2.2
Quality4.0
Difficulty50%
Would Retake113
Reviews50%
Would Retake
113
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
113 total ratings5
12
4
15
3
15
2
27
1
44
What Students Say
“This is by far the worst professor at McGill”
BIOL200 - 1.0 rating“Although his accent is hard to understand, and although I hated him in another class that I had, he ended up being very good for BIOL 313”
BIOL313 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
17%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.34 avg changeRatings by Course
ECON201
4.0
(1)BIOL313
3.3
(3)BIO313
3.0
(2)BIOL200
2.3
(92)BIO200
2.1
(10)Difficulty by Course
200
5.0
BIOL303
4.7
BIOL200
4.0
BIO200
3.9
BIO313
3.5
Reviews (112)
He must spend hours preparing the images on his ppt slides. Very clear. Doesnt just present off the textbook.
alrite, this prof has an incomprehensible accent! even when you mail him for extra help, he doesnt care... certainly was the worst prof ever! but the other girl who taught this course along with him, she was great! so if at all you wanna know about eukaryotic cells, ask her!! this guy is really rude!! study super hard for A.
He has an interesting sense of humour but his accent is a problem when it comes to learning.
His accent is a little bit of a problem but thats not why he's unclear - he sometimes rushes through concepts at the end of class (not completing sentences and jumping from thought to thought) to fit the material in. Also, not very clear in general. **Don't try to reason with him... HE DOESN'T CARE!**
Do NOT EVER take his section! He is out to get students! Oh, and the rating for "easiness" is not because he poses challenging questions but his expectations for an answer (with a 10 word limit) are RIDICULOUS! I HATED this class!
His section was way easier than lassko's. His exam questions were directly from the material. His section saved my grade in this course
He's a really nice prof and helpful too. Bio 313 was a very interesting class and not too complicated provided you have a very good memory of molecular terms.
He has got to be the dumbest prof. ever. He obviously can't speak english and he takes 30 slides to get ready. He always runs out of time. He jumps back and forth in material during lectures. It's better to save time and just read the textbook on your own. He's a disgrace to Mcgill.
Not very good, not very good at all. Learn how to properly convey information.
Quite difficult to understand at first, but he became more confident as the semester went on, so his sentences were clearer, and I got used to his accent. Really nice guy, helpful to students who ask questions. GREAT quality: puts emphasis on actually UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGY instead of just memorizing terms.
he is ADORABLE.
No Comments
The one word I would use to describe this class would be: unstructured. He jumps around from slide to slide mixing up his thoughts in his incomprehensible accent, and then halfway through the term we get someone who speaks English even less and is even less prepared! I never knew what to read, how to study, or really what was going on at all.
Extremely detailed material compared to the morning section, and his accent may get in the way at first but if you actually do your readings before and after class, it makes a lot of sense. You spent $150 on the textbook - USE IT.
Terrible. Cant understand a word he sais when listening to his lecture. Keeps on blabbing on and giving more and more information without stopping. Could be the courses fault but I fault the prof who teaches it to make it an easier course. This course is stupid and useless.
I really liked Fagotto. He is devoted, interesting and interested ad really wants to get you to think, rather than purely learn by heart. He wants you to understand what you're doing. His accent was definitely NOT a problem, his recurring technical issues were really entertaining and so was he. Class cld be a **** but Fagotto was great.
Not nearly as bad as others make him out to seem. His accent can make him a bit incomprehensible at times, but overall he is a really great guy. He really wants to be there, not something one can say for all profs. His exams make you think a bit, but aren't impossible.
Not that I should be complaining, as I am wildly grateful to have this man rather than Dr. Roy, but BIOL 200 is a horrible course. Terrible structure, boring (to me) topics, and very annoying schedule (late afternoon when you just want to go home). That being said, I really liked Fagotto and it was not a difficult course. Cannot use microphone, heh
Great prof! He does require you to think, so if you're really into the whole memorize and regurgitate thing, then the morning class would be better. He goes out of his way to create supplemental slides to help you understand the concept he teaches. Definitely not the most interesting class, but it's mainly due to the dense material.
The course structure itself is a disorganized mess, but he does a great job teaching it. He emphasizes understanding concepts over memorization of tiny details, and his exam is easy if you study for it. Much better than the morning session.
if you use recorded lectures, NEVER TAKE Fagotto, he is old school so don?t want his lectures to be recorded
He is not as bad as everyone thinks he is. If you really pay attention in class you'll understand him. HIs quizzes are very hard.
He doesn't care about students. The recordings do not work and his slides can get confusing. Although you get used to his accent, he is still hard to understand and his lectures are pretty boring. His quizzes are pretty though also. I'd try to avoid him, although the other teachers might not be much better.
Contrary to what is written below, he does seem to care about his students and the fact that the lectures were not recorded was not his fault. He's said many times that ICS were working on solving the issue and they just couldn't do it until the last 2 lectures. The suggestion that he's 'old school' and just does it out of spite is nonsense.
He's an okay teacher, but he's hard to understand, mainly because of his accents. Contrary to what was said earlier, he does make an attempt to record lectures. However, he's very lazy, and couldn't care less about students. He discourages students from asking him for help, and he doesn't reply to emails. Also, his final exam was extremely unfair.
Bio 200 is a hard course. There is no getting around this fact. Fagotto's more conceptual approach is more interesting, but more involved than straight memorization. His tests are hard, and involve a lot of critical thinking on hypothetical experiments where you can apply ideas learned in class. I would suggest taking this over the morning session.
No structure to his powerpoints: be ready to read the textbook... Thinks he's superior and we're dumb...
Useless. Not extremely clear/helpful, does not want students emailing him about questions on course material or evaluation, lectures are not engaging and notes are not comprehensive, past exams are generally not publically available nor are any solutions, so far his attitude seems to convey that he does not give a damn about students' success.
Very condescending prof, who terms everything as "easy" and expects you to understand everything right away. His lectures are disorganized, and skim quickly over everything. The afternoon class itself if easier than the morning without a doubt, if you study hard you'll get an A, but be prepared to fill in the gaps on your own, using the book etc.
Professor Fagotto makes the material more challenging than it needs to be. His questions are ambiguous. He gives students question with the intention that most fail so that there may be few who have the requisite intelligence to "impress him". This style of differentiation would be fine if he modeled that type of critical analysis in class.
DO NOT take the afternoon section of the course unless you plan on becoming a molecular biologist. Unfair exams for the level of course, not helpful prof, bad course, smart guy, bad prof, take the morning class if you can. All short answer exams here :S
He does not instruct this course well at all! Mumbles all the time! His lectures bore me half to death!
Dr. Fagotto is an unorthodox professor. Lectures are somewhat unstructured, but the pace is very reasonable. Understanding his course may require readings outside of class for some. His knowledge of the biochemistry behind molecular biology is unfortunately lacking.
Very incomprehensible professor, yet tries his best in teaching you. Lecture slides are not helpful, his lectures are only mildly interesting, and his exams are fair but ambiguous. Read the text provided for this course and one should be able to obtain a reasonably high grade. Morning section is likely better, yet have harder exams.
Do not take the class if you don't have to.
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE WITH FAGOTTO. He is an absolute disaster. Very unclear about his exams and will screw all of you. His exams are mainly application and drawings which you never go through in lectures.
I didn't think it was possible for me to hate biology but evidently Fagotto's proven me wrong.
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE WITH FAGOTTO. The course material itself is alright and absolutely do-able, but this guy knows absolutely nothing about relaying his knowledge. Take the morning session and ignore whoever says morning's MCQs suck. Massacres English language most of the time, doesn't know how to speak proper English, and incomprehensible!!
Despite seemingly popular opinions here, Fagotto is a great teacher. He cares about his students, but yes he can be quite creative on his exams but it is not wording problem. Just that you have to COMPREHEND the material. I wasn't interested in bio but I'm taking another bio course now, I didn't do well but his teaching can be real motivating.
Yes, his exams and quizzes are tough, but the material itself is no walk in the park either. His teaching style is unorthodox, and designed not to encourage word for word memorization, but a certain level of deductive reasoning. Definitely an impactful professor, to say the least.
It's not that style is 'UNORTHODOX'. This guy is just horrible, Horrible!
Terrible. His exams are absolutely unrelated to the material taught in class. He always go over time. His lectures are not recorded, however, even if you attend all of the lectures, you are very likely to still do bad on the quizzes. The midterm most people failed class average was C. The final exam was easy class average was 75.
He is a hard teacher. But he is NOT as bad as everyone seems to claim. He knows a lot of things and are willing to answer every question fully. And his English is not bad at all compared to any number of professors that didn't have English as a 1st language. And he has a quirky sense of humour :P If you want to learn a lot, take him.
Amazing prof. Not tech savy, but we're in uni so we have to attend classes, and he makes sure of that. Topics not that interesting but he makes u love them. Quirky sense of humour, guess it's the Italian in him. But very willing to help. Def recommend his classes!
Yes, he does have an accent that makes it slightly harder to understand, but he's actually not that bad. He's willing to help and knows his material. I would say, however, his organization isn't the best and that his "supplemental" material is actually required material
He has to be one of the worst prof in history, his lecture is terribly boring and pointless. I totally lost my interest in biology after taking his class.
Fagotto is a very intelligent man, but a horrible teacher. His lectures are incomprehensible. The final exam was ridiculously hard, filled with errors and not representative of what we had learn during the semester. He doesn't know to to express himself properly in English so it makes him very difficult to follow... Take the morning section.
Quite difficult and not terribly approachable, but a better actual teacher than the others in course. Exam was difficult but very fair; definitely not a class where you just memorize the facts, at least not in his section. Other profs in the class just spewed facts and asked useless details for the midterm.
I would advise people to avoid this teacher if posssible. He is hard to nderstand because of his accent and his sentence structure is off. On his quizes he makes a lot of english errors which make it difficult to know what he is asking. He asks questions that are only slightly connected with the material and calls it making you think.
He seems to be a polarizing prof, I loved his class for the very same reasons many here hated it. His exams definitely require critical thinking and problem solving. If you're looking for route memorization for a good mark like every other bio course, don't take his class.
Going into this class I was very optimistic about biology despite hearing that the early section had better professors and easier testing. I know now that I shouldn't have made this mistake. If you are able to, take the early section. I had trouble understanding him no matter how hard I tried. People switched from Bio majors because of this section
Literally the worst prof I've ever had at McGill. He expects students to know much more they they do and the tests were unbelievably difficult. He obviously knows his stuff, but he's not good at explaining any of it. I've always enjoyed biology until I had him as a prof... I did hear him laugh once though... that was new.
Terrible prof. His slides are poorly done, but it doesn't matter because he hardly tests material on any of them. Final was brutal. Do yourself a favour and take the morning section.
Impossible exam, condescending attitude in class... But that's not the worst. He does not care about his students' success at all. No office hours, and when you go through the impossible process of getting his e-mail address (yes, he keeps it from his students) he won't answer. Horrible prof
Get ready to cuddle with your textbook. Though I think people are exaggerating about the difficulty of his exams, that being said, they are no walk in the park either. Good luck.
There isn't much else to say that hasn't already been said. Yes, he's a bad prof. Yes, taking his class was an unnecessarily stressful experience. And please, for your own sake, do whatever you can to get into the other section before it fills up and you find yourself spending your Friday nights trying to decipher very poorly worded quiz questions.
Without a doubt the worst professor I've had in my academic career thus far. His lectures are extremely disorganized and his exam questions are so unclear that simply deciphering what is being asked is challenge, let alone answering them. He never makes an effort to help his students. Stay away from him at all cost
Terrible prof through and through.
He is a very confusing prof... you just wonder what is going on through his head when he talks, does lectures and writes exams... just GET OUT of the class!
terrible, terrible, terrible. absolutely incomprehensible. if you're unfortunate enough to get stuck in this section: BUY.THE.NTCS. they will save you, seeing as you don't have a prayer of understanding what this man is talking about. the least clear prof i've ever had.
terrible, lazy prof. has unrealistic expectations of his students and expects everyone to interpret the material the exact same way he does. on top of that he completely inaccessible to students. this prof brings shame to mcgill
You won't like him if you expect to be spoon-fed. His accent is a bit hard to understand but isn't a problem if you pay attention in class. His way of teaching also encourages you to learn on your own and actively think beyond what is being taught. If you ask him questions that can't be answered by the textbook, he will gladly help.
Can't communicate the material, mumbles through the important points. Exam not representative of what was taught. Doesn't even demonstrate much interest in the material. Half the class stopped attending when he took over the lectures. Not recommended at all
His quizes were absolutely incomprehensible to the point where the entire class received 100% for two of them because no one did well. His exam was the hardest ever taken simply because the questions did not make sense. It was the first exam in my life where I found the short answer harder than the multiple choice.
His final was very, very difficult. His quizzes are ambiguous and hard to understand. Difficult to approach. Slides are quite hard to follow, and he only touches on the basics of certain subjects he expects you to understand in detail. Be prepared to learn much of this course from the textbook, simply going to class will definitely not be enough.
I don't even.... ExTREEEEEMEly vague questions. Blamed us for vague responses. Material could have been a lot better had another prof taught this course. I loved Zetka (even though she was tough) but he ruined this course for me. Take the morning section. Watch them all online if you can't wake up that early. Just don't take this guy. Trust.
It's not often that you get a professor who tries so hard to get people to think for themselves. The people complaining on this site are perhaps at university for the wrong reasons.
One of the worst people I have had the pleasure of being lectured by. Made it very difficult to contact him via e-mail, asked very vague questions and had way too many questions asking us to draw diagrams. I have no issues with thinking for myself, it would just be nice for the prof to have given us the resources and assistance to be able to do so.
Most certainly a knowledgeable person, however this can often become more of a hindrance to teaching when considered alongside his astronomical ego and linguistic barriers. This is unfortunate, as the material itself is quite interesting.
I strongly suggest avoiding his section of the class if you can. For those who are brave at heart, it's not impossible to do well. I stopped going to class as soon as he replaced Zetka and religiously studied from the textbook and managed to get an A. Don't give up!
Worst Biology professor at McGill.
Not really as difficult as some make him out to be, the exam was just impossible to understand. One of his quiz questions, for example, was "True/False? Free diffusion is a factor that limits more an enzymatic reaction when the reactant is a protein that a small molecule (e.g. ATP), because diffusion of large molecules is significantly slower."
Excellent teacher, excllent explanations based on experiments that truly help in understanding the concepts.
Fagotto is one of the best biology professors at McGill. He tells you what you are expected to know and makes the exam questions fair. He does expect you to think for yourself which does make this course a bit more challenging. Overall, great prof.
He cannot speak english, his lectures make no sense partly because they are unorganized and partly because he cannot pronounce any words. He doesn't give textbook pages or anything to study.
I know he may not be the clearer teacher ever and his accent may be a bit hard to understand but you get use to it. But he his so passionate about his class and he always tries his best to interest us to his course. He is really sweet and I think a lot of people are to harsh on him. Just try to understand and think out of the box, you'll be fine.
Not a clear prof
This teacher has the worst accent ever. He speaks like Mr. Bean... so not clear and every time is a challenge to try to understand his slides (which do not follow the book at all) and doesnt even bother to tell which pages to look at. very frustrating to learn something you were always interested in.
A man with a large ego that lacks the capacity to teach. He constantly insulted our level of intelligence and his questions required you to "apply" concepts in ways that were very challenging and perhaps unnecessary in order to understand. He is probably one of the worst teachers I have ever had in my life. Also I didn't know chickens ate gravel
A man with a large ego that lacks the capacity to teach. He constantly insulted our level of intelligence and his questions required you to "apply" concepts in ways that were very challenging and perhaps unnecessary in order to understand. He is probably one of the worst teachers I have ever had in my life. Also I didn't know chickens ate gravel.
His accent was never really a problem for me. Explained things pretty clearly, and aside from a few strange questions found myself well prepared for the exam. People seem to misunderstand his strange brand of humor for rudeness/a superiority complex,but I often found myself laughing out loud in the library while listening to lecture recordings.
easily the worst teacher i've ever had in my academic career. took a month to post final marks and the final had nothing to do with anything covered in class. total d**k and the fact that mcgill lets this man teach is baffling.
Terrible teacher and not a good person. Looks down on everyone because he is obviously the best. Hard to understand in lecture and gives ridiculous exam question that are very hard to interpret even if you know the material.
He is a good prof, despite his accent. You get used to it. He teaches the hardest section of the course, that is to say all the techniques and he doesn't want you to learn them all but to understand them, that's why he has such low ratings. Make cue cards of all the techniques and UNDERSTAND the PRINCIPLE !
His accent is a problem - it is definitely hard to follow him and take notes at the same time. But even beyond that, he makes no attempt at being helpful - even though this is an introductory class, he seems to teach only for those with a passion for his own subfield.
I found his section to be wayy better than Zetka's. He has an accent but he talks slowly so his material was clearer to understand. His section of the course was also more interesting and his exam questions were actually rather easy, well at least easier than Monique's.
Worst professor, wonder why the admin hasn't fired him yet. Probably because he is good at research but as a professor he is HORRIBLE
Worst professor at McGill.
Although he does have a thick accent, if you can break through that barrier, you will find that he is an amazing, dedicated professor. He clarifies concepts really well with beautiful diagrams/pictures and is straight to the point.
the final is much easier than the quiz and it will curve anyway. make your own notes! understanding is much more important than just memorizing. you'd better attend the lecture, because he sometimes write on the board.
Not a hard topic, but presented it very confusingly. Did not explain anything clearly. Would start thoughts and not finish them. Having a 3.9 GPA going in to this class, I even found it very difficult to have to decipher what he could have been trying to say. Memorization is useless because what he states in class is incoherent anyway.
OMG!!! Best teacher I've ever had! He is extremely supportive and humble (always say thank you at the end of each class). Would definitely take again! Also he is very attractive.
He is a terrifically nice teacher and he is pretty clear in his explanations however his final did not really reflect his lectures in terms of emphasis. The final emphasizes on one or two topics of the 100000000 taught.
Material is not tough but the tests are. Here is why: knowing the material is not enough you need to be able to understand the questions.
Worst Professor at McGill, hands down.
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ? I mean he's a decent professor, but the final exam asks you things that you've never done in class, like drawing molecules ? For real ?
the only good thing about being in his class, is that you will ride the curve. His average needs to match the average of the morning section, which is known to be easier. You literally cannot study for his final short answer questions, he asks you questions that you need to read 100 times to even know what he's asking & have to draw!!!!
His classes were painful. His final exam was painful. However, you can manage to get a good grade if you work really hard (and the curve greatly increases your final grade). But if you can avoid his class, DO IT !!!
He teaches half of the BIOL200 class. His lectures were ok, sometimes confusing (depending on your knowledge of the material). The final exam asked to draw molecules based on the amino acid sequence... something that was not shown in class. His accent is fine, it's easy to understand him. I've had worst teachers than him.
Quizzes were tough. I was hoping they would boost my grade. You quickly get use to his accent and he honestly wasn't a bad teacher. But the final is really hard. Multiple choice questions are worded specifically to confuse you, and his short answers were reeally ridiculous. I was told it was curved 15% though so i was very happy with my grade.
I liked him and his section better than Zetka's. Is a funny guy, will make joke in class and you can feel that he likes what he teaches. His accent is not problematic, just makes you pay more attention. He is not organized in his lecture, but the material was easier. WATCH for the final, we had drawings as short answers... One of the toughest class
Lectures are painful to listen to. Final is stupid. Fortunately, the final is curved and the protein drawings on the exam were most likely questions that were taken away because most people got them wrong. Also, Zedka's part is easier to understand. Study hard for her part on the final and you'll do fine.
AVOID. He could not be any less clear when he lectures. His tests are horrendous, so hard it's almost laughable (and biology is my thing). He is very rudearrogant as well, so it's not easy to approach him and ask questions. Study as hard as you possibly can and use the textbook for clarification, then you just migghtttt get an A with the curve.
Although his accent is hard to understand, and although I hated him in another class that I had, he ended up being very good for BIOL 313. He was clear, and took the time to explain everything in detail. He asked questions to check your understanding, and the midterm was relatively easy. Wants you to think, but gives you the chance to do so.
Tough but very worth it at the end. Good explanations once you get used to his accent (not that bad) and his questions are mostly comprehension-based. Also, we DID cover how to draw proteins in class (he explicitly mentioned how to find 3D structures and gave formulas). 5% curve on midterm, 15% on final. Left the course much smarter than before.
What you hear about him is true, he's not the most efficient professor at McGill. Prepare to be frustrated. He briefly explains concepts and then asks the most detailed questions. But at the end it's doable and getting an A is possible. Youtube, Wikipedia and the textbook are your best friends. His questions require understanding concepts.
Actually the worst prof I've ever had. First of all, you cant understand him and he just spits out amino acid sequences at you. Second, he put a drawing portion on the exam and we never covered that in the course. Third, he writes horribly hard exams. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Take the other bio 200 section or don't take it at all.
This is by far the worst professor at McGill. His section of the exam was about geometry. He "taught" about lab techniques. Do yourself a favour and take the other section. Also Nadim from prep101 is bae. He is the worst ever. Would not recommend. Run!
He is awsome. No need to say more
Not taken.
Not all people are meant to be educators. He should just stick to research. I don't know if he is any better at that than teaching, but its hard to imagine him being worse at it. He is barely comprehensible and made an easy course unnecessary difficult.
Absolutely awful. Not everyone is meant to be a teacher, and he definitely needs to quit teaching.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
17%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.34 avg changeRatings by Course
ECON201
4.0
(1)BIOL313
3.3
(3)BIO313
3.0
(2)BIOL200
2.3
(92)BIO200
2.1
(10)Difficulty by Course
200
5.0
BIOL303
4.7
BIOL200
4.0
BIO200
3.9
BIO313
3.5