LIFE SCIENCES 3

Cheng has a very thick accent and overall isn't a very effective professor. It's difficult to understand what he's saying, and the material is hard enough to understand without having to decipher what Cheng is saying.

Cheng doesn't do anything to make up for this, either. He skims over things he deems easy and it's very easy to get lost after a couple of weeks. There's also only 1 midterm, so there's a ton of pressure to do well on the midterm and final because they pretty much make up your whole grade. The best bet for LS3 is to take a different professor or pray that his class is webcasted.

I took LS3 with Cheng. Pretty much what I did was to memorize his course reader and I got an A in the class. He is very boring and hard to understand, so I rewatched many of his lectures. Although reading the textbook is not required, it is really helpful in clearing up the concepts that he did not explain very well. Pay very close attention to the molecular biology techniques. He loves to talk about "technology" and tests on it! All in all, he was really sweet and really cared about teaching. He is difficult to understand but his lecture supplement is very thorough. I would definitely take this class again

I just took my LS3 final with this Professor. So LS3 is supposed to be hard, but honestly, the subject is pretty easy. Unfortunately, the professors that teach this class make it harder than it should be, especially Cheng due to his awful accent.

Here are his Pros:
No book necessary
You don't need to come to class, because you won't understand what he's saying anyways. Trust me, if you do, you will fall asleep or lose focus because you probably won't understand half the words that come out of his mouth.
He hints at what is "important" ie will be on the exam, so podcast is a must

Cons:
Terrible accent (Let's just put it this way, he tried to pronounce Kareem Abdul-Jabar and somehow said "Kem Jabay dul"
Not available all the time
Office Hours are just as bad as lecture. You can ask him questions but you still won't know the answer to them
Doesn't tell you where you stand in the class after the midterm (only one midterm btw)
Final was ridiculously hard to say the least. The person who commented 2 before me wrote that prior to the final, I wonder how that person feels now haha

Anyways, I'm sure I got an A due to the fact that I studied way more than the usual kid in this class, but seriously, it's not worth it. I should have taken Johnson, heard she was a bitch, but who cares. She has two midterms, and you can at least understand what the hell is going on.

brutal final... enough said

I took LS3 with Professor Cheng and I really loved him. He's such a nice professor and really cares about his students' learning. It is a little difficult to understand him because of his accent, but the podcasts/webcasts are very helpful. Anything that is on the midterm or final is something that he has talked about and his tests are very straightforward. Office hours are very helpful because a lot of the time, he will tell you not to worry about every detail and just to focus on the general concept of that topic. (This makes studying a lot easier!) The averages on tests are fairly high, so it is important to get a good grasp on the material in order to do well (which isn't all that hard). All in all, I would recommend Cheng if you can get past his accent. I was afraid at first, but I'm so glad that I took him! He is probably the easiest LS professor I've had so far.