Neal, Emily  

Emily was an overall great teacher for lab. Although at times the lab was confusing, she took her time to explain it thoroughly, and always was willing to answer our questions. There were times when it was obvious she was running out of patience, but I don't blame her... having to repeat yourself that many times would get tiring. When she wasn't as stressed out (the majority of the time she wasn't stressed, it was just a few times), her sweet personality really shined through. She was super caring, and even though I struggled with this lab, she provided personal encouragement and helped me quite a bit. She was really compassionate to the problems I was experiencing outside of the classroom, something I would never expect out of a college-level teacher. I think that she is a little more understanding because she is fairly young, and a graduate student still. She IS a hard grader on labs, but just go to her office hours, and she will help you improve your grade on labs. You become lab partners with however you sit next to on the first day, so pick people you know will put in their fair share of work. Lab quizzes happen almost every week, but they aren't too difficult, if you study and pay attention. Overall, lab was interesting, VERY LONG, and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not thrilled it is over... However, I'm extremely happy I had Emily as my instructor, and would recommend her to anyone taking Bio 161.

Emily is super nice and extremely smart. The lab for BIO 161 was one of the worst classes I have ever taken. However, Emily was not a part of that. She is a tough grader and makes it difficult to receive an A, but I thought she did a great job teaching the lab and material we needed to know as best as she can. The class was awful, but she made it bearable. She is a really difficult grader, but she wants students to succeed. Many students think she sets you up for failure, but that's because they probably didn't try to do their best. Yes, the lab reports are from hell, but if you do EXACTLY what Emily wants (go to her office hours!) you can do well. Don't be afraid to ask questions. She truly does present material in an understandable way. It's a hard class, but I think is a great professor for the lab.

I retook BIO 161 last year as a sophomore and had lab with Emily. She was such a fantastic lab instructor, I really wouldn't recommend anyone else. Bio 161 lab was definitely not fun to retake but Emily not only explained the material a lot better so lecture made more sense, she was really nice if you get to know her. Definitely recommend taking Emily!

Emily Neal was by far the worst instructor I have had at CalPoly. I have no clue how she even became the department head. She has no care for us as students and literally failed us in every lab report. When we asked her for help on how to improve she gave us little to no guidance at all. Instead she was very rude to us as a class. The sad thing was when one of us retook the class, we turned in a previously done report just to see if we were the ones doing wrong or Emily. The report that she failed us on received an A+ the second time around from an equally qualified lab instructor. She also threatened to report us to the Bio department because we had used ONE sentence from the lab manuel in our report. Just ONE sentence. Whenever we asked her a question she was really short tempered and made us feel really dumb for even asking it. She definitely made my experience in 161 HORRIBLE.

grading on labs is super hard, but the material is presented well and she is very thorough in explaining procedures

EMILY NEAL IS A STRAIGHT UP BITCH. she failed over half the class on every dam lab report, i had to retake this class and luckily got an amazing lab instructor and i turned in the same lab report that i got an F on when i had emily neal and i ended up getting an A!!! clearly something is fuckin wrong with this skinny ass bitch. SHE MADE MY DREAMS OF GOING TO MED SCHOOL RUN AWAY FROM ME! i have no idea how she is the head lab coordinator. Shes probably a witch and casted a spell on the department to let her ruin the lives of so many potential future doctors! SCREW U EMILY!!

A lot of people thought she was too hard on grading. For the level of class it is supposed to be, I agree. This is a highly structured lab. Many people advise against taking Emily because she is one of the few TA's that takes their job seriously. But I had a lot of fun in lab. One thing that is annoying is sometimes she lectures too long for a lab section.A

She was a hard grader, buy always available to answer questions during lab or office hours. She took time to explain the labs, and had a very good understanding of the material. If you take her, make sure you go to office hours.

Emily Neal was an amazing lab instructor! She grades really hard but if you take the time to go to her office hours she's great at explaining things and recognizes your effort. I have no idea why she has bad ratings. She is great at explaining things and really seems to care about her students.

Honestly, every bad comment on here is probably from someone who did not try hard enough in the class and take advantage of using Emily as a resource to help them with their labs. Emily is probably one of the nicest and most caring instructors at Cal Poly who is always willing to explain things in multiple ways until you understand the topic. Although her lectures can be long, she makes sure we all understand the lab in order to do our best on the lab report. Bio 161 lab is a hard class but if you have her as an instructor, take advantage of her office hours. She is willing to look at labs before you turn it in, and will happily point out what you need to fix so you can get a better grade. It's pretty hard to fail a lab if you take the time to go see her and ask questions

Honestly I'm not one to do this, but she's a terrible teacher. She's in way over her head. HW's dont make any sense and dont pertain to the tests, but as she says "Youre responsible for every word in the textbook". No objective questions, nothing. Lectures skip loads of information but you have to know the concept on sentence 3 paragraph 4 page 128. Just find another teacher.

Take any other professor.

I have very mixed feelings about Professor Neal. She has a really likable personality, and you'll definitely see that the first couple weeks of class and find it somewhat enjoyable. Biology is a really hard topic to make interesting, and I totally understand that as did Neal so I could definitely appreciate the attempts she made to present the material in an engaging manner. It was her first year actually teaching lecture, but I just ended up really disliking the class overall. She often made some topics way more confusing than they needed to be, and she goes through the topics so quickly that you can't even catch a breath. She assumes you envelope the material in one sitting, and if you don't it makes it really difficult to understand anything else. I personally felt like I learned more from the book than I did from the lecture. The class is a bit too generalized, so a lot of the concepts that need in-depths explanations are completely missed. Also, more than half the class didn't perform well on the first midterm but this was expected considering that there was nothing on the test that was applicable to what we learned in lecture or the readings. I left dazed and confused even after I spent so long studying! To sum up: It's frustrating being in a class where you don't know what'll be in the exams because your professor is so inconsistent.

She's very smart and knows a ton about the subject BUT her tests are ridiculously hard and she does not so a great job preparing you for the tests. Bio 161 is a hard class but regardless, she could have done a way better job.

Not a good lecture teacher. She is not organized and her lectures do not project what will be tested on her exams. It was her first quarter teaching the class and every exam that we had was a different format and very difficult. Her final exam was mostly free response and so extremely difficult. She also expects you to read everything that she doesn't go over in class (which is fine) but then tests on the random-est and tiniest details that are in the book. I would recommend trying to take someone else because she makes the class more difficult than it should be.

Honestly one of the worst professors I've had yet. She provides no support material, her lectures are often confusing and off topic, her tests hardly reflect her lecture material and the questions are often too specific to be reasonable for a topic as in-depth as microbiology. Take any one else... expect Howes... I hear she sucks too. You should probably check her poly ratings too.

She’s not a good teacher at all.

She is an awful lecturer. Coming to class you have to print and bring her stupid lecture notes, but honestly bring her notes because they are fill in the blank and if you take notes yourself you won't be able to write fast enough because she lectures way too fast. When she lectures she goes on a tangent for 15 minutes about something then after, she realizes she was wrong and you have to cross out your notes. Lectures are not helpful at all, and towards the end of the quarter a lot of people just stopped showing up. She gets super defensive and offended when this happens. She lectures like you're in middle school then tests you on the smallest little details. Her expectations for what she expects people to be able to answer is extremely unreasonable for the way that she lectures. Both midterms were very hard. She curved both of them by a whole letter grade, but even with the curve a large portion of the class flat out failed. I did not fail this class, but I do not give her ANY credit for the grade I received. Go to workshops, study sessions, and do well in lab and the online HW, just don't fail her tests and you should come out ok. I understand biology is probably a hard subject to teach, she just needs to do a better job at translating her knowledge to her students.

She skipped around the chapters a lot and didn't make it clear to why she did so. During lectures, she would often teach the material wrong. For example, one time in class she was lecturing about the mitochondria and thirty minutes later, she points out to us that she made a mistake and what she had previously told us before was incorrect. Her tests were extremely hard and I was lucky to get a C+ in this class even though I studied really hardd

Where do I even begin... This class was the worst class I have taken at cal poly. Emily Neal is a very sweet & kind lady, but a terrible professor. Her style of lecturing is so scattered, it's hard to keep up. The only way I understand the concepts is by readying the entire book (which I did). And even after readying every single chapter, doing all of the online practice tests, drawing out all diagrams, & enrolling in a study session.... I still got Ds on all the midterms. When I would go to office hour to ask for clarification, I would leave more confused than when I started. I highly recommend you take another professor, literally anyone but her.

Emily is a very kind and caring person who has a genuinely sweet personality. She is also fairly good at her job, meaning that she was a decent lecturer. However, the problem was that she moved WAY too fast and shoved as much information as she possibly could into a class period, which inevitably hurt students later on. Instead of slowing down and helping students process the information, she would just rush through so she could finish. Everyone was always really confused as they left lecture. Her midterms were also ridiculously hard and pretty much everyone in the class would fail them, despite studying extensively. She wouldn't give a study guide for the final and expected us to be able to cover 16 long chapters of bio without narrowing it down for us whatsoever. Overall, I liked Emily as a person, but I didn't feel like she was trying to set her student up for success in her class.

Neal is a very kind and likable person who would definitely make the effort to help you if you asked her a question. However, her lectures were often rushed with as much information thrown at you as possible. In a 1.5 hour lecture, it would be common to go through at least one, maybe two chapters all at once. The information never went beyond the surface level and making connections between the info was difficult. She would go through her slides as fast as possible and tell us not to write everything down but when you understand nothing, it is necessary to try to get all the info down as possible. You also had to print out her lecture notes in order to write down most everything during lecture which is an extra cost of taking this class. Her tests were so difficult, beyond what was given in the online homework and what she lectured on. Despite going to office hours, reading the chapters, making study guides, joining a workshop, doing the homework, and studying with peers, I barely scraped by. As a person, I truly enjoyed her and I have no bad feelings toward her but she was not the best lecturer.

This class is just not designed in a very good way. It presents a lot of material and it usually is taught in an extremely large lecture class. That being said, Neal is extremely eager to teach and cares a lot about her students. She is really good at answering questions and is an amazing professor. Again, this class is not ideal because it is so big so I would recommend sitting in the front and paying attention.

You probably see controversial reports on Neal. Here is why. Note: I had her for lecture and lab 1) She is a 100 level lecturer. You have a mix of freshmen, upperclassmen and even adults in the class. I will admit, the workload for this class is a lot higher than most 100 level classes. There is a lot of work you have to do on your own. I spend around 20 hours on weekends for this class and i know thats not feasible for a lot of people. For some people, working on your own that much is new 2) It depends on your workload. Freshmen have a lot more time than upperclassmen. I was in 24 hours of lecture/lab (Ochem, physics 2 and this class) with research and running several clubs. It was very difficult to finish on time 3) she is a nice person, however, she will get fed up. Which is normal shes human too. 4) Her lectures are very long. My ochem teacher would give us a 5 minute break in her 2 hour lecture. Your brain cant focus on slides for 2 hours at 7 am all the time. 5) She doesnt cover all the content and goes very fast. I had no background in biology. I am a chemist because i cant understand biology at all. apparently my bio friends who took AP bio think this class is easier than gen chem. 6) It is difficult to get into her office hours. They are always full. She also wont hand you back ur exams you have to go to her and check them in office hours. You cant take pictures of the tests or copy questions 7) mastering bio. nobody likes this. it was $70 i could have used on food HOWEVER her tests are pretty fair. Ive taken worse tests but i really disagree with the teaching style. The quarter system is partially to blame.

Passive aggressive woman

EMILY MF NEAL is so damn rude when people asks questions. She does not understand that she makes no sense when lecturing. You can tell she's a nice(ish) person but also she doesn't understand that no one knows wtf she's talking about. All of the homework answers are on quizlet which is a blessing but the material she is teaching gets confusing. Her tests aren't bad at all as long as you do the reading. If you love yourself, never trust a word she says and do the readings and watch videos and DO THE MOST outside learning you can do because she is crazy and confusing. Whoever is taking this class next plz plz do the reading and drink lots of yerba mate

You have to put in the effort on your own outside of class. Tests were very hard.

If you don’t have to take this class, don’t. Take bio 111 or any other class for your GE. I am in CLA and if it weren’t for my engineering friends in this class I wouldn’t have passed.

When transferring to Cal Poly I was ready for some difficult classes in my major and when I was told I was to take a intro Bio 161 class to get into biochemical principles I assumed it would be fine but holy FUCK. This teacher is beyond saving I have never seen such a disorganization of information in a class. She lectures on extremely surface level topics like mitosis and whatnot pretty standard and I did the homework and read the text but the TESTS have ZERO correlation. Don't even bother studying the homework or the book these tests will ask the most outlandish questions that have so little to do with the actual lecture material I wonder if its a joke. She will then get mad at you for asking questions or being confused stating "We went over this". Forget any of my actual major classes this class was by FAR the hardest I took. This is not even mentioning the unpassable lab reports. DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER FOR YOUR SAKE. And if cal poly is reading this FIRE THIS BITCH.

Well when I enrolled in Bio 161 because I had to I figured it would be not THAT challenging given you put in the time. So here I am, putting in two hours reading the textbook and taking notes on every single chapter only to get fucking clapped by the mastering bio quizzes and everything else. I don't understand how this class is so hard, I'd figure with the amount of time I put in that it would somehow balance out and I'd know some answers but no. Nope, everything is insanely specific and man oh man if you aren't a saint at memorizing you're gonna have just as amazing a time in this class as I am. Absolutely hate it. Neal seems really nice though, would've loved to actually meet her, but this class is just extremely hard. Good luck.

Emily is a very kind and thoughtful lady, but she never prioritized this class. She gave misinformation to students in regards to material, the only reason I got a B was because of the 5 prior biology courses I took that actually successfully taught me the information she was testing us on. Some of my friends failed and they did more work than me because of her teaching methods and her inability to test on material she taught.

I would die for Emily Neal she cares so much about the success of her students. I'm super surprised to see that some people don't like her. It has to be because of the layout of bio 161 which I also had with her (I'll admit, it sucks, even after taking biochemistry and o chem first). If you have to take micro 221 or bio 161 do yourself a favor and take it with Emily.

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...