So I took this class thinking it was going to just be a really easy GE... I was so wrong. I trusted people who said it was an easy A and now after my first year, I'm not surprised that ucla students are trying to give themselves a better advantage by screwing other people over. As someone who wants others to learn from the mistakes I've made- I am letting you know this class, especially for a freshman like I was, is not easy. This class honestly made part of my freshman year miserable. Please learn from my mistake...

Sorry, this system has no way to edit a post, but I submitted the previous evaluation and noticed an error. I took MCDB 50 with Pham during Fall of 2010, not 2011.

This course's workload was a lot more than I thought it would be. Seeing the statistics makes you fail to recognize it is still not an easy class. Somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the students dropped the course because it was very difficult and workload was a little too much. The exams were pretty unfair (meaning it was unclear what would and would not be on the exams) and his accent makes it very hard to understand him. I would avoid taking this class with him and try taking it with another professor if possible. I am a junior now and if you're an incoming freshmen I would highly recommend you save this course for another quarter once you are used to the quarter system, seeing how many of those who dropped were freshmen according to the professor. If you end up taking him, I wish you good luck.

I took MCDB 60 with Pham my freshman year. You would think a GE would be easier compared to upper division science classes, but this class proves that this is not necessarily the case. Pham's an alright lecturer, his accent is definitely thick and noticeable though. I had way too many seniors in my class and they were always the ones that set the curves for all the tests. There's no way to compete with people who have more experience than you. I would not recommend this class. As an MCDB major, I know that there are MUCH easier and many more do-able classes. Pham requires you to turn in written assignments that you spend so much time working and never get the credit you deserve. I worked my ass off for a B. This class is one of my lowest in all my ucla career. Such a joke to have a B in a GE class.

Classes taken with Dr. Pham: LS 4 - Genetics and MCDB 50 - stem cell ethics.

LS4 - Spring 2011:
Genetics is a tough subject. During the quarter I took it, it was either Pham or Merriam teaching it. Since Pham opted to only have 2 midterms as opposed to Merriam's 4 and drop 1 midterms, I took Pham. Pham is one of professors who are concerned with student learning, even though it might take him a few tries to get the point across. I find that this is the decent combination for me because I wouldn't have my hand held by the professor yet I could still ask him for help.

As the others have said, by the time people take LS4, they're all pretty smart. The curves were definitely not optimistic, but I hunkered down and got through Pham's class with a good grade.

MCDB 50 - Fall 2011:
Pham taught the second half of this course, the ethics portion. Again, he was concerned with student learning, but ethics required more teacher-pupil communication. I felt that his accent greatly hurt his ability to teach this class *well*, but that's not to say this class was horrible. Every quarter, this class is taught by a different professor and they keep changing the way the class is structured, so your mileage may vary. Having prior knowledge of genetics, embryology, or philosophy goes a long way in this class, but they are definitely not required to do well. It can be a tough class, definitely wouldn't recommend it as an easy A, but interesting material.

Overall:
Yes, Dr. Pham has a standard Vietnamese accent, but he has good teaching intentions, something that many professors don't have. I would take him if you want a challenging, yet entirely possible to get a good grade if you're willing to put in the work kind of class.

This class is definitely no work up until the midterms, the paper and the final. No one does the readings because they are POINTLESS and DONT SHOW UP ON ANY OF THE EXAMS. To do well on the exams you have to MEMORIZE the slides he shows in lectures which are up online. MEMORIZE THEM WORD FOR WORD. Because the questions that show up expect you to answer directly from the slides and if you even miss ONE WORD you lose points. The professor has a THICK accent but it doesn't matter because his lecture does not help.
Having a good TA makes the ultimate difference because they answer all your questions.
And if you have old exams, the questions repeat over and over again.
To do well- memorize everything before exams, don't read a word of the course reader and approach your TA a lot.

He is OK and has an accent. And I am a non-science major and take this class as a GE. This is being said everything I learned in this class is new to me. However there is crap load of science majors in this class but I ended up with a B. The reason why I got B is because there is 30% free credit (attendance+discussion assignment+participation). Trust me, if you are not science major, you will suffer a lot in this class, but I wouldn't say to avoid this class.

Why take MCDB 60 as a GE class when there are so many other choices available? Trust me, it's not worth the effort. The workload for this class is pretty crazy, especially for a GE. I mean the exams are just pure rote memorization. To do well in the class, you have to memorize WORD FOR WORD ALL OF HIS POWERPOINTS, and there is A LOT to memorize. The only way you can do well in the class is if you get past exams and memorize everything. I mean Pham seems like a nice guy, but hey, that won't help your GPA. Avoid this class if you can.

I took MCDB 40 in the fall of 2011. Although not a science major and therefore only taking science classes as GEs, I took an incredibly thorough AP Biology class in high school and passed the AP with a 5. With all that biology experience, I found this class to be quite basic; in fact, none of the material was as in-depth as my AP bio class. However, to be fair, if you have very minimal experience in biology, you will likely find this class to be difficult. While Pham had great teaching intentions and seems like a nice guy, he is very hard to understand and the lecturers are dull. I honestly wouldn’t have bothered going to class, but he requires a clicker for every lecture and does count clicker participation in your grade. Some pluses are that there is basically no homework as the minimal reading (not even from a textbook but from a self-help type book for those living with HIV/AIDs) is unnecessary and no one bothered. The only other homework was watching 3 different movies, which was actually quite fun. Discussion sections are also required and not much happened in them, although I would recommend my TA (I believe his name was John). Another caution is that service hours are required for this class. If you are without a car, as I was, you will have to find a way to get to West Hollywood or downtown LA, where all of the AIDS-related organizations seem to be located. Thank god I had Fridays off or I never would have completed those hours, so be forewarned when you sign up for this class. In the end, I did end up with an A+ but it was far from being a great class.

Course taken: LS4

ABOUT THE PROF:
Pham is one of the professors who you describe as "He's a good person at heart, but just insane when he writes his tests" it's not all his fault, the LS Office sets standards on what the curves should be, politics, blah blah, etc.

TESTS:
HIS TESTS ARE HARD!
You need to be a wiz kid to be in the top 5%, and if you study what you would normally to get average to B+ (relative to the curve). I took the class in Spring 2013 and the averages were 65% and 67% for the midterms.

THE CLASS:
The material is like you can learn on your own.
Pham explains things slowly sometimes spends 45 minutes on an example. If you have trouble understanding accents, Best of Luck. A good alternative is to try using your TA sections to introduce the concepts, do some self study, and go to office hours.

RESOURCES:
Best resource to study for this class are the practice tests. For some topics, the book helps as well. Don't buy the textbook, it's available online so are the solutions! Just ask around your friends.

THINGS I WOULD'VE DONE DIFFERENTLY:
I'm not gonna say don't study the night before the test. But more importantly get good sleep (none of that 8 hour B.S. I'm talking a solid 9-12 hours of sleep) It's in your hands, make it happen and best of luck!