This course is divided into three parts. The first two profs tried to incorporate a sort of model to aid the curriculum.

Dr. Jacobs - Cell Bio
- had a virus model. Seemed irrelevant until after the unit which is kind of unfortunate because understanding was crammed to the end....

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In the beginning this course started out to be very interesting. Dr. Kajiura was such an amazing prof and was very detailed with her notes and lectures. She was very approachable and gave real life examples that made the course much easier to understand.

When it came to Dr. Wilson's part it was really boring and dry. I give a thumbs up to Wilson for trying to get us involved by doing in class questions using iclickers and letting us discuss as a class. But overall the material was just too boring. Her tests were really difficult too.

dr. kajiura was a lot better than dr. wilson

Originally Posted by kl9988

dr. kajiura was a lot better than dr. wilson

I completely disagree.

I had Zhu and Kajiura for this course and they are both good profs in my opinion
Kajiura spoonfeed you the stuff and she is a very nice person. She is very approachable and very friendly to students. I did not like her notes because they are too short and I had to write things down in class. Her tests are very easy and I think she shouldve been tougher on the students. She spends a lot of time in class talking about study habits like making a chart to study, rewrite your notes, etc... which i find unhelpful since I did not do any of that and got a 12. overall, a very good instructor and a very good prof to have as a first year.
Zhu is radically different from Kajiura since she does not have good communication skills due to her accent. People are VERY rude in her class, leaving while she is still teaching and I felt really bad for her. She is willing to interact with student in her office hours and she is a nice lady who is willing to answer questions. She has amazing notes in the sense that you dont have to read the textbook. Her test questions are easy as well and she is very passionate about biology. She is definitely a good prof and I think some ignorant people who mocked her accent and left in the middle of the lecture should realize that this is university not high school.

Is the course really similar to IB HL Biology?

Originally Posted by Sudeshna

Is the course really similar to IB HL Biology?

I thought the topics were similar but we went a bit more in depth than in IB HL bio or we had to know specific things that we didn't have to for IB. We talk about cancer and case studies and experiments you probably didn't cover in IB.

If your asking in regards to getting transfer credits, I would totally get the transfer credits. I regret not doing do

Easy to do well in this course if you stay up to date with the readings. If you do that, double digits are easily achievable.

Easy course AS LONG AS YOU MASTER THE NOTES/TEXTBOOK.

I went in depth with the textbook, and found that it was easy to get great marks on the tests. I even got 100% on the short answer section of the midterms, while most people were whining about 50's. Very easy course as long as you do your part in reading.

Its very possible to do well in the course without having the textbook, but only if you take good notes in lecture. The textbook helps to solidify understanding of the material thats discussed in lecture

good```````Q

going to mac this fall, 2013, and for bio 1a03 apparently this year its only kajiura second sem, and zhu first sem, which prof would you suggest ???

also on this forum i only read good things about kajiura while on other forums lots of people said she was a bad prof? I guess it's just difference of opinions?

what would you have to do, generally, to get a good mark in kajiuras class?

I would say take bio 1a03 in the 2nd term. This would allow you to take bio 1m03 in the first term and taking 1m03 with Stone is alot better than taking it with Even. Trust me, people that have 1m03 with Evens do brutal b/c his midterms are hard. Also, both Zhu and Kajiura are good and bad in their own ways. For Zhu, you dnt need to read the textbook b/c everything is on her slides. I found her lectures very boring thou --> to the point that I stopped goin to class cause I kept falling asleep. Kajiura is the exact opposite, to do good in her class, you need to be attentive in class, read the textbook, and study any complimentary things she talks about in class. However, if you do your work, it isnt impossible to score really well in Kajiura's class.

Hope this helps

How is Da Silva for this course? Should I take it with him/her or Kajiura?

Originally Posted by bae_

How is Da Silva for this course? Should I take it with him/her or Kajiura?

Personally, I loved Kajiura. She was so refreshing from my other first year profs, she is so warm and nurturing. Some people don't like that about her, but that's what I really liked about her.

And she really loves Biology too, and knows her stuff. Dr. Da Silva is great too, she was really enthusiastic, but I'm pretty sure you will have her for future bio courses, but Kaijura only teaches Bio 1A03 and one fourth year course.