David Straney

This professor has taught: BSCI222, BSCI348R, BSCI415, CPSP219L

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David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2023	He's a great guy, the patron saint of the microbio building. The course is only challenging if you lack the organizational skills to make notes on your experiments; you don't even have to have successful results to do well on the reports so long as you give a detailed analysis of what results you have and provide an example analysis on one or two cases where you would otherwise provide an analysis of your data. He's rather flexible on due dates until the end of the semester (usually an additional week of penalty-free time after the listed due date for homeworks), but I wouldn't push it. He's also greatly understanding if you aren't particularly good at one of the subsets of the project or if the results don't work (I lack the motor control to successfully work with the worms) and he doesn't penalize you for it. As long as you put in the effort for each of the assignments and throughout the year on your projects, it's an assured A. I would highly recommend it if you need to fill out your lab requirement.
David Straney BSCI222 Anonymous 10/04/2023	I LOOOVED Dr. Straney, he somehow made genetics really interesting and easy to understand. (It's a fringe class I needed to take for my major for some reason). My advice for someone taking the class would be to not skip and take practice tests to prepare for the exams. Easy money
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/19/2023	Sublime professor. Enthusiastic and, in my opinion, very clear and skillful explanation of material. The other reviews say it all, though I will add that I find his lectures to be interesting and entertaining rather than boresome as suggested by some.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/29/2023	I love this man. He's kind to an almost comical extent. It's so obvious that he loves his work and to teach students. You could asked the dumbest question to him and he would kindly work it with you until you understand. His exams are quite hard in my opinion but he gives you so much material to work off of, there's no excuse for not doing well. Unlike other bio profs where you have to play a game of finding out what to learn/understand, there's none of that with him because he has lecture outlines, study guides, and most importantly a dozen (literally) old exams to learn from. Genetics wasn't a class I was excited to go into, but he made it super interesting and I'm glad to have taken it. Despite being a challenging class this is probably one of the most intellectually stimulating and enjoyable courses I've had the pleasure of taking so far. 11/10 professor 8.5/10 class (material could sometimes be a little dull but that's not his fault, he didn't make genetics, also exams were a little daunting to prepare for)
David Straney BSCI222 Anonymous 05/17/2023	These reviews are a little miss leading, this was the worst professor I have had at the university, and I really don't have anything positive to say about him. Super harsh grader, boring class, boring lecture, this class will take up 7 hours of your week including the mandatory discussion and lecture. Also includes actually studying for the exams. I think there are different teachers you should explore before taking this dude.
David Straney BSCI222 Anonymous 05/17/2023	I feel like he is overhyped, I personally don't see what is so great about Straney. Extremely harsh grader, not very forgiving, and took personal shots at me when I went to office hours. Exams can be somewhat misleading because there is a lot of material. Overall pretty boring class that will take up about 7 hours of your week from just class and weekly quizzes.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	Dr. Straney is the absolute best. Take him if possible! He is so supportive and responsive to questions. I went to his office hours almost every week and if I couldn't make the time, he would allow me to come ask questions on my schedule. The old exams that he uploads are a life saver for studying! This class was challenging, but he truly gives us the necessary resources to succeed.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2023	I would genuinely give a kidney to this man he has found his calling in life, just really somebody who loves both the teaching aspect and the content of his job. Wants to help you succeed and wants you to learn what he clearly knows a lot about. Just explains things very clearly and sets up the course to be flexible and fair. luv u dr straney
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/26/2023	Dr Straney is one of the nicest and most helpful professors I've had--he provides SO much support for the class (dropped assignments, practice questions, quizzes, etc) without ever having to even attend office hours or GSS. I can't say how nervous I was going into 222 but he really sets the class up in a way that makes it hard to fail.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/25/2023	Dr. Straney is my advisor and he’s so responsive, kind and helpful. I wish I had the opportunity to have him as a professor but for anyone considering taking one of his classes I would highly recommend him. He’s a great person and is always willing to help you if needed.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/03/2022	Straney is THE ABSOLUTE BEST PROFESSOR who truly wants his students to succeed. His lectures might go fast but he records them, holds weekly review sessions, and provides a lot of material to help you better understand the topics. He has like 10 practice tests to study from for each of the exams which are super helpful and he usually curves a few points on tests depending on what the average is. There are also a lot of little in class assignments that he does with you that are basically free points so do them.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/02/2022	Straney is the go-to professor for 222!! He gives you everything you need to succeed & is always ready to answer questions with his weekly review sessions. But don't expect this class to be easy. It takes way more time & brain-power than it should for a 200-level class. That being said, it is very possible to do well. Go to GSS and do the old exams
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/09/2022	Straney is the goat. Nice and approachable guy. Tons of points to be earned, and a bunch of stuff dropped too. Curve on the tests as long as the average is low enough (2/3 mid terms curved). Genetics has a TON of material so it's not the easiest class but everything is recorded so you can skip class or rewatch lectures as well. Tons of old exams to help, he also posts lecture outlines and the power points. Can't ask for much more. He's also pretty funny sometimes. Usually good at taking questions.
David Straney BSCI222 Anonymous 05/17/2021	STRANEY WAS THE BEST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD!! He was extremley good at teaching content in a way that made alot of sense and always takes the time to answer everyone's questions in a way thats really encouraging and sweet. He also makes the material super interesting and is SO FUNNY when he gives his lectures. He provided us with like almost a dozen exams for each midterm and the final to prepare and had so many other resources including weekly review sessions, lecture outlines, and study guides. He is the reason I love genetics and really did well in this class and I would highly recommend trying to get him as your professor!!! #king
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2021	An absolute gem of a professor. Kind, compassionate, encouraging, motivating, there aren't enough verbs to describe him. His lectures are interesting, and while some parts get dull (it is genetics, there is only so much you can do), he does his best to keep it fun and throws in the occasional joke here and there. He gives so much practice with his D2U, 222utorials, weekly review sessions, and practice exams, that you should have a surplus of review material. Memorize lecture slides, understand his exam questions, and ask him questions, and you literally can't do poorly unless you try. His final for online wasn't cumulative, but it is still fairly easy to do as long as you have been keeping up with the material. Information is also highly conceptual so make sure to apply the lectures. Good luck!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/29/2020	LOVE STRANEY even though the class is a bit more brutal than necessary. he gives lots of materials. He's very friendly and caring and hilarious.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 08/28/2018	really nice prf, but harsh grading policy. I did avg on all his exams, above avg on everything else, but bombed the final. My grade went down 6 points. Reading the text book is a MUST because he doesn't go over everything in lecture.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A sfrail 11/04/2016	I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dr. Straney. He's one of the nicest most caring professors I've ever had. His material is so organized, all the questions he asks are very structured and well designed to be easy to learn, but still demonstrate the material in a memorable way. I've had a lot of bio classes where the material is just disorganized, hard to learn, and easy to forget. Dr. Straney's class is exactly the opposite. He holds extra review sessions and he brings tea and cookies!! Where else are you going to find that. He even brought food to the early morning final. He posts all his past exams, his expectations are reasonable, he offers extra credit that's actually a lot of fun (RNA puzzle game). Genetics is HARD but he makes it fun and interesting. I had a summer internship immediately after taking the class where I used exactly what he taught us, it was incredibly helpful. He's my advisor now too and he's just such a great guy, remembers my name and things about me and clearly cares a lot about his students and the subject of genetics. Genuinely could not recommend him more.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A penguin 05/22/2015	Reviews below pretty much sums everything up. Dr. Straney is extremely nice and is a great professor. He tries his best to teach his students by putting up his lectures on Canvas and by having multiple review sessions and office hours. Unfortunately, he got rid of the "drop the lowest exam grade" policy this semester, which is unfortunate (since the average for the first exam was extremely low), but it is fine. There was an extra credit opportunity later one that boosted our grades back up. Just a warning. The first exam was by far the hardest exam. It is very long and the entire class had trouble finishing it on time. The average for our first exam in my discussion was a 50%, so make sure you do well on the first exam. If you do well on the first one, then you are pretty much set; the next two exams were much easier. I got a B on the first one, an A+ on the second one, a B+ on the third one and an A- on the final, and got an A in the course. Overall, he is a great professor and I highly recommend taking him.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a B silverkatachi4 09/09/2014	Very good class, and what a helpful professor. It's a lot of information, but you will definitely feel like you learned something afterwards.He gives out old exams, answers all quesyions, RECORDS HIS LECTURES, gives out outlines that cut your reading in half.... You name it and he does it. BEWARE of the first exam. You don't have as much time as you think! BTW, Dr. Straney brought us tea and cookies for our review sessions. TEA AND COOKIES!!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A milk 07/12/2014	Based off these reviews, I registered for Straney thinking that I would wanna like marry him by the end of it cuz I would love him so much or something. (v impt life update: decidedly do not want to marry him) Basically the reason why Straney is so highly rated isn't because you're gonna remember him being like "Wow he was that memorable amazing teacher I had in college," it's because he basically hands you everything you will ever need on a platter and then says "here comes the choo choo train" and spoon-feeds it into your mouth. He gives you all the material you could ever need: - Uploaded powerpoint slides for each lecture - Study guides for each lecture that tells you what you should know - Outlines for each lecture (he basically already took your notes for you) - Practice exams with answer keys for exams 1, 2, 3, and the final (6 per test, so a total of 24 practice exams for the entire course) - Review sessions (where he tells you exactly what's going to be on the exam) - Lets you take exams for as long as you need (!!!) Seriously this man will stay with you until you are done that exam, even if it takes you 5 hours. AND he lets you start exams late if you want to do last minute cramming. There are some classes where you're like "easy class but the teacher sucks" but this isn't one of them. He is the nicest, most down-to-earth, most approachable teacher on campus. It's so obvious he WANTS to help and wants every student to succeed. You can ask him any question ever and he gives you straight-up answers (and gives you answers for pre-labs if you wanted to double-check your work or are just too lazy to do it). He never treats you like you're stupid. HE BROUGHT COOKIES EVERY FRIDAY AND EXAM DAY. WHO DOES THAT SERIOUSLY like it's like he's the father of everyone in the class, and everyone is his favorite child that he spoils, it was awesome. Okay and they weren't even like lame cookies, like the day before our final he brought s'more cookies. I didn't even know s'more cookies existed but now I do and omg they were so good. The #1 thing to do with Straney is do the old practice exams. Straney reuses the same questions over and over so old practice exams show you exactly the answer he's looking for. There's no curve but half the class got an A (average final grade was a 90) so you shouldn't need it. The only way you could possibly do badly with Straney is if you literally never paid attention and/or didn't do practice exams the night before an exam. Do NOT take Genetics with anyone else or you will be making a huge mistake.
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2013	Dr. Straney is the best professor ever. I cannot say it enough. He really wants his students to do well and is so incredibly patient. This course is composed of 4 lab reports, 6 homework assignments, one midterm quiz, and a final quiz. You do interesting experiments throughout the semester. There are four main experiments you carry through over the course of the semester. It is very interesting to actually apply what you learn in textbooks and lectures. I loved this course. Dr. Straney does not have "deadlines" but "target dates". He's so understanding. Please don't take advantage of it. He puts in so much time for us and is patient enough to answer all of your questions...even if another student already asked. He genuinely wants you to do well and I believe this is how teaching should be. I definitely learned so much out of this course, especially when putting those lab reports together. If you can take this class, please do. And he's also an amazing BSCI22 professor. He holds weekly review sessions, provides old exams and is there for you if you need help.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A typicalterp 07/24/2012	Dr. Straney is an exceptionally understanding professor. To be honest, his lectures are a bit boring at times but if you feel like you are not being able to put your full attention in class, it is not at all intimidating to go up to him and ask questions after class or during his office hours. It is very feasible to do well in this class if you keep up with the assignments (that's probably one of the biggest challenges for this class), go to Straney's reviews before exams, and review past exam papers.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A NeuroSciX 05/21/2012	He's a fantastic instructor, the tests are relatively easy to manage and you shouldn't have any issue getting at the least a B+ in his course. Just remember to do the practice test problems and the book. Reading the book is moderately integral to doing well in this course.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A erika_14 05/19/2012	Dr Straney is the sweetest professor on campus. He is a semi-boring lecturer but a good one at that. He always provides past exams with smiliar problems he will put on his exam so make sure you do them. Most of the material is straight memorization, but of course you have to understand the processes. Discussion is really boring but it's good easy points to get. Make sure you do the end of the chapter textbook problems - they help you understand the material even better. Keep up with the material since you will learn a lot. Dr Straney is ALWAYS there for help so make use of him and your TAs!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A ladsheep 05/18/2012	DR. STRANEY IS AMAZING!!!! He is the nicest professor you will ever have and he legitimately cares about each student succeeding. He is always available and willing to help through email or in his office (open door policy). He is a very good lecturer, making jokes and keeping the material interesting. He gives you an infinite amount of material so that you can succeed (study guides, lectures, outlines, old exams and weekly review sessions). He also is just an extremely caring person, he brings cookies to class sometimes, and for the final we just took, he brought a lot of food and coffee and tea for everyone. He just goes out of his way to make your life easier and does everything he can to make the class and material interesting. This class in general is a lot of work, especially the discussion. In order to succeed just make sure you get all the easy points in discussion and review Dr. Straney's old exams. If you know his lecture slides and the old exams really well then the exams should be easy for you since he tests on a lot of the same concepts. If you have extra time going over his study guides and outlines is helpful as well. All together, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE GENETICS WITH DR. STRANEY BECAUSE YOU WON'T REGRET IT AND YOU WILL LEARN A LOT!!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A zhangsta 05/25/2011	Pretty good lecturer. He teaches off his slides, which are taken straight out of the book, but he goes into pretty good detail about all of the important stuff. Exams were pretty fair and weren't too bad if you kept up with the material. He's one of those professors who wants everyone to do well so he posts study guides on bb and holds review sessions for the exams. Pretty much gives you ample opportunity to do well.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2011	This class was the easiest I've taken so far. I skipped lecture, went to discussion, and read the book. Dr. Straney provides tons of resources including lecture powerpoints, lecture outlines, and old exams. If you have a basic understanding of genetics, you shouldn't have to put too much work into this class. Exams were fair, and you can drop one, which is quite helpful. However, there is no final curve for the class. Regardless, I honestly think they tried to make this class as easy as possible.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/22/2011	Extremely nice and helpful, gives you plenty of resources to study from. lectures tend to be boring but he's very passionate about what he teaches. holds weekly q&a sessions. i read reviews saying this course used to be easy with him. it's not anymore. i think they leaned on him to give less A's, so don't expect an easy ride
David Straney BSCI222 Anonymous 05/20/2011	DR. STRANEY IS AMAZING! He's very easy going and laid back and you can tell he really cares about his students and loves the material that he teaches. He makes class interesting even when some of the material can be dull at times. He's also very willing to help you with anything outside of class. Make sure to do well in discussion (especially on the weekly quizzes) because it will help your grade in the end. Study well for the weekly quizzes in discussion...they are detailed and difficult. Otherwise, the other things you do in discussion are easy points. Your two lowest quiz and homework scores will be dropped. There are 3 exams (the lowest score is dropped). They are detailed but fair...make sure to read the book and review old exams. Overall interesting class. If you can take this class with Straney, DO IT!
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2011	Dr. Straney may be the sweetest person to ever grace College Park's bio department. This class is super interesting and very laid back, I enjoyed attending. Dr. Straney just wants everyone to get an A and if you are confused he will help you until you understand even if that means staying late. If you do the work on time you will do well in this class.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/14/2011	He's a really good professor and a super nice guy. His exams aren't that bad if you study. He gives you everything you need to study including the lecture powerpoint, lecture outlines, study guide, and practice problems. My TA's quizzes are pretty hard, but not too bad. Take it with Straney if you can.
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/21/2011	Before I start, let me assert that Dr. Straney is one of the best professors at Maryland!! Anyone that says otherwise must have some sort of grudge against him... I started out taking BSCI 207 and most of the classes I had taken since then were mostly rehashed versions of previous material - I started to find that the classes became very boring. I never really paid attention in my classes after a while and would just cram for exams and do just fine. That's all fine and good - I was getting through everything that I needed to get though - but I totally stopped enjoying biology. The environment that Dr. Straney created in the lab gave me faith in biology again. It wasn't just about memorizing things, doing busywork, and worrying how others do (e.g. curves in organic labs). He cares so much about having students learn the material - and he is able to teach very effectively. If you have any questions at all, you can call, email, or see him before/after class and he is always willing to help. He also understands that sometimes people's semesters are loaded and it may be difficult to get everything done on time and be satisfied with it - he will let you turn things in by what he calls an "approximate date." His quizzes and exams are very, very reasonable - read the rationale for doing the labs and why we do things the way we do before the semester quizzes and make sure to understand your lab reports before the final exam - and everything will go smoothly. He is a big proponent of "big ideas" over minute-you-will-never-need-it-again details. He tests understanding of material. I really, really enjoyed the class and put in (and enjoyed putting in) some effort. I learned a lot and appreciated being able to do so in a fairly relaxed environment. If you're in a class with him right now, don't take him for granted. You should really appreciate what he brings to the classroom.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A TerpGuide 06/08/2010	I personally don't see what is so great about Straney. The way he teaches is pretty boring. However, he is very nice and holds a weekly review session and stays however long you need him to. Overall the class is pretty easy. The resources he provides you with are soooo useful for the exams. From what I know, there was no curve, but I'm not sure. Discussion helps a lot with your grade because it's like busy work and fairly simple. However, there's a weekly quiz which you should review your notes for. You can get away with not going to class and reading the powerpoint. The biggest thing to study is the study guides and lecture outlines. With those, you should be fine. Take Straney if you can, he makes the class pretty easy.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A aralchen 05/20/2010	This man is a saint! The nicest and sweetest man on earth - period. He tries incredibly hard to help students understand the rather difficult material by posting lecture outlines, study guides, old exams, holding weekly review sessions, and always having his door open to any one who needs help. If you need BSCI222 (or want to take it), take it with Dr. Straney!!! You won't regret it! Exams: they're rather detailed and require you to thoroughly know the information from lecture. Textbook helps a lot, but doesn't determine what will be on the exam. He likes promoters, regulatory elements (that's essentially his research), and math-based problems. When studying ALWAYS reference the study guides and ALWAYS go to review. ALWAYS. Discussion: he has no say about what goes on there, since that's Dr. Shields' domain. It does help your grade a lot. Final: covers half comprehensive and half new material. Comprehensive sections covers only what's been tested on previous exams. This time he had a tricky problem, but it doesn't usually happen on the midterms. Overall: very fair class where you learn a whole bunch. Highly recommended!!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2010	Dr. Straney is literally the nicest person to have EVER stepped on college park. He actually wants students to learn and do well. He holds review sessions every week and brought cookies/hot cocoa at least once when I went! He makes his tests very fair and just generally likes people. Don't you dare take BSCI222 with anyone else.
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A amgarcia 05/12/2010	if you have the option of taking bsci222 for your major, TAKE IT and TAKE IT WITH STRANEY!! he is the nicest professor EVER and i definitely thought i was doing worse than i am. i can get an 85% on the final and still have an A in the class (i've gotten 89s on both tests and did kinda poorly on the quizzes in my opinion but the rest of discussion helps your grade SO MUCH!!) the second half of the class is kind of boring, but easy enough if you put normal effort into it. i think i might apply to TA the discussion of this class later on! :)
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2010	Dr. Straney is the best! He is probably one of the best professors at Maryland. He is willing to explain absolutely anything, and is actually GLAD to be able to help. Even in a huge lecture, he encourages everyone to ask questions and get help. He even brought snacks to a review session before our exam. Seriously a very approachable and genuinely nice guy.
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/29/2010	This was a great course. I'm now in grad school, and this course taught me things that are really useful in my courses now. Dr. Straney is also the nicest person ever, and he really cares about students understanding and having enthusiasm about what they are learning. I definately recommend taking this course if you are thinking about going to Grad school for Cell/Molecular Biology!!!!
David Straney BSCI222 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/03/2009	Great professor. Really cares about students doing well. Exams stem from lectures and text. Exams are fair and very doable.
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous Terp 04/16/2009	Dr. Straney is solid. Teachers don't get much better than him. He's excited, enthusiastic, willing to help, not afraid to slow down and explain something again, and just plain nice. This class is the epitome of what college classes should be like. There aren't a lot of students. The teacher is passionate. There's a lot of one on one interaction with the professor. Nearly everybody gets A's, but those are actually earned A's. This class is in no way a fluff class - there's a lot of work. But the work is doable and enjoyable. It's the complete opposite of the typical cookie-cutting lab class here at Maryland. Throughout the semester, we worked on four extended projects, which means we jumped around. You do a mutagenesis experiment (on both C. elegans and Arabidopsis), a molecular mapping experiment, a plant transformation experiment, and a DNA sequencing experiment. The DNA one was great - we isolated a highly variable region of our own CYP2D6 gene (it produces the protein that metabolizes nearly a third of the drugs we take) with PCR, sent it off to a lab, and analyzed the sequence results using different software programs. We found out if we had multiple copies, a defective copy, etc. and what that meant. Seriously, if you have the chance to take this course, you won't be disappointed.
David Straney BSCI415 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2008	I cannot say enough about Dr. Straney. He is hands down the best professor in the science department and he makes this class one of the best. If you are remotely interested in genetics take this class! He makes it relatively easy and you actually do hands on things that work (compared to most science classes here at maryland). In addition, he is extremely nice and wants everyone to learn and succeed not just in his class but in life. He is very approachable and was always willing to help. The course had a lot of work on occasion, but it wasnt very difficult and he grades very easy.