Thick accent so its hard to understand him, he knows alot but has trouble with the language barrier when people ask questions. Lectures are very boring, he uses a lot of slides and there is a lot of info but go to section because the TAs help direct your focus on what you actually need to know for the tests and do the 5 homeworks he assigns!
Tests are very challenging because he focuses on knowledge application rather than memorization! His accent is thick, but understandable! Overall, he is great! If u r premed, def can benefit from his style of testing!
like others have said his accent is thick but he's not difficult to understand. his tests take a lot of thinking, you really need to understand the material and be able to put it all together to apply it to the question. however he is very caring about his students and truly wants you to learn.
Prof Ma is really intelligent and easy to talk to. His accent makes it a little hard to understand sometimes, though. I learned a lot and had to apply my knowledge in less conventional ways than other classes. Attendance is not mandatory, but Ma will take notice if you show up and participate, and may be more forgiving (gradewise) if he sees this.
He is a genius, and pretty much expects you to be one too. His tests are ruthless. All conceptual questions that bring in information from other courses, even courses you haven't taken. His Accent is also very thick and it can be difficult to understand what he is talking about.
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!
One of the best class I've taken. Dr. Ma is very passionate about teaching and it shows. it makes a world of difference to have a prof who actually cares and expects more from his students. Take his class! you'll not only learn so much about biology, but also how develope your thinking skills in the subject. class was very interesting.
He is incredibly knowledgable in the material he teaches, and very friendly. It wasn't an easy course, but I would gladly take another class with him.
i got a C from his class.i'm not a real smart student so i studied a lot to get that C...and his exams were hard. he said he expected us to achieve the next level of thinking above his lecture material. I like him though. Really helpful and friendly, i met him a few times in IV Little Asia and he was nice.
Dr. Ma is the best teacher ever! He's really helpful and entertaining to learn from, a quality of which is extremely rare in the bio department. The only thing that sucks is that his tests are HARRDD as hell, but it really teaches you how to think beyond the boundary of the textbooks.
One of the best profs I've had. Really takes time to help his students.
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