MICB 418

MICB 418 (with Dr. John Smit)

• Course Taken: T/Th 11am (January, 2015 - April, 2015)
• Format: Traditional lectures where he does not use slides or post notes, and he simply talks and students have to take notes. Dr. Smit does record all his lectures in case you miss a day or you missed a setence, and provide packages of all the diagrams he describes. Tutorials (optional) are used to review material and the TA is great. The exams are short answer, definitions, and T/F. People tend to find the T/F tricky because it is based on extremely detailed points, and if you get it wrong you get -1. Each T/F tends to be worth 3 points each. 
• Grading Scheme: Option 1 (Final-70%, Midterm 1-30%) or Option 2 (Final-50%, Midterm 1-25%, Midterm 2-25%) if you decide to hand in Midterm 2, your mark will count regardless if you did poorly or not
• Textbook: None
• Class Average: 73% 
• Personal Experience: Overall, I found this course very interesting, but it was also the most content dense course I have taken so far. The topics covered include classic biotechnology (beer, wine, bread making with sampling!) and modern biotechnology (antibiotics, drugs, antibody production, R&D methods, patent and clinical trial process). Be prepared to spend a lot of time with this material to do well. Dr. Smit is a great lecturer and he structures each of his lectures very well and simple to follow especially when you take notes. I would recommend taking this course, but only if you have time to study/ keep up with the material otherwise consider taking it as a Credit/D/Fail course. 
• Advice: Definitely an interesting course, but it is extremely content heavy and lots of memorizing. Do not take this course if you are looking for an easy elective.