Ruttenberg, Benjamin  

Dr. R is a very nice and approachable guy who is clearly very intelligent. This was his first quarter at Cal Poly and I think overall his lectures were interesting, but he didn't write super fair tests (I think this is just because he was new to the course - he'll probably get better). He is super into marine bio (that's what he got his phD in) so if he ever teaches that I'd take him for sure - he's obsessed with fish!! Overall, not a bad professor, just needs some more experience.

Dr. Ruttenberg is very enthusiastic about teaching and is a really nice guy. I had him for lab too and he was very helpful with any questions. His lectures aren't too boring and are laid out pretty clearly. However, his exams definitely aren't very fair because he asks questions that you wouldn't know the answer to by just memorizing his lecture notes, and he never really teaches you how to go about finding the right answer. A lot of the questions are long and detailed. But overall is an effective teacher, and the course is pretty interesting.

Ruttenberg is, overall, an effective teacher. His lectures are long and uninteresting, but are informative. Ruttenberg is interested in the material, but goes so fast through his lectures that it's difficult to stay engaged. Tests require a lot of critical thinking, but he grades them heavily, so it's not impossible to get an A in his class.

Ruttenberg was an effective lecturer, yet sometimes he lingered on easy concepts for a while. He made sure we understood what we were learning via clicker questions. His tests were fairly difficult but mainly based on the lecture notes and critical thinking. Overall, he was a great professor for my first quarter at Cal Poly and very passionate about the subject he was teaching.

Tests definitely caught me off guard on how difficult they were. He presents things in a way that often left me confused and I had to rely on the textbook to learn most of the class. The lab portion of Bio 161 is miserable & mostly consisted of making highly drawings of organisms for 2.5 hrs, very tedious.

I had Ruttenberg for his first quarter here at Poly and I had an amazing time with the class. He kept it interesting by incorporating his experiences in the field and he's overall just an entertaining guy. I would definitely recommend him. He's a fair grader and a super nice and helpful guy.

Dr. Ruttenberg was a great professor for Bio 160. You can tell he was very well-versed in the subject material he taught and did his best to break down the material for us. His exams were very lengthy and quite difficult, but they required students to think critically about the content of his lectures and apply them to real life situations. He was also very helpful in office hours and genuinely cared about my overall success both as a student and on an individual level. I am so appreciative of his continuous support and encouragement! I definitely recommend taking Dr. Ruttenberg for any class.

Professor Ruttenberg is a wonderful professor and is very knowledgeable in biology. He was always looking for ways to help us students grasp the material better. The only reason why I failed his class was because I didn't put as much effort into learning as I needed to. This class is very demanding because it takes a lot of time outside of class to affectively learn the material.

Dr. Ruttenberg was an overall entertaining and engaging professor. I was fortunate enough to have him as one of my first college instructors. His class was not easy and required a lot of studying time to learn the material well. The biggest complaint I have towards him was that he never responded to my emails (I sent about 4) for individual help and I never understood why he couldn't take the time to respond to at least one or acknowledge the fact that I personally sought help.

Dr. Ruttenberg was a great professor! He did a great job at teaching this class, even though it covered so much. His tests caught me off guard at how difficult they were, because the questions expect you to understand the material in different contexts. His clicker questions helped because they made sure you were paying attention in the big lecture hall. All around he was a great professor, and as long as you put in the work, the class isn't too bad.

Dr. Ruttenberg is a pretty decent professor overall. He is a nice guy and does his best to keep the material interesting. But honestly Bio 160 is extremely boring. This class is definitely not easy. The midterms and finals are ridiculously hard. You must be prepared to study you heart out. However, if you show up to every lecture and do the mastering biology homework, this will equal the points of a midterm. The lab portion of this class is boring but pretty easy. All in all, Ruttenberg is a good professor who has very difficult exams.

Dr. Ruttenberg is the best! He is fun, energetic, and brilliant! He had music playing every morning at our brutal 8 am to get everyone pumped up. The tests are HARD, but that's just college biology. He is pretty clear about what kind of questions will be on the tests (entirely conceptual, and never memorized information), and gives easy points for participation in clicker questions (even incorrect answers) and the online homework (if you get 80% or above, you get all of the points, and if you get under 80%, you can do a short follow-up assignment to earn the full credit). Take advantage of office hours, even just so that he recognizes you and knows you by name in the big lecture classes. I really loved him and this class!

The lecture was relatively interesting, and the labs were somewhat interesting. The midterms and final were unfairly hard, all trick questions and not well written. The material of the course isn't very interesting, but isn't his fault. It made the class harder. He is a decent guy, just not a very good class.

Dr. R, great guy! not so much as a professor, he has high hopes that his students will be able to understand an enormous, never-ending amount of information within ten weeks and be able to somehow know every detail of every square inch of lecture, so well that you can take Graduate level exams... He is well aware that his tests are ridiculous but doesn't care, he regurgitates his lectures in a fast-paced, monotone voice, with absolutely NO interaction, just reads off his slides to us and expects the world from that. I. Don't. Think. So. If you want to hand out conceptual tests, then you better be actually TEACHING the students.. Anyone that can read lectures off to a class and doesn't engage them, shouldn't be collecting a major University salary. If you have your Ph.D. in biology, you will do GREAT in this class!!! Find another professor if you care about your grade.

Ugh, I really wanted to like Dr. R, but he doesn't have very realistic expectations of his students. Both midterms averaged in the 70 range because half the scores were A's and B's and the other half were F's. You'd think he'd get the idea that the tests are just too hard. He teaches at concept level (the book is also concept level) and tests at application level. He's a good guy and a good lecturer, but the tests are just too hard.

It was a pretty interesting class, and he was a good lecturer. Not gonna lie, the tests were fairly difficult and there was a LOT of information but I liked the class. He also had a few assignments which helped my grade (filling out tables with information, online "mastering bio" quizzes which were basically free points, etc.) and the lab portion boosted my grades as well. Ruttenberg is a pretty cool guy and worked with us when we had problems accessing our textbooks/other programs for the class in the beginning of the quarter. The tests were mostly based on the lectures which he also posts online later, but if you didn't read the textbook then you probably couldn't do the assignments for them (again, free points) and might have difficulty with the lectures since he flicks through slides really fast and you can't always write down all the information. The final was cumulative, though mostly on info from the last 2-3 weeks of class. All in all, it was a pretty good class, although fairly difficult.

This is the first class in the bio introduction series, so don't expect it to be too hard. Dr. Ruttenberg is a great professor and wants all his students to do well in their at Cal Poly and in the future. He really emphasizes students to read the textbook, but it's possible to do well in the class without it. His tests are fair and there are no surprises to them. To be honest, I'm glad that I had him as a professor in my first year at Cal Poly. Tldr: he's intelligent and caring

Dr. R seems like a nice guy but I would recommend looking for another professor for this class. However, you are most likely going to be stuck with him seeing as he is the main person that teaches BIO 160. The class overall is very boring (not his fault) and requires a lot of memorization. His tests can be somewhat tricky, but with a good amount of preparation you should have no trouble doing well. Keep in mind that almost all of these reviews of Dr. R are from freshman students who have no frame of reference as to what a good professor truly is as they took this class in their first quarter. Dr. R is a decent professor, but you will have much better professors throughout your college career.

If you don't need to take this class for you major, I recommend avoiding it as it is boring. A large part of the class is on recognizing evolutionary trends in every topic learned. Dr. Ruttenberg was a fine professor and presented material clearly in powerpoint form. Reading the textbook is important as is spending time studying. His tests are really conceptual and require students to know (not just memorize) the information lectured on. I got a 76 on my first midterm because I spent little time studying (this was also my first non general ed college class so I was unsure how to study). I spent much more time studying for the other two tests and greatly improved my grade. His tests take some getting used to, but are doable once you understand the concepts and his testing style.

This class is what you make of it. If you read the textbook and do all the online homework you should be able to pass. It is a lot of memorization and his lectures are key for the tests. Overall, his class is fair just make sure to go to his office hours so he likes you or else do not expect a grade bump when he says significant test improvements lead to grade bumps.

Too many people in this class for it to be an effective learning experience. He is very excited about biology but he does not really do anything for this class. The TAs do all the grading and all the real work is in lab. The tests are pretty difficult and you need to study a lot. He also wears birkenstocks everyday so be ready for that. TRIPLOOOOIIIIDDD

Amazing teacher, makes you learn. He cares about his student and even though his tests are challenging he makes them so because he wants his students to comprehend and not just memorize.

I highly recommend taking this class! I took it to help decide whether or not I'd want to pursue marine bio, and I ended up getting way more out of it than I was expecting. Dr. Ruttenberg is awesome. His passion for ichthyology and his enthusiasm while he teaches got me excited about fish in ways I didn't know I could be, honestly. One of my favorite parts of the class was going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was so fun to walk around the aquarium with other kids who were just as excited as I was about everything we saw, after we'd all learned so much in class. We also took a few trips to go tide pooling and catch fish that we would then identify. Identifying fish was not my favorite part, nor my strong suit, but the trips were fun and I always left feeling like I'd learned something new. Having two labs each week seemed intimidating at first, but it was actually really nice because it gave us lots of chances to get familiar with fish morphology and identification (hardest parts of the class for me). Dr. Ruttenberg was great about answering any and all questions. He also led his lectures in ways that encouraged us to be thinking and participating, as well as recalling past information so things tied together well. He's casual and approachable, insanely smart, and definitely flexible and go-with-the-flow. We got to watch a surprise shark dissection one day, out of the blue, and it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Dr. Ruttenberg really cares about getting us interested and helping us retain the information by reinforcing it in various ways. So that shark dissection was the perfect opportunity for that! The midterms and the final are pretty detailed, but he provided study guides and there weren't any trick questions. As long as you pay attention in class, look at his posted slides online, and study hard, you can do well. There's a textbook for the class too but I didn't use mine at all. The class was a lot of work but definitely worth it, and Dr. Ruttenberg taught it wonderfully!