BIO 101 is the bane of existence to a lot of students. In reality, if I had studied earlier for the exams (which are as bad as students say they are), I wouldn't have struggled so hard. It's enjoyable as long as you keep up with the readings and form a small study group to struggle together.

The prof is actually ok. You would think that he's a malevolent demigod from the way people talk about him on RMP. He's actually pretty nice and really wants you to succeed, makes his own review sheets and recitation sections. Oh, but he will hunt you down if you pull out your phone in class so beware of that.

There's no prereqs for this course, but it definitely helps to have a resource to refer to, like the Amoeba Sisters (very good resource, highly recommend) cause the course can get really complicated. And the prof is going to give you a book with a bunch of readings w/ the lab manual -- **do the readings** they take time but they will come up on exams and are worth a LOT of points.