My first recommendation for this class is to take it during the summer, if possible. It's not necessarily the toughest intro lab course, especially if you're comparing it to Intro Chem Lab, but taking it during a summer session allows you to devote more time and energy into a class that does require a pretty detail-oriented approach. As far as the actual teaching structure, you couldn't ask for a more knowledgeable and amiable professor than David Kittlesen. He really knows the subject matter backwards and forwards and is super effective at communicating that in a clear, concise manner to his students. I don't know the structure of tests and quizzes during the fall and spring, but during the summer we were given daily pre/post lab assessments, a midterm, and a final. While participation is all well and good, the bulk of your grade is determined by the aforementioned components. The lab procedures are usually very easy and dull, but don't let that put you in a lull. All that info tends to show up on the assessments as well as the midterm and final. I would definitely advise everyone to keep up with the readings and to find a partner/group to study with as these two strategies made the difference for me in the class. I pulled off an A-, but by no means was it an easy grade to achieve. It's really one of those classes where smart studying and collaboration are the keys to success. Ultimately, BIOL 2030 is a very rewarding and (if you're pre-med and didn't place out of it) necessary experience here at UVA. Good luck!

Awesome class. Kittlesen is such an engaging lecturer, and the subject material is very interesting. Yes, you'll see tons of reviews here saying that the exams are impossible and the labs are boring; honestly, the labs are just very straightforward. You get your procedure and you just do as it says; it is a little deceptive in that if you're not paying attention to what you're doing it'll kill you later on the exam, but it's still fun. KNOW THE CONCEPTS. The exam is entirely concept based; it's not an easy A just vomit rote memorization of what you already did. That's why people complain about the difficulty, but it's so worthwhile once you understand it. I would totally recommend this course to anyone willing to put the effort into it! A word to the wise: type/write everything Kittlesen says; his slides are very bare, so you'll want to pay close attention during lecture.

While the lab itself was actually very easy and quick to compete, the exams were nearly impossible. Even if you attended all the pre-lab lectures (the majority of which were cancelled) and do all of the assigned readings (typically only 5-10 pages per week), Dave's exams would still make you second guess yourself and frequently included information that was never even discussed.

This class was the biggest pain. The lab portion is a poorly structured joke and is deceptively easy, but the tests are obnoxiously difficult. Readings are not enough, good class notes would have helped.

Pretty easy class. Main homework was pre/post labs and small amounts of reading out of the textbook (that he has online). The 3 midterms weren't too difficult but did require a bit of studying, especially the assigned readings. Lecture was almost pointless to go to ONLY IF you already has the BIOL 2010 credit (if not I'd recommend attending most of the lectures).

This class was really interesting! The semester was spent with the goal of sequencing our own DNA for a specific gene/marker we were looking for. For instance, I selected to look at the sequence adjacent to the gene responsible for eye color. For the course, Kittlesen put the background readings and protocols online and would post what pages to read and do online assessments of them (which were open book and you could work with classmates). There were 3 exams, which you needed to understand the background readings forward and backward to do well on! Also, go to his lectures because a lot of the time he will have questions on the exams that were only mentioned in class. However, he canceled lectures a lot, which was really nice. Labs were also really short, the longest lasting only 2 hours, the shortest lasting 15 minutes.

So, this is the first semester this class has been "revamped" by Prof. Kittlesen. You basically sequence part of your own genome over the course of the semester and then analyze it at the end. Overall, not too bad of a course as far as requirements go. If you've taken any other class with Dave, the tests he makes for this lab course are exactly what you would expect: tricky, and essential that you know your stuff. There is a bit of a disconnect between the background readings, pre-lab lectures, and the actual lab experience. It seemed like none of the three components ever quite explained how it connected to the others. However, just study the basic concepts of the labs (what you were looking for, why you used certain materials, etc.) and you should be fine for the exams. Overall, still some kinks to work out in the new class layout, but not terrible as far as introductory pre-recs go.

The lab itself isn't too difficult. It's the quizzes that will get you. The pre-lab lectures don't always help you to prepare for them and you have short background info in the lab manual. The final exam is even worse. There's really no way you can prepare for it since all you have are the not-so-helpful powerpoints from the lectures and the lab manual. The questions are ridiculous and unexpected. Overall, it's just a horrible class and I'm glad I passed.

Going to pre-lab lectures is essential- 10 point quizzes at the end of each lab. The biology itself is not that hard if you do the reading in the lab manual. Beware who you get stuck in a group with! Not awful for a class that's a prereq for so much.

This course is truly an embarrassment to the University of Virginia. Since it's the only lower level bio lab, you are stuck taking it. Lab lectures are a waste of time, with Kittleson rambling on without realizing how incompetent of a lecturer he truly is. Labs are merely a pipetting torture session which goes on for three months. Quizzes each week might as well be a joke since the average is a 50% on them. Not to mention you will actually learn nothing. So enjoy this class, I hope UVa realizes at some point that this course is as useless as it is frustrating.