Thomas Kocher

This professor has taught: BIOL608C, BIOL608K, BIOL608L, BIOL708V, BIOL709X, BISI899, BSCI222, BSCI338K, BSCI339B, BSCI339V

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Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	These reviews are pretty harsh. I won't lie, I didn't like his lecture style very much - it was hard to tell what was actually information to remember and what were just 'fun facts', and the lectures weren't very engaging. HOWEVER, this class is moderately easy to do well in if you know how to study. I could zone out for an entire unit, but then study from the textbook, lecture slides (which he posts), and practice exam and do perfectly well on his exams. Besides maybe 1-2 tricky questions, the material on the exams were predictable and fair. He sticks to the textbook, too, which makes studying easier. I promise that if you can hold yourself accountable to taking notes and doing the practice exam just for a few days before an exam, you'll be fine. The HW and writing assignments are pretty much grade boosters, too. I haven't taken the final yet so maybe I won't be this optimistic later lol, but don't let these reviews scare you, kocher's chill!
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/30/2023	I took genetics with kocher fall 2022. I honestly hated his class when I took it due to several reasons: 1. His priorities are in his research instead of teaching and didnt seem to care for his students. 2. Felt more like a “history of genetics” class rather than an actual genetics class because he would go on long tangents about famous geneticists and their accomplishments, which he tested on. 3. Kocher knows his stuff, and talks like a genius, which led to me not understanding a single thing that came out of his mouth during lecture. I learned everything i needed to know for that class from my TA. 4. When I would talk to people in paczolt’s class, it seemed like we were not learning any of the same material. Although his history lessons were excruciating to sit through, the times when he would teach actual biology came in clutch when studying for the mcat.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/28/2023	Kocher can be misleading about what information will be covered on exams. He does not put effort into answering questions; instead, he talks about retiring soon and that it is your job to figure it out. The content he covers in his lectures isn't super relevant to exams. I got through this course by literally reading every page in the textbook. He reuses a lot of material from past exams. Get ready to write essays on every exam and two writing assignments.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/25/2022	Seems like a really nice guy even though I had very few interactions with him. Unfortunately, he is a pretty bad lecturer. His slideshows are literally just screenshots of diagrams explaining concepts from the book and he just reads over it really quick. Be prepared to put in a lot of time outside of class trying to understand the concepts because I highly doubt you will understand it after lecture. That being said, he makes the class pretty easy to pass and get like a B in. However, if you're aiming for some type of A, be ready to put some real work in. Also, I think the best way to be prepared for his exams is to go over his slideshows and practice exam multiple times. If you review those, you will do fine on the exams.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2022	Difficult class but doable. I don’t recommend any pre-meds take Kocher for this class because it’s hard to achieve an A and the grades are pretty unforgiving. The test grading is pretty arbitrary and sometimes the essays are graded leniently or extremely harshly. Also, he’ll test you on topics he mentions often but to a depth that he doesn’t really talk about in lecture. So I’d recommend looking up important terms online because the book and slides aren’t as detailed as he likes. Also, make sure you attend lecture. There are no recordings and the slides are hard to learn from. But he definitely does give some extra credit and the homeworks and papers are helpful to boost your grade.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/06/2022	Great professor - it is evident that he knows what he is talking about, and is passionate about the material. The textbook is huge and not necessary at all - I did not look at it once and I got an A+ in the class, purely because I studied the lectures he posted online and studied the practice exams he posts. The homeworks due for each chapter can be difficult but were overall not super terrible. The worst thing about the class was that discussion was required, and really long. There is a lot of material - you will be tested on pretty much all of it. The mathematical part of the class can be frustrating to conceptualize, but just takes practice. You will be doing a lot of math on the exams. There is no BS in the class that can ruin your grade - if you study, you will do well.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/21/2021	Honestly, he is very generous because his practice exams are similar to his real exams (in formatting). VOCAB IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the homework and concept quizzes make up half your grade, so the exams are less important. However, the exams are not so easy and require work. the final was multiple choice, but that is not necessarily easier. I recommend taking him, however, at the end of the course, there was no rounding up, even for .05% lower than the next grade. for example, a B- is an 80, NOT A 79.99%.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2018	ill be honest, hated the class, absolutely despised it, but from what i've heard as I’ve askd around, he is the easiest genetics professor by a lot. exams are exactly like old ones, to some extent. literally put no effort into this class until 2-3 days before the exams when i went on intense ‘memorize old exam mode’. it seemed to work alright. i came out with an A- overall but was expecting to get a much lower grade. this semester he did NOT drop the final exam, and I don't think he ever will drop the final again because of university policy. So watch for that because. did not understand a darn thing presented in lecture like ever. Not to mention lectures are absolutely terrible to sit through. No emotion at all from kocher. Talks very quietly, but that’s just how he is and you’ll get used to it. However I still went just in case he would hint about possible essay questions, because those are important. But he kind of stopped hinting at essay questions after the first exam. The first exam was very easy, and he basically told us what would be on it. The average was very high, so he made the 2nd exam very difficult, average in the 60s I belive. People hated on him for that, and sent nasty emails, so he stopped hinting about test questions. 3rd exam was in between the first two difficulty wise. The point is, I recommend the guy after going through it, even though I hated it, because literally nothing makes sense in lecture, at least to me. he goes off of powerpoints and just blabbers on about scientific methods, almost 80% of which will never show up on an exam. really in depth stuff that doesn’t mean anything to the average student. he is the only genetics guy where you can get away with putting no effort, as long as you have old exams. The final was much easier than I anticipated though. I thought I had learned nothing the entire semester then pulled a B+ on the final somehow, so I suppose I learned something. (Final exam is 50 MC while the 3 exams are all 100% writing). Best of luck, highly recommend. Still, it def won’t be any kind of fun. Also, he does these things called recitations, which are the discussion thing for 2 hours. Most professors make this really annoying, but with kocher you just talk about genetics ethics and go over homework which is basically a completion grade depending on your TA.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Anonymous 12/22/2014	Pretty straightforward class. Go to class and read the textbook. Reading the textbook is a must to do well in his class! Be determined to do well on the 3 exams, that way you don't have to take the final exam (it's optional) and not stress over one additional final during finals week. Overall, straightforward class- exams are fair, go to discussion and do all the homework/quizzes/creative writing assignments, and you should come out with an A easily.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A mggcrim 12/19/2012	Kocher drops an exam, including the final, which is a big plus. I dropped the final but I heard it was really easy and a grade booster. He's a really boring teacher and I stopped going to class after two weeks. I never went to class and read the book instead and did really well, so if youre okay with skipping lectures and just reading, take Kocher. His exams were pretty easy and straightforward. He doesn't really try to trick you. Although the average for our first midterm was pretty high so he did make the second one quite a bit harder. (But it still wasn't bad). There are three writing assignments that are a part of your discussion grade. These are generally a grade booster and easy points. If you can have Claire O'Quin as your TA, you should take her. She's been his TA for years and knows what he likes to test on.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2012	Dr. Kocher is a nice, boring, and unenthusiastic professor who is pretty knowledgeable about genetics (obviously). His lectures are pretty dry (just goes straight through powerpoints which are posted online). The material isn't that difficult to grasp compared to other classes. The only annoying part about this class is the weekly discussions (2 hours each) where you discuss lecture material and take a 10 pt quiz (they drop your 2 lowest quizzes). The first few weeks they assigned homework from the book but eventually they stopped collecting it. Course Structure: 3 midterms (100 pts each)---> Look at old exams!! He repeats a lot of the same questions! 1 final exam (optional if you are satisfied with your guaranteed grade based on your 3 midterms. 50 multiple choice, kinda difficult) 3 writing assignments (25 pts each, essentially a completion grade) Despite his boring lectures, Dr. Kocher is very helpful when you ask questions. He is pretty straightforward and does not test you on super-complicated stuff. If it is complex, he will explain it thoroughly in lecture. Despite my semi-negative review about Kocher, I recommend taking him for genetics. His exams tend to be easier compared to other professors. Enjoy...
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2012	If you've had a good amount of high school biology (especially IB or AP stuff), you're probably set and at least half the material will be review to you (mitosis and punnet squares AGAIN?!). The other half of the material is a mix between interesting cellular topics and bland number-crunching, gene-estimating tedium. Dr. Kocher himself is not a bad guy. Lectures are pretty dry to the point where I stopped going a couple of weeks into the course. It's not a huge problem to not attend the class if you're lazy or looking to sleep in (like me) because he posts all the PowerPoint slides from class online. You can effectively learn all you need to know from them exclusively. Exams are pretty tolerable. Often very similar to old exams. Go to the review session (or at least download the review sessions PowerPoint which, yes, is also online). Lowest exam (including the final) is dropped so if you score well enough on the first 3, the final is optional. Grades are usually high enough so there's no curve-- take the final if you have a borderline grade. It's 50 multiple choice questions and not hard at all. The book doesn't help too much, so if you're on the fence about buying it, you can probably be set without it. The answer manual is pretty handy, though-- get that alone if you want to save some money and see how to do your homework problems. Homework was collected for only the first two weeks in discussion. I don't even think it factored into the grade, but do it anyway.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 06/08/2012	kocher is pretty boring and hard to learn from but his exams are really easy/ fair he uses a lot of questions from previous exams if you have a good TA you are good to go Claire is the best TA review sessions before exams are really helpful you don't need to read every page of the chapter of the book just use the book to read over things that you are unclear about
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/01/2012	Professor Kocher is a really nice guy. If you memorize the major concepts, you should be fine, he doesn't test on specifics. Go to the reviews with Claire O'Quinn, she's a life saver. Grading of the essay on his exams are completely dependent on what they're looking for. I remember I wrote tons for one essay, but I lost maybe six or seven points because I didn't include the bullet points that he had on his slides. That's where memorization comes in. He's awesome, but don't expect him to help you if you go to his office. His exams are already really general, so he's not going to tell you what's on it. Usually you can figure it out by what he says in lecture. Sometimes he blatantly tells you "this will be on the exam, know how to do this." He isn't very engaging in lecture, so a lot of the time people don't go. Just remember that if you decide to do that, you'll miss out on the hints that he gives out. Claire usually covers those in her reviews, but those are a day before the exam and usually there isn't enough time to study all the material you need to know. Something I found very helpful was to have a google doc with a few of my buddies. We all took topics from his lectures and broke them down on the doc, exactly what we needed to know, and studied from there. If you can do that, and know how to do most of the problems from the book, you should be fine. A word of caution: Be careful what TA you get. They can make or break you. My TA was extremely nice, but her quizzes were nearly impossible. She was very knowledgable and helped us a lot, but the averages of her section compared to the rest of the class' was about .7% higher altogether, which wasn't worth the points we lost for discussion. In conclusion, Kocher is the man, study the big concepts, slides > the book, read the book for the potential essay questions. Know how to draw DNA, how to draw various stages of meiosis, DNA mapping, punnet squares, chi squared tests, sex determination. Those are usually almost always on his exams. Don't worry about the equations he gives you for genetic drift and mutation and stuff. We stressed out about that a lot and didn't know how to do the problems in the book, but they weren't even on the exam. I heard the final wasn't too bad, but fortunately I did well enough on the first three exams that I didn't have to take it. I hope this was helpful, good luck everyone :)
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/27/2011	i got an A- in this class BARELY, and didnt have to take the final. but i also never paid attention in lecture, and only read the book religiously for the first exam (which is also the exam i did the worst on.) there's a learning curve in this class and you just need to figure out how he tests. 85% of the stuff presented in lecture and in the books will never show up on the exam...so dont stress about it. look at his past exams and 60% of it will be there again on your test presented exactly the same, or a slight variation. then look at the homework questions and his slides to see what short answers and essays could possibly show up. very easy to figure out. GO TO THE REVIEW SESSIONS! they saved me, and i only went to the ones for test 2 and 3 (possibly again why my first test was the lowest)...the TA holding the review sessions will be your biggest help. seriously if i can get an A in this class simply from rigorous memorization three days before each exam, anyone can. he's your best bet. no one here has posted about the final and i cant either. but it is 50 mc and we saw the first page of the one from the year before....looks pretty easy if you feel like studying for it. so yeah thats about it. good luck! take kocher
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting a B rose11 12/26/2011	Dr. Kocher is a really great professor. I enjoyed his lectures and learned a lot about genetics. I liked the fact that he doesn't want students to memorize small details, but rather the main concepts. There are four exams in the semester, including the final, and you can drop your lowest grade. Therefore, if you are happy with your three midterm grades, you don't have to take the final. The final is multiple choice, where as the midterms are short answer/essay/matching/definition questions. Kocher usually gives you a good idea of what the essay question or short answers will be on the exam. The TA's also give a review session the night before each exam, which is extremely helpful. Exams are 75% of your grade, and discussion is 25%. There are weekly quizzes in discussion, as well as homework. There are three writing assignments throughout the semester, which are very easy and almost everyone gets 100% on them. Great course, definitely take it with Dr. Kocher!
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2011	Dr. Kocher is a very nice guy who wants you to understand the material. Although he tries to emphasize concept, a decent amount of memorization is still necessary. Discussions are easy but highly dependent on who is your TA. There are four exams, including the final. You can drop one. I highly recommend doing well on the first three and dropping the final. Exams are not too bad. Be sure to look at past exams. No curve and he gives pluses and minuses. Good if you have a B+, bad if you have an A- I enjoyed the class. Kocher is the professor to take for genetics
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A pinkx 01/30/2011	Great professor. I really appreciated how he just wanted us to grasp the main concepts, rather than memorize every detail. He also put in interesting things into the lecture. His exams are very fair, and very similar to his old exams. There are weekly quizzes in discussion with about 3-5 questions, but some of the quizzes end up being dropped, and if you look at the practice problems assigned for those chapters, you're guaranteed a 10/10. There are also three writing assignments, and they're graded very easily. Everyone gets at least a 25/30 for doing it. Oh and he is a very nice guy if you go and talk to him in person.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A premedkid123 12/25/2010	Dr. Kocher is an amazing professor! He cares so much about his students doing well in the course, and he spends time trying to make the material easy to understand. Unlike other biology professors, Kocher wants you to understand the main picture rather than memorize tiny details that you will forget anyway. I learned so much from this class! The tests are also very fair. If you study all of his slides, you will have no problem getting a good grade.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Phoenix_ourumd 12/22/2010	Let me tell you right now, there is no curve. Beware the A- if you're pre-med! Exams are easy. He always tests on big ideas (like the other reviewers below me have outlined). Always take a look at his old exams before exams because he frequently repeats questions. 75% of your grade is 3 Exams, 1 Final Exam. One of these four exams is dropped (so if you do well on the three semester exams, you can drop the final exam). 25% of your grade is discussion quizzes (pretty easy 10/10s), three essays (not too bad either) and participation.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- supermonkey 08/24/2010	Excellent Professor, very clear and straightforward. What's great about him is that he hates being hung up in annoying specifics just as students do (and Shields does just that from what my friends told me). His tests want you to nail down the general but crucial concepts with mastery; ie: Sample quest. from each test Fall 09 - First test: Gave you a pedigree and asked you to identify what the disease was (Autosomal, dominant etc) and rule out what it couldn't be and why. Second Test: Asked you to draw structure of a helix (1 strand) of DNA but (of course) without the nitrogenous base which makes it fairly easy. Third Test: Asked you to explain in your own words what the Sanger Method is. He doesn't like testing on the nitpicky facts so there's VERY little Multiple choice; the rest are short answers + 1 essay at the end. So never go into a midterm looking to just "wing it"; trust me you'll fail. The single most important advice I can give you, which ultimately got me the A, is on each midterm make sure you know the concepts YOU feel were the most general but yet the most important. And by that, I mean really know them; work out several problems in the book about them, make sure you could handle a question about those topics no matter how it is formulated and where he asks you to start from. So this is where LECTURE, not discussion, becomes extremely important. Please, make sure to ALWAYS attend or if you really can't, then study the powerpoints he posts RELIGOUSLY!! Ex of Important topics: Figuring out order of genes on a chromosome, Chi square, cloning vectors, DNA replication* (that diagram with replication forks, enzymes, etc), DNA repair, Transcription, Translation... Ex of the kind of topics that are NOT so important: Definitions, Simple Punnett Squares, the bottleneck effect and lol i dont even remember like gene variation?, epistasis, biotechnology... In my opinion, he's probably your best bet for this class. Even if his classes are all filled, be patient and get on the waitlists. I can assure you that he'll definitely be worth it.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/21/2009	He's a good lecturer, but the material can get boring. Each lecture covers exactly one chapter in the book, and I went to about 50% of classes, but read the book and was fine. All the material is in the book. Basically, you can either go to class and learn the material, or read the book on your own time. There are four tests including the final, but the lowest one is dropped. His tests are pretty basic, and can be very similar to the old practice exams. Discussion for me only lasted 1 hour, but it depends on the TA. Some sections went 2 hours. There are weekly quizzes on the chapters, which you need to do well on, since discussion is 25% of your grade. They're also easy if you know the basics of the material. Kocher doesn't test a lot of specifics, which is refreshing for a bio class. He just wants you to understand general concepts. There's no curve though. 90% = A, 80% = B ...
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting a B+ 800meters 12/19/2009	He's a good but boring professor. He drops one of your exams (including the final exam if that is your lowest exam---or you can choose not to take the final if your three midterms are good enough for you). He gave out 32% A's for the fall 2009. I ended up with a 89.33 but wouldn't give me the A. You write 3 papers, too, but they don't take much effort and generally boost your grade.
Thomas Kocher BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/14/2009	Very good genetics professor. He explains the material well and supplements his lectures by including interesting topics not covered in the textbook. When he uses PowerPoints, he often goes through the slides quickly, but posts the presentations on Blackboard after the lectures. Exams are easy and cover the most basic and important concepts. They usually include an essay, but you can choose one of two given topics to write about and the topics are usually general or hinted upon in class. He is also very responsive to students' needs and concerns (ex: possible changes in grading methods, exam dates, and discussion assignments). There was no homework assigned for his lecture specifically, but the mandatory two-hour discussion sections (which another professor is in charge of) included online homework assignments and 15-minute quizzes that weren't always helpful in understanding the material. If you took and did well in AP Biology in high school, this course shouldn't be that hard at all.