Professor
Stefan Petrovic
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - This was definitely a pretty rigorous course, more so than 153A and perhaps even 153C. There is a lot of material to cover in order to go over the details, mechanisms, and regulation of RNA/DNA synthesis, polymerization, repair, and degradation, so the class is pretty fast paced and unforgiving if you fall behind. Despite that, I found the material to be very interesting and Stefan was a pretty engaging lecturer. It's clear he has a very deep appreciation for biochemistry and wants to share that. To that end, I think he was also pretty good at effectively conveying his knowledge to the class. He's also very responsive via email and on the Canvas discussion board, which really helps to alleviate confusion. The homework for this class was also pretty easy because you would only be assigned ~1/4 of the total assignment and would then share that with your discussion section while getting the other 3/4 from other students. If you had the time I'd recommend trying all 4 beforehand because sometimes they can be good practice. Lecture attendance was mandatory and enforced with iClicker, but I don't think it made up a significant portion of the grade. The biggest factor for your grade were the exams, which were difficult and very long to the point that I don't think a single person left early during either midterm. The averages were in the 70 range but with a pretty high SD, and Stefan said he planned on adjusting it after the first midterm despite not following through on that. This did cause some stress but the grading scheme meant that about an 85 above was an A and he offered extra credit assignments as well as simply for turning in your cheat sheet after the exam. I think he also might have curved the class but I'm not too certain on that one. In all, it's a very dense class with some difficult exams but Stefan does a very good job of explaining the material and encouraging you to dig deeper and find an appreciation for the machinery along with the biochemical experiments that elucidated them.
Spring 2025 - This was definitely a pretty rigorous course, more so than 153A and perhaps even 153C. There is a lot of material to cover in order to go over the details, mechanisms, and regulation of RNA/DNA synthesis, polymerization, repair, and degradation, so the class is pretty fast paced and unforgiving if you fall behind. Despite that, I found the material to be very interesting and Stefan was a pretty engaging lecturer. It's clear he has a very deep appreciation for biochemistry and wants to share that. To that end, I think he was also pretty good at effectively conveying his knowledge to the class. He's also very responsive via email and on the Canvas discussion board, which really helps to alleviate confusion. The homework for this class was also pretty easy because you would only be assigned ~1/4 of the total assignment and would then share that with your discussion section while getting the other 3/4 from other students. If you had the time I'd recommend trying all 4 beforehand because sometimes they can be good practice. Lecture attendance was mandatory and enforced with iClicker, but I don't think it made up a significant portion of the grade. The biggest factor for your grade were the exams, which were difficult and very long to the point that I don't think a single person left early during either midterm. The averages were in the 70 range but with a pretty high SD, and Stefan said he planned on adjusting it after the first midterm despite not following through on that. This did cause some stress but the grading scheme meant that about an 85 above was an A and he offered extra credit assignments as well as simply for turning in your cheat sheet after the exam. I think he also might have curved the class but I'm not too certain on that one. In all, it's a very dense class with some difficult exams but Stefan does a very good job of explaining the material and encouraging you to dig deeper and find an appreciation for the machinery along with the biochemical experiments that elucidated them.
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