Overall, this class was tougher than LS7A and many of my friends who got an A in LS7A would agree. The grade distribution might contradict, but the tests were harder. Marcot was an alright professor. His review session and office hours weren't as good as Kane's. Often times when we ask him a hypothetical question, he would say, "I don't know. I would need more information." However, Kane always answered our hypothetical questions, when I went to her review sessions. Also, I would choose a different professor, like Kane, but it doesn't really matter since the class is standardized and your grade depends on how well you know the material. The labs are very useless as they don't pertain to the exams. They were basically long LS7A discussions. Very boring. CLC hours were the most beneficial. If lab was like CLC hours, then it would've been worth it.

The first midterm was rough. Apparently, it is either the first or second midterm that is tough (after talking to people who previously took the course), but it doesn't matter since the hard midterm is always about Pedigrees. We barely had any time to finish, and it felt like a rush since we only had around 5 minutes left to double-check. The second midterm was way easier with almost an hour left. The Final was online due to COVID-19 and it was hard. Somehow, I managed to pull off an A, but one mistake I made was coming into LS7B with the mindset that LS7B would be a breeze. As a tip, you should understand how to do pedigrees very well and quickly. Go online and find examples, since they do not provide you with enough practice material. Use the clicker questions and practice exam questions as "practice tests" and do them after you review every chapter. Good luck and study hard!

This review will have a little bit of information about Professor Marcot, but will mainly focus on 7B as a class. Professor Marcot was very nice and clearly knowledgeable about the material if you asked him a content-related question. He also encouraged students to discuss with each other and ask questions. However, this caused our class to go a little slow, and we were always behind on material. If you asked him a course logistic-related question such as whether certain material would be on an exam, he didn't know because this class is entirely controlled and designed by Debra Pires. The clicker questions are so ambiguous that the professor occasionally crosses out all of the options and writes "It depends" as the answer. This translates to ambiguous exam questions too, to the point where my TA said during an exam, "We're getting lots of questions about how to interpret the problems, but we can't help you with that." The first midterm was nearly impossible to finish on time because you have to draw multiple detailed pedigrees from scratch and answer questions about them, but the second midterm was slightly better. The lab sections are designated to be nearly two hours long, but somehow the labs themselves are designed so that you have to work extremely quick if you have any hope of finishing them (they average around 6 pages worth of questions). The labs are also mostly unrelated to material that will be on the exams. For example, there was a lab where we had to go to 15 stations to learn about coelacanths, cephalopods, vertebrates, etc. and another lab where we had to go to different stations in the Botanical Garden on our own time. None of the professors answered questions on the online Campuswire forum, so it was just students trying to help other students. My best advice for this class is to get most, if not all, of the free points for participation, Launchpad pre-class review questions, Launchpad practice exam questions, etc., and go to your TA's office hours if you have questions. I would HIGHLY recommend going to the CLC problem solving sessions because this is where the LA's teach the material that the professors do not teach during the lecture but will nevertheless be on the exams. To study for exams, I would recommend focusing on the clicker questions, practice exam questions, the practice midterm questions that Professor Pires will email you, and the CLC worksheets. Don't worry too much about which professor you take for this class, because it's going to be very challenging (but doable if you work hard enough) no matter what.

I thought Dr. Marcot did a great job teaching LS7B. My complaints are mainly about the course. The tests are super tricky and don’t make sense at all. The second midterm the wording was super confusing and messed up a lot of the class. My grade was not bad at all but I struggled immensely in this class. Don’t be fooled by those who say 7B is easier than 7A. Marcot did a good job teaching and answered questions thoroughly. Since the course is standardized, you won’t be able to escape the tests but I would recommend Dr. Marcot for 7B.

Not helpful at all. Whenever I have a question he would tell me that we need more info.

As many others have commented, the professor doesn't really matter. I won't talk way too much about the structure of the class since others have already mentioned it in detail, but just some general things about 7B:

- the group phase of the midterms and final were 8 questions, and the individual phase of the midterms were 20 questions. Each question was worth 3 points. I believe they have shortened the test length from previous years because time used to be an issue or something, but honestly I'd rather have more questions because it was pretty annoying to just miss a few questions and already being in the B range for the midterms.
- I got 8/8 + 17/20 on the first midterm (75/84); 7/8 and 16/20 on the second (69/84); and 8/8 and 39/40 (117/120) on the final (which was surprising to me because I thought I'd end up with a similar score to the midterms). A couple questions on the midterms were regraded but it wasn't too many and wouldn't have made a real difference.
- More clickers than in 7A and they also give you some practice midterms to study, so that was helpful.
- About Marcot specifically, I liked him! he was very to the point and clear (to the best of his ability given the content of the 7 series, lol). He was approachable and every time I had a quick question after class, he'd answer it precisely and cleared up any confusion
- Overall, I'd say it was harder than 7A mainly because of way less grade padding. If you average about ~85 on the exams and do all the extra credit (about 8 points iirc), you should be able to get an A. It did get to the point where I was calculating and counting the questions I could get wrong in order to still get an A, but overall it was okay. Not great, but not horrible.

7B is definitely a step up in difficulty from 7A but similar to 7A there is still so many other points from reading guides, iclickers, and extra credit that you're grade is salvageable even if you do poorly on exams. Be prepared for the first midterm to be HARD, many students bombed this and it was kind of a surprise. There is also the aspect that they are in person and the group phase is weighted a lot less compared to 7A. But the next two exams were much better for everyone. Overall I would say Marcot is a decent professor, his lectures were clear and I felt like I could understand what he was getting at but when given the problems on the exam it just didn't translate for me. I don't know if maybe I just needed to study more or something but I found the exams pretty hard. One thing I didn't like is how we can't see our exams after and when someone brought this up to Marcot he said "Exams aren't for learning" or something like that which I found shocking because I feel like understanding what you got wrong on exams is so helpful for learning especially for the final. I also feel like disussion section has nothing to do with the actual class, I never felt like anything we did prepared me for the exams.

Honestly this class sucked no matter the proffessor, not that the content wasn't interesting or anything, the tests are just written to trick you- they are written awfully and everyone gets the same test. We did not get our midterms back so we had no idea what we did wrong and we werent able to use that to study for the final. Marcot wasn't bad, he's good honestly, it's just the structure of the course.

Marcot is a great teacher. I personally liked how 7B was set up compared to 7A. For Marcot there was only one longer reading guide due at the beginning of the week, instead of one before each lecture, along with pre lecture quizzes and weekly peqs. Marcot is a genuinely kind person who cares about his students and their wellbeing. I found his lectures to be interesting and engaging and he does use clicker questions. Sometimes his explanations can be a little confusing, but I found rewatching the lectures a good way to clarify further and study for exams. The exams were in person this quarter but I did not find them too difficult compared to 7A. The group portion is first (online) and the individual portion is a couple days later (in person). The individual tests expand on the group portion questions. They aren't exactly the same questions like in 7A. As long as you understood your group answers, you should be fine for the midterms. I found the second midterm to be easier than the first because it was more application based and less computation. If you have any environmental science background (like APES) the second part of this class was a breeze and I honestly stopped reading the textbook by week 8 or so. I am an environmental science major but I feel like a lot of the topics at the end are basic knowledge and not too hard to grasp. The lab section assignments were straightforward and you can check your answers with your TA and LA before submitting. In the later weeks, there were more group projects and eventually a group presentation in week 10, which again were very straightforward. I would highly recommend taking 7B with Marcot.

Marcot is a nice prof. I think he was able to explain things well for the most part, however, he would sometimes contradict himself during lecture and would give us clicker questions that were not at all similar in difficulty level to the tests. The tests in 7B are much more confusing than the 7A tests. I didn't put a lot of effort in the class, but I do think it is relatively ok.

Marcot is okay in my opinion, he doesn't really stand out in my mind as either a great prof or a bad prof. It is standardized across the lectures so workload is the same for all, just like the rest of the 7 series.