This professor is horrible. One of the worst I ever had. She is extremely unorganized. I dont doubt that she knows her stuff, but she for some reason is simply unable to present it in a coherent manner. Tests are unreasonably difficult as well.

HORRIBLE. do not take her class!! "easy class for non science majors" NO. her exams are sooo hard and impossible to pass. I attended every lecture and listented to every word she said but she made no sense. Worst prof at purdue.

Freaking terrible, try your 100% very best to avoid her. She's stupid and incompetent and lazy. She doesn't care about students and she doesn't even know what she's teaching.

Ecology and evolution is the worst class I have taken at Purdue so far. Lectures are required due to weekly assessments, but they are all over the place and not very helpful. Exams are extremely difficult and there is no clear grading criteria on what is required to earn a specific letter grade.

Prof. Zielinski is nice person but a horrid teacher. Lectures are all over the place and includes lots of content that is not relevant to the course. There were several lectures on why fake news is bad. There was even a homework that required us to look up articles on Breitbart News to debunk. You'll learn more ecology on the walk to class.

She is publicly insult students and whistle to students in class.

I don;t care how nice she seems: this professor is hands-down the worst teacher I have had in Purdue's biology curriculum. The only way to get an A in this class is to memorize every tiny detail she brings up in lecture. This includes irrelevant personal anecdotes, Charles Darwin's birthday, and the names of her pets. I learned nothing of value.

She goes into things a little too deep and expects you to know everything. Sorry professor, we have other classes too, specially ones that are over 2 credits. Harshest grader ever, will receive very little credit for explaining things for missing the smallest detail in a word question, even if you had 95% of the answer correct. Never Again.

Not a great professor. Not engaging, NOT clear about due dates. She assigns homework a few days before it's due, even during this pandemic. If you have the choice, take BIOL 286 ONLINE.

This class is ridiculously hard and Zielenski is a terrible professor. The exams and homework are crazy specific, and you will miss a lot of points for leaving out a small detail. The depth at which she expects you to know for exams is absurd and the work load is too demanding for a 2 credit hour class. THIS CLASS IS HORRIBLE

Her lectures are boring yet she makes us show up to class every week by giving these petty 5 point in class quizzes every week. The workload she made for this class is for a 4 credit class while it being 2. Harshest grader ever, wants specific answers to vague question. With 5 course TA's, it took until the very last day to grade our assignments.

Dr. Zielinski midterms/quiz are 50% SA and 50% multiple choice. Like other profs she post the previous year midterm as practice but get this she ONLY post the multiple choice answer key. You can see why this problematic based on the pervious reviews about her. My advice is to get a coursehero account while taking her class.

This class was horrible. Dr. Zielinski clearly knew what she was talking about, but the things she talked about would not even be on the exam. The exams were harder than they should have been because the topics discussed in class were easy. This class is also only 2 credits and homework was given out as if it was a 3-4 credit class.

She makes a 2-credit course harder than a five-credit course. She does this with almost all of her classes, and yet she still has a job, even though this has been going on for well over a decade.

this professor made a 2 credit hour course seem like a 4-5 credit hour course. there were a lot of stupid petty 5 point quizzes that literally taught me nothing. the homeworks were few and far(ish) between but unhelpful.

The exam is really hard. I put lots of effort into it. Do not take it! Try Humphrey!

Absolutely terrible. Avoid at all costs. Exams are made to be as tricky as possible, slides are jam packed with information that she will proceed to read off of during lecture (while constantly out of breath). There's an exam nearly every other week, and 1-2 quizzes per recitation. I would rather retake Calc 2 than take a class with her again.

The exams focus on extremely specific parts of the lecture, and your grade is determined not on how well you understand the overall concepts, but rather how well you memorize the slides. If you take this class, do not do it with this professor. She is a very nice lady, but she makes this class more difficult than it needs to be.

She's a nice lady outside of class, but I wasn't a fan of her as a professor. The exams are so complicated with her including long passages about a certain disease and then expecting us to answer the next 6 questions related to it. It's the second semester of an intro class, there's no reason to test us on material we don't know. Steer clear!

This is probably the worst class I have ever taken at Purdue. So much material, such tiny details, you have to know everything. TA's are on the biggest power trip, and will take off points even if you have the answer word for word. 0/10 would not recommend.

The hardest 2 credit class I will ever take. Dr.Z is a nice person, but does everything as worst as she possibly can. half the content in her lectures are worthless but she expects you to know ever little detail of over 400 slides for 1 exam. The homework's take 2-4 hours each. Exams are insanely difficult. DONT DO IT.

This was the worst class I have ever taken. The grading is extremely specific and the prompts are overly confusing. She clearly cares about the subject and is knowledgeable but makes learning the subject painful.

Exams cover a lot and test on small details from lectures, so just memorize slides. Homework takes forever to finish, can be very vague, and actively tries to make you miss points. Painfully slow at grading (took a month release an exam grade, even after TAs had finished grading weeks prior), blamed low exam scores on COVID (in Spring 2022)

She is one of the worse lecturer ever

Dr. Z expects students to memorize her slides for exams, and if you don't remember the smallest details, you won't do well on exams. I did horrible on exams but did well on everything else. The only reason I managed an A was because of the extra credit, and she curved the course at the end. If you can, take this course with the other professor.

I had friends who took Biol 111 with Humphrey and were shocked when I explained how difficult Zielinski's exams were. To do well on exams, just memorize directly from her slides. Exam averages were never above a D, causing the need for an extreme curve at the end because she won't curve exams.

Extremely difficult and showed barely any mercy. The exams were very wordy and asked about minor things. Her idea of extra credit was a research paper and 2-3 bonus questions on the exam. However, the bonus questions were so bizarre that you had to guess

Class is worth 2 credits, should be 3. Wasn't supposed to pass the class but did because she had to curve so low so that the majority of the class didn't fail and she wouldn't get fired.

She sets up her exams by pulling random sentences from a slide and puts it on the exam. That doesn't sound bad but the first exam contained over 240 slides of content that are packed to the brim and out of those 240 slides she selected 25 multiple choice with seven written responses. You are not given a study guide to exactly know what to study for

When people say don't take Bio 286, LISTEN! Run the other way if Dr. Zielinski is the professor. It is all rote memorization. She doesn't care about teaching at all. She refused to answer questions because they asked for clarification on something she was contradictory. She is the epitome of a tenured professor and Purdue needs to do something.

Dr. Zielinski has some of the worst slide decks and lectures I have been witness to in my time at Purdue. Her slides are packed full of irrelevant content and not cohesive. The cherry on top is Dr. Zielinski's complete disregard for student accommodations or wellbeing.

IT'S HARD TO FOCUS ON HER LECTURES AND HER GRADING SCHEME IS TOUGH FOR PEOPLE TO SURVIVE IN THIS COURSE, IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE THIS COURSE JUST WORTH 2 CREDIT POINTS CUZ I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WAS WORTH AT LEAST 4!!!!!!! YOU HAVE TO SPEND MORE THAN 30 HRS PER WEEK STUDYING FOR HER LECTURES CUZ THE MATERIALS ARE TOO DETAILED TO MEMORIZE!!!

During the quiet week, in which instructors are not supposed to give assignments, she gave an essay out and claimed it was a "headstart" on your exam. It was ridiculous and took away time to study for her extremely hard exam.

Dr. Z is very specific and very confusing. She sets very specific criteria for grading tests and homeworks but does not communicate those criteria so there's a lot of guessing and hoping involved. She wants precise examples from her lecture slides and won't give credit for other examples even if they are comparable. Wouldn't take again.

For a 2 credit INTRO to ECOLOGY class, this was a complete nightmare. Lectures are horrible and the slides are so jumbled with information it's difficult to process. Exams will ask about the most specific details found on only a single lecture slide. Takes forever to get grades and students have to jump through hoops to get fair grades. Horrible.

The class was extremely hard for 2 credits, her homework takes time so go to her office hours. TAs are of no help and think they have more power than her. Exams are extremely difficult and you have to memorize every single detail and still end up with a B/C. Just be prepare to study and learn absolutely nothing.

Compared to Humphrey in 110, this should be a 300 level BIO course. Quizzes and exams tested extremely specific information. After the first exam, she discussed that many students scores were in the 20s-30s. Her solution was that we need to study better. In my opinion, I'm not absorbing her lectures or understanding her exam questions.

Please listen to the reviews when they say to take Humphrey instead. This class is made 10 times harder by her lectures which are extremely long and detailed and her exams are made to trick you. The lab exams are even worse and no matter how much studying you do, it will still not make sense.

Class averages are consistently in the 60s or even 50s range, with her saying 20% of students got in the 20-30%. No matter how much you study you will be unprepared, her exams are extremely detailed and her lectures can be hard to follow since there is so much information packed into each lecture slide. Take Humphrey instead if at all possible.

Zielinski is the worst prof at Purdue. Does not care about her students or their success at all. Her lecture exams & lab exams are impossible and trick you. I am always up for a challenging science course, but she makes this 100-level class impossible. It should be a 300-level bio class with her teaching. Take this class with Humphrey!!! Do better

This was the hardest class I have taken at purdue because of Dr. Z Her lectures are impossible to follow & her exams are so tricky confusing. You can walk in feeling 110% prepared and get a 20% on exams. This is not a student friendly class. There is no real opportunity to learn since there is rarely hw and labs are usually unrelated to lecture.

she randomly was speaking in French she will say out of pocket things that don't correlate with anything

The worst class I have taken at Purdue in regard to professionalism, lecture slide organization, and an obscene amount of useless information or irrelevant information. The exams are hyperspecific on things mentioned once in class on one slide and she claims it is a class of "applied learning" when it is hundreds of slides of recall for each exam.

Unprofessional. She doesn't answer emails very well, takes her days to respond to a homework or grading questions. Her emails have no signatures, and her office hours are very unorganized, not even mentioned in the syllabus clearly. She talks out of her own mind rather than the book for lectures.

The tests are unbelievably difficult for no reason. The course has no curve and it seems like she doesn't care about the fact the average for the most recent tests have been in the 60s. She does give multiple extra credit opportunities but that doesn't make up for the amount of information she expects us to learn for an entry level class.

although the content is not difficult to understand or learn, the way that she lectures is atrocious. she often leaves out important details which she expects you to know for the tests. and the exam questions go so in depth and do not match the content of a 100 level biology class.

The lectures are okay, but they don't really prepare you for the exams, which are much harder than they need to be. The class average was around 60, and office hours didn't help much either. It feels like there's not a lot of support. If you can, take Sean Humphrey instead, even if it means waiting a semester.

She speeds through lectures and does not explain the content. She despises answering questions and when she does she is combative and does not allow elaborating answers or further questions. The content is confusing and hard to follow. If you can avoid taking this class, do it.

She only talks during lectures, no writing any notes. The slides are chaotic, filled with lots of details you might think are not important, then she will have those tiny details included in exams. Also be ready for trick questions. There are in class graded assignments without prior announcement.

I'm sure this class is fine if you're an ecology and evolution fanatic. But I did not learn anything. Exams are impossible, in class assessments are impossible. Don't take this class

Not phased by the amount of people that drop her Bio286 class year after year.

Most of you here are probably forced to take this class; good luck. This entire class feels like a gotcha class rather than a teaching class. The lectures are riddled with tidbits of information that you feel are unnecessary(like knowing there are 11,500 remaining vegan orangutans with the name Kevin on the island of Tukangutan) or some sh**.

Avoid this class at all costs. For a 2-credit, 200-level course, the amount of extra content and depth she covers is insane. And quite frankly, evil. Her lectures are pointlessly long and packed with irrelevant details/examples that show up on exams, which make up most of the grade. It's no surprise so many students drop the course or fail out. Run

Despite being a wonderful person, Dr. Zelenski is one of the most evil professors at Purdue. Every year she receives the same feedback about her exams, and a very small fraction even passes these exams to begin with (the most common grade for an exam is a D), but the exams never change. She makes them impossible with pride. Save yourself early.

Second worst class ever. Made way harder than other professors that teach this, does not care, only cares about her research, does not screen her TA's for communication skills, her PowerPoints are word slop, unclear about goals of class/lectures, goes on tangent, terrible presenter. Bad tests, quizzes, homework, different than in class material.

Impossible exams

do what you can to take w/ humphrey in the spring. she makes exams unnecessarily difficult for a 100 level intro bio class (none of the averages were > 60%) & they feel almost impossible to study for bc every question feels like a riddle. her lecture slides are just paragraphs of text and she goes so quickly you don't have a chance to read them.