The work load for this course is very high. The course is definitely not a gpa booster. The amount of assignments given are a lot. But the worst part is that the course is very unorganized. Lost all my interest in biology after this course.

Not useful

Do not try to understand everything. Do not try to learn and understand every chapter of the book, just learn the lecture slides and video lectures on canvas. The good thing about this course is that they allow cheat sheets..

The bulk of the work for this class consisted of teaching yourself most of the content through weekly textbook readings and quizzes (worth 15% in total). These can get draining if you're dealing with a dense topic or if you want to score a full mark on every quiz. Class time consisted of mini-lectures lasting about half an hour, then group assignments worth 10%. They can range from simple crosswords to essays.

At the beginning of the term, the profs did a class-wide survey on what we would like to take away from their course, and they adjusted the curriculum accordingly. I found about 50% of the content either interesting or relevant to current events (e.g. climate change, COVID-19, diseases, biotechnology). However, the fast pace of the course and the dense readings make it hard to retain much of the content.

The profs were really understanding and kind, but they expect you to put a lot of time into the course.

No final, just a final project worth 30%. Plan ahead early because you have to come up with your own topic for the project, and it will be stressful trying to get a final project done while revising for finals.

BIOL 111 is confusing. It is confusing as a BIOL course, as a required course, as an entry-level science cource, and simply as a course. I tried to focus on fulfilling this requirement instead of "at least learning something from this course" and things got better. I barely learnt any BIOL knowledge from the time I wasted on this course.

They tried to educate me on something; but sadly, I was not able to see that thing.

(Assuming there is not significant modification made to the course since 2020 WT2.) This course might be the primary option for Science students who do not have Grade 11 Biol. If you can not avoid it you should be alart to it. It might be easy for you to underestimate the workload of learning a week's material / an assignment / a project. Use your time wisely because it is impossible for students to understand nor remember even half of the knowledge, but you can do well in the sense of grade if you can catch a few essential points.