Y'all need to chill on Deb.

I came in this class expecting the absolute worst on her because everyone I knew had terrible things. And in all honesty, this class turned out to be better than everything that I have heard on her. In addition, I asked a lot of my classmates in the discussion about what they thought of her and they were all positive too and not even one person I talked to had harsh, negative things to say.

Most people who have taken LS 7B have most likely taken 7A so the format is the same.
The course is graded based on two midterms (120 points each), Launchpad activities (150 points total), Clickers (75 points w/ 3 free clicker days), Lab Section (150 points), and an easy survey that the LS core makes you complete (10 points) including, and the Final (200 points).

Because the LS series has a flipped classroom style of learning, students do most of their learning on Launchpad anyway, therefore, I personally do not think who you have as a professor matters. Therefore, I believe how well you do in these classes depends on how well you can self-study on your own. The professor does not matter too much but I still think Deb was still good to have as a teacher.

Deb just goes through clickers (like the rest of the 7B professors) and explains them and while some clickers were confusing, she did a good job explaining them. Not only that, she always had a smile on her face and she remembered a lot of students who came to lecture. She would always stop to make conversation and try to talk to a lot of people about their lives. Not too many know this, but sometimes when students asked questions in class and she would ask them to say the question out loud for the rest of the class to hear, she would personally go back and apologize to that student and say that they had a good question and it was a good learning opportunity for everyone. I used to email Deb sometimes for random questions and she emailed almost immediately or in less than 24 hours. Knowing how busy she is and how many emails she gets from all the courses she teaches, it's nice to know that you are not completely insignificant.

She gave opportunities for extra credit too. There were multiple surveys given out by the LS core throughout the quarter and they at most took me 3-4 min to complete and each survey was an extra 2 points. So you had an opportunity to earn 8 extra credit points (4 surveys).

I am writing this review because I in no way deserved an A in this course. I did mediocre on my midterms and not too well on my final. However, when I looked at my final grade, I saw that I received an A. When I punched in the numbers for my grade it turned out even with doing all the extra credit, I would not have made it but Deb decided to curve everyone up a bit and that is how I received an A instead of an A-. Guys, taking Deb will not screw you. I thought she was great and I believe people should take a chance.

Anyone who claims this class is impossible or that the test questions are unfair is not studying correctly i assure you. I attended literally not even a third of the lectures this entire quarter (gave my clicker to my friend for the rest) and did all the launchpad quizzes by using quizlet. I didn't do a single launchpad reading. All I did was watch the bruincasted lectures at 2x speed and write notes down onto the lecture notes and clicker questions. I studied for both midterms no more than 2 days in advance (meaning I began even looking at the material at all) and I got a 98 and a 97. Yes the tests are difficult, but I promise you if you quite literally just take notes from the lectures and just read the slides/clicker questions you'll sail by without a problem.

I hate this class the most out of any of the seven series classes. Here's how I sum the material: 7A is somewhat interesting, 7C is hard but very interesting, 7B is slop they taught me in 7th grade. The biggest problem with 7B is also the biggest problem with the 7 series as a whole. I'll split this problem into 7 parts. 1. The tests are all MCQs that are meant to trick you. 2. The material in 7B is so easy that they have to go to great lengths to try to make a T/F question hard. And the other five parts of the problem are all Debra Pires. I approached her about the questions seven times throughout the year, and all seven times she would respond the same, with seven moments of absolute certainty and clarity that Lucy and Sam's seven great-grand uncles did not have seven heterozygous stepfathers named Tyler Bilodeau. Now that is a lot of sevens, which is probably the score that I give Debra. She gets a 7/100. Why you may ask? This absolute specimen is responsible for creating this series. You've got to give her some credit; she managed to turn a subject that my 7th-grade biology teacher (bless her soul) ingrained so easily into my young mind into an absolute catastrophe of a learning experience. Once I approached her about a midterm question I got wrong, explained to her that I have a photographic memory, drew the question fully out on her whiteboard, drew the textbook passage next to it, explained my answer and why her foolish double negative MCQ style was just a bit of incoherent tomfoolery, and told her to correct my grade. She told me that my answer was also right, but that she wouldn't correct my grade, and that she didn't like my shoes. Don't get me wrong, this class will be much the same with any teacher, just don't take it with the ring leader. Debra Pires is 7x worse than if you combined Mick Cronin and Amy Schumer.

7 series is still terrible, but deb pires somehow makes it worse. 7b is definitely the easiest of the series, but do yourself a favor and take it with anyone other than deb

I know a lot of folks have mixed feelings about Debra but from my own personal experience, I looked forward to her lectures every week. The course itself, if you're a big fan of genetics, is basically disneyland everytime you learn something new (until you get to the end, where it starts talking about non-genetics stuff). Debra is really passionate about this class, and her lectures were very engaging and filled with laughter (sometimes). It really is a hit or miss if you decide to take her. Either you'll get the Debra that she portrayed during my quarter, or you'll get the Debra that everyone else in the reviews are talking about. Either way, the course itself is really interesting, so as long as you go in with an open mind, it should be okay!

I had Dr. Pires for LS 7A and genuinely enjoyed her teaching, so I was looking forward to having her again. Unfortunately, during this class, I often felt discouraged from asking questions, as on multiple occasions, when I sought clarification, her responses made me feel as though my questions were unwelcome or not worth asking. This created an unapproachable atmosphere, where students didn't often feel comfortable seeking help.
As for the class itself, the content often felt disjointed, which made it hard to build a clear understanding of the material. The exams were really confusing and didn’t always seem to reflect the biology concepts we were learning. On top of that, you don’t get your exams back, so it’s hard to learn from mistakes. Honestly, succeeding in this class is more dependent on figuring out the professor’s intentions behind vaguely worded questions than on actually knowing the material.
That said, this class is required for the LS 7 series and most life science majors, so it’s not really avoidable. If you’re taking it, I’d recommend going to PLF sessions and practicing with as many old exams as possible to get used to the formatting of the questions.

I absolutely despised this class dont be fooled by my semi-okay grade (I definitely could have done better). The main problem with this class is the exams, everything else is difficult but manageable. The exams are on average graded 20% incorrectly which can literally tank your grade even if you knew every part of the material. Plus there are 6 total exams, and they dont give you your answers back after, so you will never learn how to Improve. I dont think this is a specific thing to Pires class, I just found her class style unengaging, boring and incredibly unhelpful though she is nice (enough). A lot of other reviews talk about this but yes you teach the material to yourself, then go to lecture to clarify, which in theory would be great and kind of is EXCEPT no amount of understanding of the material is enough for the exams. If you really really love biology not just think you do you will probably be okay, but be prepared to work the hardest you've ever worked and still barely scrape by! All in all hate the 7 series with a passion and they should get rid of it

This class was quite meh in my opinion. I lowkey did not pay attention to lecture at all because I found her a little boring, but it wasn't the most boring class ever (she does have some interesting stories she tells). Be warned that the first midterm (individual part) tends to be an ego-check - most people don't do that well, but if you do fine on the final and the group parts of the tests you will be okay. (My grades were 70, 85, 85 on individual midterm 1, 2, and final respectively, but I still ended with an A!)
I used the slides to study, but they're honestly quite janky (the Clickers are for some reason a separate slideshow so you need to cross reference the slides sometimes). One other problem I have is that they post practice tests, but then no answers to those tests, forcing you to use campuswire/office hours to see if you got the answers right - very pointless in my opinion.

Most of my issues with the course don't lie with Dr. Pires directly, but rather the structure of the LS 7 series as a whole. Pires does a solid job explaining concepts in lecture, especially when she walks through clicker questions. Her rationale is really easy to follow, and you definitely never feel belittled for messing up. If anything, Pires' approach towards and passion for teaching really shines, and makes the course somewhat tolerable.

That being said, I wouldn't say this course was enjoyable at all. The biggest issue with the course is the tests. Many of the questions are worded confusingly, and can trip you up no matter how well prepared you felt or how much you studied. At some point, the tests were not about "how much do you know about the subject and how well can you apply it." Instead, they felt gimmicky, and were a better metric of how well you can read the intent of a question that has multiple, equally valid interpretations. It was tiresome to deal with this, and caused a lot of unnecessary anguish. And of course, in typical LS 7 series fashion, most of the actual learning is done outside of class, whereas class is more dedicated to just reviewing.

TL;DR - this course's structure is frustrating at best, but if you have to take it, Pires is a very solid professor to take it with.

I am just glad I'm free.