Does anyone who recently took this course mind doing a brief overview of what you thought? The course review page is quite out-dated and very brief.

Also, does anyone have a recent course outline?

Cheers

The course was pretty great. It relied mostly on in-class tutorials (there were no midterms), and there was an open-book final. There was also a short paper to write. There were online quizzes too.

You had to stay on top of things a lot but the course was manageable, and it's easy to do well. Doing the weekly readings is pretty much important if you want to do well on the quizzes, though it can be easy to slack off on them (personal experience).

The subject material is very interesting too. Oh, and the final was multiple-choice, and only 30 questions? 40? Something like that, there weren't that many.

If there are any specific questions, do ask, my mind's a bit scattered so I might have missed something.

Awesome thanks! I have a really keen interest in evolution so this is something I want to take, so if its interesting im sure its something I would enjoy!

Would you say that its pretty content heavy?
And could you maybe sum up what was covered?

open book exam

read the course review and the proceeding comments: http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...tr=B&t=18 986

bio 2c03 is also a prereq. read comments from now on for reviews. theres like 2 good reviews down below in that thread

Although the exam was open book, it was not an "easy" exam per se, since the prof made us apply our knowledge instead of just finding random factoids from the textbook (although there were some questions that just asked about facts lol). Overall, the class is light and fair, and easy as long as you know how to read the textbook and think critically (on quizzes and exams).

The tutorial assignments are also dead easy...I think it's impossible for you to get lower than 10/12 on them lol

Originally Posted by Philipp31

Awesome thanks! I have a really keen interest in evolution so this is something I want to take, so if its interesting im sure its something I would enjoy!

Would you say that its pretty content heavy?
And could you maybe sum up what was covered?

Oh, you'll definitely enjoy it, it was great, particularly if you have an interest in the subject matter!

There was a lot of content covered, yes, but I think the important thing was to UNDERSTAND it all (the graphs, the equations, etc), since the final was open book, you didn't really need to memorize anything. Plus, like mentioned in the course-review page (it's a pretty good sum-up of the course), you're allowed sticky tabs and everything. Oh, and we were also allowed to bring a crib sheet alongside the textbook. Me and my friend decided to have that as a personalized index instead, and it worked out pretty well.

This is the overview of all we covered. I think a few topics might have been dropped due to time constraints, I didn't mention those here.


Introduction
A Case for Evolutionary Thinking: Understanding HIV
The Pattern of Evolution
Darwinian Natural Selection
Estimating Evolutionary Trees
Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change

Mendelian Genetics in Populations I: Selection and Mutation as Mechanisms of Evolution
Mendelian Genetics in Populations II: Migration,
Genetic Drift, and
Nonrandom Mating
Evolution at Multiple Loci: Linkage and Sex
Evolution at Multiple Loci: Quantitative Genetics

Adaptation
Studying Adaptation: Evolutionary Analysis of Form and Function
Sexual Selection
Kin Selection and Social Behaviour
Aging and Other Life History Characters
Evolution and Human Health


The History of Life
Mechanisms of Speciation
Development and Evolution
Human Evolution.

[Course Outline, Fall 2012]

Hey!

I have uploaded the 2012 course outline.

This was undoubtedly the easiest course that I have taken at McMaster, ever (and I'm minoring in Econ ).

Pretty much:
>one essay worth 10%
>ten tutorial assignments where it would actually require effort to get less than 10/12 on for 30% of your final mark (and they drop your lowest of the ten and replace it with your highest mark (i.e. replace your lowest mark with 100))
>ten online quizzes that you get unlimited time for (within a week) for 20% of your mark. i highly disagree with the above comment that you have to stay on top of your readings to do well on these... look for key words in question, then index, then read the relevant paragraph lol
>one open book exam with 21 multiple choice questions that you get 3 hours to do LOL the questions were not application either where the textbook would be pretty much useless. most if not all the answers were directly stated in the book. also, we got to use a cheat sheet... didn't make one though

also, they had an alternative grading scheme that made the exam worth less and everything else worth more (I think they made the exam worth 25% this year).

Anyways, I went to three or four classes all year. I read/skimmed the textbook in the three days preceding the exam. Got 90+ on exam. Don't necessarily suggest anyone do this, I am just saying what I did and the result. I did think that I was pretty screwed walking into that exam though lol

Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a lot of reading to do but someone that says it is a hard course, probably made it harder on themselves than they had to.

Thanks so much everyone!