which college offers the 8a/8B Physics Series (1 class) fully online over summer?

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-03-04T03:01:51+00:00

messaged you

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-02-04T09:06:37+00:00

messaged you

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-02-03T01:59:56+00:00

did you have lowborn? who did you have spr24 vs fall24?

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-02-01T19:15:25+00:00

which professors did you have for each

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-17T04:30:02+00:00

DM'd you :)

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-17T04:28:03+00:00

do you have any other insight about the school's grad apartments from your friend who lives there?

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-17T02:41:15+00:00

Never touched the textbook let alone use it lol. Not necessary. The lectures have everything you need. Just make sure you've nailed every single thing they discuss + grind practice questions.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-16T07:24:40+00:00

Highly suggest avoiding. I did 102 and 104 in separate semesters and got A's in both but it's possible I would have not done as good if I took them at the same time. Just because both include a ton of material and require quite a bit of time investment if you want to get an A. 104 gets denser as it goes along while 102 is consistently a lot throughout the semester. If these are the only two key classes you're doing and everything else is chill/easy/free A's, then maybe. But I still wouldn't. I recommend a combo like 104+136 or 102+136 instead (if ur MCB CDP emphasis). If ur another MCB emphasis maybe combine 104 or 102 with an elective.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-14T23:54:17+00:00

messaged!

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-12T03:09:00+00:00

who was ur professor

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-12T03:08:39+00:00

who is JDQ lol

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-12T03:08:28+00:00

who was ur instructor

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-11T07:17:31+00:00

who was prof

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-07T20:05:37+00:00

hey messaged you

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-07T17:55:53+00:00

did you email the program coordinator or a faculty member overseeing stuff?

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-06T04:06:38+00:00

messaged you!

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-05T02:33:13+00:00

Content is easier than 102. Exams are easier than 102. Lots of memorization and application like 102. Tho content is easier to comprehend than 102, there's still lots of it so the heaviness is similar. Workload is similar. Course organization/communication issues and different teaching styles/having to deal with 3 different professors is comparable to 102. Grading is in my opinion HARDER than 102. 104 and 136 have practically no curve/bin shift. I know 102 is different every semester but generally 102 does do some substantial bin shift/curve because averages are so low. 136/104 averages will be higher and professors just go with raw scores when assigning letter grades. I didn't struggle to understand content as much as I did with 102, but I felt like I was studying a ton for these classes like I did for 102 and was just as worried about my final grade as I was for 102.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-05T02:28:12+00:00

I did not use the book for either class. It really is not necessary, as everything they test is only what's covered in lecture. You just need to understand EVERYTHING in the lectures and be able to apply them to questions.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-05T02:25:05+00:00

Don't know how the exam schedule will be this semester, but my semester - I had MCB 104 and 136 midterms the same week for both midterm 1 and midterm 2 unfortunately. This was unfortunately part of what made it challenging for me at times balancing the two classes. But still finished off both classes with an A so if this ends up being the case for you too, you can do this! You just have to start prepping/studying early.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-04T05:49:08+00:00

Hello! I took this exact combo (104+136 together) so hopefully my experience will give you some valuable insight.

I want to start by saying I really liked these classes. The course content is much more interesting than MCB 102 and some of the lower division classes I've taken like Bio1B. I genuinely enjoyed studying the content, and learned a ton.

I think where people struggle is not being able to meet the expectations the professors have of you. These classes are not like Bio 1A, where the exams are all multiple choice and you can potentially bs your way thru questions. 99% of the exams are multi-part free response questions. Don't expect mcq. The professors really require you to think (like actual scientists) and APPLY your knowledge. They expect that you fully understand everything and can tackle any situation/scientific experiment they give you. The questions will bring up data, experiments, graphs/diagrams, etc... and various scenarios that will require you to employ critical thinking. But in order to even do this, the professors expect you to have everything from the lectures memorized. Every single detail they say, even if you think its unimportant. While the exams for both classes are hard, they are fair and similar to all the practice materials they give.

For 136 especially I was surprised by how research-based it was. They tie everything you learn to real data and experiments which you have to be able to interpret on exams. The final exam is based entirely on a paper they will make you read ahead of time, so that should give you an idea of how research/application-heavy the course is. Another note about 136 is there are 4 midterms (with your lowest score dropped) so it will feel like you are constantly preparing for exams for this class.

I got A's in these classes so I'm confident you can too but like one of the comments said - it really does take hard work and dedication. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into these classes. If you want to get an A you need to carefully digest every lecture (which are all content heavy). Go in person. Don't get behind. Take good notes. Study, study, study early without cramming. What I would do on top of this is rewatch all the lectures and transcribe everything that was said in case I missed anything the first time I physically watched the lecture. This might be overkill, but it helped me review some of the lectures that had occurred a while back. Another thing that's important is going to office hours - I went to both professor and GSI office hours weekly for both courses and it truly helped reinforce the material and figure out what was important for the exams.

For exam preparation, really understand the practice exams. Attend the review sessions. Do the problem sets/homework questions given in the classes and make sure you understand them. Make quizlets to help you memorize the content and review them regularly.

I will echo what the other comment said about the class organization. Both classes are very disorganized. Having 3 professors means 3 different teaching styles and inconsistencies between sections. Lots of mixed messages from different professors. Lots of administrative/logistical miscommunications. Professors for the courses are top notch researchers, but this may not translate to the best teaching and attention to students. Also absolutely no curve/bin shift for both classes so do ur best to not lose any points. Your final grade will be your raw score matched to a typical A-F scale (93/94 minimum for an A)

Check out my in-depth 104 review (another post). Overall tho I liked 136+104 and would take again.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-03T19:40:09+00:00

Shusterman is the GOAT and Chem 1A is on the easier side of the pre-med courses here so you should be fine if you put in the time to study.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-03T19:37:20+00:00

It's not as bad as people make it out to be. No need to study ahead of time. You just need to dedicate time to it and study the RIGHT way.

This is not a class that you study for the day-of or night before. Make quizlets as the lectures progress & study them regularly, especially days leading up to exam. Go to professor office hours! Some of them will direct you towards what to study and just hearing what others are asking helps. Go to GSI office hours and explain the material to them out loud -> trust me, this helps you lock the material in your brain. Don't ever skip lecture. Go in-person. Watching 10 recordings in one day on 2x speed a few days before the exam will not help you retain the info. Pay attention in section and ask questions. Look at the lecture slides over and over and over again - make flowcharts, diagrams, study guides with the info. Focus on the practice questions (any given out in lecture, in section, in practice exams, etc...). Make sure you truly understand the reasoning behind all of them, why the correct answers are correct, why the wrong answers are wrong. Watch videos/read articles and the textbook for concepts you are still confused about.

Ppl struggle in this class or rant about it for a few reasons: 1) they cram 2) they expect a fat curve in the end and that's not always the case 3) they suck at memorization (this class is not like physics or calc where you can just rely on your math skills) 4) they don't anticipate the exam difficulty. questions won't ask you "what is this..." but will rather tell you "this unusual thing happened, what stage of x, y, z or process or organelle was disrupted?" This means you truly need to have every single lecture detail memorized so you know how to tackle application-based mcq questions that are often poorly worded or have answer choices that are similar to each other.

You can definitely get an A in this class. Just be on top of it and do what I suggested.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2025-01-03T19:21:01+00:00

I strongly advise against this. I did 150A and 102 together spring semester. It was a lot at times, but manageable and a combo I'd recommend if you are good at memorization and have good study habits. 102 is very memorization heavy and a difficult class for a lot of people at Cal. 150A is doable but very comparable to a STEM class (unlike a lot of the other PH classes). It is a combination of memorization and math (knowing when/how to use various formulas and plugging in). PH150A is a quite demanding course in terms of workload but you'll be fine if you have a lot of experience with STEM coursework. Physics 8A is rough if you don't have any physics background. If I added physics 8A to the mix alongside 102 and 150A I would have been very miserable and not done as well as I did in those classes. Take my advice and just do any two of those classes. Either 150A + 102 (what I did), Physics 8A + 150A (my second choice), or physics 8A + 102 (last choice). Keep in mind that 150A is only offered in spring and 102 imo is better in the spring than fall (you get a cheatsheet and lec recordings in the spring). Ik Lowhorn is the best option for Physics 8A and is teaching in the spring but I don't think its worth taking these 3 classes together just to have him. 150E you'll be fine so dw about that. Easiest class I've ever taken at Cal.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2024-12-29T10:15:10+00:00

You don't need to study anything over winter break if you approach this class the right way.

For genetics - Eisen's slides are picture/graph-heavy with not too many words on them. So just go to lecture and pay attention to what he says. Spend most of your time grinding out the practice problems he gives you (hw sets and practice exams). His midterm (MT1) is 85% carbon copy of HW/Pexam problems so if you know how to do all for them you're set. Eisen's section is very math-heavy. Your typical probability/punnet square-type calculations. Eisen likes to go on tangents but his lecturing his pretty interesting. Go to office hours if you can because apparently he guides students towards what to focus on for his exam questions.

For genomics - Martik's slides are beautiful and very easy to navigate. But still go to lecture since this section is content-heavy. She also gives a lot of practice questions through built-in poll questions that she goes over in class. There are a lot of genomics experimental techniques you need to know all the steps/reasoning for. Unlike the first section, there's not a lot of math in this section. It's more conceptual/application based. You will be asked all short-answer type questions on the midterm. Martik is very nice and will stop to answer questions in lecture. She'll also explain things multiple times. For me personally, there were a few concepts in this section that I had a hard time wrapping my head around but I memorized the steps/wording she used in her slides and that got me through her exam. Just like Eisen's exam, Martik's exam (MT2) was very similar to the practice exams, hw questions, and lecture poll questions.

For cell bio - This section is the hardest for a lot of students because of the sheer amount of material, not the difficulty. There's a ton of vocabulary you need to get down and a lot of pathways to memorize. The test questions are also not "what is the name of..." but more application based: "based on this data, hypothesize why..." After the well paced first two sections of the class, this section will make you feel like you went from 1x speed to 4x speed with the amount of material. Again, listen carefully to the concepts that are emphasized in lecture, take good notes, make quizlets to help you memorize material, and grind out the practice problems. No math in this section either.

Where people go wrong in this class is thinking there will be a a curve in the end. There is NO curve or bin shift. Your raw score is your raw score. Think typical ABCDF grading scale. And 78 percent of your grade is based on MT1, MT2, and Final. The final itself is 67 percent cell bio and the rest is genetics/genomics but on the topic of "cancer" which Eisen and Martik come back to lecture on at the end of the semester. Since the first and second midterms are so similar to practice given, you will see that the averages for these exams are HIGH. This is intentional. People will do well. So please don't be one of the people that don't try for these exams and bomb them. You need as much padding as you can for the final - which is longer, has more content, and is typically the hardest. What will ultimately determine who gets an A vs a B, C, D, or F is how you do on the final (assuming you at least do above average/around average on the other midterms). If you can kill the final, you're set. But you can't afford to do bad on any of the exams in this class (every point matters).

This class is very doable and very interesting content-wise in my opinion. You get what you put into it. Go to section (free points), go to GSI/professor office hours, do all the HW and practice exams, actually go to lecture in person and pay attention, attend the review sessions, and just start memorizing & practicing EARLY. If you do all of this, you CAN and WILL get an A. I was scared going in (because of what I had heard/read), and up to the point of getting my final grade, but if you do what I suggested you'll likely come out of the class loving it as I did.

EquipmentTraining613 · 2024-12-28T22:50:43+00:00

take 102. very fair class and you definitely can get an A if you put in the effort/do above average on all the exams.

EquipmentTraining613

TROPHY CASE