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

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.

Honestly just awful in so many ways. Terrible PDF assignments that force students to buy Adobe Acrobat and then bait them into clicking links that make them lose all their work (this happened to me and many other classmates). Having to pay for the stupid lab manual that she probably makes thousands off of. Stingy and inaccessible. Horrible prof.

MCDB 1LL is way too much work for 1.5 units. In the first week during Winter quarter of 2022, we were doing remote learning and the LURE project drafts were so confusing, as no experiment videos were provided and we were just doing worksheets based on numbers/data given to us. The pre-labs are also tedious and time-consuming.

Insane amount of work, very disorganized, the work we are doing seems pointless

Easily one of the worst professors at UCSB. Both of the Intro Biology lab courses are incredibly disorganized. It's almost like Alice was the only one applying to be the head of the bio department and UCSB was stuck with hiring her. If she can get a job, anyone can >:(

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.

Dr. Finkelstein is accessible outside of class and truly cares about students who try. Although the expectations for students are slightly unrealistic and tests are made extremely difficult, she wants to make you a better student

teaching technique confused . Hope she retired quickly.

This professor was one of the worst that I have had. She decided to change the grading structure after the final because students did better on exams/materials not given by her. She covers material never before discussed in MCDB 1A and yet assumes everyone knows basic information she never gave.

Professor Finkelstein can always come up with some fun question formats and include 15 true/false questions in your exams. Try to distinguish between A, B, and C, while D and E are "A and B" and "A and C"; its not going be harder than discovering the theory of relativity.

Class was pretty bad. Lectures were incredibly boring and final was very difficult. There are a lot of resources to help you learn, but she is not one of them. I think she is retiring now, so be grateful you don't have her

Reading her lectures deadly.

I can't even find the words to describe how little? she actually teaches. Lectures' so monotonous and feels like she just uses iClicker to take up time instead of actually teaching. Average for the last midterm was literally so bad. Instead of maybe reflecting on her teaching style, sent out an announcement to reflect on how WE should study better.

"If I had only known that all I had to do was avoid this dude, I would have done much better" (quote from a former student)

If you don't read the textbook and spend hours engaging with outside material, you will fail this class. Half of the material you are required to know on exams is literally not mentioned ANYWHERE in the textbook or in the slides. Her lectures are incredibly disorganized and vague. Avoid at all costs

Not a pleasant class to take. Lectures consist mainly of reading off of slides without any extra information, so it feels like it is self taught. Finkelstein doesn't add anything to lecture when she stands behind the podium, not making eye contact for the entirety of the period. Tests were infinitely harder than what was taught in class.

I am traumatized. Never again.

It is genuinely impressive how much information from the textbook she skips in lecture. We're still responsible for knowing everything, of course, yet the only thing she herself "teaches" is her absolutely barren slides and unhelpful diagrams

It sucks I have to rate this class so low, because my TA was really good. The subject matter was not as interesting as MCDB lab, but the exercises were much easier since we got instant feedback/unlimited attempts. Nguyen is not very responsive, you should never ask for help unless really necessary. So many tech issues, and she's not very helpful.

NOOOOOO! She sent out emails about tech issues happening but also still asked for proof of the tech issues, will give you 3+ grading criteria docs before giving any proper instructions on the finals, cannot hold herself accountable to save her life. Screenshot everything because she will blame issues on you before accepting she messed up.

This course is extremely frustrating. Instructions are very unclear, deadlines are ridiculous. Only given 48 hours to turn in lab workbook despite it taking over a month for it to get graded. Received 0% for an assignment that I spent hours on because of a technicality that was not clear in her horrible directions.

Horrible. Expectations for research project in this lab were super unclear. TAs were clearly not communicated to well as they seemed confused too. Missed deadline by 10 min and was counted as a 0 docking a whole letter grade.

My grandma died right before MCDB 1A midterm, i had to fly across the country for the funeral. Alice needed proof she actually died to not get a zero with no leniency. No obituary cause she was buried 24 hrs after death (jewish) & death cert would take weeks to get. I sent a picture of me at her grave, my family was in on it and we had a laugh.