It really shocks me to read the reviews about Professor Brunk from some of these students. Professor Brunk is incredibly nice. He is personable, understanding, helpful, and always open to discuss concepts further. He's accessible and loves a good discussion. I actually found him to be a breath of fresh air compared to other professors at UCLA. He is truly passionate about the course. He teaches because he WANTS to, and he likes engaging with students. Is the material tough? Sure it is. But it's molecular biology mixed with evolutionary concepts - it goes very in depth and it covers A LOT. But study hard and try your best, and you will be fine. Do LOTS of practice problems (which the TAs give you plenty of handouts and worksheets to do), and go to office hours. The worksheets will be like a bible. They cover all the main topics and are really good ways to summarize and organize all the material. I don't know what past students are talking about - he is the OPPOSITE of rude. He's actually really nice and seems grateful for the interest of the student to meet outside of class. He podcasts the class, too, which is really nice for people to go back and review material. Take the class, you'll enjoy the professor and you'll enjoy the material.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH BRUNK. Normally, I dismiss reviews on bruin walk because I assume people who destroy professors are slackers... this is not the case with Brunk. He is hands down the worst professor at UCLA. His lectures are unorganized, make no sense, he will say something and then immediately contradict himself, and then when you ask him a question he will embarrass you in front of the entire class (because he doesn't know the answer). They give a bunch of weekly questions and worksheets and then refuse to give you the answers??? So you don't know if what you're doing is right??? Also the questions are NO WHERE in the lectures or weeks ahead of the material you are on. He is arrogant, rude, and totally ignorant of how to teach a class in a clear and concise manner. If you value your sanity, I beg you, do not take this class. You will find yourself sifting through an incredibly dense book trying to find random facts that Brunk has thrown at you in lecture with no explanation that you are now expected to now all about. The second half of the quarter is all math, math problems he barely skims and then expects you to do, and they take like an hour to do each. As I sit here studying for the final, I regret every decision that led me to being in this class.

The professor is a nice person who loves to share stories and random facts that are unrelated to the course. I understand that with his age, it is hard to teach as efficiently as younger professors, but it is undeniably frustrating that he spends so much time talking about random stuff instead of the materials of the course. I strongly advise against taking this class if you are not extremely good at focusing and being patient.

I received an A- but Brunk is the rudest and least knowledgeable professor you could find in UCLA. No one would show up to his lectures cause he confuses everyone including himself during his lectures. I went to his office hours once and he was ridiculously rude to me. He doesn't really care about the class since he's teaching for free!

Sweeet. Missed half the lectutes. Miss 50 points for just filling out a sheet and partcipated very little in discussion. Minus 25 points. Got average on midterm and thus with missing 75 points, 5 standard dev below midterm avg. No one else missed class as much as me. But I got a B-. Sweet. I did average on final. Nice curve. Easy A if I just went to class then.

This class is so frustrating. The most frustrating part is that sometimes, what he says will completely contradict with what he has written on the slide (i.e. he will say something during 1 lecture, and the slides for the next lecture will be the complete OPPOSITE of what he lectured before). WTF. seriously. I'm sure you can understand how annoying and difficult this is when you're trying to study. Also, he will cut off mid-sentence as he is lecturing and start talking about something else (or just not finish the sentence) .. The way he lectures just makes the class even more confusing than it already is. I just can't with this class.

Took EEB 121 in Spring 2013. The lecture material is sometimes confusing to understand the fist time so definitely rewatch lectures on bruincast. The lecture slides he posts before class are different from actual lecture, so it's really annoying if you like to print them out beforehand. The midterm was very fair; if you studied really hard, you did fine. Unfortunately, he noticed people did well and decided to make the final REALLLY hard to make up for it. He hates giving out too many A's so he'll make the final extremely difficult; he told us he would. He wasn't joking. BE AWARE. This class is NOT an easy A. He is really nice in office hours but that doesn't mean you'll get an A no matter how much you study. The material from the midterm was way more interesting than the stuff later on. The second half of the class is all about doing confusing calculations and word problems. The final is cumulative. Both exams consist of multiple choice, T/F, and short answer/essay.

I took EEB121 Spr 13.
I don't see why people hate him so much. Yes, he talks in monotone, but the lecture material was really easy and you don't even need to read any of the assigned readings AT ALL and still get an A.

The average for the MT was 85, so it sure was easy as hell (but also because most students are seniors), but unfortunately it's graded on a curve and the SD was kinda high so even if you scored a 90 it's still just an A-, which sucks.

Final was a bit harder but completely doable. Very straightforward but you really need to be familiar with all the lecture material.

simply...worst Prof ever in UCLA..
He will ruin your grade..

This was the WORST class I have taken at UCLA by far. Cliff Brunk was an AWFUL professor. Honestly, he posted lecture slides and would lecture off of completely different slides. I am sure that he is a good researcher and I am sure the topics could be interesting but the fact is, his skewed and miserable lectures were both impossible to follow and nothing you even wanted to care about. Also, regarding participation during section, TRY to participate, but know that rude know-it-alls will interject and steal your participation points anyways. The TAs are helpful and were nice enough but it's hard to try to engage in a class where the professor is terribly inconsistent and you don't know what the point is. I've taken many science classes and this was by far the worst one (I am a pre-med and pissed about my grade in this class). I got an 86 on the midterm, went to all classes and participated... somehow I ended up with a C in the class. I read these bruinwalk reviews and thought that I could do it regardless of how terrible he was, but I COULDN'T. IT WAS A JOKE. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PAY ATTENTION TO THESE BRUINWALK POSTS AND TAKE ANOTHER CLASS.