Professor Riters was the best of the three lecturers. She is very passionate about the material and covers all the necessary exam information. Attend every single lecture, as her test is the hardest one out of the four. Attend her office hours and the learning center to do well in this course.

Dr. Riters was the second Bio 101 prof. She went through slides way too fast and all her lectures were disconnected from each other. It was like reading a textbook but in lecture form. It was very hard to take notes while following along because of the amount of text on the slides. She had the hardest of the exams so study hard for that one

Second of the three professors that teach Bio 101. Lectures were very informative and she has accessible office hours. Test questions were very hard, worst of the four exams during the semester. Study a LOT for her exam (Learning Center, textbook problems).

Cared a lot about continuity between her organization of class and Prof Thoma. She even reopened a lecture quiz after recieving feedback that it was confusing. She is clearly passionate about what she teaches, but this would also lead to confusing tangents in class. Although I wish Thoma taught all semester, I did not mind having her.

Straight forward exams, posts full slides, passionate about her topic

Such a sweet woman. You can tell she cared about us and wanted us to do well. She related her topics to modern-day things and kept the class engaged. Told you exactly what you needed to know, and didn't throw any surprises on the exam. My favorite of the Bio101 lecturers!

Her exam questions are more straightforward than Dr. Thoma's (team-teaching Zoo/bio 101) and she is so kind and caring. She still requires you to have a good understanding of the material for exams, but the questions are fair. Riters only teaches a portion of the course on animal behavior & endocrinology, but her unit is easy to understand.

Great professor, very caring. Very similar structure to biochem where you just have to remember slides, but these slides are more interesting than biochem so easier to remember.

Lauren is amazing! Her lectures were concise and told you exactly what you needed to know for the exam. She talked at a perfect pace and explained everything really well. I was struggling with previous exams and she helped me immensely, giving me study tips and helping me pinpoint how to move forward. She is very nice and cares about helping you!

Lectures are explained well. She posts full slides online. Tests are based off of lectures not readings. There is one short weekly homework assignment. She teaches about 1/4 of this class and creates one of the 4 tests, worth 20% of grade. There are also optional discussions that are helpful. I would recommend going to office hours with questions.

Riters is by far the best bio 101 prof.

Professor Riters was easily the best professor I've had at the university! She tells you everything she expects you to know and makes a challenging class easier to follow and super rewarding. I would totally take this class again if I could!

Loved her! Amazing professor and one of my favorite classes ever at UW. She is so thoughtful in her class preparation and very clear on what will be tested. If you are a biology or science major who has taken classes in human biology topics before this class will be no problem.

Great lecturer, but her exam was tricky and difficult.

Professor Riters was a little different from the other Bio/Zoo 101 professors because her pre-lecture quizzes were much easier and much shorter but her lectures were much more dry. Not much more to it other than what was already on the slides. Talks at a good pace and is fairly easy to listen to. Her test was a little more tricky than the others.

Welcomed to questions after class, very approachable. Read notes right off of slides without adding much-helpful if you zone out because its all there but bad if you take notes on the provided slides. Though I found it harder to focus throughout her lectures. Her test wasn't harder but had some confusing questions, pre lecture quizzes were a breeze

She didn't seem like she knew exactly what she was talking about, and her tests were the hardest things I've ever taken. She seems like a nice woman, but I don't like her as a college professor.

The exam for Dr. Riters was fair from the content she presented in lecture. I enjoyed attending her lectures to learn more from her vast knowledge of biology. I would definitely recommend having Dr. Riters for this class and for future classes!

Dr. Riters is fantastic. She is there to help you learn and not to try to trip you up with useless trivia. She really seems to care about her students and her exams and quizzes were actually relevant to what we were actually learning and tested on. Overall, she was the best lecturer in this class by far. Thoma and Stanley could learn a lot from her

She is a wonderful professor! You need to attend the class to succeed. The tests are very straightforward and fairly easy. Do NOT buy the book. The only hard thing is sometimes some of the concepts contradict each other. She is such a sweet professor who genuinely wants her students to succeed. I highly recommend taking this class.

Dr. Riters is one of the nicest professors on campus. She is extremely approachable and helpful during office hours. All her lectures she writes based on the latest research. Since it's a power lecture, it can get boring. Tests can be sometimes challenging because there is a lot of material. Overall, fantastic professor.

Great professor! Highly recommend

Riters was one of the 3 professors who taught this class, and she was most helpful. Very energized, straight-forward and you can tell she loves what she does. Hated the class, but she was great.

I took Endocrinology with Prof. Riters and I must say she is the most enthusiastic and accessible/helpful professor I've had at UW-Madison. Loves endocrinology and helps students learn to love it too! The class was astonishingly easy for a 600-level course though, it felt like a 300-level course and I was hoping for a bit more of a challenge.

Riters was a good teacher who was really into her topics. She was always prepared for lecture and prepared the students well. However, most students missed the day before spring break, and a large portion of material on her exam was from that day. If you take her class, make sure you're available to go every day.

Riters is a good professor. The way she explained the material in class was clear and simple. Her post lecture notes were helpful for studying and her quizzes were really easy!

Dr. Riters was a great professor. She teaches hard concepts, but she explains them quite thoroughly, which is really nice. I preferred Dr. Thoma's exams to hers, but her exam was still really fair, and if you study, you can be guaranteed a decent grade.

She teaches Difficult concepts, go to class!

Dr. Riters is very clear as a professor. She's not as good as Dr. Thoma but is still knowledgeable and enthusiastic in her lectures. Her tests are super wordy and vague, but it's an introductory course. What'd you expect?

Dr. Riters is a very good professor. She teaches a wide range of difficult material. Although her lectures move at an extremely rapid pace, the course is manageable. Also, she provides Post-Lecture questions after each of her lectures. They are EXTREMELY helpful.

Dr. Riters knows her stuff. She's clear, though not as clear as Dr. Thoma, but she's an expert in her field and I enjoy her lectures.

Lauren Riters is a good teacher. She is great at explaining anything to do with neurology and brain chemistry. Helpful slides and much enthusiasm. I'd recommend any class with her.

Dr. Riters was very energetic and excited about the material she taught, and was pretty helpful outside of class. She went through the slides too quickly in my opinion, but they're online so you can always see what you missed. I thought her exam questions were sometimes a bit confusing and vague.

She is super excited about what she teaches. For my class she taught the 3rd section after Dr. Thoma taught the first two. The exam is decent. I got a 90% and it was the one I dropped. The material is probably the most tricky out of the stuff we learned but it wasn't bad. If you study this class is pretty easy.

She teaches for the 3rd exam of this class (Thoma is 1st 2 exams & Dodson/Blieweiss are majority of final) Your grade is based solely on 2 midterms and final (you can drop the lowest midterm) Exams are mult choice which makes it hard. Interesting class but only take if needed. Exams are only on the material covered in lecture; textbook not used muc

Riters is a good professor, but the material is tricky. Her post-lecture outlines are helpful, though, and so is she if you go to her office hours or talk to her after class. She's really nice and passionate about what she teaches. I got the best grade on the exam she wrote. She's pretty clear.

You definitely don't have to read the book in 101, just go to the lectures. Material is tricky but Riters is a good professor and there for help. Also has post-lecture outlines which are useful for hte exam. Her exam was tricky, but overall not bad. Be prepared to put time in for this class if you want a good grade.

Her unit is short compared to Thoma's, but she is a good lecturer. She answers questions well, and her post-lecture outlines are helpful when studying for exams. Zoo 101 is not a bad choice, you just have to stay on top of the material.

I didn't like her as much as the 1st lecturer, but she's still a really good prof. If you go to lecture and pay attention (writing details on the slide print outs) you can do well. Her post-lecture outline questions are very helpful too. This class isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be!

very enthusiastic. nice and helpul.

She's not that bad. Pretty clear and interesting, despite the subject matter.

Very clear! Give great examples and explanations.

She was the last lecturer when I took it, and I thought Stanley and Thoma were much better...she didn't answer questions well, but her post-lectures were helpful for reviewing useful material. Don't recommend Zoo 101 unless you HAVE to take it.

She does not know how to give a lecture. She only gets through about 10% of what she is expecting to, is way too repetitive, and always seems to mess me up somehow. Had an easy time with the class, despite her confusing me. Would recommend the class- but not this particular professor. Liked Thoma much better.

She wastes the first 15 mins of lecture telling us what she is going to cover and repeatadly feels the need to ask the class every five minutes if we can hear her--if you cant hear her, you'd say something obviously. She talks fast, stumbles around her lecture & rarely finishes the slides.

Class is so boreing its not even funny. The book is worthless, and for some lousy reason they don't post the whole PPT slides on the net, so you have to attend lecture. But the tests are wicked easy, so its got that going for it.

Why does she continue to make power points 14 pages long when she can only get through 4 in one period? Seems to repeat herself alot and take a long time, but she is enthusiastic

Very nice and helpfull. Lectures were well organized and interesting. Exams were not too bad assuming you went to class and reviewed the study questions. However some exam questions were worded a bit confusingly. Overall a good class would definately recommend to anyone interested.

Definately better than the other 2 profs teaching zoology, but that's not saying much. Even if you do understand the lectures and notes (which are very clear and explained well) the questions on exams are worded impossibly. Good luck to anyone taking zoo

BOOO!

Wasn't too excited about her, until we had the last two professors. Enjoy her while she's still there.

Oh she just loves Darwin and his finches!! EVERY example in class relates to beak size somehow - it's incredible. But she has a very soothing voice.