If you see this comment, then stop thinking about taking her class. Her lectures are so tedious and her PPTs are quite not organized. She only follows a bunch of notes on her PPT during class and speaks so fast. Her exams are unreasonably difficult although exam grades are 90% of the score. She doesn't know how to help students understand biology.

This lab was not difficult content-wise, but it seemed highly disorganized and busy-work based. We accessed course materials on a platform outside of GS, which was inconvenient. It could have been structured better, to suit both students and TAs. Your grade and how time consuming the course will be is 75% dependent on your TA's teaching style.

just put the effort into learning, and it will pay back, her tests were very similar to the practice test she gave out.

Most of lab section is spent sitting and waiting for something. The experiments we do are pointless and uninteresting, but every bio major has to take this class at some point. Your TA will determine how easy or hard the research paper assignment is. At least its way easier than 1LL.

I have never been more offended by an academic professional than I have by Professor Low. I'm in her nutrition class and she literally LAUGHED when talking about how some people need to get surgery to help with obesity. She is not sympathetic at all and makes people feel crappy if they're not in perfect shape and eating vegan. -5000/10

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.

I find this woman's lectures to be so impossible to get thru. Like she's one of those professors whose literal voice irks u by the end of the quarter. She doesn't know how to explain concepts to make them easy 2 follow. She'll go on for way too long in lecture just to say "ok," flip the slide, & confuse tf out of u. She ignores raised hands too lol

I found her to be a genuine person which encouraged me to work more and enjoy biology just a little more. Sometimes the accent would trip me up or the material would cause me to daze off in that stuffy room, but she was sweet and had a simple humor that allowed me to enjoy this course more than EEMB7.

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.

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.

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.

I had Low online and her lectures were better than Finkelstein, but by no means were they amazing. She asks for very specific answers on her exams. I definitely recommend CLAS, it's a great way to review processes especially before an exam. Put in the work now in animal physiology, because once plant physio hits, it's harder to recover.

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

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

Lows exams are literally impossible. I reviewed the lectures several times and even read the textbook thoroughly. She included content on the exam that she explicitly said we wouldnt be tested on! Had to drop this class and will take it in the summer with hopefully a better and more fair teacher

Overall, I found this class to be intolerable. I would choose to take classes with any other professor but that was not possible. Majority of your grade is based entirely on test. There was a small extra credit opportunity that saved me from a C. I found the test to be extremely difficult and often not on material in lecture or the book.

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 >:(

Shes a super sweet professor! Her lectures basically just go through what youre reading in the textbook but in less detail so I highly recommend getting the textbook and taking detailed notes on it. Her tests are really hard and very conceptual but she was still a good teacher and the class averages were always reasonable.

The Biolab classes (1LL and 2LL) are horribly organized and a huge waste of three hours every week. This class also has super strict rules on grading and attendance and they will almost never make an exception for students under any circumstance. The only upside is that the final exam is a group test in 2LL.

Prof. Low is great! She is caring and funny and her lectures aren't too difficult or boring. Our entire grade is made up of a midterm, a final, and a few quizzes, but the curve is pretty forgiving. Her tests are pretty hard though, but she is a great prof.!