Historical instructor

Mario Pennella

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.73/5 from 30 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.

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

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

BIOCHEM 501
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
I thought he did a really nice job with his section. He is very responsive, and I thought his lectures showed he wanted to help us succeed. Overall, very matter-of-fact and good at instructing a tough unit.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIOCHEM 501
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Let me retake an exam I had missed, very understanding guy. Do all the practice exams for this class they will make it a lot easier
Rate My Professors ↗
BIOCHEM 501
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Pennella is a good professor for the tougher unit in Biochem 501. He attempts to make the course more easy to follow but it's really up to you if you're into Anabolism. The class is exam heavy with 4 exams but each exam is noncumulative and easy if you put in the time to study with the practice exams and drawing out the complex pathways.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIOCHEM 501
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Despite some of the other ratings I found him to be the easiest to understand and follow along of all three lecturers. He is also extremely accommodating with no complaints, which I really appreciate.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIOCHEM 501
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Very kind and cares about students. Very difficult material but, so he makes the effort to hand write some of the material and organize it in a way that helps students.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIOCHEM 501
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Dr. Pennella's lectures were always very interesting. Outside of class he was also very friendly and showed he cared about the students.
Rate My Professors ↗

Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Mario Pennella

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_66ce385a2288dbbb6ef128e1",
  "source": "legacy",
  "source_instructor_id": null,
  "identity_basis": "name_only",
  "identity_status": "unresolved",
  "name": "Mario Pennella",
  "email": "MPENNELLA@WISC.EDU",
  "first_observed_at": "2025-07-13 04:59:22.367394+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2025-11-16 05:32:31.273726+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 30,
    "quality": 3.73,
    "difficulty": 3.43,
    "quality_count": 30,
    "difficulty_count": 30,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2304717",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2304717",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:20:49.151813+00:00",
    "courses": {
      "course_82b02a0645c630ce73cc6253": {
        "review_count": 27,
        "quality": 3.67,
        "difficulty": 3.48,
        "quality_count": 27,
        "difficulty_count": 27
      },
      "course_d05294a8b47a4fb823115de2": {
        "review_count": 1,
        "quality": 3,
        "difficulty": 2,
        "quality_count": 1,
        "difficulty_count": 1
      }
    },
    "bayesian_quality": 3.7018743134186383,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": false,
  "courses": [],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/MARIO_PENNELLA--instructor_66ce385a2288dbbb6ef128e1"
}