I do not dislike Julie by any metric, but I do dislike the way the LS7 series is styled. I find the flipped classroom style ineffective and very much a pain. The PALs and PCRQs are kind of annoying to do and the points you lose do add up over time. However due to the maximum points set by the professors, you can mis up to 5 points on the PALs and PCRQs. The AOLs were all generally fair. However please make sure to study for AOL3. Many people neglected to do any form of studying and it very much reflected on their score at the end. Also I do not know how long the online style exams will continue, so if they convert to in person exams I do not know how much they would change the overall material of the AOLs.

The flipped classroom was not my favorite. I found the way that many small assignments were given for each class period a bit overwhelming and was constantly stressed that I was going to miss something.

The 7 series uses a flipped classroom, so most of the material had to be studied individually. So I feel the professor doesn’t matter too much, but Professor Ko was pretty engaging and made the lectures entertaining. She used daily concepts to relate to some of the matter which helped me understand it better. The class also had quite a bit of extra credit.

LS 7a was an easy enough class that is truly designed for you to succeed. It was taught by two professors (Ko and Maloy) who took turns leading lectures. I found Maloy to be a slightly better lecturer, and Ko moves quickly through the clicker questions (so be prepared). Participation is graded/mandatory in lectures (iClicker questions) and discussions (takes attendance), but you can miss a few classes without affecting your grade. In your discussion section, you are placed in a group of 4 that is your "pod" for the whole quarter and you sit with them in discussions/lectures. For the tests, there are two online midterms and an online final (called "Assessments of Learning"/AoLs). The two midterms were okay, but the final was significantly harder. Each AoL has an individual portion which makes up 50% of the overall AoL score, and then a group portion where you take the test again with your pod and you have the opportunity to change your answers (the other 50%). Lots of extra credit opportunities are provided as well.

I LOVED THIS CLASS!!! Professor Ko is an amazing lecturer and is super helpful during office hours--she offered both content and non-content OH this past quarter, which was amazing because you could talk to her about class stuff but also chat about life during non-content OH and get to know her personally. She never says that content is easy and lets us know that she finds certain materials challenging too, which is comforting to hear, especially in an upper division life sciences class. We used iClicker, but honestly I did not mind because lectures were always engaging so there was no reason not to go in-person.

In this class we used iClicker (participation), videos + video quizzes (flipped classroom), weekly quizzes, discussion worksheets, and Slack (to post questions and receive answers from other students, TAs, and the professor). Exams (two midterms and a final) were always fair--they covered content adequately, there was enough time to work on all problems efficiently, and the difficulty was just fine. They were open book as well, which helped relieve stress (I made a master study guide using all the learning objectives which helped me save time during the actual exam to look up anything in case I forgot a concept). There were exam revision quizzes too, which had similar questions from the exam (not the same ones, just similar), so they encouraged you to review your exam and if you did well on the revision quiz, you could earn some points back.

Professor Ko also offered extra credit, which was very sweet and super helpful in case you couldn't complete work certain weeks or needed to make up for any lower grades.

Overall I loved this class and would definitely take it again. Some of the material covered in LS107 is the same stuff covered in LS7B, but I feel like I understand certain concepts better in this class (like Mendelian genetics, nondisjunction, etc.) because Professor Ko would take the time to walk through each topic and question in a step-by-step fashion. Anyways, Professor Ko is just an amazing person and it was a treat to be in her class this past quarter. Wishing her all the best in her future classes <3

P.S. Big shout out to her organized and pretty slides and syllabus. Her slides were absolutely perfect--she used very clear figures and images so we obtained a visual understanding of material. Her syllabus had a table of contents and hyperlinks, make it easy to use and navigate. Considering she was fresh out of her PhD program and this is her first time teaching LS107 at UCLA, she did a fantastic job :)

She's very organized and very nice. It's really easy to know what is expected of you as a student because she makes her BruinLearn page super pretty. There are a fair amount of flipped-classroom stuff you have to do (videos, quizzes, etc.) but honestly that is the signature move of the LifeSci department and if you made it out of the 7 series you're chilling for this class.

She's really nice and has decently flexible policies for discussion attendance, late assignments, etc. She also gives a LOT of extra credit, including the ability to get points back on exams.

Fair warning that there is iClicker for this course, but it's honestly not that bad and she uses it in a way that really helps you prepare for her exams.

If you have to take this class, take it with her.

LS7A is a pretty standard life science class. Overall, if you skim the textbook, go to class and discussion (participation is graded), and do the clicker questions before the test, you should have no problem getting an A. Professor Ko is not great at explaining the material and often confuses concepts herself -- I found my TA more reliable.