BME 3080

Most work intensive class in BME (and probably all of UVA).

Okay this class is not nearly as bad as everyone says. The reviews on this site exaggerate the class to a point that makes it sound unfair. You write 5 lab report and each takes 10-15 hours of work. You have a lab report due every 2-3 weeks so that averages to 5-7.5 hours of work a week. Thats nothing for a four credit class. Take a chill pill. Its time consuming, but did not make my semester miserable.

learn to love your lab group because if you do this class right you will spend at least every day with them for multiple hours

First of all - IDEAS is not as bad as everyone says. Unless you save it all for the night before, it's manageable (unless you get a terrible group assigned to you). It is definitely a time consuming class, but it feels much different and a lot more manageable than an APMA or Physics II. It's not constant busy work. That being said - don't take it lightly! Just be responsible with how you use your time.

When it comes down to it, this class is great! Where else are you going to learn about and actually do a bunch of lab techniques? Sure, your technique isn't going to be perfect, but you get a great hands-on introduction to so many relevant methods that most people don't get to until grad school or summer internships.

Dr. Allen is great. Knows his stuff and truly cares for the students. Get to know him!

This class is probably one of the more time consuming classes at UVa, but just stay on top of things and you should be fine. Even though the groups are random, most groups turn out okay since pretty much everyone in BME is smart. The material is really interesting, and that's coming from someone who hasn't found BME very interesting at all up to this semester. Allen is awesome and extremely knowledgeable. If you put in a solid amount of work, expect at least a B+. Pro tip: make sure to study a lot for the pre-lab quizzes, they are all really difficult and can help your grade if you do well.

You probably already know this, but this class is the staple of the BME curriculum here at UVa. You will learn some really cool lab techniques, get to know your BME class much more than you did in Cell bio, Design, or Physio, and get to know Tim Allen, who might be the greatest professor alive. Of course, after perusing through the other reviews, you probably realize that the lab reports do take a lot of time- and they certainly do, but it's definitely exaggerated. Hope for a good group, but I think that even without a good group, the reports are manageable as long as you DON'T PROCRASTINATE. This is the most important lesson I learned in the class and especially when you have four or five other classes to deal with, it is critical that you stay on top of IDEAS. This means writing reports right after you do the lab, so the material is fresh in your mind. On the topic of grading, nothing is too harsh, mainly because Allen grades in the summer, but, even in the Fall, so long as you are doing better than the average you'll be fine. The pre-lab quizzes are quite straightforward except a "once in a blue moon" Cell Bio question that makes you think a little critically about the subject material (Kevin Janes will continue to haunt you forever). There is no midterm and the final I thought was not bad at all- basically if you knew what was going on, did the labs and didn't mess around, and did parts of each of the labs, you'll be in great shape and may not even need to study. Honestly, enjoy this class because it is a good time and once you've left UVa., I can guarantee you'll miss it like hell, despite those pesky lab reports.

I'm not sure who wrote some of these reviews, but your group 100% makes a difference. Yeah, you can still do well in this class with a bad group, but at the cost of your sanity. That being said, if you have a good group this class really isn't that bad. The quizzes are straight forward and so is the final exam. The experiments are also not too difficult once you get your group dynamics figured out. The reports take a long time to write and though people recommend not to procrastinate, starting too early never really seemed to help. No matter how early my group started we were always finishing at 4am the night before it was due. Next semester, I plan not to start the report until like 2 days before its due.

Dr. Allen is cool, definitely get to know him--though sometimes his lectures are not very useful.

Prepare to spend countless hours staring at either the Google Doc or the group member who is perpetually on Instagram. It is during this time period that either true biomedical engineers are forged, or the realization occurs that working at McDonalds isn't so bad. Pain may be temporary, but a bad group can ruin your GPA forever.

Hope that you have good luck when the groups are chosen, because your group will determine how well you do in this course. I was tremendously lucky and was assigned to a group of 3 where the other members were my good friends and we did well, but there were some problems in other groups. The lab reports took about 30 hours each (writing, not even including analysis) so make sure to start early. As a side note, we finished each lab at 3 AM the day it was due which really, really sucked but we did quite well on them because we put a lot of time and effort. IDEAS on Thursday is the best because it will give you more time to write if you begin on the weekend. The quizzes each week weren't too bad, I made notecards of all the slides and the material in the lab handout for the week and those helped out a lot. The final was easier than I expected, just make sure to pay attention in class and take notes and you should be fine.

#tCFF23
Prof Allen is the only prof that offers this course so this review won't be focused on why you should pick him but rather tips on how to do well in this class!

Most of your experience in this course is determined by who your group members are. I was in a group of five people (including me) and here was our group distribution:
a) the super-nice, straight A student
b) a coding whiz who would learn new skills to complete tasks
c) a fourth-year who mostly just wanted to get the class over with
d) an athlete who was very busy and also struggled with time commitments
e) me

This group was completely random (as they all are) and there were conflicts between several members. First, there was conflict between me (e) and (c) over IDEAS-related things. Then, there was conflict between (a) and (d) that was outside of the classroom but definitely leaked over. This was the most stressful part of the class, managing group dynamics, and it often frustrated me that I was spending effort focusing on this instead of just trying to learn the course material. I would recommend you prepare for this and also try to enroll in a section where you know you work well with multiple people to increase your chances of getting in a group with at least one.

Onto the actual course, Prof Allen definitely drones on and on and on and in my opinion, your time is better spent just reviewing the lecture slides and module instructions during lecture rather than trying to make any sense out of what he is saying. He starts each lab with a quiz. The quiz questions are usually pretty specific, so try your best to understand the lecture + experiment before going in. There are also quiz questions posted online... I won't say where but I'm sure you can find them.

The labs take the least time for this class. Most of the time is spent doing data analysis and writing the lab report. Absolutely, ABSOLUTELY, try to finish the data analysis at least 2 days before the lab report due date. This will give the group time to actually WRITE the report in the remaining 2 days.