Reviews for Douglas A. Julin
Average Rating:| ohaider Course: BCHM463 Grade Expected: B December 22, 2012, 5:46 pm | Excellent professor. Makes the material very logical and simple to go through. Follow his tips for success and you should get that A. Go to office hours after you review the material and he will help you out. Read the book before and after class (but not too detailed), pay attention during class, and take very good notes. I tried to write down everything he said verbatim, especially when I didn't know what was going on that day. For me, recording the lectures and rewriting my notes was super helpful in understanding what he was talking about. It took time, so try and get through the material quickly. It won't be so overwhelming if you keep up with lectures and study at least a week before each exam. The rewritten notes were very helpful when the final exam came. I was able to get the mechanisms in metabolism and such after I wrote them out neatly and practiced each like 5 or ten times so it was natural. He does test you on these (and everything in lecture), but the exams, like the class, are fair. The final was basically like the 4 exams. Our class this semester was a bit worse than normal so I think it was about a 10 percent curve and he always makes the B/C line the average. I would have had an A if I didn't mess up on two exams and the final.study hard and Score more than maybe 60/75 (i guess?) on each exam and you should be ok for an A with a good final exam grade. Our curve was approximately: A-=80;B-=70, C-=51, D=48.8% Long story short: Excellent professor. take him. Make flash cards for the amino acids. |
| Anonymous Course: BCHM463 Grade Expected: C December 10, 2012, 6:29 am | I am not sure why everyone on here thinks this professor is brilliant. He isn't. I'm a good student and I study a lot for his exams, but his questions come out of nowhere. There is no homework due, so your whole grade is based on whether or not you can memorize every mechanism in the book. He doesn't test his students based on any overall concepts and any questions he asks that are actually similar to the homework problems he assigns for practice are worth approximately 4 points, but his random questions are worth 15. Also, his exams are insanely timed. He gives an 8 page exam and expects us to finish it in 50 minutes. You have to have everything memorized front and back to be able to finish on time. His lectures are clear, but boring and they don't really reflect what he tests on. I don't recommend him at all. Plus, he never smiles. I mean this guy wears a permanent scowl, leading me to believe he hates his job, which doesn't exactly make me very interested in it either. If you are a CHBE major or anything else that is not solely biology or general chemistry, you will not have the time to dedicate to this class and all the memorizing it entails. |
| Anonymous Course: BCHM463 Grade Expected: A November 14, 2012, 11:22 am | Same as the other comments. Very nice during office hours, great lecturer, very knowledgeable. hard exams (comparable to Dr. Friedman's) but huge curve. |
| Anonymous Course: BCHM461 Grade Expected: A- July 16, 2012, 3:25 pm | Dr. Julin is a wonderful professor and very willing to help his students learn. His teaching style is great - very similar to Dr. Dixon. I really enjoyed this class because I actually understood what I was learning and it connected all the dots between biology and chemistry courses previously taken. I went to his office hours frequently and he was very helpful. His tests were tricky but you really have to study hard and understand the concepts. You do have to memorize basic facts (i.e. amino acids, their pKas, and some other small things here and there), but it's mainly applying concepts. |
| Anonymous Course: BCHM461 Grade Expected: A December 23, 2011, 9:47 pm | Dr. Julin is a great professor! His lectures, as described in the reviews below, are well structured. He teaches on the whiteboard along with powerpoint slides of graphs and pictures. He goes over the material a bit fast though. Make sure to take good notes because he tests on what he teaches. I think retaking notes helps a lot for studying. What I did was retake every lecture after class and even glue the slides on to my notebook. By this, you can know what you didn't understand in class and you can ask him questions through email or just after class. Looking over the sections of the book (he will say which pages) also helps because some definitions are not described very clear in class. He holds a review section a day before the exam/final for us to ask questions. He also answer emails pretty fast and clear. I ask about 2 sentences and he will reply me with a paragraph. As for the exams, study your notes and the sections of the book. His exams are difficult and are basically all short answers (lots of writing!) and some drawings. He likes to use the graphs and experiments described in class and ask what if happen if you change something. Study a week or two before hand, cramming and pulling a allnighter won't do any help. The averages for our exams were 66, 68, and 64. As for the final the average was a 75. For the final, it is not as detailed comparing to the exams but you still need to understand all the material ! As for the grade cutoffs(%), A>81.6, B>71.8, C>51.6, D>42.4, F>30.8. As long as you study, and know the material he teaches in class, you will do fine. |
| 800meters Course: BCHM461 Grade Expected: C December 15, 2011, 6:28 am | Julin is cool, but his exams are pretty difficult. Paying attention to his lectures can be challenging because you get bored after like 10 minutes. The class is curved, and so every year the grades are based upon how that particular class does as a whole. |
| notqualified Course: BCHM461 Grade Expected: May 11, 2011, 5:08 pm | He is simply a brilliant professor. He is very structured, organized, and rational. Very knowledgeable about the material. He lectures very clearly. He's not really funny though. |
| qwerty Course: BCHM465 Grade Expected: May 17, 2010, 9:41 am | One of the most outstanding lecturers at the university. Dr. Julin has a great personality, his lectures are on point and well structured. He truly wants you to learn as much as you can and do well in his class. A lot of the course material was genetics review, but more in depth and interesting. There were a total of 5 problem sets, not difficult to do, but required some thinking. It really help me stay on top of the material. Exams were fair, first exam's average ~80%, then 60-65% for second and third exams. He really likes to ask questions about experiments and hypothetical situations on the exams. Go to lecture, take notes, attend review sessions, you will do well. He's a keeper. |
| hyeung1 Course: BCHM462 Grade Expected: A March 5, 2010, 1:36 pm | Dr Julin is probably one of the top lecturer in the department... He's approachable, answers your questions completely, holds review sessions, answers emails within a day, comes to class fully prepared. Even when I had an all-nighter, I can never fall asleep in his class for some reason. His exams are not that hard if you really understand the material...questions usually involves making you think about a similar enzyme or similar mechanism...he uses applications on his exams (apply what you learned in class to another system) the worst are the open ended questions because they are so ambiguous and unclear. His averages are actually pretty decent. I got 98%, 85%, 100% on his midterms. |
| Anonymous Course: BCHM462 Grade Expected: December 17, 2009, 9:33 pm | I really liked Professor Julin. He's a great lecturer, really gets the point across. Makes some strange but funny (maybe only to nerds like me) jokes. His exams are difficult in that it really tests understanding of the material he teaches, but I think they're pretty fair. I bombed the first test because I didn't know what I was expecting, but pulled up at the end. Definitely put your thinking caps on in this class, if you're going in just to memorize, I don't think you'll do as well as you expect. Lots of Mechanism, some facts, and physiological applications. Loved the class really felt like it was a logical organization that integrated chem/biochem/biology. I look forward to having BCHM3 with him next semester! Oh and those of you who are reading just for this: large curve I think 45% was a C for my semester. |
| terpityterp Course: BCHM465 Grade Expected: May 22, 2008, 1:53 pm | Fantastic lecturer... one of the best in the biochemistry department. He demands a higher level of thinking than just memorization. His problem sets and exams usually involve him giving experimental results and asking you to explain mechanistically how the results are possible. Tricky but a fair professor. Never went to his office hours, but he was kind of a jerk when I went to pick up a graded problem set that I wasn't in class to get. |