Overall, this class was tougher than LS7A and many of my friends who got an A in LS7A would agree. The grade distribution might contradict, but the tests were harder. Marcot was an alright professor. His review session and office hours weren't as good as Kane's. Often times when we ask him a hypothetical question, he would say, "I don't know. I would need more information." However, Kane always answered our hypothetical questions, when I went to her review sessions. Also, I would choose a different professor, like Kane, but it doesn't really matter since the class is standardized and your grade depends on how well you know the material. The labs are very useless as they don't pertain to the exams. They were basically long LS7A discussions. Very boring. CLC hours were the most beneficial. If lab was like CLC hours, then it would've been worth it.

The first midterm was rough. Apparently, it is either the first or second midterm that is tough (after talking to people who previously took the course), but it doesn't matter since the hard midterm is always about Pedigrees. We barely had any time to finish, and it felt like a rush since we only had around 5 minutes left to double-check. The second midterm was way easier with almost an hour left. The Final was online due to COVID-19 and it was hard. Somehow, I managed to pull off an A, but one mistake I made was coming into LS7B with the mindset that LS7B would be a breeze. As a tip, you should understand how to do pedigrees very well and quickly. Go online and find examples, since they do not provide you with enough practice material. Use the clicker questions and practice exam questions as "practice tests" and do them after you review every chapter. Good luck and study hard!

This review will have a little bit of information about Professor Marcot, but will mainly focus on 7B as a class. Professor Marcot was very nice and clearly knowledgeable about the material if you asked him a content-related question. He also encouraged students to discuss with each other and ask questions. However, this caused our class to go a little slow, and we were always behind on material. If you asked him a course logistic-related question such as whether certain material would be on an exam, he didn't know because this class is entirely controlled and designed by Debra Pires. The clicker questions are so ambiguous that the professor occasionally crosses out all of the options and writes "It depends" as the answer. This translates to ambiguous exam questions too, to the point where my TA said during an exam, "We're getting lots of questions about how to interpret the problems, but we can't help you with that." The first midterm was nearly impossible to finish on time because you have to draw multiple detailed pedigrees from scratch and answer questions about them, but the second midterm was slightly better. The lab sections are designated to be nearly two hours long, but somehow the labs themselves are designed so that you have to work extremely quick if you have any hope of finishing them (they average around 6 pages worth of questions). The labs are also mostly unrelated to material that will be on the exams. For example, there was a lab where we had to go to 15 stations to learn about coelacanths, cephalopods, vertebrates, etc. and another lab where we had to go to different stations in the Botanical Garden on our own time. None of the professors answered questions on the online Campuswire forum, so it was just students trying to help other students. My best advice for this class is to get most, if not all, of the free points for participation, Launchpad pre-class review questions, Launchpad practice exam questions, etc., and go to your TA's office hours if you have questions. I would HIGHLY recommend going to the CLC problem solving sessions because this is where the LA's teach the material that the professors do not teach during the lecture but will nevertheless be on the exams. To study for exams, I would recommend focusing on the clicker questions, practice exam questions, the practice midterm questions that Professor Pires will email you, and the CLC worksheets. Don't worry too much about which professor you take for this class, because it's going to be very challenging (but doable if you work hard enough) no matter what.

I thought Dr. Marcot did a great job teaching LS7B. My complaints are mainly about the course. The tests are super tricky and don’t make sense at all. The second midterm the wording was super confusing and messed up a lot of the class. My grade was not bad at all but I struggled immensely in this class. Don’t be fooled by those who say 7B is easier than 7A. Marcot did a good job teaching and answered questions thoroughly. Since the course is standardized, you won’t be able to escape the tests but I would recommend Dr. Marcot for 7B.

Not helpful at all. Whenever I have a question he would tell me that we need more info.

Marcot is a nice prof. I think he was able to explain things well for the most part, however, he would sometimes contradict himself during lecture and would give us clicker questions that were not at all similar in difficulty level to the tests. The tests in 7B are much more confusing than the 7A tests. I didn't put a lot of effort in the class, but I do think it is relatively ok.

Marcot is okay in my opinion, he doesn't really stand out in my mind as either a great prof or a bad prof. It is standardized across the lectures so workload is the same for all, just like the rest of the 7 series.

I felt that this class was definitely tougher than 7A. Before I took the course, everyone told me that this class would be easier. I definitely disagree. The exams were not very straightforward and quite tricky (they often try to trick you with the slightest details in the wording of the questions to throw you off). On the first mid term (the genetics unit), I did not do so great (got a C minus). Later on, I started studying more and ended up doing better on the mid term and final (got a B and B+). Though I expected to end the class with either an overall B plus or A minus, I somehow ended with an A. I think that the professors of this class really try to help students with the extra credit opportunities (teacher evals and syllabus quiz) and with the weighed point structure. My advice to do well in this class is to just really understand the lecture material (sometimes Marcot will slip in something that is very important and could show up on the exams). Also I think that the pre-reading materials are quite important to help understand certain concepts more thoroughly. So my tips for success are just to always study the slides (maybe rewatch some lectures you get confused on) and study some of the main concepts from the readings. Overall, though this class is quite material dense and a bit tricky, the professors did a good job ensuring that everyone got a fair grade.

Just a bit of effort is enough. Tests only make up around 30% of the grade. Rest is clickers, discussion, etc

Marcot's lectures were helpful and informative, but he would sometimes be a week or class behind where other instructors are at. Also, during some lectures, Marcot will focus on one topic for a longer amount of time than the other, which would cause him to rush the class time.

The learning goals were always made clear on a weekly basis, however I feel that the work that went along with the class did not accurately reflect what exactly we were learning. There was only a small amount of work that was done and when I did have work, I felt misguided.