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.

This review is mostly going to be an utterly unhinged rant, mostly motivated by a couple baffling and utterly incompetent teaching practices I've seen in my entire life. The long and short of it is, this class manages to be decent in some areas, but completely atrocious and asinine in others.

To start, I'll go over the basic structure of the class. Your grade is split into discussion attendance and participation (90 points), 2 quizzes assigned one week before exams (60 points), 6 reports (240 points), 2 midterms (310 points) and 1 final (300 points) for a total of 1000 points, with some pretty substantial extra credit peppered here and there. Your midterm 2 score can replace your midterm 1 score, same with your lowest paper score. This grading scheme is decent, it is more than fair, gives you a lot of chances to lose points and not tank your grade, and the extra credit is pretty generous. Additionally, a 92% is an A in this class, not a 93.

From here on out though, the class goes from fair and balanced, to being complete dogwater. Discussions feel utterly useless. See, TAs and the students are meant to discuss the paper and answer some basic questions on it. However, these questions are SO basic and SO barebones that you walk out of the discussion having gained nothing. This class does a great job in acting like it's teaching you on how to analyze and read a scientific paper. In reality, you most likely kind of taught yourself as you were completing the papers. The papers themselves, while relatively straightforward, have the most unclear instructions ever put to paper (or a Word document for that matter). The syllabus has it's own set of report guidelines, much of which conflicts with what is written on the instructions on the assignments themselves. Truly brilliant.

On the topic of lectures, you would think after watching her first lecture that lectures are relatively useless and that you should just read the book. This would usually work, but you eventually come to find out during the first midterm that EVERYTHING and ANYTHING said during lecture is fair game for the exams, even statements that sounds like asides. Dr. Rigueur excells and shines at being the master of using many words to say nothing at all. Is the point of a lecture well conveyed? Yes. Could it have been explained in the time it took me to urinate while writing this review? Also yes. You still can get away with not going to lecture, but do take notes on everything (watch the recording if you think you missed something).

Exams were easily the worst part of the class, not because of the content, but because of how they went about grading and releasing scores. The first midterm was a 7 day take home exam. While the questions were pretty hard, and the multiple choice was worded very particularly (almost to the point where some multiple choice felt like it depended on how you interpreted the wording of the question), I can't complain considering the length we had to complete it. The grading of the exam, however, was handled in the worst way I have ever seen in my entire life. First of all, the exam scores were available immediately after finishing (while the long answer questions weren't graded, you could see how you did on the multiple choice). This means that a lot of people saw their scores before they were supposed to. Additionally, because "Canvas glitched," much of the multiple choice was graded incorrectly, leading to way more stress than what was necessary. Worse is that the grading team doesn't seem to know what the statement, "Midterm 1 Graded" means. See, when you see a notification that says "Midterm 1 Graded," you'd think "great, my midterm is graded." So when you check and see that your score is abysmal and the grade distribution is available, you naturally think that's what your score actually is. You slowly come to terms with the fact that you got a failing score on an exam and go through the 5 stages of grief. Just as you are about to accept your grade and move on, you come to find out that your exam is not ACTUALLY fully graded, but the teaching team sent out the "Midterm 1 Graded" notification anyway. Because screw you, I guess. How the hell do you not know if a midterm is graded or not? So much unnecessary stress for no reason. When they did actually get around to grading the exam, the professor threw out a couple questions because she just flat out never went over them. Brilliant, thanks for the free points, I guess.

The second midterm was a three hour timed exam. Questions were far easier this time around, likely due to the lower time limit. These exams are open book and open note, so much of the information can be accessed if you download your notes ahead of time (don't bother trying to memorize things). They, again, left scores available so you can see how you did on the multiple choice after the midterm, but it *seems* to have been graded correctly? They took forever to grade this one too, I didn't know my midterm score until around 2-3 days before the final. The final was... whatever, not as hard as the first but not as easy as the second, considering we had 3 days to do it. There were fewer questions on the final than either midterm, meaning each question was like 0.5-1% of your grade when you consider the higher weight of the final. How fun.

As an aside, her syllabus is the first instance in which I've seen numerous errors in writing. The main bits are points that don't actually exist and extra credit opportunities that don't exist. Did these points go missing? Did the "in person quizzes" magically disappear? Did the essence comprising the concept of the "in person quizzes" suddenly dissolve into the ether, never to be perceived again by the eyes of man? Are these Schrödinger's in person quizzes? Do they both exist and not exist? If so, why is it still in the syllabus? Again, so much stress for nothing, because you read the syllabus and think that you've been missing quizzes because you don't go to lecture, only to find out that those quizzes don't even exist at all.

TL:DR. Most disorganized class on God's green earth, but you'll still *probably* get an A

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!

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 🥂

Dr. Rigueur is an outstanding professor whose passion for research and biology shines through in every lecture. I have taken her MCDB 144, MCDB 180A, and MCDB 180B courses, and she has significantly enriched my learning experience by fostering an engaging, supportive, and enriching learning environment. From the beginning, she made me feel welcomed by ensuring that every student, including myself, was recognized and included during class discussions. Dr. Rigueur's lecture style emphasizes collaboration and teamwork, particularly through peer-editing papers, which encouraged us to voice our honest feedback to improve. As a result, I have seen significant growth in my communication and scientific writing skills.

The material assigned outside of class was thoughtfully designed. It was rigorous, but manageable which allowed me to growth as both a student and researcher without feeling overwhelmed. Under Dr. Rigueur's guidance, I improved my ability to read and comprehend primary literature which built confidence, and prepared me for graduate school.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this class due to Dr. Rigueur's enthusiasm, passion, and expertise across multiple fields of biology. Not only did she teach the material effectively, but she also cultivated a supportive community that inspired growth and enthusiasm for science.