This professor definitely tries to help students, but he's just a bad professor. In the class portion, he takes forever to go over a single problem, and when people ask him legitimate questions he doesn't quite answer them. The tests are not really like anything in class, either. In the end, what you learn from this class is how to understand his questions and memorize his tricks, and you just have to compromise and be okay with not understanding the actual genetics behind it. This class was just one giant frustrating experience. If you just do his previous practice tests and study clicker Q's if he emphasizes a new concept (for us it was cloning and cancer, wasn't on any of the previous tests), you'll be fine.

Pham is a nice guy, he really is. But, he has an accent that's extremely hard to understand and during class he goes back and fourth between slides a lot so it's really difficult to get his point. And, the workload is so much with Launchpad activities, and those aren't even on any of the midterms/finals. The questions on the tests I feel were very unfair because they were ALL true/false and the ones that weren't were worded super confusingly.

I took LS3 with Pham over the summer during session C. I thought he was a very fair teacher. His accent is a little hard to understand at times, but he basically just reads straight off the power point. His tests are straight from the slides so you really don't have to read the book. It can be tricky, but the class definitely wasn't as hard as it could have been. He gets 1 or 2 short answer questions from the practice midterm he posts. His short answer is where most of the points are taken from- he looks for key words so make sure you memorize the names. This class is more vocab than anything and is really doable.

I took Dr. Pham for LS3 instead of Dr. Pires and I regretted it once I was in week 5. This guy doesn't teach very well. The first five weeks, he was very slow and no one paid attention. The last five weeks, he was very fast and no one could follow him. His class is heavy on exams which are heavily based off of previous exams. If you memorize the questions and answers to previous exams, you have 70% or more of the upcoming of the exam done.
Dr. Pham makes biology more rote memorization than anything. Better to take Dr. Pires. Her tests are fair and take a bit more thinking. Preps you up for LS4 much better.

LS 4
Grade: A

Listen to the reviews. You do NOT need the textbook and the solutions manual for this class. You do NOT need to do a single book problem that he has listed in the first page of his slides.

Do ALL of the practice exams, understand them, and you should be fine. At some point, you will have to ask Dr. Pham or your TA, so go to their office hours. Even though he was not my assigned TA, I went to Vincent's office hours before the midterms and asked him questions on the CCLE forum before the final. Although his sense of humor isn't for me (kind of sarcastic, just letting you know), he is one of the most helpful TAs I have had! If you ask him a question, he should answer it in a clear manner. I am glad that he was a TA for a class this quarter, as he made LS 4 more bearable. Vincent, if you are somehow reading this, thank you! You will go on to great things, and I sincerely hope that you plan on being a professor. Thank you for your help this quarter.

Now, on to Dr. Pham. He seems to be a fairly nice person, although I never went to his office hours. I emailed him once, and he responded fairly promptly. You should attend lecture because you have to do clicker questions. Fortunately, he does not grade on accuracy, so as long as you do all of the questions for a given lecture, you should get all the points. You can miss up to three lectures and still get full credit. Class was at 8 am, so just be prepared to get to class on time. Don't memorize his slides like you would do for LS2 and LS3. I reviewed them after each lecture, but I made it my priority to get each and every one of the practice exams done. There are 15 for MT 1, 15 for MT 2, and for the final, he gives you previous final questions, which take less time than all of the practice midterms, but still take them seriously. Also, one exception for the slides: Be sure to especially look over the molecular genetics slides-more specifically, the questions on the plants and whether or not there is an RFLP mutation or something like that. Again, just be sure to do all the exams Dr. Pham gives you and you should do well in the class. Avoid making stupid math mistakes (averages are high for the exams), and a good thing about Pham is that he doesn't curve down. Good luck!

LS4

Pham can teach genetics as well as he can speak english (read: can't teach for his god damned life). He is honestly the worst teacher I've ever had when it comes to providing explanations. Part of it is because his accent is horrible and he constantly says the wrong thing without correcting himself. Most of the problem, however, is the fact that he was clearly never meant to be a professor. He can't convey concepts.

Ignore the course, I took Pham for LS 4 during the Spring of 2011.

I found him to be, overall, a great professor. He brings a certain excitement to genetics that I didn't think was possible. This was by far my favorite class of the LS series because of Pham. I ended up with an A- in the class, and I think that as long as you make sure to read the sections he suggests from the book, along with doing the homework problems and going over his notes, you should be able to achieve at least the same grade. That being said, there are a lot of other smart kids in the class, so you have to stay on top of the material, because if you fall behind, it is hard to keep up, as one concept seems to build on the other. Pham is extremely approachable, and holds many office hours and a weekly review session of his topics (something he is not required to do at all). He truly cares about student learning, and if you get the chance, I would strongly recommend this class with him!

Pham is a great professor and really puts efforts into ensuring that his children understand every word he says. He's very patient and solves all doubts with genuine interest. His lecture slides are very helpful, and the online textbook and videos aid in concept clarity. His exams can have some trick questions that may be difficult to deal with, if you don't pay attention in class.
The discussions are compulsory, and so are the quizzes and the online videos. All of them carry substantial weight, so this class requires a lot of consistency.

This review is for LS 107 which was one of my first courses at UCLA (I'm a transfer). I have to say I was intimidated at first, but ended up enjoying the course very much by the end.
The previous reviews are very accurate. Dr. Pham is an incredibly kind man, super knowledgeable in the field of genetics, and just wants his students to succeed. He has a decently thick accent but I got completely used to it by week 2. The most important study tool in this class are his previous midterms which he posts on CCLE. Pay very close attention to the format, length, problem style, and problem wording when you practice these tests.

In regards of study material, the class consists of:
-Textbook (used it in the first weeks, realized it is not needed at all)
-Clicker questions (critical for getting the basis of concepts for the more heavy problems, and worth participation points)
-Discussion worksheets (sample midterm questions your TA solves)
-Weekly CCLE worksheets (more sample midterm questions for practice)
-Weekly discussion quizzes (depends on TA, based on prev week's wkst)
-Lecture slides (for general concept and clicker Q's)
-Previous midterms (many get posted on CCLE, do as much as you can starting with most recent ones)
-Bruincast videos (Dr. Lasky explaining concepts, since LS107 is now a flipped classroom where you come to class primarily to solve problems)
-Online quizzes (based off the videos)

As you can see there is a ton of study material here. I think you will have no problem getting a high grade in this class if you understand how to solve nearly all problem types that he emphasizes. I went to my TA many times for help, and by the test time I knew how to solve pretty much every problem.
My scores:
Participation 44/44
Online Qz 26/26
Discussion Qz 30/30
MT1 97/100
MT2 100/100
Final Exam 191/200
Final grade 488/500 = 97.6%

The averages for all exams were really high (MT 1 was about 78%, MT2 was IN THE 90's!!, final was 83%). You will be fine, don't worry.
I hope my review was thorough and helpful! Good luck in the course and in your future endeavors.

It doesn't really matter who you have for LS7A, as the class is standardized (everyone takes the same exams, has the same assignments, same text, lectures, etc.). So if I were you I'd pick the time that's most convenient rather than going for a specific professor.
The most important thing to remember about this class is that everything you do matters. Go to every discussion, don't miss a single assignment, and don't miss more than 2 lectures (you get two free absences) as there is no curve in the class and there are a lot of "non-exam" points, and you wanna optimize on all of these points since the exam can get quite tricky at times. I wouldn't say the material itself on the exams was difficult, there was minimal memorization and the concepts were pretty easy to understand, but the questions would get quite obscure and the wording was designed in a way to trick you at times. They key to doing well in the class is practice over absorbing material, if that makes sense. You have to get used to the way questions will be framed in exams. So focus on clicker questions and practice exam questions, and I'd also recommend going to the LA review sessions because they give you more questions to practice.
Pham specifically was alright tho. He definitely has an accent but you get used to is pretty quickly so it's not that bad. He's also very nice and willing to help you if you ask him.