Professor Montell is knowledgeable and made a subject that could easily be boring into something exciting. I loved the guest lectures and was so thankful for her recording lectures. I have seen feedback on here that her lectures are disorganized, I disagree. Sometimes her slides can be a bit redundant, but that just drives her point home.

Entire course disorganized. Seems like she didn't prepare for lectures or know what she was going to talk about. Slides crammed with little information. Doesn't respond to emails, has others do it for her.

Lectures are not recorded and final grade is based off 2 midterms (20% each) and final exam (60%). Or one midterm can be dropped and the final can count for 70% of your final grade. The first exam was easy, but the second two had low averages. I would avoid this class and prof. if possible.

At the beginning of this class he told us a story about how a kid hucked a loogie on the sidewalk, how nasty that was, and how he told the kid off. After taking this class...I wanna huck a loogie right next to his feet. Material is really really dry, very condescending, fact dumps, and is just really boring.131L is cool and helps the lecture.

Hayes is straightforward about what info he is going to test on. Grade is 20% m1, 20% m2 and 60% final. He lets you drop 1 midterm if it benefits your grade. For 131L- switch to a new TA if you have Kaitlin S. She was outwardly rude to students and made the class environment very uncomfortable. Worst TA i have had at UCSB

Denise is a great professor and chooses topics that are very prevalent and interesting. Exams are entirely lecture based, so if you know the lectures you will be fine. I thought the class was graded very fairly and found it super interesting. I am sad I can't take it again.

Hayes is incredibly condescending during lecture, and writes exams by whim that include information from one slide that is entirely irrelevant to the rest of the course. It is really easy to do sufficiently well in this class, but incredibly difficult to take away any useful information or actually learn anything. Would not take again.

This was so far the easiest MCDB lab I have taken. The exams were all online. Also the experiments were very low stakes, not like O Chem labs where if you really messed up you would miss a bunch of points.

All in all I thought this was a great class. Professor Hayes was very clear with how we would be graded and what material was important for us to remember for exams. Both the midterm and the final were multiple choice. Some questions were definitely trickier than others, but once you get used to his question style, the questions aren't too bad.

Chris is the worst lecturer and test writer I've had in my 4 years at this institution. We didn't cover the intended material, so weekly quizzes covered stuff outside the scope of the course. He is condescending and regularly insults his students. His Fall 2022 final had a basic trigonometry question simply to mess up student. 2/10, do not take.

She's nice, but her lectures are so hard to get through. It seems like she starts every sentence without knowing what she wants to say so she's constantly pausing to reword things or repeating herself. Her slides also don't have a clear relationship to the previous ones, so it's hard to understand her train of thought and connect different ideas.

Hayes is an odd bird. He's extremely intelligent, the guy is literally an encyclopedia, so sometimes its hard to distinguish between material we actually need to know for the class or if he is just flexing his knowledge on us. Tests are nearly impossible, many questions asked way beyond the scope of the course and also directly contradicts himself.

I haven't even finished this class (W21) yet but it's been one of the worst upper division bio classes that I have taken thus far. The material itself is interesting, but Prof. Montell is so awful at lecturing and her quizzes are frustrating. Also, she's not very understanding and gets upset at students for asking about grading inaccuracies.

I haven't even made it through the whole course, but I am not a fan. Professor Montell is wicked smart, but lecturing is not her strong point. Her lectures are all over the place and she often takes long pauses like she doesn't even know what she wants to say. Her quizzes are super confusing and leave you second guessing.

This class sucked. The lectures were extremely painful to watch. 10% section attendance, 30% MT, and 60% final. The content of the exams were fair, but there was a massive time crunch on the MT. Didn't even get to finish the exam. Professor seemed really uninterested in teaching. My TA was really snobby too.

I'm not sure if it's microbio, but the way he taught it was super dry and bland. Take notes on what he says in class because the slides are mostly pictures. The tests have both on-the-surface questions and doable application questions. There was not a lot of time for the midterm. You can use notes for his online class.

I took this class W 20 pre COVID. The final ended up being optional. It's one of the easier upperdiv MCDB classes. Her lecturing might be confusing, but with effort it will be ok. The class was fairly easy because she would allow you to bring in a cheat sheet where you could write anything on one page for both the midterm and the final.

Denise isnt a great professor, but thats not to say you wont succeed in her class. Sitting through lectures will be like pulling your hair out but you can probably get an A if you keep up with the material.

The midterm is 40% of the overall grade, and the final exam is 60% of the overall grade. He mostly tests from his slides and from his lectures, so make sure to listen to what he talks about during lecture, just in case the information may not be in the slides. Overall, the class is a solid mix of memorization and concept application.

I love his lectures! He is hilarious and loves when students are engaged and ask questions. There was only one midterm and one final, both are a mix of MC and open ended questions. If you go to class and listen you have nothing to worry about. He is an amazing professor and really well respected in the micro community.

Denise Montell's class was one of my favorite upper division bio classes. She really tests your knowledge and understanding of the material, instead of your ability to memorize and regurgitate. An interesting and challenging course, not for the faint of heart

her lectures are all over the place and she can't seem to articulate what she wants to say. i think she would just start talking without really knowing where she was going with that sentence. super frustrating. the material/topic was really interesting though--i wish i could take it again with someone else

This class is 40% midterm 60% final, however he allowed the final to be 100% if it improved your grade. A lot of what he tests on is what he says rather than what is on the slides (so go to class), though everything is in the text book. He doesn't want super specific answers on his tests, just to see that you understand the overall concept

she is extremely unorganized in the way she teaches, her lectures could be a lot more straightforward. this class was very frustrating for me even though i did well because i had to spend a lot of time figuring things out on my own. i would not recommend taking her classes,probably one of my least favorite bio classes