Spring 2027

General Genetics 1

General Genetics 1 covers eukaryotic and prokaryotic genetics, including transmission, mapping, molecular genetics, gene expression, and engineering.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · David Wassarman

Exams were reported as incredibly difficult, and one student described it as their most difficult class, requiring significant hard work to engage with the material.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Employ Mendel’s laws of inheritance and rules of probability to predict the outcome of genetic crosses

  • Demonstrate how genes are mapped along chromosomes based on an understanding of meiosis and recombination

  • Describe the power and limitations of genetic explanations for trait variation

  • Highlight milestones in the history of genetics

  • Recall core principles that govern the structure and function of DNA, RNA, and protein

  • Explain how molecules and molecular processes carry out accurate information flow from DNA to RNA to protein in bacteria and eukaryotes

  • Describe mechanisms that control expression of selected genes in cells

  • Solve problems by applying techniques for quantifying the expression, interaction, and cellular localization of DNA, RNAs, and proteins

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102, or ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151,BIOCORE 381, or BOTANY/​BIOLOGY 130) and (CHEM 104, 109, or 115). Not open to students with credit forGENETICS 466.

GENETICS 467 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

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BRET PAYSEUR is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID WASSARMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. 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

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · David Wassarman

The course covers transmission and molecular genetics, with the latter section described as more complex and demanding greater effort to learn.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.02 GPA, 53.0% A/AB (n=117 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.05 GPA, 47.1% A/AB (n=102 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.17 GPA, 48.1% A/AB (n=104 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · David Wassarman

Exams were reported as incredibly difficult, and one student described it as their most difficult class, requiring significant hard work to engage with the material.

Past student reviews · David Wassarman

Students found David Wassarman's grading substantially harder, noting that short answers often lacked sufficient depth and that he frequently deducted points despite clear explanations in class.

Topics

  • Transmission genetics, probability, hypothesis testing, genetic mapping, molecular genetics, gene expression, genetic engineering
  • Viruses, bacteria, plants, fungi, insects, and humans

Skills

  • Predict outcomes of genetic crosses using Mendelian laws and probability
  • Map genes along chromosomes using meiosis and recombination
  • Quantify expression, interaction, and localization of DNA, RNA, and proteins

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
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D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1316 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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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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
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0d6f8804550f07407f3d4082faea154ff53a7a9bbd40c2c1badc1edea9a6d053",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}