I was definitely scared coming into this class, especially since Dr Farmer described DevBio as applied cell and molecular bio and I hadn't taken 165A or 144 yet. But it was definitely not as bad as I was expecting, and I even started to love this class. The material can definitely get confusing sometimes, especially with the different pathways and stuff, but Dr Farmer definitely does his best to explain it well and isn't scared to take time in class to answer students' questions in depth. I took 138 at the same time as 165A, and they actually both complement each other very well so don't be worried if you have to take them together. Overall very glad I took this class/prof!

Grading:
2 Midterms 30% (lowest score dropped; online and open-note, were a bit tricky but pretty fair and he adds points to everyone's score if the average isn't about 85%)
Discussion Participation 15% (you read 5 papers for discussion throughout the quarter and in section break into groups to talk about them, and get your points by just explaining a figure or two with your group, very easy/chill)
Discussion Assignments (answer 3-4 pretty simple questions about each of the papers; lowest score replaced with second-lowest)
Final Exam 30% (same as midterms, online/open-note)
+ a bit of iClicker and prof evaluation extra credit