I took this class as an easy A and I can confidently say that the only reason I passed with an A was because the tests were online. The lecture material is a bit droning, but you have to pay attention for the lecture quizzes due each day (these are not graded for completion but rather for accuracy which sucks). The midterm and final were extremely difficult, and again, if I would have taken them in person then I do not think any amount of studying could have gotten me an A. The project was kind of easy but just a lot of work and very tedious. The prof and my TA (Ingrid Cely) were really great at responding to questions or concerns you might have, but other than that, I would not classify this as an easy A.

I took this class to fulfill a GE and I didn't think it was overwhelming. Professor Esdin was very open to any questions students had to ask. He seemed genuinely excited to be teaching this course and only wanted everyone to pass. The midterm and final were closed note, in person, and were tough as they were extremely content heavy so STUDYYYY. Classes were recorded and you were able to miss 6 and still got 100% on attendance through iclicker. There was an easy 5 question quiz every time you had your discussion every other week (5 total). The 100 point project (lifestyle project) is extremely tedious consisting of documenting what you ate and did for 7 days straight on iprofile, analyzing the information you've received, and inputting it into a google doc with a set format so START EARLY. Heavily recommend sharing the textbook ($75)and iprofile ($30) with at least 4 people as it is on the pricier side. I had Martinez as my TA and she was amazing. She talked about the slides in an easy way and was open to any questions. I always recommend this class to my friends because even though I felt it was a bit hard the content is very useful to me now.

Selling my textbook! Message me if interested. *************

Esdin is very nice and reasonable but it is hard to follow his lectures. He posts his slides but they are not very helpful. He also makes you buy his book but it is poorly written and hard to follow - probably not necessary to buy. There are labs every other week and most labs have a quiz of 5 multiple choice questions. There is a midterm with 60 multiple choice and 5 short answers that are basically just giving definitions for things, midterm was not that hard. There is one long paper that is very tedious and is basically busy work. It ends up being around 20 pages about your own diet and exercise which you have to track for 7 days. Not much other homework otherwise but you definitely need to study on your own.

This class felt oddly invasive. We had to regularly report our diet an exercise habits in order to get a final grade, which did not sit right with me. Additionally, rather than teaching all of the content as scientific fact, Esdin was focused on how one ought to apply things to themselves.

this class is as easy as people say it is. the only thing that's pretty hard are the midterms and the final, but it's not that bad. the questions are pretty specific and nitpicky, but as long as you do everything else, your grade should balance out to an A.
discussion section honestly felt pretty useless, but it's every other week.
DO NOT buy the iprofile by yourself. share with someone else and split the cost. you could also get away with sharing the textbook as well.
lectures are recorded but attendance is mostly mandatory for the iclickers. esdin is super sweet and you can clearly tell that is knowledgable and passionate about what he is teaching.
for the project, you literally just need to follow the instructions and you will do good on it.

7 series is always going to be annoying regardless of what the material is. However, my guess is if you're taking this you're a premed who finds stuff like this interesting so the studying should be less painfull and Esdin does a great job of giving you the most information possible. Just use all the materials given and study the diagrams given on pop quizzes and PEQs and this class is very doable!

The general consensus with everyone I spoke to in this class was that we all took the class expecting it to be super free and it ended up being harder than expected.

I’ve realized that a lot of the highly-rated reviews that this course has are from a few years prior when Esdin’s exams were open-note and/or online, and this quarter they were closed note and in person. With that being said, the exam material wasn’t insanely difficult, but getting an A required A LOT of studying—much more than I had anticipated for a GE that was rumored to be easy. If you’ve taken AP bio or another anatomy/physiology class, you’ll be much more prepared for this class and it honestly might not be too bad, but as a non-stem major I definitely studied more for this class than any of my others this quarter.

As far as the professor goes, Professor Esdin was clearly super passionate about what he was teaching and it was really interesting! I feel like I learned a lot of practical information about my body and the food I eat. On the other hand, I had Jocelynn as my TA and she wasn’t the most helpful or kind… Luckily, the lab slides get posted on BruinLearn and the lab quizzes are really straight forward. Another big 100 point assignment is the Lifestyle Assessment Project, which is just a lot of tedious busywork but if you follow the guidelines you’re almost guaranteed to get full credit. Also haven’t mentioned this yet but the two lab quizzes are online and proctored and the second one was pretty much extra credit (one simple question)—god bless Professor Esdin for that.

Anyway, my general advice would be this: Take this class if you are genuinely interested in the course topics and prepared to seriously study for the midterm and final. This class is by no means an “easy A” but I’m a music student who has never taken AP bio and I managed to get an A through embarrassing amounts of studying. Professor Esdin is very nice and lowkey wholesome—I had this class 3 days a week at 9am and he was always in a good mood which was nice.

***ALSO attendance is graded. You have to answers a few IClicker quiz questions at the end of each lecture to get your daily attendance and you can have up to 6 absences and still receive full participation credit.

I took this class a long time ago, but from what I can remember, it was a really chill course. There is a quarter long project where you track your exercise, calories, etc., and it's tedious but easily do-able in 3 days (coming from experience). There is also a midterm and final that were take home and not proctored. He might've changed this since I took the class. Overall, the content was interesting and even though I wasn't a stem major, I would totally take this class again!

Esdin teaches the last four weeks of Phy Sci 111A, and his module covers sensory organs (eyes, ears) as well as sensation in general (basal ganglia, cerebellum). This module in my opinion was more dense than the others but because it's tested in a way that mostly relies on memorization, it's not too difficult. Esdin teaches the class like it's a 7C lecture, and you can see that in the slides that he uses. I would say he's a very satisfactory lecturer for this class.