Maira Goytia

This professor has taught: BSCI201, BSCI202, BSCI439B

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Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/17/2025	The absolute best teacher at UMD. Lectures are clear and straightforward, she fosters an engaging community during office hours, and exams are fair especially with the cheat sheet you are allowed to give. She is very approachable and humble when you ask her any questions, even when they are off topic. More professors need to adopt her attitude.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/28/2025	Dr. Goytia is a genuinely kind and supportive professor who truly wants her students to succeed. She provides all assignments and lecture slides at the beginning of the semester, which is helpful for planning your studies. However, her lectures can feel a bit unorganized, and the slides are difficult to follow on their own without her explanations. Fortunately, Dr. Goytia records all her lectures, allowing you to replay them while reviewing her slides, which is a great resource. She also offers a practice exam before each test and gives students the opportunity to earn three extra credit points for test corrections after every midterm. While "extra credit" might sound exciting, keep in mind that these points only add up to 9 out of 1,000 total class points, so their impact is minimal. On the plus side, you're allowed to bring a one-sided cheat sheet for each exam, including the final, which can be incredibly helpful. Study every diagram on her lecture slides thoroughly, as two of them will appear on each midterm, requiring you to label them. You can even print these diagrams and include them on your cheat sheet. Pay close attention to the wording of her True or False questions—they can be tricky. For the lab, which makes up 42% of your grade, memorize every diagram on the lab slides. Using Anki for this is highly effective.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/14/2025	Absolutely love this professor! Works well with students about their questions, offers tons of support for the students, and grade boosts well. After each exam, there's extra credit on the multiple choice, and the quizzes are straightforward. I would always use chatgpt to get the answers and then use my own information to double check the information within the quizzes. I would always suggest going to class, even if it is to listen. Pros: Very good explanations, well designed assessment of knowledge, funny person, enjoyable class! Cons: (and this is very nit picky) over explains some topics, which limits the depth of information about other content on exams. TLDR; 10/10, very good introduction into anatomy and biological systems
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/12/2025	Dr. Goytia is a genuinely kind and supportive professor who truly wants her students to succeed. She provides all assignments and lecture slides at the beginning of the semester, which is helpful for planning your studies. However, her lectures can feel a bit unorganized, and the slides are difficult to follow on their own without her explanations. Fortunately, Dr. Goytia records all her lectures, allowing you to replay them while reviewing her slides, which is a great resource. She also offers a practice exam before each test and gives students the opportunity to earn 3 extra credit points for test corrections after every midterm. While "extra credit" might sound exciting, keep in mind that these points only add up to a whopping 9 out of 1,000 total class points, so their impact is minimal. On the plus side, you're allowed to bring a one-sided cheat sheet for each exam, including the final, which can be incredibly helpful. Tips for Success: Study every diagram on her lecture slides thoroughly, as two of them will appear on each midterm, requiring you to label them. You can even print these diagrams and include them on your cheat sheet. Pay close attention to the wording of her True or False questions—they can be tricky. For the lab, which makes up 42% of your grade, memorize every diagram on the lab slides. Using Anki for this is highly effective. Overall, she is a 3.5-star professor. With careful preparation and by taking advantage of the resources she provides, you can succeed in Dr. Goytia's class.
Maira Goytia BSCI202 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/23/2024	What a roller coaster of emotions throughout this semester. Weekly assignments very easy, as well as pre and post labs. But exams were VERY difficult. Would give extra credit to get average to 70 (had to retake exam for points). Ended up with a D+, missing the cutoff by 0.12%. Final grade was put in as D+. With a random change of heart, I checked a few days later and bumped to a C-. Very difficult course as you would expect. Exams much different than study guides and practice exams. Overall okay teacher.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/21/2024	Dr. Goytia was an AWESOME professor. She goes out of her way to allocate resources for you to pass with extra credit, easy quizzes with 3 attempts, no homework (the quizzes replace them), and fair exams. The exam questions aren't meant to trick you, it's directly from the lecture slides and you're allowed a 1-page cheat sheet. Make sure you go to class because she also has clicker questions randomly but lectures do help you follow through the content. You can tell she's very passionate about the topic and it bleeds through when she's teaching. She also provides a zoom review session before each exam; for the final she had 4 leading up to the day of the exam! Take her for BSCI201!!!
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2024	Dr. Goytia is an amazing professor! Anatomy can be a tough class but her lectures were phenomenal and she explained the more difficult concepts really well. She isn't like other professors who just read off their slides; you can tell she's passionate about what she teaches and knows what shes talking about. She also records every lecture which can be a useful tool for studying. The way the class is structured is there are short quizzes to take on elms before the start of every lecture that are based on the free online textbook, and at the end of each chapter theres a longer quiz but they're all open at the beginning of the semester and aren't bad at all. Exams are fair but some questions can be tricky so make sure to study every concept. You're allowed a one sided cheat sheet during exams and there are opportunities to receive extra credit after every exam (make sure to do these because they could make or break your grade if you're borderline at the end of the semester). Overall solid professor, would recommend and will be taking for 202!
Maira Goytia BSCI202 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/17/2024	A&P 2 was much, much heavier on the physiology aspect than A&P 1. However, the anatomy portion and lab practicals were a lot easier and there was less to memorize. For me, it was a harder class overall. The lab practicals were weighted a lot less than the lecture exams (compared to A&P 1) which ended up hurting my grade. I would HIGHLY recommend going to class as professor Goytia is very knowledgeable and explains concepts well. Learning from just her lecture slides won't get you an A on exams because she adds in questions to her exams that she says in class, not from the slides. You also need to memorize every diagram in the textbook because she takes diagrams from the textbook and adds it to the exams. I thought that her exam questions were confusing at times. I would know the subject material well for the question she was asking, but would lose points because of the weird wording in her exams, especially on multiple choice and matching. I think that she writes the exams last minute and doesn't have time to really think about if the questions she is asking are clear. However, she does offer extra credit depending on how well the class did. The averages for each lecture exam, AFTER extra credit was added, was 82%, 70% and 76%. No extra credit was added for lab practicals and the average for those combined was a 78%. The hardest exam was the second lecture exam where everyone basically failed (63% average before the extra credit). There are 7 exams total, same as A&P 1. In terms of extra credit, the exams are not curved, you actually have to put in work and print out a scantron, retake the exam and submit it to her in person during lecture time. If you get everything right the second time, you get full extra credit points. If you don't, you will only get a little bit of extra credit. There are pre-lab quizzes every week before lab, post-lab worksheets usually around 20-30 questions (multiple choice, written response, matching), clicker questions, quizzes due before lecture. The final is cumulative. :( Anywho, overall, this class is hard but certainly doable if you go to lecture, actually listen and take notes.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/16/2024	truly an amazing professor. its evident that she likes to see her students excel. i found a passion for anatomy after taking her course.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/15/2024	shes so nice and clearly very knowledgeable in the material. very easy to get into contact with and office hours are helpful. although, her exams are quite hard for no reason. her slides don't usually say a lot, so she explains the lengthly important processes out loud and that can cause miscommunication and overall makes things harder. this got annoying since knowing the processes of how a muscle contraction for example is SO important but there weren't on the slides so you had to go to the recordings to get every little detail correctly. but overall, i loved her i just don't like that aspect of her teaching style in my opinion.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2024	Dr. Goytia was an incredible professor who showed her passion and interest for the material that she taught. She was very resourceful when you needed a question answered and responded timely to emails. Her exams were very fair and if you pay attention in class then you should be able to understand the content pretty well. She also provides extra credit throughout her exams plus another extra credit paper after the exam to bring your grade up. Make sure to stay on top of things in this class since all the units build on each other. Dr. Goytia was also very approachable for any questions or clarification you may need
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/27/2024	Absolute goat! Such a nice person and very knowledgeable about every subject within BSCI201. Her exams were fair, and you are given plenty of material to help you prepare and study for them. Her office hours were a big help too as almost no one goes for some reason. She also allows a cheat sheet for each exam that helps you avoid the stupid memory things that won't come up but just might be snuck in for a few questions on each exam. 10/10 professor I would 100% recommend.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 06/28/2024	Dr. Goytia is a very nice and understanding professor. But GOOD GOD do not take this class over the summer. It will consume your life. You basically either have a midterm or lab practical (or both) every week, so there's not much time for procrastination or having a life really. But this is by no means the professors fault. She's very passionate about anatomy and physiology, easy to contact, and explains everything that is needed for the exams. Only problem is it can be extremely challenging to retain the amount of information required for the exams and practical in such a short time. There are extra credit assignments that are offered after the midterms, which can give you a solid 10-15% boost to your grade. This course would definitely be much more manageable if taken during a regular 16 week cycle.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/17/2024	Amazing professor, her lectures are organized and align well with the content of her exams and she offers many extra credit opportunities to help students with what she knows can be a difficult subject. You also get a cheat sheet to use on exams as other reviews have said which is also really helpful. The content is really interesting and fun, and she helped make the concepts of this class intuitive to understand.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/01/2024	She's great, she answers questions, her lectures are organized and her exams don't try to trick you.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/28/2024	She knows what she is teaching! Answer questions very well! She is super considerate with recording lectures, and providing extra credit quiz after each exam. Slides are posted well before the date they are taught. The workload is manageable, and the tests are a direct reflection of the slides.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/20/2023	Amazing professor that really knows what she is talking about! She is very passionate about the material. You can tell that she really cares about her students and their success in her class. Always available to answer questions and makes exams fair given the large amount of information covered. Would 100% take her again.
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/19/2023	She is fantastic! Good lecturer and always answers questions well. Provides a study guide for exams and lets you bring a one page of notes for the exams and final. Provided extra credit after exams so that the exam grade average would be around 85%.
Maira Goytia Expecting a B+ LIGMASIGMA 12/18/2023	Best BSCI201 Anatomy and Physiology 1 professor at UMD ever. Cheat sheet on exams, lots of easy assignments to help you study and boost grade. Tests are fair and Dr. Goytia is the kindest and most humble professor at UMD.
Maira Goytia Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/06/2023	Literally love this professor, exam are the majority of the grade for this course but she provides so many opportunities to bring your grade up outside of exams, which are amazing for bad test takers!!! She does a great job explaining and if you don't understand her office hour are actually HELPFULLL!!! She is the first professor at UMD that I felt cared about the student and them passing the class instead of trying there best to make the class diffcult. 100000/10.
Maira Goytia Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/29/2023	Love this professor!! So many opportunities for grade boosts and is so helpful with questions during and after class!
Maira Goytia BSCI201 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/08/2023	Take her over any professor teaching this class, if you don't you'll regret it. She's extremely understanding and gives multiple opportunities to bring your grade up outside of exams. Provides extra credit and also allows you to bring notes to exams!! If you show up to class and use the resources you'll be fine!