<p>It depends on the professor. I had Dr. Keen and Dr. Strong for BIS 2B, and well…Dr. Strong’s midterms and his materials for the final were, I kid you not, literally the EXACT same thing as the study guide he provided to students. Unfortunately, I don’t think Dr. Strong is teaching BIS 2B anymore, as my class was the last BIS 2B class he co-taught. Dr. Keen is also great at teaching, and as long as you went to lectures and studied the material, you’ll do well on the exams. Dr. Keen also likes to interact with students in that she asks questions, and if you have an answer, she will literally go up to you and hold her microphone out to you so you can say it directly into the microphone, which helps the students who like to listen to the podcast to see what they missed. I have NEVER seen any other professor who is as engaging with the students as Dr. Keen. For BIS 2C, I had Dr. Keen and Dr. Dehesh (Dr. Dehesh taught the plant portion of the class, while Dr. Keen taught the animal portion). Dr. Keen seems to only teach BIS 2C now though, and only once a quarter (my year, she taught it in spring quarter. This year, she’s going to only teach it in fall quarter). </p>
<p>Even the labs themselves are easy–the prelabs may take a bit of work, but the labs themselves are mainly observations. I kid you not when I say that the first BIS 2B lab is basically you and your assigned group (assembled by the TA) going to a particular station (each group is assigned a station to go to) and write down observations of what you see at that particular station. You don’t need to know the official names of anything you see-the instructions even say “name what you see whatever you like”. My group and I got an aquatic setting to observe, and at the time, we had no idea what we were looking at. We called the things we observed names like “red circle thingy” and “mushroom-looking thingy”. Some labs are more interactive (for example, one of the first few labs in BIS 2C involves you learning how to construct a phylogeny), but they’re doable. </p>
<p>Yes, it is possible to get an A. My roommate got an A in both BIS 2B and 2C. </p>
<p>Honestly, don’t worry too much.</p>
<p>As for CHE 8AB, I’ve heard that it’s much easier than the other two O-Chem series (118 and I think the 129). I’m currently finishing up the CHE 118 series because it is required by a majority of vet schools besides UC Davis and a few other schools, and it’s difficult. I also took the equivalent of CHE 2ABC at community college, so I can’t really comment on how CHE 2ABC is like, except that I do recommend that you take a professor like Enderle, as almost all of his reviews are positive and students have said that he made chemistry seem fun and manageable for them.</p>