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....

Click here to read the entire review

I see, do both classes write the same tests/exam?

Da Silva is the biggest sweet-heart prof I've had so far. During Bio1A03 this year's fall term, her dad fell into a coma from a bacterial infection on her very last day of teaching. Still, she came to class and taught us, and when she started crying on the stage all of our hearts went out to her.

She's an amazing lecturer, really engages the class, very passionate about biology and amazing to listen to. Her midterms are also very fair, even on the easier side, assuming that you studied well.

Zhu's pre-dominant problem was her accent, but once you got past that, she did the job fine. I personally thought Zhu's tests were even easier than DaSilva's, although one of her short answer questions was vague and cost me marks when I wrote it.

Had Kajuira and daSilva. Kajuira sucked. Her lectures were so boring and it was as if she was just reading of her slides. DaSilva was a lot more interesting and she would say some funny stuff or give good analogies so it helped, especially for an 8:30 am class.

For tests, Kajuira's half of the test was always ridiculously stupid/confusing/hard. Her questions involve reading a super long story or some kind of weird application-based question that I had no idea how to approach. DaSilva's test questions were a lot more straightforward and it's stuff that you should know if you studied. Most of the short answer was applied lecture material so you really need to know that stuff including the experiment in great detail, names of the researchers (even researchers who happen to be profs at McMaster, if they were mentioned, you NEED to know them and what they did and be able to explain in your own words) and results of the experiment.

Labs were quite interesting. Did some cool stuff with pipetting and gel electrophoresis. Labs were every week. The day after each lab there would be a post-lab assignment due at 1:00pm. At the end there was a formal lab report. Pre-lab quizzes were stupid. I recommend that you do pre-labs in groups if you care about marks. You get two attempts and I always hear people complain about getting low marks on these quizzes but if they were smart they would do it with other people...Some of the questions on the prelab quizzes are impossible to answer. They are not found in the textbook or lab manual that you're supposed to read beforehand. You can't even google them. One question was "What is the concentration of the agar gel that you will be using?". You can't google that cuz I'm sure everyone uses different concentrations, it wasn't in the textbook, and it doesnt say in the lab manual so that's where your group comes in handy to rotate and guess answers.

I hated the online modules. I found them very difficult to learn from. Unlike Chemistry, they packed a ton of information onto each slide and it felt like the slides would never end. It was really hard to focus. Especially at the rate of two modules per week it would take about 3 hours per module and with chem modules and psych modules your whole weekend was eaten up.

Weekly quizzes were due on Wednesday at 6:00am (technically Tuesday night). I did the weekly quizzes in a small group of 3 including myself. This was mostly due to the fact that they sometimes gave weird questions that we had no idea how to answer so we would rotate and guess answers. Another reason was because some of the group members wouldn't have time to go through the module so you would need someone to carry you for the week. Most of the questions can be google searched though. I found it weird to have quizzes due before the review lecture because there's no point in testing you on things you don't know or don't really understand.

Thursdays were review lecture days. Kajuira's review lectures were always an exact repetition of the online module so I stopped going to those. DaSilva's review lectures actually clarified things and explained them in more detail. Fridays were applied lectures. The majority of Kajuira's applied lectures were on cancer. I think Kajuira had one applied lecture that I actually thought was interesting and for once wasn't about cancer. DaSilva's applied lectures are always interesting.

Exam questions were divided in half between the two profs. Once again, Kajuira's questions were ridiculous and you would have to sit there for a long time to think. DaSilva's questions were straightforward questions. Exam was 80 questions in 2 hours. Took about 30 mins for me to finish DaSilva's part and the spent the rest of the time for Kajuira's part.

Hated the course. Hated online modules. The course really stressed me out.

I had Kajuira and Da Silva for fall term of 2014/2015, and this would've been a much easier course if Kajuira wasn't involved. I had 8:30 am lectures, and to be honest, I skipped all of them until the first midterm. So, here's a review of BIO 1A03 from the view of a procrastinator:

Course Breakdown:
Pre-lab Quizzes: 5% (0.5% each)
Informal Lab Reports: 8% (1% each)
Formal Lab Report: 10% (just one report)
LaunchPad Quizzes: 5% (0.5% each)
Midterm 1: 12%
Midterm 2: 15%
Lab Exam: 10%
Final Exam: 35%

Pre-lab Quizzes:
The pre-lab quizzes were an almost-guaranteed 100%. There is no time limit to do the quiz (but due at 6:00 am on the day of your lab), and two attempts were given for each quiz. They probably took me around 10 minutes each. Make sure you do these quizzes, as these are the easiest 5% you'll ever "work" for.

Informal Lab Reports:
The informal lab reports were fairly simple. These consisted of a few tasks after every lab (such as answering questions, drawing diagrams, etc.) and were due the day after the lab at 1:00 pm in a dropbox on the second floor of BSB. The time each informal lab report took varied from 5 minutes to a maximum of an hour. The labs themselves were pretty easy to perform. A lab manual is purchased at the beginning of the semester, and it includes very detailed procedure for each lab. The TA's are very helpful, and they'll make sure you follow correct procedure.

Formal Lab Report:
This lab report took a long time to write. This lab report is around 15 pages long, and it was a report on all 8 labs that were performed over the semester. Although we did not have to rewrite the procedure of each lab, we had to write the changes that were made, and explain why these changes were made in the discussion section. The TA's weren't so strict on the actual format other than what will be given during the lab and on Avenue.

Launchpad Quizzes:
We had to watch two modules every week (each around 15~35 minutes long), and had to write a quiz on a platform called "Launchpad". You had an hour to do it, and had two attempts. Your final grade of each quiz would be the highest of the two attempts. These quizzes were straightforward and easy as long as you paid attention while watching the modules.

Midterms:
The midterms consist of two sections, a short answer section and a multiple choice section. The short answer section consisted of 15 points, and the MC section consisted of 30 points. Each professor covered a half of each section on the midterms. Dr. Da Silva's multiple choice questions were straightforward and easier to answer, while Kajuira's questions were confusing and awkwardly phrased. Make sure you do your best on the multiple choice questions, because the TAs were very strict when it came to marking the short answer questions. 33% of the midterm consisted of things learned from the applied lectures.

Lab Exam:
How well you do on this exam depends on how well-written your lab notebook is. Make sure you include every single detail when you write your labs (observations like smells, color changes, etc. and manufacturers/companies). You're allowed to take your lab notebook with you, but not the lab manual, so make sure you write down a flow chart of the procedures as well.

Final Exam:
The questions were as difficult as the midterm questions, and consisted of 80 MC questions and no short answers, two hours long. The MC questions were split between the two profs, and as previously noted, Kajuira's questions were confusing while Da Silva's were more straightforward.

Things I wish I knew before taking the course/Tips:
* Don't skip any applied lectures. Ever.
* Write down every single detail in your lab notebook before and during the lab. Don't leave it till the weekend before your lab exam.
* The lab component of this course is very important. It will carry your midterm grades.
* They give you a reading list for a reason (Yes, the textbook is required).
* Don't leave the web modules for tomorrow. Yes the answers for the Launchpad quizzes are on Google but you're not going to remember to get them done until the exam week.
* You can't MSAF most of these assignments, yet if you talk to the Instructional Assistant (Alastair Tracey) he'll give you an extension.
* You have the option of doing bonus assignments to raise your grade, go talk to Alastair.

Ratings:
Overall: 7
Professor(s): 9
Interest: 9
Easiness: 7

I forgot to talk about the textbook in my review but you have two options: Textbook+Launchpad or EBook+Launchpad. The textbook option is $83.70 and ebook option is $70.80. I strongly recommend getting the physical copy because the ebook is absolutely disgusting and too hard to navigate through. The sections are not clearly labelled and it's just so confusing so pay the extra the 13 dollars!!!

However, I felt that the textbook was almost useless. Sometimes your lab manual will say please read section [...] before coming to lab so you would need to use it. I used the textbook mainly for the diagrams, it had quite a few good diagrams. I felt that the info in the textbook was really vague and at times unclear or not enough information. Most of your online modules come directly from the textbook. Like there are paragraphs and diagrams that they take directly from the textbook and put in the module. I rarely used the textbook and I think studying online module content+applied lectures is still more important than the textbook material.