Wormington lectures on everything that you need to know so don't bother to buy a textboox. The class it itself is challenging I would recommend recording the lectures and studying them. The Hw's he gives seem like they aren't important but they are very important (15% of your grade) so make sure you put in a reasonable effort into them. The good thing is that the class is interesting and you learn a lot. My major complaint is that Wormington doesn't seem to care that other students cheat in his class. Some students compare Hw answers and circulate around past tests, and of course the current tests are similar. Even when told he seemed not to care so cheaters benefit in this class apparently, if you're an honest student be prepared to fight against the curve. Also he seems to be sexist, if you are a guy don't even bother on going to his office hours, he only calls on girls for some odd reason.

Currently sitting to study for the final exam and I must say that this class is A LOT OF WORK. You do not have the leisure of slacking off in class, as the information throughout the powerpoints is very cumulative and continues to build on itself throughout the semester. Do not take this course alone. Have friends to share notes, recordings and study sessions with. Talking through the information with others is literally the only way that I even began to comprehend what was going on in this class. Wormington is a great lecturer but I found him to be relatively condescending and unapproachable (in comparison to Cronmiller/Roach/Galloway). If you are interested in this subject, definitely take it with wormington. It is a very challenging class, but I can say that I have learned a lot. This was easily my least favorite core class, but it was because I had no interest in the topic. You can do well, but you must put in a considerable amount of time and effort. No curves. No Mercy. MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR.

Outstanding class. Professor Wormington has this course down to a science (no pun intended) and it shows. His lectures flow very logically, and he clearly loves what he teaches. In addition, the material covered in this course is complicated, but absolutely fascinating: cell signalling, cancer, the cytoskeleton, etc. Fair warning, be prepared to work your butt off for this class. There is homework due before each lecture, and you wouldn't believe that only 5 questions could take you over an hour, but they do every time. In addition, his tests are fair, but very difficult. I easily studied in excess of 15 hours for exams to get in B+/A- range. I would suggest studying the homework questions religiously, along with all the discussion questions. More often than not, a few of each show up on the exam. Though some people may advise you not to buy the textbook (you can do well in the class without it) I would suggest buying it, because it is a great review tool, and if you like to read ahead before lectures it is an excellent resource. Overall, one of my favorite classes I've taken at UVA, and Wormington is an absolute superstar.

Decent class, not as hard as everyone says it is. Study the slides and you should be fine.

This class is hard, but you learn a whole lot. His lectures compose a textbook...heck, he should write a textbook. He's up-to-date with recent publications and research, so it's fun to hear him connect what we're learning to recent studies. Do the warm-ups, understand them, know them by heart, love them, and embrace them. Look at the powerpoints, memorize what's on there, what he said in class about each and every slide. Don't miss one thing! If you don't understand one little thing...it's CRUCIAL you GO and ASK. So you should study ahead of time before exams.

Hands down, this is a hard class. Don't buy the textbook, no matter what anyone else says, it is useless. I did MUCH better after I stopped looking at the textbook.

You'll have 5 multiple choice "warmup" questions to do before each lecture. While they are not impossible, they require looking at slides ahead of time and trying to understand things for yourself. Often this is hard because Wormington does not provide all you need to know right there on the slides, you have to really digest the info to get these questions right.

Study these warmup questions well as a handful are often repeated on the tests.

Go to every lecture too, even if they are at 9 AM. The bulk of my studying consisted of just listening to my recordings (record lectures!).

Go to the reviews too, they help you apply concepts in class.

Form a study group--helps learn the material better and gives an opportunity to vent about the class.

P.S. Wormington is obsessed with Miley Cyrus. It's kinda funny.

This class and genetics are the best core bio classes hands down. Wormington is a great lecturer, and actually a pretty nice guy if you go to his office hours. For his lectures, go everyday. You will regret the days you don't go and have to scramble to get notes/recordings from friends. If this class is offered next fall at 9am, I am so sorry. As great as Wormington is, coming to class hungover on Friday morning with little to no sleep and trying to understand cell bio might actually be the worst. Even getting to class at 9am on M/W is hard, at least for me. Take the best notes you can, and record lectures. Even though everyone says this for every class ever, this was one class where it was actually helpful. I didn't realize this until the final exam, and I regret it.
Before lectures there will be warmups due. They will be ridiculously hard. They are old test questions. You will be trying to answer old test questions before you even go to lecture. It was extremely hard and frustrating since this lead to a grade of 60% on 10% of my final grade. But it was nice, since we got exposure to test questions before the test. Hopefully he just makes this worth less % of your grade next year.
There will also be learning curves due at random times. Just do them, they are actually the easiest thing ever, you can get 40% of the questions right and still get a 100% on the exercise. So this was a nice grade boost, just don't forget to do them (oops).
The tests are a bit of a bitch, but they aren't that hard to study for. If you have gone to every class and start reviewing a week before, you should get it well enough to get an A. The book is helpful for getting the background info and especially for concepts at the beginning of the year. Other than that, focus on his lecture slides. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing (unless he says don't worry about it), is irrelevant. Protein names, drug names, protein structures, etc.

Wormington is a really good lecturer, but somewhat difficult to approach in office hours. The warm ups helped a lot this semester, even though it's a bit tedious to have to do them before every class. The content is interesting and even though the tests are hard, they are usually fair. Study from the slides, only need the book really for background info.

Wormington is a fantastic professor. He knows what he is talking about and has taught this course so many times that his lectures have truly been perfected. Everything he says is important and everything on the slides is fair game if you touched upon it in class. This class is hard, and if you want an A or B you will need to put in the time. With that said it is not impossible.
I highly recommend you go to office hours and get to know Wormington. He truly cares about his students and will remember your name if you go to office hours even once or twice, then call on you in an auditorium of 400 kids by name. To me that shows true respect and commitment to students. He is very sarcastic, so if you are not good at interpreting sarcasm don't think that he is being mean; that's just his personality. Very fair professor and wants his students to learn. Always looking for ways to become a better professor and improve his course.
I was not too interested at all times in the subject matter but having him as a professor made the course much much less painful.
Also I highly suggest you study with one or two peers, and talk through the material. I didn't start doing this until the last two tests and found that it was very useful in grasping concepts that are scattered across many slides!

Professor Wormington is a great professor and really tries to help you to understand the material presented. Not only that, he will try to connect the seemingly useless-for-everyday-life topics with current scientific research which make them very interesting. Learn to appreciate the science as much as he does and pay attention to these current topics (they will appear on tests).

The course is challenging as the material is very dense. You have to be able to not just memorize all the different proteins and their functions that are presented to you but also have to be able to see the big overall picture: how do these proteins interact to produce the ultimate end goal of their pathway. Look through the Warm Up questions that he gives you and try to understand why the answers are what they are (the same goes for any other class really).
The tests are difficult but definitely doable and are extremely fair. There will NOT be any question that Wormington did not cover with enough depth for you to figure out. Sometimes, the Warm Up questions that he gives you will appear on the tests but with some of their context changed (i.e. changing NOT to WILL). Because of this, it is crucial that you understand why answers are what they are. Thankfully, the final for the class is not cumulative (it would be insane if it was).

There are two things that you should do to succeed. First off, know that NOTHING in the Powerpoint presentations is irrelevant and you will have to know and understand all of its contents to succeed on the tests. The powerpoints themselves should be sufficient to study but if some points are unclear, the book might explain it in a different way that may help better understanding. Second, record the lectures and go through them again while looking through your notes and powerpoints as if you are sitting through the class again. I find that doing so really helped me pick up the material if I didn't understand them the first time through.

Overall the course was very enjoyable. An A is definitely possible with enough hard work.