BIOL 2040

What a COMPLETE waste of time. This class is the most ridiculous class I have ever taken at UVa. In essence, here's how lab goes. You go in, try to waste some time and make it look like you did the lab in lab, and then go home early. The next week right before lab, everyone is in the biopsyc library rushing to finish the 10 page worksheet packet by looking up everything on the internet. The student TAs also told us to look it up on the internet; that's what they did.

And Kopeny's prelab lecture was another JOKE. He would have a 50 slide ppt, and get through (maybe) 12 slides and just expect you to read the rest on your own. I went for the first 3 weeks just to answer the clicker, but after that I stopped going because the lecture was superfluous. Honestly, the Biology department here at UVa is a piece of work.

In case your wondering, I got an A in this class. It had NOTHING to do with Kopeny. If you do well on the weekly quizzes but don't go to lecture, your TA won't say anything. They start to question you when you do badly and don't go to prelab lecture.

the labs got fun when you got to dissect things. the lectures were unneccesary and were very boring. the main part of the grade were long detailed lab reports in which half of the questions were drawing and labeling and the rest stupid long discussion questions which always related to evolutionary trends. the labs were sometimes very interesting.

Kopeny is evil.

required but sucks just like most intro bio classes

Fun, interesting class. If you go to lab lecture and do the required reading, you'll have no problem getting an A.

boring. time consuming. relatively easy class though

Eric was a great TA, and made the lab very enjoyable.

Lab lecture is a waste of time. If you print off the slides, read them, and bring them to lab, you will have the info you need from the lectures. the quizzes ask random questions, but if you have read everything in the lab manual and the slides you can do okay. Lelena is a really good TA and was really helpful.

Kopeny is not coherent in lecture (which is at 8:30AM, btw) and never gets through his slides...I don't even know why I went because I just ended up falling asleep. That being said, being in BIOL 2020 really helped for the labs go with what you cover in lecture for the most part, and you don't have to study that much for the quizzes. (which get pretty hard) The grade breakdown for this class is 40% quizzes, 40% lab worksheets (completed during lab), and 20% participation (should be a gimme). I believe a 93 is an A in this class, and he says he "normalizes" the quiz grades between sections. Karen Barnard was a really good TA, she would always have these short reviews before lab and things she pointed out would always be on the quiz.

Take it if you need it. Otherwise, it all depends on your TA. Kopeny is a very inefficient lecturer. Never really went to any of the 8:30 AM lectures. Still pulled off an A by reading the lab manual and powerpoints.