3.1
Quality3.8
Difficulty54%
Would Retake83
Reviews54%
Would Retake
83
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
18
4
20
3
15
2
15
1
15
What Students Say
“Avoid him at all costs”
BIO106 - 1.0 rating“If you need to take this class, do not rely on professor”
BIO106 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
26%
Textbook Required
9%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.63 avg changeRatings by Course
BIO
5.0
(1)BIO107
5.0
(1)BIOECOL
5.0
(1)BIOL203
5.0
(1)BIO340
4.3
(4)Difficulty by Course
BIO
5.0
BIO345
5.0
STAT23
5.0
BIOL106
4.5
BIO108
4.0
Reviews (83)
The man is scary brilliant. Don't try to BS your way through. Nice, caring, kind, approachable but you can't fool him! Study and work hard. He always pushes you to do a little bit better than you thought you could.
sweet, helpful, loves to teach.
now... im a bio major, love the subject, and i do well in all my bio classes... and i say from experience with other biology teachers... this man is the teacher from the depths of Dante's inferno. he is one of the worst biology teachers i have ever had, an
Dude, he never even taught 108, are you even talking about Baker? He thinks we're all going to be scientists, but really wants us to know the material. I learned more from this class than any 3 others.
He is a crazy professor i have taken; He confused everyone in our class and he asked us to do papers like Ph.d proposals. He act smart, but do not know how to teach a classes so all can understand.
he is the worst professor i ever had at queens college. bio 340 or ecology class was taught first time by him and he designed it. He does not know how to teach the subject and he spoiled everyone's GPA in the class. average of the final grade was c- and he thinks grading tough make him smart and hard.He gave essay in the final. everyone hated him.
Very good professor. Wish things could be more organized. Appears to love sharing his knowledge w/ his students. Lots of work involved-midterm, final, project, term paper, museum project (not too bad). Field trip to pine barrens in NJ was fun. Project + paper can be difficult, but u do learn from it. Tests very fair + review sheets given. Enjoy!
The Good: Very enthusiastic, helpful professor. Tests are EXTREMELY fair- based on class notes and review sheets. Lecture is ususally interesting too The Bad: Very unorganized...changes due dates, and pretty much assumes you are free 24/7 outside of class. He just doesn't understand that ecology isn't the focus of everyone's life
No Comments
Why do people lash out at Professors when they get C's.. I actually really like this professor, he's one of the best I've had and he actually passes on very interesting information, if you GET it! He answered a lot of my questions.
He is sweet and knowledgeable. He is a little unorganized and tends to go off on tangents but if you go to all his classes you will do well. He has a passion for the material. Review his lectures and the notes that you take before his exams and they should be easy.He gives review sheets that are helpful and is willing to answer all your questions.
He kept the class interesting most of the time because of his immense enthusiasm. Unfortunately his slides did not convey half of what he expected us to know. I personally was negatively affected by the clicker quizzes he gave in class, although I came to all of them.
He is very nice and tries to help students. However, you cannot rely on the book for his exams and must attend lecture and take notes. He puts a lot of extra information that isnt in the text. But he definately always tries to help his students which is definately a plus.
Professor Baker is very nice and approachable after class. His tests are based on his lectures and the textbook doesn't cover all of his slides. It is mandatory to go to lecture, otherwise you'll be unprepared for the tests.
He's not to bad. Do the practice stuff, do the slides and read the book and you'll be fine. I disagree with the previous rater..I never went to lecture but got an A...so I think you'll be fine if you hate sitting in class.
This teacher killed my hopes on doing well in the class so early in the semester. After the first exam (scored 50) I asked him if I still have a shot on an A or B+, his answer was so depressing "No, you should be fighting for a C" even though the exam was worth 15% only meaning I lost about 7 pts. After that day...
After that day I was so depressed for the rest of the semester, I started slacking off in the lab too because there was almost nothing to aim for (My aims usually are A's). He goes too fast in such a big class, not really clear, does not connect topics to each other within the same lecture, and his slides are a lot and not organized.
avoid at all costs. skip it for a semester if he's the only professor offered. stay as far away from him as you possibly can. a humorous person but tends to be very disorganized, harsh on grading, provides no help. A very very disorganized class. started off really good and it all went downhill after the first class. made me hate everything -.-
Very helpful and intelligent Useful course for pre-meds and research students
Lectures were confusing for the most part. The only saving grace was the textbook: well worth purchasing! Exams were very fair as were the homeworks. Overall would not recommend but he means well.
Don't expect curve on finial grade.The key to this class is understanding a concept and then learn realworld examples to back it up,from slides. He is Lenient personality wise,can teach well but he tends to give long responses.4 Books,2 Quiz 10%,Midterm 20%,1 Paper 25%,Finial 30%, 15% Participation. About 100 slides on average per class. GOOD Luck
This is a difficult class, but if you are pre-med this will be the easiest class you'll take. he is an extremely nice and funny professor. He gives out practice problem which he bases the exams on so if you know the practice questions well you will do very well on exam. I would highly recommend him. by far the nicest and most considerate bio prof.
He was great ! Lectures a little confusing , but he does record them and posts the recording on Dropbox which is a total life savor if you don't come to class. Do his review questions before the test thoroughly. His tests are not bad at all of you study. good luck
Tried to synchronize lecture and lab material. Disorganized, forgetful. Video clips helped for learning. Uploaded recorded lect. Different teach'g method and scope. Late post'g ppt. A generous grader. Can be stubborn on taking a suggestion. He got caught in politic with TAs' that I hated the most, but it's bio culture. To TA: work with prof pls.
If you need to take this class, do not rely on professor. Do well in lab, and ALL SELF STUDY. Use his study guides. Use the textbook. Lectures are too confusing. Have a good group of friends to study with.
Dr. Baker picks the finest book of invertebrate that makes life easy, open mind on grading, never wants to fail you, refrain from personal bias. When you show your interest, he is willing to guide you through. No hesitation to repeat himself. Slightly mood swinging. Field trip is fun. Uploaded lecture recording. Handful students come to class.
Like any class, you need to put effort into the class in order to achieve a good grade. He is very helpful, open minded, and lenient. He is not out to make you fail, which is always a plus. A good background in 106 is extremely helpful, as a big chunk of it is relatively repetitive but in depth. Overall great professor and i highly recommend him.
3 EXAMS, EACH 20% AND LAB IS 40%. AWESOME PROFESSOR, OBVIOUSLY VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE. JUST DON'T LIKE THE WAY HE WOULD WORD SOME QUESTIONS IN EXAMS. HOWEVER THERE WAS A CURVE FOR SOME EXAMS, HE REALLY WANTED US TO PASS. CARING PROFESSOR
Awesome professor! Enthusiasm is very high and he will try his best to make sure you get a great grade. Must take! He will be teaching bio 106 again in the spring.
Okay so he's an extremely nice person. That being said, not the greatest lecturer. Gives a super long review sheet that somewhat helps for exams. His tests were tricky because he gave questions with similar answers and then would trick you asking if its "b+c" or "a+b" when it was only b. Lots of these questions that I didn't like. Get a good lab TA
Hes alright. Loves his job. The Bio Department in general at QC is a pain, so expect ridiculously difficult exams, on the minute details of the lecture. Good luck.
Very passionate and willing to help. His exams can be tricky and his review sheets are very long but if you use them and study in advance you should be fine! The course involves a lot of reading but the concepts aren't hard to understand. There's a lot to memorize but other than that course is enjoyable and taught by a professor who loves his job.
Relying solely on his review sheets was what screwed me over. It's harder than the slides & actually has NOTHING to do with what appears on the exam. He's very unorganized & doesn't answer his emails. He's knowledgeable but you need to put in 100% of your effort.
Terrible professor.. He's never there to help anyone outside of class & his exams are beyond hard. Despite majority of the class failing, he didn't curve. Save your GPA. Avoid him at all costs. HES VERY UNORGANIZED.
If you really go in depth and understand his review sheets forward and backward you will do well in his class but the way he words questions and answers on exams could be a little tricky.
Rely on the review sheets and recordings!!! I wish I knew this before I took this course. All the answers for the review sheets are in the lecture recording. You don't need the textbook. The review sheet will take you a couple days to complete so make sure you work on it consistently so that you have enough time to study.
Took Spring '18. Cool, passionate, and knowledgeable professor/human, but VERY disorganized and rarely available outside of class. For the 3 exams, you need to fill out a review sheet, which is based entirely on lecture recordings (which he posts online), and takes a few days to fill out. Occasional in-class (online) quizzes. No textbook needd
High expectations of students, but fair. Reading, a paper, a presentation, lab quizzes, a museum project, field trip. Exams cover A LOT of material, but he gives review questions over a week before the exam so if you can answer all those thoroughly, you will be fine, as the exam q's are based exclusively on the review. He curves.
Dr. Baker's class was enjoyable. He really loves what he does which made the lectures easier to sit through. Reality - bio is tough. You can't expect to pass a bio class unless you pay attention and work for it. His tests are very fair, he gives all the study material you need as long as you show up. He's super nice and approachable. Great Prof!
Dr. Baker is an amazing professor! He's a genius and I was really interested in what he had to say. However, he was a little bit disorganized and sometimes gave in class Blackboard pop quizzes within the last 10 minutes of class. This was unfair to student's who didn't get credit because they didn't have a laptop or couldn't connect to the WiFi.
Dr. Bakers review sheets are the exam. He does not try to trick you. He expects you to know a lot, but this is major level intro bio, idk how you could be caught off guard by that. Anyone who is salty at him probably put in minimal effort in his class.
THE WORST! literally the worst. super disorganized and tests are extremely hard. would give a negative review if I can
Gives completely different quizzes to everyone!! Doesn't respond to emails! Would avoid and take another Biology professor if possible!!! Messy class, last minute reviews!!! Take another Professor!
Terribly disorganized and doesn't put in any time to help students who seek his advice. Makes rude and condescending comments when he does give you his time. Exams are ridiculous, seems like he just wants to weed people out and curves tremendously because otherwise 2/3 of the class would probably fail. Doesn't respond to emails. You are on your own
Take another professor! This professor doesn't respond to emails, doesn't let you go back to check your answers. Doesn't try to work with you so you could get a better grade. Doesn't really care for his students to do well in his class. Take this course somewhere else or you'd lose interest in science and premed.
QC science professors in general are a real pain which i dont know why. I felt like he made the exams harder considering the material isnt that hard to grasp(easier than Bio 105) .He does curve but it evens out since his exams are confusing and tricky. Made it super hard for the students during COVID to take exams, with very limited time given.
DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS IF YOU HAVE OTHER OPTIONS. Since our classes were converted to online classes due to COVID-19 his tests became HARDER then they were before. His tests are 60 multiple questions each with a time limit of 1hr and 15min (3 exams %15/20/20 plus Kahoot %5 )and the questions are super tricky.
Honestly im so disappointed. He made the tests HARDER and even more tricky just so we get a bad grade then he wanna act nice giving us a curve so immature and rarely responds to emails. Lab instructors are the same. They hardly teach anything and expect the students to do good and know EVERYTHING like we are biologists or something!
Prof. Baker is a good professor, he created review sheets for his students, curved all tests and even hosted review sessions. That being said his class is not easy, the review sheets do not really help. His tests are very hard. The students that are complaining about him are just annoyed that his class wasn't meant to be easy despite being online.
He is obviously trying to weed students out, since he said that on the first day. He doesn't respond to emails, and makes sure his exams averages are a D( puts answer choices like A, B, A+B, C, none of the above, C+A) . He also tried to MAKE SURE we do an outdoor project, even with the covid situation, like relax dude. Choose your professors wisely
Just like bio 105, this class is not gonna be a walk in the park. The tests are difficult. The review sheet Baker provides really helps to narrow down what topics students should focus on. The key to doing well is to use his recordings to fill out the review sheet. This class requires a lot of work and you need to make sure you understand the info.
He made exams harder to be fair and prevent cheating, not to mention he also curves everything, most people are laying on the couch during Covid but if you were badly impacted he said to reach out so he can help you, anyone in a stem major should know by now that weeding out is a part of the game, you're either good enough or you get left behind.
Attendance is not mandatory but you should come if you want to do well because his slides have little information and you need to know everything he says. 2 exams and a final - the information isnt too hard but theres A LOT of it and he has very difficult exams since the questions are unclear. Hes accessible outside of class but not very helpful
I really liked him as a professor and felt like I actually learned something. He doesn't just read off of the slides but is more concept/idea based. Given that, his multiple choice tests are very tricky and make you think. The first test is more concept based and the last two tests are pure memorization. Make sure to set enough time to study.
Very nice Prof., very difficult and boring class
very difficult class! the test were all memorizing, so if u have trash memory u not gonna do good. teaches really fast, I have no idea how people do good in this class it is extremely hard and the lectures were so boring and made me fall asleep. lab was also hard and there were quizzes every week.
Professor Baker is passionate about biology and explains things really well. The most difficult part is the class itself more specifically the tests. He tries to help with this by making review sheets which are pretty good. I felt that the textbook was very useless when it came to tests so focus on the lecture.
Hard class
THIS IS A VERY HARD CLASS. Baker is a very intelligent professor and knows his Biology however that doesnt make him a great professor. Classes are very large about 250 students. For lecture 60%of your he gives 3 tests 15% each and mcmallin achieve assignemnts for the other 15% a ( paid site). He does give a study guide and sometimes cheat sheet
Bio 106 is very dense so prepare to spend a lot of time studying. Baker is a good professor, but his exams were hard and he'll ask questions that are honestly beyond this course. Expect the questions on the exams to be complex and difficult. He curved the first exam since averages were very low, but overall respectable and good guy.
You will have to teach yourself. Completely disorganized. Exams are brutal & the material is overly dense. The department has seen an avg decline in grade averages since 2011. Our midterm average was 46%! I have never seen such awful grades from such a large class. Lab instructors are also left fending for themselves. Pathetic. He's nice, that's it
Horrible. Consistently late to his own class, always unprepared. Entire grade was based off 1 exam, 1 in-class worksheet, participation (but he won't bother to learn names so it seems random), and a final project. Would not recommend him to anyone - avoid at all costs
He's nice but that's it. This class was so bad. You have to teach yourself everything because the class is SOO disorganized. The class average was always so low. He provides review sheet for his exams but it doesn't do shit tbh it just stresses you out more. If you are taking this class good luck! EVERYTHING SUCKED!
Unbelievably disorganized. Very knowledgeable about his field of study but lectures were confusing bc he expected us to know what he was talking about when we're not science majors. We did worksheets &a quiz in class but our final grade was only based on 2 things he randomly assigned like a week before grades were due. Stressful for an MHC seminar.
Attend all review sessions, as they will be important for his tricky exams. His curves are godsent if you aim for the highest on his exams. Overall, it's a tough class so good luck.
Dr. Baker is really interested in what he teaches but his lectures can be hard to follow at times because he's not so organized. He curves really well, just a little unorganized in his teaching. Overall difficult class but possible if you review his recordings of lectures and take notes.
Dr. Baker is clearly passionate about what he teaches. I enjoyed his invertebrate zoology class. Some tips to do well are to use the slides as a guide. listen and take notes on his recorded lectures and then look into the textbook for other supplemental information. class average scores were in the 40's which he ends up curving heavily. great class
Baker is tough true, but this is bio. Achieve assignments/kahoot are an easy 15%, textbook isn't helpful so didn't use it. While his tests are tricky, he allowed a full-page cheat sheet, and the review sheets he provides are literally word for word the test. Expect to study for at least two hours a day from 3 weeks before test (watch recordings).
Goes through the slides too quickly so you need to rewatch recorded lectures to study properly, which takes days. Tests are difficult because there is so much information, but he gives review sheets, a curve, and usually allows a cheat sheet. Doable class if you put in the time and effort before each of the three tests.
Dr. Baker loves what he's teaching & is very nice & easy to meet with. However, there is a TON of information in this class. The tests are hard, but he usually gives a cheat sheet which is def recommended to make (spend time on them!). He grades each test on a curve & HW is a good percent of the grade. Put in the work & hopefully you'll be fine.
Really focus on lecture videos! His exams can be a little challenging but he allows a cheat sheet and curves our exams. Funny guy. I would take him again
Would def take him again. He curves a lot and cares a lot about his students' grades. He seems intimidating and rude at first but he gives a lot of opportunities to improve your grade. With the curve, it is an easy A.
He's a chill and nice guy. His slides are kind of plain and boring, but he adds on information not on there. His kahoots are fun and he gives review sheets and a review meeting which definitely helped. Tests are hard but he allows 1 sheet (back and front) that you can bring in which helps. He also curves which may have singlehandedly saved my grade
Baker disorganized his notes and plans in biostatistics. The exams were difficult, run away from him.
Compared to many of the other bio profs here at QC, he is actually one of the better ones. Gives review sheets before each test to tell you exactly what to study and also allows cheat sheets for every test as there is a lot of information to remember which he knows. He cmakes funny noises to keep the class entertaining and lectures are very solid.
This is not an easy class by any means, and you have to put in a ton of work and studying on your own time to do well.His slides are a bit all over the place, so don't expect to learn much from them. However, he gives a review sheet before the tests,and as long as you know that cold, you should do well. he also allows cheat sheets + curves
Very disorganized. Tried to organize a data collection trip, didn't check to see park timing, and ultimately wasted everyone's time. Relied on lab but Baker is a nice guy! Would take again for more of a bio-ish course, not stats
Honestly Dr.Baker is a decent teacher,but Bio106 is just a difficult class in general. Slides are mid but you can find a lot of great videos online on all the topics, and honestly that's the best way to learn. Get a whole notebook and take notes on all the slides and videos that you watch. Combine that with your cheat sheets you will do fine.
Baker is really nice and I liked how he taught the material better than Coleman. The review questions he gives before the test are almost exactly the topics that are on it. Very accommodating about quiz and hw retakes.
Horrible professor never take this guy. Too many assignments a museum visit and a field trip which was a complete disaster because he didn't check the timing of the low tide so just went there and hung out and came back without any data. Very disorganized but thinks he is a perfectionist. Acts cool but grades your assignment like you are a PhD std
VERYYYYYY HARSH GRADER teaches like we know the material even before the lecture. Tried reading the textbook beforehand and still struggled. I had to drop my other class to do well in this one since this is a prereq. DO NOT TAKE HIM!!!!
A gem in the bio dept who's actually passionate about what he teaches. He really cares and wants his students to succeed but you need to do the same. Review sheets narrow down the dense material + you get cheat sheets for exams & a massive curve. If you put in the right effort he will notice and reward you for it, don't expect to do well otherwise
Absolute legend
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
26%
Textbook Required
9%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.63 avg changeRatings by Course
BIO
5.0
(1)BIO107
5.0
(1)BIOECOL
5.0
(1)BIOL203
5.0
(1)BIO340
4.3
(4)Difficulty by Course
BIO
5.0
BIO345
5.0
STAT23
5.0
BIOL106
4.5
BIO108
4.0