Overall nice and humorous, however lectures were vague and tests were detailed. you won't do well if the only thing you do is go to lecture and take notes. the study guides were helpful and one exam out of 4 was open note. final wasn't cumulative. the other assignments help your grade a bit if you do poorly on exams.

Literally such an easy class and he makes the grading criteria very clear. He uses his own textbook, but it only costs $15 and honestly if you can't find the money for it you can get by the course just fine without it. Lots of discussion posts with 3-5 replys to get full credit, but its easy and you don't need to have super in depth posts.

Dr. Paustian was nice and funny. His lectures were kinda hard to follow at times, but rewatching lectures or just revisiting the material after lecture made a huge difference in grasping the material. He's really fast at responding to Piazza and very open to any questions. One midterm grade gets dropped and one of them is also online.

I really was not expecting to have a hard time in this 101 class, but something about his slides and lectures just made it impossible for me to grasp the material. Exams felt super specific and I couldn't tell what material to focus on. He seems like a nice guy though.

While it is clear he is very passionate about the subject, funny, and wants us to learn, I feel that most of the information in lecture is fluff and the slides are hard to follow because of the disorganization. I found that exams had somewhat obscure questions that you would need to know a specific fact we brushed over.

One assignment a week. super easy

While I can tell that Professor Paustian does care for his students and their success in the course, I think his organization could improve. Spends a lot of time discussing specifics and random facts, yet when it comes to stuff you actually have to know goes so fast. Drops so many random vocabulary words which made it difficult to follow.

Very mid teacher, lectures themselves were boring and uninteresting, exams were testing on random things throughout the slides, could tell he doesn't teach 100 level classes often. Very few graded things throughout the class. Only positive is he was very flexible in grading and course structure.

Walk away. Quickly.

Best professor at UW. Passionate about lectures, and explains the material clearly. Makes a great teacher-student connection, as he implemented syllabus changes based on feedback. Very understanding of extenuating circumstances and rescheduling requests. Not political at all, contrary to the MAGA reviewers mad at him for denouncing antivax.

Professor Paustain is good, but this class is hard. Honestly, it was pretty obvious that this was his first year teaching an intro-level micro class. He is very knowledgeable, but the slides are hard to follow, the tests are pretty specific, and a lot of the content taught in class is not relevant to the class. Great guy but just hard to follow.

You can tell that he is very interested in what he is teaching and puts a lot of effort into helping us feel prepared for exams. Before them he would hold review sessions late at night and would even offer to stay longer to answer more questions. He would also be very clear about what we should focus on for our exams! Made microbiology fun :)

One of the few professors who truly listens to students. After the first exam, he gave us a survey to identify what was or wasn't working, resulting in a syllabus change that benefited us. His textbook gets mentioned a lot, but it wasn't required—I didn't buy it and did fine in the class. He was available on Piazza to help students with questions.

Had Prof. Paustian in micro 101. Changes to the syllabus, grading scales, and more were common, seemed like he was really unprepared. Ranted about personal views/beliefs a lot. Made fun of kids who did poorly. Wanted students to buy his book, which was rambling and hard to understand. Don't take!!

He goes off topic often with subjects that have nothing to do with the class. Expresses his political views frequently.

Conveys material clearly and answers questions. Able to understand him as he speaks English without a terrible accent (like other professors) Unfortunately he makes his political beliefs known and trys to push them on students. That is not acceptable in my book.

Professor Paustian is one of the very few teachers that I have had who takes the time to sit down with students and help them improve. He allows students to schedule meetings to go over exams and extra help for future exams. He is also very passionate about what he teaches and making sure that everyone understands. I would take his class again.

Dr. Paustian is simply too smart to teach this entry level microbiology course. He requires that his students purchase his textbook for approximately thirty dollars. Yes, he is the author and NO I did not help prepare me for his extremely hard exams. His lectures are mandatory to attend. He goes off topic often and rarely covers basic material.

Took Dr. Paustian in 101. Consistently changed the syllabus during class, gave rambling and oftentimes unproductive lectures, filling them with his own prospectives and ideas and "things that we don't have to know". You are forced to utilize his own, buggy website for practice exams and buy his goofy book (don't do this, unnecessary).

He should stay in his field and or profession instead of judging others before seeing their capabilities

Challenged by alternative possibilities.

Very politically biased.

Avoid at all costs. Too busy giving his ultra liberal opinions in order to indoctrinate the few gullible who could be influenced

He's terrible.

during lecture he tends to ramble and go onto tangents that aren't relevant to the curriculum. tests are difficult and confusing, and randomly made attendance mandatory. He makes comments that seem rude to students and make students feel dumb for asking questions, especially on Piazza.

Dr. Paustian tests specific information on exams that is not covered in "broad-stroke" online lectures, and many of the questions are of the tacky "gotchya!" type, riddled with exceptions and tricks. Overall, I found it difficult to get an A despite extensive lecture and textbook notes and review. Learned a lot of applicable information, though!

A professor that is very interested in you learning the material, but in order to get a good grade you need to go to all lectures and make sure to do all available extra credit

Dr. Paustian is more concerned with his own research than teaching his students. He has bland lecture slides and tells you to know the "general idea" and then tests you on the most specific, minute details. Additionally, he thinks it is funny to make fun of students who are not at lecture due to illness or whatever it may be.

I really liked Dr. Paustian and 303, but it was a hard class. However, it's cleat that he really wants students to succeed. He's very accessible via Piazza and answers questions well, plus he was a funny lecturer. His exams were very detailed but definitely not impossible to do well on. Just pay attention during class and you'll be fine!

The concepts in the course are not particularly difficult, nor are they presented as such. However, the exams do not reflect the level of depth discussed in the lectures. This is an 300-level introductory course to microbio, but the professor seems to think you should know everything about every topic, in-depth. Do all extra credit offered!

Paustian is a good person who wants you to succeed and will take time out of his schedule to help you, even giving multiple opportunities to earn extra credit. However, the tests were very difficult. He will say to know the "overall concept", but in order to succeed, you need to know the details of almost everything discussed for a test.

A really funny guy...just don't get on his bad side. I had him for lab, and he was always eager to answer questions (and make jokes). Could get stressed and short-tempered sometimes, but when you're running a lab with 20 people, that's understandable. Lab quizzes the exam at the end were never too difficult. I enjoyed his sarcasm and liveliness!

Dr. Paustian is a great professor and is very understanding of both mental health and delicate circumstances. He is very willing to work with you and help you learn, and doesn't take away points without providing an explanation for why he did, allowing you to not those points on the next lab analysis. Most professors just take points off and leave.

Tim is great! Had him for 303, 527, & taking him for 551. He can seem intimidating/unapproachable, but he truly does care about his students & their success. Extensions can be hard to come by w/o good reason, so try to keep up. If you are struggling, be proactive & discuss it w/ him. He's more of a go-with-the-flow type of guy than you might think.

Professor Paustian is truly entertaining in the way he teaches. You will definitely learn a lot. Biochem and Microbio students make sure to take his class.

Awful at responding emails, just awful! Do not take this professor if you think that he will care about you as a student. it is simply ridiculous.

His tests were pretty tricky and took a big learning curve to get used to them. However he really cares about his students and adjusts the class based on feedback given. Beware Class was very interesting but was a ton of material and tests were difficult!

Lectures are packed with information that he goes through super quickly so its hard to take notes. He says he wants you to know the big picture and then gives tests that are super specific. Lecture slides are extremely vague and the very few assignments he asks you to do dont help as far as understanding the class.

Lectures very dense with information. Goes through the slides extremely fast, making it nearly impossible to take notes while also comprehending what he is saying. The latter is even more difficult due to how often he trips over his words and/or has typos all over the material (including his textbook he makes everyone buy). Exams are hyperspecific.

Lecture slides are vague, making it really hard to take notes during class. Goes over difficult concepts extremely quickly in little detail yet the exams are insanely specific. Claims the textbook is not necessary for the class but then majority of exam questions are from textbook. He has a condescending attitude at times/towards student questions.

More like a 300 level class with some assignments taken out. The level of material given was way higher than any 100 level class, and required previous science knowledge to even barely understand what was going on. Made you buy his textbook, and there were tons of typos and confusing sentences. Didn't require tons of work, but it was frustrating.

3/5 He wouldn't link us to his ToonTown gameplay videos and made us Paypal him to buy his mandatory, mediocre online textbook. Dude doesn't understand the meaning of "100 level course material".

Lecture videos were full of information, but had interesting content. He cared about student performance and believes if you put in the study time, you will get your desired score. Tests were open note and could be slightly specific but very doable. Offered a lot of extra credit.

I'm not a person who usually takes the time to rate professors. However, I think that he was so bad and that his performance online is dramatically worse than in person. Exams were inconsistent and lectures were poor. They lack explanations, and details. Also never answers emails. Told him my dad died day before exam. No response all semester.

I don't usually do reviews but I had an especially confusing time with this professor's teaching style. His lectures are kind of vague, but the exams are specific. The exam difficulty is also inconsistant. I took this class fall 2020 during virtual learning, so the added degree of separation definitely didn't help.

This man is a GEM. You can tell he loves microbiology, and works hard to make this class relevant. I took this class in Spring 2020 and he even included Covid-19 in the list of pathogens learned about in the last unit. He is funny and the tests are fair. The MC question extra credit he does is also helpful and provides plenty of practice problems.

Professor Paustian is a great guy and wants the best for all of his students. If you are struggling, talk to him in person and he will give you great advice. In lectures, he simply reads off of slides. This is a difficult course and the exams are really specific. This course has a ridiculous amount of content that is not easy to learn. Study a lot.

Amazing professor and was the only professor I had that truly cared about students during COVID-19. He also sent out regular emails about the unfolding events that were relevant to the course. Overall, his exams are the only thing that are hard, but if you study regularly, it is not hard to get the average or above. LOTS of bonus points.

My favorite professor and class during college! Tim is a great teacher and is always ready to help you tackle concepts you don't understand. You definitely have to be willing to put in work, but it is very manageable.

As a senior, I can say Tim has been my favorite professor in undergrad. He is kind, patient, and willing to work with you whenever you don't understand material. Multiple times this semester I doubted my own knowledge or skills and not only did Tim teach me what I needed, but he reassured me of my intelligence and capacity to grow as a student.

Tim is one of the amazing professors in the Microbiology department. He is very relaxed and understanding when things come up and his lectures and instructions are easy to understand and follow. Beware of his 4th grade bully story, if you know, you know.

Tim is a really funny guy. He's easy to talk to and super interesting. I took 303 over the summer. I have already taken 101 and 102 for credit at another school and I currently work in a Microbio lab so for me the content was not hard at all. Sometimes I got answers technically wrong on exams but explained what I thought and he gave me credit.

Grade based on several online quizzes (3 chances each), a few take home assignments, and 4 non-cumulative MC exams with most questions taken from a database of student created questions - study from there! There's extra credit too. Uses tophat, so attendance is graded. He's very disorganized and constantly trips over words, not a great professor.

Tells interesting stories, sometimes gets off topic. Very respectful and entertaining. Has good conversations. Take notes, attend lecture. Large amount of memorization. Need to study hard for each exam.

Dr Paustian was overall a great guy, but his methods of teaching were very poor. His lectures were very vague and nonspecific but then on the tests he would ask for specific details. He also contradicted himself in a lecture a couple of times, making it hard to understand some things and basically just read off of the lecture slides.

Lecture material presented is pretty vague. He gives you lemons and wants you to make a four course meal out of it on the exams (exam averages are low for a class that is not curved)

NO MORE MANDATORY TOPHAT ATTENDANCE-- this was canceled, lecture is now recorded and optional. He's a bit unorganized but overall a good lecturer and a really nice guy.

Professor Paustian is a nice guy and very enthusiastic about microbiology, but is a very poor lecturer and does not transfer that knowledge to you effectively. Mandatory attendance for TopHat points also makes the course much less enjoyable.

Best teacher I've had for a large lecture, he actually cares and tries to get students to understand the material even though its a 300 person class.

He is a passionate professor and very helpful when asked. He teaches a lot of content which is interesting to learn about but can be unclear of what is tested. Once in a while he will contradict himself with the information he provides from lecture to a quiz per se. Overall I would recommend him as a teacher but be wary of very hard exam ?'s

Dr. Paustian is a great professor. He's funny and he tries to make lectures interesting and engaging by telling interesting facts and personal anecdotes about microbes. His exams can be a little tough but are do-able. The class has online hw and quizzes, not just exams so there is a nice buffer for people to be able to raise their grades.

Has way too high of expectations for students for a 3 credit class. So much homework. Contradicts himself all the time in lecture vs. his powerpoints. All of his exams contain challenging trick questions that no amount of studying will prepare you for. NOT an enjoyable class, and NOT an enjoyable professor. Don't take this class.

Nicest person you'll ever meet, but doesn't seem like he knows how to teach. Very smart when it comes to microbiology, but terrible at transferring that knowledge to his students. Lectures are random and don't specify what you will be graded on. Many exam and quiz questions are worded poorly to the point of incomprehensible. Good luck. You need it

Dr. P is an above average professor but seems to make the class more work than it needs to be. He's VERY in depth and you never really know how deep the questions will go on exams. Although he posts study guides, they're incredibly vague compared to the amount of detail that is asked on the actual exam. Dedicate at least 2 full days of studying.

Paustian is not the man

There does not seem to be any structure to his lectures and he does not explain most things in class. It feels like he expected you to already know everything. Unclear what is important for tests and hard to take notes in lecture because he is all over the place. That being said he is super nice and the class isn't that hard.

He is very enthusiastic, which help make his lectures more interesting. he reads slides with occasional clicker questions which helps for a clearer understanding. online quizzes can be difficult to find the answers to, but not bad. exams are ok, he's a kind grader. nice guy, would take again!

He's the best instructor and also the best person outside of the class. If you are a micro or bio major, have him for adviser. He's the best. I had him for 303, 304, 527, and 551 and I am glad that I could have him for 4 classes.

The class is pretty straight forward. There is memorization involved but it's not too bad. The sometimes mumbles while he lectures, so he's not always clear. He also just reads off he slides and then adds on to it. He also does a project he puts you into groups and allows students to communicate to get answer he asks.

Honestly I loved Dr. P. He's a bit eccentric, and yes his slides always have typos and he seems to always be correcting himself, but he's a brilliant man and a very fair professor. I personally thought he was hilarious, and he definitely rewards you for going to class. Clicker questions literally end up word for word on exams. I'd take him again!

Really bad lecturer: reads off the power point without clarifying anything.

Tim always has typos on his slides, quizzes, and exams. These are extraordinarily annoying and often confusing (which isn't what you want on an exam). In lecture he will often verbally "correct" a mistake on his slide, decide it's right, they say it's wrong- leaving it unclear as to what was right. Ask unclear things on the discussion board!

He's strange. His lectures are jumpy and you never know what he wants you to concentrate on. Test questions are confusing. It seems like he is trying to trip you up. Definitely a smart guy but I really didn't like his teaching at all.

Very good teacher. Passionate and what-not. He even wrote his own textbook for the class! Would take again without a doubt.

He tried so many new things this semester and you can tell. CACAO never worked, some of the experiments did not work out so well. The worst part for this course was unexpectedly writing analysis. Tim and Jon grade pretty harshly and counts for the majority of grades,so make sure you do well. Quizzes are fair though. A bit frustrating for 2 credits

Awesome guy. He loves microbiology and make you love it too! His exams are very fair, as long as you study the lab manual you'll do fine. A few other short assignments and two easy lab reports. This is an awesome lab!

Exams completely based on the lab manual/lecture slides. Few assignments/lab reports graded fairly. Answers questions on discussion board. Overall, a very nice guy who really cares about each individual student. Definitely better than other lab courses I have taken - such as Zoo 152 or Gen chem labs. Highly recommend.

He wrote a textbook and exams are based on ppts. He knows EVERYTHING about microbes.He holds review sessions before every exam and tries to memorzie everyone's name. Definitely one of the best professors on campus, but I found that he is little awkward. ONLY Problem: LOTS of typos and grammatical mistakes which are sometimes more than annoying! LOL

Any class within the micro department that he teaches is a MUST TAKE. Tim makes the micro department at UW. He is a wonderful educator and extremely well versed in all that is microbiology. For all those reading this: it is a PRIVILEGE and not a requirement to have a class with Tim. DON'T take him for granted - UW would not be the same place! GREAT

Great professor. Tim is a teacher. He is an excellent author and teacher, conveying knowledge successfully to students!

Tim is brilliant. He does an great job of showing that he loves his work and he loves his students. He's funny, but at the same time he knows his stuff. He makes Microbiology at UW-Madison what it is. :DD

Tim Paustian is the man.

Paustian was a great professor! His exams are fair, you can tell he really enjoys the subject! If you go to class and pay attention, it's fine. Take it in the summer!

good professor, easy to understand and follow. Made lab fun and easy. Will definitely take a class again with him.