Vida Praitis - Grinnell College

Professor: Vida Praitis

Department: TBD

College: Grinnell College

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She's really nice and approachable, very smart, and interested in what she does. You have to pay attention in lectures and ask questions if you don't understand.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Very helpful class, Good teaching!

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Praitis ran a good class that had easy to follow lectures and interesting topics. The tests were not as clear as they could be due tot he fact the focused more on understanding. Overall I would take this class again!

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Wonderful class! Professor Praitis' lectures were very engaging and fun to listen to. During office hours, she was always available and very helpful. WOuld definitely take this class again.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The class was fairly challenging, but with some help, during office hours I managed a decent grade on my final and passed the class.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Even though she grades tough her lectures we informative and helpful and during office times she helped me through things I didn't understand effectively.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Can be okay in office hours, but her lectures tend to be poorly organized. Her grading sometimes makes sense, but she gives little partial credit

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Grinnell has a pretty good bio department and if you can take 251 with anyone else, do it. Her lectures are scattered and overwhelming, so you have to do the vast majority of learning the material outside on your own and her office hours offer little help.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

By far the worst professor I have ever taken a class with.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Lectures were poorly organized and she was unhelpful outside of class.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIO251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

This is one of the worst profs I've ever had. Her lectures are confusing, the slides are formatted in an overwhelming way and what she says all over the place. She is not helpful in office hours, goes off on tangents leaving students further confused. Her "quizzes" are really tests and she gives basically no partial credit.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Professor Praitis is helpful. BUT, she really takes off a lot of marks on attendance. She CURVES, not in a good way. If she wants only three A in class, she gives your final paper and poster Bs without telling you ANY REASON so that your overall grade can fall from A to A- or B+. On her class, BE CAREFUL on your every homework and quizzes.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I've loved Professor Praitis's class. She manages to explain a lot of pretty difficult concepts in easy-to-understand terms. Lab independent projects are a lot of fun, and she's always more than willing to help you with anything lab- or class-related. Quizzes require you to show your knowledge rather than vomit up a bunch of stuff you've memorized.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Best professor ever happen to me :D She is nice, and give respectful feedback on every piece of homework you submit. She taught wonderful genetics, and she knows what she is talking about during class. She is also super helpful on projects. I'd definitely recommend her to anyone.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She's an okay prof. She's somehow simultaneously very reasonable and hopelessly out of touch with students. She'll push back a deadline, but then not be clear what she wants from the assignment. She'll help if you ask for it, but is also harder than other 150 profs in that she assigns more work.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• 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 very engaging and caring professor. She has profound knowledge about C.elegans and embryo development. I would recommend taking her bio intro class.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIO150
• 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:

Really awesome teacher. Excellent class, nice model system, basically, everything you'd ever want in a bio class--in one bio class. Now She's my advisor, so the bias is just what it says on the label.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BIO151
• 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:

This class was an amazing experience for me. My bio background was beyond the intro level: however, the deep paper discussions were informative and her perspective as a geneticist refreshing. Her grading can be demanding, but always fair. She engages students with the material, and I even got to work on a project directly related to her research.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BIO345
• 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:

Wow, I learned more than I thought I would. Paper discussions were the best I have ever had at Grinnell, labs, however, sucked--a lot. This was not Vida's fault though: yeast have a habit of not always working. In regards to Vida teaching 251, it is important to realize that ALL of the bio professors teach right out of the book

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: TUT101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Vida was an amazing professor to have for a tutorial. Although she was quite demanding, she was very helpful and interesting, and usually very clear in her asignments and grading.