Dr. Pham is a pretty good teacher and this class was more than fair. Do some of his practice tests and you're set for the tests. The discussion quizzes were easy. They do depend on your TA, but mine were very easy and most people's sounded easy as well. The videos you have to watch can be long, but if you keep up with them and go to class you'll learn everything you need to. That being said, this class isn't easy, but if you put in the work (and the amount of work you need to put in isn't really that much compared to other science classes), you'll be fine. In my opinion, this is the best LS out of 1-4.

I took this class in Spring 2017-- It was definitely very manageable. I wasn't and still am not very interested in genetics, but the structure of the class made it an easy A. It was taught in a flipped classroom style, which meant that every week we would have to watch two 90-minute videos (looked like they were from Bruincast in the early 2000s) and take a 10-question quiz on ccle after each video, which was very time consuming. The quizzes aren't worth very much-- Pham drops the lowest five scores.
There are also quizzes during discussion each week, that test material taught during the previous week. The quiz question is pulled directly from the assigned homework questions, and is graded all or nothing (really not a big deal, as long as you do the problems or look at the solutions before hand). Pham also drops the lowest or 2 lowest discussion quiz scores.
The midterms and final were very very doable-- Pham uploads a BUNCH of his old exams onto ccle. The most effective way I studied for the exams was just by doing all of his old tests-- the same type of questions appear on his actual exams pretty much word for word.

tl;dr: very doable class, long videos, drops lowest quiz grades, do the practice exams.

Dr. Pham is an amazing professor. The class layout is a little different since it a "flipped classroom". This means that before lectures, you are to watch videos (about an hour long for each lecture) that teaches you the material, and then in class Dr Pham will go over key points and do practice problems. I happen to like this since it gave me more time to try my hand at the practice problems and see the correct way of thinking about them. Dr. Pham also gives all his past exams on the class website. If you spend the time to do them all (which you will need a lot of time to do them), I feel it basically guarantees good grades. I don't understand why people don't do them when it is offered. An A is very doable in this class but you HAVE to put in the time to practice. Highly recommend Dr Pham, he is amazing

People give Pham a hard time but I don't think he deserves it. Yes, he has an accent but it's not super thick. He is really friendly and can make some good jokes once in a while.

LS4 with Pham is one of the easiest LS classes you can take. The workload isn't light but it's easy to do well in this class if you try. A quiz before every lecture and one during discussion feels like a huge chore but it does help your grade a ton because the quizzes are easy. The textbook is not really necessary because the homework that comes from it is not for a grade but the discussion quiz questions come straight from the homework/book.

The midterms are really easy because Pham gives you all of his old tests. Just do those and you will be very well prepared for the midterms. If you can score 90 or above on every midterm you are golden. The final is difficult compared to how easy the midterms were. Just study a lot for the final and you will be fine.

Enjoy the class while it lasts. I hated/sucked at genetics in high school but I did really well in this class and liked this class the most out of all of the LS lower divs.

LS4 with professor pham is a good experience. Workload is low because he walks through the problems with you in class so you can save time going to office hours. His exams are also fair and easy if you understand the problems he goes through in class and do the practice midterms. He also explains problems clearly and repeats the important parts so just attending the lecture and discussions alone is sufficient to prepare for exams.

2 midterms: 100 points/each
Final cumulative : 200 points
online quizzes: 2.5 points/each
weekly discussion quizzes: 5 points/each

Professor Pham are very nice and helpful. The way to do well in the class is to go to office hour, WORK on his practice exams EARLY. Reading the book is not important as doing practice problems on his passed exams. Think of every exam like running a marathon, in order to do well, you HAVE to practice. Although the workload is somewhat demanding, it is reasonable for the nature of the 5-units-class. I fall in love with genetics after I take the class and I am sure you will too. LS4 could be challenging but it is fun, like solving puzzles!!!

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!

Took LS4:
This class was absolutely terrible. I came into this class excited since I'm into genetics (turns out I really only cared about Molec. Gen). To put it bluntly, they could categorize this under the Math department and it would be a more accurate classification than an LS class. Seriously, this class is all about learning to do probabilities. I did well on the first midterm because I took AP Bio and I was riding off that knowledge for the first 4 weeks. Didn't learn a single thing until he started talking about gene linkage, at which point stuff got confusing real fast.
Weekly quizzes sucked. All it came down to was memorizing answers to homework problems and regurgitating them onto paper for 5 measly points a week, for 8 weeks.
Apparently he does this thing where you can bomb the first 2 midterms and as long as you do really well on the final he'll give you an A in the class.
Can't speak English, can't teach, keeps saying "I want you to do well in this class/on the next midterm" and he makes the next test harder so the average is 13% lower. This guy seriously cannot teach, I learned everything from the TA's. I don't have a single positive thing to say about this guy. He's not even that nice of a person.

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!