BIOL 303Introductory Developmental Biology and Embryology

53% liked it22% easy68% useful

From 89 ratings and 29 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

• literally the hardest bio I've taken so far. most people say 308 is way harder but I think this course is a lot tougher. ridiculously difficult midterm and final (failed the midterm and barely passed the final). I studied super hard for the final and thought I did well but apparently not. DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. we haven't received our final grade yet but from my calculations, I think I barely scraped by this class with a low 50. I think it's also worth noting that I am a student who's always gotten 85+ in all my bios so I am super disappointed because I feel like I was set up for failure in this class. idk how many students failed this class but I imagine there were many

  Dec 2021 · didn’t like it · 3 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

• Honestly this course is not bad as everyone makes it to be. I took this along with BIOL 308 and BIOL 201 and did manage to get a 91%, there is alot of content but the midterms/exams do ask general questions. I barely went to classes and took notes from the powerpoints. Do the study questions and understand the general concepts/ideas from each topic. I would say this is a pretty useless course unless you are interested in research in developmental biology and mammals is the only topic that would be relevant for professional school exams. You will go through different animal system developments such as sea urchins, drosophila, birds, mammals, fish etc, try to understand the…

  Dec 2023 · liked it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

• This is one of the most horrible class I have ever had at the University of Waterloo. The midterm and final was absolutely brutal. The problem with this teacher is that she creates around 5-6 long answers worth 7-10 marks which ends up being worth more than 50% on the midterm/exam. I put in great effort into this class however she creates absurd questions that I have never seen before. We have not received our marks however I pray to god that it gets curved. I really hope that Stephanie McKay understands the stress and pressure she puts us under and hopefully learns from her teaching mistakes because no students should go through this stress. May I just say, PLEASE DONT take this course…

  Dec 2021 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

• difficult final, hope it gets curved
  put a lot of work into the course yet i didnt do too great, and the average was quite low.

  Dec 2021 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

• I doubt this course was ever this difficult. The final and midterm were insanely hard. Ive received mostly high 80's throughout my undergrad . This course has ruined my gpa, I put in lots of effort but her garbage short answer questions worth 7-10 marks were just too much. The Multiple choice was not easy but it was at least fair. The short answer questions would ask questions that were not clear, (i.e design an experiment for some scenario (10 mark question)). Yeah right, what does this even mean. a 10 mark short answer question should probably appear once on a final not 6 times. The professor is clearly very smart and passionate about her research and should not be teaching a class and…

  Dec 2021 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this