MCDB 1BZ
SMITH I
William Smith
3.3
28 reviews
LOW S H
Seng Low
2.4
241 reviews
NGUYEN A T
Alice Nguyen
1.2
83 reviews

353
2.3
MCDB1B . Low S H 1 Year, 6 Months Ago

Looks at student as though they are beneath her. Expects you to memorize everything she says. Anything heavily emphasized will not

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MCDB1B . Low S H 1 Year, 7 Months Ago

Exams are ridiculously specific, questions comes from obscure concepts touched on during lectures so you have to memorize every word she's saying on top of lecture slides. When asked about the wording/ambiguity of the questions during the exam, she seemed annoyed and gave brief, dismissive answers that offered no help. Would not recommend.

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MCDB1AL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 7 Months Ago

Very poorly written/designed. Instructions could be way more clear. Lab videos are not in order/skips steps so it's more confusing than it needs to be and generally just not that helpful. Makes me miss gen chem lab because at least everything was clear.

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EEMB3 . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

Alice is literally so terrible and mean. She wants all the bio students to suffer and I truly feel like she wants to weed out as many people as she possibly can. I feel really sorry for you if you have to suffer through one of her classes. She has made me absolutely hate my major. So thanks for that!

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 9 Months Ago

She don't provide what student need: I have no idea how to do the programmins for statistic analysis, but I can't find any guide for this. If you get sick and miss a lab, drag your tired body to get the doctor note. Since without it you will lose whole credit for the lab, and there is no compensate lab or lowest one drop, so say bye to your A!

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MCDB139 . Low S H 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

This class has been relatively easy in comparison to other MCDB upperdivision courses. Everything is 100% memorization based on her slides and what she says so make sure to listen carefully and write everything down. Low is funny and I enjoyed listening to her lectures.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

The definition of "this is just a job". She's not even a real professor, just a coordinator. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the planning for these intro level mcdb/eemb classes get handed to her, bureaucrat-style. Terrible communication, if you reach out to her either in-person or by email, good luck getting a response back.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

Literally the meanest professor/coordinator ever. Every single class I have taken run by her had something go drastically wrong (like having 800+ students take a final 3 times). She also has 0 empathy for students, almost didn't excuse my friend from a lab because she couldn't send her a LITERAL OBITUARY fast enough.

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

Literally the WORST HUMAN to ever grace ucsb campus. is the least understanding person and hardly responds to emails on top of how HORRIBLY she coordinates classes. My house literally flooded and she said It wasn't fair to other students for me to submit my assignment late. (bro my house flooded). awful courses for an awful coordinator

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MCDB111 . Low S H 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

It is hard, ngl. But if you can do well, you will remember content for the rest of your life and will ace any physiology MCAT question. Grind every single slide, every single word until you understand. Watch lectures on full volume because she literally SAYING what will be on exam and gives you an answer. Every time the explains, it will be in exam

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MCDB1B . Low S H 1 Year, 10 Months Ago

Low gets more hate than she deserves just because her tests are SO HARD. Her lectures are hilarious and you can tell she knows her stuff. I put in more work than I ever have for MCDB 1B and it was well rewarded. If you can truly understand what shes teaching, even the minutia, an A is very possible. Test questions were specific but still relevant.

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EEMB3 . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

Absolute joke of a coordinator. She split a single course into 3 different professors, already confusing students, and 1 of the professors is teaching ENTIRELY on zoom. 0 accessibility, 0 transparency, 0 accommodations, and honestly the worst professor in all of UCSB. You cannot avoid her classes, but hopefully she loses her job one day.

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MCDB139 . Low S H 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

her online recordings just make me chuckle

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EEMB2LL . Nguyen A T 1 Year, 11 Months Ago

Honestly so so so unbelievably unfortunate that Alice heads a lot of the prerequisite classes for Pre-Biology majors because she is just so unaccommodating. I'm not sure why she makes everything so difficult and gives me the impression she does not care for the students taking her class to succeed. All of these reviews about her are 100% justified.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

I have never had the misfortune of dealing with such a terrible person until I had to take a class the Alice Nguyen was in charge of. She is the most unaccommodating person if you have to miss any classes and she doesn't allow you to make up any grades if you do. Avoid any classes with her name attached at all costs.

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MCBD6 . Low S H 2 Years Ago

I did the bare minimum and passed, but tbh it was my past biology knowledge and the curve that saved me. This is a difficult class for PBS majors bc it requires gen chem levels of studying which a lot of people don't realize until it's too late. Drill the textbook.

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MCBD6 . Low S H 2 Years Ago

Quizzes and practice exams are NOTHING like the actual exams. The exams are very difficult and be prepared to be tested on topics that are only covered in the textbook or briefly in lecture. Lectures are also very dense in material. The article summaries are an actual assignment that counts for credit, not extra credit like she makes it seem.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

I don't really know where to start... she is extremely power hungry and bureaucratic. I had an instance where a TA told me something regarding the course policies and I took it to be truth (as one does). Turns out that wasn't the case and when I did everything else right (turned in my assignment EARLY) she didn't listen during our meeting at all.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

WORST professor in the MCDB department. Has no sense of social skills whatsover, and is not lenient to different circumstances. Never met a "professor" like her before. DO NOT recommend! Would rather take this class at cc than here. Not a great coordinator, the worst by far at UCSB.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

if I could give 0 stars I would. probably the least empathetic person you'll ever meet in your life. and the lab manual, quizzes, and poster project are all very poorly written. on the good side, it's easy as long as you don't miss a deadline.

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MCDB1B . Low S H 2 Years Ago

insanely difficult exams, and it's just so much material. she vaguely goes over stuff and then adds them to the exam. she's not as bad as ruth, however combined for this course they're no help. the weeder course is definitely weeding. I went to all the lectures, to CLAS, and rewatched ALL her videos, and I still bombed her midterm. boo introbioteam

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MCDB132 . Low S H 2 Years Ago

I'm typically an A/B+ student but I had to withdraw from this course after the first two midterms were graded so difficultly that I was going into the final with a D+. The worst part is, when I asked her about my exams that I felt were marked down incorrectly, she took away MORE POINTS from other questions on my tests and my grade went down more.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

Absolutely abysmal class. Only 1.5 units but the biggest hassle of a class. O chem lab is ten times easier and more fun. Least enjoyable class I have taken. Intro bio team is not helpful at all with turning in assignments late, getting excused absences, etc.

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MCDB1LL . Nguyen A T 2 Years Ago

This is a joke of a class. The department is very strict about turning in labs and every time we have gone in for a lab, it is a waste of time. She has students conduct experiments knowing the equipment does not work and then marks students off for being late or not turning in a lab with very strict and not lenient policies. VERY poor quality class

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