You should absolutely be putting effort into remembering and understanding the concepts. Most people get Bs and about the top 20 students get As out of approx. 120 people. The material will change the way you look at streams when you go hiking or are out in nature.
Very understanding of the ridiculous situation we had to deal with due to COVID. Made it incredibly to get an A (couple ungraded assignment/week), yet still managed to get me to put in a good amount of work purely out of interest for the material and the quality of the lectures.
Enjoyable lectures, full of interesting examples and stories. His exam is also the easiest one in intro-bio series.
Awesome professor. His lecture style is attractive, and office hour is also helpful.
1 star for great lectures, but screwed us over on the test. 75 minutes for 50 long, badly worded questions. Says he wants us to apply concepts and not memorize; test didnt reflect that. You WILL need to memorize experiments and definitions, he WILL test on material he didnt cover. Practice problems DONT reflect the test. 70% average, no curve
Dr. Latto clearly cares a lot about his students. I've never had a professor who responds to students concerns and genuinely tries to improve the class based on suggestions. He keeps the lectures pretty interesting, and if you pay attention and keep up you'll do fine in his class.
What the heck. Super hard test with only 1-2 points of curve. It is my first time to do late drop because I cannot tolerate a B on my transcript :)
good lecturer, horrible test. I don't know why people keep saying easy A and straightforward. The test is wordrd weird and score is unexpeted low. The content is very easy, buf the test is definetly unfair. 25 out of 1000 students get 90+, and there is only little curve according to his email. very disappointed about test, I like the content tho.
Even is a great professor and lecturer that really cares about the students and their academic success. But it is really important to attend his lectures because his slides do not contain all the information needed for the exam so be prepared to take good notes. Also, make use of his office hours and review session before finals.
Even is one of the best professors at UCSB and one of two faculty in the EEMB department that is not research based, his primary focus is teaching not research which is rare. Grading is mostly based on tests which are challenging but fair. He uses everything from matching to hypothetical free response to test understanding rather than memorization
I wish John could teach all of my classes. Hes so easy to pay attention to and makes anything sound interesting. His little anecdotes here and there make it easy to remember certain topics and he doesnt bore you with slides full of words. He clearly enjoys what he teaches and has made me consider switching my major bc of how much I like his class
They changed the format of the bio labs, and I had hoped that they would be better, but in fact, they have become worse! The grading scales are harder, and the lab practicals are no easier than before. Unfortunately there's no way to avoid this class if you're a bio major, so good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor tbh.
His lectures are amazing. Homework and tests are reasonable.
Class isn't that difficult, very practical material. No busy work or extra readings, mainly lecture-based info. A few quizzes (worst grade dropped) and one-page responses, but nothing major. Funny and approachable guy, cares about students. Personally have a hard time with science so it took more work for me, but very doable. Easy Area C class.
Totally unorganized, making the material which was clear in lecture more confusing. Many of the questions she writes dont feel fair and her grading policy is rigid for a 1 unit class. If you every have her, Im sorry
He is absolutely amazing. He is so knowledgeable. Everyone, regardless of major, should take this class. Not only is it doable, but you learn so many important things you can use in your actual life. His lectures are amazing he is so funny, I am sad I missed some. I feel honored to have taken his class, I will take any other classes he teaches.
Best prof! super funner and interesting topics. midterms and lectures all based on lecture, but he posts video lectures online making studying and catching up simple! straight forward midterm and final, easy points during section.
Lattos lectures are very interesting, he's a great lecturer I recommend! The midterm was very straightforward based on the information he gave us.
The actual worst, she overcomplicates the lab practicals to the point where they're more difficult and time consuming than the actual classes. The lab manual is disorganized and barely corresponds to lectures anyways. Probably the worst person they could have chosen to organize the intro bio labs.
If I could rate her a zero I would
Professor Even is very clear in his lectures. He is one of the only professors I've had that seems like he really wants his students to understand the material that he covers. As long as you do the computation sets and memorize formulas you will do well on the exam.
Professor Latto is hilarious during lecture and explains everything super clearly. He also has a study guide that covers pretty much everything you need to know for the exam. If you watch the lectures you will do well.
Dr. Latto made learning evolution pretty fun! He's witty and loves his anecdotal examples. He only uses stuff in lecture on the test, which is a huge plus. Even though I'm not passionate about evolution, he made it more digestible. Take him if you can!
Latto is pretty relaxed and can make lectures interesting. He provides a practice final which is pretty helpful. Dont neglect EEMB for MCDB. If you dont cram, go to lecture and clas, you can easily get an A.