This was my first course at UCLA. I took AP Biology during my junior year of high school. Even though it's been two years, I readily picked up most of the material. Although people have different strategies to succeed in the LS7 series, I believe that attending the CLC sessions, reviewing Clicker questions, redoing in-class handout activities, and explaining how/why answer choices are right/wrong on the practice exam questions were a must. As a six-week summer course, the workload was manageable if you plan ahead the corresponding subsections to finish each day on Launchpad (textbook for this course, please purchase if you want to continue with LS7B, LS7C). Big shoutout to my TA Emoni, who was charismatic and helpful during discussion sections to clear up any confusions and to engage us during those lab worksheets, which help reinforce content objectives. Last but not least, Aly is a caring, attentive, wonderful lecturer, and down-to-earth person. I highly encourage you to attend his office hours whether you have content questions or not, because he really is there for your success and well-being. Taking LS7A before Fall 2021 has definitely improved my study skills and readiness for college coursework, and it would not have been possible without my wonderful TA and legendary Professor Aly. I hope he can teach LS7C in Winter 2022!

Professor Mulji is probably the best Professor I've had since I've been admitted to UCLA. He is simply AMAZING and I don't think I'll ever get over my love for LS7A because of him. He made me love Biology, which in high school I only thought was 'alright.' He is super clear on lectures, and he can gauge the environment of the room extremely well. When we were unclear on a concept, he would slow down the entire lecture and ensure we understood before moving on. CQ were soooo helpful as almost all of them reflected the midterm. If you have the chance to take this class, TAKE IT!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

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.

IF YOU EVER HAVE THE CHANCE, JUST TAKE HIS CLASS. He's a really good professor that actually care about the students learning. I took this class over the summer so it might different from the normal pacing/workload, but it was definitely worth it. The LS7 series has a pretty standardized curriculum, but how well the professor explains the material in the lecture definitely makes or break the class. Especially taking this online, Mulji was very accommodating due to the circumstances and definitely offered a lot of office hours and resources students could use to ask him questions. He posts all the lectures (with the slides) and the in-class "clicker questions" on ccle which is definitely helpful for review on tests. I will say the tests can be a bit tough if you don't understand the material conceptually, but the class is definitely worth it. I would definitely take another LS class with him again if I have the chance.

If you have the option to take this class with Mulji, DO IT! He is overall an amazing professor and gives you plenty of resources to be successful in his class. The workload is kinda a lot (especially with the 6 week summer classes), but it is definitely helpful in the class. His lectures and all the work ties directly into the exams as well (which I really appreciated), and you are allotted plenty of time to carefully take the exam. I would definitely take this class again!

World best professor. I took AP bio in high school and frankly the class was mostly a review. The class moved really quickly and the professor did an amazing job of keeping class engaging and fun despite being online. It felt like Aly really put in the work before class to make sure lectures were polished and clicker questions were well written. It was an amazing class (especially for being online).

Best professor that I have had at UCLA so far! I enrolled in LS 7A during C-sesh (CSI) with Prof. Aly, not knowing what to expect because this was one of my first classes at UCLA. I took AP Bio in Sophomore year of high school and passed with a 5, so I had a pretty well rounded background before taking the class. The course moves pretty quickly for only 6 weeks, but if you stay on top of your readings/assignments, you'll do well because the 7 series is a "flipped" structure, meaning you do the readings of topics before learning about them in lecture. Overall the most helpful aspects of the class are the Learning Objectives, PEQs/PALs, and CLC sessions. I suggest using the learning objectives as your guide for taking notes - i.e. copy/past them onto a document and take textbook/lecture notes under each topic. This will help you "categorize" lecture material and other diagrams into one place to reference them at the end. Also super helpful for reviewing iClicker questions and important slides before exams.

Another note regarding CSI/Aly; CSI is a much smaller group of students relative to the normal classes year round - we were able to engage with Aly and he made sure all of us participated in class so we didn't fall behind. I definitely recommend enrolling in this class if you are an incoming freshman, or enrolling with Aly if you can. He is the most welcoming, friendly, and thorough professor that I have ever had, answering questions and reviewing topics to ensure students understood concepts. He's very patient and will go the extra mile to make sure students feel comfortable asking for help or going to him for clarification/advice. I wish that I attended his office hours more, but if you attend the CLC sessions for any of the 7 series classes, you might see and get to know him!

This was my first class at UCLA and it was accelerated so, admittedly, it was more difficult than a typical 10-week class. Aly was amazing and honestly set my expectations way too high for future professors lol. I can't say enough good things about him, as he clearly cares about his students learning, but also their wellbeing; he even made an effort to get to know everyone's name in our 50 person lecture. As for the class, it's 7 series, it's a weeder course--THE EXAMS ARE HARD!!! You'll see everyone else say too, that the exams are poorly worded and deliberately try to trick you. Use your podmates to your advantage and study together. CLC problem solving worksheets are the best things to study with for the exams. Definitely don't lose points on the homeworks either. But honestly, you can know the material super well and still get a poor test grade. It's all about problem solving and application of knowledge, so test-taking skills are your best friend for this class. Good luck!

I took this class through CSI over the summer of 2021. As someone who had taken AP Bio, I thought that having that foundation and familiarity with the concepts made this class significantly easier, but don't expect the exact same material. A lot of the AP Bio and LS7A Curriculum is different, so don't be surprised if you find yourself having to learn new concepts even though you never even touched on it in high school. Honestly though, you can succeed in this class even if you never took Biology in high school; there is a good amount of extra credit (up to 10 points per midterm which was like 11% back on the first midterm + 2 points for filling out a course eval survey) and Aly makes sure to go over the material and clicker questions in class thoroughly. Also, he is always happy to answer your questions in the chat or through DM on zoom during lecture and he would never belittle you or make you feel stupid for asking questions like some teachers do.

In terms of course structure, the class was pretty dense but I think in a normal 10 week quarter it probably isn't so bad. Most of our reading and reading quizzes are done through launchpad and iClicker is used in class for clicker questions. Also, the worksheets done in Discussion are really helpful and definitely solidify the concepts (plus a lot of the diagrams in lecture and discussions are often reused in practice exam questions or real exam questions so it is definitely worth it to stay engaged in both lecture and discussion). Overall, I thought the course was manageable and would recommend Aly to other students.

Aly is a super nice professor and pretty good at explaining topics. He teaches uses the flipped classroom model which means that we were first introduced to new topics during homework time on launchpad. Launchpad is expensive but necessary for the LS series. I personally found the launchpad textbook helpful for basic background notes and then the content covered in lecture helpful for studying.

Clicker questions, practice launchpad questions, discussion worksheets, and problem solving worksheets are the most helpful for studying since the tests are application of material and not based on memorization. Homework load (launchpad) felt like a lot to me, but since I took it during the summer we had a lot more happening per week.
An important note for grading is that launchpad material (homework and practice questions) makes up around half of the points (it's not a weighted average system) so just getting launchpad done will help keep your grade from tanking if you don't do perfectly on the tests. I got B+ on the first midterm and the final but still ended with an A in the class.