DO NOT TAKE IF LOOKING FOR EASY SCIENCE GE.

That being said, if you do put your work in, an A is still manageable (just probably more work than you’re looking for if this is a GE).

Professor is great, TAs are great too - shoutout to Matt and Natalie in particular. There are a lot of different ways you can boost your mark in this course. The midterm was quite disastrous, but the final was much better.

I'm not going to lie, unless you need this class as a pre-major, don't take it as a GE. One of the hardest GEs I've taken thus far. A lot of memorization and application of that memorization is involved. The midterm and final exam have the same lay out (around 25 multiple choice questions and 4 - 6 short essay questions). You really have to know your stuff because the short essay questions carry your exam scores. The final exam is worth so soooo much of your grade, so study up. Participation during discussions is a grade. There are weekly quizzes in discussions. Weekly readings (lowkey mandatory to know what's going on in the class). The professor is super nice and the lectures are really interesting and engaging. It is by far the most interesting class I've taken here; however, very hard for a GE.

This class was pretty challenging for me, and most of my peers who weren't STEM majors. You can succeed if you devote a lot of time towards the midterm and final, but I struggled and ended up changing my grade type to pass/fail.

Such a good professor!!! I am not someone who usually enjoys science classes but I found this class so interesting as the information was very relevant to our lives. Phelan is such a good professor, the lectures were so interesting and engaging. The midterm and final were tough but he curves the class and offers extra credit which allowed me to get an A in the class. Take notes during lecture and ask your TA questions. Also attend the review sessions they are very similar to the midterm and final! Do not take if you want a really easy GE, but I would definitely recommend this class.

Enrolled to see if this dude was overrated. Turns out the hype was valid.
Lectures are interesting and keep you engaged, and he genuinely cares about the students. No homework but discussions posts, which are simple and easy, and 4 quizzes throughout the weeks, again easy if you memorize your answer. Exams are solely based on lecture material, so whatever chapter or section of the textbook is talked about in lecture will be tested. However, exams were not easy so expect some studying. Assigns two class materials, "What is Life?" which is the actual textbook and "Mean Genes" which a chapter book that you may enjoy reading in your free time. There is also an extra credit opportunity if you and a group do a music video/trailer. Overall, funny guy and fun class.

I really enjoyed this life science class with Dr. Phelan thanks to his really entertaining lectures and sense of humor. Don't underestimate this class, though. The midterm and final were both tough and the average was a C. If there's only thing you do to prepare, GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSIONS! He tells you everything you need to know for the exams. I regret not reading the textbook more because he tests you on concepts that he doesn't talk about in lecture but are in the book (which is his own book, but it's affordable). Discussion sections are helpful and you have to do one 3 on 3 debate, but it's not too bad. Overall, if you put in effort you'll do okay. I ended with an A- after he curved everyone's grade (originally was a B+).

I enjoyed this class. Professor Phelan makes his lectures very interesting and engaging so its easy to pay attention. To succeed in this class, its better to have conceptual understanding of all topics instead of memorizing just terms. There is a lot of extra credit opportunities which is very nice

Such a fun class! Ignore the haters, Dr. Phelan is a great prof and I found all of his TAs to be fantastic! Other reviews have already outlined how the class is set up (attendance not required, point based, 4 quizzes with lowest dropped, 1 midterm & final, 4 discussion posts), so I'll just drop my advice for the class:
- Do the extra credit! It's a music video/movie trailer that can get you 10, 20, or 30 points (only the top 5 videos get 30), but trust it's very chill and the lowest you can get is 10 points unless you put literally zero effort. I did mine in 2 hours with my phone, capcut, and a dream and I still got a 20 :)
- Quizzes: These are questions pulled straight from the problem sets given each week and you will know which weeks you are having a quiz, just not which specific question is being asked. These vary by TA, so my biggest tip is to answer all the questions yourself, then look for a quizlet (there's tons) to supplement your information and commit it to memory. They also release the answers to the problems the week after, so if you have a friend or can find those somehow, it might help, but you'll be fine without.
- Exams: Exams will have multiple choice questions and then some short answer. The trickiest part of this class is the Phelan wording. He does a review session for both the midterm and final which pretty much tells you what concepts to focus on. The most helpful thing for me was finding as many editions of the "What is Life" textbook and answering the end of chapter practice questions. Many of these questions were used verbatim on the midterm, but less so on the final. For both tests it was a great way to get used to his phrasing while testing your knowledge. For free response, you can count on there being one big question per topic that he'll give you in the review sessions. Make sure to format your answers in a very organized way-- Dr. Phelan explicitly said that bullet points are a great way to show that you actually know what you're talking about.
- Office Hours: Go! I wish I would've gone to more of Dr. Phelan's, he is kind of a yapper but it's really interesting to see him talk about biology in a real life context. I would also recommend going to the TAs', they have good advice for what to expect on the exams + can help guide your answers for the problem sets. (Special shoutout to Tanner for being a great TA!! Take him if he's still TA-ing)

Anyway, take this class! Especially if it's between this or LS 7A. It's very fun and covers biology in a cool and often silly way.

Jay phelan the goat. go to office hours. Embarassed I didn’t do as well as I could have, the discussion quizzes were kinda hard but the exams were much worse. My suggestion: Don’t use quizlet to study for either of the exams or workbook quizzes, the answers are often misleading and you won’t get full credit if you just study based on that. Go to office hours and ask for tips and suggestions on what to know and how to best study that information. Lectures are recorded but you won’t want to miss going to them anyways. Take this class!!!

Is this class an easy GE? No. Will it be one of the most useful and interesting classes you take during your college career? Absolutely yes. You will learn so many important bits of information about life, interacting with other people, improving your health, etc. This class will genuinely make you wonder, "Why don't they teach this sooner in school?"
With that said, this is not an easy A class. I am a social sciences major who never took any advanced level chem or bio classes so my struggles came from being exposed to this content for the first time. My biggest tip would be go to office hours every week. Not only is Dr. Phelan an incredible lecturer, he is a phenomenal person. He's a legend in the academia world but he is so down-to-earth and funny. He made me feel like he genuinely cared about my success both inside of his class and beyond. He will also give you special insights into the exams or future lectures just by regularly attending OH.
Though I really struggled on the exams in this class and they tanked my grade, I walked away with so many lessons that I still find myself applying to my everyday life and shifted my perspective on the world. Take this class but don't expect it to be easy.