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Having this course with orgo = death. The midterms were one day apart.
This course is basically about microbes and all their applications. Their is A LOT of content in this course (but not as much as there used to be). The final exam consisted of 15 chapters. The first midterm consisted of 8 chapters and was worth 30% (60 MC and 30 SA).
The midterm was 2 hours and very similar to practice quiz questions and many people did well, the average was about 76%. In the first month of the course, you learn about what microbiology is, what microbes are, and each chapter focuses on a different class of microbes such as bacteria, archaea, eukarya, and viruses. You learn the itty bitty details of each such as what their cell walls are made of, cell shapes, cell membrane composition, flagella composition, and a variety of different microbes. After this general introduction, you learn about factors that affect microbe growth and DNA replication in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, and transcriptional regulation such as the lac operon. The first part of the course was not too difficult, just a lot of content. Textbook readings were helpful for this section of the course in my opinion, but if you are pressed for time, your lecture notes are sufficient. I recommend trying to keep up with the textbook readings (for at least the midterm) because it will help you do really well on the midterm.
The second part of the course got more difficult because there is so many details you need to know. The major topics in the second part of the course are metabolism (cellular respiration, photosynthesis, Kreb's, anaerobic respiration, etc) , nutrient cycling (sulfur, oxygen, phosphorus), and microbial diseases and pathogenesis (where you learn about cytotoxins, endotoxins, exotoxins, and a variety of microbial diseases and how they are caused). This part of the course was very interesting. There are also smaller chapters focusing on food & water, how microbes are used in producing a variety of food products such as cheese, bread, alcohol, and water treatment. There is also chapters focusing on biotechnology, and symbiotic relationships between microorganisms. For the second part of the course, I read the textbook chapters but only made notes for chapters that I felt were important (biotechnology, microbial diseases, metabolism, and nutrient cycling). Doing quiz questions for the course is very helpful because similar questions show up on the midterm and exam.
The exam was 3 hours and 70 MC and 25 SA. A lot of people finished the exam early, but the exam was very random. A lot of his MC questions had options like more than one of the above, which made the exam more difficult than the midterm. The MC was kind of random and difficult, but the SA was more fair and a lot of it was just labeling diagrams (there was not a lot of writing in SA as opposed to the midterm). But the exam was fair, if you go over your lecture notes, you should be able to get at least 70% on the final exam.
I would say the course is interesting, but the exam was overwhelming because there is a lot of content. It was also the first exam in the exam period. Dr. Finan is a very fair professor and he seems to know his stuff very well and he's a very nice guy as well. He goes at a regular pace so that you can keep up with the material. Going to class does help if you really listen to what he is saying, he does give random tips for the midterm and final exam - sometimes he will tell you to know something for the midterm and exam, so know it.
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