HLSC280 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/31/2025	Dr. El-Sayed is a great professor. He is definitely passionate about what he teaches and is very knowledgeable. However, this course is moderately demanding and requires a good amount of effort if you want to get an A. Some of the exam questions are specific and you must study the slideshows from class since most of the questions come from those slides. There is a textbook required for the class, however, it isn’t very useful in terms of studying for exams. Here is the course breakdown: HW (10) - 15 points each weighing 15% of total grade (He allows you to work with others for every hw assignment.) Class Exam (4) - 200 points each weighing 60% of total grade (There are 3 exams that are not cumulative, but the final is cumulative. The final is approximately 60% of old content and 40% new content. He does let you drop one of the exams—including the final—so if you are in good standing before the final exam, you do not have to take the final exam. Each exam is approximately 40-47 questions with 50 minutes. You have a lockdown browser and the exam is timed so it will submit automatically when time is up. The exam is online on canvas and each consists of questions like fill in the blanks, true or false, select all that apply, multiple choice, and written responses (which is on paper). Many of the questions are 5 points each (like the select all that apply), so make sure to read each question carefully and completely because he will add questions that are only partially true.) Lab Reports (11) - 15 points each weighing 15% of total grade (One lab each week with the TA and you can work collaboratively on the lab reports. It is a dry lab, so you will be working in RStudio. If you finish early, you can leave early. Some skip coming to the lab completely—especially if it is an 8am lab— because they provide you with a lab guide that will walk you through each lab.) Lab Exams (2) - 30 points each weighing 6% of total grade (These exams don’t affect your grade too much, but here is a heads up: At least for my exams, there were a lot of written responses where you have to fill in the code, so make sure you know the codes and how to use them because there are about 20-25 questions and you only have 50 minutes to complete them. Even though it is open note, you MUST know how to use the code.) Enrichment Reflections (2) - 20 points each weighing 4% of total grade (You must attend 2 seminars on your own time and write a reflection about each, even if you didn’t understand. He will email you a list of seminars for each week you can attend, and you must submit your first reflection by November and another by December. As a reflection, it can be an essay, a mind-map (which I did and got 100%), a video, or anything else you can get him to approve of. I will say, if you do an essay, I have heard he is more strict on those than other forms of reflection. I would recommend a mind map with a brief reflective portion.) In terms of grade cutoffs, he uses the standard grade cutoff for UMD (94% being an A). He does, however, curve at the end of the semester ranging from 1-4%. For my class, he curved by around 3%. Even if you aren’t interested in bioinformatics, it is definitely useful to know and does provide you with experience in the field, especially if you are looking for research positions relating to bioinformatics or use RStudio. Good Luck!
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/31/2025	This class was definitely one of my more challenging courses, especially during my first semester. Since it is an ILS-required class, many of you reading these reviews will have to take it. Despite some of the negative feedback, Dr. El-Sayed is a solid professor who genuinely cares about his students. I think the difficulty comes more from the subject matter itself rather than the instructor, as this is a challenging course no matter who teaches it. In terms of content, the class focuses on understanding the methods of sequencing, how DNA and RNA sequencing works, how sequencing data is mapped back to the genome, and how to analyze sequencing techniques and motifs. Class Structure: Lectures typically consist of around 30 slides each, though many of them are images and diagrams rather than dense text. There are two lectures per week and one lab per week. The lab is a dry lab, meaning all work is done on the computer, and you will learn to use RStudio. There are four lecture exams total, including the final, and Dr. El-Sayed drops the lowest exam score. There are also two lab exams, both of which are open-note. These can be tricky due to time constraints, but they are only worth 6 percent of your overall grade, so they should not heavily impact your overall grade. Additionally, there are usually weekly homework assignments, and you are allowed to work on them with classmates and TAs. This course is very content-heavy, so it is important to stay on top of the homework, labs, and lecture material. I HIGHLY recommend attending office hours with both Dr. El-Sayed and the TAs, as this was probably the most helpful resource for me. A textbook is required for this course, but during my class I probably only used it three times. Dr. El-Sayed reviews all the information you need to know in class, and the assigned readings usually serve as an overview for next week’s lecture. When studying, I would not recommend relying on the textbook, as many of the TAs will tell you, because it goes into very detailed information that is mostly out of the scope of this class. Many of the TAs are also excellent at guiding you toward the correct approach for lab reports. If you put in consistent effort and use the available resources, the course is manageable and you can do well. Overall, this class was probably the most beneficial course I took this semester because it covers many skills and concepts that are likely to be useful when applying for internships or conducting research. I would also like to mention that Dr. El-Sayed applies a curve at the end of the semester. In my class, the curve was around 3 percent.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/26/2025	I'll admit, he knows this content very well, and he explains it clearly. However, this is the kind of class where you think you are doing great, and that you understand the content perfectly until you get your grade back. He takes off so many points for things, and I never figured out why until I was checking answers with my TA and realized that he relies on your inclusion of keywords and specific wording. Even if you understand the content perfectly, you could lose points over something you never thought to include. His exams and assignments include so many questions that are either incredibly easy, or designed to trick you. He'll include one word that makes the entire statement false, and it gets so confusing that even the TA slides include statements that directly contradict his slides because even they don't even know what he's looking for. There are no practice exams or content to prepare you for the tests, so you go in blind. He also doesn't make the tests available afterward, so you have to check with the TAs to see what you got wrong. The readings and textbook sections he has you read are super difficult to understand because they're made for a more advanced level, but he still tests you on a singular sentence in the articles. He's a great guy, but he admitted to one of my classmates that he doesn't even like teaching, and it shows. What he enjoys is talking about his job, and that's the entire reason you take this class. Truthfully, most ILS students will never use this content ever again, but you take the class because he's the director of the program. This class is the equivalent of 2 400-level course condensed into 1. This class covers a very specific section of science that is irrelevant to most. A good part is that he curves the final grade, which I've heard from some doesn't make much of a difference, but it upped my grade by about 3 percent and got me to an A+. My only tip is to check every HW and lab assignment with the TAs.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2025	The professor is really nice, but as other people said, his slide shows are not that great, so you have to take good notes. However, his tests are solely based on content in the class, so there will not be any tricks. Exams can be a bit tricky based on the working of his questions but if you study, you should do fine. There is a nice curve.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/22/2025	This class was one of my more interesting classes of the semester. Dr. El-Sayed was nice and answered any questions you had, even in the middle of his lecture. The material was hard, but manageable if you actually listen to him explain during class. He does not record his lectures, so be awake and alert. Easiest way to take notes is to import slides and annotate them. DO NOT take notes from scratch, you will not finish them. Tests were fine, mostly MCQ, T/F, and select all, but there were a lot of trick questions. Make sure to read the slides carefully and look that the speaker notes. If you spend time learning the bioinformatics methods that make up the majority of the material, you will be fine for the test. He does drop a test, which is really nice (i dropped my final). The labs were coding based, which I hated because I do not like coding. Not too hard tho, usually could get them done in an hour if you lock in. You technically don't have to go to the lab sessions, but I would recommend going because the TAs will help you make sure you have everything you need in your answers. The one time I didn't go to lab, I got my lowest lab grade (dw tho they don't grade too harshly). At the end, he curves the whole class 1-2%, which will likely bump you up to the next tier. Overall, if you put in the work you should be fine, but it is definitely a hard class.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2025	Dr. El-Sayed gives very interesting lectures which are definitely worth coming to, not only because the content is neat and he is very well-spoken, but because everything from the exams is directly from the lectures. He also drops one of the exams (including the final) which is really nice. In my experience, I didn't need the textbook. His weekly office hours are a great chance to ask clarifying or exploratory questions, or for just getting to know him more as a professor. The TAs are super helpful as well, especially for labs and homeworks. Something worth noting is that the lab is a computer lab, not a wet lab, so all you really do is code. Overall though, Dr. El-Sayed is super nice and it seems like what we've learned in class will definitely come up in the long run.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2025	Dr. El-Sayed is a very nice man and is clearly knowledgeable about the subject matter. He wants everyone to succeed in his class and is more than willing to help you out if you make the effort. I appreciate that he doesn't talk down to his class (which is mostly comprised of freshmen) but much of it honestly goes over our heads. Because the topic is rather niche and is often incongruent with the class's level of education, it's hard to find supplementary materials if you do not understand how El-Sayed says something. TAs were very helpful and had good availability, but they were often guessing as to what we needed to know rather than having a hard syllabus or learning objectives. Again, Dr. El-Sayed is an intelligent researcher, but he was often unclear in his explanations. You could pretty easily get clarification from him or TAs during office hours, though. Tests frequently had details from required readings and one-offs given verbally in lecture. It's kind of hard to predict what'll be on there, so you might end up being SOL if you study the wrong things. The TAs will SAVE YOU in this course. Go to their office hours any chance you get. Overall, despite being very kind and intelligent, Dr. El-Sayed wasn't the most effective lecturer so I can't give him more than 3 stars. If you're an incoming freshmen reading this and panicking, you're far from doomed. Just study in advance of the tests, talk to the TAs about homework and preparation, and attend review sessions and El-Sayed's office hours. You'll be fine.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/13/2025	Content isn't extraordinarily difficult. However, some of his exam questions will be on niche topics that you wouldn't be able to answer unless you remember this one slide from a lecture 3 weeks before that was never mentioned again. READ THE LAST TWO ARTICLES. Drops an exam though and do not go to a talk by him for your enrichment reflection.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2025	I know people complain about his exams, and I can't lie they are highly specific and tricky as a freshman. But if you really take advantage of his office hours or go to his after class he will 100% take the time to explain the concept until you fully understand. El-Sayed genuinely cares about this subject and you can have great conversations with him. You just have to be smart about how to study and take extra notes during lecture.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 09/20/2025	Slides are just pictures, and questions are worded terribly with outrageous point values
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/20/2025	Dr. El-Sayed is a great professor and he's very understanding if you need extra time for assignments. His exams are mostly multiple choice and all the content is in his slides. I was not a huge fan of his class however, as ILS students are forced to take the class and the content doesn't have a lot of application outside of the class. There is also a coding aspect which I did not enjoy and he has a 94% A cutoff which is very high in my opinion, though he does drop an exam and there's a slight curve which helped bump my grade up.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/18/2025	He's very sweet and a great professor. The exam is pretty relevant to the slides, so go to class and review your slides. The class is super useful if you do microbiology research. Go to his office hours right when it begins because they will get super crowded and you won't be able to ask specific questions to him around an hour in.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/27/2025	He is honestly so sweet, and you can tell he really loves bioinformatics and his job in general. I will say, this class is very hard, especially since most people take it during the first semester of their freshman year, but my word of advice is to study the slides and go to his office hours if you can. For the first midterm, I made the mistake of only studying my notes (I guess my notes weren't good lol), and my test score reflected that. For the rest of the midterms I really put an emphasis of going over the slides, and knowing all of the steps/components of each topic, and by doing that, I was able to see connections between different concepts which made everything easier to understand. Overall, I am glad to have taken this class because bioinformatics is becoming more and more important lately, but you do have to work hard to do well in this class.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/12/2025	The professor was a passionate and genuinely intelligent guy, but the class itself felt poorly formatted, with the exams in particular having hyper-specific and badly worded questions. I personally enjoyed the lab portion (R coding-based) but besides that, the class content itself is pretty niche and not beneficial for the majority of students.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2024	good professor with a passion for bioinformatics, exam questions can be confusing and often feel unexpectedly hard, no extra time allowed for technical difficulties during exams (Lockdown Browser issues, etc.)
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2024	Dr. El-Sayed is a decent professor. All ILS kids are required to take HLSC280, so you can't really avoid having him as a professor if you're in ILS. The focus is on molecular biology and bioinformatics with every concept connecting back to the central dogma. It's very specific and although you touch on expanding on basic concepts, it's minimal and gets repetitive. Dr. El-Sayed is a very nice person who makes a lot of dad jokes and he's very willing to help you. There's a couple things you should do if you want to do well in the class though. You have to attend every lecture, although it's pointless to take extensive notes during lectures. He posts the lecture slides the night before, so if you can download a copy or have it accessible, just take notes on the things he says. The tests are almost entirely slides-focused. This class is very memorization based, so you have to not only understand the concepts, but also memorize the tiny details on the slides. Doing the homework and labs are an easy grade boost. The homeworks are really easy and direct, and lab was basically a joke. The TAs are great and basically give you the answers. R is a pretty simple coding language, so as long as you follow along with the assignment, you shouldn't struggle. And if you do, the TA office hours are in La Plata so it makes it so much easier (and again, they basically give you the answers). There were only two lab exams and they were both open note but not open Internet, so you could copy and paste the entire labs plus any notes into a doc and have it open. They're also not monitored. To do well on class exams, you have to do the readings because a lot of questions on the exams are obscure and minimal details from the readings (especially the long boring science articles) that you're expected to know. You should also try to go to office hours if you can. Having a good relationship with Dr. El-Sayed and relearning the material makes it a lot easier to grasp exactly what he wants you to know for the exam. I only went to office hours at the beginning and did much better on my first exams over my last ones. The tests are more cumulative than he says they are because not only does material build, it also comes back on the exams. There's also a curve! It depends on how your class does, but it helps a lot. He won't ever mention it in class, but it was there this year and last year. Overall, Dr. El-Sayed is a very kind person, but not the best professor. He does talk way too much about his research that is irrelevant to the material.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2024	Ong Najib is a good professor. I don't know where all the hate is coming from tbh. He is very fair. Yes, maybe his exams and the content aren't the easiest but there are so many filler assignments which help boost your grade. His exams are also very fair. I have never seen a question and thought it wasnt covered in class. And his slides pretty much cover everything on the exam. I cant even lie, I was half asleep a lot of the time, but just studying his slides and doing the reading were enough to help me do well in the exams. All of the rumors of secret info being given at office hours are false. He really just re-teaches the lectures (which comes in handy if miss or fall asleep during lecture). I think the key to succeed in the class is to actually study for the exams, as in no cramming. Re-read the slides, re-write your notes, make diagrams, etc. If you think you know the content, do it again a few times.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2024	Najib is the goat! I don't know why everyone is hating but this man is genuinely so sweet and tries so hard to teach us the content. His office hours are pretty helpful and he goes over everything we learned in class. The homework is pretty easy and his exams aren't too bad, but the lab exams are actual hell. The labs are pretty time consuming but as long as you lock in during class, it isn't too bad.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Anonymous 12/16/2024	Nice guy and very smart. I found the content somewhat boring and the exams to be hard. Try to study and go to his office hours! Not a great class in my opinion, but it could've been worse.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2024	The content on this class isn't horrible with some of it being interesting, but most of it is not at all relevant to most ILS students. It is an ILS required class which is unfortunate. The only silver lining of this class was that it counts as a DSSP gen-ed. Dr. El-Sayed seems like a nice guy, but is just not a good professor at all. The slides for every class are posted on ELMS but most of them have information that is not exactly relevant to the exams. He does drop the lowest of four exams (including the final); however, each exam is 200 points with questions with outrageous point values. For example, on all exams, there are some true false questions that are worth 5 points each, and there are anywhere from 5-10 of such questions on each exam. How can nearly 15-25% of an exam (including the final) be on questions that you can guess on and have 50% odds of getting right? Additionally, those true/false questions were worded so horribly that you are scrutinizing over three words that determine whether you get 0 points or 5 points. That in no way measures a student's mastery of the content. Actual course content questions were often worth only around 2-3 points and still had very specific, niche questions that were harder to answer unless you memorized the slides. These exams are done all on the computer with a lockdown browser which is incredibly annoying. With computer based online exams, there are bound to be tech related issues. If you aren't in the capacity to help, fix, or accommodate for those such issues, don't give out computer based exams with the lockdown browser. On the third exam, my laptop lost internet connection while on the lockdown browser. While this is not Dr. El Sayed's fault at all, all he did was make me write my answers down on a sheet of paper with about two minutes left. I was scrambling to get everything down and didn't have anytime to check. I followed up with him asking if I could at least check my answers that I wrote down and make sure I wrote down the right answers I was intending to choose. However, he refused to let me, citing it would be unreasonable for me to look over my answers. In addition, toward the end of the semester, I wanted to see what I could do to improve my grade and asked him if there was extra credit that he could offer to the class - he also refused to do that as well. Not to mention that he states in the syllabus that he will not round grades, however close you are to a grade cutoff. I am writing this after taking the last, final, fourth exam. I have not yet received my final grade for this class so my expected grade is the grade that I'm hoping to get. However, a curve is not guaranteed this year, even though he curved the course for last year's students. It would be most reasonable to at least be consistent. If you don't want to curve, then don't curve. But don't curve one year and possibly not curve for the next year; that is unfair to the students. Overall, Dr. El-Sayed is not a professor with his student's success in mind; he is very stubborn with his policies and is a harsh grader on the home works as well. If you are in ILS and have to take this class, good luck because you are not able to get out it.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/06/2024	Bit of a late review, but Najib is not a good professor whatsoever. Have fun reading through useless slides for an exam that has none of the material covered on it. Big waste of time, avoid if still required.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2024	It's possible that the people who gave good reviews were the ones that got research opportunities in his lab or something. He talked about his research so much, it was literally just an advertisement for his lab. The assignments were alright, although he is a stingy grader. The exams were definitely not representative of his lectures. By how much he talked about his research and his field, the exams should've just been a quiz on his lab. The class is a useless 3 credits that likely won't apply to most people's careers and doesn't count as an elective. Save your time and skip ILS if this is still required.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/23/2024	Planet Terp doesn't allow half stars, honestly I would rate the course about a 2.5. Dr. El-Sayed is a nice man, who is clearly very knowledgeable about the subject of bioinformatics. However, the class itself was not a great experience, especially as a first year student. The class was improved upon from last year, and I have no idea how last year's cohort managed to get through the class. The first two weeks brought me into a false sense of security, as it was a review and a slow introduction into the topics. However, the lecture material soon sped up, and key points were not even mentioned in lecture, leading to class-wide misunderstandings. Office hours were fairly helpful, however there is no reason to reexplain the concepts from lecture each week, when they could've been explained that way in lecture. Additionally, not everyone can go to each and every office hours and sit there for the full two hours to actually understand what is going on in class. Lab was the most simple part of this course for me personally, however I have had previous experience in R programming. For most of the class the labs were not related to what we were learning about. The content itself became quite dull too, or at least repetitive. It was a whole class dedicated to learning the different, but very similar ways in which DNA and RNA are sequenced. It is a more niche field, and probably pretty few ILS students are actually interested in pursuing bioinformatics. The required additional readings given were often long and very difficult to get through. Once he assigned his own research paper and a quiz to go along with it, the paper took me hours to get through and understand everything. The exams were probably the worst part of this course. He wrote them the night before we had to take them, so nobody had any clue what it was going to be like. There were 4 exams including the final and one was dropped. They were all 50 minutes and multiple choice (exams 2 and 3 had a worksheet in addition to the multiple choice). The questions were sometimes related to small details, barely mentioned in lecture, or things that I believe were not mentioned at all. I'm not sure if he curved the class at all, however I know he adjusted exam scores afterwards (however this dropped my score on one of them so I do not know the reasoning behind this). The TAs held study sessions for the exams, but as they did not know what was going to be on the exams, they were not that much help. As someone who did not have friends in ILS to study with, I did fine on my own but it was definitely a time commitment. I hope they keep working on this class to make it a more beginner friendly class. I do not think any other honors college has to take such an information heavy course as an intro class (3 credits + we have to take HLSC 100 for one credit).
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 BioBoy05 12/26/2023	Alright, to start off this is a required ILS course, there's mo way out of it, so whether you like it or not you're going to have to take it with El-Sayed. Given this take some of the comments with a grain of salt, yes the lectures can be boring at times, and yes the exams are written last minute and have typos, and he teaches a lot about a lot so the exams sometimes have questions that you only half learned. But remember this is ILS, everyone is coming in with a 4.0 or close to it, and was on top of their class, so a class that honestly is challenging as a requirement sucks especially when it might lower the GPA of pre-med students. The class isn't all doom and gloom though, if you go to lecture, do the readings, and if you need to go to office hours you will do more than fine (the secret is there's more than likely a curve at the end). And crazy enough there are some interesting and useful things you learn about, just obviously not everything. As a final note, don't see this and not join ILS, it's a good program, with good opportunities, that can actually help you if you want to do anything applied science as a career.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2023	Dr. El-Sayed is a wonderful professor who cares about his students, is passionate about what he does, and will go out of his way to offer his help and ensure the success of his students. Lecture content is engaging, and this was my favorite first semester class. You are set up for success in that the final carries the same weight as the midterms. This means that you can drop the final, which several students were able to do, or you can drop one of the midterms. Although this class is not a cakewalk and the material can take time and effort to understand, it is certainly manageable if you pay attention in lecture, attend office hours as often as you are able, and study. I would highly recommend attending office hours, as this is when you can get a better handle on the material and get to know your professor and classmates. I felt that the exams were more than fair, and I overall had a fantastic experience in this class. The lab component of this class is also engaging, especially when you get to the labs that deal directly with application of class content. The lab is coding based. Dr. El-Sayed would also occasionally discuss his research because it directly related to material we were learning. I found this helpful, as seeing a real-world application of class content helped me to better understand what was being taught.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2023	Dr. El Sayed is a nice professor and you can tell he is very passionate about his research. If you go to office hours he will explain things well, and I really do think he wants to see everyone succeed. However, I don't think the curriculum for 280 is well planned out. It's a lot of information thrown in your face, and it's hard to take notes at the speed El Sayed goes over the slides. I don't think he is very good at explaining advanced concepts in the time allotted for class, which is why office hours is a good idea. If you can't go, then it's difficult to study well for this course as a lot of his research and this curriculum are in niche fields and there's not much outside references. The exams themselves can be worded quite badly, and he wasn't even there for a few of them to clarify. Some of the TA's didn't even know what the question was asking during TA office hours. I think rather than understanding the topics we were learning students just memorized the slides and regurgitated the information during exam time. At some point during studying I gave up trying to make sense of every convoluted bullet in the slides and memorized the sentence. He would also give very lengthy reads for hw, but we could work in groups. The articles were very difficult and advanced to understand. Dr.El-sayed did end up curving the class grade, so everyone went up a couple percents. I honestly wished I picked UH so I could get some gen-eds out of the way and have a wayyyy nicer dorm. Also the ILS courses including 280 don't count for anything. Lab also sucked. I liked my TA, but the labs themselves made no sense - total waste of time, thank God I was sitting next to some nerds. Overall, EL-Sayed is a good guy, good researcher, but I wouldn't say good teacher, and 280 is a difficult course with a poorly constructed curriculum
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2023	The other reviews seem too harsh in my opinion. I found this class and its material to be very interesting and I enjoyed my experience overall. I guess if you don't like genetics or biotechnology at all, then you may not like the course material as much. The only difficult part of this class is that the exams are often unpredictable as the learning material is spread out between textbook material, various readings, and lecture material. It is difficult to know exactly how much to study and sometimes the wording of the test questions can be tricky. The grading is still not bad though because the lowest of your four exams gets dropped and there are a lot of buffer points with the homework assignments, reflections, and easy labs. Our final grades were also curved in the end. Dr. El-Sayed is clearly a very knowledgeable and passionate professor and he is very helpful during office hours.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2023	Dr. El-Sayed is a very knowledgeable and kind person, and it's clear that he is trying his best to make improvements from last year since this course is still in its beginning stages. However, the content of this course feels extremely niche, making learning it difficult and not very engaging, especially for what is supposed to be students' first introduction to ILS. His expectations of homework and exams were also quite unclear. It often feels as if he is trying to trick you with his homework, and when he goes over common errors in class, he explains it as if you are supposed to have read his mind about what he wanted. Studying for midterms was time-consuming because it was difficult to gauge his points of emphasis in detail-filled lectures with no review guides. I understand that he is a busy person, but it appeared as though he was not entirely sure of what would be on midterms while teaching either, considering all exams were published the night before. We were told the final would not be cumulative at the beginning of the semester, but on the second to last class before finals week, he announced that over half of the final was going to be cumulative. I am not trying to fault him and plans do understandably change, but you can tell this course is still very shaky in structure because it is so early into its implementation. If you are willing to put in maximal effort for an elective course and bioinformatics is something that already interests you, then I am sure this course will be fine. Dr. El-Sayed is always very excited to discuss his work and willing to answer questions. However, if you have other commitments that are of higher interest to you, I would give this course choice more thought.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/17/2023	I really disliked this course. The content is so hyper-specific and has nothing to do with what most ILS students are pursuing. It was so hard to feel engaged with the content at any point in this course. There are required readings that are long and boring which are sure to show up on exams. Exams are almost impossible to study for because he makes them the night before and gives you absolutely no insight into what's going to be on them. A lot of the questions are stupidly specific and seem like he just wants to trick you. He wants everyone to be as engaged with bioinformatics as he is, which I get, but most of us aren't actually taking this class because we want to. This class was very obviously just a way to show off his research and is otherwise irrelevant to any of the ILS curriculum. Only part of this experience that I liked was that he lets you drop one exam.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2023	bioinformatics is definitely not an easy, low-effort class... but it isn't unconquerable. i remember when i was first learning the content, i found it difficult to wrap my head around because it's different and often more process-based thinking (different sequencing and genomic analysis methods), however when i started reviewing for the final it didn't feel so bad. it is interesting content, and the application can be interesting especially if you are health or research oriented. we had 3 midterms and a final, each weighing the same, with the lowest of the four being dropped (you could opt to not take the final if you were secure in the class prior to the final exam). i would highly recommend going to office hours for further clarification on concepts. it's good to prepare questions ahead of time, but it is also nice to sit and listen to other questions being asked for more clarification. i remember that a couple of topics we discussed during class and again during office hours were directly referenced on the exams. most of the exams were fair: you have to be careful to read carefully and not get lost in the wording of the questions. additionally, he does pull from the weekly and enrichment readings, often very specifically, so it is very beneficial and important to read them. when we had a guest lecturer, that content was also on one of our midterms. the lab wasn't too bad; our ta was very good and really helped us understand the process of what we were doing in class even though many had not previously used R code before. he always aptly answered the questions we had, no matter how confused we were! the class and lab only started intersecting after a few labs, but it was good to learn the basics of R code since it has so many applications. most assignments had very reasonable deadlines, however lab exams 1 and 2 were both rushed time-wise when we were taking it. the textbook was pretty much only helpful for the first month or so; what dr. el-sayed teaches in class takes precedence over what the textbook says which is important to remember. when i was signing up for ils, i remember being a bit nervous about this class because i had never really heard of the topic or used r code, and it wasn't always easy to learn the concepts, but with the right effort and reviewing of content material it is very approachable. i also highly recommend talking with other friends in your cohort about assignments and when studying for exams -- they are invaluable!
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	Dr. El-Sayed is a good teacher and very passionate about the content of this course. This course is a bit annoying in the way that everyone in ILS has to take it but it doesn't fill any gen-ed requirements and takes a good amount of work. However, it is manageable and the content is pretty interesting and relevant. The only thing I will say is the content is not well distributed on the tests- there may be one question on a seemingly important topic and 10 on something kind of random. He doesn't make his tests until the night before, so there is no way of knowing what is going to appear. But overall, not a bad course and good information to know, just frustrating at times.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2023	I did not enjoy my experience in this class whatsoever. For those entering ILS, this is a 3 credit elective that likely has nothing to do with what you want to do in the future. The lecture material is not engaging whatsoever and I found it really hard to get excited about and study the material. Additionally, he likes to ramble on and on about his own research, skipping key points of the material and making for an even less engaging lecture. Most of the time it is just a select few students that try to impress him and it seems like he picks favorites. There is enrichment material but if you don't care about the course material, it will just make you dread the course even more. He likes to put this enrichment material on the exams. For his exams, they are rather unrepresentative of what he covers during lecture. It takes him two weeks to grade an all multiple choice canvas quiz. It is rather hard to study using alternative resources as this is a specific class with a unique curriculum. The slides are somewhat helpful, but for the most part he makes it really unclear as to what will be on the exam and how we should prepare. He is a stingy grader and takes lots of points off for small mistakes when it comes to homework. I would advise against joining ILS if this course is still a requirement. While bioinformatics may be an interesting topic at surface value, if your first exposure to it is Najib El-Sayed, it will likely become very uninteresting very fast. He speaks very highly of himself and overloads his students with a bunch of information from his research. It almost feels like he is just using the class to advertise his research and the field as a whole. Overall, this course left a sour taste in my mouth for my first semester, and I would try to avoid Professor El-Sayed/HLSC280 as much as possible.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	The course content is bland and lectures were not engaging. I came in expecting bioinformatics and genomics to be a cool course but the dry way he lectures makes me want to pull my eyes out. Lectures do not really correlate with the exams - he never says how much detail we need to know for the specific processes so you will either overprepare or underprepare no matter what. With the homeworks, it is often unclear how much detail we need to include. I went to all the lectures, did all the reading and homework, and still am expecting a B. The TAs were helpful but they can only do so much to make up for the professor. I do not feel like I learned anything useful in this class except to stay away from bioinformatics in the future. This course is so niche so I don't understand why it is required as an intro course for ILS. If you are good with molecular biology and CS this might be a course for you. Najib is a very smart guy so he should understand that not everyone is as interested in the topic as he is. His research lab is bioinformatics and he's the director of ILS so it really feels like he's using that power to indoctrinate a bunch of smart kids to his research. ILS should be renamed Bioinformatics Honors if this is going to be a required course.
Najib El-Sayed HLSC280 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/25/2023	he’s definitely a smart person but not a good professor, a very stingy person when it comes to assignments and seems like the type of teacher to “not believe in 100s”.. his lectures are not engaging nor very interesting and the exams he gives don’t really represent what he actually teaches in class.. do not take this class guys 😭

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/31/2025

Dr. El-Sayed is a great professor. He is definitely passionate about what he teaches and is very knowledgeable. However, this course is moderately demanding and requires a good amount of effort if you want to get an A. Some of the exam questions are specific and you must study the slideshows from class since most of the questions come from those slides. There is a textbook required for the class, however, it isn’t very useful in terms of studying for exams. Here is the course breakdown: HW (10) - 15 points each weighing 15% of total grade (He allows you to work with others for every hw assignment.) Class Exam (4) - 200 points each weighing 60% of total grade (There are 3 exams that are not cumulative, but the final is cumulative. The final is approximately 60% of old content and 40% new content. He does let you drop one of the exams—including the final—so if you are in good standing before the final exam, you do not have to take the final exam. Each exam is approximately 40-47 questions with 50 minutes. You have a lockdown browser and the exam is timed so it will submit automatically when time is up. The exam is online on canvas and each consists of questions like fill in the blanks, true or false, select all that apply, multiple choice, and written responses (which is on paper). Many of the questions are 5 points each (like the select all that apply), so make sure to read each question carefully and completely because he will add questions that are only partially true.) Lab Reports (11) - 15 points each weighing 15% of total grade (One lab each week with the TA and you can work collaboratively on the lab reports. It is a dry lab, so you will be working in RStudio. If you finish early, you can leave early. Some skip coming to the lab completely—especially if it is an 8am lab— because they provide you with a lab guide that will walk you through each lab.) Lab Exams (2) - 30 points each weighing 6% of total grade (These exams don’t affect your grade too much, but here is a heads up: At least for my exams, there were a lot of written responses where you have to fill in the code, so make sure you know the codes and how to use them because there are about 20-25 questions and you only have 50 minutes to complete them. Even though it is open note, you MUST know how to use the code.) Enrichment Reflections (2) - 20 points each weighing 4% of total grade (You must attend 2 seminars on your own time and write a reflection about each, even if you didn’t understand. He will email you a list of seminars for each week you can attend, and you must submit your first reflection by November and another by December. As a reflection, it can be an essay, a mind-map (which I did and got 100%), a video, or anything else you can get him to approve of. I will say, if you do an essay, I have heard he is more strict on those than other forms of reflection. I would recommend a mind map with a brief reflective portion.) In terms of grade cutoffs, he uses the standard grade cutoff for UMD (94% being an A). He does, however, curve at the end of the semester ranging from 1-4%. For my class, he curved by around 3%. Even if you aren’t interested in bioinformatics, it is definitely useful to know and does provide you with experience in the field, especially if you are looking for research positions relating to bioinformatics or use RStudio. Good Luck!

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/31/2025

This class was definitely one of my more challenging courses, especially during my first semester. Since it is an ILS-required class, many of you reading these reviews will have to take it. Despite some of the negative feedback, Dr. El-Sayed is a solid professor who genuinely cares about his students. I think the difficulty comes more from the subject matter itself rather than the instructor, as this is a challenging course no matter who teaches it. In terms of content, the class focuses on understanding the methods of sequencing, how DNA and RNA sequencing works, how sequencing data is mapped back to the genome, and how to analyze sequencing techniques and motifs. Class Structure: Lectures typically consist of around 30 slides each, though many of them are images and diagrams rather than dense text. There are two lectures per week and one lab per week. The lab is a dry lab, meaning all work is done on the computer, and you will learn to use RStudio. There are four lecture exams total, including the final, and Dr. El-Sayed drops the lowest exam score. There are also two lab exams, both of which are open-note. These can be tricky due to time constraints, but they are only worth 6 percent of your overall grade, so they should not heavily impact your overall grade. Additionally, there are usually weekly homework assignments, and you are allowed to work on them with classmates and TAs. This course is very content-heavy, so it is important to stay on top of the homework, labs, and lecture material. I HIGHLY recommend attending office hours with both Dr. El-Sayed and the TAs, as this was probably the most helpful resource for me. A textbook is required for this course, but during my class I probably only used it three times. Dr. El-Sayed reviews all the information you need to know in class, and the assigned readings usually serve as an overview for next week’s lecture. When studying, I would not recommend relying on the textbook, as many of the TAs will tell you, because it goes into very detailed information that is mostly out of the scope of this class. Many of the TAs are also excellent at guiding you toward the correct approach for lab reports. If you put in consistent effort and use the available resources, the course is manageable and you can do well. Overall, this class was probably the most beneficial course I took this semester because it covers many skills and concepts that are likely to be useful when applying for internships or conducting research. I would also like to mention that Dr. El-Sayed applies a curve at the end of the semester. In my class, the curve was around 3 percent.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/26/2025

I'll admit, he knows this content very well, and he explains it clearly. However, this is the kind of class where you think you are doing great, and that you understand the content perfectly until you get your grade back. He takes off so many points for things, and I never figured out why until I was checking answers with my TA and realized that he relies on your inclusion of keywords and specific wording. Even if you understand the content perfectly, you could lose points over something you never thought to include. His exams and assignments include so many questions that are either incredibly easy, or designed to trick you. He'll include one word that makes the entire statement false, and it gets so confusing that even the TA slides include statements that directly contradict his slides because even they don't even know what he's looking for. There are no practice exams or content to prepare you for the tests, so you go in blind. He also doesn't make the tests available afterward, so you have to check with the TAs to see what you got wrong. The readings and textbook sections he has you read are super difficult to understand because they're made for a more advanced level, but he still tests you on a singular sentence in the articles. He's a great guy, but he admitted to one of my classmates that he doesn't even like teaching, and it shows. What he enjoys is talking about his job, and that's the entire reason you take this class. Truthfully, most ILS students will never use this content ever again, but you take the class because he's the director of the program. This class is the equivalent of 2 400-level course condensed into 1. This class covers a very specific section of science that is irrelevant to most. A good part is that he curves the final grade, which I've heard from some doesn't make much of a difference, but it upped my grade by about 3 percent and got me to an A+. My only tip is to check every HW and lab assignment with the TAs.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/26/2025

The professor is really nice, but as other people said, his slide shows are not that great, so you have to take good notes. However, his tests are solely based on content in the class, so there will not be any tricks. Exams can be a bit tricky based on the working of his questions but if you study, you should do fine. There is a nice curve.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/22/2025

This class was one of my more interesting classes of the semester. Dr. El-Sayed was nice and answered any questions you had, even in the middle of his lecture. The material was hard, but manageable if you actually listen to him explain during class. He does not record his lectures, so be awake and alert. Easiest way to take notes is to import slides and annotate them. DO NOT take notes from scratch, you will not finish them. Tests were fine, mostly MCQ, T/F, and select all, but there were a lot of trick questions. Make sure to read the slides carefully and look that the speaker notes. If you spend time learning the bioinformatics methods that make up the majority of the material, you will be fine for the test. He does drop a test, which is really nice (i dropped my final). The labs were coding based, which I hated because I do not like coding. Not too hard tho, usually could get them done in an hour if you lock in. You technically don't have to go to the lab sessions, but I would recommend going because the TAs will help you make sure you have everything you need in your answers. The one time I didn't go to lab, I got my lowest lab grade (dw tho they don't grade too harshly). At the end, he curves the whole class 1-2%, which will likely bump you up to the next tier. Overall, if you put in the work you should be fine, but it is definitely a hard class.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2025

Dr. El-Sayed gives very interesting lectures which are definitely worth coming to, not only because the content is neat and he is very well-spoken, but because everything from the exams is directly from the lectures. He also drops one of the exams (including the final) which is really nice. In my experience, I didn't need the textbook. His weekly office hours are a great chance to ask clarifying or exploratory questions, or for just getting to know him more as a professor. The TAs are super helpful as well, especially for labs and homeworks. Something worth noting is that the lab is a computer lab, not a wet lab, so all you really do is code. Overall though, Dr. El-Sayed is super nice and it seems like what we've learned in class will definitely come up in the long run.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2025

Dr. El-Sayed is a very nice man and is clearly knowledgeable about the subject matter. He wants everyone to succeed in his class and is more than willing to help you out if you make the effort. I appreciate that he doesn't talk down to his class (which is mostly comprised of freshmen) but much of it honestly goes over our heads. Because the topic is rather niche and is often incongruent with the class's level of education, it's hard to find supplementary materials if you do not understand how El-Sayed says something. TAs were very helpful and had good availability, but they were often guessing as to what we needed to know rather than having a hard syllabus or learning objectives. Again, Dr. El-Sayed is an intelligent researcher, but he was often unclear in his explanations. You could pretty easily get clarification from him or TAs during office hours, though. Tests frequently had details from required readings and one-offs given verbally in lecture. It's kind of hard to predict what'll be on there, so you might end up being SOL if you study the wrong things. The TAs will SAVE YOU in this course. Go to their office hours any chance you get. Overall, despite being very kind and intelligent, Dr. El-Sayed wasn't the most effective lecturer so I can't give him more than 3 stars. If you're an incoming freshmen reading this and panicking, you're far from doomed. Just study in advance of the tests, talk to the TAs about homework and preparation, and attend review sessions and El-Sayed's office hours. You'll be fine.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/13/2025

Content isn't extraordinarily difficult. However, some of his exam questions will be on niche topics that you wouldn't be able to answer unless you remember this one slide from a lecture 3 weeks before that was never mentioned again. READ THE LAST TWO ARTICLES. Drops an exam though and do not go to a talk by him for your enrichment reflection.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2025

I know people complain about his exams, and I can't lie they are highly specific and tricky as a freshman. But if you really take advantage of his office hours or go to his after class he will 100% take the time to explain the concept until you fully understand. El-Sayed genuinely cares about this subject and you can have great conversations with him. You just have to be smart about how to study and take extra notes during lecture.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
09/20/2025

Slides are just pictures, and questions are worded terribly with outrageous point values

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/20/2025

Dr. El-Sayed is a great professor and he's very understanding if you need extra time for assignments. His exams are mostly multiple choice and all the content is in his slides. I was not a huge fan of his class however, as ILS students are forced to take the class and the content doesn't have a lot of application outside of the class. There is also a coding aspect which I did not enjoy and he has a 94% A cutoff which is very high in my opinion, though he does drop an exam and there's a slight curve which helped bump my grade up.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/18/2025

He's very sweet and a great professor. The exam is pretty relevant to the slides, so go to class and review your slides. The class is super useful if you do microbiology research. Go to his office hours right when it begins because they will get super crowded and you won't be able to ask specific questions to him around an hour in.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/27/2025

He is honestly so sweet, and you can tell he really loves bioinformatics and his job in general. I will say, this class is very hard, especially since most people take it during the first semester of their freshman year, but my word of advice is to study the slides and go to his office hours if you can. For the first midterm, I made the mistake of only studying my notes (I guess my notes weren't good lol), and my test score reflected that. For the rest of the midterms I really put an emphasis of going over the slides, and knowing all of the steps/components of each topic, and by doing that, I was able to see connections between different concepts which made everything easier to understand. Overall, I am glad to have taken this class because bioinformatics is becoming more and more important lately, but you do have to work hard to do well in this class.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/12/2025

The professor was a passionate and genuinely intelligent guy, but the class itself felt poorly formatted, with the exams in particular having hyper-specific and badly worded questions. I personally enjoyed the lab portion (R coding-based) but besides that, the class content itself is pretty niche and not beneficial for the majority of students.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/29/2024

good professor with a passion for bioinformatics, exam questions can be confusing and often feel unexpectedly hard, no extra time allowed for technical difficulties during exams (Lockdown Browser issues, etc.)

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/23/2024

Dr. El-Sayed is a decent professor. All ILS kids are required to take HLSC280, so you can't really avoid having him as a professor if you're in ILS. The focus is on molecular biology and bioinformatics with every concept connecting back to the central dogma. It's very specific and although you touch on expanding on basic concepts, it's minimal and gets repetitive. Dr. El-Sayed is a very nice person who makes a lot of dad jokes and he's very willing to help you. There's a couple things you should do if you want to do well in the class though. You have to attend every lecture, although it's pointless to take extensive notes during lectures. He posts the lecture slides the night before, so if you can download a copy or have it accessible, just take notes on the things he says. The tests are almost entirely slides-focused. This class is very memorization based, so you have to not only understand the concepts, but also memorize the tiny details on the slides. Doing the homework and labs are an easy grade boost. The homeworks are really easy and direct, and lab was basically a joke. The TAs are great and basically give you the answers. R is a pretty simple coding language, so as long as you follow along with the assignment, you shouldn't struggle. And if you do, the TA office hours are in La Plata so it makes it so much easier (and again, they basically give you the answers). There were only two lab exams and they were both open note but not open Internet, so you could copy and paste the entire labs plus any notes into a doc and have it open. They're also not monitored. To do well on class exams, you have to do the readings because a lot of questions on the exams are obscure and minimal details from the readings (especially the long boring science articles) that you're expected to know. You should also try to go to office hours if you can. Having a good relationship with Dr. El-Sayed and relearning the material makes it a lot easier to grasp exactly what he wants you to know for the exam. I only went to office hours at the beginning and did much better on my first exams over my last ones. The tests are more cumulative than he says they are because not only does material build, it also comes back on the exams. There's also a curve! It depends on how your class does, but it helps a lot. He won't ever mention it in class, but it was there this year and last year. Overall, Dr. El-Sayed is a very kind person, but not the best professor. He does talk way too much about his research that is irrelevant to the material.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2024

Ong Najib is a good professor. I don't know where all the hate is coming from tbh. He is very fair. Yes, maybe his exams and the content aren't the easiest but there are so many filler assignments which help boost your grade. His exams are also very fair. I have never seen a question and thought it wasnt covered in class. And his slides pretty much cover everything on the exam. I cant even lie, I was half asleep a lot of the time, but just studying his slides and doing the reading were enough to help me do well in the exams. All of the rumors of secret info being given at office hours are false. He really just re-teaches the lectures (which comes in handy if miss or fall asleep during lecture). I think the key to succeed in the class is to actually study for the exams, as in no cramming. Re-read the slides, re-write your notes, make diagrams, etc. If you think you know the content, do it again a few times.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/17/2024

Najib is the goat! I don't know why everyone is hating but this man is genuinely so sweet and tries so hard to teach us the content. His office hours are pretty helpful and he goes over everything we learned in class. The homework is pretty easy and his exams aren't too bad, but the lab exams are actual hell. The labs are pretty time consuming but as long as you lock in during class, it isn't too bad.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Anonymous
12/16/2024

Nice guy and very smart. I found the content somewhat boring and the exams to be hard. Try to study and go to his office hours! Not a great class in my opinion, but it could've been worse.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/15/2024

The content on this class isn't horrible with some of it being interesting, but most of it is not at all relevant to most ILS students. It is an ILS required class which is unfortunate. The only silver lining of this class was that it counts as a DSSP gen-ed. Dr. El-Sayed seems like a nice guy, but is just not a good professor at all. The slides for every class are posted on ELMS but most of them have information that is not exactly relevant to the exams. He does drop the lowest of four exams (including the final); however, each exam is 200 points with questions with outrageous point values. For example, on all exams, there are some true false questions that are worth 5 points each, and there are anywhere from 5-10 of such questions on each exam. How can nearly 15-25% of an exam (including the final) be on questions that you can guess on and have 50% odds of getting right? Additionally, those true/false questions were worded so horribly that you are scrutinizing over three words that determine whether you get 0 points or 5 points. That in no way measures a student's mastery of the content. Actual course content questions were often worth only around 2-3 points and still had very specific, niche questions that were harder to answer unless you memorized the slides. These exams are done all on the computer with a lockdown browser which is incredibly annoying. With computer based online exams, there are bound to be tech related issues. If you aren't in the capacity to help, fix, or accommodate for those such issues, don't give out computer based exams with the lockdown browser. On the third exam, my laptop lost internet connection while on the lockdown browser. While this is not Dr. El Sayed's fault at all, all he did was make me write my answers down on a sheet of paper with about two minutes left. I was scrambling to get everything down and didn't have anytime to check. I followed up with him asking if I could at least check my answers that I wrote down and make sure I wrote down the right answers I was intending to choose. However, he refused to let me, citing it would be unreasonable for me to look over my answers. In addition, toward the end of the semester, I wanted to see what I could do to improve my grade and asked him if there was extra credit that he could offer to the class - he also refused to do that as well. Not to mention that he states in the syllabus that he will not round grades, however close you are to a grade cutoff. I am writing this after taking the last, final, fourth exam. I have not yet received my final grade for this class so my expected grade is the grade that I'm hoping to get. However, a curve is not guaranteed this year, even though he curved the course for last year's students. It would be most reasonable to at least be consistent. If you don't want to curve, then don't curve. But don't curve one year and possibly not curve for the next year; that is unfair to the students. Overall, Dr. El-Sayed is not a professor with his student's success in mind; he is very stubborn with his policies and is a harsh grader on the home works as well. If you are in ILS and have to take this class, good luck because you are not able to get out it.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/06/2024

Bit of a late review, but Najib is not a good professor whatsoever. Have fun reading through useless slides for an exam that has none of the material covered on it. Big waste of time, avoid if still required.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2024

It's possible that the people who gave good reviews were the ones that got research opportunities in his lab or something. He talked about his research so much, it was literally just an advertisement for his lab. The assignments were alright, although he is a stingy grader. The exams were definitely not representative of his lectures. By how much he talked about his research and his field, the exams should've just been a quiz on his lab. The class is a useless 3 credits that likely won't apply to most people's careers and doesn't count as an elective. Save your time and skip ILS if this is still required.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/23/2024

Planet Terp doesn't allow half stars, honestly I would rate the course about a 2.5. Dr. El-Sayed is a nice man, who is clearly very knowledgeable about the subject of bioinformatics. However, the class itself was not a great experience, especially as a first year student. The class was improved upon from last year, and I have no idea how last year's cohort managed to get through the class. The first two weeks brought me into a false sense of security, as it was a review and a slow introduction into the topics. However, the lecture material soon sped up, and key points were not even mentioned in lecture, leading to class-wide misunderstandings. Office hours were fairly helpful, however there is no reason to reexplain the concepts from lecture each week, when they could've been explained that way in lecture. Additionally, not everyone can go to each and every office hours and sit there for the full two hours to actually understand what is going on in class. Lab was the most simple part of this course for me personally, however I have had previous experience in R programming. For most of the class the labs were not related to what we were learning about. The content itself became quite dull too, or at least repetitive. It was a whole class dedicated to learning the different, but very similar ways in which DNA and RNA are sequenced. It is a more niche field, and probably pretty few ILS students are actually interested in pursuing bioinformatics. The required additional readings given were often long and very difficult to get through. Once he assigned his own research paper and a quiz to go along with it, the paper took me hours to get through and understand everything. The exams were probably the worst part of this course. He wrote them the night before we had to take them, so nobody had any clue what it was going to be like. There were 4 exams including the final and one was dropped. They were all 50 minutes and multiple choice (exams 2 and 3 had a worksheet in addition to the multiple choice). The questions were sometimes related to small details, barely mentioned in lecture, or things that I believe were not mentioned at all. I'm not sure if he curved the class at all, however I know he adjusted exam scores afterwards (however this dropped my score on one of them so I do not know the reasoning behind this). The TAs held study sessions for the exams, but as they did not know what was going to be on the exams, they were not that much help. As someone who did not have friends in ILS to study with, I did fine on my own but it was definitely a time commitment. I hope they keep working on this class to make it a more beginner friendly class. I do not think any other honors college has to take such an information heavy course as an intro class (3 credits + we have to take HLSC 100 for one credit).

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

BioBoy05
12/26/2023

Alright, to start off this is a required ILS course, there's mo way out of it, so whether you like it or not you're going to have to take it with El-Sayed. Given this take some of the comments with a grain of salt, yes the lectures can be boring at times, and yes the exams are written last minute and have typos, and he teaches a lot about a lot so the exams sometimes have questions that you only half learned. But remember this is ILS, everyone is coming in with a 4.0 or close to it, and was on top of their class, so a class that honestly is challenging as a requirement sucks especially when it might lower the GPA of pre-med students. The class isn't all doom and gloom though, if you go to lecture, do the readings, and if you need to go to office hours you will do more than fine (the secret is there's more than likely a curve at the end). And crazy enough there are some interesting and useful things you learn about, just obviously not everything. As a final note, don't see this and not join ILS, it's a good program, with good opportunities, that can actually help you if you want to do anything applied science as a career.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2023

Dr. El-Sayed is a wonderful professor who cares about his students, is passionate about what he does, and will go out of his way to offer his help and ensure the success of his students. Lecture content is engaging, and this was my favorite first semester class. You are set up for success in that the final carries the same weight as the midterms. This means that you can drop the final, which several students were able to do, or you can drop one of the midterms. Although this class is not a cakewalk and the material can take time and effort to understand, it is certainly manageable if you pay attention in lecture, attend office hours as often as you are able, and study. I would highly recommend attending office hours, as this is when you can get a better handle on the material and get to know your professor and classmates. I felt that the exams were more than fair, and I overall had a fantastic experience in this class. The lab component of this class is also engaging, especially when you get to the labs that deal directly with application of class content. The lab is coding based. Dr. El-Sayed would also occasionally discuss his research because it directly related to material we were learning. I found this helpful, as seeing a real-world application of class content helped me to better understand what was being taught.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/19/2023

Dr. El Sayed is a nice professor and you can tell he is very passionate about his research. If you go to office hours he will explain things well, and I really do think he wants to see everyone succeed. However, I don't think the curriculum for 280 is well planned out. It's a lot of information thrown in your face, and it's hard to take notes at the speed El Sayed goes over the slides. I don't think he is very good at explaining advanced concepts in the time allotted for class, which is why office hours is a good idea. If you can't go, then it's difficult to study well for this course as a lot of his research and this curriculum are in niche fields and there's not much outside references. The exams themselves can be worded quite badly, and he wasn't even there for a few of them to clarify. Some of the TA's didn't even know what the question was asking during TA office hours. I think rather than understanding the topics we were learning students just memorized the slides and regurgitated the information during exam time. At some point during studying I gave up trying to make sense of every convoluted bullet in the slides and memorized the sentence. He would also give very lengthy reads for hw, but we could work in groups. The articles were very difficult and advanced to understand. Dr.El-sayed did end up curving the class grade, so everyone went up a couple percents. I honestly wished I picked UH so I could get some gen-eds out of the way and have a wayyyy nicer dorm. Also the ILS courses including 280 don't count for anything. Lab also sucked. I liked my TA, but the labs themselves made no sense - total waste of time, thank God I was sitting next to some nerds. Overall, EL-Sayed is a good guy, good researcher, but I wouldn't say good teacher, and 280 is a difficult course with a poorly constructed curriculum

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2023

The other reviews seem too harsh in my opinion. I found this class and its material to be very interesting and I enjoyed my experience overall. I guess if you don't like genetics or biotechnology at all, then you may not like the course material as much. The only difficult part of this class is that the exams are often unpredictable as the learning material is spread out between textbook material, various readings, and lecture material. It is difficult to know exactly how much to study and sometimes the wording of the test questions can be tricky. The grading is still not bad though because the lowest of your four exams gets dropped and there are a lot of buffer points with the homework assignments, reflections, and easy labs. Our final grades were also curved in the end. Dr. El-Sayed is clearly a very knowledgeable and passionate professor and he is very helpful during office hours.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Dr. El-Sayed is a very knowledgeable and kind person, and it's clear that he is trying his best to make improvements from last year since this course is still in its beginning stages. However, the content of this course feels extremely niche, making learning it difficult and not very engaging, especially for what is supposed to be students' first introduction to ILS. His expectations of homework and exams were also quite unclear. It often feels as if he is trying to trick you with his homework, and when he goes over common errors in class, he explains it as if you are supposed to have read his mind about what he wanted. Studying for midterms was time-consuming because it was difficult to gauge his points of emphasis in detail-filled lectures with no review guides. I understand that he is a busy person, but it appeared as though he was not entirely sure of what would be on midterms while teaching either, considering all exams were published the night before. We were told the final would not be cumulative at the beginning of the semester, but on the second to last class before finals week, he announced that over half of the final was going to be cumulative. I am not trying to fault him and plans do understandably change, but you can tell this course is still very shaky in structure because it is so early into its implementation. If you are willing to put in maximal effort for an elective course and bioinformatics is something that already interests you, then I am sure this course will be fine. Dr. El-Sayed is always very excited to discuss his work and willing to answer questions. However, if you have other commitments that are of higher interest to you, I would give this course choice more thought.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/17/2023

I really disliked this course. The content is so hyper-specific and has nothing to do with what most ILS students are pursuing. It was so hard to feel engaged with the content at any point in this course. There are required readings that are long and boring which are sure to show up on exams. Exams are almost impossible to study for because he makes them the night before and gives you absolutely no insight into what's going to be on them. A lot of the questions are stupidly specific and seem like he just wants to trick you. He wants everyone to be as engaged with bioinformatics as he is, which I get, but most of us aren't actually taking this class because we want to. This class was very obviously just a way to show off his research and is otherwise irrelevant to any of the ILS curriculum. Only part of this experience that I liked was that he lets you drop one exam.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2023

bioinformatics is definitely not an easy, low-effort class... but it isn't unconquerable. i remember when i was first learning the content, i found it difficult to wrap my head around because it's different and often more process-based thinking (different sequencing and genomic analysis methods), however when i started reviewing for the final it didn't feel so bad. it is interesting content, and the application can be interesting especially if you are health or research oriented. we had 3 midterms and a final, each weighing the same, with the lowest of the four being dropped (you could opt to not take the final if you were secure in the class prior to the final exam). i would highly recommend going to office hours for further clarification on concepts. it's good to prepare questions ahead of time, but it is also nice to sit and listen to other questions being asked for more clarification. i remember that a couple of topics we discussed during class and again during office hours were directly referenced on the exams. most of the exams were fair: you have to be careful to read carefully and not get lost in the wording of the questions. additionally, he does pull from the weekly and enrichment readings, often very specifically, so it is very beneficial and important to read them. when we had a guest lecturer, that content was also on one of our midterms. the lab wasn't too bad; our ta was very good and really helped us understand the process of what we were doing in class even though many had not previously used R code before. he always aptly answered the questions we had, no matter how confused we were! the class and lab only started intersecting after a few labs, but it was good to learn the basics of R code since it has so many applications. most assignments had very reasonable deadlines, however lab exams 1 and 2 were both rushed time-wise when we were taking it. the textbook was pretty much only helpful for the first month or so; what dr. el-sayed teaches in class takes precedence over what the textbook says which is important to remember. when i was signing up for ils, i remember being a bit nervous about this class because i had never really heard of the topic or used r code, and it wasn't always easy to learn the concepts, but with the right effort and reviewing of content material it is very approachable. i also highly recommend talking with other friends in your cohort about assignments and when studying for exams -- they are invaluable!

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2023

Dr. El-Sayed is a good teacher and very passionate about the content of this course. This course is a bit annoying in the way that everyone in ILS has to take it but it doesn't fill any gen-ed requirements and takes a good amount of work. However, it is manageable and the content is pretty interesting and relevant. The only thing I will say is the content is not well distributed on the tests- there may be one question on a seemingly important topic and 10 on something kind of random. He doesn't make his tests until the night before, so there is no way of knowing what is going to appear. But overall, not a bad course and good information to know, just frustrating at times.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/04/2023

I did not enjoy my experience in this class whatsoever. For those entering ILS, this is a 3 credit elective that likely has nothing to do with what you want to do in the future. The lecture material is not engaging whatsoever and I found it really hard to get excited about and study the material. Additionally, he likes to ramble on and on about his own research, skipping key points of the material and making for an even less engaging lecture. Most of the time it is just a select few students that try to impress him and it seems like he picks favorites. There is enrichment material but if you don't care about the course material, it will just make you dread the course even more. He likes to put this enrichment material on the exams. For his exams, they are rather unrepresentative of what he covers during lecture. It takes him two weeks to grade an all multiple choice canvas quiz. It is rather hard to study using alternative resources as this is a specific class with a unique curriculum. The slides are somewhat helpful, but for the most part he makes it really unclear as to what will be on the exam and how we should prepare. He is a stingy grader and takes lots of points off for small mistakes when it comes to homework. I would advise against joining ILS if this course is still a requirement. While bioinformatics may be an interesting topic at surface value, if your first exposure to it is Najib El-Sayed, it will likely become very uninteresting very fast. He speaks very highly of himself and overloads his students with a bunch of information from his research. It almost feels like he is just using the class to advertise his research and the field as a whole. Overall, this course left a sour taste in my mouth for my first semester, and I would try to avoid Professor El-Sayed/HLSC280 as much as possible.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/04/2023

The course content is bland and lectures were not engaging. I came in expecting bioinformatics and genomics to be a cool course but the dry way he lectures makes me want to pull my eyes out. Lectures do not really correlate with the exams - he never says how much detail we need to know for the specific processes so you will either overprepare or underprepare no matter what. With the homeworks, it is often unclear how much detail we need to include. I went to all the lectures, did all the reading and homework, and still am expecting a B. The TAs were helpful but they can only do so much to make up for the professor. I do not feel like I learned anything useful in this class except to stay away from bioinformatics in the future. This course is so niche so I don't understand why it is required as an intro course for ILS. If you are good with molecular biology and CS this might be a course for you. Najib is a very smart guy so he should understand that not everyone is as interested in the topic as he is. His research lab is bioinformatics and he's the director of ILS so it really feels like he's using that power to indoctrinate a bunch of smart kids to his research. ILS should be renamed Bioinformatics Honors if this is going to be a required course.

Najib El-Sayed
HLSC280

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
11/25/2023

he’s definitely a smart person but not a good professor, a very stingy person when it comes to assignments and seems like the type of teacher to “not believe in 100s”.. his lectures are not engaging nor very interesting and the exams he gives don’t really represent what he actually teaches in class.. do not take this class guys 😭

Reviews for HLSC280