No Comments

The far better lecturer. Wish he had taught more. Enthusiastic, happy to be teaching, willing to take time to make sure everyone understands. Truly loves biology and wants to show you how cool it can be! It isn't easy but he is a great teacher.

Willis is the man. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. He is super enthusiastic, excited about biology, and easy to listen to. Gives example problems in lecture EXACTLY like on the test, so you are completely prepared. Senior biology major and Willis is one of the best, no..THE best biology prof I've had at Duke. Cares a lot about studen

Willis is the man

Willis is amazing. He makes amazing powerpoints, delivers lectures awesome lectures, and makes course expectations extremely clear. The tests are very fair, too. He's so enthusiastic at early hours of the morning too. I don't know how he does it.

Willis is great! Rausher, on the other hand, is pretty awful.

Oh Willis, if you only didn't teach with Rausher I would love you forever. Wonderful at explaining concepts, very enthusiastic, so sweet, and cares about his students. But if he is teaching with Rausher, it is not worth it.

Willis is awesome--he's so excited about teaching and his energy will wake you up. The subject matter towards the end is kinda meh, but the stuff I learned in the first third of the class has been pretty useful. He's not great at teaching technical stuff and calculations, but he's really entertaining when talking about more conceptual stuff.

Though I was never really involved in lecture as much as I should have been, Willis is a very enthusiastic professor who cares about what he's teaching. He is clear in his expectations and always wants to make sure that the class understands what he's talking about. Midterms are wholly based on lectures, problem sets, and labs; lecs recorded online

Interesting guy, the subject itself is tough to teach but there is a lot of overlap between topics and ideas. Ask for help when you need it and make sure you understand what is happening in lab.

So funny. He my boy. We chill. Material is boring af, but he live af. Had me dying with his jokes. I can tell that he pulled when he was younger. Total bro. Take his class.

John is hilarious, kind, and an easy grader. It's hard to imagine how lenient and understanding he can be, and his exuberant positive energy could always light up your day. He lags behind on lecture materials because he jokes too much. That's my only complaint. But apart from that, he is like a father. I love John.

Super LOW WORKLOAD.

John is really enthusiastic about biology. He's really knowledgeable but can go a bit off-topic at times. He really tries to get students excited about learning. The tests weren't cumulative, which was awesome. I just wish we had an actual textbook for reference. Maybe it's just because I didn't take any bio in HS, but some topics were confusing.

Professor Willis was super excited about the material during lectures, and he held review sessions for his tests. Class itself was easy with exams being based off of problem sets and lectures. You can also submit the problem sets multiple times. Overall easy class with a very nice professor!

Willis is the man. He's hilarious and would go out of his way to help students/hold review sessions. That said, the class was relatively disorganized and some concepts were not explained very well. Overall, though, it was pretty easy and I'd take another of Willis's classes again.

Definitely take this class if flipped classes are not for you. Labs are easy and problem sets are based on the class and the lectures and they can be a bit tricky. If you don't go to class you could probably pull off a decent grade, but don't expect to understand everything through the powerpoints. A good professor overall (and no textbook)

Bio 202 is pretty manageable material to begin with and Willis is a bro. The lectures are entertaining and although the class tends to fall behind, WIllis only tests on stuff that's been covered. You have to show up to understand some things (the powerpoints themselves won't explain everything) but this is probably the easiest premed class.

He's a great teacher! He is excited about what he teaches. If you go slow on the tests and seek help when you need it you will be okay

Professor Willis is a very passionate and dynamic guy. He really does love what he does. His class can seem a bit disorganized at times, and you need to study for the tests -- they count for a lot your overall grade. Definitely go to class; powerpoints are hard to understand without lecture. Overall, a fun and enjoyable class.

Professor Willis is awesome. He's not very interested in grades and more interested in the material and learning. He is SO enthusiastic about what he is teaching and makes the classroom so much fun. Highly recommend taking bio 202 with him!! You will learn a lot and will NOT be stressed at all.

Honestly, I didn't go to lecture as much as I should have, but when I did, they were pretty informative and engaging. Professor Willis is VERY passionate about his subject matter, most of his emails included at least one "omg." Funny guy, willing to work hard for his students and even made grading easier by dropping a test score

Dr. Willis is so enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He cares about his students understanding the material and provides many opportunities to ask for help. Though the class could be a bit unorganized in terms of staying on schedule, the deviations from the schedule were mainly to focus on hard topics. Overall great, low stress class!

Great professor--super enthusiastic and really cares for his students. If you put in a reasonable amount of effort getting an A should not be a problem

John Willis is so nice and has so much energy and really cares about his students. There is a problem set a week and labs are annoying, but not too much work. There is also an in class quiz every week similar to problem sets that is really annoying, but midterms are very similar to the quizzes. As long as you do the problem sets it's an easy A

One of the loveliest people I've ever met! Such a funny professor, I didn't skip a single class because I loved listening to him. Work load is heavy but not hard. There's a ton of support by TA's. Love him :)

I loved Dr. Willis! He's a great guy, and I loved his class. If you do well on his quizzes, you'll have yourself a good time in his class.

I love him as a person but as a lecturer-well he's certainly enthusiastic. I've literally never met anyone more excited about their field, but he does get side-tracked easily and lectures can be frustratingly slow sometimes. Overall, would recommend.

Prof. Willis is the most outwardly excited professor I've had at Duke and keeps lectures engaging. Lectures can feel slow sometimes as concepts are rehashed, but the quizzes and midterms are largely drawn from questions included in the weekly problem sets.

honestly the best professor i've had at duke! willis is so enthusiastic about the subject and carries that enthusiasm through to the class. while he spends a lot of time rehearsing material, he makes a lot of jokes & takes time for questions. one thing to note: he doesn't curve or make the tests tricky, he just wants to make sure his students learn

He's the prof you want for Bio 202. It's not hard at all if you do the work and you get to drop multiple lowest scores on assignments, quizzes, etc. Funny and a bit extra but he cares to teach and only tests you on what he covers in class. The exams are just like the in-class quizzes so there are never any surprises.

Willis is the best professor for 202. The class is easy as long as you pay some attention in lecture and do the problem sets. Lots of things are dropped so nothing is high stakes. Willis is very enthusiastic and very excited about biology, and tries to make the lectures interesting. The lab section of the class was boring but not due to Willis.

While Willis is extremely enthusiastic about biology, sometimes it can be overwhelming and a little extreme. But, he's a really passionate lecturer so lectures aren't that boring. Bio 202 is restructured to give a lot of unnecessary busy work that makes you strongly dislike the class, so overall Willis is good, but the course is not.

Willis is the prof you want for BIO202, don't take anyone else. He's super passionate about evolution and it honestly made me more excited to learn. There's a group quiz once a week and three midterms over the course of the semester with no final.

I really liked him as a teacher. If you listen to lectures then you should do well on any of the homework and exams. He seems to really care about his students and their success in his class and is more in tune with the class (how much they understand and when to adjust) than a lot of other professors.

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROF. WILLIS, HE IS THE BEST YOU CAN GET!!!!! he is enthusiastic, clearly passionate about the material, and genuinely cares about his students' success. lectures are thoroughly enjoyable even when he goes on tangents :)

I took this class online, and that made it very difficult to stay engaged and attentive. Other than that, this is a pretty solid class, and Willis is an enthusiastic professor.

Bio 201 was fundamental and microscopic and was taught very systematically. Students might think Bio 202 is the less 'academic' one and might not get invested in the material. but Willis' demeanor and energy, even in the pandemic was almost contagious, and softened the learning curve.

A pretty engaging lecturer but goes a bit slow. Graded on many assignments and all are pretty fair. As long as you keep up with the material and complete all assignments you will do well!

Professor Willis is one of the kindest men I have ever met and he teaches his classes with such great energy. You can tell he honestly cares. Biology 202 was super easy, which is a nice break from other hard stem classes. Genetics is pretty straight forward, and he's always available to help if you're confused.

I liked BIO202L with Dr. Willis - it was graded very fairly. I wouldn't say this class is difficult, but it is definitely a time commitment with three lectures and a lab every week. However, I really enjoyed learning about genetics and felt that Willis did a good job. He definitely cares for his students.

Willis is a great professor -- he's very excited about what he teaches. Borderline 4 star prof imo but I'm giving him 5 because he kept me engaged in the course material, and I'm not normally super interested in genetics and evolution (I liked the course material of Bio201 more). Willis is very energetic, which I appreciate.

He is the most enthusiastic teacher you will ever meet! What a gem! Even though the material may get a little boring, and he goes off on tangents a lot, he really tries to get people engaged and makes sure they understand. If you have to take bio202 you NEED to take it with Willis!!

Take Bio202 with Willis! I had half the semester online in 2020 and he still managed to keep us engaged and excited about the material. Amazing, funny, interesting, easy. I listened to the other raters and I full agree, just awesome.

Kind guy who puts some of the childhood wonder aspect that has been grinded out of us by exams/quizzes/labs/problem sets back into biology. The final third of the class is SUPER interesting but the first third is SUPER boring. Course is overall easy + enjoyable, and I never had any moment where I really hated it or didn't want to go to class.

Dr. Willis is nice and tries to keep the class interesting, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't zone out nearly every class. He's also not accessible outside of class, and the TA's, though friendly, aren't that useful. The material seems really easy to understand, but the tests are hard. They're open note but notes never helped me.

Wasn't expecting this to be a stressful class, it's just that the exams/problem sets/lab try to trick you w/ wording, and most of the TAs refuse to answer wording questions. The exams are also so long and there's no textbook. John is a really sweet guy though and is really enthusiastic about lecturing. Exams also only make up 45% of the grade.

Content for this class is very easy. BUT, the psets and exams do not feel like they test your content knowledge, but rather whether you can read. Questions are vague and confusing and TAs do not make them any less confusing. Stopped showing up to lecture and it did not make a difference whatsoever. John is hilarious though and obsessed with bees!!

Bio 202 was such a fun course. Midterms are a smaller portion of your grade than in other bio classes, which means your performance on weekly individual and group problem sets matters a ton. Lab experiences vary heavily, but lectures are always engaging and relevant.

This class is easy and interesting if you go to lecture!!! I only missed one or two, and I aced all of the tests. The majority of the grading is from group and individual assignments, as well as labs. Participate in lab, and the class will go smoothly.

Dr. Willis is an amazing teacher and is very passionate about bio. However, he gets into too much detail during the lecture and the slides are very dense with material that won't be on the exams. The class is 45% exams and no final, and the content is pretty interesting. Just go to lecture/watch the recordings and you should be fine on the tests.

Professors care deeply about this course. They are accessible outside of class and take the time to answer all student questions before/after lecture.

Willis undeniable/infectious care for content is great. However, this class' teaching team is unsupportive at best, damaging at worst. They do not take requests seriously, nor do they answer questions. They also do not address floating pset answer keys that skew class performance. Frustrating class with clear structural issues, but fun lectures.

Professor Willis is very humorous and extremely passionate about the course--this made lectures very engaging, personally. Although the content felt very new challenging at first, it got better once I started to go over it. Plus, all graded material (like tests) are only T/F questions, so grades come out better than expected imo.

Willis is an energetic, motivated teacher who clearly is passionate about BIO202 --- this makes lectures more enjoyable (although many are skippable and you can work off the slides). Labs are tedious but relatively straightforward, and grades come from a mix of psets/online labs/tests. Workload is low but tests require decent studying to do well.

The grade for this class is based solely on your exams. The lectures were boring and you could do well without attending. The exams are made to be hard since the class was fairly easy, but the exams are material you could truly study for.

Willis was so great! He is such a funny guy and made lectures so engaging. Good mixture of concrete concepts & fun examples in lecture. He sometimes goes off topic which makes it easy to zone out, but if you dedicate time to reviewing lecture slides after class you'll be able to understand the content. Great class if you like learning about animals

John is such a fun little guy. He is clearly enthusiastic about what he teaches, even though lectures are very boring. Midterms are 80 questions all T/F, which is a little weird but as long as you watch all the recorded lectures the week before the test you'll be fine. Content is kinda interesting.

John Willis clearly loves his job, he is very jolly and loves to teach. His class isn't too bad, study for the exams by looking over all of the lectures and redoing practice problems. Student hours are very helpful! Don't go to lecture, you'll get more out of watching them on 2x speed. Sometimes test questions have confusing wording.

Dr. Willis is an awesome professor and human! He's super funny, friendly, and very passionate about his field. The biggest downside of this class was that the TAs treat the students worse than high schoolers and don't allow for freedom in labs.

Course is very well organized and easy to follow. Slides are so informative that you don't even need to attend lecture, but definitely should. Graded based on many quizzes/assignments/discussions so tests don't determine your grade. Many grades also get dropped. Need to do the work, but overall easy.

Great guy, very enthusiastic, real world examples are helpful. You can do well without going to lecture, but his lectures are great. If you were good at AP Bio this will be cash. Just put in effort and dont wait until the last minute to review

Great intro class, highly recommend for freshman. Willis is energetic and passionate which makes all the difference. Lots of individual/group quizzes force you to keep up but exams are easier. Very forgiving grading criteria includes many drops and opportunities to improve. All q's are true/false so easy to do well.

Dr. Willis has a ton of energy in lecture, which is helpful for a subject I don't find particularly energizing. He is super passionate about his field, sometimes to the detriment of the class, since he might go off on a tangent occasionally or move too quickly. I didn't enjoy the class very much, but I definitely enjoyed Dr. Willis lol.

Willis is a very upbeat, passionate professor but at times the lectures could be boring and unnecessarily long. The labs and groups psets are team based but not overly difficult. There's minimal work outside of class, which is a huge plus. It's not hard to get an A if you simply study the slides and psets. Overall it's a decently easy intro course.

Great professor - lectures were clear and upbeat. Everything (individual & group problem sets, labs, exams) is true/false and there was no final exam. Showing up to lecture is not super important for learning the content, and lectures could be slow, but overall learned a lot, enjoyed, would take again