Ignore the class it says I took up there - I actually took LS4 with Merriam (LS4 wasn't a choice).

Anyway, Merriam is a complicated professor to evaluate. He's simultaneously the most available, concerned, and wackiest professor I have ever had. HOWEVER - he is not an effective teacher for LS4. He dressed up as Mendel on the first day of class. It was funny, but contrary to what I expected, we never really moved on past randomness like that in the whole 10 weeks. Case and point: we spent the first 10 minutes of class every Monday singing pun-filled songs about genetics. He wore his pajamas and green track jacket to midterms, which at first was weird, but then it just seemed like Merriam after a while. Unfortunately, he tended to spend way more time on teaching concepts and experiments when the tests were almost completely numerical and probability based. He's a genuinely nice guy, though. So much so that the class started to feel like a self-help and empowerment therapy class. Here are some of the "mantras" he wrote on the board every single day before class started:

"Everybody passes." (That's his main one)
"Everyone matters."
"Everyone counts."
"Everyone matters. And, you don't have to be perfect."
"Everyone can be trained."
"Everyone's time is valuable."

I got an A in this class, but throughout the whole quarter I worried about my grade due to his four midterms (weeks 3,5,7,9). They were all multiple choice, 100 points and 20 questions each. That's 5 points each, no partial credit. His final includes mostly past questions from midterms, but "tweaked," which really means it's a whole new problem since the math changes if he asks for a different probability. You would think this would increase the average, but all of the tests except midterm 1 (easier) had around 56-59% as the average.

So yes, everybody probably passes. But with what grade? I would hold off on taking LS4 if you want to be on a level playing field and not constantly worry about your grade.