2.2
Quality3.9
Difficulty25%
Would Retake83
Reviews25%
Would Retake
83
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
10
4
10
3
8
2
13
1
42
What Students Say
“This course was very poorly structured”
BIOB12 - 2.0 rating“Took biob11 with him and loved it”
BIOB11 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
18%
Textbook Required
20%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.27 avg changeRatings by Course
BIOC13
4.3
(3)BIOC14
4.0
(1)BIOC15
3.5
(2)BGYB12
3.3
(6)BIOB11
3.2
(20)Difficulty by Course
BIOB10
4.8
BIOB12
4.1
BIOC20
4.1
BIOC23
4.0
B12
3.5
Reviews (83)
Worst t.a. to ever be hired at UTSC. Extremely unhelpful and rude! He's so arrogant for some reason even though he doesn't even have a masters. His labs are like a race against time and he wants you to leave at least an hour early every lab so he's constantly breathing down your back. He doesn't even know anything past the lab manuel.
Warning to those taking bgyb12, stay away from Daman's lab. You will not learn anything because he doesn't explain any of the material to you and all he does is yell. He is the worst t.a. I have ever come across. He should be fired because he is horrible, he can learn a thing or two from joelle and even stefan.
Okay guys..common now...yes Daman was a bit rude, and yes he did breathe down our necks....but you know what...he pushed us to learn the stuff on our own instead of asking him for the whole detail of stuff...and atleast he made us realize tht we needed to use the brains we have.
He tries.
No Comments
I think Daman really is a pretty good TA to be honest. He really tries to help you by making you read all that stuff and understand it, it is really your fault for not doing so. He might be mean but only if the class responds dumb, which is just. I think he's pretty down to earth and easy going and please GIVE HIM A BREAK.
Daman is probably the best TA i've ever had. As hard as he seems, he is just that much intelligent. Infact, his genius spreads through his words, just like his teaching. He has a very unorthodox way of teaching things, but it just makes the material that much more interesting, and easier to understand.
Know your stuff and you will be OK. Very fair TA. Very knowledgeable and helpful.
this was his first time teaching this class I think, and one thing I liked about him is he pretty much new the answer to EVERY question thrown at him, and he didn't have to think long for the answer, his exams are BRUTAL though, and sometimes you can't understand what he is saying because he will mumble certain sentences, very annoying
I found this professor to be very fair and knowledgeable. Even though he was teaching the class for the first time, he presented the material well and answered all the questions asked in class. He is one of the best profs I've ever had. His exams are a bit tough but if you study well, you'll do fine.
Daman tells you exactly what he expects from you as long as you ask specifically (otherwise he says, 'everything!'), lecture notes are very clear and concise, and he's really available and approachable. Not to mention he's got an awesome dry wit. Negatives is that he reads from slides and the lectures can be dry.
Prepare yourself for a lot of reading off slides and exams packed with poor grammar that makes the correct answer very ambiguous. During lecture he insulted the entire class several times after the midterm average was low. Slides are simple and give nice summaries, if you can get past the atrocious grammar, spelling, and overall poor English.
the course is not too hard. I found the lecture slides very clear and basically if you understand everything on the slides you are fine for the exam. He mostly (99% of the time) gave questions based on only the slides. Sometimes his MC questions are ambiguous but overall they are okay if you study.
Took biob11 with him and loved it! His test questions are based off of slides, so memorize everything on them.
This course was very poorly structured. The TA's marked incredibly hard for the lab reports, and we were not given any rubric or barely any info on what is expected. the prof did not prepare students well for the final. He just reads off his slides and puts application based questions on his exams, with no sign of warning ahead of time.
No online classes so you have to go to know what's going on. Exam questions are all pretty much just based on lectures, so make sure you know everything from those. Generally explains things well but sometimes will mumble at the end of a sentence (especially when it's something important) which is pretty annoying.
Great professor! If you study everything he gives you on his slides the you will guarantee to be successful in his class !
I wouldn't take another class with him.
The only way to fully understand the content is to read about relevant figures shown in class. The prof has an accent and he mumbles towards the end of the sentence. Office hours are not recommended unless you really have a brilliant question otherwise he would dismiss you by asking if you attended his class. Fair exams, except for final. No curve.
Awful course organization. No textbook used, no weboption or online classes or any other material that could help you understand his lecture slides. The lab is heavy and fair but some concepts in his lecture are poorly explained and don't really connect.
It was very hard to understand professor during his lectures, which made it impossible to follow him. Hard accent and fast speech . I ended up feeling fear or uneasiness to ask "stupid" question because he'd let you know your question is stupid. The exam was relatively fair. Mistakes and vague things in his lecture slides.
Tests are exclusively based on lecture slides so make sure to study them well. Otherwise he is a good professor who explains everything in detail and has really fair assessments.
Took BIOC14 during Summer 2020 and it was awesome in terms of course organization. He recorded himself on the powerpoint slides so no mandatory live lectures. Fairly straight forward and very interesting material. He does not appear as specific as other profs. DEFINITELY take this course with Bawa rather than anyone else.
Great prof. Clearly outlines what is expected from the students and helps us prepare for the exam. If you study his lecture slides and understand them, you will get an A.
Heads up: extremely harsh prof when it comes to marking lab reports and written assignments. Not quite good at teaching, lecture slides are really broad and general in comparison to the minute details he expects you to know for your assignment and exams.
hard accent and i guess he forgets to mark our papers
Idk why he has so many negative reviews. His lectures are very organized, his tests are very fair and his assignments are straightforward and well-thought out. He is very accessible outside of class and responds to emails promptly. Also, I think the delay in returning our papers was bc he was waiting for some people to hand it in; not his fault.
This is my second course with Prof Bawa (i took C14 in summer 2020 first). B12 is a lab course and you learn most of the things from the TAs rather than the prof; I personally didn't watch a single lecture. The lab manual was clear, prof organized course materials clearly and it was very average. Beware I haven't got my final exam grade back yet.
he's a great lecturer and his lectures make the notes more clear and really describe everything. the class was graded on a few things which I really liked. it didn't feel like an overwhelming class. his office hours were almost always empty so if you went, you got to have real one on one time with him which is nice. he's also a really nice guy.
Don't bother watching lectures, he just read off the slides. The exams were very fair, as they were all concepts which were on his slides. Know every slide inside out and you should be good to go.
I found this professor to be very fair when it came to exams, although some questions were difficult. You are required to know lots of material, but all the material you need to know he puts on his slides. He also just reads off his slides, so if you miss a lecture you still have the content.
Read of his slide, a lot of material to memorize, just not it.
I respect people's opinions but I don't understand why there is so much hate for the professor. He is extremely polite, if you have a question he would go out of his way to explain it to you. I know that he does read off the slides sometimes but that is because he wants to make sure you are attentive and don't have to spend time writing notes.
Very straightforward grading: final:50%,assignment:8%,midterm:42% Lots of content but can be broken down easily if you make up memorization techniques. Course is just the central dogma zoomed in. His exams were a bunch of ordering processes/define this term. It was really easy to answer if u knew it-no tricks. pure memorization, barely application.
A lot of people complained that he reads off of the slides but I find that it's more helpful that way since I don't need to worry about quickly noting down important things he says and can keep up with him. His slides are very informative, you can study right off of them and do well. The course content itself is a lot which is what makes it hard.
Overall, I feel like he was completely average. His lectures were mainly him reading off of the slides, but I felt that lectures weren't even relevant to the majority of what we were marked on in the course. The majority of content was learned from the lab manuals and grading was largely left up to TAs, and was not too bad. The final was harder
Great professor, very caring and accessible. Always answered all my questions. Everything is on slides & TB is unnecessary. He explains what's on the slide which helped me a lot. Studying the slides on its own is extremely time-consuming & difficult. Very content heavy & lots of new terms. Memorization-based, but exams are easy & straightforward.
Not much is known about his academic background and is not receptive to a class probing his qualifications which is suspicious. Bizarre also at the university level, he's allowed to instruct so many B- to D- in different sub-disciplines of biology without clarity on his exact expertise, existing publications, or if he's ever conducted PhD research?
Not the best prof, when it comes to explaining concepts. He just reads off the slides. Adam Mott would have been a better prof. for this course. The exam was hard and nothing like we did in lecture/labs especially the solving problems.
Not much known about his academic background. I am not sure why he teaches different A - D level courses that he has no knowledge on. We don't even know where he got his phd from or what he studied which is weird.
Prof. Bawa is pretty good. He explains the concepts well during lectures and his slides are detailed enough. No need for textbooks. Studying the lecture slides and lab manuals are all you need to do well in the midterm and final.
Prof is nice and exams are all just from the lecture but the final is worth 50% which is kind of nerve-wracking lol
There was so much information on the slides many were overcomplicated. They expect us to memorize so much information becuase we get short answer questions and fill in the blanks. He refuses to disclose the amount of questions on the exam which just adds to the stress.
Final was Brutal. Each lectures were 50-60 slides and we had to memorize the smallest details. He told us to focus on some of his lecture for the final but did not ask any questions related to it. Instead, he asked minute details from sections he did not even focus on much. I want him to write the final he gave us with the information he gave us.
I rarely dislike a course but this course would be on top
I don't have anything against Bawa, but the classes he teaches are not worth taking. He reads completely off of the slides, contributing NOTHING. On exams, he asks ridiculous, non-important questions from the slides, and the exams are lengthy. I don't like how he asked us to review calculations/content from first half, and didn't test us on it.
Don't take classes with him trust me
Lectures are very monotone. He pretty much reads off the slides, and the slides are just copy paste from the textbook. Doesn't talk about what is on the exam. Seems like he is using one prof's lectures and a different prof's exams. Seems uninterested in teaching nor for the well-being of students, and seems like he is there just for the paycheque.
His lectures are boring, with monotonic slide-reading for two hours. Tests and exams are heavy, with unpredictable multiple-choice questions. He is very rude and uncaring toward students, and his grading is unfair and extra picky, which really brings down your GPA considering that the exam is 50% of your grade.
I am glad I can finally take a deep breath and say that I am done getting railed. Cons: Crammed and colourful slides with too much information, a monotonous voice, arrogance towards students, tests being worth 85% of your grade, arrogance when asked questions, virtually no practice problems for exams. Pros: Will answer questions if you dare ask.
One of the worst courses UTSC has to offer, 85% of your grade from tests that are taken from minute minuscule figure captions and random slide details, irrelevant to the bigger topics. He literally tests for zero understanding, just memorizing options. This was by far a horrendous course, and I know of not one individual that enjoyed this.
just dont take this course if you value your well-being. 40 slides per lecture, each slide jam packed with teeny tiny info like names of random viral proteins that you HAVE you memorize. didnt even tell us how many questions would be on exam. no practice question or anything for exam either. ALSO, his quiz MCQs were NOTHING like his exam MCQs
Not the most interesting course/lectures, but is organized. Content is pretty dense, however it is possible to do well as long as you memorize everyyything off his slides(which is a lot), as the tests are not very application based but mainly off of memorization. If you do not like genetics, this course is not for you.
If you're reading this C20 is prob mandatory for you and you have to take it with him regardless. Pro tip, his midterm and final MC were from the textbook, wish I knew that beforehand, hopefully it helps you. Actually an impossible course unless you go in having done those MC.
I hope you all know those complaining about the exams, all the questions he puts on the exam are from test banks from the textbook that can be found online LOLLL, yall complaining
Reads off his slides word for word. Not the worst way tbh, at least you'll know whats on there is all there is. Just boring as all heck. HOWEVER. Graded on just a midterm, a group project, and a final. Exams have short answer. Final was actually so rough idek what to say to yall- it was long and not reflective of what we learned.
Very kind, helpful!
Hard final exam
Course load isn't bad, labs are also pretty cool. However the prof didn't put that much effort into helping students succeed tbh, almost all of the assignments did not have a rubric so you were dependent on the TA to provide a grading scheme. Same thing for the exam, hardly gave any info at all so it was hard to prepare for, pretty difficult final
‼️be warned‼️: prof doesn't believe in rubrics = no standard; TA's are left to freestyle your grade(i thought i ate, got cooked). prof also very aggressive during lectures but admittedly more gentle one on one. also, unorganized course af. final was ok, just study the slides and lab manual even if you didnt go to lect. biggest issue: NO RUBRICS. B-
Bro needs to stop teaching, every course I have taken with him has always resulted in me doing terrible. I attended lectures and everything possible and this Bawa still gives the worst possible grades ever. He doesn't help his students and he's been rude to a lot of people including me.
Insanely boring, just reads off the slides. Seems like he doesn't really know what he's teaching. I asked him a question once and he couldn't really answer it
bro needs to retire
Think tungsten is the densest material on earth? WRONG. It's a BIOB10 lecture by Bawa. He'll throw a freight train's worth of material at you, say everything is fair game, and then test you on the most insignificant details in his exams. Exams also make up 85% of the course, quizzes 15%. Take it with ANY other prof. NOT HIM. RUN.
long boring lectures where you have to memorize every minute detail because that's what he tests
Man just READS of the slides, literal audiobook. So much information and every single term you have to memorize spelling. What is this English? And everything fair game, 48% final and 15% worth of quizzes that won't be dropped of u miss one. How is He even a prof and no PHD. Bless you have Arthi Ashok
He is unapproachable. His lectures are extremely boring. If it takes me 10 minutes to note down the information on the slides, he reads it in one minute. Extremely disorganized. Not open to feedback and quite rude to students. Exams make up the majority of the assessments, with no practical approach to questions. Very stressful, not recommended
overall, not the best professor. copies textbook onto slides and then reads them. very monotone too. if you prefer reading the textbook on your own + teaching yourself, his classes aren't too bad. exams q's are similar to quizzes.
hard to listen and to understand during lectures, and only read off slides the whole time. extremely lazy who intentionally sets up MCQ answers to confuse students and for them to answer wrong. only redeeming factor is that if you find the textbook test bank, he uses it for 90-95% of his problems from for exams. not overall a nice guy either
Hate this course
really easy and smooth final exam dont stress
it all comes down to the final...
yeah dont take this course with him if u have the option, legit reads off the slides and the final is HORRIBLY hard (48% of ur grade)
This class literally is all exam based. 48% final and 37% mid term. Questions on these exams are so unique that it makes you question your will to live. Prof is very monotone and lectures are overpacked with material. Take this class with a different prof.
Boring lectures, reads off slides, tests you on the most minute details of what you learned, whether they were on the slides or not. Doesn't test overall understanding of the course but rather how well you can remember the names of proteins. Do not take
He literally reads off of his lecture slides, AND HIS SLIDES AREN'T EVEN GOOD. Half the time the highlighted terms don't even match his included diagrams and there's no flow to his topics; he's all over the place. Some profs believe that you should learn not memorize. Bawa does not follow this practice. UTSC is a joke for hiring this guy.
This is my 13th reason
Messy lectures, unstructured & hard to navigate and go back to the main idea (cell signalling), format is convoluted for understanding and should not be a standard for a B level course where you are introduced to important cell signalling concepts.
Although he seemed to be a chill guy, the grade distribution was anything but chill. No marks for assignments, participation, or tutorials; you literally just have to be good at memorization and test taking. Very monotone and dry lectures didn't help much... but at least the exam questions were fair.
A fun professor can make a boring topic feel interesting - unfortunately, he makes a fun topic feel boring. Not much learning, mostly memorizing - focused on tiny details rather than the big picture. For a B-level course, we shouldn't have to memorize every single protein. If you have him, get ready to learn (memorize) everything on your own. >:(
His exams focus on the smallest details on only 1 slide. Both exams were so weird, it is like 2 different people wrote each exam. He doesn't know the concepts himself, he is like a kid talking about a snake he learned about. Says the same 3 things over and over again, which are already on the slides. Have a question, he repeats the slide info.
He legit teaches all of the toughest bio courses and is also the least qualified to do so as well! 80% of your mark consists of just exams, and it all depends on you having to memorize the tiniest and the most irrelevant of details. Isn't it fun when you and the professor are both learning together?! Great lectures for catching up on sleep
The midterm was fair and he is a nice person, but the final exam was worth 48% and half of it was on microtubules which I found unfair
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
18%
Textbook Required
20%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.27 avg changeRatings by Course
BIOC13
4.3
(3)BIOC14
4.0
(1)BIOC15
3.5
(2)BGYB12
3.3
(6)BIOB11
3.2
(20)Difficulty by Course
BIOB10
4.8
BIOB12
4.1
BIOC20
4.1
BIOC23
4.0
B12
3.5