Professor

Jay Phelan

AD
4.4
Overall Ratings
Based on 446 Users
Easiness 3.0 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.0 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.5 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.4 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (446)

3 of 53
3 of 53
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Dec. 6, 2016
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: N/A

Phelan was a great! The material is basically high school biology, but he introduces it in an interesting way that gets you thinking about how the world works. Selling both books (Mean Genes and What is Life). Text **********

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Jan. 5, 2017
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: A

BEST PROFESSOR AND BEST CLASS POSSIBLE. Changed my whole outlook on science and the world around me. I had never done any science classes in high school and was really dreading the GE requirements. LIFE SAVER

You need the main text book What is Life + the online disc is really helpful as he posts similar questions as those in the final on there. You dont really need the mean genes as I got an A not having touched it once. I have the paper back version of the text book, the Online portal access, and summaries of every single chapter necessary till the final that im willing to give away. I bought them for 140$ and spent hours on the summaries and can tell you I skipped half the classes but still got an A. If youre interested im giving them all away for 95$ just contact me on:
*************

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June 20, 2022
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: B+

Phelan is great. He is insanely helpful and if you go to his office hours he will help you out. My section had a bad ta, and grades suffered because of that. If I had a different ta I probably would haves had an A. The ta never really covered anything in discussion, and I got clarity from going to office hours. Not an easy A necessarily, but the material is interesting.

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Jan. 9, 2017
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B+

Professor Phelan is so amazing. Apart from being hilarious and super interesting, he is very helpful when coming to the tests. I would highly recommend this class. Selling Mean Genes with previously used weekly quizzes. Email me at *************.

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March 10, 2016
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: N/A

Selling both What is Life? 3rd Edition and Mean Genes for $90. (Including all problem sets, graded quizzes, and graded midterm) Giving it to the first offer!
**********

Professor Phelan is super funny with his random stories that apply to the concepts we learn in class. He's fun in office hours and genuinely loves teaching this course, which is evident in the way he lectures and makes it so much more worthwhile. I learned a lot about life in this class and was even a bit sad when walking out of the final lecture. :^( Definitely recommend for a life science GE class if you're not a science person.

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Nov. 19, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: B

This class is one of my favorites that I've taken at UCLA. Every single lecture was so interesting, engaging, and fun. I seriously learned so much from this class. The exams were challenging, but totally fair and Professor Phelan is awesome! He helps with study techniques as well which have helped me out in my other classes. Take this course!!

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LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 8, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

Dr. Phelan is the best LS 7 professor that I have taken thus far. He is super knowledgeable of the material, he tells great stories, and you can really see how much he cares about his students’ learning. His lectures are very engaging and his slides are very organized. His review sessions were very helpful because he actually prepared slides and went over questions that he thought are most important for the exam. Take LS7B with him, you’ll learn a lot.

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LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 25, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

Phelan is one of the good 7 series professors. If you have the opportunity to take a class in the 7 series with him, go for it. This class has all the normal complaints about launchpad and the tricky 7 series exams. Advice for the first midterm, go to the CLC workshops. Their worksheets are very helpful for all the genetics probability problems on the first midterm. Phelan's review sessions are like a mini-lecture with practice problems as opposed to other professors who do Q&A for their review sessions. I highly suggest you go to them. One complaint about the LS department is that clickers were still required, so people living in opposite sides of the world had to attend live lectures.

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Jan. 11, 2017
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: B

Phelan is the absolute best. I've never been great at science and I didn't take AP Bio so I was nervous going into it, but he was so funny and gave such great lectures and made everything very clear. I actually learned a lot and I feel like I am more open to learning more about science. His tests are trickier than I thought they would be, but the review sessions are extremely helpful. I thought the midterm was going to be easy (like the weekly 1 question quizzes) so I kind of blew off studying which killed my dreams of an A, but I highly recommend taking this class. He makes science so applicable and interesting! If you need the What is Life textbook email me! @*************

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LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 19, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A+

Best LS class I've ever taken. I often find myself dazing off in most of my lectures, but not in this one! Phelan is such an engaging lecturer, and you can tell he loves what he does. He really didn't try to trick us. The only negative I have for this class was the time to complete the labs. We were given 15 minutes extra to turn them in but sometimes I went over this limit, luckily my TA was understanding.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: N/A
Dec. 6, 2016

Phelan was a great! The material is basically high school biology, but he introduces it in an interesting way that gets you thinking about how the world works. Selling both books (Mean Genes and What is Life). Text **********

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: A
Jan. 5, 2017

BEST PROFESSOR AND BEST CLASS POSSIBLE. Changed my whole outlook on science and the world around me. I had never done any science classes in high school and was really dreading the GE requirements. LIFE SAVER

You need the main text book What is Life + the online disc is really helpful as he posts similar questions as those in the final on there. You dont really need the mean genes as I got an A not having touched it once. I have the paper back version of the text book, the Online portal access, and summaries of every single chapter necessary till the final that im willing to give away. I bought them for 140$ and spent hours on the summaries and can tell you I skipped half the classes but still got an A. If youre interested im giving them all away for 95$ just contact me on:
*************

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: B+
June 20, 2022

Phelan is great. He is insanely helpful and if you go to his office hours he will help you out. My section had a bad ta, and grades suffered because of that. If I had a different ta I probably would haves had an A. The ta never really covered anything in discussion, and I got clarity from going to office hours. Not an easy A necessarily, but the material is interesting.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: B+
Jan. 9, 2017

Professor Phelan is so amazing. Apart from being hilarious and super interesting, he is very helpful when coming to the tests. I would highly recommend this class. Selling Mean Genes with previously used weekly quizzes. Email me at *************.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: N/A
March 10, 2016

Selling both What is Life? 3rd Edition and Mean Genes for $90. (Including all problem sets, graded quizzes, and graded midterm) Giving it to the first offer!
**********

Professor Phelan is super funny with his random stories that apply to the concepts we learn in class. He's fun in office hours and genuinely loves teaching this course, which is evident in the way he lectures and makes it so much more worthwhile. I learned a lot about life in this class and was even a bit sad when walking out of the final lecture. :^( Definitely recommend for a life science GE class if you're not a science person.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: B
Nov. 19, 2021

This class is one of my favorites that I've taken at UCLA. Every single lecture was so interesting, engaging, and fun. I seriously learned so much from this class. The exams were challenging, but totally fair and Professor Phelan is awesome! He helps with study techniques as well which have helped me out in my other classes. Take this course!!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 8, 2020

Dr. Phelan is the best LS 7 professor that I have taken thus far. He is super knowledgeable of the material, he tells great stories, and you can really see how much he cares about his students’ learning. His lectures are very engaging and his slides are very organized. His review sessions were very helpful because he actually prepared slides and went over questions that he thought are most important for the exam. Take LS7B with him, you’ll learn a lot.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 25, 2020

Phelan is one of the good 7 series professors. If you have the opportunity to take a class in the 7 series with him, go for it. This class has all the normal complaints about launchpad and the tricky 7 series exams. Advice for the first midterm, go to the CLC workshops. Their worksheets are very helpful for all the genetics probability problems on the first midterm. Phelan's review sessions are like a mini-lecture with practice problems as opposed to other professors who do Q&A for their review sessions. I highly suggest you go to them. One complaint about the LS department is that clickers were still required, so people living in opposite sides of the world had to attend live lectures.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 15
Quarter: Fall 2016
Grade: B
Jan. 11, 2017

Phelan is the absolute best. I've never been great at science and I didn't take AP Bio so I was nervous going into it, but he was so funny and gave such great lectures and made everything very clear. I actually learned a lot and I feel like I am more open to learning more about science. His tests are trickier than I thought they would be, but the review sessions are extremely helpful. I thought the midterm was going to be easy (like the weekly 1 question quizzes) so I kind of blew off studying which killed my dreams of an A, but I highly recommend taking this class. He makes science so applicable and interesting! If you need the What is Life textbook email me! @*************

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 7B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A+
July 19, 2020

Best LS class I've ever taken. I often find myself dazing off in most of my lectures, but not in this one! Phelan is such an engaging lecturer, and you can tell he loves what he does. He really didn't try to trick us. The only negative I have for this class was the time to complete the labs. We were given 15 minutes extra to turn them in but sometimes I went over this limit, luckily my TA was understanding.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
3 of 53
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