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".
Best teacher ever
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 The questions are so out of date that they still ask about covid green badges in pre lab quizzes.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.
I loved this class! There were no required readings, and you could really tell that the professor knows his stuff. The only assignments were short, online quizzes each week and the occasional discussion post. I would definitely recommend for an easy GE.
Easiest class and professor ever! Lectures are in-person and posted online along with annotated slides for help with note-taking. The only graded assignments are weekly quizzes on gauchospace (open note and 2 attempts!). No midterm and the final was online and open-note MC. He's super passionate about the class and the material and I learned a lot!
Such a nice professor, you can tell he cares about making the class both interesting and educational. Interesting lectures and has a good sense of humor so you're not bored waiting for class to end. He even asks for feedback at the end of the class about quiz questions and fairness. I would definitely take another one of his classes.
I really enjoyed Dr. Even's portion of EEMB 2; his lectures are content heavy but they're super interesting and he provided a lot of opportunities to review the material. The exam was hard, but I don't think it was unreasonably difficult. He was especially accommodating due to his part of the class being online, and I really appreciated that.
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
This man is a g. By far my favorite professor he is so funny and interesting I literally look forward to these lectures. Literally zero work and I eat every bit of information given to me up. Thank you UCSB for hiring this gem of a man.
funny and nice guy who shows interest in the subject but also in the success of his students. He sometimes would tell stories and they almost felt like they were life lessons. his test were pretty straight forward if you really get to know the material you will get an A
Professor Even is great! He's nice and makes lectures interesting. The way he formats his class makes sense, even though it can seem like a lot of work at times. I wish that this class was more about controversial issues like it is supposed to be and less about basic biology though. We would only spend like 1 day talking about controversies.
Actually the best professor I have had at UCSB and one of my favorite classes ever. Lectures were super interesting and fun to go to, class grading was very straightforward and manageable. Would 100% recommend this class and professor to everyone.
Gave him a 3 because I like him as a person, but I found his lectures very disorganized. It was difficult to put all the info together to study for the exam because it was hard to tell what was testable vs what was random fluff that he wanted to talk about. if you make your own study guide and study it you should be fine. book not necessary
Best professor in UCSB hands down! such a good sense of humor, and actually loved going to all lectures. If you have a chance to take Latto do not miss out!
Dr. Even makes the lectures highly interactive by letting everyone to watch the pre-recorded videos first and do discussions in lecture. This guy gave very fair exams. Everybody in my study group got a 90+% in the first exam. Just attend his lectures, go to CLAS, and discuss in group weekly. Then you can do an amazing job.
Dr. Even was a great instructor. His lectures/problem sets contain essentially all the detail students need for the exam and the textbook is an extra resource. Use his office hours/Q&A forum before the exam. He is accessible outside class for help/study tips by email/zoom. Find good study techniques EARLY. His exam covers many topics so CLAS helps.
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.