Sarah Rebecca Marcus is the WORST professor I have experienced in my life. She does not care about her students understanding nor does she understand the material she is supposed to be TEACHING to us. She reads directly off the slides but you have to go to class because she gives random quizzes especially before holidays when attendance is low.

I have never hated a professor more. Her lectures are poorly structured and I honestly think she doesn't know what she's talking about half the time. Her tests are impossible and they are difficult to study for based off the lack of information she provides. On top of being the worst professor, she is a sucky person. Avoid her class.

I was optimistic at first bc she seemed like a good professor but I got catfished. Halfway through the semester she told the discussion TAs to grade more harshly bc she thought kids were doing too well. Every lecture slide has atleast 3 grammatical errors that confuse students. I also corrected her in lecture bc her info would just be wrong sometim

worst teacher ever. teaches an intro to biology course but constantly states how u should know things from previous bio classes. there's no textbook or any material to refer to except for her crappy lecture slides. take this class anywhere else

Marcus is actually the worst professor I've ever had. She just asks questions in lecture and gives us time to answer so she doesn't have to teach and on top of that she is very disrespectful.

Class is a waste of time because all you do is go over green dot questions to material that hasn't even been taught yet. She expects you to have prior knowledge on a lot of topics even though this is an introductory course and her slides are bad. she is nice at times but overall not a good professor. The discussion is annoying but not hard.

Dr. Marcus expects you to know a lot of concepts even though the class is an introductory biology class. She reads directly off the slides without explaining much even if the whole class is confused. No textbook or practice other than her green dots and one previous tests that is put up a few days prior to exams. Just memorize her slides to pass.

Outrageous grading, just a straight up bad professor.

Literally does not teach you anything and then expects you to get quizzed on the material that she DID NOT TEACH YOU. You will have to teach yourself for this class.

This professor does not interact with her students at all. I have never felt this disconnected from a course before. There are no good study tools for her class to prepare for the tests. She expects you to have a lot of prior knowledge although this is an introductory course. If you can, take this class with a different professor.

Dr Marcus is one of the worst professors I have had at Bing. When she lectures she just reads off the slide and hits you with embedded quizzes that ask us information we have no idea of knowing. Her tests have many mistakes in them and are worded difficulty making them harder than they need to be. Only took her class bc it was needed for my major.

Worst professor I've ever taken. Confuses you on most of the topics, the questions on the exams are vague as hell and poorly worded. Try and get another Professor or do this course at a different college/university because you will not learn much knowledge or skill from her. Overall a bad professor.

Easily the worst professor Ive ever had at Binghamton. Expects you to have prior knowledge on certain topics even though this is an intro course. Her lectures are vague and she reads off the slides. Exams were only 20 questions long giving no room for error, and were often wordy or straight up confusing. Take this course elsewhere if you can.

WOW. Worst professor Ive ever had. Typos and errors in all her exams besides the final. The final was so easy in comparison to the semester exams because it was written correctly. She reads lecture slides from Khan Academy (study there instead!) and is so vague but tests are absolutely ridiculous. Take this class at another school plz.

Please do not take this professor. She expects us to know concepts even though this is an intro bio class. She refuses to help outside of class and this is derailing because she reads off the slides in class and does not help out in that setting either. SHE IS THE WORST DO NOT TAKE HER PLEASE.

Steer clear if you can. Easy to get good grades, but not worth the hassle or time.

Class is asynchronous, you have to watch weekly lectures and answer questions which are very simple. But she customizes the exams in a format that poorly relates to the lectures, doesn't offer useful feedback. In a class of 460, only 12ish people would get 20/20 and she deemed that good enough. Would not take again, very rude.

The agonizing hours of studying I poured into this class, only to be graded on a 20-question test based in a single scenario that I'm fairly certain grad students could not get an A on. Quizzes every lecture. I hoped lightening would strike me down every time I logged into this class to no avail. Avoid this professor, unless you're driving a bus.

I'm taking this class during Winter semester. I had taken a Biology class in my Freshman year of H.S. Dr. Marcus expects you to know the basic information despite being an introduction to biology class. The tests are horrendous as there are only 20 questions. If you have no choice but to take her, you NEED to put in the effort.

Recommend taking this class in the winter. Hate the intro bio department here. Study and youll be fine. My only real problem with her is that I got a concussion the day before my final exam and told me I had to take the exam anyways. Had to talk to the chair of the department to give me a few days luckily. She doesnt care about her students

Honestly one of the worse professors I have ever had. Ridiculous with the grading, super inconsiderate, and talks down on her students. Wish Binghamton had another bio113 professor.

She's very inconsiderate. Discussion is extremely not unnecessary. She claims you don't need extra research and that just her lecture videos are all you need but that's a lie. some materials you either have to know or take time to learn cause she doesn't go over it. Tests are worded awkwardly but honestly, go to tutoring and wed. skill-building.

This class is not hard because of the content, it is hard because of grading. Getting 90s on every single assignment, quiz, and test is not enough to get an A. I found her to be very unresponsive to questions and dismissive. She gives out answers to coming up exams in office hours (including the final). The discussion section was fun but tedious.

She teaches in a very unique learning style, this does not necessarily mean good. To become successful in this class, knowledge of the fundamentals of biology is not necessary. Rigorous practice of her awkwardly worded, misleading questions is the best way to prepare for exams. Dismissive of students seeking help.

She is just bad period. Khan Academy is free and it is much better and more detailed than her class that I paid for. Her exams are also worded very badly. It's like she crammed specific facts and we are all bound to her made up ideology. Binghamton University has set us up to fail for sure by letting her teach us as we prepare for grad school.

Her slides are NOT NOTES, but a combination of pictures she found online. When she teaches in class, she reads the slides word for word. When asked a question, her answers are either gibberish or she looks back to the slides for answers. Her class feels like a 5 year old teaching biology and I now have to guess what biology game she is playing.

The positive reviews here are mostly fabricated. Be prepared to miss extra questions in each exam because her wording is childlike. She also CANNOT answer a question correctly without referring back to her slides even after teaching for 6 years! She is a complete joke and a complete fabrication. I don't understand how she has not been fired yet.

Dr.marcus made me cry, the tests are only 20 questions and she goes way too fast during lecture.

This class is horrible and this professor is horrible. Save yourself please. She treats you like you are 10 and the only means of studying is her vague power points and arbitrary practice problems.

She sucks! Her questions are worded so badly so you will miss at least 2 questions per exam. 2 missed questions take you from an A to a B+. She also doesn't explain the slides. She just reads them off word for word like a little girl who just discovered biology for the first time. Incompetency is her Phd. Just an awful and incompetent "professor".

She just said that fermentation does not produce ATP. It actually produces 2 ATPs. She also said that in a liver cell and muscle cell, the tRNAs and rRNAs are the same but mRNA is different. This is NOT biologically possible because tRNAs and rRNAs are 2 different things. How could Bing hire someone this crazy and inept? Worst Binghamton professor!

Her material is often taught out of order. If you ask her a question she is usually unhelpful, I had an easier time teaching myself the entire semester than trying to learn anything directly from her. Her exams are wordy and her questions often don't make sense. Having her as a professor is necessary to take the course but I would never choose her.

Based on previous STEM classes taken at Bing, Marcus' lack of ability to teach is not surprising. All the STEM profs are only here to conduct research and they all suck at teaching, and Marcus is no exception to that. She often uses very wordy questions the exams and he knowledge of bio doesn't align with any other bio professor's.

We were merely taught how to answer Dr. Marcus's curated test questions rather than actually learning biology. Reads directly off slides and goes far too fast. Discussion is too demanding for a 100 level class. Meeting five times a week plus homework and studying is overkill. This class was overall horrible and did not help me grow as a student.

She will fool you in the beginning. She will sell her different approach and you will be motivated to learn. After a while, you will start failing exams because you will be confused by her wording. You will also realize that you didn't learn real bio because she just taught experiments. Bing fooled me. It is no public ivy. I was fed junk by Marcus.

Her practice exams do not reflect the actual exams. The exams are weirder and they seem written by a child. Her questions also do not ask real bio questions. She has lots of practice tests but it's all junk because she is not teaching correctly, she is not explaining correctly and she is not testing correctly! Please Binghamton please fire her!!!!

Her exam questions are obscure/random applications of the lecture slides, which are already hard to understand. I studied for hours on end and the highest grade I earned on an exam is an 85. I was considering going pre-med and this class completely deterred me from that direction. If you have to take BIO113 with Marcus, good luck, bc you'll need it

Course is well designed and can be interesting, she did not teach it well. She has very high expectations, can be condescending, and acts like this class is easy, but many people including my friend and I struggled in it. She even straight up reads off the slides in lectures. The lousy charts and from Google don't help either.

She makes things more complicated than what they need to be. She is not a good explainer and her tests are ridiculous. They dont even tests bio concepts. 0/10

Being completely honest she has way too little things in the grade book, so your average is determined based off of very few assignments. Tests are pretty insane and in order to pass you pretty much have to memorize how she words her ambiguous questions- nothing to do with understanding the foundations of biology.

Incompetent teacher. She goes way too fast through the slides and doesn't understand what she is teaching. I wish she took more time explaining the content. Go over all the practice questions from past exams. Her exams are way more difficult than the practice questions. Having a good group in discussion and lecture makes it or breaks it.

As with all professors who list "education" as one of their interests, Dr. Marcus is an avoid at all costs professor. This class feels more like a reading comprehension course than a Bio one as the only thing you'll be doing is trying to comprehend what she is asking in her terribly worded questions. No biology is being taught during her classes.

Her tests were so hard and confusing. Even after studying for hours, taking practice exams, and completely filling out all of my index cards, I failed most of the tests. Her teaching method sucks. Not as bad as 114 but still pretty bad. Discussion section was pointless and boring but easy.

She comes here to write her own reviews. Like the one below me is NOT TRUE. Exams are 24%, final is 18%. That's 42%. That's almost half your grade already. No student would write the comment below mine except her because it just aint true. This is how crazy this "professor" is. The exams are also worded badly so she will fail you even further.

Her exams test how to interpret her weirdly worded questions instead of actual biology concepts. She reads directly from the slides because she doesn't have a grasp of the material she is teaching. Gives off "fake it until you make it" vibes. I wonder who wrote the review below me... If you know what I mean (I can't state it directly)

i didnt see her in the schedule of classes for spring 2023-looks like the school listened after all. save yourself!

Dr. Marcus is a horrible teacher. I feel like I learned nothing from her. The material on her tests is nothing like we do in class and she literally does not teach. I had an 100 average in AP Bio my senior year of high school but an 80 in this class. When you ask her for help she is rude and cold.

Actually a terrible professor and her 20 question exams were confusing for no reason.

At first Dr. Marcus seems like an amazing professor. The first few weeks will seem easy, but she fully turns. Her tests are based on how well you know her teaching, not the material. She speeds through her slides and says that her "active learning" is helpful, when its not.

I think in terms of teaching and tests, the class is fine. It's no worse than CHEM 105. My issue is with the professor. She is so passive aggressive. On the first day, she pretends like she wants to get to know everyone, and I thought she seemed super nice. Then I attended her office hours and she was mad at us the whole time. It was scary.

Literally speedruns through all of her lessons and claims her "active learning" helps students learn better. Half the time I'm chilling in class staring at her active learning questions wondering wtf is going on cuz she doesn't present useful information in her slides. unfair quizzes every now and then that are literally designed to fail

It is not easy but put in the work and you will be fine. As a prof she is not my favorite- but she gives you what you will need to succeed especially if you are coming in with a moderate background of biology.

She is nice but her tests are hard. She will put out a couple practice tests, but there will be a couple of questions on the actual test that she pulled out of nowhere. Class is okay, discussion boosts ur grade a little.

Prof. Marcus continues to talk about her active learning teaching, yet I feel like I did not learn at all. She is vague when it comes to the information that is taught during lectures and provides green dot questions that we are to answer to in a sense teach ourselves. The practice sets that are provided look nothing like the final exams.

Prof. Marcus is by far the worst professor I have had at Binghamton. She does not care about the wellbeing of her students and makes her tests impossible to pass. Her practice tests are unhelpful and she is extremely rude when you don't understand something. She claims her 'active learning' is the best way to learn, it's not.

Lecture is very hard to follow, better to rewatch the videos outside the class on your own time. She is very condescending and does not care about students. exams are worth less than participation so come to class. Final exam is hard and not reflective of the other exams. Sorry if you have to take her...

Active learning is genuinely terrible. She needs to be more active in helping students and not screaming at them. She needs to be more active in general. Please avoid if you can for the class. Best of luck

Dr. Marcus is an awful professor. She reads directly from the unclear slides and does not respond well to questions, acting in a very condescending way if you don't understand the material. She words the questions in extremely weird ways and you need to learn her strange formatting along with the excess of material. The discussion period is useless

She is VERY (*lecture*) HEAVY. You have to come to class as she is rude and likes to scream at people. Active learning is the worst thing and she thinks she is special for it. She really needs to be removed from this school ASAP!

Dr Marcus is a very difficult professor. She goes extremely fast. The sad part about this class is having to learn to take tests rather than learn the material. If possible skip this class.

She speeds through her lectures and goes over complex topics like photosynthesis in less than a minute. Super condescending when you ask questions and her tests are made to trick you. They do not test your knowledge. When the class does well on assignments she decides to punish people and take points away. You have to attend every class for points

She knows what she is teaching well but is a terrible professor. She always speeds through lectures and acts annoyed when people have questions. She accused us of cheating because the grades were "higher than usual" and then attempted to punish us again during finals by withholding exam prep material because "there was cheating on exam-prep 3".

REMINDER! not everyone who takes this course wants to be a bio major!! I did not take AP bio which should be a pre-req for this class and I did not learn anything! she is condescending and hates student success. you cant even teach this class to yourself since she often says in lecture how online material is the opposite of what she teaches! AVOID

Sarah Marcus wants to see you fail and she will do everything she can so that you are crying on your way out of the exam room every time. She doesn't teach difficult material, she just makes difficult tests. As a poor test-taker myself, I often knew the material better than any of my group mates but would always fall short on exams. AVOID!!!

Do not take a class with her unless you already know all the content. She believes in active learning but forgets the part where you have to teach the content first. Terrible.

I think she gets some sort of kick out of seeing her students struggle. Seems nice at first, but she treats her students as guinea pigs and is very aggressive if you ask her questions. Penalized my whole class because some people cheated on a pre test, but what she did only hurt those who didn't cheat. TAs are going to be your main source of help.

Awful teaching methods. Never goes over technical terms she uses, jumps to green dot questions every chance she gets. Would it kill her to explain why something happens? Learned more from the TAs and Khan Academy than I ever did in lecture. I know how to do well on exams, but I still think SM is an awful professor. RMP ratings never lie.

This class made me need Jesus and I'm jewish. beware. see you in hell dr marcus

If you dont have to take this class, don't. She tries to gaslight students into thinking "active learning" is the best- its awful and she is rude, condescending and wants you to fail. She cold calls like 10 groups per class, gives very hard tests that look nothing like the practice (she wont give you the right answers...) i could go on forever...

DON'T TAKE IT unless you need it. She believes that her student can do "active learning" and try to brainwash people to believe that this method is actually working. Also, the practice exam is nothing identical to the actual exam and in the class, you will need to do tons of green dot question that she will call on groups to answer it.

If you don't need to take this class, don't. It is not worth the Gen Ed., just take astronomy instead. I came into this class with a genuine interest in biology, but Marcus just makes the content extremely difficult to the point where you're not learning, you're memorizing. She just cares about her own way of teaching, not the students.

she genuinely made me consider dropping my major and ending it all. that's how horrible of a prof she is. i hope she reads this and really does some soul searching. find something you're good at sarah.

Sarah Marcus cares more about teaching how to learn than teaching the course material. She frequently preaches about her why her teaching methods are the most effective, and requires students to participate in "skill building" which is used as data in her research of WHY those methods are so effective.

tests are more reading comprehension than the actual biology material. always talks about how effective her teaching st

The content overall wasn't hard if you read her explanations on the content synthesis and practice tests, but isn't a nice person. She is rude while answering emails and while trying to talk to her in person she is condescending. Her research matters more to her than her students do, but I'm not sure why ppl are shocked. Wish she was nicer...

She can't teach.

Too absorbed in the supposed “benefits” of her active learning method to recognize that it really is just reading off of slides in lecture. You will have to actually teach yourself this material. Be prepared to rely on TAs.

Worst professor. She does not teach u anything and her tests are always complicated. She writes a useless story for each question

As my colleagues have stated, she tricks you in the beginning. She puts you in a false sense of security, but after add/drop period ends it gets real. Once, she took a student's phone away because she gave us ‘study time' during lecture and they were on it. She almost took my laptop for the same reason (i was already done with the practice sets).

I have no problem with Sarah Marcus as a person, however she is not a good professor. Doing the classwork/homework and paying attention in the lectures is not nearly enough. You must go to office hours, re-teach yourself all of the material/already know the material, AND ask for help from the TAs (who honestly taught me more than she did).

She expects you to already know biology and grades things super difficulty, don't expect to get credit back for anything you missed.

I spent 3 days straight not being able to see the sun just so she can fail me on the final :D, I rewrote all of the notes from lectures 1-26 and gained a strong understanding but the questions looked fair. The entire year was a battle of me going to TA's to survive her exams.

She seems nice, and then you take one of her tests. You could fully understand the lectures and bomb the tests since she purposely tries to trick you. She focuses on “active learning” which is basically asking you questions before you know the content. I personally hated that and didn't think it worked. Good luck…..

Sarah Marcus was rude and obnoxious. She expected her students to know all class material after rushing through her lectures. Her exams were unreasonably difficult. Her ego is out of this world and I would not recommend taking her classes. The TAs were good tho

Dr. Marcus loves her active learning style of teaching but in reality, it brings people's grades down. She assumes everyone has previous knowledge of AP Bio from high school but obviously that isn't a prerec for the class so a lot of the time people were confused. There is not a curve and she offers minimal extra credit. She brags how few get A's.

The difficulty of tests is definitely overhyped. Marcus has 4 sample exams per test with questions phrased exactly how they will be on the tests (just with different situations). DO THEM ALL. You also get a note card to bring in for every exam. However, Marcus herself is very unapproachable, unhelpful, and kind of mean. Stick to TAs, they're great.

She was one of the most derogatory and meanest professors I have ever had. When you go to her office hours to ask a question, she will legitimately say "no you're wrong, and you should've known this by the lecture material," which is extremely unhelpful considering you're there for clarification. Good luck to you unlucky people who will take it.

i didnt enjoy her teaching style and approach to interacting with students. genuinely made me question my degree. if you want any advice use all of her learning objectives and find what green dot they match do. do allllll the practice sets and pray.

She was adamant about having an active learning classroom and actively talked about it, but she didn't do it well. There were many quizzes and green dot questions, which you could randomly get called on, which caused more anxiety in a lecture hall of 100+ students. Advice: Go to the TAs!!! They helped more than she did, and do the practice sets!!

She appears nice, but she is not a good professor. She moves pretty fast, and this class is almost impossible if you have not taken AP Biology prior to this class. She can also be a bit passive.

Sarah Marcus's goal is very clearly not to teach the material. Everything is in the textbook, none of the A+ students will tell you because we live within a competitive education system and they would love for you to fail the course. Their top priority is that they have the highest and best grade amongst their peers. TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOK.

seem nice at first but do not be fooled, if you ask a question she immediately gets snappy and acts like youre the dumbest person ever for even asking. also did not like style of teaching- she didn't really teach just gave us questions to figure out. also will yell at people for going on their phone WHO CARES BRO JUST TEACH

Do not be mislead by the positive reviews. This class was literally hell on earth. If you are confused and ask her a question during lecture she will NOT help you. Prepare for her to snap at you and be super sassy with her responses. She does not care about her students and reads off the slides everyday.

As my colleagues have stated, she tricks you in the beginning. She puts you in a false sense of security, but after add/drop period ends it gets real. Once, she took a student's phone away because she gave us ‘study time' during lecture and they were on it. She almost took my laptop for the same reason. (i was done with the practice sets).

I know this class is a requirement for many people and Marcus is the only option, BUT AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS!!

This was the worst class I've taken.I dreaded going to her lectures.She would teach a whole chapter in 1 class and never revisit it. I asked for help during office hours, and she was so rude and made me feel stupid for not knowing it.There is no textbook, the only thing you have to help teach the concepts is her slides, which aren't helpful at all.

as she proudly says herself, you can't study with any other practice set except for her own because the way she teaches is SO specific. you are FORCED to use HER study materials bc her way of teaching is so specific (in a bad way, in my opinion). attendance /participation is key: she keeps track. her study sets are identical to her tests

Very performative, obsessed w herself. Doesn't take feedback on how to improve her teaching even tho she asks for it a lot. Will call you out if she sees you're not paying attention even in a lecture of 300 people. A lot of group lecture quizzes that help your grade a bit. Her lectures are very monotone and content heavy making it hard to follow.

Good luck, you'll need it

Genuinely wish I had been hit by the school bus in the crosswalk. DON'T DO IT. If you like pop quizzes, getting called on randomly, and having exams that are vastly different from the multiple practice sets received, not being allowed to use any resources except Professor Marcus's, then you're in the right place. Congratulations, and good luck.

OMG she was genuinely one of the most selfish professors I have ever met. Her content was so boring and her teaching style was not promising at all. She always blamed us when we would receive lower grades and claimed that she had changed her teaching style to benefit us. She was always angry and took it out on us.

very full of herself, and everything has to be HER way. always asks for feedback but never implements it. discussion is pointless busy work, and so is the Wednesday night portion. everything is graded and you have to teach yourself a lot and she expects you to know everything too. she also flies through the most important parts of the lecture

Terrible. Beware. Take the other professor.

good luck, I loved bio up until taking this class. literally dreaded it every week

My biggest complaint about this class is that I wouldn't even be able to pass these exams open note. The questions are way too hard. Marcus is always looking for constructive criticism for her teaching, she gets students' feedback, and then does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. She also ostracizes students for "doing other things," which wastes our class time.