I don't understand why Koz has so many negative reviews. At least he doesn't make jokes in class about how much he loves to watch students struggle on his exams like Wormington does. Yes, the class is hard. That has to do more with the material than the professor. Yes, his exams are hard. You do have to keep up with the material and go to office hours frequently. Unlike Wormington, there is no homework to help pad your grade so that can be an issue. If you are super intent on getting an A, Koz might not be for you based upon historical grade distributions; however, if you don't want to your fingers to fall off from having to type so fast to keep up with Wormington, take Cell with Koz.

Dr. Kozminski is amazing! He really knows his stuff, and is a genuinely nice guy that wants the best for his students. Exams are difficult, but the material is very interesting and the exams are very doable if you put the work in. Note, from what I have heard, the class is much harder than the fall class.

Do yourself a favor and take cell with Kozminski! I withdrew from cell with Wormington because i just found that class to be unbearable. Kozminski's class was significantly easier than Wormington's. There are 4 exams and they are difficult so you do need to study a fair amount in order to do well. This class is a point system which makes it so much easier to receive a good grade in the course. 4 exams totaling 400 points and you need 240 to get a C, 292 to get a B, and 340 to get an A. As he said, he tends and likes to give out + and not - which is great so as long as you score within the bracket range, you are guaranteed that grade. Each exam are not worth the same amount of points which i found to be a good thing, Exam 1 = 85 points, Exam 2 = 110 points, Exam 3 = 105 points, Exam 4 = 100 points. Really doable and make sure to go to discussion, the TA goes through the sample questions given after each lecture and these sample questions do sometimes pop up on the exam. I personally didn't do the textbook reading he assigned and still did very well, but it is a useful source if you are confused and would like more information about a topic.

Take the cell with Wormington. It was painful to sit through lectures with Kozminski, and you had to go to lecture because his tests were entirely lecture based. Many test questions were frustrating and extremely knit picky. Go to discussion to get the correct answers to the practice questions and make sure to understand the reasoning behind them, this will really help on the exams. But fr if you have any other options, don't take this class with Koz. He thinks hes funny and he is not, its just painful to sit through lectures. If this had been my first bio class I probably would have dropped the major because of how much I disliked him and how absurd some of his questions were.

I actually really enjoyed this class! This came as a surprise. I’d heard absolutely terrible things about Wormington’s cell bio and I was terrified going into Kosminski’s, especially considering his sections’ lower gpa.

However, cell ended up being one of my favorite upper levels. The material was really interesting to me and super applicable to research. Lectures were generally interesting, pretty straight-forward, and generally tied in to the textbook quite well. I got to know Kozminski during office hours and found that he’s passionate on the subject and was more than happy to answer the same stupid questions over and over. I’d definitely recommend taking the class with him over Wormington.

As a word of caution, you’re going to be completely screwed if you don’t stay on top of material and go to office hours very regularly. I went to Kosminski’s office hours every single week with pre-prepared questions from the lectures and readings. I got an A pretty easily just by doing that. :)

I personally found this class served as a good foundation for upper-level biology courses. Yes, it is difficult, but not impossibly hard if you attend class every day and take detailed notes. Review sessions are also helpful to go over practice problems that may come up in the test. It is a good class for those who like strictly lecture-based exams. Overall it was a worthwhile class and rewarding of your efforts.

This is one of the most difficult courses I have ever taken. Your grade is based entirely on four multiple choice exams, on a point system (i.e. no class curve). I attended every lecture, took notes, read all the reading, listened to recordings, and studied in groups, and I still felt like some of the test questions came out of nowhere. There are a lot of pathways that you need to outright memorize. Overall, I would recommend taking this class with another professor if possible. If not, attend the review sessions because those questions often show up on tests.

Honestly the class was a class. It is cell biology, and it is supposed to be hard, so it is. Also, even though he does not "curve," he sets the point brackets for an "A" lower than a ninety (actually its around an 86 for an A- for him). Therefore, yes, it is hard; just study and you should be fine.

I took this class the spring of my first year and i definitely wasn't ready for it. Taking this class with Kozminski is rumored to be hard, but I found the time commitment and curriculum to be the more challenging aspects of the course. Test are based of the lecture and are uncurved. The textbook served as a good supplement, but I seriously recommend going to class every day.

Some people didn't like Kozminski, but I thought his lectures were fine. You do have to make sure you take scrupulous notes on the lectures for his exams, which are pretty specific, but it was very doable. There isn't much of a need to read the textbook if you can take quick notes during lecture, because all of his questions came straight from the lectures. I enjoyed his dry humor, and he seemed like a nice person outside of class. Exams are pretty nit-picky and emphasize memorization, but that's expected of Cell Biology. I thought he was pretty fair.