2.8
Quality4.1
Difficulty47%
Would Retake97
Reviews47%
Would Retake
97
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
16
4
25
3
17
2
17
1
22
What Students Say
“Agard is is not one of the good profs at Ry”
BLG856 - 2.0 rating“I don't know hard is the right word, but unreasonable is”
BLG856 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
62%
Textbook Required
45%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.20 avg changeRatings by Course
CHY205
5.0
(1)BLGAB
5.0
(1)BLG10B
4.5
(2)BMS857
4.3
(4)BLG600BLG856
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
BLGAB
5.0
ANATABCD
5.0
BLG011
5.0
BLG600
4.8
BLG10AB
4.6
Reviews (97)
She is trying to get better at it, needs to improve her teaching style. Need to understand students' level of understanding and be little flexible. She should be fine in time if she improve her teaching style-she is little fast. Also, need better course weightage format. MCQ are heavily weighted. But course is interestingly good with textbook.
An intelligent prof who knows a lot. If she aint clear on something she'll admit it (nice to know shes human)Tests are MC. Will give bonus marks to deserving. Teaching style seems aight. Dunno why other scores are so low.
the worst prof ever.do not take any course with her.she is not helpful at all and sooooooooo unfair in marking.the group activity and the final exam are horrible.
unfair marker. final was extremely hard. group activity was not fun at all, just plain horrible. she teaches fast and there is alot of material to cover.
Going to calss means nothing it's like you just by the text book and read it on yourself, she is TA maybe but not a prof, seam's she's taking the revange form students cuz she couldn't get to Med school, hahaha gusse what you won't get there too I won't let you She is the worst.
Extremely difficult evaluations on material she needs to realize students simply haven't encountered thus far. The worst grade of my career. She is zealous and friendly, and I think she is being received poorly because of her inexperience in composing evaluations. Group work and other alternative evaluation styles enhance the experience.
Should really improve lectures and help students understand content rather than throwing all the information at them. Is sometimes late for class. Needs to slow down when teaching and not assume that all students have read the textbook and understood the information.
These comments are unbelievable. Dr. Agard is very approachable. I learned a lot. Many of us did well in her course and love her.
Class is not that bad. Early stuff is like high school chemistry and biology. Material gets heavy later. Dr. Agard makes the class fun. She's also young and cool.
Dr. Agard was great! I used to hate biochemistry and didn't do well in it before. She broke down the topics really well and I actually ended up doing well in the course.
makes tests difficult for students... goes through the material REALLY fast expecting everyone to understand her the first time she says it, no matter how confusing she is... can't answer all the students questions
Dr. Agard was great! I struggled at the beginning of the course but then started going to see her for extra help. She was so patient and cleared up a lot of things. My grade improved a lot. I wish I had started getting help earlier.
Not a great prof. Should go back to teaching at York. Not as smart as she thinks she is. Arrogant.
Please go back to York. You are a horrible prof. I still remember you telling us the average in the class was a 63 - after our gasp you said "what? that's great!" OH REALLY? This is the only class I barely passed in out of 12 courses. Funny how Pathology is 1000times harder than BIO yet I did amazing there. Profs matter. You weren't meant to teach.
This class was heavy but dr. agard went out of her way to help us. she even organized extra tutorial sessions for us. she was very accessible and knew her stuff really well. it wasn't my highest mark but i learned a lot.
I enjoyed this course. We covered a lot of material each class and at times Dr. Agard went a bit fast but if you do the readings ahead of time it is a lot easier to follow. She was approachable and very enthusiastic about the subject and she seemed to actually care that we learned.
Interesting course and very organized professor. She tried to make the class fun. I thought it was hard but patho was even harder.
Dr. Agard is a friendly and approachable professor. She is there to help you learn, but you have to do your readings ahead of class. Concept maps are one of the better learning tools and assignments I've ever had in any biology course.
Speeds through lectures and rambles off topic easily. Lectures are boring and not very helpful except as guide line for studying.
Dr. Agard is a great professor, she is willing to help and very down to earth. It may not be obvious to see how humble she is, but if you talk to her one on one, she is really pleasant.
TWELVE chapters.. 30+ pages each. HORRIBLE cumulative final with mostly APPLIED questions. Must memorise ridiculous signalling pathways that noone can possibly retain. Studied forever and still the worst mark in my academic career. Professor doesnt seem to realise we're not computers. Way too much content combined with unreasonably difficult tests
Professor Agard is a good teacher. Great knowledge base and I had no problems seeking clarification on topics i did not understand. I will say she doesn't hold hands. You have to look after yourself by reading the material and attending class. If you slack off you will get a bad grade. If put effort into the course you will do well.
Classes were like reading straight from textbook. May as well just teach my self. It was just, attend lecture, listen to her speak (she doesn't even cover much and exam q's were so random), go home, memorize 8 chapters for tests. She is helpful one on one though. Should take the time to add interaction in the class through handouts, group work etc.
She's not good in teaching physiology or anatomy. she should either be fired or be given more elementary biology courses to teach. The department should be ashamed of having such professors at 3rd-4th year biology level.
Immunology was a very challenging course. The topics were hard and there were many parts to the course (tests, paper, oral presentations). Dr. Agard was very enthusiastic and really covered the material well. By the second week of class she knew all our names. I have never experienced that in university. If you work hard you will do well.
She doesn't even know how to teach. I wonder why Ryerson have such a bad professors. Don't come to Ryerson if you are thinking about Med-School, I mean it. Seriously!
You can tell she is very intelligent, but she isn't good at teaching. For someone who struggles at biology, like me, this class is very difficult to understand. When explaining something for the first time, she'll use unclear terms that we haven't learned yet. I've had to teach myself everything in this class.. She's nice, but not a good prof.
she is the worst professor I have ever had. For all those students who need anatomy and physio for mecidal/dental/chiro schools. Take the physio offered thru. nursing. Don't waste your time and GPA on Agard.
She is not competent in teaching physio or anatomy. She does not even know the material herself, even after many years of teaching the same things.she covers a lot of material. Her assignments and their grading are unreasonable. I GREATLY REGRET taking a course with her.
Cannot do well in her course without attending lectures, printing slides & taking notes. Very well organized, and diligent in providing back marks/exams. Not great with explaining further questions on the material, which made things difficult to fully comprehend. Physiology is conceptually heavy & anatomy is insane amounts of memory work
The course is very hard but interesting. Dr. Agard is very organized and willing to help outside of class time. You have to keep up with the readings to do well in this course.
Mumbles a lot, most of the time incomprehensible.
Umm she talks so fast, there is really no point in coming to the lecture because you won't understand her. READ THE TEXTBOOK. That is your only hope in passing the course. Do the assignments too, they will help your mark. Overall, she ruined a very interesting subject by her teaching. Switch out of this class if you can.
She isn't the best when it comes to lectures, but if you go see her during office hours, she is amazing! She is so helpful one-on-one. And she's really friendly and nice.
I'm not going to lie and say she is an easy professor, but these comments are bs. She is an extremely kind and caring person, and she is crystal clear if you have done your readings. Biology isn't meant to be simple, so if you don't understand, GO TO SEE HER. And make sure you attend class because she stresses things that are on the exam! Goodluck!
To be fair prof Agard does a good job at teaching a course that covers a lot of content. It is essential for nursing knowledge. This is not supposed to be an easy course. Prof Agard marks fairly. Ignore some of the other advice. You need to both go to lectures AND read the book to absorb all the content in this course.
She never know what she is talking about during lecture time. The final exam blueprint was useless, most of the questions were application based! Material that are not on the blueprints are on the exam! Why did she made it then? I could have just studied everything from the textbook! Going to her class was useless, just read the textbook at home.
She's very helpful if you attend her office hours. She relies heavily on textbook and her lectures will be unclear if you haven't read the chapter ahead of class. Had two midterms and exams all of which were only multiple choice!
It is a difficult course because of the nature of the material require a lot of both understanding and especially memorization. Very energetic and enthusiastic when teaching. Powerpoint is very clear study every single point on powerpoint slides and use textbook as reference if you have anything you did not understand.
Not the worst lecturer but for the number of times she has taught the course I think she's pretty lousy. Sure she has office hours but she needs them because it's clear she lacks passion and knowledge about the course. Having an attitude is also a turnoff. Have to take this course but not pleased to have been a student of hers.
Dr. Agard is a fantastic professor! She recently won a well deserved award from the Dean for her teaching skills. She is very passionate about her courses and loves good students. Her tests are difficult but if you study REALLY hard you will ace them. I recommend all her courses!
Not the worst professor, but she rushes over information that appears on the test. Her speaking lacks clarity and also seems very rushed. Overall she is not very helpful. Read/memorize the textbook to do well.
Prof. Agard is a great professor. She is passionate about teaching and pushes her students to learn and perform well. The topics are not very easy. You have to work hard to get a good grade in her course. She will not spoon feed you. She is very approachable and available during office hours.
Solid prof. There is a lot of information, so she does her best to go things clearly. Studying the text book is crucial. Read the chapter before hand so your not totally confused.
This course is quite challenging. Professor Agard is a fun and energetic prof and she makes the class enjoyable but talks a little fast. Attendance isn't mandatory but I would recommend it. Attend the group discussions for easy marks. All tests are MC but definitely not easy! Overall a great prof!
this course has alotta material! agard gives hints here and there what she wants u to know from her lectures! but she also just reads off the slides.. TEXTBOOK IS A MUST! tests are all MC... but are still hard and pretty detailed!
One word to describe her classes BORING! The content is extremely large and strenous for this course and she does not present the content in a manner that makes it interesting which is needed in this course. I don't care for her as a teacher, I barely went to the lectures (half the class didnt)and stayed home reviewing her notes and am doing fine.
Pretty bad professor. She doesn't really explain much and assumes we already know terms that we don't. The first midterm was ridiculous - everything we learned in class that she stressed as 'important' wasn't even on there. Completely unfair ... I studied my ass off and nothing I studied was even on there. I'm so disappointed.
Lectures were absolutely confusing. No words to describe how awful the midterm was. She stressed "important key facts and diagrams" as hints on the test... none of which was on the test. Test are mostly application questions, which were near impossible. Class avg for first test was 40-50%. Basically, you need to be a doctor to pass the tests.
Dr. Agard is an amazing person and a very energetic professor. However, her tests were very tough and there's a lot to take in. The assignment was fairly easy but definitely not to be taken lightly. Easy 5% participation marks that could really help (trust me). Always there to help you if you ask. So far this is my lowest mark this semester :(
Such an interesting course that is human physiology; Egard somehow managed to make it boring, it is better to just study the slides or read the textbook. Her tests are extremely difficult and the class average shows that it is not the students' fault. My lowest mark EVER. Previous biology courses I always got 70+ at least.
Her lectures are very useful but she tends to speed through because theres lots of content to cover in one lecture. Hey way of teaching is ideal for those who do their readings before class and confusing for those who dont
Literally the worst teacher I have ever experienced in my life!
There's so much content to cover in the 3 hour lecture that she often speeds through everything without pausing, which is a lot to take in. She lacks in clarity when explaining, often explaining concepts in too much detail (more then we need to know) which confuses everyone.
Took her course for nursing students. Definitely passionate about her subjects and wants her students to do well. It takes effort to do well in her course, and it definitely helps if you have a strong science background.
She teaches courses which have immense amounts of material to cover. It's impossible to memorize everything, and unfortunately she doesn't do the best job of summarizing it for you. You need to invest a lot of time, but the courses are interesting. She is involved in the community and is a pleasant person to talk to. She tries to know her students.
The course itself was quite interesting but there was a lot of content to cover within 3 months. She did her best to be as clear as possible, however class attendance is sort for mandatory as it tells you what she's most likely to focus on. It's not an easy course, but if you put in the right amount of effort from the beginning, you should be good.
The course is interesting. She is an incredibly tough marker, but will help if you ask for it. Book will be your life and you need to attend the class to know what to focus on for the tests. Unless you need to take a course with her I'd suggest to just stay away from her as much as possible! She has an attitude.
Dr. Agard's tests are always multiple choice and consist of the material which she lectures on in class. Take in depth notes of what she speaks about, memorize the slides and understand the key figures. She doesn't try to trick you, just don't be lazy. People who do poorly in her class are the ones who study last minute, and don't pay attention.
Dr. Agard is is not one of the good profs at Ry... Granted the immuno course isn't particularly easy, but she somehow makes it a mission to make it even harder. Assigns papers from literature to read and tests us on them without giving any help, gives bs blog post projects where using "B cell" is too technical.. overall a huge mess.
Half of our grade is based on two assignments that have little to do with our knowledge on the content of the course. In the span of two weeks, 70% of our grade was determined (Blog post, video assignment and final test). Be ready to spend 99% of your time on this course. Do not recommend.
I don't know hard is the right word, but unreasonable is. A 3rd year class with a video project and blog article worth over half our mark, talk about delusional and plain idiotic. Her TA is some 4th year student who is an "experienced blog writer" as if that even matters in immunology. I'd rather take a 5th year then go through her "science" class.
This course was one of the hardest courses I've ever taken but also one of the most interesting. You have to do your readings and attend class if you want to do well. Going to prof's office hours helps a lot. The tests are multiple choice, hard but fair. The video YouTube assignment and written blog assignment allow you to be creative.
I had Dr Agard for anatomy, immunology and physiology. You need to go to class, pay attention, read the text book and understand the material. Her tests were always fair based on what she covered in class and she was also very helpful in her office hours.
I had her for Physiology in the summer, it wasn't too bad. This course has a lot of content, so taking it during the school year is a bad idea. Take it in the summer if you can. Seriously.
This was one of the most interesting courses that I have taken. To do well, you need to go to class and take additional notes. The course had no final exam but had 2 midterms and 2 assignments: a blog post and a group video assignment. Also, you should go to all of the in class group activities because you can get an automatic 5% of your grade.
This course was difficult but so interesting. Dr. Agard is very passionate about immunology. The assignments were creative, which was hard at first but fun in the end. She helps a lot during office hours. She even will review drafts of assignments You can do well in this course if you do the work and Dr. Agard seems to care about her students.
Overall, immunology is a content heavy course. Dr. Agard is very passionate about what she teaches. But sometimes she goes through the content extremely quickly. You definitely need to go over her lectures on your own. I personally enjoyed the creative assignments we had but did not enjoy the short time frame they were all due in.
The tests for this course were all mc and came directly from the lectures, I didn't have to use my textbook at all. There is a video and blog assignment that is worth a lot but those were easy marks that helped boost my mark.
This was the first time the advanced immuno course was offered and it was great! The layout is very different that BMS 856. Dr. Agard prepared the course in a fun way and made it ver interactive. Would highly suggest!
I was honestly shocked to see how low her score is. I think she is a great lecturer and is very knowledgable. I can agree her methods of testing are quite absurd.. blog post and video are a bit over the top but she really stresses SciCom which we are not exposed to much in undergrad. Also willing to look over drafts, so that's a bonus.
I was really disappointed by the course. She goes through most topics super fast and the information is like a new language. She includes super specific info on her midterms, you need to read the textbook to do well. I found she didn't care if I did well or not which was disappointing. Groups projects were fun! Do not write the make up midterms.
Dr. Agard is a good prof. The two midterms can be a little tricky but are fair - she makes you work for them. The group assignment and blog post are tedious but she offers great help for the blog post.
Dr. Agard is an amazing lecturer. She keeps the class engaged and doesn't bombard her slides with text. She's a lot more approachable and went at a slower pace than in BLG 856. However, She is a really tough grader!! especially w/ written assignments!!! The group projects are easier to do well on though. take this class if u want an A!
Dr. Agard is very passionate about immunology and really cares about her students. I'm so glad I took BMS857. I also took BLG856. I did much better in the advanced course. She was very approachable during both courses. When we had to switch to online classes she was really organized and tried hard to help us with the transition.
If you take BLG 856, be prepared to have to learn Immunology on your own. It is very obvious that Dr. Agard is passionate about science communication, and that's a good thing, but an Immunology course is NOT the place to be learning how to be a good science communicator. Take immunology at York if you genuinely want to be taught Immunology well .
I had to learn the course on my own. She marks difficult so be prepared. Try to avoid at all costs!
She marks some of the assignments as pass/fails, which either can be an easy mark or you might lose the whole mark of the assignment for the smallest things. For the other assignment, she is a very hard marker. She spends most of her time talking about irrelevant subjects, so it is totally up to the students to learn everything by themselves.
This course material wasn't very difficult, but it was A LOT. That being said, Dr. Agard does an amazing job at making it digestible for students, marks a lot for participation, gives feedback, and tests on main concepts as opposed to minute details. She's a very kind woman who clearly cares about her students and wants them to learn.
I don't know why her ratings are so low?!? She's awesome as a prof. Teaches everything you need to know, fair testing, but expect group projects/ assignments. You really have to study for this course and make it a priority if you want an A or above. To really get that A+, make sure you go to her office hours and start your assignments ahead of time
I dont know why her rating is so low. She is a good professor, and her tests are fair (although I heard the make ups can be pretty difficult) If you put the time and effort into the class you can do very well. I took BMS 860 with her as well and did very well. She is always there if you need extra help, or to review a rough draft of an assignment.
Goes on and on about diversity and science communication but does little teaching. Posts a cluster of slides, audio recordings and live explanations which are missing testable information, instead of simply giving regular lectures. Half of your grade is determined by assignments that have nothing to do with immunology. Be ready to teach yourself.
She somehow manages to make a very interesting topic boring, marks assignments as pass/fail, and most of your grade comes from assignments unrelated to the course. Blog posts and group video assignments worth >50% of your grade would be ridiculous in highschool let alone 3rd year. Take Immunology somewhere else if your goal is to learn anything.
One of the worst profs I've had at Ryerson. She will say in the lecture material that "we'll go over this concept in class" but then in lecture she'll say, "I already went over this in lecture so we'll skip it today." She doesn't give feedback on time, she'll send it 2 days before the final is due . Advocates for scicom, but she is god awful at it.
I was prepared to hate this course because of the reviews but I loved this course! Her teaching style is engaging and she makes difficult concepts very easy. Definitely READ THE TEXTBOOK and study off the summaries. You definitely have to put in WORK but a good grade is possible + the content is very interesting. The only drawbacks are group projec
Would avoid at all costs. Majority of grade is give to "science communication" assignments. For an upper level science class only 10% of the grade was given for quizzes testing actual immunology content. Lectures were disorganized, and lots of focus on group work. 40% of the grade was pass/fail components also.
Wastes so much of her students' time. Weekly summaries + weekly quizzes, both of which take forever to do/study for. Powerpoints with attached audio that take eons to get through, plus she expects us to show up to live lectures. Pointless assignments which are irrelevant to the course material. Ruined a truly interesting subject for me.
Dr. Agard explains things well and she is really nice. Her midterms in my opinion were unfair and worded really weirdly. Also, she posts audios for each slide,because she only focuses on a couple slides in class, also wants you to read the textbook. There are practice questions which are good, but overall the class is really time consuming.
TIME WASTER. why tf does she put audios in her slides and expect you to read the text book instead of teaching I will never know. GL getting marks back from her bc she apparently needs a millennium to give you feedback on a 350 word summary. her MCQ are acc wild like the way she words them is insane. this course wouldve been nice if she could teach
This prof was kind but did not teach. Though this class was very content-heavy, she only went over 2 or 3 slides from her long slide decks and expected you to teach yourself the rest of the material. She had audio on each of her slides which didn't really help. The two midterms were all MC and very difficult. Read the textbook or you won't pass, GL
she doesn't teach at all. she took almost 2 months to release marks for a 350 word assignment and marked them really harshly. her tests are also very difficult for the quality of her lectures. avoid if u can
Overall, I liked her.lectures. If you attend the lecture and listen to audios, you will do great on test. My complaint is that she marked written assignment very harshly, and took so long to release the marks for it.
Mid. Expects you to go to class, learn material not covered in class by listening to audio on slides, expects you to read to textbook, and to read the primary papers. She is a tough marker on assignments and releases marks months later. Tests were multiple choice and weren't impossibly hard, can get 90+ if you spend a lot of time studying.
Her lectures were interesting and informative for n the few slides she covered. You have to learn the rest from her audio recordings, textbook, and scientific papers. She wants us to explain hard concepts to the general public in simple terms for both assignments. This is a biology course, not a communications course. Harsh marking.
- grading style ruined my experience - midterms weren't easy despite all q's being multiple choice - took over a month to mark 300-word paper, got low mark in the process(wasn't even that deep what more detail can you put into it) - overall experience: horrible , definitely don't recommend taking this course with her
She did want us to learn from the audio on the slides, but she explained the most complicated ones in class and gave you a foundation. Her midterms were difficult, but this is a difficult course, and details matter. She was fair, and if you studied hard, you did good. 10/10 would take again.
Prob my fave course, so interesting and her lectures are great! However, she did mark harshly on the paper. Otherwise, tests were fair if you read textbook + lecture audios. If the content is boring to you, then I can understanding disliking this course bc it is a lot of work and reading lol
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
62%
Textbook Required
45%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.20 avg changeRatings by Course
CHY205
5.0
(1)BLGAB
5.0
(1)BLG10B
4.5
(2)BMS857
4.3
(4)BLG600BLG856
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
BLGAB
5.0
ANATABCD
5.0
BLG011
5.0
BLG600
4.8
BLG10AB
4.6