Janice Lapsansky - Western Washington University

Professor: Janice Lapsansky

Department: TBD

College: Western Washington University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: BIOL348
• Grade Received: C-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Too much material/wording of exams. I am now no longer excited of this subject because of this class.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: BIO348
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Condescending and belittling to students. Made this course so much harder than it needed to be. She also wrote the whole lab manual and gets offended if you don't understand something in it.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Janice is very smart, but her lectures are pretty scattered. You can tell she knows a lot about what she is talking about, but that doesn't make her a good teacher. Furthermore, her tests and quizzes are unnecessarily hard. Multiple-answer multiple-choice where every answer "appears" to be correct. She also does online quizzes in the same format.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Janice is a really nice person and you will learn, but those are the nicest things I can say about her as a teacher. Your grade WILL NOT reflect the amount of learning you did bc of hard "low stakes" quizzes and test questions meant to trick you. She is also terrible at taking criticism about her teaching and grading methods. Avoid if you can.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: BIOL349
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

If I could go back in time, I would not take this class with Janice. It caused so much extra stress in my life. She is a great person, lectures are awesome, and shes a serious expert on A&P, but your grade will not represent your knowledge. Her tests are awful: essay, multiple choice / answer, short answer, & T/F all designed to trick you.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: BIO349
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Janice... such a great human and engaging teacher but absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to succeed in her class. I have a 3.7 GPA and take tough courses but could not succeed in her class because her "small stakes" quizzes ruined my grade. If you are not good at timed, multiple choice multiple answer, quizzes I would not recommend this class. Tough exams too.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: BIO348BIO349
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Prepare to study, prepare to be temporarily disheartened by poor quiz scores, and prepare to learn. Her lectures will keep even the least interested students engaged in the material. Poor quiz performance does not make or break your grade. If you can emotionally distance yourself from those quiz scores, you'll find lapsansky's way is the rigt way

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

She's a fine professor in that I feel like I learned a lot. I don't think my grade really reflects how well I know the material though. Her exams are tough, more what I would expect from an upper division class, and she doesnt directly teach the material on them. Critical thinking is important in her class. Not the best but I learned some stuff

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Janice is nice but that's where the good things about her stop. Our grades do not reflect our understanding, as she tests on the most minuscule details. Questions are written with the intent to trick you (everything but 1 word may be right. Lots of "multiple multiple choice". Avoid if you can

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Never gives a study guide, says the study guide is the learning objectives then says the learning objectives are "superficial". Her quizzes on canvas cover topics that we never covered. The midterm had topics on it that she skimmed over. Never updates slides and expects you to know everything she says/lectures and I mean everything.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Janice is a very nice lady, however, she is not a particularly fair professor. She tests on ideas we haven't learned, and depite knowing that Canvas grades our quizzes incorrectly she continues to use Canvas quizzes as a large portion of your grade. Tests are difficult and class is hard

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Her quizzes and tests rarely correlate to the material she teaches in class. The prelecture quizzes are a also pretty hard for something to be used to check your understanding. She never updates the slides id she skips them and she often puts material on the exam that she didn't talk about. Book hardly correlates to lecture. Pass if you can.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: BIO348
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Get ready to have your GPA drop like a rock. Unless your other classes are semi-easy and DON'T require a large chunk of time to study/prepare for you will have a hard time keeping up in this class. Honestly, WWU needs to quit trying to make this into 1.5 classes in one. Read the chapters in the text book. Don't rely on the blue questions

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: BIOL349
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

An excellent professor to learn from. Records all her lectures for a great future resource. VERY CHALLENGING: Online pre-lecture quizzes are difficult (and in-depth), highly recommend a study group as they can drop your grade. 349 is project heavy - choose your group wisely as a big chunk of the course is an extensive research project to balance.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: BIO348
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Janice is by far the best professor I have ever had at WWU. She makes you work very hard for your grade, but you walk away with an actual understanding of the concepts she teaches. Focus on her lecture material and use the textbook as a resource. She's had like 6 jobs and a true inspiration.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: BIO348
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Janice knows her stuff and makes it her number one priority to make sure you know it. However, if you don't speak up she will keep going. Janice tries her best to answer your questions so ask them! Open for office hours and you can catch her going in or out for a quick question. Super friendly and gives you popcorn and candy in office.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Janice is very knowledgeable, and she tries to make things understandable in laymans terms.. at first. When you get to the quizzes & tests, youll see that questions are asked in ways you didnt necessarily talk about in class/read in the textbook. Also be prepared to study with friends to get the many quizzes done as they are pretty tricky.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The quiz averages when a D and when asked if she would curve it she denied the average was a D. It's not clear what will be on tests. She get's distracted, every class is students asking questions, she falls behind on lectures.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: BIO206
• 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:

Janice is an amazing lecturer. If you have a question, she will answer it in 20 different ways until you understand if she has to. She always has examples that make the (sometimes difficult) content easier to understand and seems like she genuinely cares about her students.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: BIOL348
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Janice is the absolute best professor I've had. Anatomy and physiology is no joke, but I didn't find it to be nearly as hard as everyone told me it would be. An A is totally achievable if you pay attention in class, do the readings, and ask questions. Janice is so caring, and will do absolutely everything in her power to help you succeed!