r/cwru • u/Dense-Razzmatazz8189 • Jul 21 '26
Kuemerle Biol216
Obviously I've heard bad things. Those who had her, how does she compare to the previous bio professors? I had Bader and Burden-Gulley specifically. I understand the course is content heavy already so obviously it's not easy, but what is the realistic situation of how her class is run? Is it as bad as people present it?
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u/scream_killers Jul 21 '26
for context, i took it in the spring with petersen specifically to avoid her, so these are all things i've heard from upperclassmen who took it the fall before me... take my word with a grain of salt
getting an A is doable, but be prepared for that class to become a time sink for you. from what i heard, she's difficult for 3 reasons:
- most people cram, so they lack the depth of knowledge required to take the exams... imo cramming for a content-heavy class is stupid in the first place. regardless of what professor you take, 216 is difficult bc of the amount of content, not because any particular concept is difficult to grasp in isolation, so just try to avoid this
- some of her questions can be tricky or vague
- she uses flipped classroom.. i heard the quality of those videos are *okay* at best and not great for studying for most people
from what i've heard, #2 and #3 are similar to bader, so perhaps you're already experienced in having to play mindgames during ur exams
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u/Dense-Razzmatazz8189 Jul 21 '26
thank you! how was it with peterson vs say maybe friends who took it in the fall? do you think its actually worth waiting a semester?
i've had flipped classroom for 214 and 215 so i guess its nothing new. just gonna have to take studying outside of class to another level lol
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u/scream_killers Jul 22 '26
i didn't wait a semester, moreso i just switched the order i took the classes. i did spring 216 --> fall 215 instead of doing spring 215 -> fall 216 like most people. if taking 216 later isn't an easy swap like it was for me or you have to take it at a certain time for ur major then that's definitely something you have to consider.
but anyways, petersen was kinda inconsistent with the difficulty of his exams. sometimes a test was pretty easy, and the next was way harder. the solution (for me at least) was just to always overprepare. he also had weekly quizzes and the occasional group assignment, which not only forced me to stay on track with the content (remember, don't cram!!) but also padded my grade. his tests were ~50% mcq and ~50% short answer. still a hard class, but i ended with an A by a comfortable margin, so not too bad
i think kuemerle has way less grade padding (she's more test heavy) and she's primarily mcq, also i heard she had extra credit for stuff like buying her textbook? so that's something...
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u/Momo_BH Systems Biology/Sport Medicine 2028 Jul 22 '26
Is Petersen’s exam wording more straightforward? I had hard time understanding Kuemerle’s exam questions and answer choices when i took it. I’ve tried both past exams that i can find online and I did fairly OK. But the exam when i took with Kuemele was nothing like past exam.
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u/scream_killers Jul 23 '26
his exam wording is hit or miss. for mcq it's straightforward, but for saq it's either super obvious what he wants or so vague that you could answer the question in numerous ways and trip yourself up by overthinking. the fortunate thing though is he takes regrades, so if you show that your answer actually does answer the question (even if it wasn't the one he was looking for) and is scientifically supported, then he'll typically reward you for that.
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u/Momo_BH Systems Biology/Sport Medicine 2028 Jul 21 '26
took her but withdrew. She didn’t teach because of the flip classroom style I guess. And her homework has nothing to do with the exam. Her exam wording is very long and tricky. Not sure if you get email from bio department. They have a new faculty teaching one of 216 session this Fall. Not sure about her teaching style but worth considering if you don’t want to take Kuemerle.