BME 2101

A knowledgeable professor of a very difficult class. Tests were extremely difficult, averaging around the high 60s and low 70s, but there is a considerable 40% buffer coming from other work in the class. Tests were more applying the knowledge, rather than brute force memorization. Professor Helmke is approachable and wants to see his students learn - but is full of himself, and indirectly makes you feel inferior. My suggestion is to watch the online lectures as well as go to office hours frequently. In terms of actual work done, it isn't bad but in terms of mastering the material for the exam, expect to spend a LOT of time.

He is clearly a nice guy who cares about his students, but his style of teaching is very ineffective and a bit annoying. After taking 4 exams I still don't know what the best way to study for the class is, and a lot of my peers feel that way as well. He likes to take legitimately everything to a "big picture" cause & effect perspective, even before we understand the foundation of the material and it was very confusing lots of the time. Try to avoid getting him if you can.

Good luck my friend! This class will be challenging and you will need to read a medical school level textbook to truly understand the concepts. Nevertheless, Prof. Helmke is an extremely gifted professor who really cares about teaching in different ways. Grading is a bit harsh on the testing front where getting a 75% on an exam is really really good! Do not fret though, 40% of the final grade is almost a "give me" if you go to class and turn in completion activities on time. Class is broken into 4 quarters with each one having a non-cumulative test for 15% of the final grade. Of note, there is no cumulative final, though he will make you come for the whole 3 hour period to fill out a 200-500 question survey on his teaching while he teaches you an additional topic about pulmonary hypertension (then proceeds to give you his test 4 after frying your brain). Overall, this course is really easy to get a B in if you do all of the activities completely and on time. Very reasonable to get a B+ if you put a good amount of studying for the tests. Challenging to get an A- if you are taking several other BMEs at the time. Almost impossible to get an A. He doesn't give you grade cutoffs so my best advice is shoot for a 90 and hope for the best.

Prefacing this by saying I already knew Helmke before taking this class and had a good relationship with him.

Physiology is a very interesting course with a lot of details. Helmke is a very knowledgeable professor - maybe too knowledgeable. He’s obviously brilliant and expects his students to be brilliant as well.

He’s a nice guy and follows the research on the most effective teaching styles, so he definitely cares about his students learning. He also, however, can be very firm. Because he’s so nice and caring, it can be surprising when you ask for an extension and he doesn’t give it to you. He’ll decide whether to give you an extension if he thinks it’s fair to the other students. Don’t stress about it but also don’t think you can have a little wiggle room just because he’s a nice guy.

Pros:
- knowledgeable professor
- tests have a group portion

Cons:
- fair amount of weekly work (one quiz per week, one assignment due per week, a flash card due every class)

Tips for success:
- (controversial) do the readings AFTER lecture, not before
- start studying for the midterms earlier to get a better grasp on concepts
- concepts are the most important thing in this class, not memorization
- study with your assigned groups!

helmke is quirky and his teaching style sort of revolves around that. never really focused on what the textbook was saying as he generally covered what he needed to in class, but reading the textbook before hand may help prep and give you a baseline so you aren't rushing to try and understand in class. tests are hard and sort of out there- they're more application based and require inferences or extended thinking. go to office hours for the homework.

Dr. Helmke makes this class a really engaging and enjoyable course! The class is graded on a specs system, not the normal percentage/points system. This means that if you pass 3/4 of the midterms, 7/8 of the homeworks, 45/50 of the flashcards/In-class activities, and 12/14 of the quizzes, you are guaranteed an A. His grading is very reasonable, and he emphasizes content mastery over pure memorization and regurgitation (all of the quizzes and flashcard assignments have unlimited attempts!). The start of the course may seem very intimidating, especially the first or second exploration assignments, but if you utilize the in-class TAs and office hours for those, they can guide you through the challenging parts of it. Overall, I highly recommend this class to all students (if you are a BME student deciding between taking Helmke or Guilford, I greatly encourage you to take Helmke). Extra note: Helmke is really entertaining in class with all his physio jokes and physical demonstrations of the content.

This class was super interesting and it goes by a Mastery type grading scale with certain amount of Tests, Quizzes, Discussions, and Explorations that you need to get mastery on to get an A, B, C, D, or F in the class. Overall I thought that the textbook was lowkey useless and his lectures were what I used to study for the tests. The explorations can be a pain in the butt but if you get them checked during TA office hours and get help on them early it will be fine. The concepts are not difficult at all to understand and its overall a pretty good course.