First: It is nice to know I'm not the only one who has the hots for this man. ;)

He is so nice, and helpful, and he is passionate about what he teaches.

If I can someday be half as good at teaching as he is, I will be satisfied with my life.

If you are thinking about taking Russian, do it so that you can have this man. If you don't want to take Russian, take his literature class or his IAH, I promise you will love him. I've had him more than once, and I couldn't ask for a better professor.

This fella is director of biological sciences here at MSU. He teamed up with Ron Patterson this past semester to put the BS back in BS111, which I basically stopped attending altogether three weeks into the term because the lectures were a waste of time and I had better things to do at 10 in the morning, such as remaining asleep. (Listening to 'Dr.'Merrill rant and wank for a half hour about kids using allmsu to solve DaVinci code-esque capa problems sealed that one for me.) The 'clicker' questions were (fortunately) a menial portion of the grade, as were the lon-capa problems. This was good, because despite the pre-arranged due dates for the consecutive problem sets, several seemed to begin and end randomly and I didn't complete more than half because of this disorganized nature of the due dates (and drinking on weeknights). I concur with what has been said below about the exams, the questions were intended to confuse and undermine the confidence even of prepared students. My advice is to pay attention to the mechanisms of what is studied; understand how the biochemical processes occur as opposed to just memorizing names and outcomes. I ended up with a 3.5 for the course, but be advised I'm the arch-dork when it comes to molecular biology and it seems most people did pretty bad. I can't possibly give these profs much credit as my grade is due to self-teaching using the book and various other resources.

amazing professor, very kind and very down to earth. Took him for RUS, sure he gives a lot of homework (everyday) but if you want to learn Russian, its the only way! His grading is amazing, make 5 or so mistakes on hw or essay and somehow you still get full score. Amazing professor, all I can say. I wish I had him for my IAH classes. If you want to learn russian, have fun and get a good grade, he is the man to take!

I've had him 2 of my 3 years at state and I can honestly say he is one of the most caring professors I have ever had. He really wants you to do well in Russian and will do anything in his power to make sure you understand the material being presented in class. You can do well in his class as long as you try and I really wish I had him more throughout my college career!

GREAT professor. Very passionate about his job and loves connecting with his students. He is available for office hours whenever you need him. Very organized. Hard class, but he was a great teacher!

Alright, Let me write in bullet form because I can not express my frustration for this class in a proper form. Let me start off by saying I am a dedicated student. I will cut corners like the rest of you if I am presented the chance, however, this class is a fucking mountain standing in the way from a decent GPA.



A. Merill is a total nerd. Which is fine, because he's a professor. Personally, he's a cool guy. Whatever. He's fair. He wants us to learn, sadly. Consequently, his wife. Holy shit. She goes through slides way to fast. She gets pissed when you try to take notes from her slides (I wish I was kidding). Their clicker questions are impossible. They give you sometimes up to seven minutes to answer them, and they literally have to narrow it down for you because they realize no one has a fucking clue.

B. The break down of the class goes like this, Two midterms (cough, cough impossible) worth around 120 points each, 25 points of lon capa, 25 points of clicker questions (1 point for answering, 2 for getting it correct), and 250 points for the final. AKA, never going to class doesn't matter. Basically the final is 50% of the class, do well on that and you're golden.

C. While Merril is a genius, you won't understand a word he says in class. You'll feel even more dumb once you realized you got your ass out of bed at 10:20, walked all the way to vet med (why the fuck is this class in vet med anyway? so annoying), then left the class not learning a thing. Basically before exams you will have to teach yourself EVERYTHING. Which is possible, I'm 4. but only because I bust my ass to teach myself everything. Having old exams will extremely help your exam scores

C. Did I mention it's in Vet med? seriously? a 400 class should not be able to take place in a building that far from society. such bullshit.



Good luck. Godspeed.

HoRrIbLe CLASS!! Merrill and Patterson suck. Don't get me wrong, they are insanely intelligent about Bio and thats impressive. However the level of their intelligence makes it impossible for them to relate to students who for many of us are not geniouses. lol not even sure I spelled that correctly lol.



Anywho, at the start of the semester they made comments about the reviews for exams. They said the exams did not tell you what was on the exam they were just to help you understand the DEPTH of questions. Complete bull. If you have students telling you for YEARS that it is not helpful, then how can they just blow it off? You would think if they cared so much about our understanding they would try to be proactive about the situation. Its hard for anyone completely intelligent about a certain subject to "dumb it down" because it already seems so simple to them.



On one exam they did give us a detailed review, but then the exam had nothing on it that we studied. Don't bother using the book to study because they always say how the book is always wrong and they contradict the book everyday. There is really no way to study very well unless you go to outside resources for help. I put so much time and effort and still couldnt pull past a 50% on my exams.... If you dont have other classes or have to fit a full time job around full time classes you could maybe do ok... but most people arent like that.





I ask when you have a class well over 300 students how is it the class average is never above a 48%????? That pretty much demonstrates that it isnt our fault. We cant ALL suck can we? Pretty much not.



DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! Your gpa will suck.

so this is my take on the semester. 1. probably one of the most intelligent profs that i have ever had. HE knows the information inside and out, but doesnt realize that the people taking the class dont and that is the main reason they are taking the class. I understand the idea of knowing the info before coming to class but seriously i read before coming basically every day. They use the clicker questions as a guessing game, but usually give no reasoning as to how they got their answers. I pay the money to be taught something for my future. If i wanted to teach myself biology i would have, i could have been guessing on my own, just about 300 richer. If you are going into the biology field then this will be a good class for you, because they basically force you to understand even the smallest parts of shit really have no significance. But if it is just a requirement, then switch out. This is def. an extremely hard class, a lot harder than the 3 credits that it says. i mean i am a 3.5 student, but i barely got a 2.0 in this class. If this is the only class you are taking it shouldnt be a problem, but if you are like every other student around here, we all have at least 3 or 4 more to study for. Smart Guy. Horrible Teacher. Basically had to teach myself everything, because i felt less intelligent every time i walked out of that class.

Dr. Merrill was a very nice guy, and he seemed very concerned that we learned the material well and were able to apply it. I thought the clicker questions helped keep my attention up in class.



However, I thought that the class overall was VERY poorly organized. I think that powerpoint slides would have been a much more effective way to present class material.



Also, my biggest qualm was that he was very concerned with our ability to apply the info we learned, but he did not give us any guidance in helping us to do this. I think that this is why so many people have difficulties with their exams. I often found that the way I interpreted test questions was not the way the profs interpreted them, thus leading to me getting them wrong.



I am an honors college student who graduated valedictorian from high school. I had no problem getting a 4.0 in my other classes. Yet, somehow despite the fact that i went to every lecture, and read all of the assigned chapters, I had difficulty pulling off a 3.0 in this class.

This class is just terrible. You have to go to class for the clicker points, but at the same time you don't get anything out of lecture. They make this class way harder than it should be. The biggest problems are the exams. Its a 50 question exam in 50 minutes. The questions are 50% material related and then 50% of test taking abilities. I honestly think they go out of their way to confuse people with their questions. You could know the material backwards and forwards, and still fail this class. The professors do nothing to help you out. They put the study guide out 2 days before the exam and you later realize that it did nothing to help you study. The Capa questions are sporadic at best and they tell you about them they day they are due. The don't go over any questions people email them and just seem to not care if everybody fails the class. Being a junior and taking all of the chemistry's and physics, I have seen some bad professors, but these guys take the cake. Enjoy if you can't get out.

this class is really hard....i went to class just to click and paid little attention to the lectures and took no notes....when exams rolled around i read the chapters the exam was over and paid attention to every detail and made copies of the pictures in the book and learned them well....i 3.0 the first exam and 4.0 the second exam ....the material isnt hard to learn BUT there is alot to remember....on exams merrill and his wife expect you to know the material and also to apply it so some of the questions are tough....basically if you want to want to have a guaranteed 4 then you should go to lecture and pay attention then review the chapters come exam time...if you do it my way your going to have to learn it yourself from the book (which wasn't that bad for me but I thought it was all really interesting and so it was easy to read)....other people mind find this boring and hard to learn....study hard and try to find enjoyment of this class if you want it to be easy

I'm sure Merrill knows the material really well, but does that really matter when he can't teach...at all? His class (taught along with Patterson) was structured poorly and instead of doing what these profs are paid to do (teach) they use up all of the lecture time with "clicker questions" so that we can either prove that we learned the material on our own, or be forced to learn the material on our own in the future as they count for points. Any remaining time left in the lecture was devoted to putting figures from the book on the overhead and giving less-than-adequate partial explanations of these figures. Your time would be better spent reading the book on your own, but the stupid clicker questions pretty much force you into going to class. The exams are extremely difficult and I've noticed that a good number of questions are covered in neither the lecture nor the text. Prepare to take a hit of at least a point to whatever GPA you may expect in this class.

Dr. Merrill is a great professor. He explains concepts well, is always will to help, and is patient when a student is stuck on a concept. He can get over-excited with his lectures and confuse himself but eventually explains what he needs to clearly. I would highly recommend Dr. Merrill for BS 111.



However, BS 111 is a challenging course. It does require thinking and applying concepts and not just memorizing definitions. I earned a 4.0 in the class because I studied a ton, read and reread the chapters, attended review sessions, and completed the posted objectives. I think the problem with this class is that the exams are very difficult and students do not expect to have to know concepts so thoroughly in a 100 level class. The concepts are not difficult, but applying them to the given questions is what is challenging. If one passes this class, they deserve it because they will truly understand the introductory concepts of biology.

If you get this guy get out of the class asap! His class was ridiculous, he does an awful job teaching. He just stands there and mumbles and doesn't explain anything, then expects you to know it all for the exam. I read every chapter we needed to read, studied my ass off and knew the material very well and still did bad on the tests b/c he decides to write questions that have little to do about the material and more to do w/ you analyzing the question. Which seems like it could be a good idea but not when half the class fails and the questions dont make sense and have nothing to do with the reading! On one test i answered some questions right and still got them wrong (the answer was in the book as being right, but he didnt think it was right enough). I ended up w/ a 2.5..i dont care if hes a nice guy, save your grade and dont take the class with him!

I personally really enjoyed having Merrill as a professor. Yes, the material is challenging to learn, and you can't expect to just listen to the lecture and expect to immediately understand everything the first time. I think he does a very good job explaining the material, but on top of that it is really up to the student to also be prepared for the lecture. This class demands a good amount of time outside of class reading the chapters on your own to reinforce what you learned in class.



If you are confused on something, just ask Merrill! He is more than willing to explain something to you. His practice exams and quiz questions are very helpful for his exams. I liked how he would go over the clicker questions in class and explain the right answer.



You can just tell he is very passionate about what he teaches and he cares about his students.

i don't know about any of the other professors, but i didn't think merril was that great. everything in the class was so hard! the clicker questions weren't that bad because you could ask the people around you and you could just get the answers to the capa questions online, but the exams and quizes were ridicous..some of the questions (okay most..) i was just like whatt???

but i pulled off a 3.0 in the class. if you MEMORIZE every picture in that book you're pretty much golden. and he even said it in class that he takes the exam questions from old ones..so try and get a hold of some!

i think taking it in the summer was easier, but then again the grades were only based on a midterm, a final and 4 quizes, capa, and clickers. good luck to all who take that class..the book alone will give u back pain.

Merril is a good teacher. Anyone who doesn't at least get a 2.5 in his class didn't read the book or took too much time writing down everything he said. My advice: if you can, take BS 110 before BS 111. Even if it's not required. You will do SOOOOOO much better if you do. Remember, you still have to take a bunch of electives anyway, so why not take one that will make a pre-req easier, instead of taking something useless like bowling or judo. His exams were a little tricky, but if you read the text book and try not to agonize over every little detail, you will be pretty well off. I think a lot of students get caught up in the minute details in this class and don't grasp the whole concepts. Oh, and if you can, take this class in the summer. It goes faster, and it's a lot fewer exams!

I agree with the previous post...he's a great professor and really really knows his shit. But if you don't know every detail inside and out and you are taking any other classes, have a job, play a sport, or do anything else that would prevent you from studying for this class 24/7, you are going to have a difficult time passing it. Questions are vague and purposefully confusing, as are CAPA questions. I don't feel like I learned anything in this class from them...everything I learned I basically had to figure out myself. And having 16 credits, a job, and playing a sport, I only managed a 1.5. And I worked my ASS off for even that grade. If you don't have infinite time to devote to this class, don't take it or take it from another professor who gets better than a 1.4 average rating.

Dr. Merrill may be a smart prof, but I walk away from this class with none of that intelligence in biology whatsoever. it is soo difficult to take any kind of notes in his class. The textbook for this 100 level class was a 400 level book. He claimed to be available for questions but would never respond to his emails. Constantly comments such as "well i cant get to this material on time, you'll have to learn it yourself" or " I assume you all have the proper background to know this material" resulted in impossible exam questions. I took other 400 level science courses this semester where this bio class was a prereq for those classes...and still managed to do better in those 400 levels than in this one....save yourself the severe stress and take a different bio class...

He is a wonderful professor. This is my first class and semester with him, unfortunately he doesn't teach RUS 421. He is a very chill kind of individual, you have a question he will find an answer for you, always welcomes class discussion, This class is in thirds, one third is history, one third is very heavy grammar, and the last third is movies on the cultural basis, sort of to give you a break between all of the information he has coming at you. He lets you turn in things late, but within a reasonable time because you have to keep up with the material. His tests and quizez are moderately hard because you have to know how to correctly conjugate things, also know the historical readings and things about the movie.