BIOL 2040

The class was a breeze.

The first few weeks are really boring, but it picks up when it comes to dissections. Lectures are completely pointless since Kopeny tends to repeat himself over and over while mixing up all the information and doesn't even get through the whole lecture. He's also very disorganized when it comes to getting assignments out and midterm/final grades out. Not too hard of a class, but annoying to take.

Boring class, how hard your quizzes are depend on your TA. My TA gave always the hardest quizzes while other friends would have quizzes with half the difficulty.

This class was MUCH more interesting than biol2030, and graded much more fairly. The worksheets were almost always a 10/10, or very close to it, and the quizzes in the lab were long enough so that if you missed one thing you could still do well (unlike Kittlesen's).
The dissections were interesting and you really do learn a lot even if you don't go to lab lecture (I went only once). There were two midterms, first one 8%, second one 12%. Both were fair, second one was very easy.
An A is set at a 92, so getting one is more likely this semester than in biol2030.
Kopeny is a very nice guy, and his office hours are useful if you actually have question. If you are taking biol 2020 at the same time, you should at LEAST get a B+. if you study for an hour before each lab, you can get an A-/A fairly easily.

Also, if you get Xin Zhao, you are super lucky. He is the best TA ever, and his quizzes are fair (unlike some of the other TAs).

The lab was really interesting and challenging. I would recommend studying and going over the questions before going to lab. When I was in the course I would watch youtube videos and look at pictures so I could fill out my worksheets before going to lab and I ended up with a high A.

Megan Sebasky was a good TA in that she was lenient with grades and pretty relaxed overall. Quizzes are the hardest part of this course because sometimes you won't know where the TAs got the questions from because its not anything Kopeny talked about in his lecture and all the material is kind of scattered. That being said, I only had an 82.5% quiz average and still got an A in the course because there is so much other participation/gimme points. I studied hard for like 2 days before the midterms and got a 100 and an 88, but they're worth so little that if you have high quiz grades, they don't even matter

Hated this class. It's been a while since high school bio and I feel like if you're not a bio major/taking it in conjunction with the bio 2030 you won't do well. Tests and midterms you would think you did well and then get an awful grade, quizzes were random and had nothing to do with anything.

This class was a joke. First of all, dont waste your time to go to lectures. They are completely pointless and Kopeny reads straight from the slides (which was much different from 2030's lectures). Overall, quizzes/labs themselves are easy and doable, just know something about what you're doing AKA don't come to class thinking you will be eating cupcakes and be surprised to see an earthworm. Jokes apart, most people take this class due to requirements, but this class will be much easier than your other classes, so dont worry too much about it.

This lab is one of the more enjoyable science labs, if you like dissections. It's pretty laid back; you get to dissect the animal with a partner and learn the parts as you go, which is important for the quizzes. The quizzes weren't too bad, just study the Powerpoints from lecture and the lab manual, and know the structures AND functions of parts! Lab lecture is completely pointless and nap-inducing (typical Kopeny); just get the Powerpoints from collab. I didn't do awesome on the final and midterm (they're hard to study for because the information is very widely spread across topics), but they're worth much less than the quizzes and in-class worksheets (which leaves you with little outside homework besides preparing for the lab), and I still got an A. Get a fun lab table, do the readings, and hope that your TA knows a little more than mine did.

Kopeny didn't hold any of the lab lecture sessions - just posted podcasts on collab. You don't really need to listen to them to get an A, just look at the powerpoint slides he posts. This lab is MUCH more doable than 2030. You don't get out early anywhere near as much but the quizzes are really straightforward and simple. You learn more in lab than 2030 rather than studying material outside of class. Should be an easy A.