This class is unavoidable for Bio majors, which is unfortunate because it is the worst class I've ever taken. Find people to work with on all the assignments you are allowed to collaborate on because those will boost your grade and help you understand the material better. I haven't really found an effective way to study for the exams because Prof Cronmiller often tests you on material in new ways that you haven't practiced before.

By far the hardest class I have taken at UVa. Tests are designed to test you on material in ways you haven't seen before. Practice problems, homework, and discussion questions are the best way to study for the tests, since test questions involve solving problems, not just regurgitating material from the book. Cronmiller is a good professor and wants her students to succeed, but her tests are brutal.

Warning: This class is time consuming and requires a lot of brain power. Cronmiller emphasizes problem solving more than recollection of information. If you need to take this class, make sure to take it when you have a light schedule. As of Spring 2016, we had weekly homework (~4.5 hr/week incl. going to office hours), chapter homework (~4 hr/week), daily assigned readings with graded warmups (~7 hr/week), and discussion questions (1.5 hr/week). The exams are not multiple choice, you don't get partial credit on your answers, and you will hate Cronmiller and genetics during the semester, but I hate to admit that she does really prepare you to think like a geneticist.

If you do plan on taking the class, here are some useful tips I learned (I got a 92.5% in the class, which ended up being an A+):
- Have a study group / Facebook message group to collaborate with for weekly and chapter homework. I had 6 different Facebook groups I talked with during the semester...
- DON'T treat homework assignments lightly--they are worth more than an exam!
- Skim the assigned readings for the bigger picture and take the warm-ups immediately after. Videos aren't necessary for the warmups (besides the one she made herself), but they are helpful if you're a visual learner.
- Really question your logic and check your work when doing discussion and weekly homework questions. You can never be too confident in her class.
- Do the weekly homework early (!!), then go to a TA's OH or have a friend attend them to check your answers--you really have no excuse to get these questions wrong!
- Redo weekly homework questions before each exam and try to understand the steps you took to solve the problems. Get used to the way Cronmiller asks questions. Most of her exam questions are well-disguised versions of the questions she already exposed you to through Mastering Genetics, discussion, and Learning Catalytics.
- Quickly look over your lecture notes (I spent no more than 45 min per lecture, focusing mostly on her slides), but don't spend too much time on them--this took me some time to get used to.
GOOD LUCK!

This is one of the most difficult and time-consuming classes I have taken so far at UVa. With the warm-ups, practice problems, and discussion sections, there was quite a lot of work for this course. However, the professor (Claire Cronmiller) does her best to make each class interesting and engaging (she raps). Sign up for this course with caution and do not underestimate the time commitment that you are making. Otherwise, this was a interesting and rewarding course.

This is possibly one of the worst courses I have taken at this university. You work so hard in this course and none of it pays off. You think you know the material, but your grades show that you don't. If you're pre-health or a bio major, beware of this course. Don't take it if you don't need to take it. It's 4 credits and can tank your GPA.

This class is very different from anything you will take in the biology department. It's all about problem solving. Memorizing information helps you solve problems, but it won't get you a high grade. This being said, it was the most stimulating BIO class I have taken and although it is difficult, you have homework and discussions that can buffer your grade. Cronmiller also curves significantly, I had an 86 which ended up being an A-, so even you do poorly on an exam, just keep trying your best because you are doing better than you think.

Claire is the bomb! Genetics is a difficult topic to begin with, but Claire tries to teach in a way where you aren't forced to straight up memorize material, but instead need to apply the patterns you learn about in class. We did lots of interesting in-class activities and demonstrations that made going to lecture worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, the class was still pretty hard, but I also found it super interesting thanks to Claire. The reviews below me talked about the exams--yeah, they're pretty tough. Her exam are mainly word problems that make you apply the genetic information that you learned about in new ways. However, the 4 exams, including the final, only make up about ~50% of your grade. The rest comes from homework/problem sets, discussion section activities, reading quizzes (what she calls "Warm-Ups"), and Learning Catalytics. The homework and problem sets would range in their difficulty every week. However, I would go to office hours every week for the homework and I ended up doing really well on them because office hours are SUPER helpful. Go to Claire if you need conceptual stuff re-explained--she's super willing to help, and I actually thought she was really nice (don't know why people complain that she's mean). Go to the TA office hours if you need help on specific homework questions. Adam and Brian were the TAs my semester and they were awesome! They know how to explain the homework questions in ways that you can get the right answer, without them actually giving you the answer--basically, you will have completed homework assignment by the time you walk out of office hours. There were like 6 office hours/week, so you basically had no excuse if you needed help and didn't get it. The one thing I didn't like so much was discussion section. My group members were super nice, but they didn't always come to discussion prepared, so sometimes only one of us actually knew what we were doing. In discussion, you do problem sets on the material that you learned that week in class, but you can't use your notes, so you really should look over them beforehand. You don't get to pick your group members; you take a pre-diagnostic survey thing, and then Claire uses that to organize them. She claims her system works, but I don't think it did in my case.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. It's definitely hard and a lot of work, but it's also really interesting, and there are a lot of opportunities to get help. Oh also, Claire claims she doesn't curve the class, but she totally does. I calculated what I should have gotten in the class, but my grade in SIS was actually higher. She doesn't curve a TON (I think it was like 4% for my class), but it's still something.

I feel that Prof Conmiller assumes that everyone in the class as devoted to genetics as she is, and has 20+ hours a week to devote to her class, when this is just not the case. While the interactive classes (3 hours per week), discussion sections (1 hour per week), homework (~3 hours per week), practice problems, (2-6 hours per week) readings (2-3 hours per week), and screencasts (1 hour per week) were all helpful to my learning, I constantly felt overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do, and the amount of material I was expected to learn. This was basically just the bare minimum, and didn't include the 20+ hours of studying I would do and the 2-3 hours of office hours I would attend the weekend before the test. Despite this time commitment, I was constantly discouraged by my grades in the class. Although I was pass this class due to the gratuitous points earned through mastering genetics and discussion, I feel as though the expectations for this class are just way more than I have ever had in ANY class in my 4 years at UVA.

First of all, if this class is NOT a requirement for your major RUN AWAY NOW. I'm serious. As for the rest of us, this class is exceedingly, ridiculously difficult. Having already taken Physics, Organic Chem, Cell Bio, AND Immunology before this class, I felt well-equipped to handle this course. Oh how wrong I was. Claire centers the class around online homework--be prepared to be doing some sort of genetics homework every day. The questions are exceedingly challenging, but DO THEM--they will help save your grade later. Claire's tests are tricky and ambiguous, and there is no way to prepare for them except to make sure you know how to do each and every homework problem and do plenty of practice problems out of the book. Overall, my greatest disappointment with this class was that I truly didn't feel like I learned anything new--I only learned how to use logic and statistics to approach problems. If you have to take this class do the homework and rack up as many points as you can to buffer your test grade, if you don't have to take this class DO NOT TAKE IT.

This class has too many online components and the grading sucks. She does not care if you know it and is just out to make the material harder than it needs to be. If this is an elective, run.