Lame class that everyone has to take. Everything is very scuffed and you will be unsure of a lot of things. Post-lab and Pre-lab questions suck and are poorly written/wrong. Easy class if you listen to the TAs and follow their directions.
A genuine just joke of a class. Don't take this class seriously or try to learn anything, even if you try it's so unbelievably managed that you won't, period. The only thing redeemable about this class is that everyone gets A's if you turn things on in time, which is a little sad. Hopefully one day UCSB intro bio can be free of Alice and the "team"
I got mixed feelings about Dr. Even. On one hand he's incredibly passionate about teaching and it rlly shows in his lectures. On top of that it is apparent that he truly cares about his students and is capable of the utmost compassion. One tip: Dr. Even constantly emphasizes not memorizing and going for a more conceptual studying style but MEMORIZE
All the labs and classes were a mess. Most of the time for exams we are left in the dark. Expectations of the material we need to know is unclear and the lectures are a mess. Your grade is basically just based on exams. If you can take the other eemb professor. Their class has better structure and direction.
She seems nice as a person but honestly it feels like her courses were designed to suck all the interest out of the students. Why do we have so much busy work? Why do we have to spend hours writing essays on a research project we didn't even do?
Ugh I thought MCDB lab was disorganized but just wait until you get to EEMB lab. My EEMB T.A. has no idea what's going on (she wasn't helpful), can't answer any of my questions. Like how am I supposed to write my 6pg paper when no one knows shi Istg I just can't with her anymore. Was pretty easy depending on TA. MCDB better than EEMB.
She cancelled 2 weeks of class because it rained for 1 day, so we didn't do an experiment or any science. Instead she gave us 10 year old videos from other professors to watch online as a substitute for teaching us anything/giving us hands-on experience. We spent our in-person "lab" time making an 8th grade science fair-caliber poster on Powerpoint
Even's portion was great. Extremely lecture heavy, but follow along with the lecture and you'll do great. I goofed the first test bad and paid the price with it on my grade, but his test was super manageable and fair. He is accessible in office hours and had great encouragement and confidence boosting by helping you with what you need.
I'm sure Prof Nguyen is a nice person, but she is probably the least empathetic and accomodating professor I have met at UCSB. MCDB 1LL was honestly not that bad or difficult, other than having to do a poster on a lab we never did.
Nothing to study, horrible long boring lectures, not funny at all, doesn't follow the text well, disorganized, does not prepare students, grade 100% dependent on exams, useless lectures, grade up to luck, one of the worst people I had the misfortune of listening to.
This class was extremely unorganized and it had us make a research poster on a lab that we never even got to do. The labs themselves are really easy, but the pre-lab assignments take like ten attempts to get full credit b/c of how difficult they are.
Does not respond to emails. If you want to talk to her you have to somehow get her attention outside of class and even then, it's impossible to get a hold of her. I emailed Nguyen 4 times about the same subject at the beginning of the quarter and continued to get zero response. Eventually gave up and stopped asking questions- really disappointing.
The most stupid thing about MCDB1LL is the poster. We didn't do this experiment at all, but instead, the poster, which relies entirely on the editing process, gets the biggest score. It's really stupid and disgusting.
I honestly have no words. To sum it up, I'll give you this: It was so confusing that my entire lab class was under the impression that we would eventually DO the worm lab at some point, and were not informed that we would never actually do it (and were supposed to work off the old data the WHOLE course) until week 8. WEEK. EIGHT.
What hasn't been said? The fact every bio student pays to go through her courses is a crime. She makes me want to self-immolate in front of Bio2, or wherever her office is. When a TA posts a rating saying the prof Is bad, it's bad. Sorry to every other bio student. Prepare yourself. I agree w/ "this is my villain origin story".
This is literally a made up class. We write a research poster on research we did not do. The in person labs are an actual joke. This is a waste of three hours every week. And don't get me started on the horrible organization and direction of this class and the stupid pre-lab quizzes. I am sorry if you have to take this class.
It's bad. The pre labs are borderline ridiculous. The questions are so out of date that they still ask about covid green badges in pre lab quizzes. It just feels like they are so unprepared to teach this class. Even my TA is confused by the organization of this class. Also we are writing a poster about a lab we will never do. Weird.
I am speechless. I have never encountered someone who couldn't care less about their students. MCDB 1LL is my villain origin story and I have never felt more misery. She never responds to emails and her videos are less than helpful. Do not get me started on the pre-labs. The questions are awfully worded and the answers are not clear either.
Makes a class that's supposed to fun ridiculously complicated and tedious instead. Way way way too much work for 1.5 units and essentially an online class. Worst class I've taken here so far.
I really enjoyed Dr. Even's portion of EEMB 2; his lectures are content heavy but they're super interesting and he provided a lot of opportunities to review the material. The exam was hard, but I don't think it was unreasonably difficult. He was especially accommodating due to his part of the class being online, and I really appreciated that.
While I never met Dr. Nguyen in person, she seemed nice, but the class was very complicated for a 1.5 unit class and the grading criteria was not clear. The pre-lab quizzes were so stupid because the questions changed every time you attempted it and were worded badly which caused significant confusion and time to be wasted. I was disappointed tbh
funny and nice guy who shows interest in the subject but also in the success of his students. He sometimes would tell stories and they almost felt like they were life lessons. his test were pretty straight forward if you really get to know the material you will get an A
Professor Even is great! He's nice and makes lectures interesting. The way he formats his class makes sense, even though it can seem like a lot of work at times. I wish that this class was more about controversial issues like it is supposed to be and less about basic biology though. We would only spend like 1 day talking about controversies.
Dr. Even makes the lectures highly interactive by letting everyone to watch the pre-recorded videos first and do discussions in lecture. This guy gave very fair exams. Everybody in my study group got a 90+% in the first exam. Just attend his lectures, go to CLAS, and discuss in group weekly. Then you can do an amazing job.