Total *********. I hate her. She took everything seriously like not going to class was an insult to her or something. Totally rude, not friendly

Very rude and bias, lectures using overhead slides and moves way too fast. Take Blumenshine, he is more interested in you learning.

Worst Class Ever taken...Missed numerous days, always unprepared

In all of my six years thus far she is the worst teacher i have ever had. She doesnt know anything, she literally sits and reads her power points to you. Lecture is a waste of time. She teachers you nothing but then her tests are rediculously hard. Avoid at all cost. I dont know how she even is a teacher.

She has no clue what she is talking about. She is always unprepared and her tests are extremely hard. If you want an A you have to teach everything to yourself, there's no help...

Whatever you do, don't take her class! She may be a nice lady who has good intentions, but her teaching methods are horrible. I've gotten C's so far in her class and I'm an A/B student. I saw other reviews and thought I could take it, but trust me, it's all true: you have to teach yourself! Tests are hard.

OMG. I'm totally failing this class. Her tests are difficult and you really have to over stay to get a passing grade. Don't recommend this class at all!!

This class was extremely difficult because Dr.Kern did not explain things well. She would constantly become confused w/ the material, so listening in on lectures was pretty pointless. I had to teach the material to myself and I worked extremely hard all semester to get a good grade. I do not recommend taking this class with Kern.

I FAILED this class my previous semester. She is a HORRIBLE instructor and when I say HORRIBLE I mean SERIOUSLY HORRIBLE. I read the textbook, review the powerpoints, and attended class for notes and what did I get out of it, NOTHING. Her exams are SUPER hard. Four words: DON'T TAKE HER CLASS!!! You'll regret.

She was my lab TA for Bio 1B and I STRONGLY recommend you do not have her as your lab TA. She couldn't answer any of the questions I had, and was late almost every single lab. You will have to teach yourself. You are better off with Jordan or Dr. Constable. I wish I would have taken them!

We're in the 7th week of the semester, supposed to have 12 classes. She's cancelled 5 classes. She's using a new book and doesn't know it and said so in class. She just finished the lab manual and the class syllabus LAST WEEK... If you don't have to, don't take any classes from her. Really unorganized.

Please, please, please do yourself a favor: Never, EVER, take a class taught by her. At first I, like you, was reading through these comments and thinking... well she can't be THAT bad can she? Unfortunately everything said here was true. STAY FAR AWAY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

AVOID at all cost!!! Horrible professor, you won't learn anything. She's super unorganized, will show up late on Exam days, cancel class without letting anyone know, and cannot teach. The only things I learned in this class were from my lab instructor, who was a grad student. I took ecology with BLUMENSHINE, he 1000X better. Don't take her!!!

One of the worst professors i've ever had. She cancelled so many classes. She was unorganized and didn't post any lectures on blackboard until after spring break. The semester finished and I still don't know my midterm grade which we took 4 weeks before the end of the semester. I'm not overexaggerating, this class was the biggest waste of time

Worst prof ..avoid her!

Wow sucky first day!! all we did was sign the safety handout(didn't even go over). Then started on the lab(also didnt go over). the lab said to make wet mounts and slides which the instructor was suppose to show us how to do, but all she did was sit in the front of the room. The lab also did not give instructions on what to do. Left in one hour!!??

I'm sitting in this class right now. thought she was so bad that I had to look her up on here. seriously, all these previous comments are legitimate.

Honestly the worst professor I have ever had. She doesn't answer questions, hardly reviews the material (she literally reads the powerpoints) and the tests are incredibly hard for the lack of skill she has. Do NOT take this course with her, you are wasting your time and money. If you are already enrolled - good luck because you will need it.

Absolutely the worst teacher I have ever had. You do not need the textbook. She reads off the power point during class which you can read on your own at home so don't even bother showing up until exam day. I suggest you get out before it's too late.

It's not that she's a bad teacher, she's not a teacher. Yo u have to teach yourself. The tests aren't super hard just know the main concepts. Overall it was a tough class but you can get through it if you dedicate half your semester to STUDYING 6-8 chapters per exam. (3 midterms total lowest dropped)

She rarely shows up for class. When she does, she is late. Her powerpoints consist of verbatim sentences and exact diagrams from the book, which she just reads from. She doesn't know what she's saying half the time and asks the class for help with terms and concepts she should know. She moves tests dates without clarifying the new dates.

Okay, I don't normally rate professors but I feel that it is my moral obligation to inform others to not take Dr. Kern for anything. Please, just listen. Everything negative in the other comments is true. I thought, "well I'm just going to get 101 out of the way, does it matter who I take?" Come to find out yes it matters. Just don't.

Worst Biology professor. The a great portion of the class is not doing well. She is unorganized and refuses to repent of her ways. Her teaching ability is the fact of the matter, not who she is. I do not recommend her.

Unorganized teacher who prepares her lecture the morning before class. She has no idea what she is talking about However if you get to know her she will let a lot of work slide. I would never recommend her.

She was very unclear and spent most the time at her desk. Form a study group!!

Do yourself a favor just don't take Kern. Hard exams with no curve and she doesn't even know how to teach. The fact that she has a PhD is surprising!

Hard class. Very unprofessional for most part. Always confusing when lecturing. After she lectures on a topic, she completely changes what she said the first time. You get easily irritated by her especially when she cancels class without information the class. The exams are very tough, so make that book your life because she won't help. AVOID HER!!

Easily the worst teacher I've ever had. Took a month to grade the 1st test, hasn't graded 2nd test 1 12 months later. Cancelled class on the last day of instruction wo telling us about final and didn't email us about it until the day of. Didn't get to last 4 chapters of lecture, but told us to learn it ourselves for the final. Very disrespectful

Never have I met such a horrible professor!

She is by far the worst professor I have ever had. I do not understand how she got through school if she was as unorganized as she is now. It's been 2 months since grades closed and I've asked to see the scores of my last two exams including the final and she has yet to respond to any email. I could honestly say she is someone I have 0 respect for.

I now know why the chicken crossed the road; to get the cluck away from her. Tremendously confusing and disorganized. No idea where half the material for her exams came from. You can run, bio majors, but eventually you'll have to take her.

DO NOT TAKE HER! always late and unprepared and let me tell you the lateness gets old and annoying, NEVER take lab after the lec, makes you wait HOURS outside while she "prepares" and then basically gives you 15 mins to complete the lab. The material on the practical is Difficult because we never got enough time on lab. BUT there was a curve.

Kern is probably one of the worst professors i've had in my college career. The subject is already hard but she makes it even harder to understand. I warn you stay away. She sometimes doesn't even seem to know what she's talking about and relies on students to guess the word for her. The labs are easy but the lectures are a drag.

Half the time she doesn't know what she's talking about and when she does it's incredibly hard to comprehend. Also she won't respect your class time but she expects you to respect hers. 10/10 do not take

Nice person, but easily the worst teacher I've had. She sometimes doesn't know the material she is supposedly teaching, and it gets worse when she digresses into physics or chemistry. She often shows up late or not at all, claiming health issues. Unprofessional in that regard. She should take disability retirement if her health is that bad.

She is clearly ill and shouldn't be teaching, not until she rehabilitates in some way. She can't teach her material and it becomes more apparent as the semester goes on. Anyone else is better for you. Heed my warning

Such a nice lady but not a good teacher

Don't take her for god sakes. She has no sense of time. She is late for class and never let you go out of classroom 15 minutes later than usual. Always. DON'T TAKE HER

A friend of mine told me that whatever I do not to take Dr. Kern. I thought they were just full of it and signed up for her class anyways. Boy were they right. Very unorganized, has no idea what is going on. She is a very nice person, but should probably stick to working in a lab or doing research on her own somewhere.

15 out of 10 do not recommend taking her

Dr Kern is a good person but not at all a good professor. If you have to take any of her classes (specifically Bio 11), I would recommend taking the class at fresno city to clovis community. She is late more than she is on time, doesnt explain the material well, doesnt explain her assignments well, and much more. 10/10 avoid this professor!

I emplore you do not take a class with Ruth Kern. She has been late to class all but one time this semester. She may be a nice person outside of teaching but doesnt belong on a college campus. For example today she was late by 35 minutes of a 50 minute, then proceeded to try to teach after the class was over.

My experience: Late to class everyday (no joke), really long lectures that were out-of-context, which gave us less time for our actual lab, held us in after class even after she was late, waited until the last week of class ON THE LAST DAY to post final grades, cancelled office hours, and didn't respond to emails. Nice person, but MESS of a class.

You can pass with an A, that doesn't make this a good class. A student pays to learn, not to sit in a room for more than half a class period only to have the teacher come in late and read off a PowerPoint. The lateness may be coupled with an excuse and sad face but that does not fix being a bad teacher. The class isn't hard but it should insult you

I didn't even have Kern as a teacher yet she was always around during my lab period. She makes no sense, eats so loud and spoke over my professor. Two thumbs down

Kern was frequently late, even absent without notice. Her lectures are awful and scattered. I would recommend not attending them at all and just reading from the book. She is giving all FS students that take her a very very bad foundation in Biology. I barely got an A.

The class is a mess. I had Ruth for my Bio lab. She's late almost every day. She showed up to her office hours with 7 minutes left when we had a scheduled meeting and I had been waiting 45 minutes. Her lectures don't make sense and cut into our lab time badly. We consistently only had around 15 minutes to work in a 2 hour lab period, not good.

Just study the book, do the homework,and get out. Lower all standards for her being a professor. For my class, she didn't remember half her slides and canceled class 10 mins after it started.

Shes always behind our scheduled syllabus, she has made it very difficult to learn. She's always late for class. She is helpful during the lab, you just have to ask but still not worth it. Definitely the worst class I have taken at State.

She's always late for class! Very unorganized and always gets off-topic also drags the topic! So when you start the lab you don't even have time to finish the lab, which means she ends up giving you the answer. When taking the quiz you don't even know what the quiz is going to be on! Don't even bother to email her. She never replies or read it.

She is very nice person but is always late to her classes. In her lab she talk for the first 30 mins, sometimes means you dont have enough time to do the lab completely. Doesnt actually explain things and messes up a lot in lecture and lab so writing notes is a very frustrating thing, if you are using pen forget it. Most difficult to learn from

A nice professor, likes to tell stories. Grades your work immediately after you submit them. Always late to class, never responds to any of your emails or messages. I messaged her several times about my work and grade and she never replied back. Class isn't mandatory to me because I personally didn't learn anything in there. Lectures are on canvas.

Prof. Kern was absolutely all over the place. She had a syllabus but never actually followed it. During the Pandemic she only reached out to students twice and it was mainly about her. She isn't very helpful and not a good teacher. She has good intentions but shes just not organized. Whatever you do AVOID THIS PROFESSOR!!

Avoid this professor, period. The most disorganized professor I have ever had. No wonder the department doesn't have her to teach lecture courses! You will even start to question how she has a PhD degree!

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. If this is the only class that fit with your schedule, change your schedule. This was the worst class I have ever taken. Not one assignment was graded until after finals were over. She is insanely disorganized. She never knew what was going on and wouldn't even write the lecture for that day until Zoom had started. AVOID

Dr. Kern doesnt attend her own office hours, waits until thirty minutes into class to announce its cancelled, cancels expected lectures constantly, and is just late, unorganized, and so bad at actually teaching she actually confused the definitions of independent and dependent variable For someone who lives in a commune, she is not for the ppl

Professor always cancelled class, she gave quizzes that were not previously lectured on. I would not recommend.