Turner is a great professor and an interesting guy. He explains concepts well but there is a lot you have to learn on your own. If you do the reading and rewatch lectures you can do very well in his classes. Also, all of his lectures are recorded which was very helpful. Midterm was graded very harshly , but his grading scale makes up for it

If you suck at taking tests, do not take this professor. Quizzes are tricky (on purpose) and it's hard to find the answer unless you deeply read the textbook (no one has time to read 50 pages 2x a week). Lectures are engaging, but he does say a lot of unnecessary stuff that won't be on the exam. Free response is graded harshly.

Tom gives very high quality lectures, no iclicker and they were all recorded. I liked going in person, he is very engaging, plus evolution is an interesting topic. Midterm was graded harshly and there was a trick question, but final was much better once you learn his grading style. Go to discussion section, the TAs like to drop hints and help you.

Evolution was my favorite, but now every time I think of evolution, I think about how stressed I was. If he graded the final as harshly as he did with the midterm (unreasonable) then I would have rated him a 1. Cheat sheets were annoying to make. Felt like nothing I wrote helped me. Quizzes were hard. Short answer questions sucked.

I really enjoyed this class. The weekly discussion questions are great indicators of what will be on the exams. Lectures are engaging and have tons of examples for each concept. Professor Turner is very kind and open to helping students understand difficult concepts, and I believe the exams were more than fair.

Grade is based only on quizzes, midterm, and final. Quizzes cover chapters from the textbook and are due before lecture so you must read the book (50ish pages per chapter). Overall I thought Turner was a good professor and his grading scale is extremely fair. He didn't respond well to criticism after the midterm though; strict on free response.

Super unforgiving class. All points are test or quiz-based, with only one attempt for everything. The questions are designed to trick students, and there is no clear grading criteria. Professor doesn't seem to really care about the success of his students, and refuses to accept any criticism about his teaching style.

This is the second time I've taken a class with Tom, he is one of my favorite professors here. He is brilliant and passionate, and his lectures are the ones I bring my non-major friends to for fun. His class expectations are reasonable, he posts lectures, and in my experience has had fair exams. I have nothing but praise for Tom!

By far the best class I have taken at UCSB. He is so engaging and passionate about what he teaches that it has made me excited to attend his lectures. His tests are fair and are mainly on big concepts in class. Not a ton of memorization needed. To do well, definitely attend all the sections, especially for then first half of the quarter topics.

Tom is the kind of professor you don't forget about. He makes lectures that could potentially put you to sleep actually interesting because you can tell how cool he thinks the material is. He made me not dread going to class and his tests are fair-he doesn't expect you to become an expert in 10 weeks but rather makes sure you paid attention.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tom's lectures partially because of the course material, but mostly because his lecturing style is very engaging. This class isn't memorization heavy, which I loved because it gave me room to be interested in the topics without feeling overwhelmed by material. Tom is a genuinely kind person and a wonderful professor, 10/10!

Loved this class. Concepts are super interesting and he makes them very accessible in his lectures. No tests, just 2 quizzes weekly (really wish other professors did this). Would highly recommend taking this as an elective, especially if you're interested in biology as a career.