Professor
Kimberly Berthet
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - I'm surprised there aren't more reviews for this course + prof. combo after taking it and wanted add to validate the other recent post. Don't get me wrong, she's a nice person, gentle voiced lecturer, loves to speak about herself and her research which sounds interesting. But not a great instructor. THE COURSE WAS SO MESSY, and she had delayed or vague answers to our questions. The other review's experience of the campuswire is correct! Why have the page if we couldn't get the answers we needed - TAs would answer only random questions, not sure if they needed to check with her for other Qs but they were mostly left unanswered. Save yourself and try and take it with someone else! Lecture: iClicker required, 2x a week 50 min., except she would read off the slides, mention small details about example organisms for 1 minute while she spent the rest of the time going over the broad concept - which was misleading because she said we didn't need to know specific organisms, and somehow you get the question wrong on the test because you don't know it by name. It wouldn't be worth going to lecture if there was no iClicker - oh wait! I'm pretty sure she gave everyone full iClicker points because she kept opening/closing polls by accident so even if you were supposed to have a certain amount of them done there wasn't really a way to track them. TLDR: very basic microbio topics, very detailed Qs on exams - you have to do quite a bit of inferencing. Lab: As the other post says, it's a lot more work than you'd expect for a 5 unit course. But this is where most of the fun was and I really enjoyed the lab portion - some days you get out after 2 hours and some after just 1 you're done. You get an "unknown" you're tasked with identifying through vary many tests and present on at the end of the quarter with your group, which is a good bit of your grade too (100-200). Lab worksheets are 1-4 points (think, out of like almost 700 points) so not much but graded on accuracy and because you need results from tests back to analyze them they're due two weeks after each exercise is due. Mid-quarter you'll get to the point where you have like 8 sheets due every Sunday. There's lab practicals to check your skills but the TAs will prepare you well for that imo. I liked that we did a lot of the tests we learned in 101 and even more! Further Logistics: She said the syllabus would be out of 705 in the first lecture, syllabus said 685. No answer to anyone's questions on this. A hefty amount of your grade is tests even though it's a LAB class - over 50% lol. They were fine, a little tricky and you obviously did a lot better if you could remember that one specific organism she mentioned for 0.2 seconds of the class - but some questions we all walked of the class in unison like "what the _ was that," and her wording on a lot of the questions would make you think she plugged a straightforwardly written Q into ChatGPT and went "make this harder to understand," truly. She gave us a 9 question study guide for MT1 which was way too easy to help with anything, and then none for the next two exams (lack of continuity there, thanks). Also I'd like to CLARIFY something from the other post - NO EXAMS WERE CURVED, there was an ERROR on the key of one version of the exam which I happened to have - they put like 3 or 4 wrong answers on that key (also, each MCQ was like 3 points which is so much to lose, which is why it may have seemed like a curve but really the grading was just incorrect).
Spring 2025 - I'm surprised there aren't more reviews for this course + prof. combo after taking it and wanted add to validate the other recent post. Don't get me wrong, she's a nice person, gentle voiced lecturer, loves to speak about herself and her research which sounds interesting. But not a great instructor. THE COURSE WAS SO MESSY, and she had delayed or vague answers to our questions. The other review's experience of the campuswire is correct! Why have the page if we couldn't get the answers we needed - TAs would answer only random questions, not sure if they needed to check with her for other Qs but they were mostly left unanswered. Save yourself and try and take it with someone else! Lecture: iClicker required, 2x a week 50 min., except she would read off the slides, mention small details about example organisms for 1 minute while she spent the rest of the time going over the broad concept - which was misleading because she said we didn't need to know specific organisms, and somehow you get the question wrong on the test because you don't know it by name. It wouldn't be worth going to lecture if there was no iClicker - oh wait! I'm pretty sure she gave everyone full iClicker points because she kept opening/closing polls by accident so even if you were supposed to have a certain amount of them done there wasn't really a way to track them. TLDR: very basic microbio topics, very detailed Qs on exams - you have to do quite a bit of inferencing. Lab: As the other post says, it's a lot more work than you'd expect for a 5 unit course. But this is where most of the fun was and I really enjoyed the lab portion - some days you get out after 2 hours and some after just 1 you're done. You get an "unknown" you're tasked with identifying through vary many tests and present on at the end of the quarter with your group, which is a good bit of your grade too (100-200). Lab worksheets are 1-4 points (think, out of like almost 700 points) so not much but graded on accuracy and because you need results from tests back to analyze them they're due two weeks after each exercise is due. Mid-quarter you'll get to the point where you have like 8 sheets due every Sunday. There's lab practicals to check your skills but the TAs will prepare you well for that imo. I liked that we did a lot of the tests we learned in 101 and even more! Further Logistics: She said the syllabus would be out of 705 in the first lecture, syllabus said 685. No answer to anyone's questions on this. A hefty amount of your grade is tests even though it's a LAB class - over 50% lol. They were fine, a little tricky and you obviously did a lot better if you could remember that one specific organism she mentioned for 0.2 seconds of the class - but some questions we all walked of the class in unison like "what the _ was that," and her wording on a lot of the questions would make you think she plugged a straightforwardly written Q into ChatGPT and went "make this harder to understand," truly. She gave us a 9 question study guide for MT1 which was way too easy to help with anything, and then none for the next two exams (lack of continuity there, thanks). Also I'd like to CLARIFY something from the other post - NO EXAMS WERE CURVED, there was an ERROR on the key of one version of the exam which I happened to have - they put like 3 or 4 wrong answers on that key (also, each MCQ was like 3 points which is so much to lose, which is why it may have seemed like a curve but really the grading was just incorrect).
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - As someone who had no choice but to retake this course with her and only her 3 times, I feel it is time for this review. She is the worst professor I have had here at UCLA in MIMG. I am an average A-B student but just be prepared to be a machine and memorize everything. There is no point of trying to learn or understand as she does not care about that at all. She is not approachable, she does not consider any feedback given in mid-quarter or end of quarter since I have taken this course with her unfortunately multiple times. Participation is mandatory but to be honest you could get everything you need by just reading the slides. The key is flashcards and memorization and if that is not your strong suit like myself, GOOD LUCK!! Please take this class with anyone else and I know she does not teach in summer. She also goes ridiculously fast and you will not be able to have an engaging question with her in lecture because she is too busy counting how many slides to get through. She gets annoyed if you have a question in lecture and states to come to office hours. I have never had a professor say that to me in lecture. Discussions are useless, the TA's just repeat the material if that is what is helpful for you. There is one group work project in discussion that is so easy and you will not need for any of the exams. Her exams are 40% MC and 60% short answer. Be very specific when answering questions and expect to know the most random detail like a protein that was discussed once ever. MEMORIZE. There are no cheat sheets and if you get a few questions wrong on the multiple choice which can make confusing but not necessarily difficult, expect to be down a letter grade. You will not learn from the homeworks since she just asks you to answer any question from the textbook and she does not use the textbook. So assume you need to do it for the points and don't spend to much time or effort on it. Honestly, I still can't believe she hasn't changed a single thing since I took with her the first time. As you can see by the reviews, someone needs to tell her that her method is not working.
Fall 2025 - As someone who had no choice but to retake this course with her and only her 3 times, I feel it is time for this review. She is the worst professor I have had here at UCLA in MIMG. I am an average A-B student but just be prepared to be a machine and memorize everything. There is no point of trying to learn or understand as she does not care about that at all. She is not approachable, she does not consider any feedback given in mid-quarter or end of quarter since I have taken this course with her unfortunately multiple times. Participation is mandatory but to be honest you could get everything you need by just reading the slides. The key is flashcards and memorization and if that is not your strong suit like myself, GOOD LUCK!! Please take this class with anyone else and I know she does not teach in summer. She also goes ridiculously fast and you will not be able to have an engaging question with her in lecture because she is too busy counting how many slides to get through. She gets annoyed if you have a question in lecture and states to come to office hours. I have never had a professor say that to me in lecture. Discussions are useless, the TA's just repeat the material if that is what is helpful for you. There is one group work project in discussion that is so easy and you will not need for any of the exams. Her exams are 40% MC and 60% short answer. Be very specific when answering questions and expect to know the most random detail like a protein that was discussed once ever. MEMORIZE. There are no cheat sheets and if you get a few questions wrong on the multiple choice which can make confusing but not necessarily difficult, expect to be down a letter grade. You will not learn from the homeworks since she just asks you to answer any question from the textbook and she does not use the textbook. So assume you need to do it for the points and don't spend to much time or effort on it. Honestly, I still can't believe she hasn't changed a single thing since I took with her the first time. As you can see by the reviews, someone needs to tell her that her method is not working.
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