Reviews of professor Michael Goard

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Assigns a proper amount of reading on important studies, but bases some assignment questions on the most obscure parts of the studies.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
One of the best classes I've taken. Goard has an amazing personality, and encourages people to ask questions. The class structure is great. I learned so much in this class and really enjoyed it. The tests were open notes for an online class. However, I'm sure this class would have been a lot harder if it was taken in person.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Hands down the most exceptional professor I have ever had at UCSB. He cares about students and teaching so much and he is beyond receptive and understanding. This class was extremely fair except for the final exam. He changed the format + harder Q's because some students were caught cheating on a MT. It was really hard and dropped my grade by A LOT

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Hard class but curved. A lot of reading. Would take again. Make sure to do well on reading responses and in class work, it helps in the end.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Great professor, great class! Tough but I learned much more in this course than any other Biopsych UD.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
A great professor. Lectures are very well organized and explainations are clear. You can tell he wants you to succeed and does not waste your time. You get notes for the midterm and final. TAs are great as well. He seems genuinely happy, unlike most faculty and staff at UCSB.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Dr. Goard is one of the MCDB department's shining stars. It's rare to find a professor teaching an upper division biology course that actually tests on what they teach in their lectures. The class is taught in a progressive format, building neurobiological framework that leads to current research in the field at the end of the course. Recommend !!!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Amazing lecturer. I learned SO MUCH in this class, really interesting material. It is a difficult course but he does curve it in the end. I feel like he wanted everyone to do well. Make sure you get a good group to do the in class work with because that can make or break your grade unfortunately as he does not randomly assign groups.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Really enjoyed this class. Two asynchronous lectures a week, optional discussions, and 8 out of 10 mandatory problem sets during class. The problem sets were very helpful and graded very easily (as long as you got 50% or more you would receive credit). The only downside was that zoom meetings (discussions and problem sets) were not recorded.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
His class has the WORST structure. You have a quiz, then lecture, and then take a group quiz on the lecture material. ALSO, for exams, first you have lecture for an hour, and then the exam includes what was covered in the lecture.... how he expects people to memorize information as it comes out of his mouth is beyond me.