BIOL 3000

the class is not easy, but learn a lot.

He helps you understand the fundamental theories

This class was really interesting, but Wormington changed up the material so there was a lot of emphasis on phagocytosis. He wants you to understand the material so don't just memorize stuff because you're pretty much screwed if you do. With that said, only 14 students pulled an A in the class this past semester out of the 250 we had. Basically, you have to think through the questions logically and really understand the chimaera concepts because he really loves those. Most of his questions are application-based and require analysis of data (at least for us Fall 2012). I found the book to be detailed but helpful because sometimes Wormington says stuff like "this guy here" and "that molecule" so you can get confused with which protein/gene is doing what so the book was helpful in clarifying that. Record his lectures and pay attention in class because this class is worth it - it's interesting and fun and Wormington's one of the best lecturers at UVA.

I hated this class. I think if you REALLY love cell bio as a subject, you'll like this class. Otherwise, it was pretty bad. I kept up with most of the readings, went to every lecture and discussion and studied harder than I'd ever studied before. What I ultimately hated the most was that my friends and I would study for days and would really know the material but we'd still fail the tests. Wormington was an ok professor but I just didn't really like him. It was like he expected all of us to just know all the material he was teaching rather than really trying to make sure we learned it.

I really enjoyed taking this class with Wormington. He changed up the course a little by adding Warm-ups before every class. These warm ups were pretty difficult, but they helped a lot when it came time to study for the tests. He lectures well and his tests come from material he goes over in class, so there are no surprises.

It is really hard to get an A in this class, but Wormington is a great professor. He is a good lecturer, really helpful, and cares about his students.

Professor Wormington is a great professor and really tries to help you to understand the material presented. Not only that, he will try to connect the seemingly useless-for-everyday-life topics with current scientific research which make them very interesting. Learn to appreciate the science as much as he does and pay attention to these current topics (they will appear on tests).

The course is challenging as the material is very dense. You have to be able to not just memorize all the different proteins and their functions that are presented to you but also have to be able to see the big overall picture: how do these proteins interact to produce the ultimate end goal of their pathway. Look through the Warm Up questions that he gives you and try to understand why the answers are what they are (the same goes for any other class really).
The tests are difficult but definitely doable and are extremely fair. There will NOT be any question that Wormington did not cover with enough depth for you to figure out. Sometimes, the Warm Up questions that he gives you will appear on the tests but with some of their context changed (i.e. changing NOT to WILL). Because of this, it is crucial that you understand why answers are what they are. Thankfully, the final for the class is not cumulative (it would be insane if it was).

There are two things that you should do to succeed. First off, know that NOTHING in the Powerpoint presentations is irrelevant and you will have to know and understand all of its contents to succeed on the tests. The powerpoints themselves should be sufficient to study but if some points are unclear, the book might explain it in a different way that may help better understanding. Second, record the lectures and go through them again while looking through your notes and powerpoints as if you are sitting through the class again. I find that doing so really helped me pick up the material if I didn't understand them the first time through.

Overall the course was very enjoyable. An A is definitely possible with enough hard work.

Wormington is a fantastic professor. He knows what he is talking about and has taught this course so many times that his lectures have truly been perfected. Everything he says is important and everything on the slides is fair game if you touched upon it in class. This class is hard, and if you want an A or B you will need to put in the time. With that said it is not impossible.
I highly recommend you go to office hours and get to know Wormington. He truly cares about his students and will remember your name if you go to office hours even once or twice, then call on you in an auditorium of 400 kids by name. To me that shows true respect and commitment to students. He is very sarcastic, so if you are not good at interpreting sarcasm don't think that he is being mean; that's just his personality. Very fair professor and wants his students to learn. Always looking for ways to become a better professor and improve his course.
I was not too interested at all times in the subject matter but having him as a professor made the course much much less painful.
Also I highly suggest you study with one or two peers, and talk through the material. I didn't start doing this until the last two tests and found that it was very useful in grasping concepts that are scattered across many slides!

Wormington is a really good lecturer, but somewhat difficult to approach in office hours. The warm ups helped a lot this semester, even though it's a bit tedious to have to do them before every class. The content is interesting and even though the tests are hard, they are usually fair. Study from the slides, only need the book really for background info.

This class and genetics are the best core bio classes hands down. Wormington is a great lecturer, and actually a pretty nice guy if you go to his office hours. For his lectures, go everyday. You will regret the days you don't go and have to scramble to get notes/recordings from friends. If this class is offered next fall at 9am, I am so sorry. As great as Wormington is, coming to class hungover on Friday morning with little to no sleep and trying to understand cell bio might actually be the worst. Even getting to class at 9am on M/W is hard, at least for me. Take the best notes you can, and record lectures. Even though everyone says this for every class ever, this was one class where it was actually helpful. I didn't realize this until the final exam, and I regret it.
Before lectures there will be warmups due. They will be ridiculously hard. They are old test questions. You will be trying to answer old test questions before you even go to lecture. It was extremely hard and frustrating since this lead to a grade of 60% on 10% of my final grade. But it was nice, since we got exposure to test questions before the test. Hopefully he just makes this worth less % of your grade next year.
There will also be learning curves due at random times. Just do them, they are actually the easiest thing ever, you can get 40% of the questions right and still get a 100% on the exercise. So this was a nice grade boost, just don't forget to do them (oops).
The tests are a bit of a bitch, but they aren't that hard to study for. If you have gone to every class and start reviewing a week before, you should get it well enough to get an A. The book is helpful for getting the background info and especially for concepts at the beginning of the year. Other than that, focus on his lecture slides. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing (unless he says don't worry about it), is irrelevant. Protein names, drug names, protein structures, etc.