BIOL 3140

I'm honestly a bit surprised by some of the negative reviews on here. I personally loved this class. It was extremely interesting and Professor Roach is great and very passionate about the material. No book, just articles and short questions for homework. In class quiz questions-very easy. Exams can be tricky but if you take good, detailed notes in class you will do fine! No book so attendance is necessary. Definitely a worthwhile class, not too difficult and very interesting. I feel like I learned a ton and I enjoyed it more than I expected. Would recommend

Nope! You have been warned.

If you think this is going to be an easy elective, THINK AGAIN. Though Prof. Roach is very enthusiastic about her course material, her lectures suffer from stuttering, contradictions, and a general lack of preparedness. To make matters worse, the course has no textbook, so if what she says in class isn't clear (which happens frequently) there's very little you can do to fill in the gaps. Homeworks are very simple and essentially graded for completion. Though the material covered in class is straightforward, her exams are very difficult and ambiguous. The saving grace of this course is that in-class "pop quiz" iClicker questions are worth 15% of your grade and as long as you are remotely paying attention, it is very easy to get these right. Overall, even though the course content could be interesting, it is completely marred by disorganized lectures and unfair exams. If you need to fulfill a 3000-level elective requirement, take a hard pass on this one.

Tests are really tricky but she rewards you with a generous curve at the end. The course doesn't have a book; the readings come from published articles. The weekly home work is actually helpful, just to make you stay on top of the material. Definitely a worthwhile Bio elective!

I enjoyed the class material of Biology of Aging but the exam format definitely made the class much more challenging. Professor Roach is passionate about her subject and makes an effort to help students understand the theories of aging.

No textbook, so go to class! Overall really fascinating

Roach is my favorite professor at UVA! She is a really good lecturer, she makes lectures fun to go to and engages the class. She is also really nice in office hours, she does not put you down if you don't understand something. She is so nice, friendly, and approachable. I say hi to her whenever I see her. However, this is not an easy class, I got a C+ in it and I was one of those kids in class answering questions. Her tests are multiple choice and kinda tricky. I am also not a multiple choice person. I would still recommend this class though, it was really interesting and Roach is wonderful!

Really enjoyable class. Discusses aging on the level of populations and individuals, and also talks about the evolution of aging. Really interesting material. The tests can be tricky but doable. Great bio elective!

this class was pretty descent, no text book, so just go to class, take some good notes and the exams is kinda tricky, but if yhu really read the notes and paid attention in class, you will be fine.. the reading at not a lot, just a few pages every week..

Material is easy but is made to be tricky on exams.

GREAT class. Professor is very interesting and has great lectures to back up the information. Pay attention and take good notes in class and you don't even need the readings.

Professor Roach makes class very interesting, and she is fun to listen to. The material is interesting as well, and cool to learn about. It isn't all about human aging like I expected, but you get a very good knowledge of aging by the end of the class. The one thing is that sometimes Professor Roach seems to contradict herself, and her tests can be a little unclear, but overall, it was a great class. Professor Roach is very approachable

Overall a very interesting class, Roach is very enthusiastic and seems to enjoy her field of study. However, there is no book, attending lectures are required if you want a good grade. Tests are much harder and more in-depth than the material she teaches in class.

I found this class extremely hard to get a good grade in even when I had studied my notes from lectures (without missing a lecture). The level of the tests was much higher than the level she taught the course at.

The material is interesting and Professor Roach is very passionate about her work. Tests are quite difficult, though. The grading is harsh and you have to be able to answer with exactly the approach she is looking for. Take good notes - there is no book.

Roach is an engaging lecturer, using powerpoints and the blackboard. Her lectures were pretty well-organized and drew from a lot of primary source material - no textbook in this class. Definitely a challenging course since it was more conceptual and her tests are fairly difficult. Really interesting material, though, especially later in the semester.

I absolutely loved this class. Nice evolutionary perspective on aging. You really have to understand the concepts/think like an evolutionary biologist to do well. Not a typical "pre-med" bio. Professor Roach is amazing and keeps lectures fun.

Overall, not a bad course. Roach is very enthusiastic about the material. But the lack of a textbook and lack of organization in general can make it difficult to prepare for tests.

Professor Roach was not very helpful. Her lectures were interesting and well-formatted. I thought I would do well on her tests because I understood the material, but she expected far greater of an answer than the questions warentted. It was a very frustrating course on which I ended up using my one free withdraw. I would NOT recommend this class at all.

Great class. Very theory and experiment based. May not be what all bio students are used to, and the tests are pretty hard, but it's really interesting and definitely worthwhile..

Pretty good class. Unfortunately the class is not too structured, so it can be frustrating to study and such. Very interesting material. Spans everything from demography to cellular bio.

A must take for Bio majors!