Frank Naya - Boston University

Professor: Frank Naya

Department: TBD

College: Boston University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Naya is the funniest and most understanding prof ever! His exams are super hard though and you REALLY have to know your stuff to get a good grade on his exams but everything is curved, including the final grade. I got a C/Ds on my midterms and a B- on my final and ended with a B+ so its really doable if you work really hard to do even better.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

While his class covers a LOT of material during the semester, Naya makes learning everything manageable by only teaching you the essentials. Tests are hard: you have to choose the best answer, which means you really need to understand the material. Great prof though, and he tries to make class enjoyable. Generous curve too.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Really great guy and professor. Commitment to helping his students succeed outside of class. Tests are hard but he curves very generously.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Prof Naya is a great guy. He only presents the most critical information; however, the course is very textbook heavy and there are a lot more details in the book that he may not cover in lecture that you are expected to know for exams. He's honest about not knowing the answer to some questions but knowledgeable on course content

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Professor Naya became one of my favorite professors at Boston University after this course. His lectures are clear and concise, and outside of class he is dedicated to helping his students in his course and in life. The exams for this course, however, are extremely challenging requiring you to put an egregious amount of time into this class.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Wouldn't bother attending lecture (no clicker questions), mediocre lecturer. Read the sections of the textbook that correspond to the images on his slide (do not read the entire chapter, huge waste of time). Discussion was horrendous. Papers were inaccessible. Tiffany (discussion leader) makes up for this with really easy discussion quizzes.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Professor Naya is legit the best when it comes to teaching this class. It insane the amount of material you'll go through, but Naya does his best to make it easy for everyone to comprehend. Tests are multiple choice, but difficult. Discussion can be completely irrelevant, but mandatory. All in all, go to lecture, worth it.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Very easy to get lost in the sauce. You go through about 35 slides every class. Each slide contains a figure with a TON of information. very detail oriented. takes a lot of memorization. You'd be better off to skip class and read the textbook descriptions of the figures. Naya's lectures makes it way more complicated than it is- he talks in circles.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This is one intensive course in BU worth taking over the regular course. FIGURES in POWERPOINTS are your main study guide. If you don't understand what's happening in them that's a bad sign. Textbook helps reinforce lectures and figures in powerpoints. Prof Naya is a funny lecturer/relatable. Reading ahead helps with lectures!

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Naya's teaching style makes the dense subject material accessible. His exams are very detail oriented, and the last 1/3 of the class (after the second midterm) covered about half of the textbook (350 pages), but his humor and lectures make up for it. Definitely do not regret taking his class

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Professor Naya is really funny, and he knows his stuff, but the lectures can be kind of tedious and you need to keep up. Get ready to read 800 pages of intensive cell biology. If you work really hard you could that A!

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

This was the hardest class I took this past fall semester. There is a humongous amount of info to know - mainly what he covers in lecture, but also stuff he assigns on the textbook. On top of all, the exams are very harsh even though they are multiple choice.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The tests are multiple choice but difficult and there are quite a few trick questions. However, Prof Naya is generous about giving partial credit for answers that are *almost* right and he tends to scale grades up. My main complaint is that there is a lot of raw info to memorize, and it's not always clear what we should focus on.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

First, I will concede that it was Frank's first year teaching the course. That being said, he was very disorganized, didn't seem to know how to operate Blackboard, but however was overall very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. tl;dr: Frank knows a lot but hasn't yet figured out how to teach very well.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Awful. Lectures are useless. Tests are hards despite being scaled. Expect failure.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BI213
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Lectures are hard to follow because he tries to fit in 10 complex figures every class. Has a tendency to start rambling about a topic for too long and then speed through the next topic to recover time. Generous grader when scaling the tests. Tests are a little wordy and sometimes hard to follow. First time teaching the course so he'll get better.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BI553
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He's very enthusiastic, and exmas are only based on lecture notes, so you should really attend. He tries to keep it interesting, but is sometimes insecure on the material. He says he gives lots of partial credit, but it's not really true. Exams are very detail oriented and poorly worded.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BI553
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

he's enthusiastic when teaching --lectures are enjoyable. but material is not organized well --makes reviewing difficult. also, he appears insecure about knowledge & can be defensive to questions. he says he makes exams straight-forward & is a generous grader, but this is not true. also, he's very miserly about meeting outside class.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BI553
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

less material than bi 552 however, the notes are less organized and hard to understand when you go back to study them. also, questions on exams arent always direct (like loechler's in bi 552). he is very enthusiastic though which makes lecture enjoyable.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: BI553
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

A lot of the material is repeated from BI 203, 206, or 552. However, there is a significant amount of new stuff, and Professor Naya is one of the best guys in the department in terms of making it worth it to get out of bed in the morning for lecture. He's also really helpful if you have questions, even in the middle of an exam.