Marcia Shofner

This professor has taught: BSCI105, BSCI106, BSCI106C, BSCI106S, BSCI160, BSCI207, BSCI279T, BSCI338R, BSCI361, CLFS660, CLFS665, CPSP218L, CPSP219L, ENTM701, ENTM710, ENTM769, HONR289A

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Marcia Shofner BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/07/2024	Dr. Shofner is a sweet woman but oh my god this class was a DISASTER. I took it online and it was incredibly disorganized. Half the time she wouldn't show up to the weekly zooms and when she did she would ramble on about unrelated topics and basically just repeat everything that was in the recorded lecture. The lectures were supposed to be 50 min, 2 per week however they would end up being closer to an 1 hour 15 min and there would be multiple per day. Sometimes she would just not post a lecture though which I assumed meant she was giving us the day off, then later post it right before the test and say the material covered would be on it. The material on the tests was not at all reflective of what was covered in the lecture and the TAs were incredibly strict about giving partial credit. The tests are also poorly written and many of the questions made no sense. And I know this part has nothing to do with her but the class is just so stupid the information is useless and not applicable to most bio majors.
Marcia Shofner BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/24/2024	I took this online during Spring. It was once a week and even for an online this was incredibly disorganized. Just an overflow of information with not real foundation, just jumping from topic to topic. You are also graded on group work, which due to my class being online made it a little difficult to get organized with your team members. Overall I was lucky that it was online, but just the lack of organization made this class unfun.
Marcia Shofner BSCI207 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/03/2024	I'll start by saying Dr. Shofner is very nice and cares about her students, but that doesn't make up for how unorganized this class is. My class is online and is supposed to be asynchronous with prerecorded lectures and optional question sessions on Zoom every Monday and Wednesday which also serve as her office hours, but very little effort is put into making this class. For the last 4 slide presentations, she hasn't posted the lecture videos (which she explicitly said she will post for all of the slides). There are just slides on new material. Some have just diagrams, but there is no explanation. I signed up for this class knowing there would be video lectures, but now there aren't. Dr. Shofner also doesn't show up to her two day a week office hours/question sessions sometimes with 0 notice or sometimes she will show up 20 minutes late when they are only 50 minutes long. I know professors deal with stuff in their personal lives too, but for the amount of money I had to work for to pay to take this course it is not fair.
Marcia Shofner BSCI361 Expecting an A usblr 01/23/2024	I took the winter session, 3 weeks long. It was really intense (as expected) so I really don't recommend taking this class in the winter if you have other time-consuming obligations. I honestly enjoyed the content of the course, and despite it being an asynchronous class I could tell she is a nice person (in my opinion) However, most of the due dates were inaccurate. It's partially because she copied the class information from the previous year, but the due dates on canvas would be different from what was in the assignment description. Sometimes it would be even 5 days off, which is a lot in a 3 week course. It made things very confusing and almost made me miss assignments. These wouldn't be changed for days upon days. They changed the due date of the final paper only 4 hours before the incorrect due date (they accidentally made it 1 day earlier) Also, despite the exams being open note, I studied to the best of my ability (its hard to learn 7-9 chapters in a week, and there are a lot of content and examples of studies you have to remember) and I swear, some of the questions made no sense. They were based on nothing from the book, at least. Truth be told, I did not watch all of her lecture videos or look at the slides (which may have solved this issue for me) but, there is not enough time in 3 weeks to do all of that. My study strategy was probably terrible and that's my bad, but I found those online exams questionable at best... Per week there are 2 discussion posts, a few assignments related to the unit, 1 exam (3 exams total). Then there is one optional cumulative final to replace your lowest exam score, and a group paper. I had to take off points due to the disorganization of the class and the weird exams. I think if I had taken this class in the spring/fall I would have enjoyed it much more, but this made me feel so stressed and burnt out right before the spring semester lol. Also points off for that. If you can handle the fast pace then maybe this is for you. You're better than me!
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/03/2024	She is one of the sweetest professors ever but also severely disorganized. She doesn't teach how to do practice problems and makes due dates overlap. Her exam questions are not always related to lecture and she expects you to have a lot of background knowledge. Only reason I got an A in the class is because she provides LOTS of extra credit opportunities and drops your lowest midterm. But even then I would not suggest taking her because she is online.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/01/2023	She's nice, but she's incredibly disorganized. It is not worth it to take this class online for the open note exams because the exam questions don't make sense and some of them are on stuff she barely touched on. The homework questions also barely relate to what we learned and she never actually teaches us how to do problems, so it's a lot of looking stuff up and getting stuff wrong. I have had to put in hours of outside work just to re-learn concepts because she is such a bad teacher. I strongly recommend not taking her class, especially if the class is important to your major or if you are someone that likes to be organized.
Marcia Shofner BSCI361 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/21/2023	I absolutely loved this class. I took it over the winter session, which I was a bit worried about. But the professor made it fun and laid back. Obviously, it was intense as a three-week course, but the assignments were fun and engaging. I would definitely recommend this professor. She seemed to get involved in getting to know her students even though everything was asynchronous. She really helped me to get a good grade in the class by offering extra help and extra credit.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/03/2021	Although her assignments are relatively easy, as well as the homework. She hasn't been present for any of the lectures for this semester and has had a sub. The sub goes too fast, and is a bit difficult to understand, but her exams are okay as long as you understand the material completely.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/25/2021	She is such a sweet person. I got very sick with COVID last semester and she was more accommodating and worried about my well-being more than all of my other professors combined. Her tests are pretty straight forward. Definitely go to her office hours if you have any questions, especially on the exam. She is very understanding.
Marcia Shofner HONR289A Expecting an A+ CrazeddRabbi 01/13/2021	Like the other reviews say, she is a really sweet person. Makybe it was because this class was online or because it was an honors class and teachers usually have a more laid-back attitude towards honors classes where it isn't as important as regular classes, but this class was a hot mess. In the first phase of the class, an ungodly amount of terms and biology information (it was like reading from a medical journal) were thrown at us in asynchronous lecture. However, that wasn't very concerning, as all we had were reading quizzes. We would also review the material during our weekly meeting on Zoom. After the first few weeks, however, these Zoom meetings started to simply degenerate into students talking politics. They also stopped teaching us new material, but we (at least those of us who weren't bio students) never really learned anything in the first place. Finally, we had the final project. First, it required an extraordinary amount of work, far more than any other group project I've ever done, especially when you look at the fact that we were expected to do it in just a week or two. Additionally, the requirements for the project were unclear and constantly changing. The requirements and guidelines were split onto two different documents instead of one ELMS page for some reason, and they were completely unorganized without being split into sections. While this may not sound that bad, it meant that if you wanted to know if something was or wasn't in the rules or required, you would have to read through BOTH documents COMPLETELY. There were also often contradictory instructions and requirements in the documents, and the teachers themselves (two teachers, but Dr. Shofner was the one in charge) were unresponsive to questions, taking a few days to respond by email - and even when they did respond they often said "I am not sure. Let me ask the other teacher". Sweet teacher, but a dumpster fire of a class.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Anonymous 01/12/2021	Dr. Shofner is a very sweet person, and it's obvious that she cares about her students and is really invested in the subject. That being said, I took BSCI160 with her in Fall 2020 and it was one of the worst classes I took that semester. The class was unfortunately asynchronous, and while I can't blame her for that decision, she did not adapt to the format well at all. For one thing, she did not have a syllabus, which was incredibly annoying, and instead had all material on her lecture schedule on ELMS. The problem with that is that this lecture schedule wasn't very well put together, it was incredibly disorganized and made it difficult to locate assignments sometimes. She would also sometimes post more than one lecture video for the day, exceeding the time that the class was originally meant to be. She hosted office hours during these originally scheduled class times, so you either had to watch her lectures before her office hours (and sometimes she wouldn't even upload the lectures until late in the afternoon) or hold onto your questions until the next time she had them. The lectures themselves were even more disorganized than her lecture schedule. They were not structured well and seemed to jump back and forth between broader topics and more specific topics. It's hard to truly explain how bad these lectures were, but it was very frustrating trying to take decent notes from them. The bulk of the assignments for her class were LAs (Learning Activities) and her worksheets. The LAs were super, super easy group assignments that were never an issue, and the worksheets were larger assignments that were probably better at teaching the subject than her lectures were. She didn't have any quizzes and would often have extra-credit activities that could get you a few additional points. She also technically assigned textbook reading, but since the textbook is an overall biology textbook, the readings would often go much more in depth than what was being taught in the lectures and didn't always line up that well; I stopped reading the textbook about a month in. The class had three midterms, with one being a week before the final exam. She drops one of the midterms and the final exam is optional, which was nice. Definitely study for the midterms! They were genuinely a little challenging. Again, she definitely cares about her students and wants them to succeed. I somehow got an A in this class when I was bordering between a B+ and an A- for almost the entire semester, so it's not a difficult class to succeed in. But, if you're very "Type A" like me, this class might also prove to be pretty frustrating with how extremely disorganized it is. I'm literally an Evolutionary Biology and Ecology major, so I find it impressive that she managed to make me hate this class.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/16/2020	Nice professor. Exams are straightforward.
Marcia Shofner BSCI160 Anonymous 12/13/2019	I definitely recommend Shofner over other professors. She is passionate about the materials as well as teaching. Very approachable during class and office hours. She does go through the slides VERY quickly and would sometime skip materials that would be on the test later. She does drop the lowest test grade and her tests are like most other BSCI 160 tests. BSCI 160, like many BSCI courses, has a lot of materials to memorize and to understand so be sure to keep up-to-date with the material.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/11/2016	Take Shofner. She's interesting and she is enthusiastic in her teaching. Her LA activities are engaging and helpful. Just remember to STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. It's not rocket science, so as long as you remember the vocab, the meanings, and their applications, you will be just fine. I went into that class thinking I was going to hate it. But I enjoyed it very much. The only complaint is that I took mine at 9 am and it's too hard to even get up in the morning. Bleh.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/08/2016	Dr. Shofner was an excellent professor - she is incredibly kind... A genuinely good person that I wish everyone in this world would be like. She gives you more than enough resources to pass her class with an A - you just have to put in the work.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A soccerdude 12/19/2015	This class is seriously a lot of works. I had to spend 6~7 hours outside of class weekly. However, this will be the same case for every other bsci106 class as well. Therefore, taking 106 with Dr.Shofner is definitely recommended because she is good at explaining concepts and cares about her students. I never got bored during her lectures either. Most importantly, she is really generous when it comes to regrade. She is willing to help out students and wants students to earn their points back. Seriously, who does this? most professors hate students when they try to ask for regrade. She also gives extra credit opportunities throughout the semester.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/06/2015	Nicest professor I have ever had! She cares about her students and the material. However, the course is way harder than expected and the tests require you to study a wide range of material and then remember every little detail.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106S Expecting a C Anonymous 12/30/2013	nice lady. only take her if you acutally care about evolution, ecology, animals, etc. If you're like me and have no interest whatsoever in these topics, dont take this professor, because you wont do well. if you care about your grade more than learning about these topics, take someone else.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A mmalik1 12/05/2013	Professor Shofner was the nicest professor. She managed to teach a class of 250 students and not bore them death, because she constantly asks for students feedback during lecture. Her powerpoints are very difficult to follow, however, and you should show up to every class because she will often cover material not online or in the textbook that will be on the exams and a several times she assigned in class worksheets to do for points. Andrew Keppel was my TA and he was great. He really seemed to know his stuff and recognized that the labs don't actually take 3 hours so he didn't make us stay the full time. We never stayed more than an hour and a half. Easy class but don't underestimate the exams! Only complaint is about the lecture assignments that she assigned very late into the semester.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/08/2012	best professor for bsci106 take this class with shofner she is so nice and approachable she engages students in a 300 person lecture her powerpoints are very helpful for exams if you can get past exams from a friend you are golden she is really nice in office hours make sure you do good in lab hopefully you have a good/ easy TA
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/11/2012	Shofner is definitely a nice professor! So nice that if you started cursing at her, she would still genuinely love you. However, I went into the class thinking that it was going to be an easy A, which it really wasn't because the exams were pretty difficult. She tests on details usually and essays are graded harshly. I had Melissa Meyer as a TA and she was just some girl from Texas. So, just run away if you have Melissa. One of the worst TA's I ever had in college. Get one of the guy TA's. One thing I learned in college is that male TA's are so much nicer and chill. They don't take off random shit points on reports or tests. Andy Simpson is the coolest TA for this class. In the end, Shofner is nice, so study hard. I had orgo and physics with this class, so obviously I was going to spend less time in this class. Anyways, my advice is that good luck. TA's matter so much.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2012	I loved Dr. Shofner. She is extremely knowledgeable on the topic, but not in a show-offy way like some professors - she uses her knowledge to make lectures really interesting with lots of examples and stories. Thought grading was fair - one test gets dropped out of three. Don't buy the book! She only tests on things in her powerpoints and things she talked about in lecture. Attendance is not mandatory (no clickers), slides are posted online. She's one of the nicest and most personable professors I've had. Would definitely recommend moving around your schedule so that you have her.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106S Anonymous 12/21/2011	She is nice professor and all but sometimes I don't bother going to lectures because she posts them all online anyway. Tests are fair (lowest midterm dropped). I totally expected to get an A in this class and was at 90% but I got a 85 on my final and ended up with a B+. The final exam wasn't even that bad but I feel like the TA's were just looking everywhere for places to take off points.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Princess_ourumd 06/20/2011	Dr. Shofner is so nice and definitely willing to help her students. She is the one professor whose class I didn't get an A in but I can still say that I like her as a professor. That's saying a lot. Anyways, in terms of grading, take the lab quizzes (and lab practical) serious [they're what brought me down to a B]. For the exams, study every little detail on the slides and you'll get 100%'s on the exams. She drops the lowest of the three non-cumulative exams though. Lab is easy, not much to say there.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A rose11 01/06/2011	Dr. Shofner is wonderful. She is so nice and very approachable. The lab for this course isn't too difficult, either. As long as you study hard and turn in all of your assignments, you should expect to get an A. I thought BSCI106 was easier than BSCI105. If you're going to take 106, take it with Shofner!
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 UMDMWS11 05/28/2010	Dr. Shofner is a really nice professor, and if you have to, or want to take this class, I definitely recommend trying to take it with her!! She puts all her powerpoint slides online, which is nice, and you can tell she really enjoys teaching. She even provided an extra credit opportunity as well as review sessions for the exams. She's very approachable and very on top of everything (administratively, ELMS, etc.). At the same time though, unless you are a biology major, or really pick it up quickly, this class might not be easy. Especially at the beginning, I found the material to be somewhat challenging. You should go to lecture and be prepared to study, ask questions, go to lab, etc. The nice thing is that Prof. Shofner allows you to drop one of the three exams (not including the final, which is the fourth exam). Another nice thing is that 20/150 points on the final are based on a zoo/Museum visit, so it can help you out a bit (should be an easy 20 points). The laboratories aren't too bad, just make sure you stay on top of the quizzes and really pay attention so you can do well on the assignments/practical. Don't procrastinate and don't be afraid to ask your TA questions!!! I was lucky and had the head TA for my discussion- that's the only part that's kind of out of your hands-yours might or not be good. A good part of the labs is that they compliment lectures (or follow them very closely), so it can be helpful in learning the material. All in all, I would recommend Dr. Shofner! She's a nice professor and makes the class interesting. Just be forewarned, the material might be somewhat difficult. DON'T GIVE UP though...keep working hard and learn from mistakes/previous exams...I found that I got used to what to expect on the exams and the class got a less difficult as it went along. Good luck!!
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A- terp13 05/19/2010	Dr. Shofner is surprisingly a good teacher. It's hard to tell because she doesn't seem very confident, although knowledgeable. If you're going to take BSCI106, take it with Shofner. She doesn't even require that you buy a clicker! Her tests are fair; she drops the lowest. This class is a lot of work [memorization/studying for exams] but it's not impossible to get an A. Don't buy the books. Only buy the lab manual. Brian Davidson, aka Bubba, was the best TA.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2010	Dr. Shofner has to be the sweetest professor ever! She has a very pleasant demeanor, and her lectures usually tie in some interesting topic to keep us engaged. Don't assume this is an easy A because it is most definitely not. You still need to put in the effort for an A. Nothing is really difficult to understand, but there is a ton of info covered on exams. A lot of people come in assuming it's easy and end up doing pretty badly. Some notes about the class: 1. You'll benefit a lot from lectures. She emphasizes certain material that will help you a lot for exams. Some exam material is ONLY covered in lecture. 2. She posts up a study guide outline before each exam. Use this as a guide to help you figure out what to study--it'll cut down on your studying immensely. I got As on all the exams by just using this outline to help me write out a study sheet. Her exams only cover what's outlined, but you still need to refer to the slides to get the major details. Make sure you study the relevant slides! 3. Don't buy the book. Waste of money. I literally opened it once and read 1 single paragraph in the beginning of the semester. Never opened it again and still got an A. 4. Other reviewers are spot-on about being careful of the TAs. Consider yourself lucky if you have a good one. If you're not so lucky, don't be afraid to challenge a grade or even challenge the TA. My TA often gave us wrong info and didn't seem to understand what we were doing in lab half the time. Go to Dr. Shofner if you have to. Overall, great class, very interesting material, very kind and fair professor. Highly recommended!
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A jamgord 05/04/2010	I personally think Dr. Shofner is the nicest lady ever. She is so sweet, and I could not stand when the students in lecture would talk over her or start packing up while she was still talking, because she's not the most assertive or authoritative figure. She is a really good teacher and knows her material extremely well. The tests were pretty straight-forward and you do get to drop the lowest of 3. My TA, Brian Davidson, was really good! He was laid-back, an easy grader, and always let us get out of lab early. Even though he was so chill, he still managed to get the material through to us and explained everything very well. I really enjoyed this class and highly recommend Dr. Shofner!
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A deoaro 08/24/2009	Dr. Shofner can be a bit boring and monotonous sometimes but she is a good teacher. Her tests are extremely easy; so easy that in my class there was no curve cause most people's grades were very high. You do not have to go to lecture cause she posts everything online. I definately recommend her...oh and watch out for the TA's.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/20/2009	Dr Shofner is extremely nice and a good lecturer but the TA's can be impossible. If your TA is Jenny Allen, DROP IMMEDIATELY! Save yourself the bad grade in a seemingly easy class
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/10/2009	This class is really difficult, much more than it seems. Lots and lots of ecology and evolution terms/concepts. Shofner is fine, nice enough, and seems accessible to students after lectures. Make sure you pick a good TA for lab though, especially one that is accessible, because that makes a big difference (mine wasn't and it sucked). Shofner doesn't really use the book, so you probably don't need to buy it.
Marcia Shofner BSCI106 Expecting an A littleflower5 03/26/2009	Dr. Shofner is incredibly kind. She is very interested in Biology and you can tell from the way she lectures. All important facts from a test standpoint are based on her lectures, so there is not much need to read the book, although it is helpful. Lab is incredibly easy, but can be a lot of work at times. Only one lab report all semester, but some writing assignments too. Overall great biology class and very kind and talented professor.