MCDB 290DN
Dennis Clegg
3.9
35 reviews

35
3.9
MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

He made learning about cell biology more fun with his mid-lecture jokes. The content contains many details you must know, but he breaks it down decently. His quizzes and his midterm are high-difficulty since you have to memorize those details and need a deep understanding of them to answer specific questions. He is a cool professor though.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 11 Months Ago

Best STEM professor I've had at UCSB so far. He makes his lectures super engaging and always told a joke in the middle of class to break it up. He even brought his dog once. His midterm was definitely tough, but very similar to the practice tests. Watch the CLAS videos- they saved me!

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

Clegg was funny but his jokes did not make up for how bad his midterm was. The questions are worded very odd and it was hard to understand what they were really asking. Also, the questions would be more on applying knowledge/critical thinking more so than memorization, so you can't really BS your way through his section of the class.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

He is a good professor and tries to keep his lectures engaging. Definitely a bit of an oldhead but in an endearing way. His content is quite dense and very memorization heavy. I struggled with his midterm the most, but I think just grinding the flashcards is the best way to hit it. And the practice tests.

1 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Very charismatic professor and good lecturer (condenses material down making it easy to understand) but the midterm questions are worded very specific and some material on the exams is not taught in lecture.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB146 . 2 Years Ago

This course was taught much better than his part of intro bio. Midterm was a 5 minute presentation in section wort 30%, participation in section 20%, final exam 50%. The final was very stressful since there are no assignments throughout the quarter so it can be hard to know what to study but he posts a previous final to help. Overall ok MCDB class

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Clegg's lectures are fine, but his test questions are highly specific and intentionally confusing.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

Clegg's portion of the MCDB1A was undoubtedly the hardest for me. It was based on the tiniest of details and took a lot of concept relaying to fully understand the concepts. Just try your hardest and if you don't do well, haul ass for the final. The curve really comes through (78 was an A- for Fall 2021). Curve was insanely good for this class.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

His lectures were my favorite out of the 3 for this class. His midterm and portion of the final were also the hardest. It was all memorization and we were tested on the smallest details. Honestly studying could only do so much unless you have a photographic memory.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 2 Years Ago

he put a question on our practice test and on the midterm but misspelled the correct answer from the practice, so no one got it right. he also made a mistake on the practice test and used the same question on the real test, when a student questioned it after the test, he changed the answer so again, almost everyone's grades dropped. so frustrating.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 3 Years Ago

My favorite lecturer from MCDB 1A. His part of the class is about cellular biology and most of it is memorization. So rewatch lectures, take notes, and read the book.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB146 . 3 Years Ago

He's a very accommodating professor. Super easy class, and the material is interesting because he mentions current events. You have to do a presentation for a midterm and the final is open notes for a few days.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 4 Years Ago

his lectures are straightforward, but his test is too heavily formatted on knowing more than one answer for the question. I feel like this is very unnecessary especially since his topics are memorization-heavy, and his format isn't needed especially during an online class. Stu did better on formatting his questions than clegg did.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 4 Years Ago

He likes to tell jokes. His exams are very detailed, and the style of the problems is quite unique, which is really effective in testing the actual degree of understanding among students. One must get quite familiar with the material to achieve better grade.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 6 Years Ago

Out of all the professors who taught MCDB1A clegg was the most tolerable. He's good, not great. He understands what its like to be a student, he tries to make class interesting and I appreciated his corny jokes and the fact he always started at 8:01 :)

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 6 Years Ago

His jokes are adorkable. Lectures are very well designed and he presents material in a way that's easy to understand. Efficient at getting the point across and dulls the pain of an 8am lecture 4 days a week

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB103 . 7 Years Ago

Great teacher, funny and easy to understand!

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 8 Years Ago

Professor Clegg is a funny guy, lectures well, has great office hrs. However, he's only taught MCDB 1A for a short time and his test questions are weird. STUDY random details and figure out how to determine what his test questions are getting at! I did awesome on his midterm and not as great on his portion of the final... so weird discrepancy.

1 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 8 Years Ago

He is very straightforward with the material (literally everything is in the lecture slides). I went to every class but rarely took notes because I found that getting the general idea during lecture was helpful for me. Later on I would review the slides for the more specific details. Tries to crack a joke every class- reminds me of my dad.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 9 Years Ago

Definitely worst lecturer I've had in my 2 years. Why do I even go to class if I'm literally just having the slides read to me? AND it's an 8am. HELL NO. Not something I look forward to. Lecture slides are all over the place and hard to understand. Might as well just stay home and watch the lectures when it's convenient for you.

1 helpful 4 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 9 Years Ago

His lectures are clear and interesting. He is hilarious. His midterm is moderate in difficulty; know the information on his powerpoint slides. His questions on the final were slightly more difficult.

2 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 9 Years Ago

Clegg was my favorite lecturer of the series and I did amazing on his midterm. A lot of people did bad or okay on his midterm because of the amount of memorization that needed to go down and some really specific and minute details he brought up on the test. If you study everything off the slides and have good memorization of details, you're good.

1 helpful 1 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 9 Years Ago

He was my favorite professor of the MCDB 1A series, but his tests were not as generous. The midterm was decent, although it requires you to memorize a TON of info. His questions on the final were rough. He tests you on individuals in the field of cell biology, which was a surprise to many of us, and he focuses a lot on stem cells. STUDY EARLY!

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
MCDB1A . 9 Years Ago

The midterm was okay, though it contained a lot of questions that pertained to unimportant information. His portion of the final was absolutely ridiculous. The questions required very specific knowledge of random facts, rather than knowledge of fundamental concepts in cell biology. I do not believe his tests measure mastery of the subject.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful