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.

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!!

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.

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

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Test/quizzes were very fair. Super knowledgeable and approachable after class. All in all, just a really nice guy.

This course was taught much better than his part of intro bio. Midterm was a 5 minute presentation in section wort 30%, participation in section 20%, final exam 50%. The final was very stressful since there are no assignments throughout the quarter so it can be hard to know what to study but he posts a previous final to help. Overall ok MCDB class

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.