Syllabus:

Total Points: 669 Points + 4 Points Extra Credit for doing the course evals
Launchpad Readings: 45 Points
Launchpad Pre-Class Quizzes: 45 Points
Launchpad Practice Exam Questions: 45 Points(You can miss up to 5 points and still get a 45/45)
Clicker Question Participation: 60 Points
Discussion Assignments: 64 points
Midterm 1: 90 Points
Midterm 2: 120 Points
Final: 200 Points

Professor Aly is a great lecturer, the Launchpad is really dense and it's easy to get lost in all the terminology. The entire 7 series is "flipped" so you are always doing the reading before the lecture, and the lecture just covers the material that you should have read on Launchpad. The class's participation is measured by clicker questions (you don't need to get them right and you need to answer ~75% of them to get points for the lecture). He often put us into breakout rooms when there were questions that he believed would be best answered through a discussion, and I thought it was a nice way to bring some of the students together. He also leads the LA Problem Solving Sessions, so even if you don't have him as a professor, you might see him there.

He has a very caring personality, and he always asked us how we were doing and what our weekend plans were to take our minds off of the stress we had from the class. He held the LA sessions 4 times a week, and he had office hours twice a week. I would say as a tip to go to as many office hours as you can (about 30 came to the first one, and around week 6 there were only 7 people), especially since he is a great guy if you want to get to know him.

I had Sean Campeau as a TA, and he was good at explaining topics that were often unclear. He was good at solving disputes over concepts such as "should the stop codon be counted as a part of the open reading frame," and told us everything we needed to know for the exams. Discussions were mostly held in breakout rooms, where we would reconvene to the main room to share answers.

The midterms were pretty tough, and you really had to make sure you understand the concepts from Launchpad. I would suggest studying the clicker questions and the practice exam questions to practice for the midterm. We were allowed to check what we got wrong on the first midterm, but not on the second midterm and final.

This was my first class at UCLA, and I took AP Bio the year before that, so the class was a bit easier for me to grasp the new concepts. The workload was a bit tough (it took about 8 hours per week, where one part was due Monday and the last part was due Wednesday), along with studying previous content as a review. I would definitely take this class again with Professor Aly, and you should take this class if the opportunity should arise.