Can anyone elaborate on the difficulty/workload and overall interest

I took it this course with Ana Campos.

Interest: If you enjoy learning about the development of certain organisms including Frogs, Sea Urchins and Drosophila this is a great course. The content isn't too bad, and the labs are quite interesting, we got to see fertilization happen in sea urchin eggs, disected the uterus out of a mouse, and look at drosophila and C. Elegans mutations.

Difficulty: This course was quite difficult. The short answer portion of the test I found not too bad. It tested general concepts (that some might've thought were side notes to the actual material). The T/F and MCQ were more difficult I found because they tested small details and were worded very confusingly. The class average on the first test was high 60s/low 70s. I'm not sure about the second test or the exam.

Workload: Not very much. 2 tests, 1 exam, a couple of easy lab questions (can be finished within an hour) and a lab assignment that wasn't too bad if you put the effort in. (may take a few hours)

Overall, it was cool to see how everything connected and how different model organisms developed, but if you don't need to take this course or are not interested in studying development later on I wouldn't take it as it was on the more difficult side of courses I've taken.
If you've ever taken eukaryotic genetics (MolBio3II3) with Ana Campos, her questions are more difficult in 3M03 than they were in 3II3 I found.

She's a very nice and enthusiastic prof though.

any more recent experience with this course?

I took this course this past year, and my sentiments are about the same as the poster above. I wouldn't say the material is THAT difficult, but there is a lot of it, so you need to put in the time to study it thoroughly. Be ready for many genes and proteins and signal transduction pathways. The T/F questions will confuse you if you don't know your info. The textbook is really helpful if you don't understand her in class, since her slides don't say much. There were people who got perfect or very close to perfect on the midterms, so doing well is possible.

Overall, I thought the course was interesting, and I especially enjoyed the labs. It was cool to see how organisms transformed from a single cell to complex organisms. Dr. Campos is very passionate about her work and you can see it. Although this isn't the easiest course around, it's one of the more interesting mol bio courses I've taken.

^ so with GPA being important (senior years), would you recommend it as an interesting elective or it requires a lot of effort/memorization to do well...I'm more concerned by her testing (haven't heard good things!)

Originally Posted by mike4

^ so with GPA being important (senior years), would you recommend it as an interesting elective or it requires a lot of effort/memorization to do well...I'm more concerned by her testing (haven't heard good things!)

Yeah her tests can be confusing, and when you ask her to clarify, it doesn't help much.

She says she doesn't want us to memorize all the details, only the main ideas, but I thought that some of her questions did require that you knew the details. The thing about her questions is that you have to actually know the material and you have to be able to recall it, not just recognize it when you see it. On the final she asked us to outline an entire signalling pathway.. So, yes it takes effort.

If you're looking for easy marks, this probably isn't the best course to take, but if you're willing to put in the effort, you can do well.

Originally Posted by bumbum

Yeah her tests can be confusing, and when you ask her to clarify, it doesn't help much.

She says she doesn't want us to memorize all the details, only the main ideas, but I thought that some of her questions did require that you knew the details. The thing about her questions is that you have to actually know the material and you have to be able to recall it, not just recognize it when you see it. On the final she asked us to outline an entire signalling pathway.. So, yes it takes effort.

If you're looking for easy marks, this probably isn't the best course to take, but if you're willing to put in the effort, you can do well.

Hey,
I really liked BIO 2B03 and thought the signalling pathway stuff was very interesting. Is the stuff in bio 3m03 somewhat similar to the topics covered in bio 2b03?
Thanks