Pre-lab lectures were difficult to follow since his slideshows have very little text and don't highlight/summarize the main ideas clearly. However Dr Kittlesen is a very enthusiastic and passionate teacher.
The final was VERY difficult and quizzes can be somewhat picky. Luckily homework, lab participation, and lab notebooks help your grade.

As long as you do your lab notebook and come prepared for class, your grade is pretty much that completion portion plus the final. The final is reasonable and basically confirms that you understood what you were doing throughout the semester.

This lab, was just a pain in the ass overall. The lab notebooks and all assignments (except for 1) are graded on completion...all you need to do is show up to lab and read the instructions. The quizzes can get annoying at every lab, and on top of that Kittlesen has a final which didn't turn out to be that bad, but I thought it was a little unnecessary for a 2 credit lab. This semester he made it so that your final score could cover for your quiz score if the final was higher. Even though a 94 is an A, he ended up curving the final and the quiz grades at the end. Only take this if you are a bio major or premed.

Apparently this class was redesigned from previous years. You do learn some interesting biology, but the material would be difficult for non-majors. Most people skip lecture so he puts questions on the quizzes that come only from lecture. I never went to lectures but still did fine.

The tests and clicker questions were a little harder than I expected. You get to learn some useful bio techniques from this class. The good thing about the lab report is that the TA only checks it for completion but the reports are not that hard to start with. Not a class for an easy A.

Biol 203 was a time-consuming class. The hour-long pre-lab lectures were painful because the clicker questions were evil and people's questions rather drew out the hour. The lab itself concentrates on molecular biology laboratory techniques such as ELISA, pGLO bacterial transformation, RFLP and plasmid mapping, and PCR. It was nice learning how to do the techniques, but the midterm and final were very tricky. As for weekly stuff, you have to keep up with the lab notebook and do the lab manual exercises.

This is one of the more irritating lab lectures you'll ever endure, since you usually end up sitting in CHEM402 at 7PM, listing to somebody be confused about PCR...but you can't leave because Kittlesen hasn't asked the last clicker question or given you the homework assignment. As for the lab itself, it's not so bad. You spend the entire semester doing an ELISA, a GFP prep, or some variation of PCR. The assignments from the lab manual are brainless, but BEWARE of the midterms...Kittlesen tries to stick you, and he does a good job.

this class is just annoying. the actual lab part is really, but the lab manual questions are extremely repetitive and obvious. the midterm is tricky, just like his class tests, which is bothersome when you know all the material.

Very, very, VERY difficult class. If not a bio major or pre-med student. DO. NOT. TAKE.

If you are not a pre-health student or a Bio major, don't bother. This class is hard. Difficult clicker questions (which essentially make lab lecture mandatory), ridiculously tricky tests, and little guidance make this class a huge pain. Kittlesen is enthusiastic, funny, and of great help, but that doesn't change the fact that this Intro lab is way harder that it should be. 1 midterm, a final, clicker questions, and a long (8+ pages) lab report make up your grade. Getting an A is possible, although the work needed rivals most 300 level courses.