Biochem sections

Does anyone have any experience with eichman vs. jackson for biochem? wondering if there’s a big difference between these two sections

I really liked Jackson when I took it with her, she gave really good lectures and was organized/fair. I never took anything with eichman so I don’t know how he is, but I heard he was ok.

@fdgjfg why is Jackson’s one review on RMP so bad? claims her averages were much lower than eichman. also, eichman’s section seems to be much more popular so far based on registration numbers. not sure what to make of this…

A lot of people in her class were salty because her tests were hard. But that’s going to be the case no matter what, biochem is a weedout for the people who have already survived all the other weedouts, so it’s going to suck. In the review I’m seeing they’re comparing her to Cynthia Brame (they had jackson teach the 1st half/brame teach the second half). It was true that Jackson’s tests had a lower average, but I thought that was actually better. In my experience, when test averages are high it means there are a lot of easy questions and your grade ends up relating a lot more to luck, since you have less difficult questions to differentiate yourself with.

People are probably taking eichman because he’s more of a known factor. His reviews are pretty good and I remember people saying they liked him (although they still complained about it being hard) so if you want to be safe you could try to take it with him. Honestly it probably doesn’t matter between them, just take whoever. I stopped buying into the hype about “best” professors after orgo, everyone said sulikowski was the best and was trying to fight their way into her section. I really disliked her class. The next semester it was the same deal with sulikowski supposed to be the best, but I took the other one who was supposed to be terrible (bachman) and he was way better.

@fdgfg My friend says there has been some raving about this new lady for ochem: Hare I think. You think they live up to the hype (as in would recommend them over others)? Also, my friend said he heard what you said about Sulikowski (he was taking Rizzo that semester). Apparently she was pretty standard and her tests had high (high 70s and low 80s, and maybe one lower test) averages like the other sections. As for your opinion on “best” professor. I notice that organic chemistry (or any pre-med core) instructors get a bump for high organization by most students, with high organization meaning things that basically spoonfeed you material (like precise classpaks) or being inundated in resources. So even if they are not teaching very much beyond average/standard content, they get a bonus for making it easier to get a great grade. And with ochem, the more it feels like a biology course or gen. chem course (memorization/spit back the problem type oriented), the less uncomfortable students are. This plus some spoonfeeding = rave reviews.

bchem: Seen those exams from either section. Classically annoying.

yeah, I’m in sulikowski right now for orgo 2, and it is incredibly difficult. Her orgo 1 really wasn’t bad, though.
@fdgjfg if jackson had lower averages than eichman, did you guys get more of a curve?

Yeah I’m gonna have to agree with @fdgjfg. I prefer classes with lower averages, simply due to luck being less of a factor when I take a test. For biochem, your grade is compared with the class, so it doesn’t matter what class youre in, as long as youre a top student within that class.

@AnnieBot so I’m guessing they’re both curved to the standard B-?

something like that I think, maybe slightly higher than the usual bio curve.

yeah everything will be curved to the same standard no matter what the class average is, which I think moves the class average somewhere in the middle of the B- range, rather than the C+/B- border like for intro bio.