If you absolutely cannot avoid taking Halpin, please read only the tips section and disregard everything else. I do not want to depress you. In fact, she's a wonderful person. You'll do swell. Chin up. And good luck. :)

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The fact that I actually created an account to leave a review should speak volumes about how strongly I feel about her. I admit this is partially a case of sour grapes because she released the grades on the 25th. However, I believe my review still rings true.

If you can avoid her, for the love of God, please do.

Professor Halpin does not exactly read off her slides as the other reviewers suggest. However, what you need to know for her class is located on the slides. So, you don't really need to listen to her. She WILL keep you in class for the full fifty minutes. Sometimes she will let you out early; most times she will let you out exactly at the fifty minute mark or a little bit later. I'm not saying that she isn't entitled to the full fifty minutes of the class; however, she will call you back if she sees you or the entire class getting up to leave a minute early. This annoyed me greatly because I had only ten minutes to make it across campus to my next class. I say if we want to leave early and miss something, it's on us. Let us face the consequences ourselves. Don't drag us back. We were all falling asleep anyway.

I scored on average about 15% higher than the average on the midterms and final. I ended up with a B+. I would honestly love to know how the rest of my classmates fared.

TIPS:
1. Memorization of her slides is key. Surprisingly, some questions actually did force you to apply them a few concepts.
2. Not everything you memorize will be on the exam.
3. I went to the test bank for past exams because some reviews said that she reused a lot of her questions. However, this is no longer true. About only 1 or 2 questions ended up being recycled on her midterms. Past final exams weren't available at the test bank. Though, if you want the practice, I am not advising against looking at past exams to familiarize yourself with how her exams and grading style are.
4. You should get old labs from your friends to know how to do the lab write-ups because the page limit is ridiculous. I usually ended up writing at least twice that, and it took hours to cut it down.
5. Do the lab quizzes with a friend. Not all quiz questions are the same.
6. The answers to the reading quiz questions from the Mastering Biology website can usually be looked up online.
7. Every. point. counts.

As a person, she seems alright. Not someone I would EVER want to associate with, but still alright.
As a lecturer, I've had worse.
As a professor, I hate her. With a passion.
And if she is one of the better LS1 professors, may God have mercy on us all.

Also, either the grades for the Spring 2010 LS1 class are straight up wrong or those students are incredibly gifted.

Great professor! Really explains things well. Planning to take more courses with her.

I'll tell you how to get an easy A in this class. Go get the old exams from her class because she rarely change the questions. Memorize all of those questions and the right answers and you're set to get at least an A- on the exam. Don't be stupid and memorize all the lecture slides because you'll be wasting a lot of your time. The test is not curved, so if you don't do this it'll be harder to get an A.

Courses taken: LS1, EEB100

I had professor Halpin for LS1 her first year of teaching, and then took her for EEB100 in winter of '12. I had a choice of this or Psych 118 (comparative psychobio). I wanted to take something more bio related, so, ignoring the warnings on bruinwalk, I stupidly decided to take this class.

Let me just say, Halpin is not an educator. She's not your friend. She does not like you, doesn't care about your grade, your education, or anything else. She's interested in getting through her lectures as fast as possible. You can tell that she feels only disdain for the students she's teaching by: not offering a realistic regrade policy, not letting you see the multiple choice you missed on exams, not responding to emails, having the exams graded by outside graders & giving them back to you 4 weeks after you took them, awkwardly asking 'is there a question?' over and over in lecture when she wants students to quiet down, etc..

Honestly, think twice before taking this class. What should have been a normal, interesting bio class turned into a frustrating snorefest. After 5 terms of getting straight As, this might be my first B.

You have been warned.

I'll admit I was really worried about the class after reading all the unhinged rants below. The class and prof were really good. yes you have to go to lecture and the work. The lectures were good though, better than most. and you could miss a big chunk of lectures and not get docked on points. All the profs have lab quizzes. The class was work, but that's nothing new.Put in the time and you'll be OK. I liked it and learned a lot.

Amazing professor, made the material very easy to understand. Power points were excellent as well as her lectures.

I thought she was an excellent professor. She is enthusiastic about the material and is very approachable

I had her for EEB142 and I hated it. I was taking another marine bio course and the fact that I got a B+ in that class and a C in this class was a testament to how much I hated her class/how ridiculous her tests are. She has a fake laugh and is evil because she ends up making you do bullshit assignments for "discussion points". Everything about her is boring: from her monotonous tone during lecture to the reading she assigns. I swear she picked out the DRIEST research papers (and the longest) and had us read them and then take stupid quizzes on mundane, unimportant details. I cannot describe how much I loathe this woman because she tries SO hard to make sure that you attend class (which no one wants to do) by implementing bullshit stuff that reminds me of junior high (thank god she didn't have clickers). Here's an idea, lady: IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO COME TO YOUR CLASS, DON'T BE SO DAMN BORING.

Memorized every single lecture slide she presents to the point that you can close your eyes and envision it on the back of you eyelids. That's the only way you'll get an A. Be prepared to literally just draw out phylogenetic trees straight off the lecture slides.

If you can memorize things well, then Halpin will be easy. Otherwise, you'll hate her with a passion. Oh, and she likes to use clickers.

I took LS1 with Halpin and though she was great. She made the material very interesting, I looked forward to lectures rather than dreading them like with some other profs. She really cares a lot about what she teaches.