BIOL 3020

Do not go into this class thinking this is one of the easier biology core courses. Cox teaches the first half of the course (evolution) while Brodie teaches the last half (ecology). While they both maintained similar test lengths (32 questions, multiple choice), the written styles were completely different. Cox's exams are much more straightforward, but you need to remember all the examples and the key species names to succeed; all questions were fair and did not have much pushback by the students. Brodie's exams were more application-based and confusing to understand. I struggled to finish his exams in the allotted time due to their lengthy, ambiguous nature. Numerous students would have to ask for clarification during Brodie's exams, so definitely take advantage of this. You need to learn the definitions well to apply the concepts. Some of my peers and I also felt Brodie was somewhat demeaning when answering questions or responding to student pushback on exams; if a different interpretation of the question was brought up, this was seen as a mistake on our part instead of a poorly-written question. Brodie also did not care about correcting his mistakes (he completely removed a question on one exam, causing the grades of the students who had gotten it correct to drop, like 28/32 vs 28/31, rather than crediting all students for the question) and had many typos in exams. The final was optional to replace the lowest midterm, and it was easier than the midterms. Cox and Brodie both lectured well, and the lectures were recorded in the event you could not attend; Brodie failed to record very often, however. Brodie's class also started with 5-10 minute ecology videos, and he would continue lecturing for about a minute after the class ended to make up for the time.

To succeed in this course:
1) Go to office hours for all of the homework problems, and do them earlier if possible. You need to earn full homework points.
2) Study early and study often. Memorize the specific examples and key species names.
3) Do not spend much time reading the textbook, if any. When confused on a topic, I referred to the textbook maybe twice, but another time the confusing topic was not even in the book.
4) Ask for clarification on the exam questions (especially Brodie's!) and pace yourself during exams. You will need to earn extremely high grades on the first two exams (Cox's) to have a high grade in the course. You may understand the ecology for Brodie's exams well, but the ambiguous nature of the questions makes it difficult to score high. #tCFS24

This is genuinely the most frustrating class I've ever taken. The content is interesting and not difficult (IMO), but the exams are written to be as confusing as possible. It's almost impossible to do well in this class (at least the second half) because you have to be able to intuit what Dr Brodie meant when he wrote the exam questions (which are also nothing like the lecture practice questions). Exam 4 was the worst - there was debate and confusion over literally every question we reviewed. Also, Dr Brodie won't listen to anyone's complaints or concerns about the questions, so don't bother. You should obviously study, but there's really no point in stressing over it because the questions come down to wording and/or semantics. I think the average GPA this class (maybe a ~2.9 for last spring) is artificially low because of the exams. You'll probably come away with good knowledge about the topic and a mediocre grade. My advice is don't take the class unless it's required and just accept that you'll most likely get a B no matter how much you study. #tCFS24

I’m more interested in cellular/molecular biology, but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this class. Professor Cox is somewhat dull but his powerpoint slides are the best slides I’ve ever seen. For some people, going to lectures may not be mandatory, although I still attended because recording lectures is helpful for me and clicker participation gives you 1% bonus. Exams were challenging but as long as you have a deep understanding of the content and examples, they are definitely doable. Professor Brodie’s lecturing style is a little more interesting and I’d say the content that he teaches is a bit more straightforward. His exams were a little more challenging than Professor Cox’s but still doable in my opinion. Both professors are very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter which is refreshing. Overall, this is an excellent class and I learned a lot of useful information.

The only good thing about this course is that you don't need to buy the textbook. This class is advertised as easier than the other biology courses, yet I disagree. I thought the material presented in class seemed straightforward, interesting, and relatively simple, yet somehow that didn't translate over to exams. The questions are extremely picky and you can understand all the material well, but will still get stuck on the exam questions. Your grade is made up entirely of the 4 exams and there is no extra credit or other assignments that can boost it once you do bad on one exam. TLDR; very interesting class, horrible exams but that defines the bio dept as a whole so do with that what you will

Don’t buy the textbook, you won’t need to read it. Go to class and pay attention. You will get 1 point added to your course grade for attendance (measured by iClicker, you can afford to miss only a couple of lectures). Cox teaches first half, Brodie teaches second half. Cox is an okay lecturer and has straightforward exams. Brodie is a good lecturer but has hard, very ambiguous exams (I did worse on them DESPITE them actually being open note due to corona). No homework.

He is a fun teacher for the second half of the course, though they do switch over in the middle requires a bit of readjustment. They try to stay on the same track and along the same strategy, so that's good. Brodie can be a bit gruffer and his tests were a bit more detail oriented with the last one being the most difficult out of all of them. I didn't feel the need to read the book more than when I had something that I did not fully understand and I got an A. If you show up to class, answer the iClickers (which are only for completion), and study before the tests, you can crush this class. However, those tests are important as each one is 25% of the grade, but they aren't cumulative, so it's clear what will be on each test. The discussions are optional and only lasted for about an hour out of the two they had allotted.

So the nice thing about this class is that there is 0 homework. You do not need to do the readings at all. Everything they pull from is from the class lectures. That being said, this makes each exam 25% of your grade, so you need to do well on them to get a good grade. Cox and Brodie taught this course together and I thought they were both pretty good. Make sure you do the review questions for the exam, and I would recommend sometimes going to the optional Discussion section for any further clarification.

The content of the course is straightforward, and the lectures are clear cut. You don't need the textbook. However, the tests are poorly worded and extremely random making them difficult. You could study for hours and be able to even teach the course and not know how to answer a test question. It all comes down to whether you can read the professor's mind or not. Doing the review problems and going to office hours with any questions will help significantly.