I really enjoyed this class, and Todd was a solid lecturer. It's clear he's super interested in what he's teaching and that transferred into the material, which was already interesting. The first midterm was kind of rough, but he was very supportive in helping me understand how to do better going forward. The TAs were also very nice and helpful.

love this man. not only was the class super interesting, it wasn't stressful which I really appreciate because I was actually able to learn without being stressed. section attendance was mandatory but Lisa was super helpful and made everything make sense. make sure you do the problem sets multiple times and you'll be set for the exams.

Todd is a great lecturer and the midterms are fair but the lab portion of the class ruins it. the TAs my quarter were pretty unorganized and overall unhelpful. my class ended up scoring astoundingly low on the practical so they dropped the first one. it'd be easier to focus on Todd's lectures without chaos of the lab section.

Dr. Oakley grades fair, and gives assignments to reinforce what you're learning, but the material is not that exciting as it is very specific and narrow in evolution. For "Macroevolution" we mostly focused on genetic trade off and rooting, parsimony, heterocrony, and other concepts. Search these up! Only take the class if these topics interest you.

Lecture was boring, sometimes exam had lecture based questions so if you skipped, you would be out of luck. Doesn't curve the class. Exams are reasonable. Takes FOREVER to grade assignments and exams. Took a midterm week 3, had to wait until week 7-8 to get our first midterm grades back 1 week before our 2nd midterm. got MT2 grade 1 wk before final

Lab portion is amazing.

Great, interesting class. I learned to combat anti-evolution arguments.

Relatively easy course for the evolution requirement of EEMB. However, other courses will likely serve you better. The class became too difficult to determine what was expected of us when Bjorn came in. This class is rooted (you will get the reference...) in phylogenetic reconstruction. If this does not sound interesting, do not take the course.

Invert Zoology was a really fun and interesting class, but you have to work and memorize a lot of really tricky taxonomy. He likes lecturing about stuff that he personally finds interesting, so hes not boring. His lecture slides are helpful so you can miss a few classes and still get sufficient info. Nice guy, easy to talk to!

Oakley is a great professor and the class is great. He gives you a practice test that is very similar to the actual test. If you know how to do the different types of problems on the homework and practice test, you will do well. Also Oakley is an amazing teacher and really nice guy.

I really enjoyed the class and thought Oakley did a great job presenting the material. I would definitely recommend the class, and I found the best way to study was to take notes of his slides before the test and keep up with the weekly homework. Tests are part multiple choice and part short answer.

this class was interesting and the material was presented well , but come the test ..its as if it was another class' test..I studied hard and attended every lecture..and I was disappointed with my grade.

Oakley knows the material, but his enthusiasm for teaching leaves much to be desired. He does not engage the class, and he tends to be rather monotonous. The lecture slides can be found online following each lecture, but that is the extent of the help he offers. He is difficult to reach and shows little concern for students' success.

This class was dreadful. Material is REALLY easy but the tests are an extremely poor representation of knowledge of lecture material. Practice test answers are WRONG which is awful. Take it if you want a B

Very poor at preparing students for the tests. Examples were unclear, answer keys to practice tests were wrong and full of scribbles. He name-drops all the time for no reason and spends too much lecture time on unrelated stories and basically bible bashing. Easy enough class if you have the book, but his lectures are messy.

Oakley is very bland and narrow-minded. He demonizes religion and his curriculum is very dry and monotonous. He name drops (even though he claims he doesn't) and his test are very tricky. The keys to his practice tests are wrong, but he gives them out anyways, which really shows his passion for teaching and the subject. One word, AVOID.

This class was terrible, he does not know how to teach or make the subject interesting. I went to every class and studied a lot for the midterms and I still did horrible in the class. This professor is a waste of space at this university

he really loves this subject. he really wants us to be able to argue against anti-evolutionists. his tests are not too hard, but the lecture gets boring every once in awhile.

One of my favorite teachers at UCSB. He's funny, laid back, and easy to talk to. The class is challenging but definitly do-able. Recomend for those interested in inverts and those interested in ecology. Text book is not really used, so go to lecture!

I felt like he did not take the class seriously or not. He took two weeks to grade the midterms, but had not yet recorded grades or figured out how many points the test was out of when we went to his office to pick up the tests. When he finally did figure it out he curved it so that the average grade was a C- rather than a C. He also showed up to t

He taught the 2nd part of this course which focused on molecular genetics. His lectures were well presented and full of good info. He lightened the course with his humor and laid back attitude. Tests are very fair and easy if you study and understand the examples in class, which isn't hard because he explains the concepts very well.

The final was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There are a lot of little details to know, but few are tested on thoroughly.