Reviews for BIOE372

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Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	super easy class. i got A's on all the exams and i didnt even put that much effort lol. his practice exams are very similar to the actual ones so i studied that and did well. the class in itself isnt bad at all. we had matlab but the TA's helped and i didnt have to do anything outside of class. we had hw and discussion and they werent bad at all. this class is honestly super chill. at the end you have a group project but I had a great group so it was not hard at all. and theres no final bc technically the group project is the final. one of the easiest bioe classes ive ever taken
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/07/2023	Blair is one of the nicest professors you will ever come across. Truthfully a very kind soul and will not hesitate to help you -- the issue is actually finding out you need help. I'll explain. The content for 372 is, believe it or not, extremely simple. It's basic biostatistics, you have a handful of equations, and the whole class is basically just doing t-tests over and over again. There's actually a long list of equations come the end of the semester, but he'll provide some equations on an equation sheet during every exam. DO NOT rely on this equation sheet because it'll only have 1 useful equation, and the rest, you must memorize. Yes. If you do not memorize, you will not pass (I have to say this because Blair says you don't have to, which is false). The issue is exams. Homework is... eh, you'll figure it out, and almost every homework you'll get like a 9.5 or a 9.75/10 because somehow somewhere you were supposed to do something different. Quizzes are online based on video lectures and... well, you win some you lose some. Most of them you'll win, but the ones you'll lose are the ones no one has any idea about unless they read Blair's mind at the time of writing the questions. Exams are the kicker. The exams are NOTHING like the homework or quizzes. They're also NOTHING like the practice exams. Some of the exams may only copy the format/linguistic style of only 1-2 questions from the practice exams, but the rest of the questions, you either need to have everything memorized from lectures or, once again, be a mind-reader, because he will not specify really important details in the questions themselves and will hesitantly talk about them during the exam when someone asks about it. The final exam this time around was very interesting. I believe Blair was a bit disappointed that half of the class stopped showing up during the final 2 weeks (because, respectfully, who holds classes all the way up to the last day of classes? Especially if you're teaching the content blended anyway, you might as well just crunch more of it online), and as a result, there were a few questions that were literally "what was 1 thing we discussed in the second-to-last lecture?". Not sure how this tests for content aptitude more than it would class attendance... but I digress. Long story short: very nice professor, but exams are confusing, the MATLAB component for this class is utterly useless and should be scrapped completely especially given that Microsoft Excel is infinitely more powerful to do statistical testing, and don't expect to really absorb anything from lectures or discussions. Discussions are also utterly useless! Even if it wasn't for completion grades, the content in the discussion questions are way harder than what you'd encounter in the lecture slides or quizzes (nowhere near the difficulty of the midterms, which are only difficult because it's a lot of flash-memorizing a bunch of equations and steps that look almost identical). If you want to get the A (I did not, but I got close), you must do independent practice on your own at least multiple times a week and crunch before each midterm. The final exam is quite literally a coin toss in terms of its content; previous final exams have one type of theme, while others have a completely different theme. Unfortunately I had to deal with BIOE371 and a brand new professor for it, which did not allow me to study the content of this class the way that I could've. The textbook is a better teacher than the slides, which are often blank because he'll draw on the white board instead. He'll draw bell curves and make midsections of it, and if you don't keep up with your notes, you'll have no clue that those blank slides mean something come exam time.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/08/2022	Best of a bad situation. He doesn’t care about whether or not we understand. He’s chill but exams are sooooo stupid, hw is unrelated, and he’s just lazy, distant, and doesn’t seem like teaching this class is a priority
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/29/2022	Blair is just lazy. He does not use his own materials and it shows. This would be fine if he actually taught, but he doesn't -- he just reads from the slides and you don't learn anything. His exams are nothing like the practice, they're WAY TOO LONG and more difficult. Literally on the 2nd midterm only 2 people finished. He deadass said "yeah I will have to curve that one." On that exam, one question was like a third of the page in writing. He couldn't have given us a table???? He just tries to take the shortcut at the cost of his students not knowing anything. Wtf is the point of having like 10 assignments for a final project if there is no guidance whatsoever???? He literally gave up on making videos halfway through the semester and will assign groupwork on Wednesdays that no one knows how to do. Instead of ever explaining to us how to do the problems, they just disappear. I am telling you, he is a nice guy but not a great teacher. He would be a good teacher if he gave a shit. Also, matlab sessions on Fridays are so irrelevant and unnecessarily difficult. He doesn't even show up. Again, I like the guy. He's nice. But I pay too damn much for shitty education at this school. Tired of BIOE professors just half-assing shit. UMD needs to check they hiring department onggg
Angela Jones BIOE372 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/07/2022	This semester, she was very considerate with curving exams when she thought they may have been unfair. The MATLAB sessions I found to be very useful, teaching real-world skills which you will probably use later. I also though the course was fairly easy, a lot of plug and chug into formulas, especially fi you have already taken a statistics course even in high school.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A blue_footed_booby 05/15/2021	Doc Blair keeps his lecture short and sweet with no extra BS. There are sometimes issues with clarity, but if you point it out to him, he will explain further and fix his mistakes with no ego. He is super understanding of students' situations and is very nice to talk to and ask questions to. The only qualm I have is that he does not give enough practice, but I am sure there are plenty out there that I am just too dang lazy to look for.
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE372 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/24/2020	One of the worst professors I have ever had. Does not explain material well at all. He’s an awful teacher in general and should be avoided at all costs. Oh yeah, if you do have him for the final, have fun because he puts impossible questions to drop your grade. Thanks for a great Christmas gift!
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE372 Anonymous 01/02/2018	The class is not a conventional statistics class, which is fine considering its applied to bioengineering. But where the class fell short is the professor. Scarcelli lacks the ability to explain the material well & his questions are bizarrely worded. He refuses to answer any questions that would clarify his confusing wording on exams. Avoid him.