MCDB 1A
NGUYEN A T
Alice Nguyen
1.2
83 reviews
Petra Kranzfelder
4.0
5 reviews

88
2.6
MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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"

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2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

Joke is the only good word. No organisation, no clear expectation, a huge mess. Nguyen is not accessible out side of class room, she's like a ghost who tries to haunt down every possible student who needs to unfortunately cross paths with her. Lazy is pretty nice in this case when it comes to exam in which every question was copy pasted.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

She really took the challenge of making these weeder classes the most unenjoyable classes

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2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

I have her for EEMB 2LL and EEMB 2. She seems like a nice lady at first but her classes have been the worst I've taken here at UCSB. Lab is tons of busy work with unclear instructions, absolute waste of time. Lecture has 3 classes' worth of info smashed into one with cumulative 125 question final. Absolutely drained any passion for learning.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

Literally learned nothing this entire course. Full of busy work with terrible organization. There were little to no guidelines on the one single project we were assigned for this class. A major headache of a class and the administration made it so much worse.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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?

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

Just spent three hours in a lab counting animals on a picture and then plugging the results into the same equation over and over... I don't know how she manages to absolutely ruin one of the most interesting/easy lab series

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

This class is so dumb. The entire class is busy work that no one explains. The final project is even dumber than the in class labs and no one has any idea what we are doing. Please send help.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

Soooo unclear about the directions for the research paper assignment + the whole class is just busy work. Don't even get me started on EEMB3, a class with fascinating content that she made terrible by giving a cumulative/in-person final that covers stuff we barely talked about--my quizlet for the class had more than in ochem and biochem combined!!

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

I don't even know where to start. It's like she intentionally makes her classes, which are supposed to be easy intro bio topics, the most confusing/unclear courses possible. She throws sooooo many busy work assignments at you, including a research paper with the most confusing instructions I've ever seen.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1B . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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".

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 3 Years Ago

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

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 3 Years Ago

This lab was not difficult content-wise, but it seemed highly disorganized and busy-work based. We accessed course materials on a platform outside of GS, which was inconvenient. It could have been structured better, to suit both students and TAs. Your grade and how time consuming the course will be is 75% dependent on your TA's teaching style.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 3 Years Ago

Most of lab section is spent sitting and waiting for something. The experiments we do are pointless and uninteresting, but every bio major has to take this class at some point. Your TA will determine how easy or hard the research paper assignment is. At least its way easier than 1LL.

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