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.

The MCDB 1LL course was a mixed bag. TAs were often lost, prelabs were confusing, manual lacked clarity, and the course was disorganized/chaotic. Students were offered a small EC opportunity and GS was regularly updated (2 positives of this class). Email responses were unreliable. Labs could have been engaging if given better instruction/detail.

Honestly just awful in so many ways. Terrible PDF assignments that force students to buy Adobe Acrobat and then bait them into clicking links that make them lose all their work (this happened to me and many other classmates). Having to pay for the stupid lab manual that she probably makes thousands off of. Stingy and inaccessible. Horrible prof.

MCDB 1LL is way too much work for 1.5 units. In the first week during Winter quarter of 2022, we were doing remote learning and the LURE project drafts were so confusing, as no experiment videos were provided and we were just doing worksheets based on numbers/data given to us. The pre-labs are also tedious and time-consuming.

Insane amount of work, very disorganized, the work we are doing seems pointless

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

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.

Easily one of the worst professors at UCSB. Both of the Intro Biology lab courses are incredibly disorganized. It's almost like Alice was the only one applying to be the head of the bio department and UCSB was stuck with hiring her. If she can get a job, anyone can >:(

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.

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.

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.

The Biolab classes (1LL and 2LL) are horribly organized and a huge waste of three hours every week. This class also has super strict rules on grading and attendance and they will almost never make an exception for students under any circumstance. The only upside is that the final exam is a group test in 2LL.

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.

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.

Not good at her job. Has made multiple mistakes such as telling people incorrect grade cut offs and accusing people of cheating and later admitting it was her mistake. Makes you feel like a number. Weeder class

He's a very accommodating professor. Super easy class, and the material is interesting because he mentions current events. You have to do a presentation for a midterm and the final is open notes for a few days.

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.

Lacks empathy and contributes to the (minimal) toxicity in the bio major. I dont understand how she has a job considering the immaturity and lack of self-awareness that she has. How did she even end up running the Intro Bio Labs? I cant believe the intro lab classes for the most impacted major on campus is this disorganized. UCSB deserves better.

If I could give her a zero I would. She is by far the worst faculty member I have ever had experience with at UCSB. This class was horribly organized, had unclear requirements, and Dr. Nguyen displayed a complete lack of compassion for her students on several occasions. I was actually excited to this class but this professor ruined it. TA was nice

Class is terribly organized, she doesn't respond to emails, changed grading policy to be harsher mid-quarter during a pandemic, even though the class uses 3 different websites to turn things in, all with different times due which is extremely confusing and difficult to keep track of. She is also uncaring and unsympathetic to student hardship.

literally the worst and least organized professor ever, does not respond to emails, is NOT understanding, changed the grading policy mid quarter to be less accommodating during the pandemic, and is m o n o t o n e

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.

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.

This class is super interesting and he was SUPER accommodating during rona time. Study the experiments and think of other ways the study could have been done to do well on the tests. Easily the best prof I had during rona. Gave 24 to take tests and quizzes. Could be done with the class after the midterm if you were happy with your grade.