LS4: Pham is good, but his accent is really hard to understand, so when you're first learning the material from him, it's hard to understand what he's saying, but his slides make up for it, so the next time he talks about it, you'll understand given that you study.

LS 4

So personally, I think a teacher's accent isn't a roadblock to any student's success in a class. Yes, Dr. Pham has a very thick accent, but the majority of people who paid attention in class understood everything he said.

With that said, I don't think you need Dr. Pham nor the textbook to succeed in his class. He gives you all the past exams for both midterms and sample final exam questions before the final. What more can you ask for? I did all of these and got an A in the class. Put in the time and effort and it should be very straightforward. Sure he isn't the ideal professor, but LS4 is a less than ideal course.

LS4

I thought Pham was a really great professor. Yea, his accent's a little thick, but pay attention and you'll be able to understand what he's staying. Also, he's EXTREMELY nice. People would always ask him questions while he was lecturing and he would answer every single one of them. Even if it was a question to repeat what he said. I went up to him after lecture once to ask him how to do a problem and he walked through it with me and made sure I completely understood at the end. I've never had a professor so nice.

Regarding his tests. Yea they can be tricky, but he gives you ALL of his past tests. So do them! If you have questions, go to his office hours and ask him. He'll show you the tricks and the shortcuts that make the problems so much easier.

In short, I loved taking LS4 with Pham. I got an A just by doing as many of his past tests that I could, all the homework, and asking questions when I had them. And honestly, that was the first A I had ever gotten in a science class.

Also, taking LS4 with Pham over summer is significantly easier than the regular school year. But just as doable during the regular school year if you do the homework and past tests.

LS4

I don't know why everyone is bashing this guy.
He's a great professor - extremely knowledgable, passionate and friendly. The course itself is a sedative but Pham does a great job keeping my attention and I'm 100% focused during lectures.

The class is difficult by nature - if you hated 3C you're in for another trip - but he posts ALL his past tests - just do (and understand) every single one and you'll be good come midterm/ finals.

I can't stand complainers, suck it up and put in the work and you'll get the results you want. Don't blame the professor - there are so many resources out there for you to use.

Lastly, enough about his accent... it's thick, but seriously grow up. He knows his shit. Respect it.

increible

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.

So I took this class with 14 other units, this is LS 107 BTW. I didn't put much effort into studying so I got a C. But basically its a flip classroom, where you watch videos at home and do online quizzes and you go into lecture and do clicker questions. His exams are based on old exams which he provides you with. They are the same exact questions as old exams so just study old exams and you will get an A.

LS 4 is phasing out, but from the description of LS 107, they should be very, very similar. Here's some of my background and a guide to doing well, as someone who got an A+.

Preface: not really having had a bio background before starting the LS 1-4 series, I have to say that LS 2 and 3 were difficult for me, unlike most students here. Breezed through LS 1, did decently in LS 2, got pretty wrecked by LS 3 (mainly because of how questions were asked).

I got to LS 4 and I FINALLY felt super comfortable -- and anyone should be able to do well by remaining calm and thinking things through. This class is so, so methodical, with a lot of simple statistics / probability and basic math. There are definitely nuances, but do not let them get to you!

Pham posts old exams and makes his new ones very similar to his old ones. But you can't go completely off rote memorization of answers to certain types of problems - unless you can also back it up with memorizing the set-up/wording of the question. That is actually about half of what I did, though I also ended up connecting it back to my theoretical knowledge. I'll definitely say that's probably the quickest way to learn IF you're someone who can learn by looking at answers, understanding what happened, and working backwards.

Even if you aren't, I suggest doing this to guide your studying, because with how many old exams he has, you won't be losing out too much by giving up the experience of working through a couple problems. I imagine how he teaches LS 107 shouldn't change too much. So once again, pay careful attention to wording, connect that back to theoretical concepts, and then view answers. If his answer keys are too vague which admittedly they often are, go directly to where he problem-solves in class and listen to his explanation.

When test days start rolling around, be able to balance between going straight through a full exam, and then narrowing your focus to very specific types of problems. If you're shaky on certain things, you do not want to keep just "hoping" you'll get better at it based off the experience of just one practice exam, or hoping you get one specific version of a problem because that's not true mastery.

This is what I mean by going through different exams and reading the different set-ups of the same basic problem and how they lead to different answers. You'll learn a lot and be able to build up a lot of speed/efficiency by practicing the same type of problem. It helps with the psychological aspect of test-taking as well, realizing that focusing on one thing at a time will very concretely produce results. Again, you'll need to balance between breadth and depth to maximize efficiency; unless you start super early in terms of studying you should NOT just do one or the other.

As for me, I only ever started reviewing/studying 2-4 days before the exam because I always had physics and chem exams during the same day/week. But hey, here was my grade breakdown:

Clicker attendance: 30/30
Online quizzes (drop 4 out of 16): 30/30
Discussion quizzes (drop 2 out of 10): 40/40
Midterm 1: 99/100
Midterm 2: 100/100
Final: 187/200 (93.5%)
Total: 486/500 (97.2%) = A+

It's genuinely not that hard to become an expert at each type of problem, especially if you work with friends who are often better at one type of thing or another. I was good at only 60-80% of the exam content for midterm 1, 2, and post midterm 2 material, but was able to become competent at basically everything by sharing/exchanging knowledge among friends.

The tools are essentially all there for you in this class! There are definitely some rare caveats that will take some sleuthing to figure out sometimes, unfortunately, but that's what TAs and LAs are for. One example that I can think of is choosing the most number of exconjugant in circle problems; there are special cases for these.

Because LS4 is phasing out, I'll use this review to talk more about Professor Pham than the class. As you probably read in other reviews, he does have a thick accent, but you can still understand what he is saying. It's a challenge but it's not impossible. If you really have trouble though, remember that TAs are there to help you as well. Overall, he tries really hard to help students and cares about his students succeeding. This past quarter, I've been to his office hours where he solves problems specifically requested by students until they understand the content. However, when it gets closer to exam time and he is running out of time to deliver all of the material, he can get a little frantic and jump around all over the place instead of fixating on a single topic. This can be frustrating especially when you need clear guidance, but again, turn to your other resources: TAs, friends, notes, etc.

He cares about you learning, but there is a disconnect between the lectures and the actual midterm. All you need to do to get an A in this class is practice the problems from the past midterms and finals that he makes available to everyone in the class. It was a very interesting class and made me very interesting in the field of genetics.