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Does this seem like a reasonable amount of work for "Intro to Biology"?

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I can understand having to write lab reports, but this sounds like a lot of busy work for a non-biology major.
 
I'm not even sure what you could possibly write about for a 30-page paper for an Intro to Bio class. That seems pretty absurd.

But going through an entire book in one semester is pretty standard for any college course. 5 quizzes + final exam + lab work seems pretty common to be honest. Those other two 10 page papers are pretty questionable though.

**Wait...nevermind. I thought you were on the quarter system, not the semester system. Two 10 page papers spread over a period of 4 1/2 months isn't that bad.
 
You might be taking a "catch up" biology class for peopel who've decided to change their majors to bio. My school has classes like that which are really intensive, but provide a lot of prereqs and credit hours.
 
30 pages seems kinda crazy for an intro course, but I wonder if it includes like pics, diagrams, a lab report, etc, etc.

everything else looks normal.
 
That doesn't seem like a lot of work really. And by The lab, do you mean a single lab or a lab course? If it's a single lab then you've lucked out!
 
That sounds like standard intro to biology for majors. If you were in a blowoff class for nonmajors perhaps it would be much, but what you described is normal for introductory biology.
 
Jesus, my senior (undergraduate) thesis was 52 pages, and that was about 5 times longer than any paper I'd had to write in my entire 4 years at college. Your professor is a nutcase.
 
Well, upon sending out his syllabus and having something like 90% drop the class thereafter, he has since sent an email saying that he is dropping the 30-pager ands one of the 10-pager papers. He says he asked his grad students if they thought it was too much (operantly this is a new syllabus for '07) and they all said he was nuts. He also teaches at UC Channel Islands and UC Davis. I had dropped the class and sent an email very eloquently explaining that I thought it was an overly demanding curriculum he had designed. I've since re-registered for it.

I'm shocked that some of you say it's reasonable. Like I said, I'm not a Bio major. This was for GE requirements.
 
I would still not take the class even with his updated requirements. If a professor can't reasonably judge the load for his courses he is going to be just as unreasonable when it comes time to grade things. Professors that usually only teach upper division or graduate level classes and are stuck with their token Subject X 101 class this semester are often notorious for having tough/unreasonable classes.

Bottom line, this is a GE class. By a cynical bastard and realize that you likely aren't going to learn anything useful to your future career in this class and take something that will fulfill the requirement and give you an easy A. RateMyProfessor.com and triInfo.com are great resources and you should use them extensively. The wrong professor can really make the difference between getting an F and learning nothing and getting an A and actually learning something.
 
What's the prof's name? I want to see see what he teaches at UC Davis (I go there) and how he is rated.

--GiLtY
 
If you are using that book, get the study guide. I believe that the study guide and the end of chapter questions will cover a good number of the "test bank" type questions.
 
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