BIOL 3000

contrary to the other reviews, i didn't really find cell biology to be nearly as bad as most people made it out to seem--going to class is a must imo! even though he records his lectures, i feel as if being able to pause and take notes almost diminishes your ability to see the big picture of the lecture, which is often more important than the little details which you can refine later anyways. during lectures, i basically wrote down everything he said, but do note that he often repeats things several times. i didn't touch the textbook a single time and you really don't need to, and should def opt out. he always uses several homework questions on exams, so make sure to basically memorize all of them EARLY (anki, quizlet, wtv). i know the course forum reviews and course average looks scary, but i really believe this class wasn't nearly as bad as orgo. my biggest piece of advice would be to start reviewing early, even if that means just staring at the slides without understanding them. simply priming yourself with the content is way better than cramming things in, and although some test questions may require a little thinking, the large majority imo were simply knowledge checks (i.e do u know x/y). i know many people do a "week in review" for every 3 lectures, or even every lecture, but i managed to get an A basically just by reviewing everything a week before the exam and honestly didn't touch the course material much outside of class if there wasn't a test. he also "curves" the grades by changing the grading scale, so anything above a 89.5 was an A and 87.5 was an A-, and it was basically the same for B's and C's. another thing to note is that mike is lowk super rude unless you fit a certain demographic which you will recognize very quickly,

Given its notoriety at the university, I'm sure most people know it's a difficult class. What largely makes it tricky in my opinion is the extreme depth of knowledge required on exams. While it can concededly take a while to figure out what works for you, I found it best to skip lectures and listen to the recordings later that day, transcribing the "important parts" on a notebook, and later going back to these notes if I needed content clarification. Honestly, the course's organization is somewhat confusing. For instance, when covering mitosis, it isn't done in chronological order. So it will take a while of looking back at lecture notes to get the "story" right in your head. The figures on the slides are both very helpful and pertinent to your success. Most figures should be MEMORIZED forwards and backwards unless he explicitly says otherwise. This means mechanisms of pump action, cofilin cycling, etc.

While it is difficult and arduous, I did find it improved my knowledge of biology quite a bit.

Some other miscellaneous notes:
- because of the enormous amount of content, the TAs are VERY shaky on their content from the course, so ask them content questions sparingly
- the homework questions are very similar in style to the exams, so pay close attention to these
- many units are seemingly random and esoteric, i.e. the cancer unit, but still make sure you learn them just as thoroughly for the final