Extremely monotone lecturer. Teaches things giving no background which makes it sooo hard to understand. The worst professor I have ever had.

The most inadequate professor I have ever had. She briefly introduces topics without any consideration that most students have never seen this information. I hope she reads her reviews because something needs to change with her teaching. It is disappointing to see such an interesting class ruined by such an awful lecturer who zero teaching skills.

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

I actually felt her lecture style was decent. She was definitely pretty organized. However, the test was just gnarly man. MCDB 1B is THE weeder class for your entire UCSB undergraduate biology education. Expect to have to work for it because if you do, you will definitely come with your head above water.

Memorize every little detail on her slides and you might get a C on the exam. Hardest class I've taken at UCSB. In all honesty, I think that this class says more about the intro bio department, which is the least empathetic and caring department I have ever met. I liked biology before taking this class. I don't anymore.

She acts like she does not want to be there. Read the textbook it helps more than her slides. Honestly ruined biology for me

Hardest class I've taken at UCSB. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe her lecture material. Write down everything on the slides and everything she says. She'll mention something once for 2 seconds and it'll show up on the exam. If you think you won't need to know it for the exam, yes you will. Use the Anki app (free) for studying, it helped a lot.

Tricky exam questions not meant to measure your understanding of the subject but check how well you can read. MEMORIZE her slides. Textbook won't really help you. Quizlets help a bit. Just survive the class, it's rough

The slides are not digestible and there is no clear organization during her lectures so it's hard to learn anything during class. Don't wait to start studying, even if you're an academic weapon. Call her Dr. ____ Finkelstein cause this class is Ruth-less (seems like a nice person tho).

You'll think you have it bad with Professor Low at the start. Then you'll experience Finkelstein, and you'll offer your firstborn to satan if only you could get her back.

Honestly, I thought the other reviews were giving her a hard time but they are extremely accurate. Lectures are nearly impossible to follow and slides contain very little info and abstract terminology that she does not explain more than just reading straight off the slide. Seems like a nice person, but maybe lecturing just isn't her thing.

Does not convey the lecture material in helpful or explanatory ways. I learned all content for this class from the book or CLAS. Her lectures are jumbled and she jumps straight in saying terms you've never heard of or showing complex graphics and barely explains them at all. Would have failed this class if it wasn't for reading the entire book. I

Honestly, you'll have to teach yourself most of the material. Lectures are NOT engaging whatsoever and half of the time you can barely follow her line of thought. Seems confused about her own course content and it seems like she sometimes has zero interest in what she's saying. Would not recommend, and would not take 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.

just put the effort into learning, and it will pay back, her tests were very similar to the practice test she gave out.

Terrible professor. Monotonous tone makes lectures unbearable, tests you on the most obscure and minuscule details, and overall makes the class very unenjoyable. Only positives were the curve (~8%) and that she played music before lectures started in-person.

Prof. Finkelstein's teaching style did not align well with many students. It involved a lot of lecturing AT us and little to no interactive learning/engaging lessons. The iclickers and quizzes were slightly useful for gauging knowledge... but overall, a really poor learning experience. Tests were hard, and there was no traditional curve.

Finkelstein does not make this hard class any easier. Her lectures are extremely slow, and she asks for very detailed answers on her exams. Plant physio was tough, but CLAS helped somewhat.

Doesn't explain literally anything, regardless of whether the entire class gets iClicker questions wrong. Tests are ridiculously detail-oriented on things she mentioned offhandedly once, aren't on the slides, or even in the textbook!!! Not even enough time to look through them anyways She does provides a lot of resources for studying though