BIOL 5010

Dr. Garrett is very approachable, and he will always help you out if you come prepared with questions. There is one essay you have to write as a semester project, but that will more than likely actually help your grade in the end, if you consult Dr. Garrett about it on a regular basis. Be ready to put in a lot of time for reading the material, and memorization. It's biochem after all.

Dr. Garret is a nice guy and wants you to do well, but he also expects you to memorize ALL the material. Biochem is a very worthwhile class and seems to make all your other bio classes come together and make sense on a deeper level. To get the most out of the course (and the best grade), do the reading/look through the outlines and slides BEFORE lectures, otherwise you will lose him very fast since his lectures pretty much just go through the slides. Keep up with the reading and bring his outlines/slides to class to take notes on!

Garrett goes over a LOT of material and expects you to memorize pretty much everything. Lectures are dense, so it's best to read before class. There are 5 tests - 4 midterms, and one final - all given the same weight. The midterms are very specific and the final is less specific, cumulative. Garrett doesn't post the answers to practice tests but often held review sessions and gave the answers, and holds office hours. He took some test problems from homework. The curve is great, and this is a good class to take if you're a bio major, or premed.

There's so much material and Garrett expects you to know all (or at least most) of it pretty well, but it's not impossible. There's a lot of memorization and the 4 tests are very detail-oriented. The practice tests he posts for all 4 tests and the cumulative final are very good examples of what to expect on the real tests.

Excellent class, I actually learned something worth while.

It's biochemistry so it's bound to be hard. If you're premed, it's a good idea to take this course so that it's just review for when you have to take it in med school. I got a B so I'm not disappointed at all but it was definitely difficult. It was like orgo in that there were lots of structures/reactions to memorize for the exams. The exams are free response and there are 4 + the "cumulative" final. Averages are usually around 65% and the grades are obviously curved. Three exams are given during the semester. The 4th exam+final are given during the 3hr final exam slot which I find to be ridiculous that he did that. You'll have plenty of time but it's just way too much material to memorize. He does give you practice exams from previous years and those are usually good to look at because they're very indicative of the types of questions he'll ask. Also, it's not really necessary to go to the review sessions if you have the answer book because he just goes over the answers to the problems he assigns (you'll save money though if you don't wanna buy the answer book). Professor Garrett's really smart and a really nice guy.

I really enjoyed the class. I learned SO MUCH!! That being said, this class made orgo look like high school chemistry. You're expected to learn every mechanism, every reason for everything, every structure, everyyyything!! Dr. Garrett wrote the book, so he knows his stuff well. Also, he's a really nice guy and tries to make it fun. I saved $80 by not buying the solutions manual & managed just fine (i went to the reviews). Take this class if you're going on to more education, but be prepared for LOTS of work!!!!! And start studying at least a week before the test or your brain will explode.

The breadth and scope of this class, indeed, made many of my other science classes feel like high school AP classes. Reginald Garrett is a very disciplined, no-nonsense professor and has clearly developed a well-oiled machine of a class. For anyone wishing to pursue professional or graduate school in biology or medicine, this class great preparation.

You definitely have to put in your time to do well - pay attention in lectures and DO THE PRACTICE TESTS (a lot of the questions on the actual tests come from here). A lot of concepts from cell biology and organic chemistry come up.

This class is hard, but you already knew that.