Review from a student who took BIO 357
The first thing you should know about Dr. Pianka is that he is a HUGE fan of lizards (skinks and snakes included). He is actually a really big figure in ecology and has done all of his research on lizards, and so will talk about them often. That said, he has lots of funny stories to tell during class. I'm not a big lizard or ecology person (I took the class just to fulfill my ecology/evolution requirement) and so found the class way too theoretical for my liking. He, however, finds this stuff so exciting and will take the time during lecture to show you pictures of lizards from his new book, talk about his fascination with geckos, or show real data from some of his research. But he only tests on what's in the book - that he wrote. For us, he writes half of the test and the TA writes the other half with each of them grading their respective halves. But it's hard to figure out what he'll ask about and he's a hard grader. What's probably more stressful is that the comprehensive final is 50% of the grade (he claims it's to give everyone a chance to make an A, but if you ask me, it's mroe of a chance to screw up your grade). This class wasn't my cup of tea, but I can see why some aspiring ecologist types might find his class interesting. We see a lot of math in the course, but it's actually really easy. My advice: don't focus too much on the math and learn the theory.

Review from a student who took PMRvSlmhDeINpZZ
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