Reviews of professor Akiko Okusu

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Very caring teacher that clearly loves the subject. Downside is that it's pretty hard to prepare for the exams as there isn't much practice and they can ask some tough questions. While she's accessible in person, she isn't really accessible through email. Make sure to ask to see your exam as she won't hand them out until you see them.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Akiko is the best and most caring professor I have had while at Umass. This class is super interesting and she really cares about her students. The sweetest lady and wants you to do well. The material is relatively light, weekly quizzes and discussion papers and you must attend all classes and labs!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Akiko is a great professor! Lots of collaborative work and exams get a double-sided cheat sheet which is great. I have MW class, M is lecture and W is a lecture wrap-up then free time to work on the problem-set due Sundays with the people around you. Not a super challenging course, would definitely recommend!!

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Super nice professor, very kind. The downside was that lectures were confusing and kind of all over the place. Very passionate but class is mostly case studies instead of clear definitions/notes. Open book exams, can take with other people- heavily based on lectures. Not an insane amount of work. Does exam retakes for extra points too.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Akiko gave me the easiest bio class I'll ever take. Evolutionary biology is easier conceptually but Akiko is more forgiving than any other professor you'll meet. The two things you're graded on are problem set sessions every Friday (attendance is optional) and exams which are mostly very straightforward. She's also very sweet and accommodating!

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
She is such a sweet women and her lectures are easy to understanding and follow along. she also does TA problem set days which are great. the only thing that was super frustrating with her class is the exams were so hard because most of the material she put on the exam was not in lecture.