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.