[parachb]

Memorize memorize memorize, if you know all of his slides you will do well on all his tests and exams.

anyone else got any info?

The averages on his mid terms were very low, and everybody says his course is really hard. Personally, I found that as long as you understood what the main concept of every slide was, and if you had all the slides memorized you could easily do very very well in this course. I attended lectures for the first half of the semester I'd say, and after the first test realized this wasn't really necessary. You just need to be able to figure out what the main idea of every slide is, and you need to make sure you have memorized every detail of every slide. This being said, a 12 is definitely doable in this course.

^What! a 12 ?!? no way jose!

The averages on the midterms were around 50-60%. Ullal was a good prof; very friendly and willing to answer questions but his slides DID NOT have sufficient writing on them to understand what was going on (if u just looked at slides and didnt go to class).

For this course, if Ullal is teaching, YOU HAVE TO GO TO CLASSES and make notes and pay attention. Skipping classes is the worst thing to do as the slides are (half the time) poorly or not labelled at all !

Ullal tested us majorly on details from here or there and i got the feeling that he didn't want to test us on concepts much.

The material is VERY interesting and very useful but if u get a very low grade at the end of the day (like i did) u dont feel very happy. in fact, u feel sad. sad and depressed.

Summary: Truck-loads to memorize! And have to come to every class. It can turn into a NIGHTMARE if notes are incomplete. So definitely not a bird course IMO.

Alright, I figured ill write a little review.

This class is definitely one of the more interesting courses I've taken so far at Mac. However, with all interesting courses that usually means that the material is much more difficult. The major issue I have with this course is the testing. Dr. Ullal, who I should mention is a fantastic prof, likes to test on the most minor details. For example, on a test where you studied 15 lectures, and have an insane amount of material floating in your head, he'll ask you a question which is found on the last slide as a footnote. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

The first midterm had an average of I believe 60 percent. In all fairness, I studied my ass of for this and did pull of a very good mark. Then the second midterm comes.......... yikes. The class average was around 40 percent...... Of course Ullal didn't mention anything about this, ie some kind of mark compensation.

There was also an assignment which was basically re-writing an article in your own words, or thats essentially what I saw it as. The class average was high on this.. around 85 percent. I guess that was to compensate for the terrible mark on the second midterm.


The final exam had a HUGE amount of material for you to memorize. With that being said, I felt it was pretty reasonable.

Somehow I still finished with a very poor mark, I cant imagine how the class average was at the end, I cant have seen it being very good. There's no way a 12 is possible in this course, unless you only pay attention to this course and neglect your other 4.

I highly recommend avoiding this course unless you have a genuine and passionate interest in neuroscience. After an arduous and painstaking attempt, I ended up failing the course. The only part of the course that I did well on was the assignment-which was only worth 10%. Both the midterms and the final require highly comprehensive knowledge of the material. The multiple choice questions were tricky and the long answer questions demanded one to memorize figures and diagrams of which there were many off.

Wow, I was really considering taking this course, but after reading these reviews, I am definitely going to stay away!

Originally Posted by Ayce

Wow, I was really considering taking this course, but after reading these reviews, I am definitely going to stay away!

I had thought the same thing when I heard how bad this course was, but in retrospect this was one of the most interesting courses I have taken in my undergraduate career. Ullal knows his stuff really well and you'll rarely see him refer to his notes. When studying for tests, make note of the miniscule details. Exam was much more fair than the midterms, and the assignment was marked easy. I wouldn't recommend buying the textbook.

Took this course Winter 2011 and it was terrible! Dr. Ullal seems like a very intelligent professor but he never really stayed on track during his lectures. One thing that bugged me was how he always talked about epilepsy during lectures so you would assume he would be testing that, but he never did! You really had to memorize all the little details on his slides (some of which he didn't even read in class). The only section I really enjoyed about this course was when he taught Sleep (it was the last topic taught lol). There were two midterms, one assignment and one final. I thought the midterms were difficult. The assignment wasn't hard but it was just a pain to do because I was really unmotivated in this course. The final exam was definitely a lot easier than the midterms because it focused a lot on the material after midterm #2 (so it focused a lot on the Sleep topic). Overall, I would not recommend taking this course!

Took this course in winter 2012 and the averages on the tests were higher than what people are saying on here so maybe some things have changed. He still tested on extreme minute details. I felt like I had such a good grasp on the information but then my test marks didn't reflect this at all. But for the exam I studied my ass off and managed to raise my grade. I had a hard time understanding Dr. Ullal but my friend who had him for a different class didn't so to each his own I guess. The textbook readings were not really necessary but they helped a little in some cases. Dr. Ullal was very enthusiastic about the material which was nice to see! And as people said before don't take this class if you don't have to. The reason I took it was because it was a prereq to some 3rd year classes I was interested in but now I don't think I'm going to take those classes, mainly because they are being taught by Dr. Ullal. Also there was no assingment when I took the class. Two midterms worth 25% and exam worth 50%

I took this course this past Winter 2012 and I was terrified after reading the reviews on the course and Dr. Ullal but I actually ended up doing extremely well in the course, nearly twelved it. ended up with an 11. Dr. Ullal is pretty enthusiastic about the material so he talks fast a lot of the times and it is difficult to pick up on some of the concepts but I found that by going to his office hours with material you didn't quite get in class, he would explain it well and it would make sense. His office hours were the biggest help I found as he had them close to the test dates and he dropped a few hints for those who went so go to them if you can! The course is pretty dense though in terms of the amount of material you need to study from though he only takes a few concepts and puts them on the tests. These concepts are generally ones he spent a bit of time on in class so pay attention to those like epilepsy, the ventricles etc..and he loves details so try and get the details of the concepts down as well. Textbook was helpful in elaborating on certain concepts for better understanding. Overall, I went into the course a little worried but ended up enjoying it and doing pretty well and you can too

I also took this course winter 2012. It was my favourite course by far, Dr. Ullal is an amazing prof, always willing to help, makes himself available for extrahelp and encourages questions in class. Yes I recommend going to all lectures and paying attention, but the material is very interesting so that's not hard to do. I ended up with a 12 in the course, mostly because i liked the material and studied really hard. I seem to recall him saying he boosts marks by 3% at the end of term or something like that too. He definitely asks questions where memorization is necessary though. Overall a really interesting, really awesome course.

Did anyone take this course with Dr. Piskuric and can you provide an updated review? I am thinking of taking this course next semester, thanks.

does anyone have an updated review of this course they would like to share?? thanks

Note that this course has been renamed to Life Sci 2CC3