BIOL 1050

Took this class to get credit for science/math. Honestly, you don't even need to come to class. All of the powerpoints are posted on collab beforehand and he pretty much reads straight from them. The only thing is that you have quicker questions pretty much every class that are worth 10% of the grade. He does practice exams before he 'opens' the test on collab and those are very beneficial. The material is not very interesting but it is a pretty easy class if you want to get some credits out of the way. Other than that, Paul is very very nice and has some funny comments!

This class is a pretty easy A. There isn't any homework. There are clicker questions randomly that count toward the participation grade. There are 5 tests and you can drop the lowest of the first four. If you study the powerpoints, you will be fine. Don't bother reading the book. Do any extra credit that is offered. The class is pretty boring, but go just for the clickers.

Adler is definitely very very knowledgeable about everything biology... which sometimes made the class hard to follow. Having never taken a bio class before, I thought this would be a good place to start, but Adler tends to throw out a lot of Bio terms and assumes a bit of prior knowledge on bio vocabulary. I spent at least an hour out of class each week watching videos on the really complicated processes he explained in 3 minutes in lecture and trying to make sense of my notes. Also, the tests (5 midterms, all take home but closed noted) sometimes contained very poorly written questions or really tricky ones that Adler thought were really simple. The class is pretty well curved at the end, and overall I think I learned some valuable things that range a wide scope of biology and enjoyed the class.
PS I did not open the "text book" all semester and got B+/A- on all the tests before the curve

Didn't go to class, studied the powerpoints and still got a A+. class was very boring.

This class was one of the easiest classes I took this semester. If you take advantage of his extra credit policies, you can easily bring up your grade. I received mostly B's on the tests but since I participated in many class debates and asked questions, I ended up with an A. Professor Adler is extremely boring in class and he is very overqualified given the information. However, he is really nice and wants his students to succeed. The tests are inconsistent- sometimes the readings were on tests and sometimes they weren't. There is no written homework and the reading is easy. There is a great class for students who are not future STEM students in the college who need to knock out the science requirement.

Worst class ever. Used to be one of the easiest classes at UVA but he changed the course so it's harder. The tests are approximately 20 questions, the lectures inane and boring (he is a droning lecturer), there are no quizzes or real homework assignments, the textbook is Genetics for Dummies. Slept in class, didn't read the textbook or participate in class, bombed the first test, got a B+.