Like everyone has said, Launchpad sucks! It's $105+ for the access code and a complete waste of money. However, you must purchase it because almost 1/3 of the class points come from Launchpad activities. It is extremely time consuming and expect to spend 3+ hours a night on homework. The two midterms and final aren't even based off Launchpad, so don't expect your hard work to pay off. They are application questions that are worded weirdly and are extremely hard to answer. Attendance to both lecture and discussions are mandatory. Lectures are solely clicker questions (you do need a clicker for the class that's about $50) and you don't learn any material, just review what you briefly learned through Launchpad. Overall, Maloy was a great professor. He was super enthusiastic during lectures and had a ton of office hours to assist students. He is genuinely one of the best professors you'll have at UCLA and you can tell he's passionate about teaching but is constrained by the format of the LS7 series. If you don't have to take this course for your major, DON'T, it definitely isn't an easy GE. But if you do have to, try to take it with Maloy.

This class is HARDCORE. Taking this class as an incoming freshman, I was immediately made aware of the academic rigor of UCLA. This class is extremely fast-paced and you have to remember so much material it is insane.
Maloy definitely cared about his students and hosted plenty of office hours, especially before midterms and the final. He was very engaging, and whenever he taught the class, I felt like I learned so much. He made 7A kind of bearable.
IIf you want to survive this class, make sure to always stay on top of it, and attend office hours!!! The exams are monsters so make sure you really study your ass off.

This was a deceptively hard class. I thought the material was simple enough but it was difficult to get used to the exam questions (we have 2 midterms and a final). They are application based and kind of weird. However, I put in a lot (a LOT) of time into this class and ended up doing well. Flipped classroom and launchpad suck, go to office hours and CLC sessions to learn the material. If you don’t have to take this class, I’d recommend against it just because it took way more time and effort than I thought it would.

This class most definitely was not a breeze. Every week we had several assignments due and readings. The tests were also unnecessarily difficult and it did not matter how much you studied. It did not in any shape or form test knowledge rather it was more about how well you take tests and critical thinking skills. This was most probably why the class was difficult as the tests are unpredictable and every time you come out of the exam you have no idea how well you did. My words of advice is to just try your best and hope things turn out your way. Overall though Dr. Maloy was a great professor and he hosted several office hours/q&a sessions to help prepare for exams.

I had Professor Maloy for 2 classes and in both courses, he clearly showed interest in helping students learn beyond the material. He held office hours where lecture content was not allowed to be brought up, it was strictly for asking him questions about careers, his experience, etc. Besides his thoughtfulness, he is also a great professor! The tests were fair and the workload was manageable.

I would definitely recommend his class and this professor! I found him to be a clear, concise lecturer and I really appreciated the many review sessions he held before midterms and finals. I would really, really advise people taking his class to take advantage of all the office hours and CLC sessions, both of which are super useful (way more useful than Launchpad) in understanding the material and preparing for the exams. Dr. Maloy offers a lot of these, so if I could go back and do this class all over again, I would probably go to more office hours!

However, like many other students, I found Launchpad and the whole idea of the flipped classroom to be pretty annoying, and oftentimes the material in Launchpad doesn't really correlate with what's being taught in lectures. Launchpad has a lot of extra information you don't really need, and although I took notes on Launchpad at first, it's not super helpful. I would recommend just skimming through Launchpad and only taking a few notes on the most important concepts or on the quizzes.

If you're taking this class with another professors other than Dr. Maloy, make sure to check out the other professor's reviews as well! I took the class with Dr. Lin and Dr. Maloy teaching together, and although I love Dr. Lin as a person, his teaching wasn't the most clear and I had to basically learn all of the second midterm's material on my own.

tl;dr Launchpad isn't important, take advantage of office hours/extra credit, and make sure to check out the second professor's reviews!

Maloy is a great professor! His lectures are engaging, informative, and helpful to review when preparing for his midterms and final. Moreover, he provides a lot of assistance during his office hours. For Maloy's exams, you don't need to memorize anything, just be able to apply the knowledge you've learned in class; you'll be asked many critical thinking type questions. Be prepared, as the LS 7 series courses are inverted classes with your grade based on a point system. Inverted means that you'll learn most of your material on your own through LaunchPad (which make up a significant amount of the points in the class), only coming to class to reinforce what you've read/learned. The points refer to how many points each part of the course is worth out of a total. Make sure to snag the easy points like LaunchPad and discussion participation. Be sure to manage your time and ask Maloy questions throughout the quarter.

I loved this class! The content was super interesting, challenging and I feel like I have learnt a lot from it. Dr. Maloy is an amazing professor. He cares so much about his students it’s crazy. He explains things so well and sparks a great interest in the subject. He also holds a lot of review sessions and office hours, which are super helpful.

While I did enjoy this class, I do have to acknowledge that LS 7A as a class has a lot of issues. To begin with, Launchpad is a horrible resource. While the idea of a flipped classroom is great, Launchpad is just not the resource for it. It gives you so much unnecessary information and is a waste of time. Secondly, I had half the class with Dr. Lin who I learnt nothing from. Thirdly, the exams for this class is quite tough and it can be difficult to know how to prepare for. Of course, you can succeed if you put a good amount of effort and work smart.

Overall, despite certain issues I highly recommend taking LS 7A with Maloy. You can succeed in this class if you focus on the lecture slides, clicker questions and go for office hours and review sessions.

Also shout out to my TA Jensen. This guy was the real MVP of the class. He helped us so much and was honestly even better than Maloy. He is the only reason I survived the Lin period.

Professor Maloy is definitely the best professor to take LS 7A with. He gives engaging lectures and knows the content like the back of his hand. The problem with the 7 series is that it’s in a flipped class style. So you’ll be taking online quizzes and doing homework before every lecture. Lecture is mostly participation and clicker questions. The exams are all true and false, MC and can be a bit difficult. I got a B- and then a B+ on the first and second midterm, respectively and then a straight B on the final and still managed to get an A (the reason is because Launchpad gives you a huge boost). Take this class with Dr. Maloy!

695 points total
90 midterm 1
120 midterm 2
200 final
remaining points from launchpad/clicker/other that should be free points
few EC points

Good professor, good class. It is not too difficult if you have taken a Chem class like 14A or 20A or have taken AP Biology. Then a good chunk of it is review. The exams are fair, though they always have a few questions that are confusing due to wording. This class is not about memorizing, and more about problem solving.