She cancelled 2 weeks of class because it rained for 1 day, so we didn't do an experiment or any science. Instead she gave us 10 year old videos from other professors to watch online as a substitute for teaching us anything/giving us hands-on experience. We spent our in-person "lab" time making an 8th grade science fair-caliber poster on Powerpoint

She was alright in hindsight. Just so much hecking content. This is definitely a class you want to do the reading.I feel that reading + slides + lectures should be enough, but there is just so much. Tests are quite difficult so be ready for that.

I'm sure Prof Nguyen is a nice person, but she is probably the least empathetic and accomodating professor I have met at UCSB. MCDB 1LL was honestly not that bad or difficult, other than having to do a poster on a lab we never did.

I thought Low was bad until I encountered Finkelstein. While she isn't the best professor, Low is sweet and seems to care about her students. Her lectures were okay, and heavily based on the textbook. Make sure to read the textbook. Exams were insanely difficult.

This class was extremely unorganized and it had us make a research poster on a lab that we never even got to do. The labs themselves are really easy, but the pre-lab assignments take like ten attempts to get full credit b/c of how difficult they are.

Prof. Low is pretty funny but her lectures are completely copied from the textbook (which is already a dense reading). Her tests are SUPER specific in regards to small parts on the lecture slides and that's what tripped me up. BELIEVE IN THE CURVE! I thought I would fail but I got a C-. Also do any extra credit!!

Does not respond to emails. If you want to talk to her you have to somehow get her attention outside of class and even then, it's impossible to get a hold of her. I emailed Nguyen 4 times about the same subject at the beginning of the quarter and continued to get zero response. Eventually gave up and stopped asking questions- really disappointing.

The most stupid thing about MCDB1LL is the poster. We didn't do this experiment at all, but instead, the poster, which relies entirely on the editing process, gets the biggest score. It's really stupid and disgusting.

You never know how good you have it until it's gone. I was a Low hater until I experienced the second half of this class, the antichrist Ruth Finkelstein. Then I realized Low is actually a sweet angel sent from heaven and I would have given anything to get her back. That being said, her midterms are impossible, you WILL dedicate your life to them.

I honestly have no words. To sum it up, I'll give you this: It was so confusing that my entire lab class was under the impression that we would eventually DO the worm lab at some point, and were not informed that we would never actually do it (and were supposed to work off the old data the WHOLE course) until week 8. WEEK. EIGHT.

Not great, but compared to Finkelstein she's a saint. She is pretty funny and engaging in lecture, and her slides are basically all you need. Accessible in office hours, however she definitely isn't fond of giving verbose answers to questions. Expect very straightforward material with decently challenging exams. Would suggest looking at book.

What hasn't been said? The fact every bio student pays to go through her courses is a crime. She makes me want to self-immolate in front of Bio2, or wherever her office is. When a TA posts a rating saying the prof Is bad, it's bad. Sorry to every other bio student. Prepare yourself. I agree w/ "this is my villain origin story".

Great lecturer, uses lots of examples to help you understand difficult concepts. Her midterms are super specific though and didn't seem to actually test your knowledge on the course material.. overall love the professor hate her midterms

Honestly AVOID at all cost. 66% was average on midterm 1 and the class is scaled not curved meaning your grade is determined by the top 5 highest scoring students (and only benefits the people who are already doing well). take small bio the majority of people get As and Bs

I refuse to hear slander on this woman. It's a hard class, but Low sets us up for success as long as we actually put in work. I put in super low effort and got the grade I deserved, but I was certainly given the resources I needed to succeed if I had used them. Her voice is a little quiet for a lecture hall of that size, but she always wore a mic.

This is literally a made up class. We write a research poster on research we did not do. The in person labs are an actual joke. This is a waste of three hours every week. And don't get me started on the horrible organization and direction of this class and the stupid pre-lab quizzes. I am sorry if you have to take this class.

Professor Low didn't really seem to care about her students very much and wasn't very accessible outside of class. Textbook readings were required to do well on the tests but for her lectures, she practically copied the textbook word for word so they didn't really add much to the material. The tests were extremely hard even with studying.

It's bad. The pre labs are borderline ridiculous. The questions are so out of date that they still ask about covid green badges in pre lab quizzes. It just feels like they are so unprepared to teach this class. Even my TA is confused by the organization of this class. Also we are writing a poster about a lab we will never do. Weird.

This class was incredibly hard, but you will get through it. Harder than chemistry for me personally. No matter how prepared you feel from studying the lectures and textbook, her midterms were unrealistically challenging and would pertain to one sentence of the textbook. I recommend to self-study as much as you can and memorize the lectures.

I am speechless. I have never encountered someone who couldn't care less about their students. MCDB 1LL is my villain origin story and I have never felt more misery. She never responds to emails and her videos are less than helpful. Do not get me started on the pre-labs. The questions are awfully worded and the answers are not clear either.

Makes a class that's supposed to fun ridiculously complicated and tedious instead. Way way way too much work for 1.5 units and essentially an online class. Worst class I've taken here so far.

Professor Low was bad, but you can survive. Be prepared to learn completely independently, and low test averages. The tests are insanely unfair and take like one sentence from the textbook and make it a question. I recommend memorizing every word of the slides and understand it super well and you'll pass. Curve was 4 pts for me bc I had a B-

The tests were impossible no matter how hard you studied unless you could memorize the entire textbook. Her lectures were very rushed and confusing. I studied for two weeks for the final and still got a D because of how specific her questions were.

read the textbook!!! you basically have to memorize the whole thing in order to do well on the tests. she makes the questions extremely specific, so make sure you know sizes, functions, and all the little details you didn't think you'd need to know. khan academy was my bff in this class, as most of her lectures and textbook didn't make much sense