Mary Montgomery - Macalester College

Professor: Mary Montgomery

Department: TBD

College: Macalester College

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Definitely recommended for Genetics - she covers topics in depth, has daily lecture outlines, and tests are not too hard with study. She has helped work on Nobel-prize winning research on RNA interference.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

While Mary can be intimidating, she appreciates genuine student interest. Tough but thorough, prompt and unambiguous grader. Because of the nature of the class (genetics), the course was content and memory intensive. Can be difficult to meet with Mary even during her stated office hours.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Super intimidating at first, but once you get to know her, she's super helpful and very brilliant.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Course got progressively more difficult, not because of the material, but because the topic wasn't of her interest. Thus, she was not as engaging and clear on the subject. However, I would definitely recommend taking genetics with her.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Most of the learning depends on your own ability to learn from the book since her lectures aren't meant to substitute it. She's very smart but not very patient for "dumb" questions, so she opens up mandatory online discussions for you to ask and answer questions amongst the class itself. She's a great academic advisor though since she's so frank.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIOL369
• 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:

In short, Mary is smart, enthusiastic, and frank. If you say something irrelevant or don't provide the right answer, you may get an "absolutely not, what were you thinking?" type response. Nonetheless, you will learn a lot about the scientific process, biological techniques, and get a dose of real-world criticism all while developing as a thinker.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• 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:

NOT understanding of ill students. I took a test a DAY later the most I could get from her because I was too sick to study or even sleep. She left while I was taking the test without telling me first and when I came to her later to tell her I couldn't ask her questions for clarification, she said Well, that's what you get for taking it late.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIOL369
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

D Biol was great! Lectures always went by like a snap. She brings recent scientific work and good images to the powerpoints, which she packs a ton into. The tests were very difficult and designed to test your problem solving. She is nice, but you have to actively seek help. Labs are really fun! Worth taking just for the chick embryology section.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BIOL369
• 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: Mandatory

Comment:

She can be severe (esp. if she's in a bad mood), but is honestly one of the best lecturers I've had at Mac. Plus, she makes up for it in how sweet she can be when she's happy. Not an easy teacher by any means, but she will make you develop as a scientist.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Mary is very passionate about genetics. However, I felt lost after the first exam and the online participation part of this course is just horribly wrong.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

M2 is absolutely nuts but she in undeniably talented in her field. She knows exactly what she's talking about although dislikes being asked questions she deems "not all that important". Her test are pretty hard so take really good notes and make sure to do the TB reading. She talks fast, so be ready to scribble.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIOL260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

She was okay in the beginning and then she started going over some topics really fast, saying one or two sentence and the rest was up to you and these topics were not easy to understand on your own. Tried going to her office hours, she is so scary, so it ended up me nodding at her, even though I had no idea what she was talking about!

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIO260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Dry,dry boring lecture. Very stuck up and snobby. Cold and not friendly. Won't care about you if you're not smart. Still like genetics but not her

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BIOL265
• 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:

Mary is actually a pretty decent teacher. She remainly uses the slides provided by the book publishing company, but she attempts to explain them pretty well. Her tests are difficult, but fair. You really do learn a lot in class and its actually interesting.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIOL155
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Class lectures were very convoluted. She presented the easy information and then expected us to know the difficult info for the tests. It was an over all frustrating experience.

Rating # 16

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

She is a very energetic person and I think we was a great teacher, but her tests are unbelievably difficult and yet retrospectively fair, if that makes sense. Great challenge, but you have to sacrifice a few GPA points for the experience.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIOL205
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Extremely unhelpful, teach only the easy stuff in class. have to understand the hard stuff by yourself

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: DBIOSECT
• 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:

I have taken two classes with her now. And the trick to her is simple: 1) if she doesn't care about the subject she's teaching the class will not be good. 2) if she doesn't like you and you can tell, just move on. 3) if she's in a bad mood, your fun is over. Basically, don't piss her off and the class might go well.

Rating # 19

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

She's not really a people person, be aggressive about getting help, and do your readings before class.

Rating # 20

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

Loved her. Mary is brilliant and, although she can be very demanding and moves fast, I learned a ton from her. She can get a little snippy, but if she can see you're making an effort she'll respect that.