1.6
Quality4.5
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake137
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
137
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
1
4
6
3
19
2
36
1
75
What Students Say
“So hard to follow, there is no keeping up with her constant sidetracking and babbling”
BIO120 - 1.0 rating“I got a horrible grade in biology, mostly because of her”
BIO120 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
69%
Textbook Required
97%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
C-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.36 avg changeRatings by Course
BIOL04
4.0
(1)BIOL204
3.5
(2)BIOSECT
3.0
(1)BIOL000
3.0
(1)BIO204
2.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
204
5.0
BIO1106
5.0
BIOL110204
5.0
BIOLO11
5.0
BIO112
5.0
Reviews (137)
hard to understand
No Comments
No Comments
Hard to understand, stutters, and unhelpful
She taught at too high a level and jumped around too much
No Comments
Brutal
tests are brutal! unclear. never gives you a straight answer
will destroy your average
Very demanding teacher, but gives good help if you are willing to ask for it.
She's not that bad. She has a bit of a speech impediment, and her tests are very hard! But if you pay attention you can do alright. And she is always willing to help out
I agree with the person who said "she will destroy your average"..... SERIOUSLY
Condescending and confusing. Her lectures were alright but she begins the year with, "Half of you will fail this course."
I wish I could give her a more positive rating... but she is tough! Hard to understand, condescending and very hard exams. If you take a class from her be sure to know your stuff inside and out. May destroy your average :-)
goes very fast, incredibly hard tests that have material that is not mentioned at all
It's like she wants us to fail! Because she begins the year with the phrase "almost half of you will fail this class" worst... experience... ever!!
This lady has an obsession with fungus that cannot be parralled by even the hardiest of students. She's certainly not interested in the success of her students, and is deliberatly confusing. Her exams are not tests of subject knowledge but are that experiments in one's ability to **** and guess.
I had her nearly 3 years ago and I still consider her the worst prof i've ever had...I'm in upper year chemistry classes that are only finally introducing some of the stuff that she tested us on...in a first year class!!
Knows her stuff but is incredibly confusing. I have never been so lost in class. Her notes are completely unrelated and completely out of order. Her material is at leat a couple years ahead of the class being taught. She should stick to teaching upper year courses, not first year courses.
So you have studied hours and hours for her final and you think you are ready? Wrong! Almost all of her questions were hypothetical and she will put stuff she has never taught before on the test and never ask straight facts. If you get her, the only thing you can do is pray and wish for good luck.
By far the worst prof at the U of S, she thinks everyone taking bio is taking it b/c they love it not b/c they have to. She told our class that every student should join the Bio club, well if I joined the club of every class i took i'd be in over 30 clubs..she should give her head a shake....exams are hard..take bio 110 by correspondence no lab
She tough and unclear, her notes and letures are hard to understand and the success of ehr class is unimportant to her.
If you don't have to take this class DON'T!!!!!!! She is totally condescending to the students, doesn't answer questions during review tells you to look up the answer.. Has no interest in how well the class does.
I had her for a prof twice! I hate her with a passion. She is boring and confusing and she is a very hard marker. I passed both classes but had I had a competent teacher I may have actually done well.
boooooooooooooooooooooooo. she's tough, mean, and has a lisp. enough said.
This prof is exceptionally unclear. The lectures are incredibly intimidating & uninteresting and she presents as though the students to already know & UNDERSTAND the material. Her lectures require a lot of prep and its as though she expects everyone to teach themselves the information afterward. Before her I used to enjoy Biology. BOO!
Rewrite your notes? WTF is this a joke? Shes talking about how she went from a 55% to a 70 by rewriting her notes. What a moron, I have 90 and I dont even do anything. Totally useless IMO, her notes make no sense. Then she gives us tips on how to do good. yeah. right Like I should take advice from someone who admits to having a 70% average.USELESS!
Couldnt understand a thing..... her notes are just a bunch of pictures...she knows her stuff but she cant teach, i didnt find her helpful and her questions on the final were tough. But the assignments boosted my mark up... use the text & study it hard....
pretty cool, gives multiple choice questions in class
puts notes up on the net so you can follow along in class instead of writing frantically. her section was a difficult section but she made it fairly clear (i understood it and i suck at bio). tests were hard however, but i'm sure if you read the text and study hard good grades would be pretty easy to get.
She is tough....read the textbook bcoz her notes are awful....Her final is pretty hard...
Her notes were posted, which was nice but they were so unclear and void of any sense of organization that I found them useless. She was also not an approachable prof. When i did ask for her help she made me feel like an idiot.
If you are in your first year biol avoid her class...out of the 24 questions on the final i knew about 2...and the rest i was unfamiliar with. She does teach a hard subject but her notes are scrambled and repetitive day after day. Work hard if she is your prof
Worst teacher at u of s Her notes include pictures, and abbreviated titles. Her stutter makes it difficult to concentrate. she doesnt follow the required text, and instead uses other sources, which doesn't help. Her questions on the final were difficult, since she has made many assumptions about facts one should already know. brought me down 15%.
Noone has the right to treat anyone as mean as she treats people. in first year bio she was dreadful and wouldnt help after class, she just told me to re-write my notes. that wouldnt help since her in class presentation sucks. i saw her a year after when i was looking for a diff prof's office and she was extremely rude again...cant stand her
Alright well she seems like she is nice. Her notes are a complete joke. They consist of links to many different websites which she jumps around to during lectures. They are very unorganized and of no help at all! She knows her stuff but talks to you as if you are at the same level. Do not take this class! She should not be a prof!
Worst Professor at UoS, notes were unclear and full of wikipedia links that lead to more useless pictures, She doesn't teach the actual course, The information is related to the subject but completely useless to the actual course, when trying to contact her she refused to give any student an idea on what chapters to review and gave cryptic feedback
By far the worst teacher I have had so far. He notes are all over the place, there is no order at all. She uses Wikipedia as her main teaching source, some slides are pure copy paste right from it. Its ridiculous. Since 121 is a new course, the textbook did not cover it all. Therefore you had her notes and her Wikipedia links to study from. Avoid!
Horrible teacher, basically a waste of your money. Her notes are outrageous and all over the place. Midterm was easy. She uses wikipedia as her main source of information.
She seemed like a really nice prof, and did try to help students study for exams, but her class was just awful. The notes may have made some sense at the time of her teaching them, but were absolutely incomprehensible by the time I was studying for the final. Enthusiastic though?
The hardest worst class I have ever taken. She is extremly rude and talks above you if you ever try and get help after class. If you dont undestand something she will tell you to read the text book more thouroghly. Dont take this class. Her notes dont make any sense and do not relate to the tests.
On the final exam she chose to discount every question that more than 80% of the students got correct. This lowered the mark in her class by at least 20% as compared to the same class with different professors.
She just started teaching my class.. So far I think her lectures are done pretty good, she must have gotten over her speech empediment that some of you are talking about because I find her easy to understand. However, she does use wikipedia a lot and after reading some of these comments I am terrified of what her final will be like.
She needs to learn how to speak alot more Clearly
She is the WORST! She is a horrible teacher, her lectures are extremely uninteresting and irrelevent. Nice mushroom cut!
Sorry, Wikipedia is NOT a legitimate formal teaching source. I don't know of a high school teacher that uses Wikipedia for teaching. It's rather dissapointing, seeing as we are in University. Teaches examples, not concepts- when you really should USE examples to teach concepts. Lectures are rather unintersting as well.
Disorganized, boring lectures. Not knowledgeable. A disaster!
Who said Wikipedia is a reliable source of college information for a Biology class? When asked if all the websites she jumps to are in the final the answer is YES?!!! Plus, why do we need to see the pictures of all her trips around the world? I don't care your family lives in London.
Such a hard professor to understand!! Always uses Wikipedia as a resource, which is stupid. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL prof!
Awesome prof! Really helpful and interesting! If you ask questions you can get into some really interesting class discussions. Stutters sometimes but come on people get over it! Really knowledgeable and always willing to talk after class. Test questions are about concepts. Come to class, listen, take it in, you'll do well!
Kaminskyj is definitely, by far, the worst professor I've had. She is condescending to her students, her lectures are based on unreliable sources, and she is disorganized and rude. If any student has had her, write a formal complaint! I know I am. She should not be allowed to teach. Our education is suffering.
She is the worst prof I have ever encountered. She bases her notes on WIKIPEDIA! Her notes are definately unreliable, she said one day: "I typed this into google and this is what came up... I'm not sure if it's true or not..." Avoid her at all costs if you can. She is disorganized, and really, anyone could teach a class of 300 people about what t
If u like reading 10000 pages of Wikipedia and learning all the ecology in one semester take this prof. Hilarious creature!!!
I went into this class cautious attended all the lectures studied her notes notes from top to bottom.Her lectures and notes were completely disorganized with links streching all across the world wide web. The final was the worse I have ever encountered and the questions had 8 possiblities. This is the worst Prof at UofS I learned NOTHING!
Horrible!! Just wrote the final that i studied for in great depth and read all of her million wikipedia links and all 70 questions i had no idea what she was talking about! i felt as if i hadn't even gone to class! waste of time and money and i will never take another biology class ever again!
keep looking
awful
TERRIBLE PROFFESSOR! Avoid her at all costs!
Her speech impediment is distracting, but it is not an obstacle to understanding her lectures, just an annoyance. Her final exam had every single question as 3 answers followed by 4 options like both a and b, both c and d etc. The material is easy to study, and it is not hard to do well. She enjoyed having class discussions and is a decent prof.
she sucks!!!
Personally for me, she is the most horrible teacher I have had in my entire lifetime and I seem to see that really can't connect with her students. She has pointless and cluttered pictures and graphs on pretty much ever single page of her lecture notes that appear to be strewn together without care.
I was way to interested in Bio (my major) to realize how AWFUL she was until I had a decent professor. Outside of class I was made to feel like a nuisance after trying to talk to her - A MONTH IN to class!! She has this nonchalant way of expressing what seems to be a belief of total superiority, treating her students as complete inferiors.
Great Prof...NAWT! She's an odd creature. Right before our midterm she told us "the fact that we've never learned this in class is not the point, it's still gonna be on the exam" WHAT THE HELL! Seriously consider before signing up for this class with this prof.
Worst ever. Expects us to know things we have never been taught. Might as well burn the notes cause they are pointless. Stupid class. Crushed the little interest I had for Bio 121. Do everything to avoid the class.
The most useless ever! Turned what should have been a 1 hr geological history of the earth into a full month of lectures. I thought this was a bio class, not a arhaeology/geology class. Her notes are useless... thousands of meaningless pictures, graphs, etc. Questions on tests are at least 50 percent previously unmentioned material.Avoid this prof!
Basically what you should study for the midterm is everything she doesn't tell you to. You can just hear her voice in your head as you are writing one of the tests saying "HAH I know this question and you don't, I'm SO smart."
She is clearly the worst teacher/prof. i've ever encountered. How she keeps her job is beyond me. Her notes make zero sense and she teaches you pretty much nothing in class.
She's so senile- makes stuff up. if you read the textbook, it's NOT EVEN CLOSE to what she teaches. She is irrational, and yells at you when you try and talk to her about your marks and sometimes just for fun she likes to corner people with academic investigators and ream on you for an hour about something you didn't do. AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS!!
Brutal. Wikipedia is her main source. She taught 1 geology class in 22 bio lectures and no bio. Her slides are pictures of her vacations. She said "the fact that we've never learned this in class is not the point, it's still gonna be on the exam" to usbefore our midterm, which is still being graded as it was don 3 times improperly. Stutters. AVOID
Kaminskyj commented to me after class that I should never mix religion with science, she used phrases such as "Duh" when speaking to us, and on the exam, one question stated that the Carboniferous period was cold and in the textbook it says it was hot (or vice versa). This is probably because she used Wikipedia to write her exam. AVOID HER
I have only been in university for one year, but she is the worst teacher/proff i have had all throughout univeristy, high school and even elementary school!! She will not accept legit sick notes or notes from a university track coach stating you were outta town on competition. Oh all my profs told me not to use wikipedia
Unreliable... unclear... unapproachable... a lot of "uns". Simply do not choose this creature. The ONLY reason I'm doing well is that I have a great lab ta: go steve!
I did not like this prof. Her lecture notes are confusing. I would not reccomend her for first year biology. Her exam questions are all trick questions. Even if you know the stuff inside and out, she'll have you stumped during exams. She talks to the class as if we were on her academis level, not first year bio students. Hard to follow.
Wikipedia is not a reliable source! Prof's notes were very unclear and dependent on wikipedia as a source. As opposed to many other profs who disapprove of wikipedia, most of her lectures and notes were based around stories and links from wikipedia.. Questions on exams were very tricky to say the least.
You teach this class like it's a third year class... you need to stop that and not scare first years!
Terrible. The midterm and final were awful, she puts way too many options and they are tricky. Her powerpoints are terrible to study from, and I found her part of the course very disorganized and hard to keep straight. She also puts false info on her powerpoints, as I found out one time trying to find more info on a topic we were supposed to know
Not the best prof. If there is a chance to take it from someone else, DO IT! She doesn't seem to care about teaching, more about her research life.
Avoid her if you can! She is not absolutely horrible...just very bad. Her notes are unorganized and her exams are just stupid. Way too many options and confusing questions. The only good thing is that the class is very interesting, so it was fun to listen to the lectures. If you want a good mark don't use the textbook at all and re organize/re-type
Not a fan at all. Most of her lectures remind you of why you skip class. Exams were rough. Way too many options, you just walk out being more confused than before. Take the class from someone else if possible. If not, good freaking luck.
worst
omg. i am a first year arts and science student. AND I GOT HER...!!
Nice and willing to help but rather narrow-minded. Her lectures are disorganized and confusing, and she marks the exams SO hard. Nice person overall, though not the greatest teacher.
I feel bad that there are so many pages stating how awful Susan is. But really, it's true. She's a nice lady, but she's a researcher, not a professor. Even if you have to put off the class for another semester, it is WORTH IT to take it with someone else. Don't do it. It's NOT worth it.
her only upside is that she shows up. but after you experience her teaching, this upside becomes a downside.
I really believe kaminskyj should get fired. She is an incompetent professor and her notes are useless. The department of Biology should do something about this, I sure would like to file a complaint.
Extremely hard exam, you have an option of A) ___ B)___ C) ____ D) A plus B E) B plus C F) all of the above G) None of the above. GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!!!!!
She likes her students to suffer. She is a monster!!!!!!!!
This woman has an interesting speech impediment. She has obscure obsession with fungi and her lectures are completely random. Buying the textbook for her was a mistake. Karminskij bases everything on WIKIPEDIA. The midterm was awful, too many choices set out to confuse students. AVOID HER!
Kind of hard to understand because of her speech impediment.
This professor was absolutely horrible. She is cruel and hurtful when met with privately to discuss marks and in seeking help. She advises students to drop classes because of initial poor grades in the term. She is not understandable and really has no right to be earning a professors wage when she have no to teach or to help people. HORRIBLE
What more can I say? She's a legend at this school, and not for a good reason. I'm pretty sure they only keep her around as a rite of passage for first year science students. Us upper year people would sue if we found out that they'd replaced her with someone better. Everyone must suffer!.....I hear that she's a great researcher though. Go figure.
what can I say, everyone else has already said. To all you first year students, avoid her like the plague.
Was it the easiest class I've ever taken? No. That being said, her lecture material was straightforward. As many pointed out, she has a stutter. Who cares? She's understandable, and has only one flaw to her teaching method: her tests. She can write tests well, but unfortunately, for people who don't write tests well, this is a nightmare.
what else were u expecting...... haha legendary!
Her lectures and notes are so random and seem disorganized. I found her condescending and rude when I'd ask questions in class and in emails. Her midterm layouts are ridiculously confusing and her questions are incredibly misleading. If you can, I recommend avoiding taking a class with her, it is likely you will receive a disappointing grade.
She is the worst teacher I have ever had. She posted her notes online and theyre either all examples or just seem incomplete. She talks about her research a lot and wants people to ask about her life but that doesnt stop her from telling us even if we don't ask. She gives out study tips and links to random sites to study from. Shes useless avoid
would never take another class from her again, felt like skipping daily. She doesn't want us using the text book, so I wasted $200+, wikipedia is her main source, her powerpoints are mostly pictures of her work with some sort of bacteria (she's obsessed) and she gets off topic very easily. I'm sure she's a nice lady, but teaching isn't her thing
The worst of the three profs in the course. Likes to toot her own horn and plug her work a lot! Hard to follow in lecture...
Believe me and the other 103 who rated her. Notes are the worst, they are incomplete as they don't explain. Be prepared to spend an extra 100 hours due to her horrible notes. Her thoughts and speech does not flow, gets off topic extremely easy. Completely absolutely utterly useless. Please do yourselves a favour and get out.
Professor Kaminskyj is probably a great researcher, but she needs to work on her teaching. The main substance to her lectures is her own work. This may be interesting to someone into fungi, but not ALL of us are.
Dr. Kaminskyj is obviously interested in Biology and knows what she is talking about. However, I felt as though she expected us to be at a level in Biology much higher than what we are. She likes to trick people. She gets off topic very easily and loves talking about her research. Overall, it was very unorganized.
NEVER EVER TAKE HER CLASS YOU WILL REGRET IT. THE WORST PROF ON THIS PLANET, TRUST ME
Rude, and eventually flat out refuses to answer her students questions. Her slides consist of mostly pictures and questions. She also doesn't know how to use powerpoint, and covers pictures with little white blocks instead of using transitions. She complains about the textbook, yet all her exam questions are straight from it? Never, ever again.
I can't even explain how awful this prof is. She outright refuses to answer questions before the final, her notes are incomprehensible and she has zero interest in helping her students. She doesn't care about how the class does, all she cares about is her stupid research which she constantly talks about every class. Avoid at every and all costs!!
This prof was very rude. On the last day of class, she sent an email saying not to contact her, as she is not willing to help with any questions or concerns. Her final ended up being the same one from a previous year, but her lectures were horrible as she would frequently get off topic about her Fungi research, which is irrelevant and confusing.
Avoid this woman like the plague! Her lecture notes consist of 500+ pictures and little to no explanation. She recommends using wikipedia for everything and goes extremely off topic. She is hard to approach and when she is given class feedback she refuses to believe it. Get out while you can!
Took first half of term with Prof. Chedrese and got 87.5 on the midterm,86 in the lab portion and ended the class with an 81 thanks to Dr. Kaminskyj's trickily written exam. She also sent us two emails before and after the exam telling us to quit emailing her because she was too busy to talk to us. An absolute lemon if I ever met one. Stay away!!
I now know exponentially more about the diverse world of fungi than I would ever need to know in my entire lifetime. But nothing about the cellular basis of life.
An alright professor overall. She covered the necessary material and was even mildly entertaining. She is legitimately excited about biology which is a little contagious. She emailed us the final from the previous year to use as a study tool and the final was absolutely identical. Thanks Professor Kaminskyj!
her class is not useful and she does not like to help, the best thing is to drop her class
Not helpful, lectures were boring and confusing, exams tricky. Learned way more in the lab run by the graduate students than by her. The impression I got was that she is at the university for research of fungi (which she references every class) and teaching is just an inconvenience to her research.
Terrible professor. She is arrogant and constantly talks down to students. When she actually does teach most of her content is incorrect because she uses wikipedia
She doesn't know hoe to teach at all. Just wasting time, she is a real time killer.
I would not recommend this professor! She talks about stuff that is above a Biology 120 level sometimes!
An OK prof. Her slides are just pictures and not very helpful but she covered course materials thoroughly. She's really nice but I would not take another class with her.
HORRIBLE PROF. JUST HORRIBLE. SO MUCH SO that the department sent out an apology email for her confusion NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET OUT. BUT the text is your life line and will earn you a high mark if you put the time in.
I think he is probably a nice person, but as a prof she is horrible. She only uses pictures in which she goes into so much detail that you only need to know maybe 1/4 of. The text book with be your lifeline in this class. I would consider finding another prof.
Terrible class to begin with. She didn't make it any better. Just be prepared for the vagueness of every assignment and final essay.
HORRIBLE PROF. If you can switch into a class with a different prof.
Her notes were full of pictures with little to no information. When you would ask for help, she would refer you to Wikipedia as an "excellent source of information." Easy to understand and knew what she was talking about, but was more interested in her own research than teaching. Afford taking her section if you can.
Attendance went way down when she took over, not many people want to listen to her. She talks down on students a lot. She gives you a lot of pointless information, just boring to listen to. Avoid her if you can.
Do not take this class! Wait a semester if you have to, unless you want to learn nothing about Biology and everything about her fungi research and listen to long winded useless info that has nothing to do with this class. Avoid this prof at all costs.
Worst Prof ever. So hard to follow, there is no keeping up with her constant sidetracking and babbling. I think my learning decreased from sitting through her lectures and I know myself, as well as many others proceeded to stop attending. Apparently it would be "ridiculous" of her to test on any type of facts about Biology.. aka brutal final.
AWFUL...
She actually repeated the same set of lecture slides for 3 weeks. 6 lectures of gel electrophoresis on repeat. That was bad. So no, her lectures hold no value, but I was able to get more than decent marks by reading the textbook chapters and studying from online sources.
Avoid her at all costs! She has no time management skills and taught us the same slideshow for 3 weeks, and then tried to teach us our last chapter in the last 10 minutes of the last class before the final. She does not treat her students well, and most of the time she doesn't even talk about things relevant to the course!
I got a horrible grade in biology, mostly because of her. She made me never want to take another biology class again. Is there an option to give her a zero?
Incredibly rude. Always goes on random tangents about unrelated subjects. Didn't even cover all of the topics and let us know the last day of class we'd have to learn a chapter on our own because she didn't cover it. No student will want to continue in biology after having a class with her. No idea why she teaches a first year bio class.
Openly talks down to get student. Often talks about ex husband.
Her slides don't make any sense, and she goes off on tangents after every sentence. Did not learn a thing, so dropped her class so I could take it with a better prof. She doesn't give students support and will not give you make up midterms if you have to miss-for any reason, and will call you out in class. Get out while you can.
Probably the worst prof at the uni right now, avoid at all costs!!
When a student has a question... "I'm sorry you're confused. I'm confused. Let's move on." Hands down the worst prof I have ever had. Another timeless classic- "rather than tell me what I'm doing wrong, just tell me what I'm doing right. I am feeling so discouraged."
Susan is BY FAR the worst prof I have ever had. Avoid her at all costs. She goes on monotone rants about the importance of raising your hand. Skips over slides because she doesn't know what's on them. Leaves out big chunks of the lecture because "that's good enough." You will be teaching yourself from the textbook if you ever have a class with her.
Dr. Susan clearly was going through a rough health period but she is a magnificent scientist. She is a difficult personality but she is the most passionate biologist I know and is always down to disscuss it with you if you approach her in person. She is a brilliant researcher who probably doesnt like teaching very much.
Worst class I've taken so far. Always goes on confusing tangents about directions that could've been easily explained in a minute or so. She gets mad very easily if you ask any sort of questions and hates it when you email her. Will constantly interrupt/disregard your speaking. Gets very angry when things aren't done EXACTLY the way she wants.
1) She won't let us use the restroom or leave without hating us first. 2) Almost half the time she starts class 30 MINUTES EARLY and ends it 45 MINUTES LATE, but gets very angry if we show up ON TIME and/or leave on time because we have other classes or priorities!! 3) Grades the new homework long before even available on Canvas! SO bad >:(
This teacher is the reason I use RateMyProfessors. I've always been one to give teachers the benefit of the doubt...until this class. Anything and everything she assigns has no instructions at all. She never responds to emails. Tons of busy work. Midway through the semester, I suffered an emotional breakdown and panic attack. I dropped.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
69%
Textbook Required
97%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
C-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.36 avg changeRatings by Course
BIOL04
4.0
(1)BIOL204
3.5
(2)BIOSECT
3.0
(1)BIOL000
3.0
(1)BIO204
2.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
204
5.0
BIO1106
5.0
BIOL110204
5.0
BIOLO11
5.0
BIO112
5.0