She acts like she does not want to be there. Read the textbook it helps more than her slides. Honestly ruined biology for me

Hardest class I've taken at UCSB. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe her lecture material. Write down everything on the slides and everything she says. She'll mention something once for 2 seconds and it'll show up on the exam. If you think you won't need to know it for the exam, yes you will. Use the Anki app (free) for studying, it helped a lot.

Tricky exam questions not meant to measure your understanding of the subject but check how well you can read. MEMORIZE her slides. Textbook won't really help you. Quizlets help a bit. Just survive the class, it's rough

The slides are not digestible and there is no clear organization during her lectures so it's hard to learn anything during class. Don't wait to start studying, even if you're an academic weapon. Call her Dr. ____ Finkelstein cause this class is Ruth-less (seems like a nice person tho).

You'll think you have it bad with Professor Low at the start. Then you'll experience Finkelstein, and you'll offer your firstborn to satan if only you could get her back.

Honestly, I thought the other reviews were giving her a hard time but they are extremely accurate. Lectures are nearly impossible to follow and slides contain very little info and abstract terminology that she does not explain more than just reading straight off the slide. Seems like a nice person, but maybe lecturing just isn't her thing.

Does not convey the lecture material in helpful or explanatory ways. I learned all content for this class from the book or CLAS. Her lectures are jumbled and she jumps straight in saying terms you've never heard of or showing complex graphics and barely explains them at all. Would have failed this class if it wasn't for reading the entire book. I

Honestly, you'll have to teach yourself most of the material. Lectures are NOT engaging whatsoever and half of the time you can barely follow her line of thought. Seems confused about her own course content and it seems like she sometimes has zero interest in what she's saying. Would not recommend, and would not take again.

Terrible professor. Monotonous tone makes lectures unbearable, tests you on the most obscure and minuscule details, and overall makes the class very unenjoyable. Only positives were the curve (~8%) and that she played music before lectures started in-person.

Prof. Finkelstein's teaching style did not align well with many students. It involved a lot of lecturing AT us and little to no interactive learning/engaging lessons. The iclickers and quizzes were slightly useful for gauging knowledge... but overall, a really poor learning experience. Tests were hard, and there was no traditional curve.

Finkelstein does not make this hard class any easier. Her lectures are extremely slow, and she asks for very detailed answers on her exams. Plant physio was tough, but CLAS helped somewhat.

Doesn't explain literally anything, regardless of whether the entire class gets iClicker questions wrong. Tests are ridiculously detail-oriented on things she mentioned offhandedly once, aren't on the slides, or even in the textbook!!! Not even enough time to look through them anyways She does provides a lot of resources for studying though

This is THE WORST professor I have EVER come across. I am so sorry if you ever have to sit through a class with this person. Her lectures are absolutely dreadful and her exam questions make you wonder why anyone would ever want to study biology. Seriously, I don't get what she is thinking when she comes up with these exam questions.

Her lectures are really hard to pay attention to because they are really dull and she has a very low voice. The slides she uses are really hard to take notes on because they are all pictures and very few words. I try so hard to pay attention in this class but catch myself zoning out every 5 minutes because she is so boring

I am not someone who has a hard time focusing in class, but her monotone voice and lack of personality really makes it hard to get into the material. She does about 5 iclicker questions per lecture so bring that sucker to class. Tests are very hard, but as long as you study the lecture slides and do the online tests you will pass.

Her lectures are extremely boring. Watching the recordings 2x fast is the only way to get through them. Iclickers for accuracy, a few extra credit quizzes, and a review session for the final. Provides good resources, but really makes you work for a decent grade. Definitely do clas.

There is so much content for this class, and you really need to know the nitty gritty details or else you will get many questions on the exams wrong. Lectures are dull and hard to pay attention to. She is not really approachable and does not seem that interested or enthusiastic about teaching. Go to CLAS, rewatch lectures, organize your notes.

Dr. Finkelstein is a nice human being but an awful lecturer. Each lecture covers too many materials and you never know what will or will not be on the tests. Sometimes you checked on your phone for a second and could not follow her since then. Get ready to review recordings of the lectures. Questions are very tricky and very difficult to answer.

She knows her stuff but had a monotone voice which made it impossible to pay attention. Went to lecture for the iclicker points and watched lectures later at home. She went way too fast in lectures so even if you paid attention you'd have to go back and watch it again. The content is interesting but she made me hate bio. Tests are tricky

Very very boring teacher. Only plus side is that she makes everything accessible online including Ex credit, lecture videos, additional videos.. etc

Quite possibly the worst professor I've had so far at UCSB. She's almost impossible to follow, and doesn't present any of the concepts clearly. Memorize even the tiniest details on her slides, her tests are completely unreasonable and one word is enough to get the questions wrong if you don't know every single thing she mentioned. Awful

worst professor ive at at ucsb. she does not explain anything so majority of the class is lost and gets the clicker questions wrong. instead of taking this as a hint that shes not teaching well, she laughs when she sees that theres an even spread among all of the answer options. never had to use the textbook for bio at ucsb before but need to now

Dont expect to pick up details in her lecture as you will be easily distracted due to her dull tone and forget a lot of precious details right after you are out of Campbell; look at her slides and recordings at 2x, you will see that she covers a lot of tiny things that you need to memorize on the exam

Haters will hate. It is true that she is boring in lecture, hard to pay attention. However, her slides are easy to follow and her lectures are doable once you watch it at 1.5x. Study the old tests since she copies exact questions from them. Ask your biomentor for old tests and really cram those you can get a solid A.