Professor Rothman is 100% my favorite professor that I have had at UCSB. He really takes careful consideration in the organization of his often difficult teaching concepts and puts immense effort into making them entertaining. He is also a really cool guy to talk to. Highly recommend taking this class!

Made us go in person just to take exams, half the class failed and received no curve. The test questions were terrible and we fell behind in class due to his constant cringe jokes. Take the class with Wilton if you can.

Prof De Tomaso is one of the best lecturers in the MCDB department in my opinion. He has a vast knowledge of his field but is incredible at teaching the concepts in a digestible way.

My course was online, and you could tell he still wasn't completely used to it but the dude can really teach! He always takes into account ppl's questions during lecture and is super approachable at office hours. Study the lectures hard and ASK questions! Exams are tough but doable, I did better each exam. Push hard early if you want that A, GL! :D

Graded 100% on 3 exams. Dull lectures. Difficult exams very different from material in lecture. Tests you on tiny random details. Unwilling to accommodate students in situations out of their control. No curve. Grades exams harshly. Midterm on week 9. Added an extra lecture because he was too far behind. Do the problem sets, they help with exams.

Weekly multiple choice quizzes & 3 exams (mostly short answers). Grading for short answer questions is all over the place bc he doesn't give feedback on exams unless you email directly. His lectures are pretty interesting and the material is straightforward. I would recommend reading the book along with the powerpoints to study for the midterms.

Tomaso is a fast lecturer and covers a lot of material, but the lectures are recorded and he's accessible if you have any questions regarding the material. Exams are mostly critical thinking and involve less memorization of details. If you keep up with the material and really understand every concept you can get a good grade in this class.

Dr. De Tomaso goes fast during lectures, but he does record them, so feel free to rewatch every one of them. His exams are fair, as you do not have to be super specific. Immunology, in general, is difficult, so you might have to read the textbook chapters. Overall, the class is difficult because of the subject itself, not because of the instructor.

Took this class along with the honors. Good teacher who focuses heavily on research and experiments, tests are little memorization and have large sections on interpreting data and designing your own experiment. Hard to finish in time but TAs grade answers leniently. Overall I liked him but def not an easy A if you dont have research experience.

Funny and chill dude, great professor. The material is all in lecture, so make sure you write down EVERYTHING he says, no matter how small. Details matter big time in this class. If you need a deeper source of information, the internet was more helpful than the textbook.

The concepts are easy, but the exams are difficult, as you have to apply what you have learned in various scenarios. Nonetheless, the grading is heavily normalized. Dr. Mahan is a solid instructor. Be sure pay attention to what he writes and says in lecture. Do note any of the points he has "starred," and be sure to go to office hours, if you can.

Gives 3 exams, 2 midterms and a final. The final and the midterms are weighted the same. Dr. Rothman is an awesome professor, super funny, and extremely accommodating. He does all that he can to ensure that his students are successful. If you have taken 109c, this class is almost an exact repeat, so its very easy. Curves the class.

one of my favorite professors at UCSB! you definitely have to take his biochem class. as long as you go over lectures thoroughly and pay attention in class, you'll do just fine.

Quite literally one of the hardest upper division biology classes at UCSB. The tests are only based on his lectures, but are still so hard. The averages for midterm one and two were around a 43 and a 50. I will say it was a SUPER interesting class and he's a great teacher, but overall not an easy course.

Toughest class I've taken at UCSB. I received all A's in my other upper-division bio classes, yet was barely able to survive this class. De Tomaso focuses so heavily on research that you leave lectures not knowing what's going on. His tests are poorly constructed. The other reviewers are definitely outliers because most of the class did dismally.

Most interesting class I've taken at UCSB. He presents the material in a way that usually begins with a research question and ends with an experiment that led to a major discovery in immunology. Tests are challenging and require critical thinking and less memorization of specific details from lecture. Great professor and great class.

Rothman is a very good lecturer, and is very accessible outside of class. He really seems like he wants his students to succeed in this course. The exams aren't too tricky, if you go to lecture and stay on top of studying for this course, it won't be hard at all to pass and do well.

What a mess this class was. Yeah, he's hilarious and is available for lots of office hours but when the average for both midterms is 40% and he decides to make the final 10x more difficulty covering material that was never taught.. you gotta take a second to look at the teacher. Interesting subject, complete garbage professor.

Rothman is an exceptional professor for biochem. The class is a lot of material, and going to class will definitely help with understanding the topics. The book is optional and only helps to give extra details on things from lecture. His tests aren't easy but aren't too difficult, it's just a matter of studying the material because there is a lot.

Doesnt normally teach the Cell bio portion in 1A. This section was definitely the most challenging of the 3. Really look at the details and study everything on the slides. I used OneNote to highlight my slides and write up summaries when studying and it helped. Go to CLAS. Final is split between the sections, got 8/20ish right on this section.

He is temporarily teaching this course while the normal professor is on sabbatical and he taught much more material than he was supposed to. It was ridiculous how much information he expected us to know when his slides did not match up (he used another professor's slides) and the textbook didn't even go as in depth. They better curve this class.

funny guy but you could tell right away that he wasn't prepared to teach this class - pretty all over the place. things got better but he wasn't good enough of a professor to make his exams so difficult. average was so damn low for the midterm but it was honestly okay. final was a JOKE. SO specific on barely touched topics. Biomentors couldnt help.

He explained things well. Midterm wasn't that hard but had questions about minor details that you wouldn't think are important so the class average was really low (but if you read over the slides you would know them). Literally never went to class because lectures were online.

He's a nice, engaging lecturer, but his exam was awful. It was way more specific than what he *or* the book covered, and I could barely understand it. Apparently, the rest of MCDB 1A didn't, either. He seems like an alright guy, but I wouldn't trust him as a substitute teacher