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Biology

I took BIOL 180 because in high school I asked my biology teacher questions he couldn't answer, and he told me to take a biology class when I went to college.  Unfortunately, BIOL 180 is mostly focused on ecology while my questions had to do with molecular and cellular biology.  I didn't personally find ecology very interesting (either did my high school biology teacher), which is also why I don't think I did very well on the AP Biology test.  Thankfully, Professor Herron was teaching and he is a fantastic lecturer.  He made ecology very interesting, although I still think molecular and cellular biology is more interesting.  

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Biology 180 was a bit f a learning experience.  Most of the time, especially during lab, the class felt way too easy.  But certain parts I struggled with.  We had reading quizzes for each of our assigned readings, and I always got one question wrong which would bring my percentage way down since there weren't very many questions on the quizzes.  It was frustrating, because usually I would make a silly mistake while reading the question, and that would be why I got it wrong.  

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My higest percentage was in the "tests" category at first, because I did pretty well on the first test (later I attribute this to the fact that it was mostly based on inheritance and evolution, not ecology).  But after that, I did subsequently worse on the tests, and each time I was studying even harder than before.  I was completely bewildered, and by the time I noticed the pattern it was too late to ask for help in diagnosing the problem.  Even now I am not sure what caused my scores to drop so dramatically.

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Even though my grade in the class was not as good as I had hoped I feel like I learned a lot from the class.  One thing I particularly remember is a bird that is half male, half female that Professor Herron told us about.  I found it particularly relevant because in my Honors sci-fi class we had explored ideas of gender in visionary fiction.  One thing I know better about myself is that I definitely prefer math-based exams, like those in physics and chemistry, over description-based exams.  But then on the other hand, I have not yet taken another science class in college.

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