The first half of LS 2 was taught by Dr. Friscia, and I really enjoyed his portion of the course. His philosophy for this course is to really understand the main concepts, without getting caught up on memorizing every single minor detail. This is definitely something that aligns with me, and so I found his half of the course to be interesting and relatively easy.
Dr. Friscia podcasts all of his lectures & posts slides, so it's not entirely necessary to attend lecture, although I still found it helpful. During lecture, he writes down his own notes and projects them, which you can't get online. The notes that he takes are definitely helpful for understanding what the important concepts are. He posts review questions at the end of each chapter, which give you a feel for the questions he'll ask on the exams.
His exams were fairly easy. The questions were all very straightforward, and there were only a few questions that were a bit tricky. Overall, I felt that his exam questions were very fair. The average on the first midterm, which was only on material covered by him, was an 83%. This was higher than the averages on the second midterm/final, which had material covered by the other professor.
The only "homework" was reading a few Scientific American articles and being quizzed on them in section. The quizzes were usually pretty easy and only worth 10 points.
Overall, I really enjoyed Dr. Friscia's portion of the class. Although they're not offering LS 2 anymore, if he teaches in the LS 7 series, he would be a great choice.

Materials
None!

Grading
Midterm 1 100
Midterm 2 100
Final 180
Quizzes 40
Discussion 10
There was a slight curve in our favor. I got a B+ with an 84.4% total. According to the syllabus, the rough distribution is as follows:
20% A
20% B
40% C
10-20% D

Lectures
Dr. Friscia's lectures were audiocasted, but Dr. Esdin's weren't. Everything tested was from the lectures. Friscia's lectures were boring, but he got the job done. Esdin, however, was a god. I loved listening to him, since the way he organized his lectures was impeccable. Each lecture felt like a narrative. Not only that, but he gave many examples to make this biology relevant to us. You could tell that he was truly an expert and lover of biology. Re-listening to his lectures before an exam did wonders for sorting out all of the information in my brain.

Discussion
We had four papers to read throughout the quarter and were tested on them on even weeks. While the articles constituted light reading, I suggest taking them seriously because the quizzes were tough. They were a mixture of fill-in-the-blank, true/false, and multiple-choice. Since they were written by TAs, who have little experience writing questions, they were tougher than they needed to be. For example, there was a fill-in-the-blank where we had to write the scientific name of some drug. I got a 30/40, and I feel like this was the difference between my B+ and an A- (assuming 85% was the A- cutoff).

Exams
These were tough. A bunch of multiple-choice followed by some short responses. Friscia's questions were easier than Esdin's, so for him, it was more a matter of organizing the information. Esdin's questions were tough because of the all the details that could confuse you in the multiple-choice. His short answers were kind of regurgitations of what he said in lectures, such as list the steps in this process. One of them was missed by almost everyone, which asked for an application of one little thing that he mentioned during lecture.
The medians were:
Midterm 1 82
Midterm 2 74.6
Final 138 (77%)

Tips
- Although Friscia's lectures were audiocasted, you should still attend lecture because he wrote notes on the projector that he wouldn't say out loud. One of the diagrams he made appeared on the exam.
- Friscia provided chapter review worksheets after every lecture. Some of the questions on them appeared on the exams.
- Friscia answered all questions on the CCLE forums in a timely manner.
- Record Esdin's lectures and marathon them before the exams.

tl;dr Dr. Friscia is a fine choice, but then again, he only taught the first half, aka easier part, of the course. I don't know how difficult his second half would be if he taught solo.

Friscia is a good, clear, and honest professor. He is very helpful in that he often gives out review questions for tests, and his lectures are straightforward and easy to take notes with. The only negative part about his class is that he sometimes comes off as a little bit of a dick; he's very much a stickler for the rules, and he will yell at people if you don't listen to his directions. However, if you're not dumb, then you should be fine. Overall his class was great!

Grade Distribution:
Exam 1 - 100 points
Exam 2 - 100 points
Discussion quizzes - 40 points
Discussion attendance and participation - 10 points
Final Exam - 180 points
Total - 430 points

Professor Friscia:
Friscia is an okay lecturer. I had him for the first half of LS 2 with Esdin for the second half. He posts songs on CCLE ahead of class, and they are pretty bare. They contain mostly pictures, so you just have to fill in what he says aloud in class. It's pretty essential to go through lectures again via podcast, because even though he stops to write notes on the projector, he can go pretty quickly. He never seems to be good with time management, because he always rushes the last topics of the slides in the last few minutes of class, so clarity may be a bit off. He's pretty funny, and he's okay. Don't need any book for material, just his lectures.

TA Jeanette Alcaraz:
Discussion sections were pretty helpful with going over material. Though at the end of the quarter, we didn't cover the material as in depth as the beginning of the quarter. But either way, Jeanette is very sweet. She knows her stuff and is very approachable. I would recommend her as a TA.

Exam 1 Grade: 87/100
This first exam covered all of Friscia's half. It was around 30 or so multiple choice questions with a couple few short answer questions. On the back of the test, there were a lot of fill in the blank questions. And stupid me didn't turn the test over, so I lost a good amount of points because of that. The test was pretty fair otherwise, Just pay attention to things he says out loud in lecture. Because there are some questions on that stuff that isn't explicitly in the notes.

Exam 2 Grade: 82/100
The average for the second exam was 72.4. It was unanimously considered significantly harder than Friscia's midterm, though it's noncumulative. This round contained Esdin's lectures. This had a similar format to the first midterm. A good amount of multiple choice with some short answer. No fill in the blank though. Basically just study the lecture slides and listen to recordings. Let me just say that he loves his action potentials.

Discussion Quizzes Grade: 37/40
There are four quizzes in the odd weeks of the quarter in discussion on four papers posted on CCLE. They are mildly interesting, but mostly pretty dull. Just study it really well the night before and you should do fine. The quizzes are ten questions of multiple choice, fill in the blank, and true or false questions. Pay attention to details when you read the papers.

Discussion attendance and participation: 10/10
Attendance to lecture isn't mandatory, but you need to go to discussion to get participation points. Basically go every week and you should get these easy points.

Final Exam Grade: 144/180
The average for the final was 134.3. The final was cumulative, but Esdin took out most of his material covered in the second midterm. The final is primarily focused on the new material after the second midterm. The final was multiple choice and a couple short answers. It was a bit tricky, but doable. Again, just study all the lectures.

Overall Grade: B+ (360/430)
Overall, I did okay in the class. I felt like I earned a higher grade, but LS classes distribute grades on some sort of quota system with 20% As, 20% Bs, 40% Cs, and 10-20% Ds. It's a bit unfair. And to be honest, if I didn't fuck up on the first midterm, I may have gotten an A-. This is definitely not an easy class. It's a lot of information in a short amount of time. But if you study hard enough, you should do fine.

Frscia is amazing!! Super easy to follow and his exam questions are reaaally straightforward (as opposed to Esdin). Take LS2 with him as one of the profs if you get the chance

Professor Friscia's lectures were fun to attend, and the concise notes that he projected were helpful when studying for the exams. Most of his lectures about macromolecules were clear and straightforward, but things started to fall apart when he taught the sections on Embryology and the Immune System. He mixed up some terms, jumped from topic to topic, always seemed to be in a hurry, and didn't explain the concepts well enough for the students to follow and comprehend. Overall the last few lectures never really came together for me, and I had to listen to his podcasts a few times to catch the big picture.