MCDB 1A
Dennis Clegg
35 reviews
Stuart Feinstein
60 reviews
NGUYEN A T
Alice Nguyen
64 reviews

MCDB1AL . Nguyen A T 4 Months Ago

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

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MCDB1A . Nguyen A T 4 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 6 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 6 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 6 Months Ago

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!

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MCDB1ALEEMB2 . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 19 Days Ago

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.

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MCDB1ALEEMB2 . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 1 Month Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 4 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 4 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 6 Months Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 6 Months Ago

Solid lecturer. I definitely think reading before the lectures is a big help. I think overall his portion of the class is quite simple and straightforward. It is heavy conceptually, but there aren't many practice problems to do which is why you should engage with the material as much as you can in the book or in office hours.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 7 Months Ago

Very charismatic professor and good lecturer (condenses material down making it easy to understand) but the midterm questions are worded very specific and some material on the exams is not taught in lecture.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Clegg's lectures are fine, but his test questions are highly specific and intentionally confusing.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Clegg's portion of the MCDB1A was undoubtedly the hardest for me. It was based on the tiniest of details and took a lot of concept relaying to fully understand the concepts. Just try your hardest and if you don't do well, haul ass for the final. The curve really comes through (78 was an A- for Fall 2021). Curve was insanely good for this class.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

He is a great professor and his lectures are very easy to follow and engaging. He would go through lecture material really quickly, but the lectures were recorded and posted online later so it was no big deal. Studying the experiments is super important.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Lectures were based off the reading heavily. I honestly found the reading more helpful for the exam than the lecture because he would tend to go off on tangents about his own research or other researchers he knows. If you do the readings and study, the midterm and his portion of the final are definitely doable.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

His lectures were my favorite out of the 3 for this class. His midterm and portion of the final were also the hardest. It was all memorization and we were tested on the smallest details. Honestly studying could only do so much unless you have a photographic memory.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

he put a question on our practice test and on the midterm but misspelled the correct answer from the practice, so no one got it right. he also made a mistake on the practice test and used the same question on the real test, when a student questioned it after the test, he changed the answer so again, almost everyone's grades dropped. so frustrating.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

My favorite lecturer from MCDB 1A. His part of the class is about cellular biology and most of it is memorization. So rewatch lectures, take notes, and read the book.

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MCDB1A . Nguyen A T 3 Years Ago

Half the class was accused of cheating on the last day of the quarter so no one could do anything about it. She didnt respond to the emails. Left us in the dark. Some got letters saying it was a mistake on their end. All exams had multiple mistakes they refused to fix. Waited to very last minute to submit final grades so we could not protest.

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

his lectures are straightforward, but his test is too heavily formatted on knowing more than one answer for the question. I feel like this is very unnecessary especially since his topics are memorization-heavy, and his format isn't needed especially during an online class. Stu did better on formatting his questions than clegg did.

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MCDB1AL . Nguyen A T 3 Years Ago

The class wasnt well run but not necessarily that difficult besides that. Dr. Nguyen didnt do her PhD in a molecular biology field, which was apparent when she tried do discuss even intro molecular biology topics, and especially more obvious in hindsight as you go on to upper div MCDB classes. Not the same level of quality as other UCSB profs.

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MCDB1A . 4 Years Ago

Stu is an awesome teacher and really helps answer questions. He is excellent at explaining and will be patient with you until you understand the concepts. His lectures have lots of information in them so be ready to listen and take notes. Just know that he isn't very good with learning names, but once he knows who you are he will not forget you.

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MCDB1A . 4 Years Ago

He likes to tell jokes. His exams are very detailed, and the style of the problems is quite unique, which is really effective in testing the actual degree of understanding among students. One must get quite familiar with the material to achieve better grade.

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