Very fair professor. He has more office hours than most professors. The lectures are extremely dull but you must go, especially for iclicker questions. You will do well if you really engage and keep up with the material. Ask questions in lecture or through email - he will give a detailed response.

Loved this class!! Everything you need to know for his tests will be explained very clearly during lecture and if you take good notes you don't need to read the textbook. Slides are mostly diagrams, not words, which helped a lot as far as understanding concepts.

Dr. Thrower is very difficult. He does not test you on topics only on concepts. Genetics should be taught on a board not through a powerpoint. Take him if you only want unnecessary stress and are ready to teach yourself.

CLAS is definitely REQUIRED, otherwise you're going to be staring at problems for a really long time. He tests on the notes only, but you have to pay attention in class because he explains the notes further in class. Skipping class is gonna make the class tough because he adds more to the notes and expects you to know it. Very rewarding class.

Dr. Thrower is all around a great professor. Yes, he can be monotonous at times, but IF you can pay close attention during his lectures, he conveys information well and is all around a solid professor. Tests are fair and are reasonably difficult. You HAVE to attend CLAS however, as actual problem solving methods aren't covered during lecture.

lectures are so unorganized and tests go far beyond than the material learned in class. must read the book to get a better feel of material. CLAS is the only thing that helped me pass this class. definitely have to work for your grade. look at past exams if you can, they help a lot. would not recommend taking this class with Thrower.

Dr. Thrower is a nice guy and really cares about his students. However, his lectures are very unorganized and hard to follow. The class is extremely detailed and his tests are hard -- but everything you need, he tells you. CLAS is a must because he relies on them to teach you how to do problems and additional info presented in section. It was meh.

Great professor. Lectures are long and can be boring because his tone doesn't change but he explains everything very clearly. Office hours are super helpful and CLAS is a must! Class is pretty tough but UNDERSTAND everything on the lecture slides and you should be fine. If you memorize you will not pass. Do all the reader problems.

He's really nice in person but his lectures are so boring. He has a pretty monotone voice. Tests are tough, but all of the information you need is on his slides. He doesn't really go over how to do some problem-solving questions, so go to CLAS for that. I didn't enjoy his class but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. He's adequate.

He is more willing to help his students than any professor I have had before. He has more office hours than any professor I have ever seen and emails back extremely quickly. Yes the tests are tough, buts it's a hard class. Gives extra credit for iclicker questions, which is awesome. Go to lecture because his lecture slides don't cover everything

Dr. Thrower is one of the most brilliant professors in MCDB. He knows a little bit about everything and he actually knows everything about human biology. He is insightful and has great stories about his past in biomedical research. Furthermore, he's a genuine man. He cares for his students more than any professor I've had at UCSB.

Go to CLAS, do the reader problems, show up to section and you're guaranteed at least a B. If he writes anything at all on the board you know it's going to be a question related to it on an exam. EC Clicker questions!!!

Thrower is a good lecturer although sometimes a little boring. I found the course material a bit dull but he includes some interesting facts that help it out. CLAS is a MUST!! Get the reader for CLAS and the course reader. Textbook was almost useless I used it maybe 3 or 4 times so don't buy just check out from library before midterms.

Thrower is older and has such a smooth voice, at 8am it puts you straight to sleep. This class isn't that bad, I would recommend CLAS 100%! It was a life saver. The material isn't too tough to understand, there's just a lot. Memorize the proteinsenzymes. Tests are free response and multiple choice, and the book isn't really necessary. EC iClicker!

Thrower is an amazing professor. This class is made so simple by CLAS. I kept up with the slides and memorized the mechanisms, NOT every word. I ended up with an A+ by a long shot. You simply just need to put in about 15 hours a week. It scares me to see that people are calling thiss class hard, it's really not. Thrower is the man!

His class is not hard if you read his slide and understand what is going on. You also have to attend CLAS and do the practice exams. Other than that, the book and section are not helpful.

This class is harder than it should be. His lectures are hard to follow. His midterms and finals are insanely hard even when you study because he doesn't actually test you on the info in the book/lecture he tests on what if this or that went wrong? How should I know if you haven't taught it to me and its not in the book? Really frustrating class!

Class is pretty straightforward. MEMORIZE everything on the slides and you'll ace the class. If you still don't get it, all pictures used on the slides are noted and in the book.

class seems useless but he always tests on things he spends more time talking about, so its helpful to go to class and see which slides he spends the most time on and they'll be tested. he wants you to leave the class with enough knowledge to work in a prokaryotic genetics lab, and his test questions reflect the research aspects. hard but doable

Very boring, also an 8am class. CLAS helps make the material a lot easier. Expect to put in a lot of time in this class, as it is not an easy A. Attending class is good for extra credit I-clicker points. The curve is pretty nice too.

Dr. Thrower is very organized, knowledgable & helpful. The concepts are not particularly hard. What makes this course so difficult is the amount of (fairly dry) material you need to learn & a lot of memorization as well. Expect to put in A LOT of time. Go to CLAS. Find a way to organize all the material that works for you. NEVER get behind.

Midterms and final EXTREMELY hard. I was in CLAS which kind of saved me or else I would have been SO lost, but still was not enough. Too much info. packed in one quarter and professor was extremely boring. Go to lecture though so you can get extra info. on slides. Sections werent helpful either, just repeated stuff that would be posted online later

Really sweet, and really cares about his students. You don't need to read the book that much, unless it is to clarify something in lecture. Does iClicker but besides that, lecture was pretty unhelpful. CLAS is a must, and his is really helpful in Office hours. The second midterm requires a lot of memorization.

His material is definitely dry and because he purposefully chooses to have his classes early in the morning, it's a struggle to stay awake. Definitely go to class and do the reader problems. My issue with him is that in order to do well on the test you definitely have to go over past exams to get an idea of how to approach certain problems.