Lectures to me were boring and not helpful, however they were required to go since they used IClicker. There were lots of clicker questions during lecture. The textbook and outside resources were definitely helpful. To me, the tests were difficult, as you needed a strong understanding of all the concepts, rather than simple memorization. I hadn't taken AP Bio in high school, which I heard was helpful for a lot of students. There were many extra credit opportunities which definitely helped my grade a bit. Homework is time-consuming but not difficult. Exams were all online. Discussion sections and CLC sessions were also extremely beneficial, so I would attend those 100%.

This class was super hard coming from not having bio classes in Hs and learning everything first hand while for most people it was review. Pires was nice and has a good personality but cant explain reasoning at all in lectures after clicker questions. Going to other professors question answering sessions were wayy more useful than her lectures as a whole. This class has hella work for no reason too which didnt help with the application (which they test you on) in my opinion.

This class is a very manageable class with a normal college-level workload. The professor for 7A does not really matter because all the assignments/tests/lectures are the same across the various classes at least for my quarter. There were a lot of complaints about the flipped classroom aspect where we had to do a lot of the learning/reading before we came into class for the lecture however I thought that it worked really well for my learning style and I was able to get a deeper understanding of the material through this structure. The tests are difficult since the questions are never straightforward forward they require a deeper understanding of the material rather than simple memorization. For instance, you wouldn't need to be required to recite the steps of cellular respiration but rather explain the outcome if a certain part of the mitochondria was damaged. This requires a deeper understanding of the material. The tests were manageable if you really understood the material well. The lectures were concise and went over the material that was required so overall the class was difficult but very well organized. There was very little reading that was unnecessary and most of the class work was focused on learning necessary material. Also, taking AP Biology was particularly helpful, the class would have been significantly more difficult to learn all the material from scratch.

If you have ever taken AP/IB Biology before, this class is a review (and an expansion) of that. I would say that the homework isn't hard - but time consuming. The lectures are honestly a bit boring, with only the clicker questions (everyone answers on a mobile device in class) to keep students engaged. Pires takes attendance through clicker questions, so make sure to answer those. I liked the whole "come to class having prior knowledge" concept they use - but it also makes me feel as if the class is self-taught; I don't think the lectures really teach much. Exams are application-based rather than testing you on the information you learned. Make sure to go to your discussion sections because those go over how to answer application-based questions. The exams compared to the content/homework is SO much harder - you will never study enough for this class.

Professor Pires is a super nice lady, she’s funny and definitely engages with the students despite such a large class size. But I will say that the content of this course is very dense and I was kinda lost during the lectures. Basically you have to teach yourself all the information because the lectures kinda lightly touch on what you need to actually know for the exams.
All that aside, I think I can speak for most of my peers when I say that the way many aspects of this class were handled by the 7A professors ever since the TA strike began was not efficient at all. At the moment none of them are responding to Campuswire posts, and there’s even a petition for a class curve that already had over 1000 signatures. A lot of students are freaking out because there were mistakes on many of the questions on the final exam, causing us to lose points. From what I’ve heard, there were adjustments made to this course’s grading scale during Covid, so I hope that given the lack of discussion sections and TA assistance this quarter, we’ll receive a similar kind of accommodation.

I really disliked this class. It was online during the fall and it followed a sort of "flipped classroom" style of learning. I disliked this a lot because we were essentially expected to teach ourselves and then go over some of it during the lecture. Also, we had to have iclicker which I was unfamiliar with, so even though the lecture was online attendance was mandatory. I never took AP bio but I know people have said that this class closely resembles that. Anyways this class made me realize that I am in fact not a stem baddie.

The class wasn't too much to handle but the exams were. Easy points when it comes to weekly quizzes, labs, and clicker questions but the exams will be difficult. Make sure to review clicker questions and attend review sessions if you want to succeed.

Took this class and everything was easy but the exams. There is weekly reading, quizzes, discussion section, and clicker questions all of which are easy points. I received good scores in all of these sections but the exams. The reading doesn't really prepare you for the exams so make sure to attend office hours and review sessions.

I had a late enrollment appointment and ended up going with Pires because her lectures was one of the last to still be open. I was a little nervous seeing the reviews on here, but after taking the class I don't understand the bad reviews. My class was online, and it ran very smoothly. She is an engaging lecturer and explained the clicker questions well. I liked that she would go over why the incorrect answers were wrong for each clicker, and this was really helpful for preparing for exams. She is good at explaining the concepts during lecture (so you can understand even if you didn't read the launchpad) and would draw diagrams to help visualize. Pires is accommodating and a really genuine person.

Always had a crab or spider video for us while we entered, lol. Clickers necessary. Tests were hard (as usual). Really sweet lady. Pretended to be our "study buddy" to help us work through examples. Would occasionally get frustrated with students but it's because they would ask something that was just explained. She really tried her best to be patient though, you could tell, I honestly don't blame her cuz I would feel the same. That's probably why you see some negative reviews about her being rude but honestly it's like 3% as extreme as they make it out to be.