Spring 2027

Principles of Genetics

Principles of Genetics covers genetics in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, including transmission, molecular, and evolutionary genetics, genetic engineering, and societal issues.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Chris Hittinger3.3/5Christopher Tilmann3.2/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Christopher Tilmann

Christopher Tilmann assigned copious prelecture material and expected students to watch past lectures before attending class. He used random attendance quizzes to prevent skipping, and exams comprised 90% of the grade in that term.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Recall basic genetics terminology

  • Understand central concepts in genetics

  • Use concepts to solve qualitative and quantitative problems

  • Interpret data from experiments

  • Apply knowledge of experimental genetics to research problems

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151 or BIOCORE 381 or BOTANY/​BIOLOGY 130 or ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102) and (CHEM 104 or CHEM 109 or CHEM 115). Not eligible to enroll if credit earned forGENETICS 467 or 468

GENETICS 466 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Chris Hittinger

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.00/5 from 25 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.7/5 raw quality · 3.7/5 difficulty · 6 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Chris Hittinger

Students described Chris Hittinger as helpful and knowledgeable, with fair exams and supportive office hours. Reviewers noted that lectures were sometimes confusing or fast-paced, and recommended doing textbook problems and reviewing study guides to succeed in the class.

Other students found Hittinger’s lectures unhelpful and fast-paced, with one stating he seemed focused on research. While one student noted the exam calculations were not hard, others criticized the exams as terrible and the teaching style as boring or confusing.

Christopher Tilmann

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.43/5 from 14 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.4/5 raw quality · 4.1/5 difficulty · 10 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Christopher Tilmann

Christopher Tilmann's grading relied heavily on 4-5 exams, with some terms including easy discussion posts. Students found lectures straightforward but criticized exams for containing vague, trick questions that did not reflect lecture content. Feedback disagreed on Tilmann's teaching approach, with some noting he failed to explain material while others found the testing fair.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.38 GPA, 60.0% A/AB (n=185 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.36 GPA, 58.5% A/AB (n=164 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 79.6% A/AB (n=147 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Allen Laughon, Qiang Chang

Past students described Allen Laughon's lectures as fast-paced with tangents, noting that attending class was more helpful than his posted audio recordings. Qiang Chang received mixed feedback; one student found him supportive and caring, while another described him as mean. These reviews reflect varied teaching styles and student experiences.

ALLEN LAUGHON is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

BARRY S GANETZKY is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTOPHER TILMANN is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

FRANCISCO PELEGRI is recorded teaching in Spring 2008. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN DOEBLEY is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2008, Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN POOL is recorded teaching in Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

QIANG CHANG is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM ROBERT ENGELS is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Fall 2011, Fall 2013, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 3000

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Chris Hittinger

Students described Chris Hittinger as passionate and funny, though some found the pace fast and the lecture content boring. His exams were noted for mixing common sense questions with calculations.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.38 GPA, 60.0% A/AB (n=185 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.36 GPA, 58.5% A/AB (n=164 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.67 GPA, 79.6% A/AB (n=147 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Christopher Tilmann

Christopher Tilmann assigned copious prelecture material and expected students to watch past lectures before attending class. He used random attendance quizzes to prevent skipping, and exams comprised 90% of the grade in that term.

Past student reviews · Christopher Tilmann

A student found Tilmann’s explanations unhelpful, feeling he expected students to already know the material. They also reported that he never responded to emails regarding exam issues.

Topics

  • Transmission, molecular, and evolutionary genetics; genetic engineering; societal issues.
  • Bacteria, plants, insects, and vertebrates.

Skills

  • Solve qualitative and quantitative genetics problems.
  • Interpret experimental data.
  • Apply experimental genetics knowledge to research problems.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.31 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GENETICS 466 · Spring 2027

Principles of Genetics

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:412:008128",
    "course_id": "GENETICS 466",
    "course_uid": "course_2a73ec290c5e665c8b699fbb",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "008128",
    "source_subject_id": "412",
    "title": "Principles of Genetics",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2Download part 3
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "22c64fb84d797f5d9e13df4fb5d2aa294da6fec63a12e348e014acd2b86cbe15",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}