Professor
Malcolm Gordon
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Most Helpful Review
O wow what a professor!!! this class is just like amazing. we are learning about evolution so if that is interesting to you then i definitely recommend this course. he is a very effective and kind professor and his lectures are straight forward. His midterms are just like his lectures and his average are generous. def recommend it i had him for eeb 111
O wow what a professor!!! this class is just like amazing. we are learning about evolution so if that is interesting to you then i definitely recommend this course. he is a very effective and kind professor and his lectures are straight forward. His midterms are just like his lectures and his average are generous. def recommend it i had him for eeb 111
Most Helpful Review
I took EEB 111 Vertebrates with him. For some reason this professor was rated a 2.5 on difficulty BEFORE bruinwalk got reformatted (that's a 7.5 now) so everyone signed up to his class expecting a cakewalk. We got so jipped. This class is hella hard. You have to memorize over one hundred species names, common names, traits, and evolutionary trends. And you have to be able to write them from memory. That's right, there's no multiple choice so the tests give zero hints on what to write. If you are good at recognizing a name, great, you won't do so well in this class. If you are good at seeing 100 latin genus species common names and being able to write all of them down onto a blank piece of paper, you'll probably get a A in this class. Otherwise, it's gonna be really tough. If you look at the average grade for this class, it's a C+. WHY WOULD HE MAKE THE AVERAGE SO LOW WHEN THE WEEDER CLASSES ALREADY WEEDED OUT THE C AND BELOW PEOPLE? Think about it: all the people taking this class probably got B-'s or better in the weeder LS classes. You take those top 70% ish and make the average grade a C+. That's like making the average a D in a LS 1 class!!! I wish I could drop this class but it's too late now. I'm just working my ass off now to be above average in an above average class. I want my first pass back.
I took EEB 111 Vertebrates with him. For some reason this professor was rated a 2.5 on difficulty BEFORE bruinwalk got reformatted (that's a 7.5 now) so everyone signed up to his class expecting a cakewalk. We got so jipped. This class is hella hard. You have to memorize over one hundred species names, common names, traits, and evolutionary trends. And you have to be able to write them from memory. That's right, there's no multiple choice so the tests give zero hints on what to write. If you are good at recognizing a name, great, you won't do so well in this class. If you are good at seeing 100 latin genus species common names and being able to write all of them down onto a blank piece of paper, you'll probably get a A in this class. Otherwise, it's gonna be really tough. If you look at the average grade for this class, it's a C+. WHY WOULD HE MAKE THE AVERAGE SO LOW WHEN THE WEEDER CLASSES ALREADY WEEDED OUT THE C AND BELOW PEOPLE? Think about it: all the people taking this class probably got B-'s or better in the weeder LS classes. You take those top 70% ish and make the average grade a C+. That's like making the average a D in a LS 1 class!!! I wish I could drop this class but it's too late now. I'm just working my ass off now to be above average in an above average class. I want my first pass back.
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Most Helpful Review
I took EEB 111 with Gordon last quarter. I agree with the comment before mine. Do not take this class if you think it is going to be easy, which is why I took it since he had really good ratings at the time. Since he had good comments, all the pre-meds decided to take it, so the averages were always really high. His exams are based on lecture and also on the book. You're going to have to do all the book reading and memorize all the bolded words because they will appear as ID's on the exam. Lectures were boring, but bearable. Lab sections were pretty awful for me because I didn't see the point of spending time memorizing scientific names of over a hundred animals as well as dates, habitats etc. Also, make sure you get a good t.a.or switch into one that will make the material easier to learn, or else your section will be dreadful.
I took EEB 111 with Gordon last quarter. I agree with the comment before mine. Do not take this class if you think it is going to be easy, which is why I took it since he had really good ratings at the time. Since he had good comments, all the pre-meds decided to take it, so the averages were always really high. His exams are based on lecture and also on the book. You're going to have to do all the book reading and memorize all the bolded words because they will appear as ID's on the exam. Lectures were boring, but bearable. Lab sections were pretty awful for me because I didn't see the point of spending time memorizing scientific names of over a hundred animals as well as dates, habitats etc. Also, make sure you get a good t.a.or switch into one that will make the material easier to learn, or else your section will be dreadful.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - I absolutely loved this class and got a lot out of it. However, I did not like Professor Gordon's methods of teaching. I felt like his teaching style was extremely disorganized and unhelpful. The first two weeks we spent talking about cloud formation, the second two weeks were spent talking about a graph and then neither were on the first midterm. The only reason I knew any of the information was because I read the book. I understand that information should come from many sources, including the text book but I firmly believe that I should get some information from lecture. I felt that the lectures were a waste of my time and didn't provide any help in either the lab sections or for the tests. As well, I didn't find Professor Gordon very helpful in the lab section of this class. I understand that it's his job to be critical of the projects so that we can improve upon them and make them better. However, I felt like he unnecessarily criticized projects when in fact he didn't have the information or knowledge to back it up. The TA's were much more helpful in this regard. The last complaint I have about Professor Gordon was his utter disrespect for everyone's time. He showed up at least 10 minutes late to every single class period. Every day his excuse was that there was traffic but if all of the students were able to make it to class on time, he should also be able to make it on time.
Winter 2016 - I absolutely loved this class and got a lot out of it. However, I did not like Professor Gordon's methods of teaching. I felt like his teaching style was extremely disorganized and unhelpful. The first two weeks we spent talking about cloud formation, the second two weeks were spent talking about a graph and then neither were on the first midterm. The only reason I knew any of the information was because I read the book. I understand that information should come from many sources, including the text book but I firmly believe that I should get some information from lecture. I felt that the lectures were a waste of my time and didn't provide any help in either the lab sections or for the tests. As well, I didn't find Professor Gordon very helpful in the lab section of this class. I understand that it's his job to be critical of the projects so that we can improve upon them and make them better. However, I felt like he unnecessarily criticized projects when in fact he didn't have the information or knowledge to back it up. The TA's were much more helpful in this regard. The last complaint I have about Professor Gordon was his utter disrespect for everyone's time. He showed up at least 10 minutes late to every single class period. Every day his excuse was that there was traffic but if all of the students were able to make it to class on time, he should also be able to make it on time.
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