2.5
Quality4.0
Difficulty19%
Would Retake100
Reviews19%
Would Retake
100
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
21
4
12
3
13
2
13
1
41
What Students Say
“Terrible professor, way too much material to handle in each lecture and not enough tools provided to succeed in the class”
BIO202 - 1.0 rating“Definitely by far my least favorite professor of all time”
BIO202 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.15 avg changeRatings by Course
BIO320
3.5
(2)BIO202
2.6
(95)BIO201
2.0
(2)BIO101
1.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
BIO101
5.0
BIO202
4.1
BIO320
3.0
BIO201
2.5
Reviews (100)
Many students, after having a funny professor earlier in the semester, felt she was a bad teacher. Funniness does not = good teacher. She tells you exactly how to get an A and gives very fair tests! She makes the class interesting and she's enthusiastic.
Not a great lecturer, boring. She cant convey what she knows too well. Her lectures are a copy/paste from the book. Ask her a detailed question and i doubt shell know or give a clear asnwer.
She's not a great lecturer but she's not bad either. Her lectures get confusing but as long as you read the lectures and textbook and know your material you'll do well on her tests.
A nice, but very confusing lady. She often made mistakes during lecture making an already difficult topic even more confusing.
It really wouldn't hurt if she cares a little more. I think she rather be somewhere else.
dull lecturer. dont bother going to class, just read the textbook. overall lousy prof. luckily she only teaches half the semester and the previous prof is great.
shes the worst teacher in the history of the world. shes so bad. i swear. you want to cry when ur in class. i almost did once. she is absolutely the worst. sitting through her class is like the pain of being stabbed by a thousand knives all at once. if you can help it, DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS!
This woman is so kind and beautiful, I have no idea why someone would say such things. Smart as hell, too.
No Comments
very very boring teacher. easy tests though. this woman cannot teach a subject so that someone else can learn it. her lectures are straight out of the book. i didnt go to class, and read the book and her lectures and did well on her test.
Teaches mostly, not all, out of the text for those of you who think you don't have to go to class. Kinda boring, but her tests are very fair/easy if you care and study and do the practice test you will realize some of the questions are exactly the same. Less interesting than Schenect/ but easier
WOW the worst professor that I have ever come across..some professor might be boring but this one just begs you not to come to class..she never knows what she is talking about, never answers your questions in class (she tells you that she will get to it later in the lecture and never does) also has history questions on her test...save urself
interesting lady. lectures are boring and a little disorganized. her exam wasnt too bad, but her and schechter's final was a disaster! dont email her or go to her office hours. you'll be on her watch out list!
Dull lecturer. Extremely boring (almost fell asleep at one point). Lectures right out of the book, don't bother going to class if you can help it. Tests are fairly easy if you read the book, do her reviews etc. She's a nice lady who means well, but not a great teacher.
she is so unbelieveably boring and so slloowww. It was hell sitting thru lecture.
No Comments
SSSOOO boring, not an interesting lecturer at all.
Extremely boring. Lectures are pointless and the tests are tricky.
WOW...don't ever ever EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR in your HISTORY AT STONY BROOK.....TAKE THIS PROF... IT was so BADDDDDDD that I just wanted to kill myself. Yes it was somewhat boring, but that's not even 1/2 of the picture. You will work your butt off to end up w/ a low low grade. TRUST ME..take w/ diff prof.. and if your enrolled already..just DROP!!!
Wost teacher..Please do not take her unless you absolutely have no choice. She is very boring, but thankfully only teaches half of the class. The final was horrendous and I studied real hard. The exams are okay, but extremely tricky. If you study like a maniac and have no life, then you can expect an A.
Her slides were very detailed which was good when reviewing for tests. I don't understand how her tests are made though. I studied the textbook AND her slides AND attended lecture and could still not get an A in this class. Its IMPOSSIBLE. I did absolutely everythign to prepare and still was stumped by her crazy questions. Overall boring and hard.
she is very repetitive, boring,and annoying to some people. but its a biology class don't expect to have life memories in it. her midterms are easy, and her part in the final is also easy. her slides are a good subsitute to the text book. if you go to all of her lectures pay attention and ask questions you should be fine!
She is always willing to help explain a concept, however; her notes and explanation can be wordy. She will be straight forward about what you need to know and she will encourage to do questions in the book - which you should do. Overall, the professor is average and tests on information which is on her slides - no surprises.
Prof Dean has trouble teaching the class and staying on topic. Frequently makes strange noises while giving lecture. She basically told us that reading the textbook was more important than going to class, so half of the class stopped showing. Her notes are not that helpful..just read the textbook, she gets questions from there
I thought she was really good and made biology interesting. You need to come to class, know the notes, and read the book to do well. She is a fair teacher
excellent teacher.
excellent teacher
I am very disappointed with the reviews on display here. Neta Dean is a great Professor who makes the material crystal clear and offers her help to those who seek it. She has such great enthusiasm and care. If you need any help with genetics this is the person to go to. Excellent Professor. Those who say otherwise don't know any better.
She reminds me too much of a high school teacher. She tends to spend way too long talking about simple stuff, then jumps through harder material. She happened to teach a boring subject though, so that definitely affected my opinion.
DON'T bother taking this class!! extremely boring, and the exams are so tricky. I worked my ass off and still didn't do well. DROP dis class!!!!
She happens to teach the genetics portion of the class, which is definitely the most boring part until you get to the more contemporary stuff. Tends to talk a lot about the easy stuff but jumps through the hard. The class is not easy, but it's not as difficult as chemistry. DO NOT TAKE THE CLASS "FOR FUN"
Not good at all. Is more interested in gossip than in teaching and guiding students. Is absolutely the last person to go to for advice.
BORINGGGGGGGG... Went to her office hours and came out feeling way worse..... Killed my confidence in Bio.... AVoid her if u can
vey nice. all who say she is bad are failures. it is a tough subject. great professor. much better and respectful than other teachers
uh.. uh.. she stutters.. um .. i can't stand sitting in her class.. or watching echo lectures.. because uh shhhhhhhh is mostly what i hear and um yeah...uh..switch into erster's class..
I don't like her voice. She also isn't very clear. She always goes "shhhh" when people aren't even talking. Her tests are easier than Schecter's though. Just read the lecture notes/textbook instead of watching the ECHOs/going to class.
She likes absolute silence in her class, so she shushes kids a lot. But her lectures are detailed.
She really wants people to understand the concepts. She will repeat certain concepts until no one wants to hear it anymore. Her midterm 3 was the easiest. And actually she doesn't "uhh" or stutter that much.
Okay, so after having Citovsky for the first half of the class and him being a very straight forward teacher, it was very hard adjusting to Dean's teaching. Her powerpoints are jam packed with information and she doesn't finish in the 53 time period. She makes concepts and questions very complicated and I'm pretty I failed the class before of her.
Honestly one of the worst professors I've had. Fails to explain simple concepts and seems to not understand them herself. Says incorrect things in lecture frequently. People did so poorly on her test that it dropped the OVERALL curve 7 points. Got an A by doing well with Citovski, avoid her at all costs. Also, spends a lot of class shushing people.
I can really tell she wants people to learn, her questions on the test seem to be right out of the slides, BUT she does make clear what is important, she'll spend forever on something we dont need to know, and zip by things that are on the test. She is easily frustrated which is kind of silly because the lecture has 500 people, she's eh
I like that she set very clear goals and spelled out exacly what the learning objectives were. You really need to understand genetics and molecular biology to do well in hert half of the course. I think she's a great teacher.
Nice person! Detailed power points (you can do the discussion board assignment way ahead just by reading the specified topics in the slices).Class may not be as clear (she sometimes stops as she is trying to organize the language) but she repeats important concepts frequently which helps memorization! She makes your life much easier than Schechter!
I really like Professor Dean. You can tell she really loves science and wants the students to learn. One thing she does is go through interesting experiments and relates concepts to real life. 'm a pre-med and this was a very usefulc course.
Her part of the course, genetics and molecular biology, is not easy but definitely the most interesting. Dean is a great instructor. Her clicker questions are useful and she puts up lots of practice problems. Do them, know her lectures and you'll do well in the course
I found it very useful to go to office hours. I love that she is very accessible and willing to make time to help students. There were several times I couldn't come to office hours, even right before the exam but she made herself available. Tests are not easy but they were fair and there were no"tricks". great teacher that knows her stuff.
Prof Dean is the best. She takes the students considerations to heart.
Class is ok but the exams are very different from the lecture material. Textbook is barely used except for finding information for the weekly discussion boards. Best advice is to print out the lecture slides before hand (2 slides per page witht eh space for notes) and take notes that way. Also study the discussion boards.
This class is graded on a horrible curve where 55% of the class gets a C and below. This teacher even admitted to want the average to be around a 56 to 60. Definitely try Erster if you like your gpa.
She is one the best professors I've had at Stony Brook. Clear lectures,and is good at explaining difficult concepts. She is always available and doesn't intimidate you during office hours. Although attendance is not mandatory, doing the clickers gives extra credit, so its really worth going to class
Be prepared to work hard for an A. This is a killer class but worth knowing if your pre med. Textbook is a waste, but there are plenty of other used books on line cheap. Get some book . Dean and Schechter are great lecturers but they pitch high and just reading the power points and listening to echo isn't enough.
Neta Dean was the most annoying professor I have ever had. Her cut offs for grading were very unclear. She gave me a C plus when I thought I should've gotten a B minus at least. Her email was very rude to me. Lectures are boring because she drones about simple concepts and then skips through difficult ones. Take Erster if you like your GPA.
You can't really blame the professor for how difficult Biology is. BIO202 is extremely demanding and there is soooo much information you will need to understand and memorize. But, Dean is an amazing professor. She talks at a good pace and is very VERY repetitive. This may get annoying, but that's how you know you have to know that for the test.
Neta Dean is the sweetest and most thoughtful professor I have ever met. Unlike her exams never try to trick are always straight forward. Her lectures are thorough and are more than enough to study for the exams.
Neta's exams are easier than Erster's. Her lectures are useless, only used it to know what topics will be on the exam. Reading the textbook will help you more than anything, since she only tests you on what's on the book. Ask anyone else for help before you ask her lol, your questions will look stupid to her.
Prof Dean is a great lecturer. I loved this class, both Dean and Erster are really good, but I liked Deans part better. Class is pretty hard but I learned a lot. Do all the Discussion board questions and practice exams because you'll see those questions on exams
Class is really interesting but it aint easy. Prof dean is great. can tell she's passionate about science.
Have to watch ECHO videos 3 times to fully digest everything. Professor Dean is a good lecturer but she is a rude professor. She gets really close to your face and belittles you. Isn't understanding at all for anything you may be going through. Try to avoid her if possible.
Her slides are so bad and there are 60 of them each lecture. You Have to READ the textbook or you are screwed. She's a nice professor though.
Terrible professor, way too much material to handle in each lecture and not enough tools provided to succeed in the class. Can't teach adequately whatsoever and the results show (oh and there's no curve in the class so good luck passing). Material is too complicated, but not explained or reinforced thoroughly enough for success.
Neta Dean is one of the absolute worst professors I have ever taken at Stony Brook. Not only is she a horrible and monotonous lecturer but she is extremely rude. BIO 202 is a difficult class and when I reached out to her for help via email she was awful. Instead of welcoming a student she was impolite. Tests are 95% textbook, 5% lecture.
The tests contain trick questions, but yet there's not really enough time to thoroughly read each question. I just took the 3rd test and it was very hard and ruined my Monday. No wait, it ruined my week. But my week can't be ruined too much, because I have two more bio tests for this class in 7 days.
We had to move online due to the pandemic and the first online quiz we had was open notes and mostly definition questions and when the class average was high for that quiz she accused us of cheating then she made the test worth less. She constantly updated the syllabus but acted as if the pandemic should have no effect on our performance.
Horrible professor. We switched to online classes and she had no remorse whatsoever for giving a test every week which were incredibly hard. She's rude (unhelpful with emails), tests were really difficult w little time (also accused us of cheating when we did well and got happy when we did bad), there's no extracredit, class runs on a bell curve.
Taking BIO202 with Neta Dean was one of the worst experiences in my life. This class makes doing well seem impossible. During the pandemic, she was unreceptive to students reaching out for help and made her quizzes weekly and extremely difficult. Avoid her if you can.
Do yourself a favor and just don't take her class. She expects way too much from the students and doesn't help out when we're all struggling. Her tests are unnecessarily difficult and confusing. There is no extra credit either. She made one quiz worth less than others because everyone did "well". It seems like she's wants us to fail her class.
Tests are medium difficulty and questions try to trick students into the wrong answer often. The class is taught to a curve, not for the enrichment of students and if students do too well/anything deviates from the expected, she is unhappy. Will likely not answer questions or give feedback, just the test grades.
Since the start of online classes Neta Dean has become progressively unfair. It seems like she is happy when students fail but becomes rather suspicious and angry when students pass. Avoid her at all costs because she's going to make you fail. Her tests are basically 98% of concepts you do not how to apply at all, 1% lecture, and 1% textbook.
I feel like she dont want ppl to pass the class. Her tests are brutal, she even lowered the weight of the one test b/c people did too well on the test.I hate her test, its like all on the textbook and maybe 5% lecture. Her lecture and slides are also a mess. AVOID AT ALL COST. She literally made me want to change my major, take Ester if you can.
Terrible. The concepts she tests us on are almost impossible to understand, although hours were spend reading the ACTUAL TEXTBOOK. The quizzes were awfully unfair. Don't take her.
Horrible Professor. She has no empathy towards students. She made tests every week based on her 100+ slides that you will have to know. You will also have to read the textbook. No curve. She just reads her slides during lecture. She has horrible grammar mistakes on her midterms. Information on slides her slides are also wrong.
Professor Neta Dean has been by far the worst professor I ever have had. Ever since classes have gone online, she has shown no sympathy or compromise. We have had the most difficult online quizzes that are confusing, worded oddly, and just unclear for the most part. Her lectures, slides and way of teaching is confusing. Avoid her at all costs
Neta Dean is the worst professor. Exams are extremely hard and has mistakes on a lot of her questions. Does not curve. Slides are extremely long and all over the place. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS!
She lacks compassion for students during this pandemic. She made the tests extremely hard for no reason and just wants student to fail. Avoid her at all costs.
Neta Dean is unable to provide clear justifications for the reasoning for her answer choices. She consistently makes quizzes where the answers are nowhere to be found in the textbook. Honestly, her quizzes make this course more of a reading comprehension course than anything, as I have gotten questions wrong based on her wording and nothing else.
Oh my god. I am sorry but Professor Dean has been the most inconsiderate professor I have had during this entire virtual shift. She made her online tests near impossible and made a test worth less because we did well on it. How is that even fair? This bumped me down an entire letter grade. Very unfair and does not listen to feedback well.
Her classes are really difficult. The only thing you can do is to study hard by yourself. Even though the quizzes were an open book it didn't help at all because all her questions are tricky and hard to interpret. She prepared quizzes every week with lot of materials to go through. I would recommend you to take another professor.
The only thing I would complain about is her wording; some of her questions were not worded the best they could have been, had typos, etc. However, as long as you read the questions carefully and grasp what they are mainly asking, it's easy. It's all up to your knowledge to answer the questions. If you don't know it, you can't answer it correctly.
lectures were in depth and specific. Tests were complex and far from what was stated in the lectures
Definitely by far my least favorite professor of all time. Her tests and quizzes were way harder than what was covered during class and she wrote the tests and quizzes herself so that she could deliberately f her students up
I hate her with heart, body, and soul. I have done all that I could to appeal to her about her unfairness and poorly worded test questions to no success so do not take her because she rarely listens to student feedback.
She was by far the least understanding professor I've had during the pandemic. Even though the exams were open book they were very confusing and given way too often. I think it is her intention to see us do bad, she once lowered the weight of an exam because a lot of people did well. If you actually need this class, AVOID HER!
It isn't worth it to try to explain how misleading, unhelpful, and awful Dr. Dean's teaching methods are. SIMPLY STAY AWAY. SBU is all about receiving a great education, however, Dr. Dean fails to meet those high standards.
Avoid at all costs, as your brain will be a nuclear wasteland after her part of the course. Quizzes which were supposed to test the course material ended up being reading comprehension. If you desire to save your GPA from getting nuked, please avoid.
My relative passed away very suddenly during the pandemic and the funeral was on the day of a bio exam. She didn't let me retake it :). One of her exams had technical difficulties and figures from certain questions were MISSING and sis still counted it as a grade even though it's her fault hahahaha
She changed the format of the exam and included jumbled questions that did not show up on her first exam. She definitely made the exams way harder than they're supposed to be. Her exams have questions that are not covered during lectures. Her teaching methods are terrible. Her wording on exams are incomprehensible. She's the worst professor ever.
was not generous with her grading. somehow i got a lower grade in chem and did better in chem than this class. she was not understanding at all, rude when you ask questions as well
Professor Dean's test questions made sense but then there were about 10 options to choose from for the multiple choice which I think caused me to do worse on her exams than on Professor Vitaly's. You really need to read the textbook during her portion of the class to understand the material. If I could choose, I would not take this class again.
Honestly probably one of the worst professors I have had since my time here at Stony Brook. If I could advise one thing, it would be to take this same course with Erster as she is passionate with her teaching and seems to know what she is talking about instead of Neta Dean who stutters and stumbles on her wording making it very difficult to learn.
98% of the course is based off exams so if you get one bad score you're essentially screwed. the other 2% is content quizzes which are more often than not harder than the actual exams and don't match notes. the lectures are comprehensible but it takes a lot of outside time to understand, even then the exams are beyond difficult despite studying
Terrible not worth taking
Dean was not good when it came to being coherent. Her lectures were boring and did not contain needed information that was on her assessments. Her test and quiz questions, as well as her practice exams, were full of typos, phrased terribly, and incomprehensible. Overall, I do not recommend her for a class as hard as BIO202; you're set up to fail.
I didn't have an easy start in the first half of the course until Dr. Dean started teaching the second half. Although she seemed a little strict at first, she was welcoming to office hours. She is knowledgeable and provides constructive feedback, which helped me to improve significantly. I hope to have an opportunity to work with her in the future.
Prof. Dean's lectures can be hit-or-miss, but study tools like unstuckstudy really help fill in the gaps. Exams are tough, so prioritize the textbook and get extra practice questions from online resources. Overall, the class is manageable with dedicated effort.
Do not take bio 202 at stony Brook. Tests are online and the professor can give you a 0 for the smallest things. Not only that, knowing if you have to makeup or retake an exam is literally spinning the slot machine. I was quite literally, no exaggeration, notified of my need to makeup exam 3, 8 hours before the final. It was right after the final.
I do not know why she gets such a bad rep. She's a fantastic lecturer and stays a significant amount of time after class to answer questions. She's definitely not "warm and cuddly" but I have never understood bio as well as with her. She's good at her job which is what matters. One issue is her phrasing on test questions can be confusing, though.
EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL CANT TEACH TALKS WAY TOO MUCH EVILLLLLL
Dean clearly understands the topics she's teaching and explains them so well! If you pay attention in class, she explains everything in such simple language that it's hard to not understand. I don't understand why people rate her so lowly. She's a great lecturer and is not hindered by stuttering or anything. She stays after for questions too!
Great lecturer and it's clear she's knowledgeable. The reason why people give low ratings is not because shes a "bad" teacher, but Bio 202 itself is just a horribly constructed class, and I blame the Bio department. Your grade should not be SOLELY exam dependent, especially when the test questions are worded awfully with the intent to trick you.
Dean is ruthless and extremely passive agressive regarding accommodations due to medical disability. She was agressive to any questions on the test material as she thinks students only care about their grade. I decided to take a F rather than even attempt finishing BIO202 due to the ableism she showed whenever I dared ask for help/clarification.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.15 avg changeRatings by Course
BIO320
3.5
(2)BIO202
2.6
(95)BIO201
2.0
(2)BIO101
1.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
BIO101
5.0
BIO202
4.1
BIO320
3.0
BIO201
2.5