Professor
Peiyun Lee
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Strengths: Dr. Lee seems very knowledgeable and the lectures and discussions are very interesting conversations. Weaknesses: during discussions, it would be helpful for Dr. Lee to respond with positive affirmation after a student shares because it is really nerve wracking to speak in front of other students and it's hard to read other people's body language over zoom. In addition, I would advise Dr. Lee to be careful with her choice of words. During one particular discussion where we discussing an ethical situation that involved saving lives, I wanted to share my opinion and was sort of put on the spot by Dr. Lee. I don't usually mind being grilled but I was arguing for the unpopular opinion and Dr. Lee said "I understand what you're trying to say but you're not putting it in a very elegant way". I felt that comment was a little insensitive because it is hard to think on the spot and be grilled in front of the other students about a stance that most of them don't support. Therefore, she could have worded that better. Additionally, I feel that Dr. Lee could be more lenient with grading especially during this pandemic and MCDB 50 being a General Education class and not a Biology major class. It is pretty heavy on biology knowledge and the midterm free responses were graded pretty harshly. If you are interested in stem cells and need to satisfy a GE requirement, it would be okay to take this class. Just make sure to double and triple check your midterm exam because they are very harsh with grading. Your responses need to match everything that was said in lectures and they take off big chunks of points very freely. My TA was Natalie G. and she was a really friendly and nice TA but I'm not sure about the other TA (Salena).
Fall 2020 - Strengths: Dr. Lee seems very knowledgeable and the lectures and discussions are very interesting conversations. Weaknesses: during discussions, it would be helpful for Dr. Lee to respond with positive affirmation after a student shares because it is really nerve wracking to speak in front of other students and it's hard to read other people's body language over zoom. In addition, I would advise Dr. Lee to be careful with her choice of words. During one particular discussion where we discussing an ethical situation that involved saving lives, I wanted to share my opinion and was sort of put on the spot by Dr. Lee. I don't usually mind being grilled but I was arguing for the unpopular opinion and Dr. Lee said "I understand what you're trying to say but you're not putting it in a very elegant way". I felt that comment was a little insensitive because it is hard to think on the spot and be grilled in front of the other students about a stance that most of them don't support. Therefore, she could have worded that better. Additionally, I feel that Dr. Lee could be more lenient with grading especially during this pandemic and MCDB 50 being a General Education class and not a Biology major class. It is pretty heavy on biology knowledge and the midterm free responses were graded pretty harshly. If you are interested in stem cells and need to satisfy a GE requirement, it would be okay to take this class. Just make sure to double and triple check your midterm exam because they are very harsh with grading. Your responses need to match everything that was said in lectures and they take off big chunks of points very freely. My TA was Natalie G. and she was a really friendly and nice TA but I'm not sure about the other TA (Salena).
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Took Winter 2021. Ridiculous workload. I would spend hours upon hours every week doing the lab write ups which were nitpicked by the TA. Idk if all the TAs we're as nitpicky as Keziah (she sounded like the hardest based on our class groupme) but you would lose points for the slightest of errors. Rubrics for the assignments were also vague making them hard to do and then they tell you common mistakes on assignments after you hand them in which is super unhelpful and unnecessarily stressful. Grading was also super slow. It wasn't until week 10 that ppls grades from week 5 were submitted making it hard to fix mistakes. During our weekly assignment quizzes, there was one question that literally 100% of the class got wrong and the prof didn't remove it. I will say that at least the prof and TAs are clear in the prerecorded lectures and lab time, but as I said before, they're incredibly vague when it comes to the rubric for things which are turned in.
Winter 2020 - Took Winter 2021. Ridiculous workload. I would spend hours upon hours every week doing the lab write ups which were nitpicked by the TA. Idk if all the TAs we're as nitpicky as Keziah (she sounded like the hardest based on our class groupme) but you would lose points for the slightest of errors. Rubrics for the assignments were also vague making them hard to do and then they tell you common mistakes on assignments after you hand them in which is super unhelpful and unnecessarily stressful. Grading was also super slow. It wasn't until week 10 that ppls grades from week 5 were submitted making it hard to fix mistakes. During our weekly assignment quizzes, there was one question that literally 100% of the class got wrong and the prof didn't remove it. I will say that at least the prof and TAs are clear in the prerecorded lectures and lab time, but as I said before, they're incredibly vague when it comes to the rubric for things which are turned in.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2016 - I will preface this review with this statement: this class is not curved, tough and requires a lot of studying. Professor Lee is great; she was very helpful and made it clear to the class that she was available to meet and gave appropriate times. The lecture slides were sometimes hard to follow, and she would often brush over experimental techniques, assuming that we know what they are. The exams are long and very time-constrained. You MUST know all experimental techniques before her exams if you want to do well. However, she did give plenty of bonus points on the exams (15% bonus points for both midterms and 20% bonus points on the final) to cushion your grade and boost you up. There is a presentation that must be done on a research paper that everyone has to do in discussion, but it wasn't too bad. Overall, a very fair class. The TA was extremely helpful and made this class a little more doable.
Spring 2016 - I will preface this review with this statement: this class is not curved, tough and requires a lot of studying. Professor Lee is great; she was very helpful and made it clear to the class that she was available to meet and gave appropriate times. The lecture slides were sometimes hard to follow, and she would often brush over experimental techniques, assuming that we know what they are. The exams are long and very time-constrained. You MUST know all experimental techniques before her exams if you want to do well. However, she did give plenty of bonus points on the exams (15% bonus points for both midterms and 20% bonus points on the final) to cushion your grade and boost you up. There is a presentation that must be done on a research paper that everyone has to do in discussion, but it wasn't too bad. Overall, a very fair class. The TA was extremely helpful and made this class a little more doable.
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