She was the worst professor I had so far at UCLA. Her exams were more comprehending the exam and small insignificant details rather than major concepts. There's a lot of bad things I want say about her but I'll just mention that she gave out a "cumulative lab" assignment on the sunday before finals week that was due on the following friday (with no prior mention except that it was on the syllabus but everyone thought she would cancel the it). This assignment was very time consuming and and making time for it between studying for finals was a real dilemma for many students. In addition, I really disliked her teaching style.

If you are a North Campus person DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I was like "Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity" that should be pretty basic - I should be fine....wrong....very wrong.....
Deb was an excellent lecturer, but I seriously felt like I was back in HS....SO MUCH nit picky homework, and her tests do not have anything to do with her lectures!!! And she has a plethora of quizzes and that are all due at different times, and it is mainly a lot of jumping through flaming hoops of fire just to get a C. Barely. Like, I got a C because the class was curved, thank the Lord.

I repeat: If you are a North Campus person, you will hate this class. Do not be tempted by the fun topic. (labs were great for the most part, btw.) I devoted so much of my life to it, and it was still way hard. Deb = run from south campus.

My South Campus friends did not like her either, but they were able to soldier through better than myself.

Deb is one of the best professors I have had yet at UCLA. She knows her stuff and is always available if you have any questions about anything.

Professor Pires is amazing! She tells various stories and jokes during lectures, so class is always interesting. Her midterms and finals are very fair--there aren't any trick questions, although some of the grading for the short answer questions may be strict (but there is partial credit). As long as you read the book and study, the tests should be okay. (Also, make sure to go over the practice midterms and study guides she provides! They are VERY similar to the actual test.) The way the class is structured also gives a lot of points from areas other than exams. Participation is a huge chunk, so just show up to class (reading the book before coming to class helps answer her participation questions). A lot of the points are from the demo homework and reading/demo quizzes (which are a breeze if you read the book/demo handout). Professor Pires is also an incredibly sweet lady. She holds review sessions or office hours before every test, and is incredibly helpful in answering questions. If you do the work, you should earn a decent grade in this class.

She is an amazing lecturer and presents the material very well. I found myself excited to learn and attend her class. Sometimes she can be a little intimidating or seem annoyed after a long day of weird questions from students, but by all means: approach her, ask her questions, discuss things with her. One of her mottoes is that she'll answer anything. Her tests are kind of difficult but very very fair. Everything she tests on are answerable; you just have to do the work regularly. I didn't take AP bio; this was the first time i saw 95% of the material and i was able to get an A in the class. How to do it:
- be extremely attentive and learn DURING class. Don't wait for after. Take mad notes, even of specific examples that you may think are unimportant. If you miss something, relisten to lecture. Dear God relisten to lecture.
- Take every online quiz seriously. Some of the questions that are on there are on the midterm and finals. Prepare for the online quizzes by...
- ...Read your book! (it's a pretty good book anyway and doesn't seem precocious) Do not waste time retyping the book though. UNDERSTAND and MEMORIZE the material as you read and be able to apply. Again, pay attention to specific examples (and the figures) in the book too! The online book companion is extremely helpful. Know that she is a part of the people who edit the book, so she really likes the questions and examples.
- Every point counts and she gives you a lot of opportunities to get them. Take them!
- Lastly and most importantly, do REAL work EVERYDAY! even if you thoroughly read like 7 pages of the book or intensely re-read your notes on a lecture for some days. NEVER put things off.
I know that looks like a lot, but it's darn worth it seeing that A on a 5 unit LS class. :]

Despite being an interesting lecturer, she is impossible. LS1 consumed my life for the entire quarter, which not only made it so I could barely go out, but really affected my performance in other classes as well. It is really a shame because she is very smart and has so many interesting things to say, and with a few simple changes to make her less insane she could really spark an interest in biology in a lot of her students. When I say she is insane, she expects students to have enough time to relisten to every lecture, go through all of her slides outside of class, re-read the textbook, do all the exercises and questions in the textbook, come to every class and answer clicker questions, do lab reports every week, do all of her online multiple choice questions, along with lab quizzes and reading quizzes every single week in order to do well. The material isn't impossible, but who has time for that? Also, she assigned a cumulative demo project AFTER the final, so i had to change my flight home so I had enough time to get it done. If you have all the time in the world, you should do fine in the class. If not, take another professor.

Workload: 2 online quizzes and a lab assignment per week - also, attending lectures is mandatory as you will receive participation credit that is a part of your grade
Lectures: She is a really good lecturer - or a bad lecturer in some people's opinion, depending on what you prefer as your lecturing style. I personally really like the way she lectured, which was mostly by giving you a bunch of examples. She'll raise a topic in class, and then give you a lot of examples that back them up. Sometimes, she will go on semi-related tangents - sidestories, if you will, of examples for things that relate to the topic discussed. If you go to each lecture and really pay attention (and well, you have to anyways for participation), you will probably do well on the exams because a lot of what she tests you on is covered in the lectures.
Exams: Her exams are definitely fair. Her philosophy is that LS1 should be conceptual and theoretical - that is, you learn some concept, and you should be able to apply this concept to a hypothetical situation that you presents you with in a multiple choice question (ex: If a population of birds is experiencing -something-, then what will the consequences be based on the possibilities discussed in lecture?). That means that she tries to minimize the amount of raw memorization you will have to do, as opposed to some of the other LS classes you will have to take. Most of the exam is conceptual in the way I described above, however, there are still some questions which require memorizing. Nonetheless, this means you can probably put away the flash cards because you won't need them as much for this class. There is no curve for her class until the very end, but don't worry if you think you've bombed an exam, she gives out a lot of extra credit for her class so you can make up for it by doing the extra credit assignments.
Overall: As far as LS professors go, she will probably be one of the better ones to take - she really knows her stuff. It won't be a cakewalk getting an A (or even a B depending on how good you are at biology) but if you do all the stuff she assigns and do all the reading, then you will probably end up with a decent grade at the very least. I would definitely recommend her.

She is a great lecturer and seems very friendly when you first start the class, make no doubt about it. However, that doesn't mean that she is a great teacher. Her assignments and exams are ridiculously difficult and despite spending ridiculous amounts of time studying, I still feel like I did poorly on her exams. LS1 is inherently difficult and she lectures vary well, but beware that her exams are murder.

Pires is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. However, if you're just trying to get an A, I would not recommend her. Her tests are very difficult (although the same is said for any life science class. These are not the classes to take if you have no genuine interest in the life sciences). Despite her difficult tests, she is an excellent lecturer and you learn a lot from her. Only take her if you are interested in actually learning something

I had an absolutely horrific experience in this class. Believe me, I was not in denial about the amount of work or the level of difficulty of a life science class, but there is a big difference between difficult and unfair. I have never had a class where not one person is able to obtain an A, A-, or B+ on a midterm. Her questions are vague and seem to have more than 1 plausible answer. You read, attend all lectures, study for days, put in so much time and effort, yet the results you obtain are beyond ridiculous. This is a class full of premed and pre-dental students, so if the majority of the class is doing horribly, you have to ask if there's something wrong with the teaching methods of the professor. She is not approachable at all. She makes it seem as though she is, but when you do ask her a question, she makes it seem as though she's either too busy to answer it or that you're the dumbest person that she's ever come across.