BIOL 3050

I absolutely loved this class. Barry is so approachable and genuinely wants to see you succeed. You can tell how passionate he is and he can be pretty funny. You definitely have to go to lectures to do well because he doesn’t really follow a textbook super closely and the slides are difficult to understand without an explanation. There are questions to go along with each lecture that basically mimic old exams so they are super helpful even though they aren’t graded. The only grades are 3 midterms but you can drop your lowest grade and opt to take the final exam to replace it if you want to. There isn’t a set curve but he adjusts the grading scale based on how people do (the B+/A- boundary seems to usually fall around 86 or 87 but it changes every year). Overall, this course is definitely worthwhile and the concepts aren’t too hard to understand if you put the time into learning them.

This course covers a lot of very difficult content, and there are no assignments other than exams. That being said, Professor Condron is an amazing professor who is incredibly passionate about his career and everything neurobiology. He is very knowledgable and funny, and he will answer any question. I enjoyed this course because I did not have the added stress of weekly assignments, and the content is very interesting if the brain is your interest. You are allowed 1 exam drop and 1 side of a sheet of paper per lecture on exams. Additionally, he posts practice questions that are very similar to his exam-question style and recordings of every lecture. Professor Condron talks very fast, so I would not plan on taking hand-written notes (coming from someone who prefers that). If you put time and real effort into reviewing the material, listening to the recordings, and drawing the circuits out, you should have no issue succeeding!

People either love or hate Condron's teaching. I personally loved this class and recommend it to every pre-med. Although it can be challenging material, I think it's the closest thing we have to a medical school class as an undergraduate! Condron himself is a wonderful professor. Felt very easy to pop into his office to chat. He also does not gatekeep anything, and anything he said during OH that could help you succeed in the class was also said to the entire class at some point. The only con about this class is with the switch to Canvas/scantron, Condron was a little bit disorganized. In theory we were supposed to get homework sets that we did optionally but as an assignment on Canvas, but he was unable to figure it out so he just posted a PDF version, but this meant you had to go to OH to get the answers to the questions. His exams compared to Cell Biology are not as application heavy, and could be done in around an hour (35Qs), but his wording can be confusing and he will often look at old questions and admit that the wording is confusing/ he will have some mistakes on the exams (like two correct answers and whatnot). I am unsure how these were addressed, but my assumption is he gave us our "raw scores" on canvas during the semester, and adjusted them behind the scenes and then gave us our final score at the end of the semester, which was higher for everyone than our expected final score from our raw exam grades. Since grade brackets were not given, I'm unsure how much the final grade of the class was curved, or if it was just a re-adjusted score from exam corrections. So overall, the biggest con is you might be in the dark about your exact final grade until the end of the semester, but I believe it will be higher, not lower than what you expect from your raw scores.

The textbook was confusing to look through but helped for understanding certain pathways better, but went way too in depth in comparison to his exam questions. I found Abby's OH plus Condron's OH are a better way to understand the material, and if Abby teaches again I really recommend going to her OH! She is very sweet and basically goes through the lecture again, highlighting all the important information. She is also super helpful with questions and the best TA I've seen.

This has been my favorite pre-med class I have taken!

This was one of my favorite classes I’ve taken at UVA and definitely my favorite this semester, content-wise. The material is incredibly interesting and Professor Condron is super approachable, funny, and engaging. The material can definitely be tricky though especially because he goes fairly fast and there’s a lot to cover. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend going to his office hours and asking about ANYTHING you’re unsure about, even if it’s just asking him to repeat what he said in class. It will make so much more sense when it’s a smaller group and you can ask specific questions. He also goes over exam questions from last year during office hours, which he often doesn’t share during class.

I saw a previous review saying this is the first time the class is in-person. While this is false as the class has been in-person before, this might be the first time in recent years that the TESTS are in-person and on a scantron, as all biology classes have transitioned to this format to combat cheating. However, we are still allowed one flashcard of notes per lecture (1 side of a full, standard sheet of paper). Also, we do get practice questions for each chapter, the answers to which you can get through office hours, to gauge our learning. The tests can be confusingly worded, which is something you just have to adapt to. He also reuses many practice questions for his exams. It was frustrating that the third midterm was 2 days before the final so we weren’t able to see what we got wrong on the midterm, but thankfully we were able to drop 1 exam because almost everybody bombed the third one.

I didn’t read the textbook and I don’t think it’s worthwhile to pay full price for it. I just used it to go over concepts I was confused about in class. Also there is a curve, but he made it very clear that he would not tell us what it is beforehand. There was a slide in one of his PowerPoints saying 85=A, but he never talked about it in class as it was an old slide and never promised that this would be the case. He did not release grade brackets for this year.

Overall: love the class, love Barry. Just wish the test questions were clearer sometimes and it was stressful that our grade was just the exams. The flashcards were definitely a lifesaver, I would put EVERYTHING on them and it was very helpful. No extra work outside of class except for exam weeks, which is when I would cram watching like 10 lectures into 3 days lol (I usually watch at 2x speed for other classes, but he talks so fast that I couldn’t this time around).

This class was a struggle. Do not take this class unless you have to. Barry is a really nice person. He is not the best at teaching. I learned more from the ta’s office hours than his class. The ta was awesome! There are four exams and the lowest one gets dropped. However each exam is worth 33% of your grade. There is no homework to check to see how you are doing during the semester. You are allowed to bring one flashcard for each lecture but it only helps so much. He writes the exams so poorly. There are questions that the ta even thought were not right. His exams were so hard based on the fact that you have to think about what would Barry want. He says you can refute and email with questions that you think you were right however he doesn’t give you points back. He also said a 85 was an A at the beginning of the semester, but that wasn’t true. We also had our hardest midterm a day and a half before our final and we didn’t get to even see the exam answers before the final. He had to curve the grades because they were so bad but it wasn’t the scale of an 85 being an A it was a lot lower. TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE NEWER REVIEWS BECAUSE MOST OF THE GOOD ONES ARE FROM WHEN THE COURSE WAS TAUGHT ONLINE. This was the first semester it was taught in person again!!

Dr. Condron is an amazing instructor! He replies to emails quickly and takes the time to answer questions in depth. I definitely recommend going to office hours, even if you don't feel like you need to. It's helpful to listen to him explain the concepts again and just take notes on what he says. You don't really need to buy the textbook for this course. His lectures are pretty fast. I had to switch from handwriting my notes to typing because of this. Also make sure to download all the recordings, slides, and questions the day he posts them because he will take them down without telling you! He does allow flashcards on his exams, but the exams are definitely harder compared to some of the other biology classes because they require a lot of critical thinking and deduction, so make sure your flashcards are detailed. Overall, he is very entertaining and has an amazing attitude. You can tell that he really enjoys teaching the class.

Not an easy course, but absolutely rewarding if you attend lecture. Dr. Condron teaches very well and is happy to explain things. Exams are rough, but you're allowed a cheat sheet and grades are usually curved by an entire grade. Exams are the only component of grades, so you must study hard for them.

Dr. Condron is a god. This class is actually so interesting, especially unit 3 when you get to sensation and learn all the pathways. But this class is so great. Relatively easy too. 3 tests and a cumulative final. Dr. Condron has optional homework questions based off of the lectures and study flashcards at the end of each lecture that summarize each class and often times a lot of the same questions will be on the test so I definitely recommend paying attention to those. Other than that, the only thing that I can recommend is showing up to class and taking the time to speak to Dr. Condron who is actually a great person and an absolute rarity at UVA and especially in the STEM departments. 100% recommend for any bio, psyc, neuro, cogsci electives that you want to knock out in both a fun and interesting class. Just do it #tCFfall22

This class is definitely one of my favorite classes I've taken here at UVA. Barry is an awesome professor with a clear passion for the subject and for teaching. That doesn't mean this class was easy though. The material can be difficult to understand at times (I found the unit on circuits to be especially confusing), but there are practice questions to help you study. I would really recommend going to office hours to go over these questions because just understanding how Barry thinks and comes up with questions really helped me on the exams. The exams were fairy straight forward in my opinion. The 3 midterms were 35 multiple choice with 7 short answer questions and the final (which could replace your lowest midterm grade) was 35 multiple choice with 10 short answers. You can also use one page of notes/lecture for the exams. One thing I will say is that Barry can be disorganized at times. Sometimes his lectures bounce from one place to another, which made it kind of hard to understand during lecture. However, going back and looking through my notes alongside the flashcards he gives you helped bring everything together. Overall I would recommend this class to anyone who has an interest in neuroscience! #tCFfall22

As a prospective neurosci major, I highly recommend this course, but with some caveats.

PROS
- Pretty easy, when compared to the other 3000-level bio courses. Barry is pretty clear with what you need to know for exams. I was able to get mid to high 90s on the exams with not much effort.
- Helpful and optional post-lecture quizzes that often include verbatim exam questions
- OPEN NOTE (somewhat). You get to make one-page cheat sheets for each lecture
- Barry is a fabulous lecturer! Always incorporating recent research into his lectures, and giving great insights into the ongoing issues within the field. I also loved his asides about his life in Ireland.
- Provides audio recordings of each lecture
- OPTIONAL FINAL!!! It replaces your lowest midterm score.
- Barry is very understanding and accommodating (mostly). He is responsive to feedback from students. E.g. we asked for more time on the final exam and he just said "sure!"

CONS
- The course is a survey, so it is VERY surface-level. As someone who is very interested in neuro, the lack of depth feels a little patronizing. His lectures don't always "land" if that makes sense. I don't really feel like I've left this course with any new, substantive knowledge.
- His slides and flashcards are very disorganized; hard to study from if you haven't seen the lectures
- He can be a bit gatekeep-y with his audio recordings. He deletes them from Collab a few days after giving his lectures for some reason??
- The only grades are your 3 exams. This can be a pro or con depending on your preference.

There is a lot of information to take in from this class, but Barry makes it clear which details/ facts need to be focused on. So, make sure to go to classes, and not just listen to the recording because it is just the audio and NOT the PowerPoint with it. Going to class, there are arrows of exactly what needs to be taken note of. I did enjoy this course and did not require a lot of studying as long as I paid attention in class.

There is not any graded homework, but after every lecture he does post questions on Collab that you should answer because they are more likely to appear on the tests!

I think it is important to point out that he does tend to talk reallly fast.

Hard class, but fair. Condron adjusts grade brackets down a fair amount so don't be worried if your exam scores are a little low. Exams were open note but even with that it was still hard. His lectures were pretty fast paced. Be prepared to study a lot in this course.

Attending lectures and listening to their recordings later in order to review was very helpful in understanding the concepts in this class. Though they were made available, I did not use the Piazza discussion board or attend office hours; however, I am sure they were helpful for some students. The field of neurobiology is filled with many unanswered questions and mechanisms that have yet to be fully understood and Prof. Condron was candid about our lack of knowledge on these subjects. He effectively presented many viewpoints on these subjects. Though the class is structured in a difficult way (our grade is based solely on three open-note exams) I expect this is more how medical school will be, so I appreciate the preparation I am receiving by taking this course. I do wish that there was a little more structure in between exams to help us review the material, however. Exams were sufficiently difficult. Overall, I enjoyed this class and thought Prof. Condron did a great job teaching it. The three-exam format of the course was not something I am entirely used to, but I am glad it was structured this way.

I took this class somewhat on a whim. I'm not premed and am not planning on grad school; I just had an interest in neuroscience and neurobiology. I did fine.
At the beginning of the semester, he lays out what you need to succeed, including the 5-25 rule (review for 5 minutes before the lecture what the lecture will be about; study for 25 good minutes after the lecture before you go to sleep to solidify the information). He recommends a textbook (to follow along) but not necessarily that you use the textbook; I used the textbook for the first week. All the information that he wants you to know is in his slides and flashcards, but the flashcards don't make sense unless you go to lecture (and often don't make sense even when you do). He goes fast but often reiterates things during lecture and always reviews the prior lecture at the beginning of each lecture. He's good in office hours – really tries to make sure that the student understands what concept is being discussed – and will talk with his students about other things, too. He's very gracious and knowledgeable. Advice: follow his 5-25 rule and only take the class if you're interested in neurobiology (because otherwise it feels like a lot of useless memorization of pathways).

This class is cool, it has lots of interesting stuff. I love how there are slides, recordings, and peer notes available. Professor teaches very fast in class and is blurry sometimes, but with those materials, I could take my time and learn more deeply and slowly. Although the test is an open note with a super long time, it would be a little confusing sometimes if you are not good at English (I guess) because some of the questions (mc or short answer) are worded weirdly that you don't know what it's looking for as an answer.
Professor Condron loves deep and thoughtful questions and will answer enthusiastically with extra information, that's great. However, I don't think he like to answer what he has gone over in lecture (via email or piazza). He usually answer very shortly with least amount of word possible (which might confuse people) or not answer at all.

Barry is a very nice guy and has some dope examples for the stuff he teaches. His exams were fair for the most part and it wasn't hard at all to get above a 85. My only complaint was Barry was adamant he would not raise the grading brackets which made a 87+ an A-, 90+ an A, and 92+ an A+. However, come finals week, those grading brackets turned out to be false. This misinformation hurt the students (myself included) because I thought my 90.3 would be good enough for an A so I didn't take the optional final. That 90.3 ended up being an A- which is fair for the amount of work I put in and the percentage itself, but still sucked because he told us it would be an A. Outside of that, this class is pretty awesome.

Professor Condron was amazing. I learned so much in this class and the content was actually interesting. In addition, a lot of the material was applicable to the MCAT. I would definitely recommend this course as an elective for the bio BA.

In terms of the class, it was 3 non-cumulative exams. There was no homework. You definitely have to do well on the exams to get the A because each test is only about 35 questions. The A is manageable though if you follow the study recommendations that Professor Condron gives you at the beginning of the semester. I would also recommend being a notetaker for the class as it helped me pay attention during the entire 75 min lecture

This was probably my favorite class I took this semester. Being a freshman in all online school was very tough, I had no idea what to expect, but this class was a bright spot in it! It was definitely hard to motivate myself to sit through the recorded lectures and take notes, but I learned so so much about the brain. The chapters on the senses (hearing, smell, etc) are the best, I would learn something and immediately tell my friends/family because I thought it was so cool. This class is 100% easier taken online than in person. I used someone else's study guide, which prof Condron generously gathers and puts on Collab, to take every exam and I did very well. He does speak a little fast, but he will always slow down and explain stuff if you ask, you just have to speak up for yourself. I wish we had in person office hours! The communication I'll admit was a bit lacking, but that never concerned me much. Overall, this course was amazing and reinvigorated my love of biology. Highly recommend.

Coming from someone who is interested in Neuroscience, this class is one of the best biology classes at UVA. I took Neural Basis of Behavior and found Barry's class much more interesting because of his excitement with the topic and his connections to real-world research. The grade is determined by only three exams, which makes the exams pretty high pressure, but there is a curve at the end. I don't know how much the curve was, but I got 88% of the questions right and ended up with an A-. The key to doing well in this class is re-listen to all of the lectures, go to office hours, and do the homework questions right before the exam. Don't waste time reading the textbook - only use it as a tool if you need to clarify something. Although Condron definitely talks fast and covers a lot of material, he does a great job of emphasizing the most important things, so it is easier to figure out some of the questions he will definitely ask about on exams. The homework questions will also be similar to the exams, but he will change a small part of them, so make sure you pay close attention on exams and anticipate him asking the homework question material from different angles. His lectures are very structured as well - starting with recent Neuroscience papers, then a review of the previous lecture's material, and ending with new material. I found the reviews really helpful. The hardest part for me was keeping up throughout the semester with re-listening to lectures, but I recommend trying to keep up so you don't have to cram near the exams.

Condron is said to be one of the best professors at UVA--he is approachable and fun outside of class, and willing to help you understand material you don't get. However, his lectures are difficult to follow because the information is so dense, and he compacts it a lot, and on top of all that he speaks extremely fast in class, making it hard to get a proper grasp on the subject. He does have students put up their notes on collab and has audio recordings for each lecture, so you can go back and listen to them later (which is necessary because he speaks so fast)--that being said this already amounts to 3 hours of just listening to audio and trying to understand the information he's telling you---you still have to get a really good understanding of the material because he nitpicks for questions. He does have homework problems and practice problems (none are graded) that you can take that are really helpful, totally take these because they're worded like exam questions. About the curve for this class: he said there would be one and there usually was one (one year a B was a 24/35 on exam 1), but since students didn't do too bad he didn't give a curve at all, so your grade is basically the sum of the 3 exams you take (noncumulative).

I hate to break the mood here, but Barry is quite overrated. Don't get me wrong- he is an incredibly nice guy and is super willing to help during office hours. He is a passionate professor, loves to teach this subject, and is very inspiring in terms of connecting neurobiology to new, emerging frontiers in science and research.

However, Barry tends to skim over difficult concepts very quickly. Certain signaling pathways and neural nets he did not explain very well, and a majority of my work in the class came from re-listening to all of his lectures again and slowing them down to half speed in order to fully complete my notes. I wish he toned down the pace as many of us could not catch up- many of us had to interrupt him numerous times during his lecture in order to get him to explain something again.

The fact that so many of my peers simply end up skipping class and asking for someone's notes later or re-listening to the lectures at a slower pace shows that he needs to truly overhaul the way he teaches a class. Furthermore, he is not the most organized person- his exams usually have 3-4 questions where he screwed up the answer and we have to go back and e-mail him so remembers to change the grade. Sometimes he doesn't even respond to E-mails.

Barry's a cool guy but certainly not the best professor ever like everyone is saying.

Condron is without a doubt the best professor in the Biology department. Truly makes this course very doable and fascinating. I fell like its a must take course for any Pre-Med or bio major. That being said, this course is not easy, I bombed the first exam due to procrastination but greatly improved for the other exams. My recommendation would be literally go over the lectures and recordings the same day the lecture was given. Also he provides hw questions at the end of the powerpoint and on Collab. Create a mini-quiz with the questions and just practice with those. 2 exams and a final (not cumulative), optional hw (not graded). Also, go to office hours, a very nice approachable guy and he will help you.

As a bio major, Barry was my favorite science professor at UVA. Neuroscience is hard, but Barry is so enthusiastic and passionate with what he's teaching that he makes even boring topics exciting to learn. Tests are straight forward, optional homework only, Barry is the man.

Condron is the best professor I've had at UVA! He is inspiring, interesting, and the subject matter itself is never boring. That being said, I worked VERY hard to get an A. Here are some tips: 1) Read before class- you will have a better basis for what he is teaching. 2) Record lessons and listen to them, and try to do this in advance, so that you understand what is going on, rather than cramming before the exams. 3) Go to office hours to make sure you know the answers to the practice problems, and make sure you know why the other answer choices are wrong. 4) Do not stress too much about your average, because this semester a 90 was an A, a 92 was an A+, and an 87 was an A- . Good luck!

Science professors often are super bland in their lecture style but not Professor Condron. He's super enthusiastic and passionate about the material. You might come away from his first lecture feeling nervous about the difficulty of the course; he cautions you about the pre-requisites he recommends having to succeed in the class, and the three tests being the sole determinants of your grade was concerning. But honestly I did not find the course particularly challenging. I really loved the way he had the class set up, it was super collaborative with the whole class and as long as you put in the effort (SHOW UP TO CLASS!!!) you should do well. To study for exams I would listen to the audio of his lectures he posts on Collab and follow along with both the lecture slides and the student notes he provides (also on Collab) and fill in any gaps of information I had. It's a little time consuming but if you do 1-2 lectures a day in the week before the exam, its totally doable. I am expecting an A-/A in this class so I totally recommend this class you'll learn so much fascinating information!

Prof. Condron is AWESOME! such a great lecturer, yes he talks fast but it's really not that hard to keep up. He allows students to post audio recordings from each lecture on collab which is so helpful!

I'm sure this will be different depending on how you study: I only used the textbook for the first Exam and ended up doing the worst on that one. For the last 2 Exams (there are 3 Exams no final), I just re-listened to all the lectures and went through my notes a couple of times, but that was enough to help me prepare! He posts sample questions at the end of every lecture and his test questions mimic those sample questions pretty well. On every Exam he asks 5 questions/lecture so it's pretty easy to figure out what he is going to ask about. This is a great class if you are interested in neuro! I would not recommend this for someone who is not used to taking Bio or other science classes!

Prof. Condron knows a ton about the subject. His lectures slides can be disorganized but it's definitely possible to learn the material and do well if you spend a couple of hours studying each PowerPoint. It's definitely not an easy A but you don't have to read the textbook to do well. I never opened it and am expecting an A-/B+.

This is a tough class, but if you're genuinely interested in learning more about neurobiology, it is very worthwhile. Professor Condron is a very enthusiatic teacher and is a very nice person to talk to in office hours. (I really really recommend going!) The only reason I didn't give hima 5/5 is because he talks too quickly during his lectures and is slightly disorganized. He has his own unique way of thinking and condensing information, and it can be tricky for someone who does not think in this way to see what he's getting at at times. However, he really cares about you learning and understanding (not just memorizing) the material and is a very interesting person.

Keep in mind that this course is taught in a very similar way that a medical school course in neurobiology would be taught. It is hard, and it is not dumbed down. As a pre-med student who has already taken all of the prerequisites and the MCAT and worked pretty hard in this course (although, admittedly, not as hard as I could have), I am nowhere close to getting an A in this class. Even so, I have 0 regrets in taking it.

Professor Condron is awesome!! You can tell he's super passionate about what he teaches and wants other people to be passionate about it too. He talks SUPER fast so record the lectures, he also has students upload recordings on collab so you can use those as well. I didn't read the book at all and still got an A- in the class but know every piece of information on the slides. Overall this was a very worthwhile course and you learn a lot!

This course was a lot of fun! It packed a lot of information in, but I loved lectures and you could tell Professor Condron loved what he was teaching about. If you put the effort in, you will get a lot out of this class. Overall, one of the most rewarding classes I've taken thus far at UVA.

Professor Condron is great! He is extremely enthusiastic about the subject. He talks very fast so make sure to record his lecture. Most of the material needed for the test comes straight from lecture. I would definitely recommend taking this class. Condron makes sure to keep the class interesting by providing real world examples or experiments you can do on your own mind.

Professor Condron is great! I highly recommend this class! I learned more in this biology class than I have in any other biology class (or I just really liked the material). The overall grade is comprised of 3 exams with the 3rd exam being a non-cumulative final. Exams were fair, and as long as you studied you could do well. Be sure to record lectures because Professor Condron talks really fast so it is nearly impossible to take good notes by simply writing as he talks.

This is the most I've ever learned in a science class. Professor Condron is brilliant, and loves to teach. I found myself fascinated by every chapter. You will learn the pathways of touch, pain, balance, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, learning, and decision making, and be able to apply them to the cellular level of what is happening at the synapse, as well as how these things can go wrong to result in diseases like ALS, Alzheimers, Parkinson's, etc. Grades for this class are entirely comprised of 3 exams. The first two were 35 questions- 7 chapters with 5 questions for each. The last or "final" was technically non-cumulative but covered 11 chapters and had 55 questions. Grades are determined by questions correct/total questions between the 3 tests. My only frustration with this class was in the tests- I found some questions to be very ambiguous or just without a correct answer, for which he re-graded the tests. To do well in the class I would recommend recording every lecture and taking notes on his powerpoints, then that same day re-listening to the lecture while clarifying confusing things in the book (which is really good but often more in depth than he cares about). If you do this after every class, or at least keep up with it weekly, then you won't have to re-learn everything before every test, you just have to re-read your notes which will have everything he is looking for. I did this, creating about 80 pages of outline for the course, knowing all of it well, and will still probably get an A-; so it is very tough to get an A, even though he does adjust down the ranges for grades by about 3 points. Final thoughts- buy the 4th edition of the book because that is what he uses on his slides so it's easier, do all of the practice problems because he just varies them by a few words for the tests, and take this class--you won't regret it if you work hard.

favorite class i've taken at uva. condron is the best professor i've ever had. While is he is disorganized and sometimes hard to follow in lecture, he is tremendously passionate about his field. the material we learned was awesome. the tests were pretty hard, but as long as you took really good notes, record and relisten to the lectures, and read the book (simplified and condensed the material), you would do find on the tests. 10/10 class

Soooo.... This is an absolutely wonderful class! For me personally, I really love the topic of neuroscience (and part of that discovery was from taking this class). That's not to say the class is easy. It is definitely difficult, and there's a ton of material that you need to know. You need to be vigilant about studying the powerpoints and understanding the concepts. It's even more helpful if you go over a powerpoint the same day you had the lecture (as Condron says from the beginning). If you make sure you understand/are comfortable with the concepts on the same day, it helps to solidify the information in your head and makes it much easier to study for the exams (so you're studying things that are already familiar to you, rather than trying to cram and memorize material you're not comfortable with). This class is very rewarding and highly interesting, especially if you're a fan of biology. We covered a large range of topics, from the cellular and molecular functioning of neurons, to whole circuits that make up the nervous system. As for the textbook: I personally did not read the book much unless I had difficulties with a certain topic. We definitely don't cover everything in the book either, and the tests are based off of what is said in lecture, so honestly, I would just look at the book if you don't understand something that happened in lecture (or ask a question on the super helpful Piazza or go to office hours). Also, towards the end of the semester, Condron lets you see and hold some human brains!
Professor Condron himself was just fantastic. His lectures were always interesting, and he is very approachable. It is very obvious that he really loves his job and this topic; he gets excited to tell you about papers that have come out recently on new research, and he is very eager to not only answer a specific question you have, but also expand upon it. He also makes sure to make a lot of the information relevant to life today by applying concepts you learn to practical uses of that knowledge in the medical field (such as ideas to help cure/treat diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's). He does talk pretty fast though (as is necessary to get through a chapter per class!), so it's really useful to record the lectures and listen to them/take more notes later so you can get everything you missed. He is very friendly and funny, encourages the love of learning, and is very interested in helping you so that you understand what's going on. Plus, he's from Ireland. I mean, who wouldn't want to have an Irish professor??
Overall, it was one of my favorite classes, and Condron himself is one of my favorite professors. This is definitely a worthwhile course, especially if you're thinking about majoring in biology or neuroscience; it's a great way to discover specific interests in the science department (as opposed to other classes that aren't taught that well, so then you end up hating it just because you had a not-so-good teacher).

This class was awesome! I would completely recommend this to anybody who is thinking about neuroscience or just needs another bio class in general. He is very animated and very helpful if you ever have questions, and it's obvious that he is very passionate about the topic. It's a fast-paced class and requires you to keep up with the material, but it's manageable, and he's usually very clear about what he expects you to know.

Awesome teacher and awesome class!! Obviously realize that you're getting into a higher level bio class so it's not going to be a cakewalk. He goes through a chapter each day so you should try to stay up on the reading. The book is VERY dense so don't try to read all of it, just focus on defining all the terms on the "flashcards" that are put at the end of the powerpoints. His tests are almost solely based on lecture material so take really good notes and/or record lecture (because he talks SOO fast).
I did well just by reviewing lecture notes and filling out the flashcards, the questions are usually pretty straightforward. Only 3 exams, each is non cumulative but the final is longer but still not cumulative.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND because he's an awesome guy and very approachable and answers questions well at office hours. Be warned that he does give long-winded answers at Office hours but he will explain it well.

So far Professor Condron is the best biology professor I've had at UVA. Yes he's cool and he cares etc but when it comes down to it he's just a very skilled lecturer. He presents the information in the most interesting way possible and makes sure you know what he wants you to remember, what's the most important, and what are just interesting asides. He always finishes lectures early. There are flashcards at the end of each lecture and the only complaint I have about those are that sometimes there's stuff on them that aren't needed but it's very easy to find out what those are by asking him. We can directly ask him any material-based question on Piazza where some students answer but most of the time it's Condron himself and he's very prompt. The material is hard but it's one of those classes where if you put the effort you'll do well because you know exactly what's expected. Also you never have to read the text book. Recording lectures is handy though and everyone does it because there's a lot of info that's easy to miss.

Professor Condron (Barry) is super cool. Fairly certain he was a hippie in his past. Point is he makes the class super fun and applicable with experiments you can try on your roommate and whatnot. It's my earliest class yet I never mind getting up for it. BUT, it's not easy. Take good notes. Or you won't do well. I read the book because I like having an idea of what he's going to talk about-ish in lecture but it isn't necessary. It is a fast paced class, a chapter a class, and about 9 chapters per test. There are 5 questions per chapter. They are straightforward questions, theyre just difficult because it is so much information to know. Overall I'm really glad I took the class, but I'm also glad its over. (Ps he lets you touch brains in office hours.)

I would guess that part of my issue with this course was that I essentially took it to fill a spot in my schedule. Condron is a great, entertaining lecturer, and aside from him speaking a little quickly and sometimes going off on tangents that sap focus, he's incredibly adept at getting the information across. If you aren't a huge fan of psychology and neuroscience in general, then this course is going to be VERY dry, but the tests are not easy, so it really requires a lot of thorough studying if you don't gel with the information. I would not take this course again, but that's only because I'm not interested by the subject matter, and not because the class is hard, or the professor is bad, or anything like that.