This class is very difficult, but it doesn’t help that the “MCDB 138 Team,” which is composed of 2 professors and 3 TAs, give inconsistent answers. When I ask questions, the professors give contradictory statements regarding class material (for example, if something is true or false). The questions on the assessments are often very poorly worded and it’s never easy to understand what’s exactly being asked.

The class materials are super interesting and really dig into the molecular level of many fascinated biological pathways. Professor Rigueur is very passionate about teaching and is very approachable during class and outside of the classroom. I would really like to take this class again since it's an enjoyable process to learn all of these interesting topics with such a passionate professor.

Workload was manageable over summer so over a regular quarter it shouldn't be too bad. Lecture wasn't mandatory but discussion was, there were 4 homework assignments and 3 exams. The exams were multiple choice questions and free response; ngl the exams were tough but if you study then you should be fine. She held weekly office hours and was always available after lecture. Honestly great professor I'd take her again this class is a 7/10.

This class was intense but the learning experience was fruitful. Dr. Rigueur is an amazing lecturer and she is always available to help/answer questions. There were weekly quizzes, homework, a midterm and a final. The quizzes and homeworks are okay if you understand the papers that the TA go over during your discussion section. The midterm was a bit of a time-crunch but it also makes sense since most of the questions are rapid-fire short answers. Even if you didn’t do well on the midterm it doesn’t mean the end of the world because you will get sufficient time to complete the final exam, which can replace your midterm if you earn a higher mark. I did not do well on the midterm due to not being able to finish but the final saved my grade. For us she kept the final open for almost a week, though it did require a lot more in-depth critical thinking and there were a lot of questions on the exam.(87 questions) So be prepared to spend a good amount of time answering and revising your responses.

Bad.

I really enjoyed this class since professor Rigueur is very passionate about teaching. Also the materials we covered are super interesting. We learned a lot of this things in cell biology such as cell signaling pathway, protein trafficking, different types of cellular organelles. What is nice about this class is that we also used several lectures to learn how to apply the basic knowledge of cell biology to construct valid experiments. I think that this really helps me on my future career. Overall, it is a very interesting and fruitful class to take.

This is one of the hardest mcdb classes you need to take. Prof Rigeur wasn't that great tbh. She would read off the notes in her slides and she wouldn't upload her notes at all, so the slides were pretty much useless. Nikki was my TA and she was pretty terrible, vey disorganized. The weekly quizzes were okay, not too terrible. The class was mostly just a mess after the midterm exam. The midterm was hard to understand and we were in a timecrunch to finish it within the time limit. So, the TAs and prof rigeur had the brilliant idea to make the final open for 3 days. EXCEPT THE FINAL TOOK ALL 3 DAYS to complete. it was long, questions were worded terribly, and overall just unnecessarily long. It was so long that they didn't end up grading it properly and I think they gave everyone an A on it (not complaining abt that, but why make us do something if you won't even grade it????). The weekly homeworks sucked, and Nikki was such an uneccesarily harsh grader for all the small things.

Prof rigeur did give some generous extra credit, like adding 4-5% to your midterm grade as long as you fill out a survey. That was pretty much the only nice thing about this class.

Overall, this class sucks. You need to take it though for the major, so you might as well suck it up and prepare to get punched in the gut for 10 weeks straight if you are taking this class with rigeur.

Best professor at UCLA. You won’t regret taking her class she is so amazing

If you're reading this, you're doing great. Take it. Cheers 🥂

This is the second MCDB class I have taken with Dr. Rigueur after 165A. Dr. Rigueur is truly a fun, responsible, and approachable professor. And this class is incredibly fun and informative--it really helps me with a lot of the techniques and skills that I believe would be incredibly useful for my future research. Can't wait to take the class next quarter!