HLSC208 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2023	Based on last year’s reviews, I would definitely guess Dr. El-Sayed’s class has improved this year. The material was interesting and gave me an appreciation for what bioinformatics can do, and contrary to the other reviews I found his discussion of his research to be a helpful example of the applications of what we learned. In class, Dr. El-Sayed explained things well and seemed genuinely interested in our success. He is passionate about the topics he teaches. If you compare with classmates, which is encouraged, you can pretty consistently get full points on labs and homework (both of which are pretty quick to do). The material did feel a little all over the place, but if you can understand and memorize each of the concepts then exams will be fine. I would also recommend at least skimming the weekly readings because Dr. El-Sayed likes to put details from those in a couple of the exam questions. The lab component of the class was focused on learning the programming language R, and lab exams were open-note, but it is probably helpful to study a bit for lab exams anyway and do some preparation so you don’t run out of time like I did.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/24/2023	He is a really nice guy and tries to make the lectures fun. I liked being in the class, but not so much when it came to exams. The exams were a lot harder than I expected, and at times it felt a little unfair. Labs were easy. Then again, the exams could be because this was his first time teaching the class since it's a new class. The material is cool, but the exams were hard, which wasn't so great for me because I'm not good with exams.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/02/2023	I think the other reviews do not show the full picture of Dr. El-Sayed's style of teaching. The only reason this course was difficult was because there was a lack of consistency with the content on each of the exams and the textbooks were not related to class lectures. Since this was the first time this class was taught, Dr. El-Sayed was required to write tests based on what he believed students would know, kind of blindly. The tests were either really easy or way too hard with averages being in the low 60s. However, that being said, Dr. El-Sayed is an amazing lecturer and a really nice guy. There was also a lot of dropped assignments and the final exam could also be dropped.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/02/2023	Pretty fun class, don't trust the other review, as long as you study and go to office hours, you'll be fine
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/19/2023	That was an absolute warcrime of a class. im not trying to scare anyone but srsly this class was so unexpected and tedious! He's a very smart prof, but maybe too smart to teach undergrad freshmen. The tests had averages within the 60s (2 of them). The TAs are very nice tho and they tried to help as much as they could, while learning the content with us. We were the pilot year, so it may be easier next time!! Good luck next year ILSers!
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/18/2023	Professor El-Sayed has easily been the best professor I've had at UMD thus far. He is extremely passionate about what he teaches and makes lectures very interesting by being interactive with students. It is true that his lack of experience with undergraduates made the class harder, with his somewhat harsh grading and high expectations, but he did try to accommodate us. For instance, after seeing that we did not understand much from his first lectures about Sanger sequencing, he intentionally slowed down the pace of the course and began shifting his lectures into becoming more freshman-friendly. While the exams had less-than-ideal results, he definitely listened to student complaints to try and change his class for the better. Given that this was the first time the course was available, I would say he did the best that he could. Overall, I enjoyed his class and feel like I gained a good amount of knowledge from it.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/08/2023	Really nice guy, but not a great professor. He is very harsh with grading FRQs, comes up with random detail-oriented questions on exams, and doesn't curve despite the class average being a D for two of them. This was the only class that I struggled through for my first semester in ILS, and it's a little upsetting knowing that this is an elective class that will be dropping my GPA, and it's staying on my transcript. If you are considering honors college and 208 is still a requirement, I would consider a different honors college and just taking your bio classes as needed. We all need the same science core classes as every other student, but without an additional elective that only stresses you out.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/30/2022	His lectures are pretty disorganized and hard to understand for students with solely an AP bio background. Exams were another issue; two of the four exams had an average of a D (including the final!!). No matter how much you studied for the exams, at the end of the day they were too poorly worded and too specific for you to do well. Exam 2 crushed everyone's souls (and grades) and when we gave him feedback on the tricky question types and poor wording of exam 2, he continued to pose the same types of questions on the final. As expected, the average for the final was a D and he ended up curving last minute. I wish ILSers the best of luck and hope the ILS program takes student input when structuring this course for next year's freshmen.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/25/2022	Dr. El Sayed is extremely passionate about bioinformatics and his research. This was honestly one of the first classes where I found biology interesting and not just memorizing random stuff. We learned about biological concepts that are applied to research daily which made the class much more fun. The tests were somewhat difficult because although he can teach very well, his test-making is a bit over the place. The 2nd and 4th midterms were awful because they tested on us some stuff we had never learned and the 2nd test was very textbook heavy. Average for those tests was 67%. The 1st and 3rd tests had a good balance of textbook and lecture material and that's what you can expect normally from the tests. Avg was 85% (yea it's really high but it's ILS so everyone wants to do well and does well). The lab is very easy and is free points and if you don't understand something the TA's are very helpful with lab and lecture content. There is a also a good ~5% curve at the end. Overall, if you honestly just commit the lecture notes to heart and memorize some of the relevant textbook, an A shouldn't be too troublesome.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/24/2022	Great professor and I feel as if I learned a ton of information from him about the course material. The class was overall very interesting, and he is a great lecturer. Only problem was that some of his exams(exam 2 and 4) were extremely difficult, and he would take off unnessecary points with no context. I feel blind going into every exam, evenif I felt as if I knew all the course material extremely well before every exam.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2022	Dr. El-Sayed is probably the smartest person I have ever been taught by, but that does not necessarily make him a good professor. He is a super nice guy who does very successful and important research; however, I feel like he hasn’t learned how to teach undergrads yet. His exams are very confusing and overly specific. As a lecturer he doesn’t explain concepts in the best way. While studying for the exams I noticed that 5 minute videos explained the concepts better than he could in class. Overall I am kind of scratching my head as to why this has become the intro ILS class. I think they should take a hard look at going back to 207.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2022	El Sayed is a nice and friendly guy and is super smart, but Exam 2 and the Final were unfair both with class avg of D. His grading was inconsistent and the class structure was no good.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2022	Nice person, but grading was very unfair - exams had poorly worded questions and FRQ's were graded harshly. Lectures are pretty much repeat slideshows, and they are the only resources you have to review for exams, including some additional textbook material/online articles. This class has interesting content, but so many students were bogged down by grades than genuinely enjoying what they were learning.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2022	drop ils this instant. i hate this class so much and the program isn't worth it. the professor makes exams unreasonably difficult and takes points off for assignments without any explanation, so we aren't able to actually learn from our mistakes. i went in to see where i got points taken off on my exams and i lost dozens of points on my free response questions, without any explanation or rubric. the lectures are very poorly structured and even if you go in for office hours you can't do well in the class. he doesn't provide rubrics for any assignments (enrichment reflections, homeworks) so we don't know what he's looking for so he takes away points unreasonably afterwards. the ta's were incredible but there's a certain extent to which they can do for our class and the core problem here is the professor and the way he grades/makes the exams. i feel wronged and upset because i did my absolute best in the class and had a solid understanding of the content we learned but i can't do anything because he doesn't curve the class at all.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/16/2022	As long as this is the intro course, do not do ILS. Dr. El-Sayed is nice but this was a horribly disorganized class and exams covered material that was not even discussed in class. Expectations were constantly vague and professor refused to listen to student concerns. Better off doing some other honors program and taking normal bio courses.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2022	Good person, really passionate about his research, and open to discussing it whenever. Sometimes, lectures felt a bit disorganized with the professor jumping from topic to topic. Exams, as well, had questions on content never covered in class. The majority of exams, for instance, initially, were on textbook content that was never discussed by him. Still learned a lot, just don't know how relevant it will be to my major and other bio-related majors. Great TAs though, really helped us understand tough material! Good luck future ILSers :)
Najib El-Sayed HLSC208 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/07/2022	Good lecturer, he really cares about his subjects. Tests were unfair but you could drop one. Lab was easy. No study guides or practice questions for exams, so you go into it blind. Still, he taught pretty well and was always open to questions. Easy to approach and has good lectures. Exams are tricky as some focus on lecture content and others focus on textbook content.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Based on last year’s reviews, I would definitely guess Dr. El-Sayed’s class has improved this year. The material was interesting and gave me an appreciation for what bioinformatics can do, and contrary to the other reviews I found his discussion of his research to be a helpful example of the applications of what we learned. In class, Dr. El-Sayed explained things well and seemed genuinely interested in our success. He is passionate about the topics he teaches. If you compare with classmates, which is encouraged, you can pretty consistently get full points on labs and homework (both of which are pretty quick to do). The material did feel a little all over the place, but if you can understand and memorize each of the concepts then exams will be fine. I would also recommend at least skimming the weekly readings because Dr. El-Sayed likes to put details from those in a couple of the exam questions. The lab component of the class was focused on learning the programming language R, and lab exams were open-note, but it is probably helpful to study a bit for lab exams anyway and do some preparation so you don’t run out of time like I did.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/24/2023

He is a really nice guy and tries to make the lectures fun. I liked being in the class, but not so much when it came to exams. The exams were a lot harder than I expected, and at times it felt a little unfair. Labs were easy. Then again, the exams could be because this was his first time teaching the class since it's a new class. The material is cool, but the exams were hard, which wasn't so great for me because I'm not good with exams.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
03/02/2023

I think the other reviews do not show the full picture of Dr. El-Sayed's style of teaching. The only reason this course was difficult was because there was a lack of consistency with the content on each of the exams and the textbooks were not related to class lectures. Since this was the first time this class was taught, Dr. El-Sayed was required to write tests based on what he believed students would know, kind of blindly. The tests were either really easy or way too hard with averages being in the low 60s. However, that being said, Dr. El-Sayed is an amazing lecturer and a really nice guy. There was also a lot of dropped assignments and the final exam could also be dropped.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/02/2023

Pretty fun class, don't trust the other review, as long as you study and go to office hours, you'll be fine

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/19/2023

That was an absolute warcrime of a class. im not trying to scare anyone but srsly this class was so unexpected and tedious! He's a very smart prof, but maybe too smart to teach undergrad freshmen. The tests had averages within the 60s (2 of them). The TAs are very nice tho and they tried to help as much as they could, while learning the content with us. We were the pilot year, so it may be easier next time!! Good luck next year ILSers!

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/18/2023

Professor El-Sayed has easily been the best professor I've had at UMD thus far. He is extremely passionate about what he teaches and makes lectures very interesting by being interactive with students. It is true that his lack of experience with undergraduates made the class harder, with his somewhat harsh grading and high expectations, but he did try to accommodate us. For instance, after seeing that we did not understand much from his first lectures about Sanger sequencing, he intentionally slowed down the pace of the course and began shifting his lectures into becoming more freshman-friendly. While the exams had less-than-ideal results, he definitely listened to student complaints to try and change his class for the better. Given that this was the first time the course was available, I would say he did the best that he could. Overall, I enjoyed his class and feel like I gained a good amount of knowledge from it.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/08/2023

Really nice guy, but not a great professor. He is very harsh with grading FRQs, comes up with random detail-oriented questions on exams, and doesn't curve despite the class average being a D for two of them. This was the only class that I struggled through for my first semester in ILS, and it's a little upsetting knowing that this is an elective class that will be dropping my GPA, and it's staying on my transcript. If you are considering honors college and 208 is still a requirement, I would consider a different honors college and just taking your bio classes as needed. We all need the same science core classes as every other student, but without an additional elective that only stresses you out.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/30/2022

His lectures are pretty disorganized and hard to understand for students with solely an AP bio background. Exams were another issue; two of the four exams had an average of a D (including the final!!). No matter how much you studied for the exams, at the end of the day they were too poorly worded and too specific for you to do well. Exam 2 crushed everyone's souls (and grades) and when we gave him feedback on the tricky question types and poor wording of exam 2, he continued to pose the same types of questions on the final. As expected, the average for the final was a D and he ended up curving last minute. I wish ILSers the best of luck and hope the ILS program takes student input when structuring this course for next year's freshmen.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/25/2022

Dr. El Sayed is extremely passionate about bioinformatics and his research. This was honestly one of the first classes where I found biology interesting and not just memorizing random stuff. We learned about biological concepts that are applied to research daily which made the class much more fun. The tests were somewhat difficult because although he can teach very well, his test-making is a bit over the place. The 2nd and 4th midterms were awful because they tested on us some stuff we had never learned and the 2nd test was very textbook heavy. Average for those tests was 67%. The 1st and 3rd tests had a good balance of textbook and lecture material and that's what you can expect normally from the tests. Avg was 85% (yea it's really high but it's ILS so everyone wants to do well and does well). The lab is very easy and is free points and if you don't understand something the TA's are very helpful with lab and lecture content. There is a also a good ~5% curve at the end. Overall, if you honestly just commit the lecture notes to heart and memorize some of the relevant textbook, an A shouldn't be too troublesome.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/24/2022

Great professor and I feel as if I learned a ton of information from him about the course material. The class was overall very interesting, and he is a great lecturer. Only problem was that some of his exams(exam 2 and 4) were extremely difficult, and he would take off unnessecary points with no context. I feel blind going into every exam, evenif I felt as if I knew all the course material extremely well before every exam.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2022

Dr. El-Sayed is probably the smartest person I have ever been taught by, but that does not necessarily make him a good professor. He is a super nice guy who does very successful and important research; however, I feel like he hasn’t learned how to teach undergrads yet. His exams are very confusing and overly specific. As a lecturer he doesn’t explain concepts in the best way. While studying for the exams I noticed that 5 minute videos explained the concepts better than he could in class. Overall I am kind of scratching my head as to why this has become the intro ILS class. I think they should take a hard look at going back to 207.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/16/2022

El Sayed is a nice and friendly guy and is super smart, but Exam 2 and the Final were unfair both with class avg of D. His grading was inconsistent and the class structure was no good.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/16/2022

Nice person, but grading was very unfair - exams had poorly worded questions and FRQ's were graded harshly. Lectures are pretty much repeat slideshows, and they are the only resources you have to review for exams, including some additional textbook material/online articles. This class has interesting content, but so many students were bogged down by grades than genuinely enjoying what they were learning.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/16/2022

drop ils this instant. i hate this class so much and the program isn't worth it. the professor makes exams unreasonably difficult and takes points off for assignments without any explanation, so we aren't able to actually learn from our mistakes. i went in to see where i got points taken off on my exams and i lost dozens of points on my free response questions, without any explanation or rubric. the lectures are very poorly structured and even if you go in for office hours you can't do well in the class. he doesn't provide rubrics for any assignments (enrichment reflections, homeworks) so we don't know what he's looking for so he takes away points unreasonably afterwards. the ta's were incredible but there's a certain extent to which they can do for our class and the core problem here is the professor and the way he grades/makes the exams. i feel wronged and upset because i did my absolute best in the class and had a solid understanding of the content we learned but i can't do anything because he doesn't curve the class at all.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/16/2022

As long as this is the intro course, do not do ILS. Dr. El-Sayed is nice but this was a horribly disorganized class and exams covered material that was not even discussed in class. Expectations were constantly vague and professor refused to listen to student concerns. Better off doing some other honors program and taking normal bio courses.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/12/2022

Good person, really passionate about his research, and open to discussing it whenever. Sometimes, lectures felt a bit disorganized with the professor jumping from topic to topic. Exams, as well, had questions on content never covered in class. The majority of exams, for instance, initially, were on textbook content that was never discussed by him. Still learned a lot, just don't know how relevant it will be to my major and other bio-related majors. Great TAs though, really helped us understand tough material! Good luck future ILSers :)

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC208

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/07/2022

Good lecturer, he really cares about his subjects. Tests were unfair but you could drop one. Lab was easy. No study guides or practice questions for exams, so you go into it blind. Still, he taught pretty well and was always open to questions. Easy to approach and has good lectures. Exams are tricky as some focus on lecture content and others focus on textbook content.

Reviews for HLSC208