MCDB 1AZ
Dennis Clegg
3.8
40 reviews
Stuart Feinstein
4.4
63 reviews

103
4.1
MCDB1A . A Month Ago

Words the questions weirdly.

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

BEWARE of the trick questions! One word could be different, making the entire answer wrong. I really enjoyed Clegg's jokes and personality. However, when taking the midterm, I was blinded by the trick and niche questions about specific experiments. Now that I know how to study for his section, I bounced back on the final. Just be careful!

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

Stu was the best professor out of the three. He explained content thoroughly and the first midterm reflected exactly what was on the practice exam and stressed topics in class. Pay attention to the diagrams concerning NADH, ATP, glycolysis, etc. (how much ATP is made from what). Also, he sparked my Fleetwood Mac obsession!!! Cool and super smart!

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

He brought his dog to lecture:D Definitely my favorite out of the three professors, his jokes were very silly and I loved the medical mysteries. The topics he covered are kind of hard to understand so reviewing lecture videos and quizzes, watching explanatory YouTube videos, and practice problems are key because exam is a lot of the same questions.

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

For me Feinstein's Biochemistry section of MCDB1A was the easiest to understand out of the three. He did a really good job at explaining the topics and if you studied well, rewatched the lectures, and did the practice exam then his exam and his portion of the final were a majority questions you've reviewed and already seen. Great Professor.

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

He was ok, he wasn't AMAZING but he wasn't the worst either. A lot of his portion of 1A is about memorization. He provided a practice but it was riddled with errors. Tbh I think if you just cram everything he's said in lecture into your head somehow, you'll be fine

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MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

MY FAV FROM THE 1A PROFS he knows what he's talking about, exam questions are exactly like study guide, and he tells a joke every lecture. Takes a content heavy subject like cell biology and makes it very digestible. 10/10 recommend

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MCDB1A . A Year Ago

I liked him the best out of the other 2 professors for 1A. He was very upfront that his midterm would be solely based on his lectures. This portion of bio is entirely based on memorization, there's no critical thinking so it made it easy. It's just a matter of how much raw information you can shove into your brain. Do that and you're golden

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

He made learning about cell biology more fun with his mid-lecture jokes. The content contains many details you must know, but he breaks it down decently. His quizzes and his midterm are high-difficulty since you have to memorize those details and need a deep understanding of them to answer specific questions. He is a cool professor though.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

He is a friendly and easygoing professor with an aptitude for teaching. He made learning basic biochemistry as simple as possible. I appreciate the slides complementing his lectures. His quizzes were fair too. The rest of doing well is knowing how to study and take exams, which is the most challenging part of this class.

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MCDBIA . 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

Really good lecturer and made class interesting. His section of class (biochem) was by far the easiest and he explains all the concepts really well. The midterm was straightforward and super similar to the practice tests. Watching the CLAS videos really helps! Textbook isn't necessary but can help if you want an additional resource.

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MCDB1A . 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

Best STEM professor I've had at UCSB so far. He makes his lectures super engaging and always told a joke in the middle of class to break it up. He even brought his dog once. His midterm was definitely tough, but very similar to the practice tests. Watch the CLAS videos- they saved me!

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MCDB153 . 2 Years Ago

Feinstein taught this class great, he clearly has passion and an incredible understanding of the material. The TAs werent the most helpful and couldn't answer questions clearly. Exams are 80% of the grade, quizzes are 20%. Exams are graded strictly but lowest gets dropped, understand the experiments inside and out. Curve was steep, OH is helpful.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

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.

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MCDBIA . 3 Years Ago

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

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MCDB146 . 3 Years Ago

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

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

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

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

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.

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MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

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.

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