Dr. Ma is interested in his student's successful learning. He will challenge you and force you to learn in ways you may never have been exposed to in a lecture setting, but if you put in the mental effort to follow the material, it is manageable. Go to lecture, and pay attention to the types of questions he focuses on.

Professor Ma was one of the best biology professors I have had at UCSB. He cares about his students and wants them to succeed. He emphasizes correlating similar concepts vs memorization which is nice. Go to every lecture! No iclicker but very important because he emphasizes the important topics. Exams were tough and requires you to apply concepts

Prof. Ma really engages you to the material and encouraged us to apply and connect concepts during the lectures and into the exams instead of purely memorizing. That said, the latter is still very important and hence makes 103 a very challenging class. The drawback is that your entire grade essentially rests on only a single midterm and the final.

Professor Ma is an amazing lecturer, and his teaching style is honestly a game changer. I got more out of his class than out of any other class I've taken since being in college. Grade is based almost entirely on midterm and final. Midterm was easy, but the final ruined my life. I would still recommend his class, teachers like this are rare.

Horrible, please avoid his class at all cost. He is a poor lecturer

Dr. Ma is a charming guy, and obviously loves what he is doing. MCDB 103 is just an incredibly difficult class, and will require a lot of your time and discipline if you plan to do well. I never showed up to lecture and let myself get behind in lecture watching, and I regret that. However, someone with more discipline than me could def succeed.

You need to understand each process in great detail because the midterm and ESPECIALLY the final are filled with material applying questions. This is a class you need to dedicate hours of your week studying for and study groups will help your grade. Midterm was easy imo, final was very difficult.

Dr. Ma is an extremely difficult professor-- there is no way to sugarcoat it. This course requires deep understandings of many different concepts in order to do somewhat well. Class average for the final was a 40% to put it into perspective. The "good" news is that if you are willingly to REALLY put in the work for an A, you have a decent shot.

Not a chill class whatsoever. The lectures cover the big picture of concepts while the midterm and final test on applying extremely small details to concepts not ever directly discussed. Almost no resources as far as practice problems. Exams are nothing like anything discussed in class. Take this class if you like being frustrated

Everyone saying this class is dense isnt lying. It was one and half hours reading off the slides with very little extra commentary. Class is comprised of one midterm and a final that tests how well you can memorize small details instead of knowledge of concepts. Class average was a 60, theres no winning, would definitely avoid.

Prof. Ma is a very caring professor. He wants you to succeed and is always trying to get you to think about the material in a deeper way. My problem was that the tests were always so much more difficult than the homework he assigned. This class ruined my straight A's lol. Never really used the textbook unless it was for clarification.

Dense class. Some people who took biochem before did well without even using textbook because of overlapping topics. I hadnt so it was a loooooot harder. Key to class is being able to understand how every detail works in a connected system. Memorizing basic definitions is useless for exams. Average on midterm was highish so he made final impossible

Dr. Ma is a really good Bio professor. The material in this class is pretty dense and sometimes hard to understand but Dr. Ma does an amazing job of explaining and simplifying things. If you listen to his lectures and take good notes, you won't need the textbook. Tests are pretty difficult but they contain no surprises - the material is what's said

Go to class, take notes, and keep up with the assignments and study until you understand things

This class covers a lot of detailed content so keeping up with the material on a weekly basis is a must. Ma is always willing to answer questions after class and in office hours. Midterm and final were very difficult but practice exams are posted so you know what to expect beforehand.

He doesnt test on what he teaches and the class averages are extremely low for both midterm and final. Also the course is curved on a B -/ C curve. Avoid this one if you can

nice guy, very hard class but curve saves you. I recommend recording lectures to make sure you can really grasp concepts and understand what he is saying. Must memorize and truly understand everything and then apply knowledge.

Exams were pretty hard and the average was about 59% on both the midterm and the final.

this guy is crazy his tests are insane but you will learn a lot of info from him and he is very approachable

this is why he's hard, he's hard cuz he's fly. You aint cuz u not, this is why, this is why this hes hard but u will learn a lot ..lot.

Great professor, but tough class. Midterm was straightforward, but too long (class average ~ 48%). However, on the final he asked questions that required us to think outside the box and gave us new information right before the exam. He also has a habit of talking and interrupting the class during exams, which gets annoying.

Sooooo approachable, funny, good humored and helpful! Willing to change any of his teaching techniques help the students. Yet, the class was extremely difficult and challenging b/c you REAllly had to learn the material inside out! One of my fav classes at ucsb so far! Take this class if you want to learn!

Extremely hard class. Not only are the concepts very hard, but very hard to read slides and understand his lectures. His tests do not ask what you know, but to try to put knowledge together and answer questions you have never seen before.

Professor Ma is GREAT. He is VERY intelligent and loves what he is doing. I have never had a professor who is willing to help the students as much as him. NOT AN EASY CLASS, but you learn a lot!