BSCI430 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Caitlin Fox BSCI430 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/30/2024	BSCI430 was one of the most fascinating classes I have taken at UMD. Dr. Fox makes this a challenging class, but you can definitely succeed if you attend lecture, keep up with all assignments, and ask questions in office hours when necessary. There is a lot of memorization, but the exams follow the format of the practice exams. She also provides kahoots for extra practice. There are several paper discussions. I found them particularly exciting because it applied the concepts learned in class to current, pivotal research. I did not have the best personal interactions with Dr. Fox. She can be a little pushy and takes a little too much pride in teaching a difficult course. However, these negatives do not overcome the overwhelming positives of this course.
William Jeffery BSCI430 Anonymous 12/27/2023	Im just here to provide an updated review. I think he does a great job of teaching the material and he knows what he is talking about. The only think about this class is that the only thing your graded on is exams. There is a lot of information you need to know tbh and his exams are very application based. To do well in this class go to lectures and take notes on the important things and try and understand what is going on in each lecture. The textbook wasn't as needed as everything came from his lectures. This class was interesting, but was a lot of information.
Caitlin Fox BSCI430 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2023	great lecturer! very available and interesting course material
Caitlin Fox BSCI430 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2022	Dr. Fox was a great professor! Her lectures were easy to follow and she had a lot of smaller assignments for the class so your grade isn't based just on exams. The exams are very reasonable though, and as along as you study you will be fine. I learned a lot in this class and I recommend it if you are looking for an upper level bio that won't take up too much of your time. Dr. Fox is a very approachable person as well!
William Jeffery BSCI430 Anonymous 05/07/2015	I gave him 2 stars only because of the lenient grading system as mentioned below, but in terms of everything else he is one of the worst bio professors I have had. I second the review on 7/31. I am not a big fan of his lecturing style. He includes very few slides and very few information on the slides. Therefore in order to do well, you need to either be an excellent note taker or record lectures. I started recording lectures and did very well after doing so. In addition, Dr. Jeffrey's tests are not that fair. He asks you questions on things that he doesn't even cover in class, nor are they in the book. His tests are definitely more "application" based as opposed to pure memorization. Lectures are a total snoozefest, and he likes to diverge onto unrelated topics, making them tough to follow and tough to know what is important. The nice thing is that there are no outside assignments and your grade on the tests is your grade in the class, so the workload is not that bad. One thing I can't stand is that Dr. Jeffrey seems like he doesn't care about teaching and doesn't seem to put much effort into it. He says that if you want help, that you first need to see the TA before you see him. He also makes the TA in charge of regrades. Long story short, don't take this class. It also doesn't seem to be that useful for medical school since most of the time he spends talking about other animals instead of human development. Your better off taking something else.
William Jeffery BSCI430 Expecting a B Anonymous 07/31/2014	I disagree with the previous reviewer that this is a "laid back" course. The grading scheme is definitely helpful but you must have really great notes to study for tests in this class, so you have to either listen in class or record and listen later. There's a ton of material he goes over so be prepared to study a lot. Although I really didn't like Dr. Jeffery's testing style, his lectures are clear and organized so that helps.
William Jeffery BSCI430 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2013	If you're looking for a laid back upper-level course that will expand on BSCI330 and BSCI440, take this class. Dr. Jeffery is both brilliant and humble. The course material is straightforward and is mostly explained in the slides, so it's okay if you space out during lecture (I did quite a bit). He teaches through videos and experiments, which really illustrates the concepts well. One of the best parts of this class is the grading scheme: you can use either all three midterms, one midterm and the final, or just the final as your grade. Any bio class with a no-final option is a great class in my book!
Eric Haag BSCI430 Expecting a C terpbaby09 02/02/2009	this class was not up to par with some other science classes. Dr Haag was dry although he was really in to the material. His exams were more analytical then concept based. He didn't go by the book. You had to learn how to take his exam not only the material. Its a good class to take if you want to be seriously challenged. I think his exams were not fair although the average on the exams went up each exam because people were getting used to him rather then understanding more. I dont recommend him.

Caitlin Fox
BSCI430

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/30/2024

BSCI430 was one of the most fascinating classes I have taken at UMD. Dr. Fox makes this a challenging class, but you can definitely succeed if you attend lecture, keep up with all assignments, and ask questions in office hours when necessary. There is a lot of memorization, but the exams follow the format of the practice exams. She also provides kahoots for extra practice. There are several paper discussions. I found them particularly exciting because it applied the concepts learned in class to current, pivotal research. I did not have the best personal interactions with Dr. Fox. She can be a little pushy and takes a little too much pride in teaching a difficult course. However, these negatives do not overcome the overwhelming positives of this course.

William Jeffery
BSCI430

Anonymous
12/27/2023

Im just here to provide an updated review. I think he does a great job of teaching the material and he knows what he is talking about. The only think about this class is that the only thing your graded on is exams. There is a lot of information you need to know tbh and his exams are very application based. To do well in this class go to lectures and take notes on the important things and try and understand what is going on in each lecture. The textbook wasn't as needed as everything came from his lectures. This class was interesting, but was a lot of information.

Caitlin Fox
BSCI430

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2023

great lecturer! very available and interesting course material

Caitlin Fox
BSCI430

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2022

Dr. Fox was a great professor! Her lectures were easy to follow and she had a lot of smaller assignments for the class so your grade isn't based just on exams. The exams are very reasonable though, and as along as you study you will be fine. I learned a lot in this class and I recommend it if you are looking for an upper level bio that won't take up too much of your time. Dr. Fox is a very approachable person as well!

William Jeffery
BSCI430

Anonymous
05/07/2015

I gave him 2 stars only because of the lenient grading system as mentioned below, but in terms of everything else he is one of the worst bio professors I have had. I second the review on 7/31. I am not a big fan of his lecturing style. He includes very few slides and very few information on the slides. Therefore in order to do well, you need to either be an excellent note taker or record lectures. I started recording lectures and did very well after doing so. In addition, Dr. Jeffrey's tests are not that fair. He asks you questions on things that he doesn't even cover in class, nor are they in the book. His tests are definitely more "application" based as opposed to pure memorization. Lectures are a total snoozefest, and he likes to diverge onto unrelated topics, making them tough to follow and tough to know what is important. The nice thing is that there are no outside assignments and your grade on the tests is your grade in the class, so the workload is not that bad. One thing I can't stand is that Dr. Jeffrey seems like he doesn't care about teaching and doesn't seem to put much effort into it. He says that if you want help, that you first need to see the TA before you see him. He also makes the TA in charge of regrades. Long story short, don't take this class. It also doesn't seem to be that useful for medical school since most of the time he spends talking about other animals instead of human development. Your better off taking something else.

William Jeffery
BSCI430

Expecting a B
Anonymous
07/31/2014

I disagree with the previous reviewer that this is a "laid back" course. The grading scheme is definitely helpful but you must have really great notes to study for tests in this class, so you have to either listen in class or record and listen later. There's a ton of material he goes over so be prepared to study a lot. Although I really didn't like Dr. Jeffery's testing style, his lectures are clear and organized so that helps.

William Jeffery
BSCI430

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/02/2013

If you're looking for a laid back upper-level course that will expand on BSCI330 and BSCI440, take this class. Dr. Jeffery is both brilliant and humble. The course material is straightforward and is mostly explained in the slides, so it's okay if you space out during lecture (I did quite a bit). He teaches through videos and experiments, which really illustrates the concepts well. One of the best parts of this class is the grading scheme: you can use either all three midterms, one midterm and the final, or just the final as your grade. Any bio class with a no-final option is a great class in my book!

Eric Haag
BSCI430

Expecting a C
terpbaby09
02/02/2009

this class was not up to par with some other science classes. Dr Haag was dry although he was really in to the material. His exams were more analytical then concept based. He didn't go by the book. You had to learn how to take his exam not only the material. Its a good class to take if you want to be seriously challenged. I think his exams were not fair although the average on the exams went up each exam because people were getting used to him rather then understanding more. I dont recommend him.

Reviews for BSCI430