Tomanek, Lars  

He is an extremely difficult proffessor. When he lectures it is really boring and hard to understand because of his thick german accent. Even though the tests are multiple choice, they are insanely difficult. Not only does he ask hard questions (which is fine), but he words them really weird, so it is sometimes hard to understand. He co-taught this course with Steinmaus who taught the plants section. Steinmaus was way better at presenting material and had more fair questions on the test. I also knew people who did not even show up when Tomanek was teaching because they thought it was pointless since they couldn't pay attention or understand anything he was saying. In lab he was even worse. He was waaaaaay to critical of our drawings in the lab notebook. We even got marked off a ton of points because when we underlined words we did not use a ruler...even though he never specified that we should. And some people aren't very talented at drawing in the first place...too bad he doesn't care. Also other lab teachers in the section had a much higher avg on tests...Pilliod for example had a ten percent higher average on tests....because he actually helped his students. Tomanek always got mad if we didn't understand everything that was going in lab so he would throw pop quizes. He has no patience, and should not be a teacher if he expects us to know everything already. I know I am rambling on...the point is...he is hard, not too helpful...and if you can avoid taking him, do it.

Dr. Tomanek is nice, but he is a HORRIBLE teacher. in lecture, he goes in NO particular order, and doesn't even address what he's going to talk about so you end up writing notes on some sort of tissue or blood cell that you're not really sure where in the body he's referring to or why its important to anything. His powerpoints are CRAZY!!!! alot of confusing graphs that he explains poorly. He's nice enough in office hours but doesn't know how to answer direct questions. His tests are near impossible and his accent makes him really hard to listen to. I would avoid this teacher if possible

I think that Tomanek was an okay professor. the main problem was that his slides were pretty much all the diagrams in the book, making it pointless to go to class. that being said, i would definitely focus your attention to everything in the book for the midterm. all his midterm questions come from the book, and the diagrams. the midterm really wasn't that hard. i studied for one day and came out with a B. i feel like he really does try, but he's just not very good at presenting the material, so you end up teaching most of the material to yourself. but if you have to take tomanek, just do it. the tests aren't hard, and if you can learn from the the book, you'll do fine.

I had Lars for marine mammals, birds, and reptiles. The class was amazing and so was lars! Yes, his accent can be a little hard to understand sometimes, and his powerpoint slides do not have much text on them, but as college students we should know better than to expect the teacher to have all of the notes on the board for us to copy. It is our responsibility to listen to the instructor, analyze what he is saying, and write down notes in a way that makes sense to us. It is also our responsibility to go to office hours if we do not understand something, and Lars is very approachable, enthusiastic, and always willing to help. Lars gets a lot of flack because he teaches very hard subjects, and I feel like many of these comments (especially bio 160) are students who are early in their college career and maybe don't understand how demanding biology can be as a major. Don't let the other reviews deter you from taking a course with him, he is GREAT!

Tomanek is a tough professor. His tests are difficult and lectures are dense. His labs are demanding and the lab practicals are not easy. I studied more than average for this class and worked tirelessly on my lab notebooks. But in the end, I learned more from this guy than any other professor. I felt like a deeply understood the material instead of just learning the material for tests and quickly forgetting it after the final. He made me internalize the knowledge. I also had him for Bio 162. What you must realize about Tomanek is that he has high standards for his students. You must put in a lot of time not only to learn the material, but to apply it and understand it. His classes are challenging, but in the end, the most rewarding.

He such a nice guy! He listens to his students, takes the time to talk with you in his office hour and if he sees his student need more help (usually before an exam) he will add at least 3 more office hours to meet the needs of his students. He provides study questions which more than prepare you for his exams and he tells you exactly what he wants. What more can you ask from a professor! He even stopped by our lab classes to just see how we are doing even though you have a different lab instructor. I really wanted to give him credit where credit is due. He is a great guy take him! Yes the material is hard, but come on your in upper division now! He tries to make it painless as possible.

Dr. Tomanek is a good person. You can tell that he is very enthusiastic about the material that he is covering but that leads to tangents in lectures that will not get be on the midterms. The midterm and final that based on the study questions that he posts online. The level of detail he expects on the midterms is RIDICULOUS. His grading is unfair and super biased because his questions are very vague and he looks for specific words and if you don't write the specific word(s) him or his grader is looking for but describe the process perfectly, he takes of 2 of out 14 points (which is approximately 14% of that question. He would go over something incompletely (or maybe even not at all) and then test us on that material. Lab was useless for the class because he never tested us on that material. He's rude in office hours and threatens to take away points that you ask him about on the midterms.

Dr. Tomanek's was the last professor I had at Cal Poly. I can honestly say he taught me absolutely nothing in his class. He is up there with the worst lecturers I've had at Cal Poly. The saving grace of this teacher is the study guides he provides, which are very similar to test questions. The book is very helpful in this class and you will spend a great deal of time reading it in order to answer the study questions. He doesn't seem to really want to teach, but I've heard he is very good if you go onto grad school. I would highly recommend staying away from this teacher because your spending a lot of money to attend college and you find better.

I graduated from Cal Poly last year and I had Dr. Tomanek during the fall quarter. He is a pretty funny guy, but an absolutely awful teacher. This class suffers from being extremely broad and very specific. Its definitely a class where you spend a great deal of time just memorizing information that will be forgotten seconds after the test is over. I think if you want to take a more useful physiology class I would consider plant or human phys. I second the person below saying that the book is useful. It would honestly be more beneficial if you used your time to read the book and answer the study questions instead of attending his class. He doesn't develop his own ppt's, and ops to use the provided slides from the textbook. I actually did pretty well in the course, but I would advise taking another teacher.

Dr. Tomanek is an interesting professor to rate. On one hand, he is a super nice/funny guy who clearly wants the best for his students. In lab he is very helpful and it is easy to get out well early. On the other hand however, he struggles to present things clearly. In lecture he goes through slides with just graphs and tries to explain them but doesn't do a great job. He leaves something to be desired there for sure. The saving grace is the study questions he gives you. If you fill them all out in detail (may need to use the book/office hours), and study them hard, you will do ok. One other frustrating thing is that he will ask a disproportionate number of questions on one small topic (for example there was one study question about ROS but about 1/3 of the first midterm was about them). Overall, I really enjoyed talking to him in lab and he is the type of professor I would want to do research for, just never have to hear a lecture from again. Oh, and give one breath for Na/K/ATPase...

Dr. Tomanek is a knowledgeable guy, but he fails to understand how to clearly teach information to students. Some of his tests were also ridiculously difficult and contained many questions that are aimed to trick you. His said his lab quizzes are just to see if you read over the lab, but you have to study them for hours in order to not fail because there are some questions that ask for VERY detailed aspects of the lab. Avoid if you can.