BIOL 3000

Just recently took the MCAT, and this class definitely helped me to prepare for it. The kind of questions that he asks on exams and homework force you to understand experimental design. There are a lot of questions about what results you would expect if X happened/was changed. The material you are taught in this course helps for the MCAT, but I think the types of questions that really force you to reason through multiple factors helped me even more to be ready for it.

That being said, it's a difficult course. I barely got an A, pretty much by luck. It is difficult to get an A/A- in this class. (I did not look at old exams. There were some who I suspect looked at old exams that did worse than me in the course. Contrary to what many say, you do not need to have access to his old exams to succeed in this course.) Take the homework seriously! Each individual assignment is not worth much, but it really adds up. Homework questions are also pretty representative of exam questions. The first exam was pretty easy and straightforward, but don't let that fool you! The rest of the exams are more difficult, but not unreasonable... generally.

Many people love Wormington, and he is a great lecturer. However, I found him to be somewhat abrasive as a person. To each his own.

I loved this class! It's required, so bio majors don't have much of a choice, but really Wormington is an incredible professor who is immensely knowledgable about the course matter. Definitely spend a lot of time on the homework every night; they add up quickly and they're really helpful for the exams! His exams are tricky but fair. He really tests if you actually know the material, but I loved this class and was actually sad on the last day.

Just took the final for this course, and I've got to say, it's been one of the most rewarding classes I've taken. It's definitely my favorite class at UVA so far, and required for Bio majors so you might as well embrace it. Wormington can be tricky, he really tests if you know the material or not, it's not simple memorization. That said, I never read the book, and I'm looking at an A- in the class. There's 4 tests and a homework grade that's 15% of your grade. I recommend really taking the time to do the homework and spending an hour or two on each one, as it all adds up and it's basically a test grade at the end of the day. A lot of the questions in this class are of perturbing different biological systems, so you need to really understand the material so you can know what happens in certain situations, what elements of certain pathways are most necessary, etc. Wormington's a great professor, he really cares about the material and his students. It's a tough class, but it's rewarding and really interesting stuff!

Overall this was a great course. Wormington is an amazing lecturer and he does a great job of making the material relevant by including case studies that can be understood from the concepts learned in class. Recording the lectures is very helpful, especially for studying and completing the homework assignments. That being said, this was one of the hardest courses I've taken (grade brackets are occasionally adjusted by 1%), and you should definitely allot it the time it deserves.

So here's the deal. This is a required course for bio majors, so I'm assuming that you're trying to decide WHEN to take it not IF (But if you are deciding if, I'd definitely recommend!). I ended up taking it along with orgo; doable but probably not my smartest decision. Even though it doesn't seem like there's a lot of work in between the tests, you really need to allot several hours after each class for the quiz and re-listening to lectures - see below if you're trying to gauge how much time you'll need for this class.

Here's my advice, which I strongly suggest you follow if you'd like an A:
1. Record the lectures. Yes, when I first heard that people did this, I thought it was ridiculous. But Wormington talks way too fast during lecture to write it all the first time. (But for the love of God turn your phone on airplane mode if you put it in the front of the room during lecture. There were so many times during our class where phones up front started ringing that he eventually banned phones up there. I swear it was like 10 times.)
2. Re-listen to the lectures and take notes RIGHT AFTER every class. Don't just wait until right before the exam to listen to them! You will be so much more prepared by doing it along the way. Doing this thoroughly will take around 1.5-2 hours for each lecture. Plus when you're studying for tests, you'll already have study guides!
3. Take the 5q quizzes after re-listening to the lectures. Pay careful attention to wording. They are tricky.
4. When studying for tests, look over the multiple choice homework questions. Many of them will show up on the test, either exactly the same or slightly changed.

Overall this was one of my favorite classes. I thought the material was very interesting, and Wormington is awesome at lecturing! For me, the third test was the hardest, followed by the first, second, then final. They are all fair MC exams, but still tricky. For overall grades, 14% in the A bracket, 42% in B bracket, etc. He expanded the brackets by 1%, so 89 is A- and 90+ is an A. The GPA was a 2.500. Every point counts, so spend time on the homeworks which are 15% of the grade! The first 3 exams are each 20% and the final is 25%. Not a cumulative final though, phew.

Also, DO NOT buy the textbook. Believe me. All you need to know for tests and homework questions comes directly from lectures and his slides.

I just wanted to start off by making a few points about this course (NOTE: I received an A-):

1. DO NOT BUY THE TEXTBOOK. I have always been one of those people that has done all of the required readings for my courses and was hesitant when friends who had previously taken the course told me to study by reviewing the lecture notes. He has the units and the listed "readings" in his resources and he will inform you when something will not be covered in lecture, but that only occurred once or twice. I would recommend borrowing a friends textbook or asking them if they can make a summary for the few pages that may not be in lecture. I never felt that I was ill-prepared for tests, but it was usually tricky questions that I missed.
2. RECORD THE LECTURES. Again, I had never done this for the course and figured I could either write or type fast enough during lecture, but there are times when there is a lot of information being covered and you simply will need to listen to the lectures again in order to prepare for the exams or for answering quiz questions. On the first day of class you will notice a lot of individuals are recording the lectures on their phones, do so. Also, try and find out which friends are taking the course as well so you have other individuals to get recordings from if your phone messes up or if you miss class. It's not the worst thing to miss a few lectures if you're busy preparing for other tests, but try and listen to the lecture as soon as possible so that you do not fall behind.
3. There are A LOT of tricky questions on the quizzes and tests. While some questions may seem simple the best way to ensure you don't miss a questions on material that you actually know is to rule out each option. There were a few questions that I don't believe were fair and were utilized to prevent very high test averages. All I can say is there are some questions that could honestly go either way, but to think of these in an ideal scenario.
4. This is a difficult course. I took this course with Organic Chemistry and it was definitely hard, but doable. Being a Biology major, there are obviously other courses that are just as difficult. I would recommend spreading out these courses until graduation. Do not attempt to take multiple biology course on top of pre-reqs for the MCAT with Cellular Biology. It is certainly doable, but I felt if I had taken another biology course I would not have been able to do as well as I did in this course. That being said, the way I usually prepared for this course was by making notecards off of the lecture notes and recordings. It usually took me about a week and a half to begin listening to all of the lectures again (usually 10-12 hours worth for each test). I had a friend that would also type up the lectures word for word and we would use this to read over the lectures several times. In order to do well, you should be very familiar with all of the material discussed in lecture. Do not expect Wormington to reuse quiz questions, but try and understand the conceptual aspects of each question because he will change little details about them on the tests.

Finally, I found this course to be extremely interesting. While this has been one of the most difficult courses I have taken at UVA, it was definitely one of the most applicable courses in terms of medicine. Professor Wormington will apply the material to various diseases and treatment options throughout the semester. As a biology major, I never found my major to be as interesting and applicable until I took this course. If you put in the work for this course and make an effort to truly understand the material you will do well in the course.

I feel like there's a disproportionate number of positive comments here. In my experience, you either love or hate this course, and I must say (after having taken orgo and physics), this was the hardest class I've taken at UVA. If you didn't enjoy Kittlesen's first semester of intro bio, buckle up bc this class is gonna be a struggle bus. This class had its moments, especially when we delved into the mechanisms of genetic diseases, cancer, caffeine, etc., but for most of the class, I felt like it was way more information than I was interested in knowing. Like previous commenters have mentioned, be prepared to focus during lecture and type down as much of what he says as possible, listen to the recordings again afterward and fill in/redo your notes, and DO NOT underestimate those 5 question homeworks due before every lecture -- they really add up. You don't need to read the textbook, bc he is the textbook. Know every word he says, verbatim. At least a few of the homework questions will appear on the exam every time, so make sure you know them. If that sounds like a lot of work, that's bc it is. Anyone who does well on his exams without consistently putting in a minimum of 12hrs/week is lying or obtained a copy of his old exams.

Professor Wormington is amazing. As someone who though she was more interested in ecology before this class, cell was truly inspiring. I feel like I learned so much about the processes in our cells and everything that they need to do just to survive. Professor Wormington was super great at lecturing so I never really opened the textbook I got. I just studied the notes I took in class. For me, it was best to record the lectures on a recorder (your phone storage will fill up real quick if you use that) then listen to them and add to my class notes that day or the day after. Then I would do the homework assignments. The HW assignments are usually 5 questions and can be tricky even though they're open note, but they're good practice for the exams. There are 4 exams including the final (which isn't cumulative thankfully).Lots of material to memorize for the tests but overall they weren't unreasonable I don't think. I definitely recommend this class.

The positive reviews for this class are definitely the minority, but even so, there are too many. This was probably my second least favorite class, behind physics lab. Professor Wormington's lectures are fairly interesting, but he is very unapproachable outside of class, and very condescending when asked a question. This class will not test your understanding of the material, but your ability to memorize huge quantities of unrelated information and acronyms. I do not exaggerate when I say that you are responsible for committing every single aside, figure, and research article on the slides, whether or not they are covered in class. The homework assignments are unnecessarily hard and arbitrary (as in you can argue different answers for some questions), just like the tests. I showed up to the tests feeling like I knew everything, but then came across questions that made really weak and long-stretched out connections between topics. I am not saying that getting an A in this class is impossible, but you have to make this class your number 1 priority, and shove your other classes aside, because of the raw amount of material you are expected to shove down and the stupid amount of time required to do so. Do not underestimate this class, I am not in any way exaggerating, you will need to dedicate more time to this class than to orgo - listening to all of the lectures and going over the homework and slides over and over again takes upwards of 15-20 hours per test. I am a chemistry major, not a biology major, so I was not required to take this class, but I did so anyway because I heard it was helpful for the MCAT (which I found out to be entirely false) - a decision which I strongly regret. Do not take this class unless you have to

(coming from a student that got an A)
I'll start by saying this course is by no means easy. Of course if you're a pre-med they RECOMMEND you take this class, but its not required. However, I am a bio major (and pre-med) so i needed to take this class regardless. As well, some people say "take this class because it'll help you on the MCAT." Based on the practice MCAT exams I've seen, this class could come in handy with the connections you make and how you understand how the cell works, but dont count on it to help you a lot.

Now with regards to the class,
It is not easy and it will require time outside of class to succeed. The homeworks you have due every other day are difficult and require you to think. It would take me about 1-2 hours doing the homeworks (they are only 5 questions) since i would go back and listen to the lectures, and even then there were times i still did not get 5s. Take the homeworks seriously since they are worth 15% of the final grade. There will be extra credit opportunities so dont worry if you miss some questions.

In preparation for the tests, i would re-listen to the lectures and write down EVERYTHING he said that was important (word by word). Now that might sound too much, but based on the questions he asked on the test, I did not want to take my chances with not knowing something. With that said, DO NOT BUY THE TEXTBOOK. It is not necessary because all his slides and lectures have more than enough information for you to succeed on the tests. This is good news because you do not have to waste time reading anything, allowing you to focus on the homeworks and prepare for the test.

His questions are tricky. There will be times where you know the information, but on his questions he leaves out information that you should know and you end up getting it wrong because you did not see the whole picture of the question he was asking you. You'll understand what i mean when you see his questions.

Look at everything carefully on his powerpoints. This is the first class that i've seen where the powerpoint slides provide an abundant amount of information that will actually help you on homework questions and for the test.

RECORD THE LECTURES. You might have never done this before for any class, but you will need to for this one. He spits out so much information in a matter of 50 minutes that you will not get everything down. You will need to go back and re-listen to finish writing your notes.

3 tests, each worth 20%. Final (non-cumulative...thankfully) 25%. Homeworks - 15%
In reality, the class does not require a lot of time (compared to say, genetics). All you do is answer 15 questions throughout the week (5 on mon, wed, fri). Re-listening to lectures will take most of your time as you prepare for the test. Get ready to spend at least 10-20 hours to prepare for the test the week before.

Now with all this said, I loved this class. I honestly learned so much and its what really made me want to be a bio major. You learn so much and its not boring. You'll begin to learn how drugs work to treat specific types of diseases, why cancer is so difficult to cure, the importance of vesicle trafficking to prevent diseases like ALS, and so much more. The regular intro bio class first semester is so basic and boring it made me not want to take another bio course, but after taking this class, i liked biology even more. I feel that anyone that takes this course will like it in the end although its difficult and a lot of work, but you definitely will learn things that will help you with future classes.