Professor’s Oliver Fregoso and Melody Li co-teach this class in the Winter, and they are both amazing lecturers who truly care about their students’ learning. The beginning of the class covers very introductory virology concepts and mechanisms. Thus, the concepts themselves are not very difficult, but be aware that they do expect you to know a lot of information for the tests. The exams are challenging and focus mainly on viral mechanisms, not straight memorization. However, the two midterms are not cumulative and the length of each exam is pretty reasonable. In my experience, the best way to study for this class is to attend lectures or rewatch the Bruincasts since anything from their lectures are fair game. Both Dr. Fregoso and Dr. Li hold very engaging office hours, and they really enjoy students who talk about virology topics beyond the scope of the class.
Importantly, the class only has 2 midterm exams and 1 final project. The final project is typically a group presentation about a virology topic. The final project is graded extremely leniently (eg. students typically score 90-100%). I took this class as a MIMG major, however, I think this is such an interesting and fun class for any life science student. The topics covered in this class were really interesting for me, and once I set up a studying schedule the workload was really manageable. Discussions aren't mandatory but I would really recommend attending. Overall I really liked this class, and I would definitely recommend Dr. Fregoso as a professor!