Dr Hirsch should not be teaching or even doing research. She goes off on so many tangents and doesn't remember anything. She is also very rude and a bully. I think she isn't in the right headspace to teach. Like she isn't medical fit. She is the perfect example of why professors should be subjected to routine medical evaluations. I don't know why she insists on working. She should just retire. If it wasn't for Ethan, this class would be completely unbearable.

Dr. Hirsch is honestly a terrible professor, she goes off on so many tangents during lectures and you are probably better off reading the slides. However, Ethan the TA is the GOAT. He hosts these clutch review sessions that are honestly all you need for the midterm and final. Class averages are very high, as long as you pay attention to Ethan and go to discussion, you will do fine. The project and presentation were also extremely easy. The project consists of Ethan growing your plants and you taking pictures and writing some observations at the end of the quarter. The presentation consists of a group of 4 picking a random plant research paper and presenting on it. Participation involves students just asking questions for other groups, as long as you show up and raise your hand a few times, you will get full points. Overall, class was very manageable and if you like plants that is a nice bonus.

I wasn’t going to leave a review because I thought my experience with hirsch was unique but after seeing some of the other reviews I realize Hirsch has a pattern of unacceptable behavior. She seems very disoriented and disorganized. She goes on many tangents making it very hard to follow what she is trying to say . The TA Ethan was awesome and the only reason I got through it. Hirsch is also very forgetful and can’t even do basic tasks like use her own laptop . She seems like one of those professors who just refuses to retire because they don’t have anything better to do with their lives . The material itself wasn’t hard , but her tangents made them harder than they need to be. She is also very condensing and hates Pre meds . She seems to think that students should only pursue environmental stuff and is just mean to students that have other interests . Overall, I don’t recommend Hirsch as a professor. But big shout out to Ethan . He is the real MVP.

Okay, so I wanted to leave a review for this class because it truly is a sleeper class for MCDB electives.

Quizzes - 30 pts
For this quarter, we were offered to take a quiz every 2 weeks. In total, we had 5 quizzes, but we were allowed to drop two of them. The quizzes were online and open note with a one hour time limit. The questions were typically 1-6 questions all multiple choice or really short answer. Overall, the quizzes were really simple as long as you looked over the material on the slides of the previous two weeks.

Midterm examination - 100 pts
Overall, the midterm for this class was not bad. I believe the average was an 85. Honestly, the main issue with this class is people did not know how to study correctly. Dr. Hirsch would often go on many tangents and there is so much material on the slides. However, ignore any figure that looks copy and pasted from a research paper and focus on the basics and the material covered in the quizzes. Additionally, our TA (Ethan) is a fucking godsend who, since he writes the midterms, does a midterm review session that covers like 80% of the questions on the midterm. Since Ethan is the one who writes the exams and quizzes, he is the one who ultimately decides which material is important or not, so definitely talk to him for exam help. But, Ethan is really fair; honestly, he makes this course very doable I have no clue what the previous posts were talking about because the tests were not bad at all (focused on Koch's postulates, Rhizobia Symbiosis, AMF Symbiosis, ECM vs AMF, Common Symbiosis Pathway, Microbial Structure Components etc for the midterm).

Final examination - 150 pts
The final exam was open-book, online and open for 5 hours throughout finals week. The exam was cumulative, but 5 hours was more than enough to find all the material.

Presentation - 50 pts
The presentation is that you and 2 or 3 other students prepare a presentation article about a research paper you get to choose thats related to plants and microbes. Overall, the presentation is a little stressful because you have to present in your discussion section, but it was really simple as long as you present with a clear voice and try not to read off slides. Everyone that I know basically got a 99% on the project.

Discussion section participation - 20 pts
Literally, just show up to discussion section and ask a question. That is it, you have to ask a question regarding the presentation and that is it.

Discussion section project - 50 pts
The project is super easy. You plant some pea plants with rhizobia in Week 1. Ethan takes care of them until like Week 10 where you see if you got nodulation in your plants. You write a research report before and after, but it is super short like 4-5 questions that can be answered in a couple words.

Tbh, I walked into this class terrified based on the reviews and I had such a shit enrollment time. I was super intimidated by the syllabus and the first lecture. But, it literally is not as bad as it seems. This is fr a sleeper class since everyone gets scared and drops. I will say you do have to study for the midterm and cannot just blow it off. However, if you have studied for classes like 165A, 138, and 144 then you have the skills to study for this class. In terms of difficulty, I guess around that of 165A maybe less. I think this class might be a bit more difficult than like MCDB M140 and Mikkola's Stem Cell Bio BUT a much better elective choice than MIMG 102 or MCDB CM156 (literally do not take this class it is so bad).

Also, this class is about plants and microbes which I know in MCDB is not a lot of people's passion. But, Dr. Hirsch is so nice and sweet and communicates her passion about the field that it really makes you like it. Unfortunately, there are always those who never study or who don't like plants at all and they are typically the ones who struggled and did bad in the course. Essentially, if you put the work in, this class is super easy.

I got:
100.5/100 on the midterm
99.6/100 on the presentation
100s on the quizzs
100 on project and discussion participation
94 on the final

A lot of these past reviews are pretty weird, vague, and unhelpful, so I'll try to provide one that will help students in the future who are planning to take this class. This class consists of weekly quizzes every Wednesday except week 1, week 6 (week of the midterm), and week 8 (the week of thanksgiving) (yes, that means there is one during week 10), discussion, midterm, and a final.

Lecture: It's twice a week, not podcasted, and there are no clickers.

Weekly Quizzes-40 points: These quizzes tested you on the most recent 2 or 3 lectures every Wednesday at the end of lecture. The difficulty will vary on who your TA is, since they make the quizzes. Each quiz is worth 10 points and my TA, Ethan, usually ended up putting one difficult or tricky question that was worth 2 points, and the rest were pretty fair. However, he often put one extra credit question worth one point and you could potentially get 11/10, which can really help your grade. Since there were 7 quizzes in total, we were able to drop our 3 lowest quiz scores, which was pretty generous.

Discussion-60 points: You sign up with a group for one week to present a scientific paper with a powerpoint presentation and the group is expected to present for around 30 minutes usually more or less. Although it sounds pretty daunting, it's really not too bad especially when you split up the work. Also, you're also expected to participate by asking a question after the presenters are done talking. That is to say the professor never explained exactly how she would grade us, but I feel like she gave mostly everyone full score if you tried to participate a few times.

Midterm-100 points: It consists of defining some basic terms, compare and contrasting, and matching. Certainly, the matching portion was by far the hardest part. Memorize ANY chemical compound that she emphasized in class along with ANY symbiosis structure between the microbes and the plant, or just about anything she talked about in class. Besides the matching part, which was pretty cruel, the midterm was fair I guess and the TA had a review session during discussion before the midterm trying to emphasize important concepts, which helped me with some of the questions on the midterm.

Final-150 points: Hirsch is nice enough to make the final open note every time she teaches. In other words, you are free to print out all the slides. Even more, she lets you use your laptop, which you can download all your powerpoint slides on. You just can't use wifi at all. Even though the final asked some very specific questions such as a gene or enzyme that was mentioned only once out of a 1000 slides, if you studied and knew the slides, the final was very fair and I thought it was better than the midterm.

To this end, I really hated LS 1 (ecology and evolution) and thought it was so boring and unengaging, but I definitely thought this class more interesting, particularly the second half of the class when she started talking about the pathways about how microbes such as agrobacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc. infect the plant. Furthermore, I though Professor Hirsch was a very nice lady and she was very passionate lecturing about stuff that I would've otherwise thought would've been boring. To put it another way, this class is very doable if you put in the work, it's less content than MCDB 138, but maybe more than 165A...just make sure you recognize as many pictures on her slides as possible of things she emphasized in class.

Friend is freaking out, so i thought i would help. Know the section headers for important slides and main points. Slides were text is c and p by professor and not her own are not important. Just know the basics like 5 steps, what impt gene or hormone does and you will get an A at min, gluck tomorrow.. accepted to harvard med danno

Reply to comment below: "useless lab technique" ? Are you serious? And you complained about presentation? It was f*king free points!

It's true that the papers do not appear on exams, so what? Shouldn't you be happy about having less material to study?
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At first, I really hated Dr.Hirsch because she goes over stuff REALLY FAST (that why many people record her lectures, including me). But after the midterm I started to like her because it was EASY! Average was about 80 & 10 pt easy extra credit so basically avg was about 90.

It was much easier than I thought because the material on the slides contains a lot of detail...but she only tested us on the basics....

Final was open note and THANKS GOODNESS it was open note, you can even use your laptop!!! you can practically find all the answers using spotlight in mac....

I'm shocked by the positive reviews professor Hirsch has on bruinwalk, but none of them are for this course (MCDB 150). The discussion section is a complete waste of your time: students are made to present scientific journal articles in nauseating detail to a room full of half awake peers. The content of these articles has little if anything to do with lecture material, and it never appears on exams. Professor Hirsch has nothing better to do than sit in on these student presentations and grill the presenting pair with graduate level questions about the paper to determine if the student really understands the pointless lab techniques. Not one minute of the discussion (for the entire quarter) was invested in reviewing lecture material, going over the previous week's quiz, or discussing the midterm/final. In lecture, Hirsch failed 50% of the time at getting her lecture started on time due to her inability to operate her own laptop, use powerpoint, and connect to the classroom presentation system. She is a dull lecturer. She seems to thrill herself by keeping the main points of each lecture obscured. Don't expect her to clearly state what she wants you to know. I took this class for GE and wish I didn't. Avoid.