Reviews of professor Michael Parsons

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
closed notes, low-weighted exams, final was super difficult vs the midterms but he was not a bad prof. he teaches very thoroughly and had i retaken him i probably would've done better. he's hard to approach though so not something i appreciate but the feedback on exams is always helpful. just put in the effort and ask for help early on.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Great professor, really cares for students. His final was super hard though (midterms open book online, easy). Daily workload is a lot, which is fair for an honors class. Do the reading, don't cut corners and you'll learn a lot that ends up being useful for later bio classes too

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Exams are very fair and similar to the Mastering Genetics HW. Two midterms, one final. The "extra" honors material is in discussion where you read a couple scientific papers and do a group project/presentation on a gene (dw it's mostly graded on completion!). Parsons is a good lecturer and jokes a lot during lec. H97 > 97, it's worth it IMO.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
very unapproachable, not flexible with what student asks - took over summer and all exams were closed note, exams are based all on lectures midterms were easier than finals : is not tech savvy and does not communicate with students well about exams/grading - lectures were detailed but reading was basically useless

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
50% hw/participation, 50% exams + bumped up overall grades after final a little. Is a decent lecturer, but isn't approachable. Gives unclear responses and judges you for certain questions. Was also not very informative  as he didn't tell us test times or how the test layout would be. Midterms are based on lecture problems, final was harder.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
Very good professor for Bio 97. If people are telling you otherwise, then they didn't try enough to pass the class. You have to go to lectures for some assignments, but it is easy to self-teach. If you can take it in the summer, do it. He isn't rude, just British. Easy to reach too. If you don't get an A in the class, you did smth wrong.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Created unnecessary stress (lack of communication). A bit rude. The textbook he uses is amazing sometimes but too complicated in others. Nice curve (made 91% = A, only 50% of the grade is tests so you need 82% average for an A). Closed note. Decent lectures. Really nice slides. Not sure if I recommend, he's a bit of a gamble, but we won in the end.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Very condescending when talking to students making him unapproachable, constantly left the TA by herself to answer questions. The midterms were fine, but nothing like previous reviews, and were all closed-note, closed-book. He knows his stuff, but that doesn't make him a good professor.