BIOL 112’s evil sequel; more complex models and information presented is much more in-depth and dense. The toughest part of this course is the exam grading, in that there are zero MCQs and exams consist solely of short- and long- answer responses. Some questions are True/False and matching-style questions but they require written explanations. They are all graded very harshly and the rubrics are very rigid; you absolutely need to mention every keyword they’re looking for or you’ll lose marks.

Content-wise, it is more from-the-ground-up, in that the various units each focus on a different cell organelle or group of organelles (membrane, nucleus, chloroplasts/mitochondria, ER/vesicles/Golgi, and cytoskeleton). Emphasis is on interpreting experimental results, such as micrographs, bar graphs, hydropathy plots, and SDS-PAGE, so expect to see more of these and fewer neat drawings/diagrams. During this summer term, the Science Communication (SciComm) project was changed from a writing assignment to an oral interview. This is TA-dependent but potentially more straightforward as you need to explain a primary research article for laymen to understand. Our TA was very clear with the expectations and this was a pretty easy part of the course to do well in.

Dr. Klenz is a kind and supportive professor; got us cookies and hosted notetaking sessions to reinforce our learning. However, I wished she knew the content better as she was unable to answer some questions asked to her and was sometimes confused by her own slides.

Familiarize yourself with the cell organelles going into the course, specifically where they are in the cell and what they look like. The professor did not have time to review this in class and as part of the first unit we had to interpret micrographs, meaning we needed to have a pretty solid operational knowledge of these organelles from the start of the course.