Madison is one of the three professors for Bio 151 and when compared to the other two, her lectures are not as engaging. Overall she lectures well, but I found myself spending more time outside of class to understand her topics. The labs also required some outside class hours but the TAs are also helpful to guide you through completing lab reports!Rate My Professors ↗
Current instructor
Farrah Madison
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
She isn't the best lecturer ever but the content she teaches is fairly interesting.Rate My Professors ↗
My favorite lecturer for BIO 151 - she is very passionate about the concepts she covered during her portion of the class. She was slightly disorganized in relaying her thoughts, but she corrected/caught her mistakes.Rate My Professors ↗
Uses tophat so you gotta go to lecture. Clearly very passionate about the topics, but a bit unorganized. Sometimes it felt like she didn't know what she was talking about and was just reading off the slides. A TON of content, way more than the first two units. Exam was decently straightforward, but very small details ended up on the exam.Rate My Professors ↗
Dr. Madison's unit was a lot of material, but super interesting. You can tell she is passionate about physiology and it makes lectures more engaging and she can often be funny. She is very organized and clear about what material we are responsible for knowing, which I really appreciated. Overall, I really enjoyed having her!Rate My Professors ↗
Her unit definitely contained the most content, but she was great at explaining everything. Her slides were well organized and had lots of visual aids which also helped a lot. If you fill out the learning objectives you'll do well on her exam.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Farrah Madison
Introductory Biology covers cell structure, metabolism, genetic information flow, genetics principles, and animal physiology.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Farrah Madison lectures well but is considered less engaging than her colleagues, requiring students to spend more outside time to understand topics. Her labs demand additional hours, though TAs are helpful with reports.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026Introductory Biology
3 creditsZOOLOGY 153 covers introductory biology topics like cell function, genetics, and physiology for engineering majors without a lab.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.93 GPA, 29.4% A/AB (n=51 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.67 GPA, 21.4% A/AB (n=56 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026Directed Studies in Zoology
1–3 creditsZOOLOGY 299 is a directed study course where students conduct independent research and develop hypotheses under faculty mentorship.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sampleDirected Studies in Zoology
1–6 creditsZOOLOGY 699 offers selected research projects for junior and senior students.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026Seminar-ethology
1 creditsZOOLOGY 962 is a graduate seminar covering various fields of zoological research.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sampleResearch
1–9 creditsZOOLOGY 990 is a graduate research course where students conduct advanced biological research under faculty mentorship to fulfill program requirements.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
Recorded teaching history
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | BIOLOGY/BOTANY/ZOOLOGY 151 | Introductory Biology |
| Fall 2026 | ZOOLOGY 153 | Introductory Biology |
| Fall 2026 | ZOOLOGY 299 | Directed Studies in Zoology |
| Fall 2026 | ZOOLOGY 699 | Directed Studies in Zoology |
| Fall 2026 | ZOOLOGY 962 | Seminar-ethology |
| Fall 2026 | ZOOLOGY 990 | Research |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_309df06adbbf91f7c1f735a4",
"source": "enrollment",
"source_instructor_id": "fnmadison",
"identity_basis": "netid",
"identity_status": "source_identified",
"name": "Farrah Madison",
"email": "FNMADISON@WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 13,
"quality": 3.15,
"difficulty": 3.23,
"quality_count": 13,
"difficulty_count": 13,
"profile_id": "rmp:2972810",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2972810",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:39:21.192341+00:00",
"courses": {
"course_4722ef6b23bfedc23131f60d": {
"review_count": 1,
"quality": 3,
"difficulty": 3,
"quality_count": 1,
"difficulty_count": 1
}
},
"bayesian_quality": 3.458900474876724,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": true,
"courses": [
{
"course_uid": "course_44b929ea5e2ec386a45f71f0",
"course_id": "ZOOLOGY 299",
"title": "DIRECTED STUDIES IN ZOOLOGY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 3.99
},
{
"course_uid": "course_4722ef6b23bfedc23131f60d",
"course_id": "BIOLOGY/BOTANY/ZOOLOGY 151",
"title": "INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY",
"credits_min": 5,
"credits_max": 5,
"gpa": 2.91
},
{
"course_uid": "course_4bad19b074dbfad403d8ee9c",
"course_id": "ZOOLOGY 962",
"title": "SEMINAR-ETHOLOGY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 1,
"gpa": 3.989
},
{
"course_uid": "course_8dc975c82ac47d1f105908b4",
"course_id": "ZOOLOGY 153",
"title": "INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY",
"credits_min": 3,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 2.761
},
{
"course_uid": "course_99896f8bf4a820406be46d1c",
"course_id": "ZOOLOGY 990",
"title": "RESEARCH",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 9,
"gpa": null
},
{
"course_uid": "course_dec271f294e619e652e01aed",
"course_id": "ZOOLOGY 699",
"title": "DIRECTED STUDIES IN ZOOLOGY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 6,
"gpa": 3.976
}
],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/FARRAH_MADISON"
}