Hi! I am currently a freshman at NYU, pursuing a biology major as part of the 7-year BA/DDS program. I’ll be going over the prerequisite classes I took last semester; Principles of Biology I and General Chemistry I. If you want me to go over the CORE requirement courses that I took (Writing the Essay and First Year Seminar), let me know.
Principles of Biology I:
This course utilizes the 11th edition of Campbell Biology, and covers most of the first 26 chapters. The professors that taught the course during my semester were Professors Duncan Smith & David Fitch. Both were great lecturers, and were clear with what would appear on the exams and what wouldn’t. However, both had a tendency to ramble about topics that didn’t concern much with what we were supposed to be tested on, but this did not detract much from the overall learning experience. Smith taught material that appeared on the first two exams, whereas Fitch taught material that mainly appeared on the final. According to many people in my class, Smith’s exams seemed to be easier than Fitch’s, which was reflected via the averages. The averages for Smith’s exams were a 74 and 74.8, whereas the average for Fitch’s final was a 72.4. Smith’s exam questions were straightforward and concise, but Fitch had questions that were extremely lengthy. However, both test you on how well you understand the concepts, not how well you memorize definitions and processes. For example, it wasn’t uncommon for Smith to ask questions like what the expected result was if a process were mutated, or what would happen if a gel electrophoresis did not go as expected.
Moving on, the homework assigned in recitations were good practice for the exams; I noticed questions on the second midterm and final that were very similar to questions on the homework assignments. The lectures were also recorded, so if you had trouble with certain material you could always go back and rewatch the lectures. And yes, this means that attendance in lectures isn’t mandatory (since the lectures are available online), but you get 3 points added to your overall grade if you attend 80% of the lectures. The textbook was also a great studying tool, but Smith and Fitch did not cover all aspects of certain chapters. So, you should primarily focus on what was covered during the lectures, and use the textbook as reinforcement. They also upload old exams on their website (NYU classes), so that’ll help as well in regard to studying.
The tests consist of 36 multiple choice and 7 open-ended questions. Multiple choice questions are worth 2pt each, and the open-ended questions are 4pt each (and have multiple parts). The open-ended questions tend to be hard, and really test how well you grasp the material. They might include problems that weren’t on the sample exams or homework - or something never discussed in lecture , so you will have to exclusively rely on your understanding of the concepts in order to answer the question. You get 1 hour and 45 minutes to take the test.
The recitations for this course serve to reinforce material taught during lecture, but it truly comes down to who you have as your TA. Your TA can pretty much make or break how well you do in the course. My first TA was insane in regard to grading homework assignments (if your answer didn’t exactly match the one provided in the key you’d get points taken off), but luckily he was replaced by a TA that was much much MUCH more lenient with grading. I’ve heard similar stories from my friends who had TAs that were brutal graders, but there were also TAs that were extremely easy graders (like everyone would get 100s for participation and homework grade averages would be high). Homework also consists of a decent portion of your grade, as it is worth 20%. For some people, it can be a difference between an A and an A-/B+.
The three exams are each worth 25%, and participation in recitation accounts for 5%. Exam scores usually get posted a week after they were taken, on NYU classes. Basically, they post all the grades on an excel sheet in the resources section, and the listed grades correspond to assigned grade codes. You can find this grade code in your NYU classes gradebook. This year, the curve was lenient despite the exam averages being high (I heard they’re usually in the 60s or low 70s). The professors said that the average (which was a 76) would be curved to a B-, and that approximately 50% of the class would receive a grade of a B- or higher. However, around 2/3 of the class received a B- or higher, 30% getting an A- or higher. The curve worked so that a 90+ was an A, 86+ was an A-, 83+ was a B+, 79+ was a B, 75+ was a B-, etc. They also don’t round up your overall grades, so if you get a 89.5 or 89.8 as your overall grade - you will be receiving an A-. Also something to note is that they’ll never curve down your grades, so if everyone gets As, it won’t be curved to follow a set distribution.
See my comment for information about General Chemistry I.
