in 9th grade. I came into this class thinking I’d struggle a lot, but it turned out to be much more manageable than I expected. With that said... don't take this class if you dont have to.
First off, I never even opened the textbook. It’s a good resource for a basic understanding, but it’s not essential. Instead, I relied on YouTube videos and Khan Academy to learn topics before class. During lectures, focus on listening to what Dave says instead of trying to write everything down—his explanations are key. If you zone out (like I often did), you can always rely on the lecture recordings to catch up.
Go to P2L sessions! This is crucial. Dave structures them to align perfectly with class topics, and many of the concepts covered show up exactly as discussed on exams. There are tons of tutors available, and once you find one you like, stick with them. I highly recommend Anagsha, Andy, and Anya—they were amazing.
Labs and homework are easy 100s and an excellent way to boost your grade. The TAs are super helpful and often let you double-check your work before submitting. Plus, there are plenty of online resources to help with homework, so there’s no reason not to ace these.
For exams, my average was 85 and I think I maintained this by studying at least a week in advance, focusing on active recall and Dave’s learning objectives. Dave stresses genuinely understanding the content versus relying on rote memorization, and this is VERY important. I spent time genuinely understanding and formulating answers to the learning objectives, and then memorized my responses, and this served me fairly well. His questions can be worded oddly, so read them carefully—sometimes twice or three times. Once you understand what he’s asking, the answers are usually clear. Dave is very transparent about what's on the exams and what isn't, so you don't need to worry about understanding anything beyond what he explains in class.
Finally, take advantage of extra credit! Dave offers points through Poll Everywhere and other opportunities near the end of the semester. These can make a big difference in bumping your grade up.

Full disclaimer: I'm not pre-med and was taking this class mostly for fun, so I wasn't stressed about doing particularly well in the class and ended up with an A-.

You'll learn a lot from this class; I definitely found myself appreciating how the topics we studied applied to real life. That being said, it's considered a weed-out class for pre-meds. Kittlesen goes pretty fast, his slides are sparse, and he only records audio. This is particularly frustrating if you're writing something down and miss what he says, as there's no way of knowing what it was besides listening to the recording or asking a classmate. It's probably helpful to do the readings before lecture.

**Exams**
Tests are more application-based than they are memorization-based, which I enjoyed. I averaged an ~85 on exams with pretty minimal studying but an A is definitely doable if you study more. This was my first biology class, so I did feel a bit behind my classmates when they were answering questions in lecture that almost required prior knowledge.

**Homework**
Mastering biology is the single worst designed website I've ever used. It's excruciatingly slow and unresponsive, often requiring multiple refreshes to work properly. The actual homeworks aren't that hard (with the exception of a few questions across the semester), but do take a good hour or so. Check this site frequently so deadlines don't sneak up on you.

**Labs**
Labs are fairly straightforward but require you to be punctual and somewhat prepared. Reading over the lab manual before lab for the "wet labs" helps quite a bit and ensures you aren't completely lost. Most of the labs finish before the designated time.

When people said this class was hard I truly did not believe them. I LOVE biology, but this class really made me rethink my life choices so keep that in mind when you take this class. I disliked how Kittlesen had like negative words on his slides and would only yap and point to random pictures. I didn't like his lecturing style since he always answered questions in the most roundabout way and by the end of the lecture I was more confused than when I walked in. It was super hard to stay engaged. Also, he only recorded the audio of the lectures when screencasting really ain't that hard so studying was extremely difficult. I did pretty bad on the first exam and I thought it was done and my life was over. But then I did alright on the remaining exams and I miraculously ended with an A- so just know he does give a decent amount of extra credit to help the grade distribution. Pro tip study using the dynamic study modules on pearson since a couple times he took exam questions from that.

In summary, you really have to put in the work to do well in this class. Although I did not attend any office hours or P2L because of my schedule many of my friends said they were helpful.

I absolutely adored this class. I came into this course having a little bit of high school biology under my belt, and I'm going to reassure anybody reading this that this class is FUN. A lot of students come out of it frustrated because the lectures require nearly 100% of your attention at all times. Put the NYT games and Instagram Reels down for 50 minutes. I'd advise reading ahead for each lecture and taking quick notes on your documents before even going into the lecture hall, then filling in those topics with missing knowledge as he speaks. Stay engaged on the slides and "view" the concepts in your mind rather than empirically trying to memorize facts. Everything is a story.

I ended up with an A in this class, right on the brink of an A+ because of some lab slip ups. That usually narrows down to solely your TA. Exams are straightforward. I don't know why a lot of people think that he is trying to trick you-- this isn't high school anymore. The questions require application of concepts that you should know if you know how to visualize the processes. Therefore, people who are thinking about taking this class should understand that putting an effort into learning the big picture, causes and effects, and mechanisms of each concept, will lead to success. It becomes enjoyable to put everything together. Call me a biology nerd, but I didn't find this class as annoying as a lot of other people did. It just takes some rigorous thinking. Also, fill out your learning objectives as much as possible. Understand them. Make a few dozen mnemonics. Make them work together. Pretend it's a game. This is the weed-out for aspirant Med-School applicants. Don't make it more miserable than it has to be. This is an opportunity to learn, not a roadblock.

I took this class despite having AP bio credit from high school. Even though I had some bio background before this class, it was still very challenging and time consuming and took a lot of work for me to finish with an A. After reading the reviews for this class I was a little nervous considering this was one of the first courses I took at UVA. However, I developed a good study ethic to approach this class with and found that it wasn’t as bad.
Exams are 70% of your grade and there are four exams and a non cumulative final. To prepare for every exam, I would relisten to every lecture 1 to 3 days after that certain lecture was given and took notes. I would turn these notes into flashcards so I was actively recalling what was taught in lecture. I would word my flashcards in the form of questions that asked about something he said in lecture (ex. Explain x process, why do we need x, etc.). I think active recall was the most crucial thing in my preparation for Dave's exams because he doesn't test on memorization. He expects you to apply the material taught, so it can be easy to fall into traps in some of his questions if you rely on sole memorization. When you're studying, ask yourself questions that extend your knowledge about what you're learning; for example, how would not having x impact other processes or can x still operate under x conditions? Being able to ask yourself these questions and being able to answer them will better prepare you for the application based questions you'll see on the exam.
Always refer to the objectives to make sure you’re hitting all of them in your studying. I would usually do whiteboard brain dumps a few days before an exam to test my knowledge, where I would answer each of the objectives. If I found myself looking back to my notes to answer an objective, I knew that I needed to study that material more.
Having friends in the class or forming study groups with people in the class will be super helpful as well! I usually get together with them to study by explaining each of the objectives to each other; I was able to fill gaps in my knowledge just my listening to them!
Always try to attend lecture in person!! While Dave does post the lecture later, he only posts audio recordings. However, he often has slides that arent in the slides he posted, or he does a whiteboard demonstration that you would only be able to see if you attended in person. It made the lectures hard to follow if I missed one because of this so I'd highly recommend not skipping lecture whenever you can.
I attended p2l every week and found it super helpful as they often do activities made by Dave that’ll help you prepare for the exam! The instructors also help clear up confusion on material. I also went to Dave’s office hours the week of the exam to listen in on questions that other students asked. I found that I was in a good place in my studying if I was able to answer other people’s’ questions myself.
Labs make up 20% of your final grade and are once a week. They were often not difficult we were able to get out early, but there were like 1 or 2 labs that took most of the 2.5 hour class time. The TAs are usually nice and are willing to work with you so that you get full credit on assignments, but this might vary depending on TAs.
There’s at least one MasteringBio assigned every week, which accounts for 10% of your final grade. I didn’t find myself using the textbook often, just whenever I was still confused on a topic. I didn’t read the textbook before class either and still did well in the course since he mainly tests on stuff mentioned in lecture rather than the textbook.
Dave also provides a lot of extra credit opportunities. He gives a point back on an exam for filling out a survey, which was completed at the beginning and end of semester. He slightly curved the exams, but I heard this was not always the case in past classes. He also offered an optional post-exam reflection for 20% back, but only did this for the first two exams. He also gives credit for participating in the PollEverywhere questions in lecture. He gives a boost to your final grade based on the % of students who fill out course evals at the end of the semester. He gives a lot of extra opportunities to boost your grade, but I would still recommend studying and getting the highest scores possible on exams because he does not round up your final grade.
This was my most time consuming class out of all my other classes by far. My course load wasn’t as rigorous as other years (mostly geneds), so I think I was able to do very well because I was able to dedicate a lot of my time to studying for this class. I did take this class along with intro chem (1410) and was able to get an A in both, however taking both taking ap chem and bio definitely helped better prepare me so keep that in mind.
Overall, I'm glad I took this course as someone just starting college because it helped me develop an efficient work ethic!

This course is difficult but very manageable. Although Dave says that it is not a weed-out course, the course can weed out some students and others will weed themselves out - so it is critical not to be demoralized. I ended this course with an A- (92%) and an 80% average on the exams during my first semester of college. I had taken AP Biology and earned a 5, but in tenth grade, some knowledge was in the back of my mind, but many things were new or had to be learned again.

You can adopt some habits right away to set yourself up for success. Always DO the homework, do not Quizlet it. I would do every question on my own and then if needed check online, because you want that 100% on homework since it is 10% of the grade and is a free grade boost. Do the assignments right as they are assigned so the work does not pile up with other courses and you don't forget anything - I have friends who were a bit spotty here which hurt them. Also, the lab section is a free 100% as well. Ensure a 100% for these two components which are 30% of your grade! Then you need to maintain around an 85% test average which earns you an A (which is sadly a 94 instead of a 93).

The textbook is not helpful unless you need to back up knowledge on a fundamental concept that you did not understand from the lectures. Always attend the lectures! I attended both the 11 AM and 1 PM sometimes when I knew that I missed something in the morning and needed to go back to top up my notes. I tried re-listening to the recording, but that strategy is not ideal since you cannot follow along with the visuals. Dave loves PowerPoints with just photos on them and the same visuals will appear again on exams. I annotated the PowerPoint on my iPad which was helpful since I could associate the notes with certain images.

The best strategy is to study a bit every day to ensure that you just need to review materials you already understand before the exam. It is much harder to teach yourself everything and you will not succeed. Unless you have an eidetic memory reviewing the material is necessary! Think of this: one to two hours every day is much better than all-nighters and studying for the whole day beforehand. I would make a slideshow of the learning objectives and put all the material I needed on the slideshow, from the lectures, my notes, office hours, and research online. The act of making the slideshows was a great study tool, and teaching the slideshow to friends was a great tool to refresh my memory. Studying from one slideshow also makes everything much easier. Here are my slides for the last exam for example: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sQ72324Undu-1YkzWGv2Xm4c3shiNqtg6FNVST4SFsc/edit?usp=sharing.

My best tip is GO TO OFFICE HOURS!!! Dave is very approachable and will answer every question kindly, no matter how "silly" it seems to be. Also, you can get a much better idea of what topics will not feature on the exam and which will be heavily featured. As a pre-med who also plans to take immunology and microbiology with Dave, building a relationship is important!

I took this class in my 2nd year as a biochem major, and in all honesty it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Kittlesen's bio was not an easy course, but imo he is very generous with the homeworks, labs, and random opportunities to earn back points throughout the semester. The exams were the toughest part of the course, but mostly because he uses very precise wording that you have to interpret carefully.
I was taking orgo 2 simultaneously with this class, and compared to orgo, bio felt like a breeze. If you're a chem major like me, don't stress so much about bio—you will have to study, but having knowledge from gen chem/orgo beforehand actually made bio easier because conceptually those are building blocks for bio. Even if you don't have those though, I know plenty of 1st years that excelled in the course without a chem background.
Overall, pay the most careful attention to his lectures and the precise terminology he uses. His PollEv questions are a good evaluator of some of the conceptual caveats, so write down timestamps and listen back on lecture recordings of those conceptual explanations if you miss them during lecture.