Quarter Taken:
Winter 2018
Submitted March 31, 2018
Grade Received:
A
I really loved taking Cell Bio with Sagasti. Though he can speak really fast sometimes, his lectures are very passionate and detailed in a way that always made me excited about the material we were learning. He assigns a few scientific papers to read throughout the quarter, which is really daunting at first, but the TAs help you through it in discussion and it helped me become a lot more comfortable with primary literature. Questions from these papers make up the bulk of the short answer part of exams, so really know how to interpret the figures in each paper. The main helpful tip I can give about the exams is don't overcomplicate it - if the question seems too simple, it really is that simple. He's not trying to trick you, and you don't want to get points taken off because you rambled, especially if you knew the simple answer to the simple question he was asking.
Don't bother buying the textbook, I never touched it once. The lectures are bruincasted which is super helpful, especially because he can talk really fast. The exams are mostly based off the papers like I said, but there is also a multiple choice part of the tests that comes from lecture material. Make sure you understand the lecture concepts because these are easy points on the exam.
I never went to Sagasti's office hours, but my TA Raquel Aragon was super amazingly helpful during her office hours and in discussion. 10/10 take her as your TA if you have the option. This class was my first upper div in the major and it definitely convinced me that I made the right choice by majoring in MCDB!