Advice, opinions, rants, and everything that is on my mind as my time as an Intro Bio captive comes to a close.

If you are reading this it is too late…I wish you good luck on your journey into “BIOL UN2005 INTRO BIO I: BIOCHEM, GEN, MOLEC” and “BIOL UN2006 INTRO BIO II:CELL BIO, DEV/PHYS”. If it happens to not be too late and you are not in this class, I hope you enjoy getting a better understanding of one of the reasons why I am frequently caught lacking, looking sleep deprived with bloodshot eyes and a Ferris coffee because there is always more work to do. 

Layout if you are looking for something specific:

  • Things that I love about Intro Bio <3
    • Interesting real world applications
    • Trauma bonding and learning difficult concepts together
    • Recitation/TAs 
  • Things that I dislike and sometimes even despise about Intro Bio
    • Imposter syndrome
    • Bio-loving friend now hates biology 
    • Extra credit opportunities in first semester vs second semester
    • No grade cushion or real curve
    • So many teachers
  • Opinions of a few non pre-med BME students…
  • Advice
    • Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
    • Take recitation on Mondays.
    • TA is more important than recitation day/time.
    • Do not fall behind in lecture.
    • Take advantage of the zoom lectures.
    • Try your best to do the Learner’s Manual each week.
    • Older Bwog Intro Bio advice
    • CULPA reviews are really good as real advice.
  • Different study methods (case studies)
    • Realistic and less realistic approaches…

Things that I love about Intro Bio:

I like biology I suppose… <3

  • Very interesting: Although this class is notoriously difficult, it is very interesting and expanded my understanding of biology greatly. I really like that so many topics apply to daily life and allow a better understanding of the world around me. At least once a day, something I see, experience, or witness relates to something that I have learned in Bio. Bio II specifically is fairly relevant to daily life and can be interesting to think about. My favorite applications of things that we learned probably has to do with the kidney, and how it regulates water and sodium and all of the other systems connected to that. It has me thinking a lot more about my blood vessels, heart rate, and all of the signaling going on every time I drink coffee!
  • Great for trauma bonding: the class is so intense and confusing at some points and it is a great opportunity to bond with others going through the same thing. Support in this class is very important!
  • The TAs: Every TA that I have interacted with for this class has been lovely, kind and incredibly helpful. They are often juniors and have very recent experience with the struggles of the class (although because they need to be competent and helpful, they are chosen due to their high grades, so I am not sure if they have struggled to the extent that many do, but either way, they understand it in some regard). Overall, I am so grateful for the TAs that I have learned from in this course. They truly want to help you and try their best to help you succeed.

Things that I dislike about Intro Bio: 

I have some bones to pick with this class…

  • Bio is the epitome of an imposter syndrome inducer. It is notorious for being difficult, yet it often can feel like you are the only one struggling because people are not always outspoken about their struggles in this class. Additionally, often those that are outspoken are talking about how well they are doing. It is very important that you remember that this IS an extremely difficult class that requires a lot of time, effort, and resilience, and if you are struggling through it, you are in the majority. It does make one wonder why they make it so rigorous…Is it for prestige? To break the egos of fragile biology students? Simply as a pre-med weed out? To crush spirits? So that these super smart professors don’t have to dumb down their lectures for us? Perhaps even sadism?? Who knows…I am not one to speculate…
  • My Bio-loving friend said that this class makes her hate biology. The combination of memorizing so much content so quickly, having so many practice problems, the really rushed but super in depth look at certain topics, and the pressure cooker of the rest of Columbia made her really despise this class. Because it is just memorizing, it is often hard to apply the concepts to other problems, yet they still expect you to be able to apply info to topics that they have not taught or mentioned. It feels like a rat race where there is too much content and too little time. It sometimes just does not feel conducive to actual learning, just trying to fit everything inside your head until the exam is over. We both wish that we had more time to soak in the concepts because they are very fascinating, but we just move far too fast in this class to truly absorb and enjoy the information.
  • Extra credit opportunities in first semester vs second semester. For the first semester, extra credit consisted of a few five minute reflections about how you studied and what you would improve on. For the second semester these same four points were only granted if you attended SURF symposium and wrote a report on two posters. These reports were expected to be more than just insight into what the researcher did, you were supposed to expand and they said that they would not give credit to some people if they did not follow the vague guidelines that they gave. They also said they would only give the credit if you were on the cusp of a letter grade and could use it, so you could be doing all this work for nothing. It was so much more intimidating to attend, ask questions, take notes, and write a thorough and insightful report while knowing that there was a chance of your work not being good enough or necessary. 
  • No grade cushion or real curve: Your grade is based on your exam scores and recitation attendance. Additionally, the only way that the class is in any way “curved” is the fact that they ensure that the median is a 73 percent. The rest is entirely up to your ability to apply learned complicated ideas to completely new and different scenarios. Many on CULPA complain about how so much of the class is the luck of the draw and whether or not you think the same way as whichever professor wrote that exam. Personally, I’ve submitted fully and no longer have the capacity to worry about my grade…it is what it is.
  • Teachers changing and slideshow/recording differences: In taking Intro Bio I and II, we had five different teachers that talked about different subjects that they specialized in. This led to having to adjust to five very different teaching styles, depths of details, slideshow organization and methods and much more five separate times. Some wrote everything that they said on the slides, which made reviewing them very easy, others put nothing on slides and marked up as they taught. One teacher even finished lectures early for once! This variation was a struggle because it felt like I was always adjusting to a new teacher’s style and expectations. There were also variations in computer capabilities and because of that there was variation in the quality of the zoom videos. Some host review sessions, others don’t. Overall, it was a lot of adjusting, but most students have a professor that they favored. Sometimes you can catch Intro Bio students arguing about which professor is best, similar to how people acted about One Direction, except I really hope people didn’t make any cardboard cutouts of our profs…

Biomedical Engineering students (not pre-med) in Intro Bio I & II opinions:

It’s honestly pretty jarring to be in Intro Bio as someone who isn’t pre-med. Almost everyone you talk to is on the pre-med or pre-professional track, where grades feel make-or-break. That’s fine on its own, but then you add the fact that Intro Bio at Columbia is infamous for being one of the hardest biology classes in the country, and suddenly the whole thing turns into a pressure cooker. It’s also required for Biomedical Engineering majors and minors, so tell me why I have to take one of the hardest, notoriously pre-med weed-out classes when I’m not even pre-med?

That pressure shows up most in the day-to-day experience of the class. I do think it’s doable. There are only about 35 to 50 BME undergrads graduating each year, and even fewer of those aren’t pre-med, so clearly people make it through. But that doesn’t make it any less difficult. Almost every conversation I have with another non pre-med BME student turns into us ranting about how frustrating it is to be in a class full of people who need A’s to get into medical school. There’s so much competitiveness, and because we’re not on that track, it’s easy to feel out of place. I don’t need an A, I just need to pass and actually understand some of what I’m learning. Trying to balance all of my BME SEAS requirements on top of Intro Bio can feel almost impossible. I genuinely still don’t know how I survived last semester. And whatever you do, please do not take Intro to Electrical Engineering, Intro Bio I, Physics III, and Multivariable Calculus at the same time. That schedule, plus one random non-tech, is a punishment I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Because of these tensions in the students and Intro Bio, a friend and I started talking about possible alternatives. Some required BME classes are already offered in more engineering-focused versions, like ENGIE1006 (Python) or APMA E2101 (ODEs and linear algebra combined). It made us wonder what an Intro Bio course designed specifically for BME students might look like, something more tailored to engineering applications and maybe not quite as dominated by pre-med intensity. I am not sure how realistic that is, since Intro Bio has broader structural issues and is not just hard for BME students, but it is an interesting idea. I could see it helping, even if it does not fully get at the root of the problem.

Another piece of this is the gap in prior knowledge that students come in with. A lot of people who do well in this class already have a strong background in biology. That is not to take away from how hard they work, because the class is hard for everyone, but there is a real difference between learning something for the first time and reinforcing material you have already seen. If you did not take AP Bio or do IB, the class can feel especially overwhelming. Columbia does offer a course to help build that foundation, which is great in theory, but with the BME schedule, it is hard to actually fit it in beforehand. That is kind of the core issue for me. There just is not enough time to do everything well, so something always ends up slipping. It already feels like you are being pulled in ten different directions, and it is even worse if you are starting without that prior background.

Given all of that, I have heard people say that non pre-med Intro Bio students seem more “chill,” but honestly, I think we kind of have to be. If we stressed about grades the same way all the time, we would probably lose it. I have a lot of respect for the people that are BME and pre-med, it takes a lot of determination and resilience to not just survive this, but to thrive in it?? I truly do not know how they do it. 

Advice:

Instead of complaining more, which I could do btw, I wanted to share some advice that I wish I had been told or things that I wish I had done (email me if you want more complaints…I can send screenshots of texts to my mom or pics of my journal).

  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Attend office hours, problem solving sessions, office hours, and review sessions. Read through advice from others that have taken the class. Don’t be afraid to ask classmates for advice on how to study or help with a concept. Form study groups. It is never too late to ask for help!
  • Take recitation on Mondays. Then it is done before you learn new content on Tuesday. It is also conveniently placed because all of your bio exams are on Thursdays, so there is more time for the recitation review and problems to settle in your brain. Additionally, I took Wednesday recitations in the first semester which was stressful because of the quick turnaround of an exam the next day AND there are sometimes review sessions or helpful review office hours that occur on Wednesdays before exams. 
  • TA is more important than recitation day/time: If there is a TA that works better for the way that you learn please disregard what I said above. The TAs have different teaching styles and slightly different recitation formats, so if one doesn’t work for you, you can try out another.
  • Do not fall behind in lecture. Please, whatever you do, please please listen to this advice. I ended up doing this both semesters and it was always such a struggle to catch up once I fell behind. Additionally, many times the information builds on itself so it is hard to go to new lectures if you are behind. As a veteran skipper, I only condone skipping if you are going to watch the lecture before the next class (I didn’t always keep up, but you should lol). I think that if you are disciplined and ensure you are keeping up it’s chill, especially because some of the teachers talk slowly and 2x speed is a lifesaver. Anyways I guess stay safe out there and fight your hardest to not fall behind!
  • Take advantage of the zoom lectures. If you are in the 10:10am section it can get difficult to wake up, get ready, and make the trek to class. Halfway through this semester my roommate discovered the zoom lectures and from that point forward every Tuesday and Thursday she watched from bed and took naps during the poll everywhere surveys. I honestly respect it a lot because her lectures got watched while I fell behind further and further each week because I was sleepy at 4:10 and did not want to walk all the way to IAB. Anyways, please try to keep up with lectures because you still have to do the Learner’s Manual. 
  • Try your best to do the Learner’s Manual each week. It is kind of an obvious thing to say, but please try to keep up with the practice problems…I know it can be hard because we all have so much other work, clubs, and other commitments, but even one problem three weeks before the exam is better than nothing. ADDITIONALLY, I would like note that the first learners manual problems that we had to do for exam one in fall Intro Bio was two problem sets (12 page total) but later in the semester and in the spring, you will encounter some that are much more difficult and more than double the pages. I truly wish I understood how lucky I was back in September, before the lectures got harder and the practice problems felt impossible. Enjoy it while you can. 
  • Read through some other Bwog Intro Bio opinions that I enjoyed reading
  • CULPA: reviews are also kinda helpful for advice (not just course selection!) and share interesting insight into the 1,000 teachers you have to adjust to teaching you.

Different study methods (case studies):

  • Person A (my icon): My friend attends lectures but sometimes falls behind on the learners manual. She tries to be done with the learners manual the Sunday night before the exam. At some point she will do a full review on a large whiteboard (there are great whiteboards in TC, Uris, some classrooms, various other libraries around campus and some floor lounges in dorms). Then it is time for practice exams one and two (the day before) and the subsequent reviewing of the learners manual. In a perfect world she said that she would do the learners manual fully twice (this never happens).
  • Person B (don’t recommend this): Another friend will watch all five to seven lectures 24-48 hours before the exam and then cram all of the learner’s manual. It works for him but 99.99% of people would not do well if they did this. This method is for him ONLY. 
  • Person me!: I sometimes got behind in lecture and ended up doing a mix of these two friends’ methods frequently.
  • Person D (hypothetical me): In a perfect world, I would do all of the learner’s manual as they were released and then redo them again closer to the exam. I think that this would be perfect, but unfortunately, I have never been that caught up in lectures and learner’s manual enough to pull that off…
  • Note: I know of people that do far more than all of us combined to study, and I know people who do less. Figure out what balance works for you and don’t be afraid to utilize the help that is available for you. 

It can be so stressful being a student at Columbia, and taking a class that is notoriously difficult (whatever the class may be) does not help that. Thousands of students before me have struggled through classes like Intro Bio and thousands more will. It truly is a fascinating class, I just believe that there is room for improvement and adjustment to make it a better fit for the students, and not just what comes up if you google the most rigorous Intro Bio class in the US…

Image via Wikimedia Commons