2.9
Quality2.6
Difficulty43%
Would Retake84
Reviews43%
Would Retake
84
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
17
4
17
3
15
2
19
1
16
What Students Say
“Kolasa is a kind and caring prof”
BIO3DD3 - 4.0 rating“Waste of time going to class”
BIO3DD3 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
9%
Textbook Required
42%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.09 avg changeRatings by Course
3TT3
5.0
(1)BIO2D03
5.0
(1)ECO3R03
5.0
(1)BIO3SA3
5.0
(1)3DD3
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
3TT3
4.0
ECO2F03
3.0
BIODD1
3.0
3DD3
3.0
BIO3DD3
2.9
Reviews (84)
Very interested in what he is teaching...such a cutie
tests were super easy exam was nothing like it no way to prepare for it really passionate about his research though
This guy is so good. The course isn't the best, but he made it better. And the jokes: priceless.
Good prof. A bit monotone, but he is nice. His tests were good, but the exam was NOT! Good course overall.
Boring and useless class! Horrible prof-notes are a mere regurgitation of the textbook, lectures are VERY monotone and uninteresting. What a waste of a class.
Good prof. He makes the course a lot better than what it would be. His jokes are really funny!!
The prof is really friendly and passionate about the material. He makes lots of jokes that are usually not really funny but cute nonetheless. The tests were easy, the exam contained some questions that were quite tricky though. Overall he did a very good job, and Mr. Gunderman is really cute.
Awesome class, incredible prof. Interesting, helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly. Very nice to talk to and does cool research too. Class was one of the best i've taken in university.
such a great prof. His jokes are awesome, and he's got a great attitude.
Although you can tell he really tries, his lectures are so boring you feel like he sucked 10 hours out of your day in 50 mins. He's merely reading the textbook to you, I make better notes than he does on my own
The prof is very boring, but the class is interesting, and some common sense. The midterms had about 20 questions, exactly from last years test, and the other 10, about 4 were very easy. Their were some really tricky quetsions in the end. However, if you study you can easily get an 85 and 90 if you know your stuff. Exam, is more memory than underst
great prof, he makes ecology so interesting
Gives Ecology a bad name. You learn nothing. How to get an A+: past years tests, practice mc qs from text web site (for exam they are identical), be witty, funny and entertaining when answering his essay qs like "imagine you are a fish, what kind of fish would you be/ where would you live?" Waste of tuition money, cant teach, we need real ecology.
Good prof. Should make tests Multiple Choice instead of the essay. Essay doesnt really prep for exams. Unclear expectations in the first test. Second test was somewhat difficult because we had to remember an exact case study for the particular ecology concept.
Classes were very boring and the midterms were kind of difficult however, the exam was easy
the course was a disaster. His first test was an essay and had no guidelines. UR marks really depends on the TA that marked the tests/ assignments. He's ok as a lecturer...but he was boring. LEctures didn't really matter...just use slides as guidelines. Half of the exam was from course website. Know your stuff for the exam...pure memorization
He is a great guy, enthusiastic and cares about his students and the material, he was also quiet funny. Got to say, a little bit disorganized though, the midterm had no real structure, and your mark depended on what TA marked it- also took FOREVER to get the marks back. But it was a super easy course, and interesting for those who like ecology.
Real nice guy. very helpful, friendly. BUT....extremely boring. had a big ass large ICED CAP from tim hortons...felt all energised and fresh just before class...go in that class....passed out within 3-4 mins. if u cant fall asleep...you know where to go
Course material was so easy. As far as lecturing goes, was boring and the guy mumbles but since it was an 8:30 class, it was nice to not be screamed at. tests were easy, gives you a hint for every single question. study specific examples and case studies.
Easy midterm and exam written by him. Classes = BOREDOM x 123421412. If you could stay awake and attentive for an entire lecture, well then kudos to you! Nice guy, easy work but boring material.
Im sitting in his class right now, and im soooooooooo sleepy. this guy is mad boring. brutal having him 9 30 in the morning. going to skip from now on
Brutal midterm. Questions are too specific and ones you can't get unless you read super carefully. Most boring classes in life and no useful notes.
Just a piece of advice, this PROF has become a NIGHTMARE both both courses he was teaching this semester. He has literallly screwed over EVERYONE in both classes. The midterm and exam were extremely hard and he was unfair in his conduct. I know that he has all good feedback from others, but trust me and DONT TAKE HIS COURSES.
Wow, I don't even know where to begin. Taking his class was about as enjoyable as sleeping on a bed of nails. Horribly organized, tutorials were chaotic and marks weren't given back to students until after the exam. The course material follows basic ecology from 2F03, however, without any structure you never really know what the main topic is..
i took 3dd3 with him..and OMG it was BAD.So much disorganization and the grades were low in the midterm..and his method of increasing the grades was incomprehensible. It was a disappointing class.
Probably the worst prof at mcmaster university. Absolutely cannot teach, notes are garbage, his book notes are full of mistakes. The TA's in the course were awful. Worst experience ever.
Nice man, monotone voice so if you have trouble paying attention its probably not worth it to go to class. But if you do listen you'll get something out of it. Test questions can be a bit unfair, like random textbook examples we never talked about in class, but the main textbook is really good. Overall a decent prof and an ok course
Lectures had absolutely no structre and are impossible to follow. Fake textbook written by him is full of grammar mistakes and incomprehensible. In lecture he is soooo boring and very difficult to hear if you aren't sitting in the first 3 rows. Waste of time going to class.
Pretty cool guy overall, I just wish his lectures were a bit more interesting (ie. include more videos, apply it to real life, etc.)
Great prof, notes aren't great but he is very caring and knowledgable. I learned a lot from him, attended all lectures. I would love to have him teach me again.
Best professor, caring and passionate about his work
Class was extremely straight forward, if you went through the notes he gave the midterm was easy. Questions were really straight forward, labs were easy marks. Overall, class was ok and interesting if you like ecology.
He is an amazing Prof, a little disorganized but he gives a lot of opportunities to do well on the course.
a really good proof, very nice and helpful. easy class
Dr. Kolasa was a good prof, but the course content was so boring, especially the first half. Later on, the course got less boring. He really tries to boost your mark, there are lots of opportunities to do well in the course. The exam is very fair and you can easily do well on it if you study for a few days.
Really enjoyed the class and the prof regardless of other ratings
This class is easily the worst class at McMaster. I would please advise all students reading this to make sure you fully understand what you are getting into before you take this class. His lecture slides are disorganized and absolutely horrific, he is not engaging and the course is so misguided. If its not a requirement, run the other way. Its bad
awesome professor who gives lots of opportunities to do well
He has a textbook but it's online and as of right now, incomplete. Midterm was challenging, as it was based on lectures and lectures are content-heavy and not the most engaging. He is a great prof though. Very enthusiastic, passionate and funny. Exams are based on student-created questions- very easy to do well in
Kolasa is a well-meaning guy who is definitely trying, and props to him for that. If you want to understand the course content you need to go to class, but if not you'll be fine because the exam is crazy easy. There are groups projects in tutorial where you'll have to put some effort in but the topics are your choice and can be interesting
love him!!!
Dr. Kolasa is a kind and caring prof. Going into this course, we all heard good stories from previous years about how their final was questions that Kolasa had compiled for you to study. However, this year he changed the course and made it harder. We used PeerWise to make questions and there was close to 1500 questions for us to look at - stressful
the best prof in the bio department PERIOD! Very nice and really cares about his students. Always open to suggestions about his teaching style or course organization. His courses have a reasonable workload that allows you to focus on your more difficult classes. I'm trying to take all my biology requirements with him.
He is amazing!!!!
Amazing professor. He is very kind and caring.
I skipped almost all of my lectures because of Kolasa. Boring lecturer, you can barely hear him most of the time. Seems like a nice man, just a terrible prof. Midterm was easy enough, if you study and read the textbook.
He's my favourite prof by far.
Super nice guy but horrible lecturer. It's very hard to hear him or understand what he's saying. He also tends to overcomplicate things and by listening to him talk you sometimes get more confused. There is a huge amount of work (three 50 minute presentations and three 500 word papers) in tutorial and it's only worth 25% of your final grade.
His lecture slides were a very brief summary of the content, so make sure you take additional notes and supplement them with textbook reading if you can. I just wish his lectures were more engaging and interesting to listen to. It was difficult to hear him most of the time, but his test questions were very fair and he gave hints. He meant well.
He's a very nice person but it's very hard to understand what he's saying when he's teaching. I do not understand anything from lectures.
His lectures can get a bit confusing at times but if you ask him after class or just send him an email, he's very nice about it and super approachable. He was extremely accommodating with all the problems that came with online classes and was very willing to change the course structure based on student feedback throughout the term.
Dr. Kolasa made Bio 1m one of my favourite first term courses. He is so caring and kind, and genuinely wants us to learn. If you don't like ecology the content can get dry, but he's very passionate about what he teaches and so hes an interesting guy to listen to. His test portion is easy and he gives hints. 10/10
You can tell he cares
The content itself wasn't as bad as the first half of the course. He always gives questions based on his slides and directly from the textbook (more recall based). You do not need to attend lectures at all to pass (I didn't). He is a bit hard to remain attentive to but I like the free time from no lectures and easier tests. The content is heavy.
He is very hard to understand, the midterms were fair but I found the exam very hard which dropped my mark significantly. The content was pretty boring and the course overall is very poorly organized. Do not take this course unless you enjoy evolution and ecology.
Great sense of humour and clear teaching, even though the content of 1M03 is pretty dry. Lectures straight from the textbook, so choose either attending lectures or reading the textbook. Test qs are straightforward and he gives hints. Would not recommend Bio1M03 but Kolasa is a gem.
Loved learning bio with him. He did his best to answer questions and you could tell he genuinely cared. Although he struggled a bit with the tech end of things during class, his test questions were direct recall, pretty much from the textbook so his portion of the test was significantly easier. And his old man jokes are pretty funny.
His test is not really hard because it is entirely based on textbook recall questions. However, I felt that his lecture is too boring... I don't really skip lectures but for this course (esp for his part only), I didn't go to the lecture and just read the textbook. Reading txt was enough for me.
Dr. Jurek Kolasa taught out of the textbook which made lectures easy to follow, and it was easy to review content you didn't understand. The tests were not too difficult, but the hints that he gave always threw me off and weren't very helpful. Lectures were a little boring, but the content was pretty interesting.
Just read the textbook
Horrible professor, absolutely do NOT take Bio 1M03 with him unless you absolutely have to. He does not even have notes, goes on the most unnecessary and time-consuming tangents ever that have nothing to do with the content. His slides are terrible and he will not elaborate on a concept at all. He mumbles so much he is basically indecipherable.
Kolasa seemed like such a lovely person, but his lectures were beyond boring and his mc on the tests were incomprehensible. He was super open to questions, which was very nice of him, but none of this matters when his mc makes you feel like you never studied a thing. There was even a question that was never covered on our test. AVOID HIM!!
His test questions were super weird, for sure reasonable if you attended lectures, but kind of strange. Probably my hardest course. He is not a very engaging lecturer, I would say have a coffee before his lectures. He taught from the textbook, but attending lectures was still necessary as he emphasized a lot of points that would be on the exam.
he seems like a great guy but there's really no point to go to lectures just read the textbook since his lecture slides are just direct images from the textbook with little text. also his test questions are extremely broad and unclear. his part of the course tanked my grade
All of his notes came straight from the textbook. When in class, I couldn't hear him or understand him very well so I just decided to read the textbook instead. Reding from the textbook gave me the exact same information that he talked about in class, but I understood it better. He does test fair.
he was a very kind professor but the delivery of material often felt dry as everything he lectured on was straight out of the textbook. he didn't provide any practice materials for the midterm or exam and some of his test questions were pretty tricky/unclear.
Terrible prof, cannot teach at all! His lectures are very dry and you can barely hear him. He expects you to memorize very small details and makes the test super hard. Do NOT take bio1m03 if he is teaching!!!
Very boring lectures, does not teach properly. He does not care about his students, and does not want them to succeed. Horrible prof... this course probably dropped many people's gpa. I have many friends who took bio1m03 with much better profs second sem and all got 12s so DONT TAKE BIO1M03 WITH DUSHOFF AND KOLASA.
I thought Dr Kolasa was such a sweet guy! Although it was hard to hear him in lecture, he always had a smile on his face. His section of the course saved my mark. His test questions were fair. You can mostly just get away with reading the text book as he mainly just reads of the slides in lecture that have soley textbook content.
Was almost impossible to understand during lecture, even when I sat in the front row I found myself only picking up about half of what he said. His slides suck as there just a picture with only one line of text. Your better of just reading the textbook at home as his lectures are basically just taken word for word. Granted his tests were easy.
He is pretty quiet but is nice and does want you to succeed. He takes all his test questions from Peerwise, where the class writes the questions, so if you practice all the questions you will do well. It can be hard to hear him so I ended up reading and making notes on the textbook during the lectures while looking up occasionally for his slides
Test questions are significantly easier than Dushoff's section, they were all pulled from peerwise which are student created, so if you cram peerwise questions you'll be fine, but questions are often poor because they are student made and it he pulls the worst rated questions to put on tests. Very quiet in lecture, textbook is your best friend
VERY textbook heavy. He was very soft spoken, which is not a fault, but I ultimately stopped going to class. Just read and review the textbook (along with his posted slides) and you'll be set.
Don't bother attending lecture, it's verbatim from the textbook. He's a nice soft spoken man, but doesn't know how to answer student's questions. Grind off the textbook and peer wise. Never take this course in the fall unless u have a death wish
very slow during lectures and speaks very quietly.
The lectures are sleeper. I had to chug an energy drink to get through it and I would still struggle to make it out awake with both eyes open. Seems like a chill guy though. I suggest to not even bother attending the lectures and just study the textbook. If you put in the time, the test questions are fairly easy.
He speaks slowly and quietly, then turns the microphone down because he's worried it's too loud. He used students' questions to make the exam, so the material distribution was terrible. Finally, my biggest complaint is that he argued with a student about the midterm. Overall, this was an easy course, and I didn't learn a lot.
lmfao gl with him
no point in going to lectures, just gpt summary notes from the textbook for each section and do peerwise
Very boring. Did not need to attend a single lecture as his test and exam questions are student written off of peerwise and he doesnt teach anything. Your best bet is using chatgpt to explain more difficult concepts, common sense and read the textbook. As well as spam alot of peerwise questions when your semi confident in the material.
Had him and Dushoff (the deadly duo) for Fall 2025. He's a caring prof and super softspoken. Very very boring lectures. His slideshows are probably like 20 years old, and have no useful information. Honestly, you don't even need to attend his class. BUT his test/exam questions are a lot easier than Dushoff, and they directly come off Peerwise.
This professor is a genuinely kind person who wants to do everything in his power to ensure his students would do great. Very easy to ask questions, and inspires you to be a better person. But he cannot teach at all. Just read the textbook and you will be fine. His test questions are very easy and from peerwise, so just grind those questions.
peerwise, and make good notes on the textbook, memorize all the key words as thats what most people will ask on peerwise. Short answer on test are easy compared to dushoff. talks very quitely, no need to go to lectures.
You can't hear him in lecture so watch it online if u want. He basically covers the textbook but skips over some of the stuff that is tested. He just takes student-written questions from peerwise so it's not too difficult. Very boring and all his examples are from the textbook. Don't go to his class just read the textbook. Sweet guy tho
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
9%
Textbook Required
42%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.09 avg changeRatings by Course
3TT3
5.0
(1)BIO2D03
5.0
(1)ECO3R03
5.0
(1)BIO3SA3
5.0
(1)3DD3
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
3TT3
4.0
ECO2F03
3.0
BIODD1
3.0
3DD3
3.0
BIO3DD3
2.9