<p>Hi, </p>
<p>Can any current dartmouth students give some information about the honors cell biology class? How's the professor? How's the workload? Is it a small class? Any information at all would be helpful. </p>
<p>Also, any recommendations for how/what to study for the placement exam would be helpful. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Try to send a e-mail to Wisconsin Guy (or maybe do a search), because he is the only person I know off the top of my head who has taken the course.</p>
<p>Have you been able to log in to Dartmouth's site where students evaluate the courses? You maybe able to find comments about the course.</p>
<p>hey fountainsiren, i'm planning to take the placement test also. how are you preparing?</p>
<p>It's a very good class. It's demanding, to be sure ( we used to joke that the class, or "bio boot camp" was for "gluttons for biological punishment"); Prof. Smith is essentially teaching you material from culminating courses and perhaps even graduate work--she used to tell us that she showed her exams to the department and they were amazed that we scored so well on them (tests usually medianed around 80 or perhaps a bit above).</p>
<p>The class is very small for an intro science course--usually forty people. What really makes it all worth it, though, are the labs. You get lab sections with less than half the people of a normal lab section, and you get the absolute best lab TAs, as well as a lot of one-on-one attention. You get to use equipment used by no other course at Dartmouth (including insanely good microscopes) and you get to do much better labs. </p>
<p>The workload is intense; I'm not going to lie. A disadvantage of the SA ratings guide for biology and the sciences is that the catalogue is most often written by people who didn't like the class. It does take a lot of work, and you need to fully understand every concept in order to do well on the exams. But you're in the class with people who are willing to work hard and already have a strong bio background, so you had better want to work as well. (My year, I think 160 people took the placement test--many, if not most of them with 5s on the AP test--and 40 got into the class).</p>
<p>Prof. Smith is very nice, but not the most dynamic of professors. However, she is no-nonsense when it comes to biology, and she can explain things very well, imho. You'll learn a lot. Bio19 is also a bit of a proving ground for lab jobs--if you do well, you'll likely get offered one or be able to get one.</p>
<p>As for the exam: don't study. It's very you-know-it-or-you-don't; I didn't study for it, and most of the people who eventually got into the class didn't either. Take that for what it's worth.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thanks Wisconsinguy, that was a great post! </p>
<p>Sybbie--I haven't been able to log in to that site because I haven't gotten my email account yet (can't figure out what my password is, and I've tried all combos of my social sec number)</p>
<p>Lemmethink--I pmed you</p>
<p>Lemmethink--my PM to you wouldn't go through for some reason. </p>
<p>I think I'm going to pick up some kind of review book that focuses on cell biology--other than that, I'm not sure what to do.</p>
<p>Fountain - Greensleeves is (at least for now) planning on taking the test, too - her AP biology textbook dates back to 1989, I thought she was kidding, and I looked in the book, yep, 1989 - so she might get a review book, or as Wisconsinguy suggests, just wing it.</p>