Barbara Moffatt - University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Professor: Barbara Moffatt

Department: Biology

College: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Very kind professor, however her thoughts are immensely scattered. Biol 309 is a course that could be littered with amazing visuals and descriptive examples to demonstrate techniques but she includes very few to none of these. I got a great mark in this class, simply by watching her lecture summaries and better lecturers online.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Very sweet prof and a really good teacher, make sure to visit her office hours and you'll know what I mean. Be prepared to do all the course work and put effort into understanding the material 100% if you want an 80+.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIO309
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Very useful. Topics cover a wide array of molecular biology techniques that are good to know for research and understanding papers. Very application based. Professor is the sweetest, and though she is rather fluffy in how she describes lecture material for a course that focuses on step-by-step procedures, she is pretty generous with marks.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIO309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Amazing prof, in class she makes the information seems really simple. But in actuality the information is very difficult and it is so hard to know what you will be tested on which makes studying extremely hard.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

The class averages for her pre-knowledge test and midterm were both barely passing. What did she decide to do about it? Absolutely nothing. She knows the course is difficult, for many and brand-new written test experience, but decides to render it more difficult than needed. I would not recommend this course until at least third year. Terrible.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Textbook? LOL it doesn't exist. She compiled "required readings" from random textbook pages. The course material is great and very useful but her quality of teaching could not be worse. She talks way too fast, expects you to write it all down, has inumerous errors in her course notes, and the list goes on. I will never take another class with her.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Hands down probably the worst professor I have ever encountered. Don't get me wrong, she is a great person. However, she is a terrible, terrible professor. She is disorganized, messy, and has really high expectations. I was under the impression that an associate dean is meant to teach with excellence. I guess that's not the case with her.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Barb explains the course material very well and wants us to learn. She's a really great prof and is really funny and just a cute lady. A real knee slapper. 10/10 recommend her as a prof, but her classes are very hard. 309 is probably the hardest class I've taken. She's eager to help, esp. if you have well-thought out questions, just like any prof.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BIO309
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I really enjoyed the course. It was a bit tough and there is a lot of methods, but if you just keep up and study the key points well, and understand the relationship between the reason behind each experiment you will ace it. With the extra credit at the beginning of the term, easy to do well! IMPORTANT: know WHY and WHEN experiments are used!

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Best teacher that Ive ever had. She's VERY enthusiastic about the topic and teaching itself. It is not a hard course if you understand the techniques. However, her course notes are not structured well (I believe she will change it). Tutorials are pretty easy if you start them before the day of; TAs will be helping others in during TUT

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

She's definitely enthusiastic about the subject, but she tends to be very confusing when teaching or answering questions in lectures. Her notes are also a mess, and she jumps all over the place in her lectures. Also talks way too fast in class, there's basically no way to take down everything she says unless you're capable of 100+ wpm.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I thinks she's amazing. She's a very entertaining lecturer and actually made me look forward to going to class. She makes you problem solve and it's good for you! You will get a lot out of her class.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

She was very condescending and often patronized students for not knowing something that SHE considered common knowledge. Can be nice when in office hours or asking for help, but is still condescending. The tutorials are useless because she doesn't really teach you the material, and the tutorials are too big to actually get any useful help from TAs

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

This course is NOT meant for 2nd year students. If at all possible, take this course in 3rd or 4th year. Barb is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in her field and puts forth a great effort for her students. Tutorials have much improved and online lecture summaries are your best friend. Show up to ALL lectures. Hardest course I've ever taken.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Good points: She is really engaging, friendly, goes out her way to help students and acknowledge them. Bad points: the lecture material is dry and notes are messy; often goes off tangent even when you write from her lectures. Midterm and exam was difficult. Learn from the textbook and APPLY IT. Do not memorize. Don't take the course lightly

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Barb is very kind and tries to be helpful. Seems to have scattered ideas at times about how to teach, and course notes don't always give enough information. Definitely helped to be in 3rd year for this course and I actually found it fairly straight forward. Definitely a great class to bs when in doubt she is really generous with marks

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

309 is a very tough course, but if you're able to apply molecular techniques and concepts, it shouldn't be too rough. Dr. Moffatt is incredibly experienced in her field and is very clear on her expectations in lectures. My only gripe is that she tends to come off as overly patronizing sometimes, and I'm not entirely sure that it's unintentional...

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The course is hard and it takes a lot of work. The good thing is Barb will go through the material very detailed and if you put forth an effort and come to class you can leave learning something new that can be applied to your research every day. I learned more in this one course then my first two years of university!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BIO309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Her teaching style was horrendous. Impossible for second years to understand her course. The people i recall doing well in her class were 4th years. Went and talked to her individually and she acted as if i had a learning disability.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: BIOL309
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Amazing prof that really cares about her students and really wants to keep the class interested. Read the textbook and answer her questions in class. It really makes sense at the end when everything comes together. It's just understanding when to use which technique over another one. Would love to take another course with her.