Leslie Pick

This professor has taught: BISI688B, BISI701, BISI712, BISI899, BSCI337, BSCI410, CBMG688B, CPSP218L, ENTM701, ENTM788C, HLSC322

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Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/29/2024	She was nice but I was not a fan of her teaching style at all. Powerpoints were super long and involved, which made the content hard to engage with and grasp at times. Lectures were very monotone as well and hard to engage with. She also moves EXTREMELY fast and it's hard to take notes and process the information during lecture. This class takes a lot of time because it's all memorization and minimal problem solving.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/26/2024	Important to remember that if you're reading this you're probably in ILS, meaning you have to take this class, with this professor anyways. The class issn't hard. The grading can be annoying, inconsistent, and stingy and the class is just Dr. Pick reading form the slides but there is a lot of extra credit, if you give this class a quarter effort you'll come out with an A like 70% of students. Also make the most of it; it's a small class with 50 kids instead of 200, problems on the board, you can ask questions, and Dr. Pick is really nice and will always answer (also TAs will give HW & Discussion answers if you go to office hours).
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2024	The structure of the class was changed a lot this year – no more flipped classroom and 3 lectures a week instead of 2. Dr. Pick is super sweet and helpful, and although she goes quite fast, she takes time to answer any questions you have. She’s very nice with grading – tons of extra credit opportunities and she drops your lowest midterm and homework – and the final isn’t cumulative. TAs are very helpful as well. Overall, great professor for those of you in ILS.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2024	I really enjoyed Genetics with Dr Pick. She changed the course structure this semester to be a more standard structure (3x 50min classes per week). Usually 2 classes per week were lectures and the other one was an application or problem review. I made a point to go to (almost) all lectures but I didn't go to the problem reviews because I figured them out on my own usually. At first it annoyed me that lecture slides were DENSE (50-60 slides in 50 minutes) but they were super helpful when studying. I didn't buy the textbook and I felt like lecture slides gave me more than enough information. Grading- it seemed fair. 25% points are free from discussion (the TAs are chill). Exams make up 41% (3 midterms, 12% each, one is dropped, and final which was 17%). HW makes up 18% (4 and one is dropped). The rest is easy quizzes, questions are MC and straight from lecture. Some extra credit too. HW is time consuming and exams are challenging. But the biggest thing is that none of the content is impossible. I enjoyed learning some of the challenging content and found it interesting. Truly my first class at UMD where I really noticed at the end that i had learned a lot. I'll end by saying that I seriously considered dropping ILS after the sh*t pile that was HLSC280 in the fall, but I am so glad I stayed and took 322. I wish Dr Pick taught more undergrad classes because I would absolutely take her again. She was receptive to questions in lecture and provided thoughtful answers. Definitely recommend and I hope she continues to teach HLSC322 because she is a good fit for the content and the students.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/02/2023	Dr. Pick seems like a very nice lady, but the structure of this class is terrible. You basically never need to go in person, only watch the videos and you will do well. However, the videos are so boring and long. I think the textbook explains many of the concepts better than she does. Despite doing well in the class, I don't feel like I learned much.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/25/2023	as a person, pick is nice and understanding. however as a professor, i didn't like her style of teaching. this course was a flipped classroom, so we had to watch videos on our own time. this was annoying because for many of the videos she would read directly off the slide and not offer additional information. during in-person class, she would just focus on practice problems and rarely review the lecture material.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/27/2023	Fair professor, only gave her a four star because some of her exams had very specific material that you need to know. Lectures were online, but Thursdays were practice problems in class and therefore were "mandatory." Tuesdays were optional. Toward the end of the year, she gave 10 points of in class extra credit. If you weren't there, you didn't get the extra credit. Discussion was easy and the TAs are the best. 3 midterms, drops one. Final wasn't cumulative. 3 Homeworks, drops one. Two weekly quizzes, totaling 25 and drops 9. 20 discussions, drops one.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2023	Lots of opportunities for free points, and exams are very lowly weighted however, Dr. Pick is not the best lecturer. It is an easy A if you put effort intot he class however.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2023	Really didn't like the flipped classroom format, there was just so much content and the videos were very long and heavy. I'd say the exams were pretty fair, the free response can be a little tricky. The good thing is the discussions, lecture quizzes, and homeworks are all grade boosters so you don't need to worry too much as long as you put in effort and study. Dr. Pick is nice, and the TAs were great, for me, genetics itself is difficult to make engaging which isn't Dr. Pick's fault. Overall, it is sometimes a pain to get through but nothing too difficult or unmanageable.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2023	Genuinely sweet professor - she brought candy to our final for a sugar boost! Not a terrific professor, in the sense that she basically reads off slides when she lectures. The classroom format is flipped where we have to watch prerecorded lectures outside of class, and then during class, we do practice problems or have a guest speaker. There is a LOT of buffer points you can earn, from homeworks, discussion wksts, extra credit, and she also drops one exam from our 3 midterms. Not the best class I've ever taken, but it wasn't a bad experience at all.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2023	Honestly, the concepts taught in this class were not too bad. It's just the amount of work outside of class that makes it burdensome. There are 2 lectures (about 1 hour each) per week with quizzes (which were easy) that took a majority of my time. Tuesdays were for practice problems (optional), but Thursdays were used for guest lectures and concept applications, which made going to class kind of useless if you did not watch the lectures ahead of time. The structure of this class is something everyone complained about, so you will just have to get used to it. Dr. Pick is a nice person, but the class was just a lot of work. The TAs were the best though. There are 3 midterms (1 dropped), plenty of discussion assignments, quizzes, 3 Homeworks (1 dropped), other grade cushioning assignments, and the final. I would not worry about this class because there so much grade buffer and extra credit opportunities.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2023	Dr. Pick was very nice and generous with gaining extra credit/points to boost your grade. Her classroom is flipped, where we watch lectures outside of class and then attend class to do practice problems or learn about something loosely related to genetics. I was not the hugest fan because it did take a lot of time out of my schedule, and I would've preferred if she taught in person rather than through a video. Her exams were super fair, and again, there is a lot of buffer room that you can accumulate through discussion wksts, hws, etc. Overall, an enjoyable class!
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2022	Good professor in the sense that she does really want her students to succeed. Was not a fan of the flipped classroom format though, and I felt that some of the exams were unfair (pulled specific material from previous units). Her exams are very specific, so you do really need to know the material well and I recommend studying at least a week in advance. Very sweet professor though and will do her best to help if you reach out. Also drops a lot of assignments which was a plus, and exams are not worth a huge part of your grade (~50%).
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2021	I had Dr. Pick online for Genetics and I enjoyed her passion throughout the course. I liked how she gave examples from her own research and research from UMD that directly tied to the concepts she taught. Her lectures sometimes were a bit roundabout - there probably were more simpler ways to say some of the things she wanted to say but she was extremely helpful during office hours. She gives plenty of practice problems, homework, and lecture quizzes that boost your grade and help you prepare for the exams.
Leslie Pick HLSC322 Expecting an A pavanbhat0710 06/08/2020	She goes very fast during lectures, covering 50 slides in one lecture. However, the TAs make this class much more manageable in terms of help on homework and before exams. The grading is mitigated by the fcat that one Graded HW and one Exam are dropped by the end of class.
Leslie Pick BSCI410 soccerdude 12/19/2015	She is really nice. probably one of the best professors I have ever had. I got a B in the class though, because her multiple choice questions were tough. However, she truly care about her student and curves at the end.
Leslie Pick BSCI410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2015	I second the review below; Dr. Pick is a fantastic professor who actually cares about her students understanding the material. This class is definitely a step above BSCI222 and the homeworks can be challenging. Whatever you do, make sure you go to office hours, she is very helpful there. The difficulty of the exams is what you would expect and the exams are fair (not to mention you get to drop your lowest midterm). Also, her tests are heavily problem-based so make sure that you do ALL of the practice problems she assigns. The only real downside is that she goes really fast in lecture (~60-70 slides in 75 minutes) so not only is there a lot of material, but it is also difficult to keep up with it. If you have to choose between Dr. Pick and Dr. Mount, from what I've heard, you have to be foolish to choose Mount.
Leslie Pick BSCI410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2011	Dr. Pick is an amazing professor. In the upper level bios its pretty hard to find a professor who actually wants their students to learn and doesn't just go through the motions in order to do research. This is pretty difficult genetics but she really tries her best to help you to understand. She gives you 3 homeworks and 2 midterms but only your higher grade midterm counts so the class isn't based purely off of exams. She also really considers peoples answers other than the ones she originally thought of in the answer key. If what you say makes sense she will mark you right. Honestly though her lectures are purely based on her slides so going to class isn't quite as mandatory as others. She's also a really nice person so stopping by for office hours is recommended if you don't understand something because she'll really try to help you to understand.