All class material and exams are made by AI. The professor is chill and easy-going. I usually just record the lecture and review the content later. I usually just spend 3 days before each midterm studying from the beginning by listening to the recording. Overall, a decent class with a lot of memorization.

Stupid easy. I got a 100% on all the exams and was able to drop the final. The exams were clearly AI-generated, so they were never that difficult and it was usually easy to spot the correct answer. I eventually stopped going to class and just studied the speaker notes.

There were also plenty of opportunities for extra credit. My only complaint is that I wish the slides had been corrected more carefully, since they also seemed AI-generated and contained quite a bit of inaccurate information.

I severely underestimated this class!!! The grade distribution and past reviews will fool you and they fooled me. Deppmann is super nice and a really genuine prof. He wants his students to do well. But his lecture style and AI obsession did not resonate with me personally. I stopped going to lectures like halfway through the year because I just did not find them engaging or even helpful. All of his slides, presenter notes, and student takeaways are AI written. This was honestly super frustrating and I wish deppmann would reconsider this tactic.

His exams seem to have gotten harder from previous years (although still doable). Exam 1 is entirely review from gen chem and bio 1 and 2 so get a good grade on this!! It will be the cushion that you need later. Exam 2 was absolutely ridiculous but exam 3 and 4 were much more reasonable (I think we complained a lot about it and then he fixed it). But apart from exam 2, I found his exams to be very very fair. They're easier and way more straight-forward than Kittlesen in my opinion. You get one exam drop but exam grades are 80% of your grade so you need to be locked in for them.

You get 1 extra credit point for each discussion that you attend, total of ~12 extra credit points to your exam average. I highly recommend going to discussion because these EC points make a BIG difference.

I don't think deppmann is teaching this class anymore, but if he is, I would recommend either in depth reading the slides or textbook as your main source of info, both are good it just depends on your style of learning. You can then use the study guide and exam prompts Deppmann gives to guide your studying. Give AI all of the materials and ask it to quiz you relentlessly until you nail the content. Ending with an A is totally attainable, but start studying ~1 week out especially if you are very behind on the content like I always was lol. If you actually follow along with his schedule and do the readings as they are assigned, you will probably not be as stressed as I was.

BIOL 3030 was, without question, the worst academic experience many of my peers and I have had at the University of Virginia. The course’s “AI-first” structure was deeply misguided. Rather than enriching student learning, it stripped the class of the clarity, rigor, and human engagement that should define a biochemistry course; the result was a learning environment that felt inefficient and intellectually hollow.

A major problem was the instruction itself. Dr. Deppmann often appeared unprepared to teach the material at the level the course demanded. For example, when students asked questions during office hours or review sessions, he frequently could not answer them directly, instead deferring to TAs or searching for answers online in front of the class. Students should not feel that their professor is learning the material for the first time alongside them.

The heavy reliance on AI exacerbated all issues with the course structure and delivery. Lectures, content, exams, and even lecture transcripts were confirmed to be fully AI-generated. This was very visible, as they were riddled with mistakes, awkward phrasing, and a level of detachment that made the class feel more like a poorly assembled experiment than a serious academic offering. Lecture materials were incomprehensibly verbose, with every single lecture slide being delivered in the same quantity > quality "formula" (with a reliance of constant AI-generated buzzwords like "clinical corollary" and "precise balance" or "tango"). Assignments were similarly frustrating. Many felt like exercises in busywork rather than meaningful tools for learning.

Overall, the class is a fairly easy A, certainly easier than courses like Cell or Genetics & Molecular Bio. Your grade is cushioned by homework, exams are pretty straightforward, and you get an exam drop and plenty of extra credit. I've heard that this is Dr. Deppmann's last time teaching biochem, so just be wary of the ongoing pattern of AI-first biochemistry at UVA (I've heard CHEM 4410 is also AI-dependent).

Deppmann is a fun guy, but don't let it fool you into thinking this course is "easier." It is definitely hard content (as expected, don't get me wrong), and his AI obsession almost makes me label him as a "bad" professor.

Course format is similar to previous comments, except homeworks are now graded on correctness (not completion). Some of the homeworks are pretty tricky on 1-2 questions.

Discussion was different every week -- some TAs were excellent, led review sessions, and created well-matched practice questions. Other TAs were condescending, unhelpful, and clearly elitist about their position as a TA. Deppmann did not support discussions much. You have to show up to discussion to get extra credit -- sometimes, it is a simple "create a meme" assignment -- other times, you have to score a certain % on an in-discussion Kahoot.

I think he is a great guy, but not a great lecturer. Yes, he is funny, different, and provides breaks, but he is OBSESSED with AI use. His slides often have blatantly wrong AI slop images, or he simply reads off of the slides. You get his speaker notes on lecture slides - he just reads off of them. You can tell that AI writes his speaker notes, too. Frequently canceled lectures, as well.

Maybe would have been better in the past, may be less AI-based in the future. Only time will tell, but I did not enjoy self-teaching this class using AI.

Deppmann, the man that you are. Deppman is the most amazing professor I have ever met in my time at UVA. He is wonderful, funny, passionate, caring, open to critique, literally anything you could ever want. He is such a breath of fresh air in the biology department, really puts pre-meds (and anybody else) at ease during this challenging journey. LOVE THIS GUY

Facts about the class
- 25 (?) Homework
- Adaptive Quizzes
- 5 exams (not cumulaive) 45 MCQ
- one exam drop
- extra credit
- piazza heavy course
- "optional" discussion
- one HW and one adaptive quiz drop
- no recorded lecture
- textbook (used a lot)

Diving deeper...
EXAMS:
- direct, to the point
- material is straight from textbook
- he's not trying to trick you
- conducted during 2 hour discussion section
- flashcards are the way to go for studying (TAs provided quizlets they made when they were students, helped a lot)
- draw out all pathways (glycolysis, CAC, Calvin, etc)
- don't waste your time studying the homework (it's way past the scope of the test)

HOMEWORK:
- honestLy BS, I didn't learn much from it
- very difficult
- you need to get one question right to get full credit on the homework (graded on completion)
- just do it, you get points, helps your grade

ADAPTIVE QUIZ:
- again... BS
- completion, just finish the thing, get points, be happy

LECTURE:
- no recorded lectures, although you can record on your phone
- lecture style is a bit confusing, but he's entertaining, so still GO
- opportunity for in lecture extra credit

DISCUSSION:
- GO GO GO
- every discussion section you get the opportunity to sign up for extra credit (1% to your exam grade)
- avg of 2 discussion sections before an exam, so opportunity to get 2% EC
- if you "win" the EC category, you get another point (so max of 3% EC each exam)
- can't do EC if you don't go discussion
- TAs review material in discussion and make it very engaging & entertaining (if you answer questions, they give you candy)
- helpful to go simplify material and learn!!!

Dr. Deppmann and the teaching team were wonderful, amazing humans. I wish nothing but the best. EVERYONE should take his class. Honestly one of the best experiences I've had at UVA.

Deppmann’s a really sweet professor and he’s always telling jokes and stories. He realllly likes using chatgbt and AI for things and it’s kind of hard to prepare for his exam as he says “everything is fair game” and will literally put a question on a topic that was on one slide or page of the textbook! He even said he was making the course harder compared to previous years so good luck!

Grade breakdown: homework - 5% | quizzes - 10% | exams (5, all multiple choice, can drop one) - 85%

The homework and quizzes were basically completion grades and he gives out extra credit (by %, not points) for each exam by going to discussions and signing up for a bonus assignment. We were also given a few drop opportunities for homework and quizzes. Lectures were not recorded and basically are laid out the same as the textbook, but I think the textbook was better to get an understanding of what we were learning. Just going to lecture and taking notes may not be enough to get a good grade out of this class as he breezes through the slides. The exam was a mix of memorization and application questions, and definitely memorize the general chemical structure of things because he’s willing to put those on exams too. I found his exams much more straightforward than most other bio classes I've taken.

Deppmann is a genuine professor who isn’t trying to fail anyone and really does try his best to be accommodating and understanding when things go wrong. Overall, I would say this class was one of the easier bio classes you could take at UVA (compared to something like cell bio), so I would recommend it as an elective! #tCFF24

Prof Deppmann is the best - he truly cares about his students and made the lectures engaging and related to things we could understand. He is such a fun professor. The tests were not bad at all - the average was 87 and there were 5 exams but only 4 counted for 85% of ur grade - the rest of 15% is based on completion of hws and quizzes (can u get 1 drop)if u forget. Extra credit opportunities were offered for each exam (with 2-3 maximum) and rounding up grade if 0.5. He goes kind of fast in lecture so would recommend reading chapters beforehand and taking notes and have lecture notes add anything u missed.

Deppmann is awesome. He's knowledgable, and he really cares about his students. This class has the fundamental components of a typical biology class, but he does tons of fun activities during lecture so that it's less monotonous. He offers a lot of extra credit for every exam during the discussion section (which are also really hands on and involved). On that note, his exams are incredibly fair. If you study, you will for sure do well on the exam (not something I can say for all biology classes at UVA). This professor is determined to make you succeed. I would recommend either doing the textbook reading or focusing on lecture. His lectures follow the textbook almost to a tee, so I chose to focus on lecture and occasionally reading to supplement anything I didn't understand. There are weekly homework assignments and quizzes, but they're all completion so do them. If you work hard, you will end up with a good grade.

This is a very difficult course. This was the first time Professor Deppmann had taught this course, but he did so very well I thought. I think overall the content is very hard to deliver, so it is on the student to work through and understand it for exams. The textbook was VERY USEFUL so is a necessary read, with lecture supplementing the textbook. The professor tried to make the content interesting, often incorporating jokes and entertainment (with breaks!) throughout lecture. Overall this class is a necessary evil, but the professor makes it at least somewhat manageable.