BIOL 3000

It was an interesting class but does require a lot of studying prior to exams. Be prepared to spend the days before the exam stuffing cell biology into your mind.

This class covers a LOT of information, but it all feels so necessary to anyone on a Bio/Biochem/Premed track. It can get a little dense at times, and Wormington really tests at a pretty advanced level at times, but it's relatively easy information to grasp conceptually. He also does an excellent job articulating the information. The class is not an easy A, but is a reasonably attainable A, and is very worthwhile altogether. By the way, the book is absolutely useless. As long as you take good notes, the slides and homework questions are completely sufficient study materials.

Wormington is a champ. For most, taking this class is not an option so make sure to take it with the Worm. His lectures are engaging and while he speaks fast, he tends to repeat a lot of things to help students understand. Take excellent notes and record the lectures to review them later. That being said, this is not an easy class and getting an A can be extremely tough. The homework grade is not an automatic 100 and you have be regimented in staying up to date with the material in order to do well on them. Exams are difficult, but fair. Overall, the class is great and the material is super enjoyable.

Wormington's class is hard but definitely worth it. You need to pay attention to class and record lectures. Take good notes. Everything he says is super important! He also repeats important notes several times if you didn't catch it the first time. He speaks quickly sometimes, so just stay awake!
Very interesting class. Great professor (even though he can be a bit condescending).

My favorite class at UVA! I've never felt like I learned so much from a class. Wormington is an amazing professor and the material is super interesting. The tests are very fair. If you keep up with the lectures and go to office hours they are doable! Highly recommend!

Pay attention to class--if you're not good at keeping up with his fast pace like I was, then record and transcribe his lectures at a slower speed like I did. Transcribing is so terrible but it's so worth it, especially for the final test on cancer when you're studying pretty difficult material. If you do this, his tests are very fair. Doesn't make it easy though! No curve, so it's quite merciless so you have to keep up. I think around 30% of the exam is from the HW questions, so make sure you understand those. Don't just memorize them, but actually understand them, because he often changes up the questions a bit.

Prof. Wormington is a great guy and knows his stuff. Homework is relaxed with daily assignments of multiple choice questions. Tests are diffuclt so review lecture recordings and powerpoint slides. Great class. Interesting material. Answered a lot of fundamental biology questions that accumulated from other courses.

I mean, it's a core so that sums it up. Just as hard as orgo or gen bio/chem but Wormington is a great professor; he and Condron[BIOL 3050] are by far the best in the biology department. DO NOT BUY THE BOOK. waste of like $180 or however the fuck expensive it is. Study old tests and/or go to lecture and you'll average C's on the test and with homework and other stuff probably scrape out a B- or something like that. As far as i know he doesn't curve, so just keep on stuff and don't leave shit to last minute like i sometimes do and youll be fine. REPEAT DO NOT BUY THE BOOK

It's a bio major core, so I guess most people don't have much of a choice, but I'd definitely recommend Wormington if you can spin it. He's been teaching this class for like 20 years and knows the best way to explain things. The course material is also really interesting and Wormington stays on top of current research and incorporates it into class throughout the semester. Test questions are exactly the same type of questions as on the homework, which can be a nice grade booster if you can puzzle through them. A lot of people are adamant that the only way to do well in this class is to get ahold of old tests, but that is NOT true - I haven't seen an old test all semester and I'm doing fine. There is a TON of overlap between this class and Biochemistry/Biological Chemistry, so if you've already taken those, you've got a huge leg up on everyone who hasn't. DO NOT depend on a curve, because in all likelihood, there won't be one, or it'll be like 1 or 2 overall points. My recommendation would be to go to EVERY class and record the lectures. I didn't open the textbook once to study for the test, but it did come in handy three or four times to clarify homework questions. When studying for the tests, consider that the major theme of most questions is "how can I perturb this system and what will be the impact of doing so?" A lot of those concepts are covered in lecture, and it's really difficult to figure out the main takeaways from lecture slides if you don't go to lecture and listen to him explain. None of his tests are cumulative, so you can brain dump after each one. Wormington really is a super cool guy and he really wants his students to do well, so if you need help get it early and often. Good luck!

I can't say enough incredible things about this course. Cell includes everything from why people get heart attacks to how caffeine works to why we can't seem to find a cure for cancer. Never have I had more interesting course material taught by a more engaging Professor. Wormington has been doing this for 20 years and you can tell. Keys to success in this class are going to every lecture, recording the lecture, taking meticulous notes in class and augmenting them with the recording if you miss something or fall asleep (which happens as a result of the 9am lectures..). Before tests a small group of friends and I would go back through every lecture, accumulating basically every single thing he said into a study guide and then went through it in conjunction with the slides. This takes a lot of patience and work but it got me an A in the class because everything he asks on the test was mentioned in class, even if he makes you think a little extra. For homeworks, set aside an hour or 2 every time and don't rush through them. They really add up and can make or break your grade. Grading scales seem to vary by 1-2 points year to year based on the mean, but for us the mean was 82, median 84. A was 91+, A- was 90, B+ was 88-89, B 82-87, B- 80-81. You can imagine by how tight those brackets are that every point counts and a lot of people end up regretting a test or homework grade. I thought the third test was the easiest, followed by the final, the first test, and the second test as the hardest. If you put a lot of effort into this class you will come out with a lot of cool biology knowledge and a good grade.