IF YOU DO NOT GET AN A IN THIS CLASS, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH YOU.

She gives extra credit and extra extra credit. The class is worth 300 points and you get 3 extra credit points per week (guaranteed). One for showing up on Friday, one for submitting an extra credit assignment (which normally means googling something up), and I can't remember the other one. Extra extra credit involves in anything that she feels like, be it googling a picture to be submitted, or attending a class when there are not many students around.

The class comes in one midterm and one final. She will give a practice sample questions. MAKE SURE YOU DO THEM AND ATTEND THE REVIEW SESSIONS. She gives out the answers and a lot of the questions appear during the tests.

You don't have to buy the textbook - just come to class every single section and take notes. Also, read the online materials she publishes. They're not much reading at all and as long as you do all that, you're fine.

I will totally recommend taking this class for a GE as it is one of those hidden GE gems that not many students know.

She is an okay lecturer. I have had better, I have had worse. There is not much to complain about her lecturing style.

The class is NOT AS LONG AS THE ONLINE MY UCLA SAY IT IS. She signs up for 2-hour slots 3 days a week, but only uses about 75 minutes of it each time (and the others are for Q&A at the end of the class, if you have any, otherwise you're good to go).

She lets you call her if you have any questions, which gets really handy especially during midterm/final seasons.

Do NOT tell someone to sign you in during Fridays, or submit your extra credit for you, she takes notice of these.

Long story short, just do yourself a favor - attend the classes, do the extra credits, read the materials she posts online, and take notes during class. You will go out with at least an A. Guaranteed.

She tests on your ability to regurgitate random facts. She has a weird personality and does not care about you during OH. Stay away!

Dr. W is the chillest brah

yeeeeee

I'm assuming that she adjusted her course because for me and many of the people I know who took this course with her, it was not easy. I got a B+ and my grade was on the higher end. The course taught based on the assumption that we knew some of the material beforehand and as the course progressed, you would get even more lost. The tests were different from what I had from the test bank, they looked harder. For me this class was a GPA killer, but if you are truly interested in microbiology, i'm sure that you will learn a lot from this course.

This is the best GE I've ever taken. The material is dense and detailed at times but about a third of your grade can be made with extra credit! Also, the professor always brings in food for the students (the final review session was basically a picnic with all kinds of cheeses, breads, crackers, fruit, and yogurt). The exams, as long as you pay attention to the review sessions, are easy. This isn't one of those South Campus courses where you're competing with pre-med students for a curved C-. My class this Winter Quarter was about 1/3 student athletes (hint, hint).

DO THE EXTRA CREDIT!

An extremely easy class, though very dry.

She brings in food for the class every day, and gives out an enormous amount of extra credit.

very funny at times, other times, not so much, but its to be expected from a class like this.

You get extra credit for attendance, and turning in articles every week.

She brought in a giant picnic for the finals review session.

An adorable old lady who actually wants to help her students.

Micro 6 is recommended.

Hi guys. I review all my teachers, because BruinWalk is such a valuable resource. I treat it like I do Wikipedia (good for a general overview of the course and professor, but everything should be considered somewhat biased. I'll try my best to lay out all the details about the course, and leave cliffs at the bottom.

Time:

For Winter 2010, the class met MWF 3-4:20 on MW, and 3-3:50 on F.

Grading and Examinations:

Now most of you probably care mostly about the grading scale, it's a joke [no curve, which is a good thing]:

95+ is an A+
90-95 is an A
85-90 is an A-

180 point final, 120 point midterm. All MCQ, matching, T/F.. pretty easy. If you have to, guess false if anything. If it's a random fact which you can't believe is true, then guess true. I think the mean (yes the mean) for our first final was 95.

You really should not have to worry about getting anything lower than that because there's a base 30 points of extra credit available to everyone throughout the course. This extra credit is 3 points weekly and is attained by these three methods:

1. Printing a weekly article
2. Answering the question of the week (It takes a Google search and a printed sentence)
3. Attending class on Fridays (yes you can sleep and still get the points, I did every week. We also got two points for coming on days that it rained)

There's 20 additional extra credit points on the exams.

And there are more opportunities for E.C. as the quarter goes on (rainy days, random additional questions of the week, random printing pictures). This probably adds up to 7-12 points.. I didn't keep too close a track.

Lecture:

Do you have to go to class? If you are petty and want 100+ on the exams, then maybe, but you can still do it w/o lecture. I got a 90 on the first midterm (33rd percentile), but with the extra credit I did up to that point, I still had over 100. All I did was very briefly skim the lecture notes. I also fell asleep during the review session, and studied for it improperly [In hindsight, I should have just listened to everything at the review session, and I would have easily got over 100]. On the final, I read the lecture notes a little more in depth, and listened at the review session (don't have my grade yet, but fairly confident it's over 100 with just the final and the final E.C.]

Is it worth going to class?

It's not one of those amazing courses that you will remember forever by any means. I personally am not overly fond of bio or microbio, so my opinion is definitely a bit biased. Most of the stuff she covers in lecture is also in the lecture notes. If you have a busy quarter, then just go on Fridays to gather your E.C. and you can get an A+ fairly confidently. If you have a chill quarter, then it's up to you. You have to consider that you or your parents are paying money to go to UCLA so don't just blow it off.

Instructor:

At first, I thought she was extremely weird. I won't lie, I still kinda do, but she's also very caring and seems to have a genuine interest for her subject, as she knows the history behind so many things in Microbio, which are interesting but at times trivial. She says some eccentric things like "When was 9/11, 2002?" and it leaves me shocked for a second. She also showed us a picture of Condom man, who was an Australian superhero dedicated to safe sex.. and we were tested on this, but you have to accept this.

She gives out food, and I regret missing the Food Microbio lecture. It wasn't a big incentive for me, but it was very very sweet and unique on her part.

I'm not in the Microbio major, and don't know the department well, so what I am about to say might be short-sighted, but again it's my opinion:

She doesn't seem like one of those professors who you talk to in office hours, perhaps because the course material is easy but it doesn't lend itself to expansion beyond what's taught in class. Perhaps it's the subject, but the teacher's responsibility towards this pursuit is also important.

Cliffs:

Pros:

You will get an A if you do the Extra Credit.
This is a great class for nonscience majors particularly
She's a very sweet professor; I regret giving her an 8 instead of a 9 on Evals.
You don't need to go to class

Cons:

Some of the stuff discussed seems very trivial, random fun facts about this and that are tested on.
Easy class to neglect

Parting words:

If you decide to take this class, you won't regret it and you'll definitely help your GPA. BUT, this is a very very easy class to neglect and it lends itself to negligence. Most of you will probably be fine [ I was ] , but just stay on top of everything and don't stop doing the extra credit [ it takes 5 minutes a week for about 15% of your grade ]. Good luck!

I took this class as a GE and it was definitely the easiest class I have taken at UCLA so far. She gives so much extra credit it's ridiculous (in a good way!). Basically just go to class, pay attention, and do the extra credit and you will get an A (or even an A+). She also gives out food almost every class which was probably an incentive to make us come to class, but it was nice nevertheless. To study for the exams, just read over your notes and the discussion questions and as long as you went to class, that's all you need to do. I didn't read the book at all after the first week when I read it once. Take this class if you want an easy GE!

I LOVED this class. Professor W made learning about microbiology fun and easy. She presents the material in a very easy to learn manner, and gives plenty of examples in class, while also providing help outside of class. There are plenty of opportunities to get an A in this class. All you have to do is keep up and read the material, and it is a snap. She definitely holds your hand throughout the process of learning and will repeat things until you get it, so for you smarties out there this class may be a little repetitive or "too easy" for you, but the simple solution is to just skip class if you already know the material. it wont really hurt you to miss class every once in awhile, however you will miss out on the yummy snacks she gives (almost EVERY time we meet!)
She is a brilliant professor, because she is nice and friendly, and willing to help. I loved her class!