Laura Nilson - McGill University, Montreal, QC

Professor: Laura Nilson

Department: Biology

College: McGill University, Montreal, QC

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIOL202
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Her explanations are not straightforward and the final exam was difficult and detail-oriented. She spends too much time on simpler concepts and breezes past the ones that are harder to grasp. Read the textbook and make your notes from the book instead of the lectures. Honestly, take the summer course instead.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIOL202
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Okay this is a course advice-she isn't gonna teach you exam material. Attend her lectures as background info, read the textbook like lectures and make notes from them, do all the practice problems. Treat her LECTURES as nothing more than background. THE TEXTBOOKALL YOU NEED.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIOL202
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

As a professor, you need to teach your students. But, if 90% of the learning comes from the textbook why are you even teaching? Thats the problem with ProfNilson. She is very soft and caring in her presentations, but that doesn't matter because you're not learning exam material. She's a nice person but that isn't enough to pass this course.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIOL202
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Pretty average teacher. Not the best but far from the worst. She's good at presenting before an audience but her lectures lack coherent flow. I recommend reading the textbook and writing your own notes in order to get a sense of the big picture and where everything fits. Still haven't done the final though, so we will see how that goes.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIOL202
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Her explanations are SUPER unclear. She often seems confused and constantly takes long pauses to think about what she's going to say, or to try to figure out an figure on the power point. She talks pretty slowly and takes her time to cover really basic previously-seen topics, but then often skims over complicated new ones.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIOL300
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Explains concepts extremely well. Links information to current research.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Best Biology professor I've had.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Best teacher I've had at McGill, SO clear, explains everything really really well, and if always willing to take people's questions and discuss if someone doesn't understand

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BIOL999
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

The dullest professor I have ever had. It is impossible to not space out when she prattles on about useless, obvious detail, taking us for complete idiots with no background, and then tests us on the details that could barely be distilled from her inane babbling without a heart of sheer patience... or masochism. This site needs a "boring" meter.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Best prof at mcgill. One word: WOW Explains very well, a lot of useful analogies. Had her in 300 also. Study "normally" and you will get an A.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIO303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Very Good Teacher. Some one who actually cares about the teaching part of her professorship, and she's really funny in a cute and relaxed way. Prof Nilson is just a regular person and lectures in such a way that you can understand what's going on in class and not just some insecure university professor showing he knows things you don't. She's Good!

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• 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:

Great and very beautiful professor! The lectures were slow and very effective: she realises that you are new this the field and you are not a PhD student. She always welcome students to her office for explanations and the exams are very fair. The best Prof I ever had.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIOL300
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great professor. Better than the other one who teaches this class. Not bad to look at either.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BIOL300
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She is really clear, focused, and nice. She talks slowly, but that's no problem for me since I watch the lectures 2x their actual speed! Nilson is really approachable and makes the material more approachable as well...aka doesn't make it harder than it has to be.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

great prof!!!!

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BIOL300
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She explains concepts clearly, and very nice actually, but I somehow found her very boring

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIOL300
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Prof Nilson's lectures go extremely slowly and are crystal clear. She tries to give examples for everything and make it a little more interesting. Exam was harder than expected.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BIOL303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

an inhumanely *slow* & disorganized lecturer ... like being lobotomized on a bi-weekly basis. teaches like she thinks her students have an IQ of about 50, dumbs down the material so much it's no longer interesting. don't take this class if you don't have to.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BIO303
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Prof Nilson is really kind and helpful and doesn't hesitate to reexplain things ten times if you don't understand. The class is very interesting and the profs in general were great.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: BIOL305
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Great prof for a (my opinion) boring subject