BSCI106 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/11/2016	Take Shofner. She's interesting and she is enthusiastic in her teaching. Her LA activities are engaging and helpful. Just remember to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. It's not rocket science, so as long as you remember the vocab, the meanings, and their applications, you will be just fine. I went into that class thinking I was going to hate it. But I enjoyed it very much. The only complaint is that I took mine at 9 am and it's too hard to even get up in the morning. Bleh.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/08/2016	Dr. Shofner was an excellent professor - she is incredibly kind... A genuinely good person that I wish everyone in this world would be like. She gives you more than enough resources to pass her class with an A - you just have to put in the work.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A soccerdude 12/19/2015	This class is seriously a lot of works. I had to spend 6~7 hours outside of class weekly. However, this will be the same case for every other bsci106 class as well. Therefore, taking 106 with Dr.Shofner is definitely recommended because she is good at explaining concepts and cares about her students. I never got bored during her lectures either. Most importantly, she is really generous when it comes to regrade. She is willing to help out students and wants students to earn their points back. Seriously, who does this? most professors hate students when they try to ask for regrade. She also gives extra credit opportunities throughout the semester.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/06/2015	Nicest professor I have ever had! She cares about her students and the material. However, the course is way harder than expected and the tests require you to study a wide range of material and then remember every little detail.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a B+ Cpowers 01/30/2015	Bely is adorable. She's very passionate about teaching and you can tell she has fun lecturing. She posts all of her power points online, so I tended to skip often and just catch up with the notes. Lovely professor, definitely would recommend. Just want to warn that she does not curve. That's because the tests are not insanely hard; the average is usually in the low 80's. Her tests are predominantly vocab-based, so flash cards will be your savior. She also does not have office hours, she only works by appointment. That intimidated me into never seeing her since I never had too serious of a question.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A ButiwantedanA 12/05/2014	I thought that Via's class was extremely adequate, but that she was a good lecturer. Her power points (posted online) had everything you needed for the tests, and there is a lot of extra credit. The homeworks helped with comprehension of course material, and she makes herself available to help students who need it. She posts many many things to study from. I feel like I didn't learn very much in this class (except for the last part of domains and classes), but it was fairly easy to get a good grade because she was good at presenting material. Also, her old tests are almost exactly the same as her current.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A mmalik1 12/05/2013	Professor Shofner was the nicest professor. She managed to teach a class of 250 students and not bore them death, because she constantly asks for students feedback during lecture. Her powerpoints are very difficult to follow, however, and you should show up to every class because she will often cover material not online or in the textbook that will be on the exams and a several times she assigned in class worksheets to do for points. Andrew Keppel was my TA and he was great. He really seemed to know his stuff and recognized that the labs don't actually take 3 hours so he didn't make us stay the full time. We never stayed more than an hour and a half. Easy class but don't underestimate the exams! Only complaint is about the lecture assignments that she assigned very late into the semester.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Anonymous 05/20/2013	I thought it would be a good idea to take BSCI106 over the summer to get ahead with my classes, and is was def a good idea except for one thing, Marjorie Reaka. She is one of those teachers who cannot teach and expects you to know everything. She gave a great amount of biased information from her marine biology studies, which was very boring to say the least. She is a very boring person herself. Her lecture are very dry and she has no sense of humor. She does not help out her students and she does not care for her students. Honestly, maryland has her around so they can boost their research standings, as she is more of a researcher than she is a professor. She has a very deep monotone voice that can put the even most avid listener to sleep. Overall, to say it nicely, one of the worst decisions in my life was taking her class. Please do not waste your time. Oh btw, she doesn't curve... at all.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a B fedman9994 11/29/2012	I like Dr. Bely a lot as a person. She is really passionate about the material and she knows her stuff. She makes the course as interesting as it can be, but its still boring. Its a struggle for me to stay awake or pay attention. However, I often dont need to because she types up her lectures and posts them online. I know several people in the class who dont show up to a single lecture but still do very well. This class is a must for any BIO major and I would say BELY is the best option.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/20/2012	There is a lot of work to do for this class, and it is very time consuming. It is a difficult class for people who are really interested in Biology. That being said, Dr. Bely is a FANTASTIC professor. She is VERY clear about the topics. I have learned more in this class than any other class I have taken on campus. It is difficult, but truly worth your time and effort. You will never look at Biology/Ecology the same again. Life-changing course with Dr. Bely. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/17/2012	Her class was pretty boring. Especially since I had her in the morning. Her tests are solely based off of her powerpoints so make sure to pay attention to those. Reading the book definitely helps, but it isn't required to get a perfect score on her tests. Her tests are definitely some of the easiest compared to the other professors'.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/08/2012	best professor for bsci106 take this class with shofner she is so nice and approachable she engages students in a 300 person lecture her powerpoints are very helpful for exams if you can get past exams from a friend you are golden she is really nice in office hours make sure you do good in lab hopefully you have a good/ easy TA
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/11/2012	Shofner is definitely a nice professor! So nice that if you started cursing at her, she would still genuinely love you. However, I went into the class thinking that it was going to be an easy A, which it really wasn't because the exams were pretty difficult. She tests on details usually and essays are graded harshly. I had Melissa Meyer as a TA and she was just some girl from Texas. So, just run away if you have Melissa. One of the worst TA's I ever had in college. Get one of the guy TA's. One thing I learned in college is that male TA's are so much nicer and chill. They don't take off random shit points on reports or tests. Andy Simpson is the coolest TA for this class. In the end, Shofner is nice, so study hard. I had orgo and physics with this class, so obviously I was going to spend less time in this class. Anyways, my advice is that good luck. TA's matter so much.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2012	I loved Dr. Shofner. She is extremely knowledgeable on the topic, but not in a show-offy way like some professors - she uses her knowledge to make lectures really interesting with lots of examples and stories. Thought grading was fair - one test gets dropped out of three. Don't buy the book! She only tests on things in her powerpoints and things she talked about in lecture. Attendance is not mandatory (no clickers), slides are posted online. She's one of the nicest and most personable professors I've had. Would definitely recommend moving around your schedule so that you have her.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a C+ Raikou-Neko 12/14/2011	Borgia is rather boring, I will admit, but that's not what makes his class kill you. His exams and quizzes are mostly true and false questions where he only changes one or two words in the definition to make it false. Sometimes, he'll have a question on the exam from a quiz, but the answer is different. His questions purposely try to trick the student - they aren't designed to test for actual knowledge at all. He also makes a LOT of errors, both in his powerpoint slides and on exams. It shows he could really care less about the class he teaches. He also only curves by the highest test score. One person gets a 96 and he curves by 4 points, despite the class average being a 66. I agree with what someone else said - if you ask a question during lecture, he will answer quite brutally, almost rudely. There was one gentleman that obviously didn't quite believe in evolution and Borgia insulted his intelligence several times over. The lab isn't too bad. I had Dilip, who actually seems to care about how well you're doing and whether or not you understand the material. ---Edit--- I was furious with my grade. After checking and checking, apparently I ended up with a C. Out of 800 points, I was 1.5 points away from a B. I asked if it was possible to be bumped and the TA I was corresponding with (not Dilip) said Borgia didn't do that.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/07/2011	A LOT of work. 4 exams, 1 practical, 1 or 2 lab reports (don't wait til last minute!), lots of lab work. Bely only really reads off slides in lecture. Other than that you don't deal with her directly. It's really about whether you end up with a good TA or not. She seems enthusiastic but it just felt pointless to go to lecture sometimes because slides are online and pretty much follow the book. Exams are DIFFICULT and cover a LOT of material at once. I studied for hours for DAYS and still couldn't get good exam grades. It's best to have taken BSCI105 or other related Biology classes before taking this class. BSCI105 is references a lot and I never took it so that made things hard. It's a weed-out class so it's more difficult than it really needs to be.
Sara Via BSCI106 goldilox 11/01/2011	Absolute worst professor I've had in 4 years of college- extremely unapproachable and condescending.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/11/2011	Via was enthusiastic and was a good lecturer. I liked that she always found many examples of the lecture material to help us understand it better. Watch out though, because those fun examples easily find their way to exams and I wasn't prepared for that the first time. My TA was good, but lab seemed pretty disjointed with lecture. They vaguely connected but it's not like they helped me get a deeper understanding of the lecture material, which is what we were being tested on.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Princess_ourumd 06/20/2011	Dr. Shofner is so nice and definitely willing to help her students. She is the one professor whose class I didn't get an A in but I can still say that I like her as a professor. That's saying a lot. Anyways, in terms of grading, take the lab quizzes (and lab practical) serious [they're what brought me down to a B]. For the exams, study every little detail on the slides and you'll get 100%'s on the exams. She drops the lowest of the three non-cumulative exams though. Lab is easy, not much to say there.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/01/2011	This class was super boring but with almost no effort I got a B. If you're a bio major I would take this class with someone else where you'll probably learn more. There are quizzes every other lecture or so that really help your grade. He's a pretty okay guy, he does try to make jokes in lecture... Anyway if you have a good TA then your experience will be better. I had Katie and she was really great. Lab is where you learn most things but you do have to go to the forest which is by Lot 6 behind the Public Health Building. Also the last lab is at the stream which is by the View near Route 1. I have absolutely no interest in bio so this class was good for me because there was no book and by simply glancing over my notes I got C's on the test. The good thing about Borgia is he rounds from the highest grade to a 100 so my final exam grades were always Bs. I'm sure with a little more effort I could've gotten an A but what's done is done. The TA's are really helpful and there's opportunity for extra credit, through quizzez and the like, but it's only a few points so it won't make a big difference but if you're on the edge it will. Overall not a bad prof. but class is boring and it's not one you want to go to. He also pot notes and slides online and sometimes reuses exam questions. His tests are mostly true/false with one minor difference being false, there are fill in the blank, short answer, and matching.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting an A lmc33092 05/20/2011	Do not ever take him. His true and fa1se questions in pop quizzes and tests are SOOOOOO hard and tricky. His lectures are so boring that half of the people comes to lecture. Also his lecture slides do not make sense because there are so much grammatical error.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2011	Do not take him. You will learn nothing from his lectures and you'll end up teaching yourself the whole course. Not only is he rude, but he is extremely unhelpful. He doesn't care at ALL how much the students are learning or how the students do.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a B Genius 05/13/2011	AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. He is by far the most boring professor I've ever had. His lectures are awful, boring, mono-tone and just confusing. He barely explains anything as he reads from his lecture notes through the whole class. His lecture notes that he puts up on elms have so many different errors. Just to sum it up, save yourself a huge dissapointment and many many headaches... DON'T TAKE HIM
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/11/2011	The content was impossible. I went to class and studied for an ABSURD amount of time for the exams, and I've only gotten a 65% and 55% on the midterms. The class average for the second exam was a D, which is absolutely ridiculous. I'm a mostly A, high B student. I have never once gotten a C in any class and I'm praying for a C in this class, which is ridiculous considering the amount of time I put into this class. The teacher is an idiot; he reads right off the slides. When I go back to his lecture slides to read the notes, he spells "cells" as "sells" and has so many grammatical errors that you cannot even understand the point he is trying to make. My TA wasn't even good. I emailed him 6 days before the exam to ask what we should study since there was no study guide given out and no specifications and he did not email me back until two days before the exam, only after I sent him a second email. He responded with "I have no idea how to answer your question." There was literally NOTHING enjoyable about this course and I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy to take it. I'll admit that I am much more of an English/History student, but I've never been a bad student whatsoever and I'm praying that I do not need to retake this class. His exams are 60 True/False questions. True and false does not test your knowledge, but your test taking skills. He is not curving the class, but he should when his average on a test is a D, and a friend of mine who got an A in BSCI105 is struggling and worried about his grade. I wanted to take this course to be a Psychology major, but I'm dropping the major. Dr. Borgia is way to old to be an effective teacher- he cannot even see when his students have questions. He snaps at certain people and his TA's do the same thing. Even my TA would start a class beginning, "If I don't make you fall asleep today, it has been a successful day." In the middle of class he would say to himself, "I love my job. I love my job." While everyone else has had their quizzes back for weeks, I'm still waiting for my grade and they obviously will not be returned by the end of the semester. This class is 100% the worst class I have ever taken and will ever take through my college career. I am possibly taking it to the department, but I'm not sure what they can do about it. Basically, DO. NOT. TAKE. THIS. CLASS.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/28/2011	The teaching style is abysmal. The powerpoints are fraught with typos, he lectures in a monotone, and even though he asks if there are questions, he never stops to actually see if there are any, and the TA has to intervene before he moves onto the next slide. He goes through the lecture slides incredibly fast-- he reads straight from the slides, which he posts online a few hours after the lecture. Going to class feels pointless, but he has 10 unannounced quizzes throughout the semester, so you need to go or else you'll most likely miss one. Exams are inordinately difficult: we have 2 midterms, both of which are half true/false, and remaining half consisting of fill in the blank, matching, and short answers. The exams don't focus on overall concepts, but rather nit-picky details hidden in his disorganized lecture slides, which makes it VERY difficult to get a grade that matches the level of effort you put into studying for the exam. He curves each test to the highest grade, which is nice since he isn't obliged to do that, but since there are only a few people with any A's at all, the majority of the class is still stuck in the C, low B range. Also, don't waste money on the textbook; he says in the beginning of the year that you can to have some background information, but his tests are completely lecture-based, and it is a complete waste of money to buy the expensive text listed on the syllabus. This class isn't the worst in the world; if you work your ass off, you can probably get a decent grade. That having been said, if you can take the course with a different professor, I highly suggest you do so.
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Erik.Deaton 04/27/2011	This guy is an awful teacher. He can barely see and can't read his lecture slides to us without getting an inch from the screen. On top of that, his exams come straight from lectures, and are so poorly worded that almost nobody does well, yet one person will get a 95 and wreck the curve for everyone. Avoid Him.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/26/2011	Her lectures are easy to follow. She puts her lectures online and the material on the exams are from the lectures, not from the book. She has occasional homework assignments but they are extremely brief and take 10 minutes to do. She also gives out several extra credit assignments which is really nice. Don't be intimidated by her, it's not a difficult course and the material is easy to learn. If you study for the exams you'll be fine and definitely get an A without putting forth too much effort.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a B GoTestudo! 04/23/2011	Whoa! Don't listen to the bad reviews. They're plain naive. Dr. Bely is an amazing professor. I'm writing this review 2 semesters after taking Bely and I can honestly say she is one in a million. She cares about her students and keeps her lectures entertaining. She is more than willing to get to know every last student in her 300-kid lecture hall. There are other professors you will have to take who don't give fudge about your future, your grade, or anything about you. The only reason she doesn't curve is because people do well in her class anyway! I found the class to be a bit too easy and slacked, which is why I got a B. But so long as you attend lecture, you can do well (and have fun).
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/19/2011	This professor is the worst one I have ever had. I tried to read the reviews on here and decided to take a chance and take this class with him. Biggest mistake ever. I highly suggest you find another professor. His tests are confusing and most people get c's and d's on them, but since one person gets a 95 or above he only curves the test by 2-3 points. Trust me, save your time/money and take it with a better professor.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A rose11 01/06/2011	Dr. Shofner is wonderful. She is so nice and very approachable. The lab for this course isn't too difficult, either. As long as you study hard and turn in all of your assignments, you should expect to get an A. I thought BSCI106 was easier than BSCI105. If you're going to take 106, take it with Shofner!
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2010	First, Dr. Bely is an extremely passionate and witty professor who everyone likes as a person. The class can be a little tedious. It is certainly not her fault because the material is pretty dry. Exams do require a decent amount of memorization. This is the major drawback because I learn better with concepts, not memorization and regurgitation. I am not sure if this is consistent across all bsci106 classes. Overall, exams are not extremely difficult. Third exam will kill if you dont study/memorize. She drops an exam so theres no curve. Lab serves as your cushion, dont screw up. Overall, not bad at all. Also, if you got time, read the book. Its interesting stuff and also help for studying purposes.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 12/22/2010	AWEFUL... probably one of the very worst professors. Very rude and condescending. Funny, because her lectures dont add up to her attitude.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2010	Dr. Bely is a great professor - always enthusiastic and very interested in her students. This class does require a fair amount of memorization but, with review sessions before each test, Dr. Bely tries to help focus the notes into a slightly more condensed package. If you like biology definitely try to take Dr. Bely as she will help you have a deeper understanding of how species are related.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B lgordon1 12/17/2010	Definitely have mixed feelings about this course/professor as well. The material doesn't seem that bad, and she makes the tests seem like they're no big deal, but that's not really true. I did pretty badly on all of the exams, but you do get to drop the lowest exam and quiz grade, and lab will boost your grade as well. I did like that she held study sessions pretty often and offered extra credit, but she is very hard to approach and can come off very condescending and rude. Overall, I did learn, and could probably do a lot better in the class knowing what I do now.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/16/2010	She was very boring and didn't work well with students concerns. It seemed like she could have known what she was talking about but she didn't convey any of it to the class. Avoid taking her at all costs.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2010	You have to be a moron to fail this class. The class average for the second exam was a 80%. For a science class, that's pretty damn high. For the final, she copied and pasted most of the questions from the previous exams. The solutions with keys were posted online! Also I never came to class after the second exam because all her lecture notes were typed up and posted on elms. It was better than terp notes. I was taking three labs with this class and it really saved me. I cut class all the time to get help on OChem and Physics. Posters need to learn how to study instead of *****ing.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Anonymous 12/16/2010	What are people saying?? I honestly don't think this class is that hard. I struggled at the beginning of the semester for some reason. But the class average before the finals was about a 79% or 80%. That's why there's no curve! (I was pretty bummed myself when I found out). She has 3 exams and one is dropped, so it's really not that bad. I have to admit, the first two tests gave me a wakeup call, so I had to try really hard on the last exam. And it definitely paid off! You need to study, guys. Lectures are not the most exciting thing out there. It's in a powerpoint format and Dr. Bely posts the outline of them on elms for you. Take your notes, it's good. Then you can rewrite them (trust me, it helps) and annotate them. Don't know if anyone has tried this, but recording lectures also help. Yes, it's VERY time consuming to relisten to lectures. But if you're not a huge biology buff and it takes you a while to get information into your head, it's a good idea. Lectures are only 50 minutes long though. When you relisten, it helps so much. It reinforces what you learned in class and you can add even more little notes to your notes. It really helps. Skimming over readings has helped (but there is NO WAY you need to read everything. Honestly, I didn't do all the readings) and looking at figures that were on the outline helped. As for the third exam. I think it is the hardest, but it was my highest exam score. She told us to study those phylogenetic trees (I didn't realize that until I relistened to the lecture). So I sat down and redrew the phylogenetic tree OVER and OVER and OVER again until I got it right. And guess what? That same tree was on the test. Also, the reading from the third module from the lab manual will really help on the last exam. Final was easy. There were many questions from previous exams. Many of them were straight from previous exams. I didn't study as much as I wanted to for this final since I was stressing over other ones, but I got really lucky since those questions were from old exams. She posts the answer key to these exams online, so there is really no excuse for not getting them right. You need to study. Period. It's not a hard class if you do. Don't procrastinate. If you don't want to put a lot of effort into this specific class, don't take her. If you just study, you will definitely ace the class. I've seen many other students who have.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2010	Everyone is being way to harsh on Dr. Via. I personally think she is a perfectly fine professor, I like the system she has for grading which includes multiple extra credit assignments and the ability to drop your lowest exam grade. She's a bit quirky but hey whatever it takes to keep you awake. The only advice I have is GO TO LECTURE- her exams are based of what SHE goes into great detail about, not the book. Also, do the extra credit, not only does it boost your grade but it honestly helps you do better on the exams.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A+ cmoore16 12/15/2010	Dr. Via is an OK teacher. Sometimes it's hard to approach her and ask a question, but her outlines are really simple to understand. However, this class isn't as impossible as everyone makes it seem. She posts study questions before tests, and if you do them and study the answers, you'll be fine (as she tends to put in a couple of questions pretty much there). It is a hard class, and you'll have to study at least 3 days in advance. Just know her outlines and study questions and pay attention in class. She gives out 40 points of extra credit which can really boost your grade, and if you have a good TA, the lab will boost your grade as well. Overall, it's a pretty fair class.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Anonymous 12/15/2010	Do not take this class! She literally expects you to memorize half the book in depth. She does NOT curve but she does drop the lowest test score, which still won't help you. She really doesn't care about her students. Her lectures are boring and she really isn;t helpful. My TA was a lot of help though. I asked my other friends in bsci 106 with another professors and he told me he didn't have to memorize much at all. Her exams are also a bit long. She can not teach for her life! For an example, you had to memorize a trillion different phylogenic trees, but she never went over them during lecture. She only went over them during one of the review sessions for an exam. And of course, most of the trees were on the exam. If you absolutely love animals and evolution and want to spend hours and hours studying for exams, take this class. if not, stay away! On the bright side, she was an approachable professor.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/13/2010	Dr. Via is not a very good teacher. She makes the class really hard to understand a lot of the time, and her tests are kind of confusing. That being said, if your TA is good and you get good grades in lab, you'll be fine. Lab is 240 points, and I had a really good TA, which got me a lot of points. There was also like 30 points of extra credit in the class which really helps.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2010	Everyone is bashing on Dr. Via. Wow. I'll start with the downsides of this class: I'll be honest. Yes, Dr. Via is a bit hard to approach, but when you do get the chance to talk to her, she's not that bad of a person. Her class is hard-I'll give you that. Her exams are almost impossible (unless you have access to old exams) so find someone who has taken her class and study from their past exams...it helps a LOT. She also expects you to know and memorize minute details. (That can get kinda annoying and frustrating) WHO CARES ABOUT THE STUPID BEE DANCE?! (Memorize that. Seriously. It has shown up on all her past exams) Upsides of this class: You learn a LOT--more than you possibly ever wanna know. She's pretty organized with her lectures and she always posts her lectures online so you can print them out and make notes on them during her lecture (THIS HELPS A LOT) Bottom line is: You're in for a challenge. Don't be lazy. Study hard and ask questions.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/08/2010	Dr. Via is no good! Considering this is ONLY an intro course, she expects too much from her students. First off, she goes into excessive detail on the lecture outlines. There is just too much stuff and it's all presented very quickly. She spends half a second on each bullet point and maintains that frenetic pace for the entire lecture. If you ask for clarification, half the time she will pretend not to hear/understand you. Then, when you try to go over the outlines on your own time, you find that they are impossible to decipher because everything is phrased so weird. Second, everything under the sun seems to be fair game for the exams. If you don't memorize every little detail from the lecture notes, expect points off. Via also has a tendency to stick random textbook questions on there just for kicks. The one good thing about this course is the amount of leeway that is given in terms of grading. You get to drop your lowest exam and your lowest lab quiz, and there are bonus point questions which can give your grade a significant boost if you do all of 'em. There are also a lot of indirect grade boosters such as the lab quizzes (easy 100 points) and study questions (easy 40 points). I bombed the first exam (E) and did fine on the second one (high B). Didn't even bother taking the third one. Now it's the week before finals and I've got an 88%. Unfortunately, my chances of walking away with an A are nonexistent, so I'm just going to wing the final and take a low B.
Alexandra Bely BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/08/2010	Class is based on a lecture and lab grade. Lecture includes 3 "mid-terms," one of which is dropped, a final exam, two problem sets. Lab includes a lab report, lab quizzes, lab assignments, and a lab practical. Lecture 3 times a week, Lab once for 3.5 to 4 hours. Pros: Good lecturer, keeps biology as interesting as it can really get. When absent, class isn't cancelled, she sends in a substitute. Posts outlines of lectures online (she says they don't have everyone on them that she covered in lecture but they never seem to be missing anything...) Cons: A LOT OF CONTENT. Tons of notes to study for each exam, as well as a lot of reading that's hard to keep up with, and lab notes. -No review guides for tests. Just study "everything" -Bely doesn't really take into account that students have 4 or more other classes besides this one. -Not very helpful.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting an A loveReaka 08/25/2010	Hands down. She is the best and easiest professor I have ever talk to or associate myself with. I had an average of 96.5 in the end and did not even try at all. she tries to make her exams trickery but does a bad job on it. IS TOO EASY. STRAIGHT UP FROM POWERPOINTS. PLS, DONT EVER READ DA TEXTBOOK. Guys igonore every comment below me and take her. you will never regret it. Promise you.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 UMDMWS11 05/28/2010	Dr. Shofner is a really nice professor, and if you have to, or want to take this class, I definitely recommend trying to take it with her!! She puts all her powerpoint slides online, which is nice, and you can tell she really enjoys teaching. She even provided an extra credit opportunity as well as review sessions for the exams. She's very approachable and very on top of everything (administratively, ELMS, etc.). At the same time though, unless you are a biology major, or really pick it up quickly, this class might not be easy. Especially at the beginning, I found the material to be somewhat challenging. You should go to lecture and be prepared to study, ask questions, go to lab, etc. The nice thing is that Prof. Shofner allows you to drop one of the three exams (not including the final, which is the fourth exam). Another nice thing is that 20/150 points on the final are based on a zoo/Museum visit, so it can help you out a bit (should be an easy 20 points). The laboratories aren't too bad, just make sure you stay on top of the quizzes and really pay attention so you can do well on the assignments/practical. Don't procrastinate and don't be afraid to ask your TA questions!!! I was lucky and had the head TA for my discussion- that's the only part that's kind of out of your hands-yours might or not be good. A good part of the labs is that they compliment lectures (or follow them very closely), so it can be helpful in learning the material. All in all, I would recommend Dr. Shofner! She's a nice professor and makes the class interesting. Just be forewarned, the material might be somewhat difficult. DON'T GIVE UP though...keep working hard and learn from mistakes/previous exams...I found that I got used to what to expect on the exams and the class got a less difficult as it went along. Good luck!!
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting an A- waite 05/19/2010	Borgia sucks. He is an extremely boring lecturer, he's really rude, and if you raise your hand he won't call on you cause he's basically blind. The class is real easy though. You have to go to class because of the 5 question clicker quizzes each lecture. The exams are all true/false and most of the questions come from the clicker quizzes. Don't buy the textbook or anything for this class besides the response card, everything comes from lecture.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A- terp13 05/19/2010	Dr. Shofner is surprisingly a good teacher. It's hard to tell because she doesn't seem very confident, although knowledgeable. If you're going to take BSCI106, take it with Shofner. She doesn't even require that you buy a clicker! Her tests are fair; she drops the lowest. This class is a lot of work [memorization/studying for exams] but it's not impossible to get an A. Don't buy the books. Only buy the lab manual. Brian Davidson, aka Bubba, was the best TA.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2010	Dr. Shofner has to be the sweetest professor ever! She has a very pleasant demeanor, and her lectures usually tie in some interesting topic to keep us engaged. Don't assume this is an easy A because it is most definitely not. You still need to put in the effort for an A. Nothing is really difficult to understand, but there is a ton of info covered on exams. A lot of people come in assuming it's easy and end up doing pretty badly. Some notes about the class: 1. You'll benefit a lot from lectures. She emphasizes certain material that will help you a lot for exams. Some exam material is ONLY covered in lecture. 2. She posts up a study guide outline before each exam. Use this as a guide to help you figure out what to study--it'll cut down on your studying immensely. I got As on all the exams by just using this outline to help me write out a study sheet. Her exams only cover what's outlined, but you still need to refer to the slides to get the major details. Make sure you study the relevant slides! 3. Don't buy the book. Waste of money. I literally opened it once and read 1 single paragraph in the beginning of the semester. Never opened it again and still got an A. 4. Other reviewers are spot-on about being careful of the TAs. Consider yourself lucky if you have a good one. If you're not so lucky, don't be afraid to challenge a grade or even challenge the TA. My TA often gave us wrong info and didn't seem to understand what we were doing in lab half the time. Go to Dr. Shofner if you have to. Overall, great class, very interesting material, very kind and fair professor. Highly recommended!
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/11/2010	He is awful. rude, not very helpful, all he does is read the notes which you can do yourself. also you dont need the book at all. all the notes are available online. the TA's basically teach this class
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A jamgord 05/04/2010	I personally think Dr. Shofner is the nicest lady ever. She is so sweet, and I could not stand when the students in lecture would talk over her or start packing up while she was still talking, because she's not the most assertive or authoritative figure. She is a really good teacher and knows her material extremely well. The tests were pretty straight-forward and you do get to drop the lowest of 3. My TA, Brian Davidson, was really good! He was laid-back, an easy grader, and always let us get out of lab early. Even though he was so chill, he still managed to get the material through to us and explained everything very well. I really enjoyed this class and highly recommend Dr. Shofner!
Gerald Borgia BSCI106 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/30/2010	First off try and get JF Savard as your TA (he is more than a grad student i think he said he was here to work for Maryland on their projects in Australia over the summer or something like that. anyway he has TAed for BSCI106 like 7 times so he knows what he is doing) As for Borgia he is really an ok guy. There was one true/false midterm (but he changes the midterm type semester to semester i think) and a final. There were also 5 clicker question points each class and those added up to one test grade. A lot of points in this class come from the lab, so that is why you want Savard. Borgia's lectures were pretty useless, but you had to go for the clickers... He just reads off a powerpoint that has many misspelled words. He curves tests so that the highest grade gets bumped up to a 100 and everyone else gets bumped up the same amount of points.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/22/2009	Mixed feelings about this course. Via knows what shes talking about (most of the time - but couldn't explain C and N cycles in an exam review). She has very important messages about climate change, habitat destruction, and mountain top coal removal, all things i care about a great deal, but the way she prevents her knowledge about the subjects is very bullyish and abrasive. Plus side is - hardly studied and I got a B+ after 70's on all three exams. It kills me because if I had studied a little more I could have gotten an A. Via is survivable and okay - but take another professor if you can.
Sara Via BSCI106 made4tv09 12/18/2009	Uninteresting, crazy and weird. I did not enjoy her class. It was beyond boring...Her exams were so pointless. The types of questions she asks sometimes you can't figure out how to answer them because of the wording. She also uses the ever-so-deadly multiple multiple questions which are also worded weird. The book isn't really needed. Uses way too many examples and you won't know which one will show up on the exams...Sorry if you get her.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 12/17/2009	DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. i read the reviews for her before i took it but i figured that she couldn’t be all that bad. she was. this was the hardest class i took all semester - i studied for over 18 hours straight for the final and i still think i did awful. 1. she posts outlines online which are sometimes helpful, but most of the time are just missing WAY too many words and have weird fill in the blanks. 2. she gives tons of examples in class that she expects you to remember verbatim on the tests (but she gets mad if you use her examples in study questions...) 3. MULTIPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS ARE THE WORST THING EVER 4. she's an okay lecturer but is pretty rude to people asking questions and is REALLY tricky and mean about her clicker (attendance) points 5. she gives extra credit which is a plus.. maybe about 20 pts total for a semester of 600+ pts 6. lab was alright, i loved my TA which helped. we went over a lot of what was done in lecture, which (surprise surprise) was the stuff i actually learned rather than just memorizing. 7. when you get near the end of the class, for the 3rd exam, she expects you to memorize random phylums and pull examples out of her confusing confusing outlines wow really long review. but just DONT take this class period, even if you have to move around other classes to take it. i studied my butt off and im still getting probably a C
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2009	Via has the most boring and horrible lectures. She uses clicker questions against you, (asking extra clicker questions if she sees students leaving after a clicker). She will call you out during a lecture if she catches you leaving the class early. She is the most pretentious and RUDE woman I have ever met. You must study a lot in order to do well in this course. It is not only about reading the book or going to lectures, her exams are all about actually understanding the concepts and analyzing it. STAY AWAY FROM HER CLASSES! she has multiple-multiple choice questions... wtf?!?!
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B? Anonymous 12/16/2009	She's horrible. Her outlines are online and since she "forgot" to upload some of our clicker points (I had earned well over what I ended with) there is really no reason to go to class and listen to her drone. Especially since half the time she can't even decipher her own slides or really doesn't seem like she knows what she's saying. Entirely too many statements started with "So I was learning about this last week..." Like everyone before said, the exams are awful. If you do take her, make sure you remember every example she gives in lecture because it's fair game on the exam. The exams require you to have memorized and know evvvvvverything backwards and forwards, with averages usually in the low 70s. Condescending is the understatement of the century. The only bright side is that she does offer some extra credit. My roommate takes BSCI106 with Jensen and loves it. Individual exams are even curved in that class.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a c? Anonymous 12/15/2009	Don't listen to all the enthusiasm about Dr. Sara Via: nice interesting and helpful. She is the rudest human being I have ever met. She is so disrespectful, taunting students during class and threatening them with studying for her impossible exams. Her lectures are more like a performance, in which she obsesses and humiliates herself repeatedly. STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a B laurelapollo 12/01/2009	AVOID THIS PROFESSOR IF YOU CAN. I never knew someone so pretentious. Her lectures are very unorganized and sometimes I wondered if she even knew what she was talking about. I once made the mistake of emailing a possible mistake she might have made in lecture about DNA and she replied that she doesn't know much about it and made a guess as to why she is right. Her tests are unbelievable. Its not enough for you to know the material but to be able analyze it like it was an question in English class. She also likes harping about how evolution disproves the creationism a little to much.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting an A aralchen 08/26/2009	The good: 1. Very open to questions, especially after class. 2. Notices those who ask questions and try hard; this actually helps her determine your final grade. If you have 88% and have been trying very hard, she'll throw you a bone and give you the A. 3. Exams are fair - if you've been attending lecture and paying attention, then you'll certainly get the A. 4. Hands down, knows her stuff The bad: 1. Overly detailed lectures make studying a living hell. Make sure to approach her after class to sift through the crap and get the meat of the lecture. 2. Beware: you'll know more about her days in Berkley and her Cornell-attending, lacrosse playing sons than you've ever wanted to. 3. She's boring. VERY boring. Overall: avoid if you can, but don't be too bummed out if you get her.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A deoaro 08/24/2009	Dr. Shofner can be a bit boring and monotonous sometimes but she is a good teacher. Her tests are extremely easy; so easy that in my class there was no curve cause most people's grades were very high. You do not have to go to lecture cause she posts everything online. I definately recommend her...oh and watch out for the TA's.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 08/20/2009	Ok so I'm not reviewing this prof, I just wanted to tell you all that if you buy the international edition of the Scott Freeman book you could pay about $45 from bookholders instead of $170 from ubc. It's the EXACT same thing, same # of pages with same print and pics on them.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a C jaboomday 05/29/2009	I really liked Dr. Via as a person and as a lecturer. But what really killed me about her was her impossible tests. They're seriously impossible. She does this multiple/multiple choice where more than one answer can be correct, all of them can be correct, or none of them can be correct. It's so confusing! I hated the class because I have absolutely no interest in studying phylogeny of plants/algae.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2009	people aren't lying when they say she is boring. my notebook is filled with doodles just because I could not pay attention. She talks about random stuff during lecture and tests you on stuff entirely different. If you have to take her, she's not so so bad. Don't waste your time reading the book. Most test questions come from the lecture notes and the other questions come from out of no where. But the book probably wouldn't help you anyway. Also, make sure you do well in lab because it'll really pull your grade up in the end.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Anonymous 05/22/2009	I had a bad experience with Reaka as my bsci106 professor. She only responded to 1 out of my ~10 emails and her excuse at the end of the semester was that she never received any of my emails. She also said at the beginning of the semester that she was going to curve the class, but in the end, she decided not to. Well, she did curve 2 points but that doesn't help at all. 2 points is like a 0.02% additional to your grade. I needed 5 more points to get a B (had a 78.8%), but she refused. She is monotoned and is so boring. Avoid her if you can.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/20/2009	Dr Shofner is extremely nice and a good lecturer but the TA's can be impossible. If your TA is Jenny Allen, DROP IMMEDIATELY! Save yourself the bad grade in a seemingly easy class
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/10/2009	This class is really difficult, much more than it seems. Lots and lots of ecology and evolution terms/concepts. Shofner is fine, nice enough, and seems accessible to students after lectures. Make sure you pick a good TA for lab though, especially one that is accessible, because that makes a big difference (mine wasn't and it sucked). Shofner doesn't really use the book, so you probably don't need to buy it.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting a B commonchaos 05/04/2009	The course content was appropriate and on topic and I did learn from My TA and lab section. However, I did not learn from the lecture portion of the course. the instructor went off topic a considerable amount and did not follow the syllabus that was given at the beginning of the semester. Only take her if you have to and there is no other choice.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 04/12/2009	I had more fun in bsci106 than in any other class that semester. Via made things interesting, easy to understand, and her tests are straightforward. Definitely utilize other materials, like the book, and MasteringBio if you want a good grade in this course, but even if you don't, it's not that hard to do well on tests. She will let her political opinions be known, however, so if you are bothered by liberal viewpoints, she may not be the best choice for you.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 04/10/2009	She is evil. She hates when people walk into class late. Many of the things that she states when she is teaching are false and she is a terrible professor.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A littleflower5 03/26/2009	Dr. Shofner is incredibly kind. She is very interested in Biology and you can tell from the way she lectures. All important facts from a test standpoint are based on her lectures, so there is not much need to read the book, although it is helpful. Lab is incredibly easy, but can be a lot of work at times. Only one lab report all semester, but some writing assignments too. Overall great biology class and very kind and talented professor.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 UMDstudent11 03/10/2009	Very very boring teacher who will put you to sleep. Not willing to cooperate with students to have review sessions or put lecture slides online. Tests are very confusing and made more difficult than they should be. Horrible professor do not take her.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a C what the hell!!! 12/22/2008	Via is only good at research and nothing else. Her weekly quizzes are extremely confusing. her multiple multiple choice is just intimidating. doesn't respect students and regardless of the fact that you study, you still going to get an average score on the exam unless you are Isaac Newton. SHE IS A BAD BORING HORRIBLE TEACHER, I AM SCARED OF HER. Occasionaly, she crack jokes which is not funny but weird.
Sara Via BSCI106 Anonymous 12/05/2008	Reads off her powerpoint presentations. might as well not go to class, but even then her notes are not very organized and hard to understand when looking back at them. she makes an easy class confusing.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/05/2008	STAY AWAY FROM VIA! I REPEAT STAY AWAY FROM VIA!. she makes everything harder than it needs to be, tries to confuse you one weekly quizes and midterms. shes not really friendly and is extremely sarcastic. She doesnt care about your grade. does a bell curve even though she does not like to admit it. so the same amount of people getting A's will get D's.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Expecting an A- tallboyt 11/17/2008	Although her lectures may be dry, some are interesting and she really enjoys some of the lectures. I've seen other bsci106 tests and by far hers are the easiest. Tests are straight forward. No book reading is necessary; only lecture notes. I recommend going to class to hear the lectures - makes the class easier, but you can get the notes online.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/27/2008	Although her lecture outlines were useless and confusing I found her exams pretty easy. If you paid attention during review session exam should go well.
Marjorie Reaka BSCI106 Tinnacious 05/19/2008	Knows what she's talking about, but extremely boring.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/16/2007	I came to BSCI 106 with such enthusiasm and ready to work and give it all i got. Hoping for a good professor, unfortunately i got Via. She is very disorganized and could care less about her students. Her tests are practically undoable. I would not recommond her to BSCI 106, and avoid her at all costs.
Sara Via BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2007	I'll second the contention that Dr. Via is extremely pretentious and pedantic does not even begin to cover the adjectives I could use. She assigns weekly quizes that once was due the night before a midterm. I am honestly blown away by what this woman considers rational in the assessment department (far too much: one quiz per week, 3 exams, two major homework assignments a major scientific paper 10-12 pages, a lab practical, and expects us to be able among our other course obligations) given her whirlwind lectures darting from one set of minutia to the next and often not in synch with lecture outlines. I never missed one solitary lecture, but very frequently she would berate the class on the poor attendance (to those who were conscientiously attending mind you)and it would seem as far as my personal opinion that she often tried constructing the quizes in such a manner as to "trick" those who didn't attend... I'll let you deduce the problem with that logic. I feel she aims to punish rather than teach and her mammoth impetuous ego and not the teaching ability to back it up is exactly why this is the worst professor I've had in my 80+ accrued credit hours at a current 4.0 G.P.A. I also agree with those who mentioned her disorganization and skipping of important concepts of ecology and evolution.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/11/2016

Take Shofner. She's interesting and she is enthusiastic in her teaching. Her LA activities are engaging and helpful. Just remember to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. It's not rocket science, so as long as you remember the vocab, the meanings, and their applications, you will be just fine. I went into that class thinking I was going to hate it. But I enjoyed it very much. The only complaint is that I took mine at 9 am and it's too hard to even get up in the morning. Bleh.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/08/2016

Dr. Shofner was an excellent professor - she is incredibly kind... A genuinely good person that I wish everyone in this world would be like. She gives you more than enough resources to pass her class with an A - you just have to put in the work.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
soccerdude
12/19/2015

This class is seriously a lot of works. I had to spend 6~7 hours outside of class weekly. However, this will be the same case for every other bsci106 class as well. Therefore, taking 106 with Dr.Shofner is definitely recommended because she is good at explaining concepts and cares about her students. I never got bored during her lectures either. Most importantly, she is really generous when it comes to regrade. She is willing to help out students and wants students to earn their points back. Seriously, who does this? most professors hate students when they try to ask for regrade. She also gives extra credit opportunities throughout the semester.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/06/2015

Nicest professor I have ever had! She cares about her students and the material. However, the course is way harder than expected and the tests require you to study a wide range of material and then remember every little detail.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a B+
Cpowers
01/30/2015

Bely is adorable. She's very passionate about teaching and you can tell she has fun lecturing. She posts all of her power points online, so I tended to skip often and just catch up with the notes. Lovely professor, definitely would recommend. Just want to warn that she does not curve. That's because the tests are not insanely hard; the average is usually in the low 80's. Her tests are predominantly vocab-based, so flash cards will be your savior. She also does not have office hours, she only works by appointment. That intimidated me into never seeing her since I never had too serious of a question.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
ButiwantedanA
12/05/2014

I thought that Via's class was extremely adequate, but that she was a good lecturer. Her power points (posted online) had everything you needed for the tests, and there is a lot of extra credit. The homeworks helped with comprehension of course material, and she makes herself available to help students who need it. She posts many many things to study from. I feel like I didn't learn very much in this class (except for the last part of domains and classes), but it was fairly easy to get a good grade because she was good at presenting material. Also, her old tests are almost exactly the same as her current.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
mmalik1
12/05/2013

Professor Shofner was the nicest professor. She managed to teach a class of 250 students and not bore them death, because she constantly asks for students feedback during lecture. Her powerpoints are very difficult to follow, however, and you should show up to every class because she will often cover material not online or in the textbook that will be on the exams and a several times she assigned in class worksheets to do for points. Andrew Keppel was my TA and he was great. He really seemed to know his stuff and recognized that the labs don't actually take 3 hours so he didn't make us stay the full time. We never stayed more than an hour and a half. Easy class but don't underestimate the exams! Only complaint is about the lecture assignments that she assigned very late into the semester.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Anonymous
05/20/2013

I thought it would be a good idea to take BSCI106 over the summer to get ahead with my classes, and is was def a good idea except for one thing, Marjorie Reaka. She is one of those teachers who cannot teach and expects you to know everything. She gave a great amount of biased information from her marine biology studies, which was very boring to say the least. She is a very boring person herself. Her lecture are very dry and she has no sense of humor. She does not help out her students and she does not care for her students. Honestly, maryland has her around so they can boost their research standings, as she is more of a researcher than she is a professor. She has a very deep monotone voice that can put the even most avid listener to sleep. Overall, to say it nicely, one of the worst decisions in my life was taking her class. Please do not waste your time. Oh btw, she doesn't curve... at all.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a B
fedman9994
11/29/2012

I like Dr. Bely a lot as a person. She is really passionate about the material and she knows her stuff. She makes the course as interesting as it can be, but its still boring. Its a struggle for me to stay awake or pay attention. However, I often dont need to because she types up her lectures and posts them online. I know several people in the class who dont show up to a single lecture but still do very well. This class is a must for any BIO major and I would say BELY is the best option.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/20/2012

There is a lot of work to do for this class, and it is very time consuming. It is a difficult class for people who are really interested in Biology. That being said, Dr. Bely is a FANTASTIC professor. She is VERY clear about the topics. I have learned more in this class than any other class I have taken on campus. It is difficult, but truly worth your time and effort. You will never look at Biology/Ecology the same again. Life-changing course with Dr. Bely. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/17/2012

Her class was pretty boring. Especially since I had her in the morning. Her tests are solely based off of her powerpoints so make sure to pay attention to those. Reading the book definitely helps, but it isn't required to get a perfect score on her tests. Her tests are definitely some of the easiest compared to the other professors'.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/08/2012

best professor for bsci106 take this class with shofner she is so nice and approachable she engages students in a 300 person lecture her powerpoints are very helpful for exams if you can get past exams from a friend you are golden she is really nice in office hours make sure you do good in lab hopefully you have a good/ easy TA

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/11/2012

Shofner is definitely a nice professor! So nice that if you started cursing at her, she would still genuinely love you. However, I went into the class thinking that it was going to be an easy A, which it really wasn't because the exams were pretty difficult. She tests on details usually and essays are graded harshly. I had Melissa Meyer as a TA and she was just some girl from Texas. So, just run away if you have Melissa. One of the worst TA's I ever had in college. Get one of the guy TA's. One thing I learned in college is that male TA's are so much nicer and chill. They don't take off random shit points on reports or tests. Andy Simpson is the coolest TA for this class. In the end, Shofner is nice, so study hard. I had orgo and physics with this class, so obviously I was going to spend less time in this class. Anyways, my advice is that good luck. TA's matter so much.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/05/2012

I loved Dr. Shofner. She is extremely knowledgeable on the topic, but not in a show-offy way like some professors - she uses her knowledge to make lectures really interesting with lots of examples and stories. Thought grading was fair - one test gets dropped out of three. Don't buy the book! She only tests on things in her powerpoints and things she talked about in lecture. Attendance is not mandatory (no clickers), slides are posted online. She's one of the nicest and most personable professors I've had. Would definitely recommend moving around your schedule so that you have her.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a C+
Raikou-Neko
12/14/2011

Borgia is rather boring, I will admit, but that's not what makes his class kill you. His exams and quizzes are mostly true and false questions where he only changes one or two words in the definition to make it false. Sometimes, he'll have a question on the exam from a quiz, but the answer is different. His questions purposely try to trick the student - they aren't designed to test for actual knowledge at all. He also makes a LOT of errors, both in his powerpoint slides and on exams. It shows he could really care less about the class he teaches. He also only curves by the highest test score. One person gets a 96 and he curves by 4 points, despite the class average being a 66. I agree with what someone else said - if you ask a question during lecture, he will answer quite brutally, almost rudely. There was one gentleman that obviously didn't quite believe in evolution and Borgia insulted his intelligence several times over. The lab isn't too bad. I had Dilip, who actually seems to care about how well you're doing and whether or not you understand the material. ---Edit--- I was furious with my grade. After checking and checking, apparently I ended up with a C. Out of 800 points, I was 1.5 points away from a B. I asked if it was possible to be bumped and the TA I was corresponding with (not Dilip) said Borgia didn't do that.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
11/07/2011

A LOT of work. 4 exams, 1 practical, 1 or 2 lab reports (don't wait til last minute!), lots of lab work. Bely only really reads off slides in lecture. Other than that you don't deal with her directly. It's really about whether you end up with a good TA or not. She seems enthusiastic but it just felt pointless to go to lecture sometimes because slides are online and pretty much follow the book. Exams are DIFFICULT and cover a LOT of material at once. I studied for hours for DAYS and still couldn't get good exam grades. It's best to have taken BSCI105 or other related Biology classes before taking this class. BSCI105 is references a lot and I never took it so that made things hard. It's a weed-out class so it's more difficult than it really needs to be.

Sara Via
BSCI106

goldilox
11/01/2011

Absolute worst professor I've had in 4 years of college- extremely unapproachable and condescending.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/11/2011

Via was enthusiastic and was a good lecturer. I liked that she always found many examples of the lecture material to help us understand it better. Watch out though, because those fun examples easily find their way to exams and I wasn't prepared for that the first time. My TA was good, but lab seemed pretty disjointed with lecture. They vaguely connected but it's not like they helped me get a deeper understanding of the lecture material, which is what we were being tested on.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Princess_ourumd
06/20/2011

Dr. Shofner is so nice and definitely willing to help her students. She is the one professor whose class I didn't get an A in but I can still say that I like her as a professor. That's saying a lot. Anyways, in terms of grading, take the lab quizzes (and lab practical) serious [they're what brought me down to a B]. For the exams, study every little detail on the slides and you'll get 100%'s on the exams. She drops the lowest of the three non-cumulative exams though. Lab is easy, not much to say there.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
06/01/2011

This class was super boring but with almost no effort I got a B. If you're a bio major I would take this class with someone else where you'll probably learn more. There are quizzes every other lecture or so that really help your grade. He's a pretty okay guy, he does try to make jokes in lecture... Anyway if you have a good TA then your experience will be better. I had Katie and she was really great. Lab is where you learn most things but you do have to go to the forest which is by Lot 6 behind the Public Health Building. Also the last lab is at the stream which is by the View near Route 1. I have absolutely no interest in bio so this class was good for me because there was no book and by simply glancing over my notes I got C's on the test. The good thing about Borgia is he rounds from the highest grade to a 100 so my final exam grades were always Bs. I'm sure with a little more effort I could've gotten an A but what's done is done. The TA's are really helpful and there's opportunity for extra credit, through quizzez and the like, but it's only a few points so it won't make a big difference but if you're on the edge it will. Overall not a bad prof. but class is boring and it's not one you want to go to. He also pot notes and slides online and sometimes reuses exam questions. His tests are mostly true/false with one minor difference being false, there are fill in the blank, short answer, and matching.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting an A
lmc33092
05/20/2011

Do not ever take him. His true and fa1se questions in pop quizzes and tests are SOOOOOO hard and tricky. His lectures are so boring that half of the people comes to lecture. Also his lecture slides do not make sense because there are so much grammatical error.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/18/2011

Do not take him. You will learn nothing from his lectures and you'll end up teaching yourself the whole course. Not only is he rude, but he is extremely unhelpful. He doesn't care at ALL how much the students are learning or how the students do.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Genius
05/13/2011

AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. He is by far the most boring professor I've ever had. His lectures are awful, boring, mono-tone and just confusing. He barely explains anything as he reads from his lecture notes through the whole class. His lecture notes that he puts up on elms have so many different errors. Just to sum it up, save yourself a huge dissapointment and many many headaches... DON'T TAKE HIM

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/11/2011

The content was impossible. I went to class and studied for an ABSURD amount of time for the exams, and I've only gotten a 65% and 55% on the midterms. The class average for the second exam was a D, which is absolutely ridiculous. I'm a mostly A, high B student. I have never once gotten a C in any class and I'm praying for a C in this class, which is ridiculous considering the amount of time I put into this class. The teacher is an idiot; he reads right off the slides. When I go back to his lecture slides to read the notes, he spells "cells" as "sells" and has so many grammatical errors that you cannot even understand the point he is trying to make. My TA wasn't even good. I emailed him 6 days before the exam to ask what we should study since there was no study guide given out and no specifications and he did not email me back until two days before the exam, only after I sent him a second email. He responded with "I have no idea how to answer your question." There was literally NOTHING enjoyable about this course and I wouldn't recommend my worst enemy to take it. I'll admit that I am much more of an English/History student, but I've never been a bad student whatsoever and I'm praying that I do not need to retake this class. His exams are 60 True/False questions. True and false does not test your knowledge, but your test taking skills. He is not curving the class, but he should when his average on a test is a D, and a friend of mine who got an A in BSCI105 is struggling and worried about his grade. I wanted to take this course to be a Psychology major, but I'm dropping the major. Dr. Borgia is way to old to be an effective teacher- he cannot even see when his students have questions. He snaps at certain people and his TA's do the same thing. Even my TA would start a class beginning, "If I don't make you fall asleep today, it has been a successful day." In the middle of class he would say to himself, "I love my job. I love my job." While everyone else has had their quizzes back for weeks, I'm still waiting for my grade and they obviously will not be returned by the end of the semester. This class is 100% the worst class I have ever taken and will ever take through my college career. I am possibly taking it to the department, but I'm not sure what they can do about it. Basically, DO. NOT. TAKE. THIS. CLASS.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
04/28/2011

The teaching style is abysmal. The powerpoints are fraught with typos, he lectures in a monotone, and even though he asks if there are questions, he never stops to actually see if there are any, and the TA has to intervene before he moves onto the next slide. He goes through the lecture slides incredibly fast-- he reads straight from the slides, which he posts online a few hours after the lecture. Going to class feels pointless, but he has 10 unannounced quizzes throughout the semester, so you need to go or else you'll most likely miss one. Exams are inordinately difficult: we have 2 midterms, both of which are half true/false, and remaining half consisting of fill in the blank, matching, and short answers. The exams don't focus on overall concepts, but rather nit-picky details hidden in his disorganized lecture slides, which makes it VERY difficult to get a grade that matches the level of effort you put into studying for the exam. He curves each test to the highest grade, which is nice since he isn't obliged to do that, but since there are only a few people with any A's at all, the majority of the class is still stuck in the C, low B range. Also, don't waste money on the textbook; he says in the beginning of the year that you can to have some background information, but his tests are completely lecture-based, and it is a complete waste of money to buy the expensive text listed on the syllabus. This class isn't the worst in the world; if you work your ass off, you can probably get a decent grade. That having been said, if you can take the course with a different professor, I highly suggest you do so.

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Erik.Deaton
04/27/2011

This guy is an awful teacher. He can barely see and can't read his lecture slides to us without getting an inch from the screen. On top of that, his exams come straight from lectures, and are so poorly worded that almost nobody does well, yet one person will get a 95 and wreck the curve for everyone. Avoid Him.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/26/2011

Her lectures are easy to follow. She puts her lectures online and the material on the exams are from the lectures, not from the book. She has occasional homework assignments but they are extremely brief and take 10 minutes to do. She also gives out several extra credit assignments which is really nice. Don't be intimidated by her, it's not a difficult course and the material is easy to learn. If you study for the exams you'll be fine and definitely get an A without putting forth too much effort.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a B
GoTestudo!
04/23/2011

Whoa! Don't listen to the bad reviews. They're plain naive. Dr. Bely is an amazing professor. I'm writing this review 2 semesters after taking Bely and I can honestly say she is one in a million. She cares about her students and keeps her lectures entertaining. She is more than willing to get to know every last student in her 300-kid lecture hall. There are other professors you will have to take who don't give fudge about your future, your grade, or anything about you. The only reason she doesn't curve is because people do well in her class anyway! I found the class to be a bit too easy and slacked, which is why I got a B. But so long as you attend lecture, you can do well (and have fun).

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
04/19/2011

This professor is the worst one I have ever had. I tried to read the reviews on here and decided to take a chance and take this class with him. Biggest mistake ever. I highly suggest you find another professor. His tests are confusing and most people get c's and d's on them, but since one person gets a 95 or above he only curves the test by 2-3 points. Trust me, save your time/money and take it with a better professor.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
rose11
01/06/2011

Dr. Shofner is wonderful. She is so nice and very approachable. The lab for this course isn't too difficult, either. As long as you study hard and turn in all of your assignments, you should expect to get an A. I thought BSCI106 was easier than BSCI105. If you're going to take 106, take it with Shofner!

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2010

First, Dr. Bely is an extremely passionate and witty professor who everyone likes as a person. The class can be a little tedious. It is certainly not her fault because the material is pretty dry. Exams do require a decent amount of memorization. This is the major drawback because I learn better with concepts, not memorization and regurgitation. I am not sure if this is consistent across all bsci106 classes. Overall, exams are not extremely difficult. Third exam will kill if you dont study/memorize. She drops an exam so theres no curve. Lab serves as your cushion, dont screw up. Overall, not bad at all. Also, if you got time, read the book. Its interesting stuff and also help for studying purposes.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
12/22/2010

AWEFUL... probably one of the very worst professors. Very rude and condescending. Funny, because her lectures dont add up to her attitude.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2010

Dr. Bely is a great professor - always enthusiastic and very interested in her students. This class does require a fair amount of memorization but, with review sessions before each test, Dr. Bely tries to help focus the notes into a slightly more condensed package. If you like biology definitely try to take Dr. Bely as she will help you have a deeper understanding of how species are related.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B
lgordon1
12/17/2010

Definitely have mixed feelings about this course/professor as well. The material doesn't seem that bad, and she makes the tests seem like they're no big deal, but that's not really true. I did pretty badly on all of the exams, but you do get to drop the lowest exam and quiz grade, and lab will boost your grade as well. I did like that she held study sessions pretty often and offered extra credit, but she is very hard to approach and can come off very condescending and rude. Overall, I did learn, and could probably do a lot better in the class knowing what I do now.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/16/2010

She was very boring and didn't work well with students concerns. It seemed like she could have known what she was talking about but she didn't convey any of it to the class. Avoid taking her at all costs.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2010

You have to be a moron to fail this class. The class average for the second exam was a 80%. For a science class, that's pretty damn high. For the final, she copied and pasted most of the questions from the previous exams. The solutions with keys were posted online! Also I never came to class after the second exam because all her lecture notes were typed up and posted on elms. It was better than terp notes. I was taking three labs with this class and it really saved me. I cut class all the time to get help on OChem and Physics. Posters need to learn how to study instead of *****ing.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Anonymous
12/16/2010

What are people saying?? I honestly don't think this class is that hard. I struggled at the beginning of the semester for some reason. But the class average before the finals was about a 79% or 80%. That's why there's no curve! (I was pretty bummed myself when I found out). She has 3 exams and one is dropped, so it's really not that bad. I have to admit, the first two tests gave me a wakeup call, so I had to try really hard on the last exam. And it definitely paid off! You need to study, guys. Lectures are not the most exciting thing out there. It's in a powerpoint format and Dr. Bely posts the outline of them on elms for you. Take your notes, it's good. Then you can rewrite them (trust me, it helps) and annotate them. Don't know if anyone has tried this, but recording lectures also help. Yes, it's VERY time consuming to relisten to lectures. But if you're not a huge biology buff and it takes you a while to get information into your head, it's a good idea. Lectures are only 50 minutes long though. When you relisten, it helps so much. It reinforces what you learned in class and you can add even more little notes to your notes. It really helps. Skimming over readings has helped (but there is NO WAY you need to read everything. Honestly, I didn't do all the readings) and looking at figures that were on the outline helped. As for the third exam. I think it is the hardest, but it was my highest exam score. She told us to study those phylogenetic trees (I didn't realize that until I relistened to the lecture). So I sat down and redrew the phylogenetic tree OVER and OVER and OVER again until I got it right. And guess what? That same tree was on the test. Also, the reading from the third module from the lab manual will really help on the last exam. Final was easy. There were many questions from previous exams. Many of them were straight from previous exams. I didn't study as much as I wanted to for this final since I was stressing over other ones, but I got really lucky since those questions were from old exams. She posts the answer key to these exams online, so there is really no excuse for not getting them right. You need to study. Period. It's not a hard class if you do. Don't procrastinate. If you don't want to put a lot of effort into this specific class, don't take her. If you just study, you will definitely ace the class. I've seen many other students who have.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2010

Everyone is being way to harsh on Dr. Via. I personally think she is a perfectly fine professor, I like the system she has for grading which includes multiple extra credit assignments and the ability to drop your lowest exam grade. She's a bit quirky but hey whatever it takes to keep you awake. The only advice I have is GO TO LECTURE- her exams are based of what SHE goes into great detail about, not the book. Also, do the extra credit, not only does it boost your grade but it honestly helps you do better on the exams.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A+
cmoore16
12/15/2010

Dr. Via is an OK teacher. Sometimes it's hard to approach her and ask a question, but her outlines are really simple to understand. However, this class isn't as impossible as everyone makes it seem. She posts study questions before tests, and if you do them and study the answers, you'll be fine (as she tends to put in a couple of questions pretty much there). It is a hard class, and you'll have to study at least 3 days in advance. Just know her outlines and study questions and pay attention in class. She gives out 40 points of extra credit which can really boost your grade, and if you have a good TA, the lab will boost your grade as well. Overall, it's a pretty fair class.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Anonymous
12/15/2010

Do not take this class! She literally expects you to memorize half the book in depth. She does NOT curve but she does drop the lowest test score, which still won't help you. She really doesn't care about her students. Her lectures are boring and she really isn;t helpful. My TA was a lot of help though. I asked my other friends in bsci 106 with another professors and he told me he didn't have to memorize much at all. Her exams are also a bit long. She can not teach for her life! For an example, you had to memorize a trillion different phylogenic trees, but she never went over them during lecture. She only went over them during one of the review sessions for an exam. And of course, most of the trees were on the exam. If you absolutely love animals and evolution and want to spend hours and hours studying for exams, take this class. if not, stay away! On the bright side, she was an approachable professor.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/13/2010

Dr. Via is not a very good teacher. She makes the class really hard to understand a lot of the time, and her tests are kind of confusing. That being said, if your TA is good and you get good grades in lab, you'll be fine. Lab is 240 points, and I had a really good TA, which got me a lot of points. There was also like 30 points of extra credit in the class which really helps.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2010

Everyone is bashing on Dr. Via. Wow. I'll start with the downsides of this class: I'll be honest. Yes, Dr. Via is a bit hard to approach, but when you do get the chance to talk to her, she's not that bad of a person. Her class is hard-I'll give you that. Her exams are almost impossible (unless you have access to old exams) so find someone who has taken her class and study from their past exams...it helps a LOT. She also expects you to know and memorize minute details. (That can get kinda annoying and frustrating) WHO CARES ABOUT THE STUPID BEE DANCE?! (Memorize that. Seriously. It has shown up on all her past exams) Upsides of this class: You learn a LOT--more than you possibly ever wanna know. She's pretty organized with her lectures and she always posts her lectures online so you can print them out and make notes on them during her lecture (THIS HELPS A LOT) Bottom line is: You're in for a challenge. Don't be lazy. Study hard and ask questions.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/08/2010

Dr. Via is no good! Considering this is ONLY an intro course, she expects too much from her students. First off, she goes into excessive detail on the lecture outlines. There is just too much stuff and it's all presented very quickly. She spends half a second on each bullet point and maintains that frenetic pace for the entire lecture. If you ask for clarification, half the time she will pretend not to hear/understand you. Then, when you try to go over the outlines on your own time, you find that they are impossible to decipher because everything is phrased so weird. Second, everything under the sun seems to be fair game for the exams. If you don't memorize every little detail from the lecture notes, expect points off. Via also has a tendency to stick random textbook questions on there just for kicks. The one good thing about this course is the amount of leeway that is given in terms of grading. You get to drop your lowest exam and your lowest lab quiz, and there are bonus point questions which can give your grade a significant boost if you do all of 'em. There are also a lot of indirect grade boosters such as the lab quizzes (easy 100 points) and study questions (easy 40 points). I bombed the first exam (E) and did fine on the second one (high B). Didn't even bother taking the third one. Now it's the week before finals and I've got an 88%. Unfortunately, my chances of walking away with an A are nonexistent, so I'm just going to wing the final and take a low B.

Alexandra Bely
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/08/2010

Class is based on a lecture and lab grade. Lecture includes 3 "mid-terms," one of which is dropped, a final exam, two problem sets. Lab includes a lab report, lab quizzes, lab assignments, and a lab practical. Lecture 3 times a week, Lab once for 3.5 to 4 hours. Pros: Good lecturer, keeps biology as interesting as it can really get. When absent, class isn't cancelled, she sends in a substitute. Posts outlines of lectures online (she says they don't have everyone on them that she covered in lecture but they never seem to be missing anything...) Cons: A LOT OF CONTENT. Tons of notes to study for each exam, as well as a lot of reading that's hard to keep up with, and lab notes. -No review guides for tests. Just study "everything" -Bely doesn't really take into account that students have 4 or more other classes besides this one. -Not very helpful.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting an A
loveReaka
08/25/2010

Hands down. She is the best and easiest professor I have ever talk to or associate myself with. I had an average of 96.5 in the end and did not even try at all. she tries to make her exams trickery but does a bad job on it. IS TOO EASY. STRAIGHT UP FROM POWERPOINTS. PLS, DONT EVER READ DA TEXTBOOK. Guys igonore every comment below me and take her. you will never regret it. Promise you.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

UMDMWS11
05/28/2010

Dr. Shofner is a really nice professor, and if you have to, or want to take this class, I definitely recommend trying to take it with her!! She puts all her powerpoint slides online, which is nice, and you can tell she really enjoys teaching. She even provided an extra credit opportunity as well as review sessions for the exams. She's very approachable and very on top of everything (administratively, ELMS, etc.). At the same time though, unless you are a biology major, or really pick it up quickly, this class might not be easy. Especially at the beginning, I found the material to be somewhat challenging. You should go to lecture and be prepared to study, ask questions, go to lab, etc. The nice thing is that Prof. Shofner allows you to drop one of the three exams (not including the final, which is the fourth exam). Another nice thing is that 20/150 points on the final are based on a zoo/Museum visit, so it can help you out a bit (should be an easy 20 points). The laboratories aren't too bad, just make sure you stay on top of the quizzes and really pay attention so you can do well on the assignments/practical. Don't procrastinate and don't be afraid to ask your TA questions!!! I was lucky and had the head TA for my discussion- that's the only part that's kind of out of your hands-yours might or not be good. A good part of the labs is that they compliment lectures (or follow them very closely), so it can be helpful in learning the material. All in all, I would recommend Dr. Shofner! She's a nice professor and makes the class interesting. Just be forewarned, the material might be somewhat difficult. DON'T GIVE UP though...keep working hard and learn from mistakes/previous exams...I found that I got used to what to expect on the exams and the class got a less difficult as it went along. Good luck!!

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting an A-
waite
05/19/2010

Borgia sucks. He is an extremely boring lecturer, he's really rude, and if you raise your hand he won't call on you cause he's basically blind. The class is real easy though. You have to go to class because of the 5 question clicker quizzes each lecture. The exams are all true/false and most of the questions come from the clicker quizzes. Don't buy the textbook or anything for this class besides the response card, everything comes from lecture.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A-
terp13
05/19/2010

Dr. Shofner is surprisingly a good teacher. It's hard to tell because she doesn't seem very confident, although knowledgeable. If you're going to take BSCI106, take it with Shofner. She doesn't even require that you buy a clicker! Her tests are fair; she drops the lowest. This class is a lot of work [memorization/studying for exams] but it's not impossible to get an A. Don't buy the books. Only buy the lab manual. Brian Davidson, aka Bubba, was the best TA.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2010

Dr. Shofner has to be the sweetest professor ever! She has a very pleasant demeanor, and her lectures usually tie in some interesting topic to keep us engaged. Don't assume this is an easy A because it is most definitely not. You still need to put in the effort for an A. Nothing is really difficult to understand, but there is a ton of info covered on exams. A lot of people come in assuming it's easy and end up doing pretty badly. Some notes about the class: 1. You'll benefit a lot from lectures. She emphasizes certain material that will help you a lot for exams. Some exam material is ONLY covered in lecture. 2. She posts up a study guide outline before each exam. Use this as a guide to help you figure out what to study--it'll cut down on your studying immensely. I got As on all the exams by just using this outline to help me write out a study sheet. Her exams only cover what's outlined, but you still need to refer to the slides to get the major details. Make sure you study the relevant slides! 3. Don't buy the book. Waste of money. I literally opened it once and read 1 single paragraph in the beginning of the semester. Never opened it again and still got an A. 4. Other reviewers are spot-on about being careful of the TAs. Consider yourself lucky if you have a good one. If you're not so lucky, don't be afraid to challenge a grade or even challenge the TA. My TA often gave us wrong info and didn't seem to understand what we were doing in lab half the time. Go to Dr. Shofner if you have to. Overall, great class, very interesting material, very kind and fair professor. Highly recommended!

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/11/2010

He is awful. rude, not very helpful, all he does is read the notes which you can do yourself. also you dont need the book at all. all the notes are available online. the TA's basically teach this class

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
jamgord
05/04/2010

I personally think Dr. Shofner is the nicest lady ever. She is so sweet, and I could not stand when the students in lecture would talk over her or start packing up while she was still talking, because she's not the most assertive or authoritative figure. She is a really good teacher and knows her material extremely well. The tests were pretty straight-forward and you do get to drop the lowest of 3. My TA, Brian Davidson, was really good! He was laid-back, an easy grader, and always let us get out of lab early. Even though he was so chill, he still managed to get the material through to us and explained everything very well. I really enjoyed this class and highly recommend Dr. Shofner!

Gerald Borgia
BSCI106

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/30/2010

First off try and get JF Savard as your TA (he is more than a grad student i think he said he was here to work for Maryland on their projects in Australia over the summer or something like that. anyway he has TAed for BSCI106 like 7 times so he knows what he is doing) As for Borgia he is really an ok guy. There was one true/false midterm (but he changes the midterm type semester to semester i think) and a final. There were also 5 clicker question points each class and those added up to one test grade. A lot of points in this class come from the lab, so that is why you want Savard. Borgia's lectures were pretty useless, but you had to go for the clickers... He just reads off a powerpoint that has many misspelled words. He curves tests so that the highest grade gets bumped up to a 100 and everyone else gets bumped up the same amount of points.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/22/2009

Mixed feelings about this course. Via knows what shes talking about (most of the time - but couldn't explain C and N cycles in an exam review). She has very important messages about climate change, habitat destruction, and mountain top coal removal, all things i care about a great deal, but the way she prevents her knowledge about the subjects is very bullyish and abrasive. Plus side is - hardly studied and I got a B+ after 70's on all three exams. It kills me because if I had studied a little more I could have gotten an A. Via is survivable and okay - but take another professor if you can.

Sara Via
BSCI106

made4tv09
12/18/2009

Uninteresting, crazy and weird. I did not enjoy her class. It was beyond boring...Her exams were so pointless. The types of questions she asks sometimes you can't figure out how to answer them because of the wording. She also uses the ever-so-deadly multiple multiple questions which are also worded weird. The book isn't really needed. Uses way too many examples and you won't know which one will show up on the exams...Sorry if you get her.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
12/17/2009

DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. i read the reviews for her before i took it but i figured that she couldn’t be all that bad. she was. this was the hardest class i took all semester - i studied for over 18 hours straight for the final and i still think i did awful. 1. she posts outlines online which are sometimes helpful, but most of the time are just missing WAY too many words and have weird fill in the blanks. 2. she gives tons of examples in class that she expects you to remember verbatim on the tests (but she gets mad if you use her examples in study questions...) 3. MULTIPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS ARE THE WORST THING EVER 4. she's an okay lecturer but is pretty rude to people asking questions and is REALLY tricky and mean about her clicker (attendance) points 5. she gives extra credit which is a plus.. maybe about 20 pts total for a semester of 600+ pts 6. lab was alright, i loved my TA which helped. we went over a lot of what was done in lecture, which (surprise surprise) was the stuff i actually learned rather than just memorizing. 7. when you get near the end of the class, for the 3rd exam, she expects you to memorize random phylums and pull examples out of her confusing confusing outlines wow really long review. but just DONT take this class period, even if you have to move around other classes to take it. i studied my butt off and im still getting probably a C

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/16/2009

Via has the most boring and horrible lectures. She uses clicker questions against you, (asking extra clicker questions if she sees students leaving after a clicker). She will call you out during a lecture if she catches you leaving the class early. She is the most pretentious and RUDE woman I have ever met. You must study a lot in order to do well in this course. It is not only about reading the book or going to lectures, her exams are all about actually understanding the concepts and analyzing it. STAY AWAY FROM HER CLASSES! she has multiple-multiple choice questions... wtf?!?!

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B?
Anonymous
12/16/2009

She's horrible. Her outlines are online and since she "forgot" to upload some of our clicker points (I had earned well over what I ended with) there is really no reason to go to class and listen to her drone. Especially since half the time she can't even decipher her own slides or really doesn't seem like she knows what she's saying. Entirely too many statements started with "So I was learning about this last week..." Like everyone before said, the exams are awful. If you do take her, make sure you remember every example she gives in lecture because it's fair game on the exam. The exams require you to have memorized and know evvvvvverything backwards and forwards, with averages usually in the low 70s. Condescending is the understatement of the century. The only bright side is that she does offer some extra credit. My roommate takes BSCI106 with Jensen and loves it. Individual exams are even curved in that class.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a c?
Anonymous
12/15/2009

Don't listen to all the enthusiasm about Dr. Sara Via: nice interesting and helpful. She is the rudest human being I have ever met. She is so disrespectful, taunting students during class and threatening them with studying for her impossible exams. Her lectures are more like a performance, in which she obsesses and humiliates herself repeatedly. STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a B
laurelapollo
12/01/2009

AVOID THIS PROFESSOR IF YOU CAN. I never knew someone so pretentious. Her lectures are very unorganized and sometimes I wondered if she even knew what she was talking about. I once made the mistake of emailing a possible mistake she might have made in lecture about DNA and she replied that she doesn't know much about it and made a guess as to why she is right. Her tests are unbelievable. Its not enough for you to know the material but to be able analyze it like it was an question in English class. She also likes harping about how evolution disproves the creationism a little to much.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting an A
aralchen
08/26/2009

The good: 1. Very open to questions, especially after class. 2. Notices those who ask questions and try hard; this actually helps her determine your final grade. If you have 88% and have been trying very hard, she'll throw you a bone and give you the A. 3. Exams are fair - if you've been attending lecture and paying attention, then you'll certainly get the A. 4. Hands down, knows her stuff The bad: 1. Overly detailed lectures make studying a living hell. Make sure to approach her after class to sift through the crap and get the meat of the lecture. 2. Beware: you'll know more about her days in Berkley and her Cornell-attending, lacrosse playing sons than you've ever wanted to. 3. She's boring. VERY boring. Overall: avoid if you can, but don't be too bummed out if you get her.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
deoaro
08/24/2009

Dr. Shofner can be a bit boring and monotonous sometimes but she is a good teacher. Her tests are extremely easy; so easy that in my class there was no curve cause most people's grades were very high. You do not have to go to lecture cause she posts everything online. I definately recommend her...oh and watch out for the TA's.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
08/20/2009

Ok so I'm not reviewing this prof, I just wanted to tell you all that if you buy the international edition of the Scott Freeman book you could pay about $45 from bookholders instead of $170 from ubc. It's the EXACT same thing, same # of pages with same print and pics on them.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a C
jaboomday
05/29/2009

I really liked Dr. Via as a person and as a lecturer. But what really killed me about her was her impossible tests. They're seriously impossible. She does this multiple/multiple choice where more than one answer can be correct, all of them can be correct, or none of them can be correct. It's so confusing! I hated the class because I have absolutely no interest in studying phylogeny of plants/algae.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/23/2009

people aren't lying when they say she is boring. my notebook is filled with doodles just because I could not pay attention. She talks about random stuff during lecture and tests you on stuff entirely different. If you have to take her, she's not so so bad. Don't waste your time reading the book. Most test questions come from the lecture notes and the other questions come from out of no where. But the book probably wouldn't help you anyway. Also, make sure you do well in lab because it'll really pull your grade up in the end.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Anonymous
05/22/2009

I had a bad experience with Reaka as my bsci106 professor. She only responded to 1 out of my ~10 emails and her excuse at the end of the semester was that she never received any of my emails. She also said at the beginning of the semester that she was going to curve the class, but in the end, she decided not to. Well, she did curve 2 points but that doesn't help at all. 2 points is like a 0.02% additional to your grade. I needed 5 more points to get a B (had a 78.8%), but she refused. She is monotoned and is so boring. Avoid her if you can.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/20/2009

Dr Shofner is extremely nice and a good lecturer but the TA's can be impossible. If your TA is Jenny Allen, DROP IMMEDIATELY! Save yourself the bad grade in a seemingly easy class

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/10/2009

This class is really difficult, much more than it seems. Lots and lots of ecology and evolution terms/concepts. Shofner is fine, nice enough, and seems accessible to students after lectures. Make sure you pick a good TA for lab though, especially one that is accessible, because that makes a big difference (mine wasn't and it sucked). Shofner doesn't really use the book, so you probably don't need to buy it.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting a B
commonchaos
05/04/2009

The course content was appropriate and on topic and I did learn from My TA and lab section. However, I did not learn from the lecture portion of the course. the instructor went off topic a considerable amount and did not follow the syllabus that was given at the beginning of the semester. Only take her if you have to and there is no other choice.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
04/12/2009

I had more fun in bsci106 than in any other class that semester. Via made things interesting, easy to understand, and her tests are straightforward. Definitely utilize other materials, like the book, and MasteringBio if you want a good grade in this course, but even if you don't, it's not that hard to do well on tests. She will let her political opinions be known, however, so if you are bothered by liberal viewpoints, she may not be the best choice for you.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
04/10/2009

She is evil. She hates when people walk into class late. Many of the things that she states when she is teaching are false and she is a terrible professor.

Marcia Shofner
BSCI106

Expecting an A
littleflower5
03/26/2009

Dr. Shofner is incredibly kind. She is very interested in Biology and you can tell from the way she lectures. All important facts from a test standpoint are based on her lectures, so there is not much need to read the book, although it is helpful. Lab is incredibly easy, but can be a lot of work at times. Only one lab report all semester, but some writing assignments too. Overall great biology class and very kind and talented professor.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

UMDstudent11
03/10/2009

Very very boring teacher who will put you to sleep. Not willing to cooperate with students to have review sessions or put lecture slides online. Tests are very confusing and made more difficult than they should be. Horrible professor do not take her.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a C
what the hell!!!
12/22/2008

Via is only good at research and nothing else. Her weekly quizzes are extremely confusing. her multiple multiple choice is just intimidating. doesn't respect students and regardless of the fact that you study, you still going to get an average score on the exam unless you are Isaac Newton. SHE IS A BAD BORING HORRIBLE TEACHER, I AM SCARED OF HER. Occasionaly, she crack jokes which is not funny but weird.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Anonymous
12/05/2008

Reads off her powerpoint presentations. might as well not go to class, but even then her notes are not very organized and hard to understand when looking back at them. she makes an easy class confusing.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/05/2008

STAY AWAY FROM VIA! I REPEAT STAY AWAY FROM VIA!. she makes everything harder than it needs to be, tries to confuse you one weekly quizes and midterms. shes not really friendly and is extremely sarcastic. She doesnt care about your grade. does a bell curve even though she does not like to admit it. so the same amount of people getting A's will get D's.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Expecting an A-
tallboyt
11/17/2008

Although her lectures may be dry, some are interesting and she really enjoys some of the lectures. I've seen other bsci106 tests and by far hers are the easiest. Tests are straight forward. No book reading is necessary; only lecture notes. I recommend going to class to hear the lectures - makes the class easier, but you can get the notes online.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/27/2008

Although her lecture outlines were useless and confusing I found her exams pretty easy. If you paid attention during review session exam should go well.

Marjorie Reaka
BSCI106

Tinnacious
05/19/2008

Knows what she's talking about, but extremely boring.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/16/2007

I came to BSCI 106 with such enthusiasm and ready to work and give it all i got. Hoping for a good professor, unfortunately i got Via. She is very disorganized and could care less about her students. Her tests are practically undoable. I would not recommond her to BSCI 106, and avoid her at all costs.

Sara Via
BSCI106

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/05/2007

I'll second the contention that Dr. Via is extremely pretentious and pedantic does not even begin to cover the adjectives I could use. She assigns weekly quizes that once was due the night before a midterm. I am honestly blown away by what this woman considers rational in the assessment department (far too much: one quiz per week, 3 exams, two major homework assignments a major scientific paper 10-12 pages, a lab practical, and expects us to be able among our other course obligations) given her whirlwind lectures darting from one set of minutia to the next and often not in synch with lecture outlines. I never missed one solitary lecture, but very frequently she would berate the class on the poor attendance (to those who were conscientiously attending mind you)and it would seem as far as my personal opinion that she often tried constructing the quizes in such a manner as to "trick" those who didn't attend... I'll let you deduce the problem with that logic. I feel she aims to punish rather than teach and her mammoth impetuous ego and not the teaching ability to back it up is exactly why this is the worst professor I've had in my 80+ accrued credit hours at a current 4.0 G.P.A. I also agree with those who mentioned her disorganization and skipping of important concepts of ecology and evolution.

Reviews for BSCI106