Chandler is a really nice guy, cracks many jokes, and overall quite entertaining to be around. His material is on electrophysiology, so a lot about ion channels and gradients and some applications of physics - he goes quite in-depth with this stuff because he likes to treat it as a puzzle, giving you piece by piece until the whole picture is created. So it really is hard to understand what you need to know for the exam, so I recommend grasping the big ideas.

He likes to advertise his reader as like the holy grail for this class - I didn't find it too helpful, but it's the best study/review resource you've got, so use it!

His exam is 9 short answers in an hour-ish so you better know your stuff and be able to convey it in a concise manner. The mean was an 82.

Grading Scheme (out of 400):
300 points - 100 for each module's exam
80 points - 10 points for each of 9 quizzes, lowest dropped
10 points - two clinical correlations (summaries of a presentation)
5 points - seminar attendance + summary
5 points - discussion participation

Chandler was my favorite lecturer of the bunch. His material was on electrophysiology things like ion channels and that sort. He had really good study questions for us that were similar to exam questions and his office hours went over all of that and what he expected for us on the test. The one thing I will say that was consistent upon both White and Chandler's module is because they were short answers it was very easy to lose 1-2 points on every question just because your answer didn't fully match the answer key which was frustrating. However, if you rewatch lectures and take good notes you will be able to succeed in this module. I didn't find his course reader too helpful but it was nice to have as a summary for all of his material. His quizzes were definitely the most tricky out of the 3 professors. The mean was 82 and the median was 85 for the midterm.
Best lecturer
Chandler > White > Piri
Easiest Exam
White > Chandler > Piri
Best Study Questions
Chandler > Piri > White

I would say Chandler's module was the most difficult one in 101a. This module heavily involves conceptual knowledge and much physics-based, plus neurophysiology is a tough subject in itself, so making this class a bit difficult at least for me. Chandler's lectures were not Bruin-casted, so it made studying for this class challenging for me. I would definitely recommend recording the lecture if you can. Chandler provides weekly questions for students to work on, and he goes over them in his office hours. I highly recommend going over the questions carefully and really understand them because the exam questions are quite similar to those. The exam questions were all hypothetical and all short answers, so very easy to miss points here and there, which can add up to a lot. Overall, Chandler is an interesting guy and a good teacher, but the topic itself is just quite difficult and requires a lot of time and commitment to study for it.

NO! NS M101A is NOT the hardest class you will ever take. And the curve DOES NOT start at B (like how some freshmen think). Actually, it's not hard at all when you compare it with courses like MIMG 101 or CHEM 153C. However, that doesn't mean it's easy to end up with an A.

The problem is how module exams are graded. 2 of the exams are free respose questions only and space limited. You may have a perfect understanding of the concept and still get a low grade because your answers do not mimic the key. You mention a correct relevant point but take away no credit as the professor has thought of another point to put on the key. Regrade requests are not often appreciated.

My advice: be smart! save your commuting time and watch the lectures online (everything is Bruincasted). Instead, go to office hours so you have a better chance of reading the professor's mind during the test. Skip the text; won't do any good. Get your hands on some past exams if you can (they rarely change). Finish learning the material as quickly as possible so you can spend your preparation time on how to organize your response solving the practice problems. DO NOT lose easy points from quizzes and seminar write-ups (no excuse for that).

Best Lecturer: Chandler>White>Piri
Chillest Module: White>Chandler>Piri
Provides Most Useful Problem Sets: Piri>White>Chandler

Good Luck Class of 2021!

Everyone seems to love Dr. Chandler for some reason and I think thats because he gives off grandpa/dad vibes but in my opinion that doesn't really matter in a professor.
Chandler was not a very good lecturer because his god complex consistently got in the way of conveying information in a reasonable and concise manner. You could ask him one very simple question and he would go on for 15+ minutes with some elaborate answer for the actual answer to be something as simple as "the voltage decreases" but you would get so confused as to why he was mentioning all of this arbitrary information inbetween (note- its to make himself seem and feel smart) that you wouldn't even get a useful answer or forget what you even asked in the first place.
His slides don't have much helpful info on them tbh and in several places had contradictions.
I will say though his exam was fairly graded, it was very difficult for me personally and I literally thought I was going to get a 0, and then I came out of it with a B- (which granted isnt good but compared to how I thought I had done).
He also like lowkey sexually harassed a student in class once when referencing axon potentials in a metaphor where he said "so and so, grabs my hot rod, because she's such a good student she does whatever i tell her too... and she says oh Dr. Chandler its sooo warm" and then he literally moaned into the microphone. It was just more uncomfortable than anything else to be honest and I didn't really see how the analogy actually applied to the concept at all lol but aight man.
Def go to his office hours and just voice record them honestly, discussions are useful if you have a good TA. goodluck

You have to take this as a neuro major, so no point in dwelling over if its a good class or not... I personally have mixed feelings because I thought they could make a neuro class much more interesting by focusing on diseases instead of spending so much time on electrophysiology and graphs... if you want to be a neuro researcher you will love it, if you want to be a clinical doctor you might not love it as much. If you're not a neuro major do not take it, its not worth it.

All modules are non cumulative, so think of it as 3 short classes you take with a test at the end of each one and weekly quizzes.

Chandler's module: electrophysiology on steroids. I hated the content but respected the professor. Use his course reader and take notes directly on it during his lectures. Make sure you add any text from the slides to the course reader. It took me about 3h to get through each 1h50 lecture so that I could pause it and make notes or go back on the recording when I didn't catch something. His tests are short answer and open book, 1h long and about 10 questions. Really make sure you do the study questions each week with your study group, as they help prepare you for the test. You really don't need to read the book if you have all the info from the reader, lectures and the study questions. His study questions sometimes took a whole afternoon to do. It's definitely the module you need to study for the most unless you are a physics and electrophysiology lover. Go to all the OH as he explains the study questions there and its actually helpful. His quizzes are the hardest but you can score above a 7/10 if you're well prepared, I managed to get full marks on one of them. For the midterm I got 89.

White's module: she is a bit all over the place in lectures sometimes. The content is more bio and science and less physics which I appreciated. For her module the study questions are also helpful and less hard than chandler's. The quizzes require you to read a research paper, but the paper won't be useful for the midterm. The midterm is also short answer and open book. The textbook is actually helpful for her module, as I found her lectures confusing sometimes, and a lot of the figures she uses are from the book, so you can just study from there and its easier to understand. Still make sure to watch all lectures though because some stuff is not on the book and some parts of the book are not needed. I can't remember if her OH were that helpful. I got full marks or close to it on her quizzes, and about an 85 on the midterm. The midterm was really long for the time that you have, so since its open book I recommend writing out all the study questions really well and even writing extra stuff for the main topics that are likely to be on the midterm. That way you can copy paste some sentences form your notes and save time. I was sick the week of my test so didn't finish studying as much as I could have, but if you prepare well you can probably do better than I did.

Piri: for me it was the easiest module. The lectures are awful, I fell asleep on every single one of them, didn't matter the time of day. I feel bad saying that because he is a sweet man, but he just speaks so monotone... The slides are extremely bare on text, and its super hard to understand his accent sometimes. My recommendation would be to read the book. 90% of his pictures are from the book and follow the chapter order. Honestly, I would just read each chapter and then watch the lecture to make sure he didn't mention any extra info that wasn't on the book. The last couple vision lectures have a lot of content that's not on the book, but these are the only two that you can actually follow along well. His quizzes were very straightforward. The midterm was MC and I got a 95% even though this is the module I studied for the least (finals week got way too crowded with other classes). Being open note definitely helped, as the questions are super straightforward. So if you make notes from the textbook + any new concept mentioned in lectures and have this plus the textbook open, you can find all your answers to the test even without memorising the details. Study questions were a nice review, but he didnt go over them in OH, so unless you have a specific question you want to clarify its not worth attending them.

Overall the class has a positive which is that each module works almost as its own class.s So its easy to keep up with material for 2-3 weeks, take a test, and then start fresh with a new module. You will definitely appreciate this finals week! Study questions are helpful as a practice (but dont count for a grade). Quizzes will help keep you on top of studying and for the most part you can get a B or A average on them. Make a lot of good notes and know where the info is, so that open note exams become easier. There's some extra credit stuff that's impossible not to get full marks on, so this will be a nice grade boost. It's possible to get an A even if you don't do super well on a module (either you hated it, were sick, let it pile up, whatever), so don't stress if it doesn't start off well as you'll get a chance to improve! I personally felt that each module was easier than the previous one, so keep at it and if you're organised and work at it you can get an A

This class was really fun and really interesting. But it's definitely really hard. Chandler has a lot of opinions. White is insecure and constantly seems like she has something to prove. Piri is an absolute sweetheart. Good luck

Scott Chandler teaches the first module on electro and neurophysiology and it's honestly the hardest module in terms of concepts and material. A lot of the concepts are built upon chemistry and physics so having a strong background in those will definitely help in the class. Because the material can become complex and confusing at times, it's important to not fall behind in the class. That being said, if you're on top of your stuff, the module is very doable. Chandler is kind of a funny guy and cracks jokes and tries to make the learning engaging by calling on people that want to answer the questions he asks. It may not be the same way for future classes, but this was the format for the exam during online learning during covid: For the exam, it's all short-answer free response. The kicker is that there are 9 questions and you only have 1 hour to complete the exam; the questions asks very specific and complex situations so much of your time will be trying to understand what the question is asking and how you're going to answer. There is also a word LIMIT, so more of your time will be trying to formulate your answer in a way that is succinct.

Chandler was the only 101a professor I thought was actually concerned about our learning. Is he sometimes a crockety man who can only explain things one way? Yes. But also, his reader is everything you could ever want. The slides can only be described as if someone had 30 years of slides and tried to combine them all, but usually, they are helpful. His office hours are full of people who somehow still don't understand what an electrochemical gradient is and others trying to suck up, so I would say those are not worth the time. His exam did require you to think and know the material, but I think the problem sets and course reader were very helpful. Time was definitely a crunch. One of the TAs mentioned that we all got "way too many points that were not deserved" or something about Chandler's exam, however. Overall I think he provides you everything you need to learn the material, and in my opinion his material is pretty interesting.

Professor Chandler cares so much about his students, he not only taught us class material but he also gave us life lessons. The module is hard, you have to be dedicated to keep up and succeed.