My Undergraduate Courses at UMKC: 2019-2020

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As each semester passes, I plan to do essentially an end-of-semester review that will contain advice for the courses I just finished taking and what to expect from them. This post will be the first installment of that. I completed a year of undergraduate coursework as a biology major prior to my admission to the 6-Year program and this is important to talk about because this is where I took a lot of the gen eds most first-years are required to take. It has been a year since I have taken these classes, but I will still do my best to give you a good idea of what to expect. There are some classes that are no longer available because the gen ed requirements have changed so I won’t talk about those. Instead, you can find the details of the new general curriculum here, which also lists the required courses.

I will be talking about a couple of other topics such as extracurriculars and how I adjusted to college life in another post after this. You can scroll through this post and only look at the classes that apply to you because this is gonna be a long one. My Fall 2020 classes are discussed in the next post.

Fall 2019 Classes

  • Biology 108 – General Biology I (Lecture)
    • Instructor: Dr. Jim Benevides: I cannot say enough good things about Dr. Benevides. His lectures were always pretty straightforward but he did a good job explaining big concepts. He was almost always available when you had questions. He’s just a really nice guy and a great professor to have for a challenging class like this.
    • My class had weekly homework and quizzes. They weren’t too hard, but definitely make sure that you are up to date with the current material. We also had to go to the Biology Studio (pretty much a computer lab with bio TAs) for an hour once a week unless we scored at least an 85% on the unit exams. It’s easy to forget to do this in the beginning, but I think that this is actually very helpful because it forces you to be somewhat accountable for studying because it’s a graded process. You can also replace this with participation in a small study group. There were poll questions at the beginning of class that does add up at the end. In each unit, we had a forum of questions we had to answer about a relating topic as well.
    • 4 unit tests and a final. This is one of your first college courses so yes, the tests are challenging but if you study diligently they can definitely be tolerable. Like most classes you will take, the final was “easier” because it tested over the bigger topics over all the units rather than small details.
  • Biology 108L – General Biology I (Lab)
    • Instructor: Dr. Tamas Kapros: I personally loved Dr. Kapros. A lot of people didn’t seem to like him and I really couldn’t tell you why. He’s really passionate about biology and he loves to make jokes every so often. Whenever I had questions he would give me really detailed explanations.
    • At the beginning of class, he gave short quizzes about the previous week. They are hard if you do not study the lab and understand it but they are easy if you do. Then he would do a sort of pre-lab lecture and then we would do whatever lab activity afterward. The pre-labs are really boring in my opinion and I would be lying if I said I’ve never fallen asleep. Lectures ran about 2 hours long but were scheduled for up to 3 hours.
    • Exams are one midterm and one final. They are challenging and can be worded very weirdly. Just make sure you understand the labs well. Some labs will come easy but some can be confusing. The exams were all written/short answer and the TAs were really strict about being concise and not adding a bunch of fluff if you were unsure of an answer.
  • Chemistry 211 – General Chemistry I (Lecture)
    • Instructor: Dr. Todor Gounev: You will either like Gounev or really dislike him. He is very blunt and teaches straightforwardly. His persona is intimidating and a bit bland. One of the biggest complaints is that he can make people feel silly when they ask a question or go to his office hours so it deters students from reaching out. I liked Dr. Gounev because his style of teaching pushed me to teach myself content and be an independent student.
    • This class is at 7:40AM and honestly, that was probably one of the hardest parts haha. But he asks poll questions at the beginning of every lecture and I strongly encourage you to just wake up and do them because they will make a huge difference toward your final grade. There are weekly homework assignments and they can be frustrating, but whenever I asked Dr. Gounev about it he was really helpful.
    • Chemistry will come easy to some and harder to others but what matters is the effort you put into this class will reflect on your grade. For me, it was challenging but I found a lot of satisfaction in the subjects when hard concepts “clicked.” My biggest advice is to just weather the storm and stick with it; don’t give up and don’t get behind. This, along with biology, is one of those classes that you have to pass or you will extend.
    • There are 4 unit exams and a final exam and they are straightforward. He provides sample tests on his website and I couldn’t emphasize this enough but TAKE THE SAMPLE TESTS! They are very very similar to the real tests and will give you a solid idea of what concepts to expect to be tested on for that unit.
  • Chemistry 211L – General Chemistry I (Lab)
    • Instructor: Dr. Paul Barron: You’ll see Dr. Barron once or twice a semester. He’s got some unique mannerisms but he’s fine. It’s your TA’s that will lead your lab group so please make sure to establish a good relationship with them.
    • There are 9-10 labs for the semester and they usually correlate with the lecture. You want to make sure to read the pre-lab and understand it well before you perform the lab or it will be confusing and you will learn absolutely nothing from it. There is one drop lab, but I would suggest you attend all labs and drop the worst score instead of taking that risk. TA’s are usually strict and don’t like to give points back, especially at the end of the semester. You will have a week to complete the post-lab with the data and questions – don’t procrastinate. Ask questions if you have them.
    • There’s a final exam that I found to be really challenging because it seemed to be all of the hardest post-lab questions from each unit. A lot of people did really well on it so I guess it’s just a relative thing!
  • History 306A – History of Christianity to the Middle Ages
    • Instructor: Dr. David Freeman: I loved Dr. Freeman. He made this awful class somewhat interesting to me and he was really nice. He’s got a good sense of humor and you can tell he’s passionate about history. He grew on me as the semester went on.
    • So this class was pretty much a mistake. I took this class to fulfill my humanities requirement and it seemed like an interesting class from its description on UMKC’s website. It was fine in the very beginning but it kept getting harder and harder throughout the semester. It got to the point where I was like, “This is insane.” It turns out this is like a graduate-level course in terms of difficulty and it had no pre-requisites so I was allowed to take it. Please take something else.
    • If you care, there are only 2 exams and then the last half of the class is spent playing this game about the Council of Nicea that debated about Arianism and power. You’re given a character to play and you have to write small speeches and convince other people to do things that will benefit you. The only reason I passed was because I made a friend who was a graduate student and he helped me with everything because at this point I was totally lost.
  • Other classes taken that are no longer available:
    • Anchor 106 – Money, Medicine, and Morals
    • Biology 115 – First Year Seminar

Spring 2020 Classes

  • Biology 109 – General Biology II (Lecture)
    • Instructor: Dr. Grant Bledsoe: Dr. Bledsoe was fine. He’s a good professor and he explains things well but there wasn’t anything about him that made me love him. He was really flexible with the online transition during COVID, so I’m grateful for his commitment to teaching.
    • Same as BIO 108. Weekly homework and quizzes (problem sets) with poll questions. Same bio studio requirement and forum questions. 4 exams and a final. After COVID hit, the bio studio requirement was exempted but everything else remained the same. I’m not sure how this class has changed after a full online transition but I imagine it’s a pretty similar format.
    • The main difference between Bio 108 and Bio 109 is 108 is more cell biology, genetics, and speciation. 109 is zoology, evolution, prokaryotes/eukaryotes vibes, and ecology.
  • Biology 109L – General Biology II (Lab)
    • Instructor: Dr. Tamas Kapros: I began to like Dr. Kapros more after the COVID transition happened because he really tried to make everything as normal as it could be. He was very flexible and listened to his student’s feedback. I was very thankful to have a professor like Dr. Kapros when everything went downhill.
    • Same as Bio 108 lecture, just online.
  • Chemistry 212 – General Chemistry II (Lecture)
    • Instructor: Dr. Todor Gounev
    • Same as Chem 211, just online.
  • Chemistry 212L – General Chemistry II (Lab)
    • Instructor: Dr. Paul Barron
    • Same as Chem 211L. When things transitioned online, the TAs posted lectures online and gave us sample data to work the rest out. I lost a lot of motivation for this class because it was hard to do the lab without actually doing the lab in person.
    • Dr. Barron decided not to give a final for this semester because of everything that was going on; I think he understood that we were struggling already and wanted to give us a break. Shoutout Dr. Barron.
  • French 110 – Elementary French I
    • Instructor: Mme. Cherie Leimkuehler: I loved Madame Leimkuehler, she is a phenomenal French instructor! She’s very upbeat and most importantly, she is very patient with her students. She will always help you and is almost always available. She very clearly loves the French language and culture so it was a great experience to learn from her.
    • I took this course completely by my own desire to learn the French language. As you know, being bilingual as a physician is one of the most useful skills you can harness. Most people decide to go with Spanish and for good reason; it’s more frequently used with patients. The reason I chose French is because I want to eventually work internationally in Europe and Africa and French is a common language around those areas. It’s also a beautiful language and it has been relatively easy to learn. Preference, I guess. 🙂
    • Should you ever take this class, expect to have written and online homework assignments due before every lecture and a few quizzes. You will have compositions to complete with each unit which is essentially a light essay that demonstrates your understanding of the language so far. There is a written midterm, oral midterm, written final, and oral final. While this seems like a lot, it’s very manageable if you keep up with the material and practice every day. It doesn’t feel like a chore if you personally want to take the class.
  • Other classes taken that are no longer available:
    • Anchor 212 – Critical Issues in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    • Discourse 200

I hope that this helped just a bit if you were looking for what to expect as a first-year for required courses. Overall, I will tell you to expect a challenge right off the bat. These courses, along with others, can be difficult as a first year student transitioning out of high school. My biggest piece of advice for any class that you take is to keep up with the material and don’t give up. There will be days when you get overwhelmed, but realize first that you are not alone in this feeling and second that it will get better. You are smart!! You are here for a reason. I believe in you! 🙂

Published by Kat Schneider