Lily Yang and Tim O'Sullivan co-teach this class and their new format is using flipped classroom learning. They each record lecture videos and expect you to watch them before class. Class time is converted into office hours and you can only ask questions from that day's lectures (meaning no going back to previous lectures). They do not hold additional OH outside of scheduled lecture times.

The lectures were very difficult to comprehend due to poor video quality and audio quality. At points, the video was incomprehensible and required a separate audio only file to be made. I felt that the lectures were also poorly organized. In other words, the professor jumped around a lot going over content and often repeated information covered previously, which made things confusing. I also felt that substituting lectures for office hours was inappropriate. The professor did not hold any additional office hours outside of the designated lecture times. The problem with this is that if students have questions outside of lectures or from different lectures, we cannot discuss that during “office hours” because they only discuss content from that day’s lecture. This makes their “office hours” very restrictive and not practical.

The midterm/final review sessions were also inadequate because they replaced “office hours.” The professors held the midterm review session on the same day as the midterm. During the final review session, 15 minutes were wasted because the professor wanted us to fill out the evaluation forms. This is not appropriate because it takes away the already limited time we have with the professor to review content. Furthermore, the practice quizzes in lecture do not nearly correlate with the difficulty and complexity of exam questions. I felt that the professor was not very engaging or enthusiastic about helping students

The pros of the class is there's only one midterm and one final (non-cumulative). Plus, the exams are open notes (I used a binder and focused on understanding the figures/mechanisms).

Overall, the class content is doable and within reasonable limits. However, the poor execution and minimal teaching of course content makes this course difficult for students with little research experience. As one of the flagship courses for MIMG, I hoped for a stimulating and interesting class. Instead, the material felt dull and very basic. If you like asynchronous learning and self-studying, take this class with Yang/O'Sullivan and just take really good notes for the exams. If you want a class that's stimulating and engaging, take it with Zack.

The class is one of the most interesting you'll take as an MIMG major, but like every review says, it's hard. You have to not only keep up with the large amount of material but also learn how to answer the questions they ask on the exams. The tests are very critical-thinking heavy and require you to interpret a lot of information from different experiments and then make a conclusion. On the final, there was huge proportions of the exam that had never been covered in class, and it was so damn long that most people didn't finish it. Dr. Yang and Dr. O'Sullivan (they teach the course together) are just OK as lecturers. Go to OH if you want more clarification on concepts. If you have the choice, take this class with Galic and Zack instead.

PSA: This class requires a lot of effort into understanding the concepts THOROUGHLY. You have to be able to think critically when it comes to the midterm/final. Memorizing the slides and information will only do so much. For our class, Yang made the midterm and final open note, which understandably resulted in a much more difficult exam. It is KEY you attend lectures and discussions and complete ALL the homework assignments, otherwise you will fall behind. If you are not an MIMG major, this class may be very tough for you, but if you put in a lot of effort you can do it.

Selling 2015 and 2016 official immunology midterms along with a practice midterm, and 2 practice finals for 25 dollars. Additionally, I will throw in 200 pages of my lecture notes from Winter 2018 quarter.

I got an A in the class and an A on the midterm (30+ points above average).

Email me at ************* if interested.

Dr. Yang is super nice and helpful. She and Dr. Galic explain things well. Do make an effort to go to their OHs, but come prepared with specific questions. Their exams are open note/open book but don't let that fool you. The exams are difficult and super lengthy. Every single part is an experimental/conceptual question and there are no "easy" points. While you're studying think constantly about the broader concepts and make sure you understand the logic behind the problem sets. The exams were like the problem sets but 2-4x as long and you only have like an hour so you have to really know the concepts, not waste time looking through your notes during the test.

One thing that helped me was just making a master list of all the proteins and molecules mentioned in class so during an exam you can easily look up what CD3 or IL-4 is, and as long as you understand the concepts then it's easy to know what the question is trying to ask.

I really liked Dr. Yang when she taught Immunology. She has all of the main points written on her slides so it's really easy to follow along. She makes sure to pause in her lectures every once in a while to make sure no one has any questions.

100% go to at least one of her office hours. They're really helpful AND she has you check your name off a list so she knows who's going and who is not going, which they take into account when giving you your final grade.