Words the questions weirdly.
This course is extremely frustrating. Instructions are very unclear, deadlines are ridiculous. Only given 48 hours to turn in lab workbook despite it taking over a month for it to get graded. Received 0% for an assignment that I spent hours on because of a technicality that was not clear in her horrible directions.
Horrible. Expectations for research project in this lab were super unclear. TAs were clearly not communicated to well as they seemed confused too. Missed deadline by 10 min and was counted as a 0 docking a whole letter grade.
My grandma died right before MCDB 1A midterm, i had to fly across the country for the funeral. Alice needed proof she actually died to not get a zero with no leniency. No obituary cause she was buried 24 hrs after death (jewish) & death cert would take weeks to get. I sent a picture of me at her grave, my family was in on it and we had a laugh.
BEWARE of the trick questions! One word could be different, making the entire answer wrong. I really enjoyed Clegg's jokes and personality. However, when taking the midterm, I was blinded by the trick and niche questions about specific experiments. Now that I know how to study for his section, I bounced back on the final. Just be careful!
Stu was the best professor out of the three. He explained content thoroughly and the first midterm reflected exactly what was on the practice exam and stressed topics in class. Pay attention to the diagrams concerning NADH, ATP, glycolysis, etc. (how much ATP is made from what). Also, he sparked my Fleetwood Mac obsession!!! Cool and super smart!
He brought his dog to lecture:D Definitely my favorite out of the three professors, his jokes were very silly and I loved the medical mysteries. The topics he covered are kind of hard to understand so reviewing lecture videos and quizzes, watching explanatory YouTube videos, and practice problems are key because exam is a lot of the same questions.
For me Feinstein's Biochemistry section of MCDB1A was the easiest to understand out of the three. He did a really good job at explaining the topics and if you studied well, rewatched the lectures, and did the practice exam then his exam and his portion of the final were a majority questions you've reviewed and already seen. Great Professor.
He was ok, he wasn't AMAZING but he wasn't the worst either. A lot of his portion of 1A is about memorization. He provided a practice but it was riddled with errors. Tbh I think if you just cram everything he's said in lecture into your head somehow, you'll be fine
MY FAV FROM THE 1A PROFS he knows what he's talking about, exam questions are exactly like study guide, and he tells a joke every lecture. Takes a content heavy subject like cell biology and makes it very digestible. 10/10 recommend
I liked him the best out of the other 2 professors for 1A. He was very upfront that his midterm would be solely based on his lectures. This portion of bio is entirely based on memorization, there's no critical thinking so it made it easy. It's just a matter of how much raw information you can shove into your brain. Do that and you're golden
This professor was not willing to work with students. Her expectations are not reasonable. She asks more of students then she asks of herself. For example me and (over 10 other students) were completely unable to reach her. I think this is unacceptable behavior from a department head at a University such as UCSB.
This professor was not willing to work with students and made herself unavailable for comi
Very poorly written/designed. Instructions could be way more clear. Lab videos are not in order/skips steps so it's more confusing than it needs to be and generally just not that helpful. Makes me miss gen chem lab because at least everything was clear.
One of the worst human beings I've ever had the misfortune of meeting in my entire life. Not only is she hard to reach outside of class (which she doesn't even teach herself), she is also EXTREMELY insensitive. You can't miss any labs unexcused. My boyfriend thought he had covid and she still made him go to his lab because he didn't have a DR note
Does not respond to emails, very unhelpful. Pretends to be a resource for students to reach out to via the "Intro Bio Team" but refuses to help students, posts practice tests with incorrect answer keys, does not respond to any emails/will not meet with you if you have questions. Unhelpful and honestly just rude.
He made learning about cell biology more fun with his mid-lecture jokes. The content contains many details you must know, but he breaks it down decently. His quizzes and his midterm are high-difficulty since you have to memorize those details and need a deep understanding of them to answer specific questions. He is a cool professor though.
He is a friendly and easygoing professor with an aptitude for teaching. He made learning basic biochemistry as simple as possible. I appreciate the slides complementing his lectures. His quizzes were fair too. The rest of doing well is knowing how to study and take exams, which is the most challenging part of this class.
Best STEM professor I've had at UCSB so far. He makes his lectures super engaging and always told a joke in the middle of class to break it up. He even brought his dog once. His midterm was definitely tough, but very similar to the practice tests. Watch the CLAS videos- they saved me!
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.
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.
Clegg was funny but his jokes did not make up for how bad his midterm was. The questions are worded very odd and it was hard to understand what they were really asking. Also, the questions would be more on applying knowledge/critical thinking more so than memorization, so you can't really BS your way through his section of the class.
Feinstein was a good lecturer. Formatted the slides so that the important information was always easy to find. Practice midterm reflected the difficulty of the actual midterm and his portion of the final definitely helped boost my grade.
He is a good professor and tries to keep his lectures engaging. Definitely a bit of an oldhead but in an endearing way. His content is quite dense and very memorization heavy. I struggled with his midterm the most, but I think just grinding the flashcards is the best way to hit it. And the practice tests.
