I am writing a review on this class because I do feel like the other reviews are a bit misleading. Tina was by no means a bad teacher, but her slides were incredibly disorganized. Her exams were hard. They required you to memorize her slides word for word, and there were about 300 slides for each midterm. Pretty sure the average for the second midterm was a C. She's a very nice person, but honestly, after taking other MCDB classes that require 165A, I genuinely did not feel as prepared as I should have. One professor I have for an MCDB upper div said to my class "you should have learned this in 165A" and I had literally never heard of the topic. I do believe she tried her best, and she got better as the quarter went on. She did give extra credit, and the presentations were pretty fun to do! But do not go into this class thinking it's super easy and fun. It still requires a lot of work.

Best professor ever! The class was composed of 2 midterms + 1 presentation + 1 final. Everyone got to be creative in the presentation. She gave many extra credits throughout the quarter, and the exams weren't tricky (closed book, MC + T/F + Short Answer). One midterm was dropped as she asked our opinion: the majority of the entire class would like to. Learned a lot of information about cell biology, though not in-depth, it is what this class is designed for. There are six papers that are spread throughout the quarter's discussions and were part of the grading for biweekly assignments. TA was helpful as well. Shout out to Evgeniy! Attendance is not required but is very helpful, highly recommend it as the professor likes to interact with the students. Half of the class is on zoom and half in person. The zoom classes are often recorded, and in-person classes fail to do bruincast but the professor is willing to make post-lecture recordings to go over the material, and these are also very helpful for review. The professor's OH is extremely helpful so highly recommend attending. Great professor, we also took a class photo together! Supra Fun. ((((love Prof Austin, from the minor

My main critique of this class is that the class materials and lectures felt unorganized at times. Slides were often disorganized and did not properly condense information, and the professor would sometimes not be very thorough with explaining the material. Also, I personally did not feel that the topics that were tested on the midterms and final were representative of what we had mainly focused on in class. Prof Austin is a great person- approachable and passionate about what she's teaching, but the class was very "eh" for me. I will say that our research presentations were quite fun.

Dr. Austin is a fantastic professor, and I am so happy that I could be in her class. Homework assignments are very reasonable and if you pay attention to what is being asked, you can get the whole credit. There is a presentation involved that I liked it. Final and midterm are based on lectures and doable. In general, her classes are the best and you will learn a lot without experiencing stress. Thank you Dr. Austin for your wonderful classes; you are the best!

Professor Austin is a superstar. Most of this class is about showing up and understanding lectures, and for sure understanding discussion. I had Evgeniy for a TA and he was incredible, very clear and each discussion he fully explained through each figure of the paper. You have to ask questions in discussion to really get a good understanding. Tina Austin's lectures are good, she uses her slides and verbal explanations a lot. Austin loves feedback forms, and this is the attendance every class and discussion. For my quarter, half of the classes were online. Attendance is important. Participation is important, she asks a lot of questions during lecture and she appreciates you answering even if your wrong. The homeworks are based around discussion and lecture, so take good notes. The midterms were challenging, I got an A on the first one and didn't get a grade back on the second one (TA strike) but it was bad. I studied around two days before each midterm. The final was multiple choice because of the strike too, but Austin was super gentle with how in depth the cumulative questions are. Overall a great, enthralling, and very informational class. Don't miss out on taking Tina Austin if you can help it, she's the greatest.

I loved taking this class with Professor Austin! Aside from the course material, there was a presentation that we had to do over Zoom, which was a great break from the course. Dr. Austin was very approachable, and she was very knowledgeable about the course material. She was also very understanding throughout the quarter and offered to drop our lowest midterm for us. Certainly not a walk in the park, but very fair class with a lot of opportunities for extra credit. Dr. Austin clearly cares about her students. Would highly recommend anyone to take this course with her. The TAs were fantastic as well, and they explained all of the material really well.

Professor Austin was the best professor I have had at UCLA so far. She is extremely approachable and structures the class in an engaging manner that helps dumb down the complex material. Definitely would recommend this class with Professor Austin if you're MCDB or MIMG and need to take 165A for a core class.