Grades in this class are heavily curved (homework, Practice AOLs, attendance, and group AOLs). However, Ko doesn't explain the concepts clearly; she explains most concepts at the speed of light and only through students' questions, meaning she won't clarify confusion until someone points it out. She's chill, and I encourage you to spend time at her office hours. Discussions are also pretty useful :D

I loved Dr. Ko! She is a super sweet and funny person, and an awesome lecturer. I genuinely looked forward to class and enjoyed her lectures because they were very engaging. I liked how she annotated the slides and explained concepts well (I did take AP Bio and AP Chem in high school, so I was already familiar with most of the material). If I did not understand a concept during class, I would just rewatch her lecture recordings and then understand it. The midterms and finals were all application-based and used similar diagrams from the group midterm, and they were relatively simple in my opinion (but I know they may have been a little difficult for other people). For the midterms, you only get 40 minutes, which was kind of short, and I wish I had gotten more time to thoroughly check my answers. But for the final, you get 150 minutes, which was a lot of time, and most people left early. In my opinion, it was way easier than AP Bio MCQs. You can miss up to 59 points in this class (including the 7 points of extra credit) for an A, so you can get a lot wrong and get a good grade. If you have to take LS7A, take it with her! (although the course is standardized - but take it with her for a fun experience!)

I loved Professor Ko! She was pretty straightforward in her explanations (in my opinion) since the lectures are question-based as it's a reverse classroom course. She was really relaxed/lets you sleep and you can tell she's passionate about the material. I will say this class is mostly busy work/participation points in my opinion as every assignment does have weight even tho they're mainly completion, but that also means you can do relatively bad of the tests and be ok generally. I took AP Biology with an amazing teacher and AP Chemistry in high school, so I may be biased but I believed the class was relatively easy (but again, I did have exposure to the material prior to this course). I know some of my friends didn't do as will on the first AOL and still finished with A's in the end as there's a lot of extra practice you can do/videos online but keep in mind it's application-based questions over straight memorization.

Okay, so Julie is an amazing professor, attend her office hours, no one is hardly ever there, and it just feels like I'm having a casual conversation with her about the hardest concepts. Her lectures are basically just reviews of the pre-reading, just super fast, so there is no room for real learning, just fast-paced clickers. I certainly found myself teaching everything to myself through the textbook and YouTube videos. Hope for a good pod group and be ready to drown in homework, nonetheless, the Individual midterm is JUST LIKE the group midterm, so study it closely and you'll be good! I ended up with a B, but if im being honest I hardly did study..(user error)

This class will kick your ass. It is a very hard class especially for an introductory life science class. There is a lot of homework, as is usual for the whole LS 7 series. However, the test questions of this class is very hard. They are often made to trip you up and take a lot to get used to. The amount of work that you have to do in this class was probably double what I had to in every other class combined. The professor is fine but does not spend a lot of time on each topic and is more focused on going as fast as possible. The discussions are really important to attend and are quite helpful along with Problem Solving Sessions.

As someone who never took an AP science class in high school…this class was rough for me. In my opinion, the class work was manageable, I enjoyed the topics I was learning and I even understood the content fully. However, the intensity of the tests truly made me lose all hope. I did enjoy having a pod to participate in lectures, complete group tests with and sit with in discussion, which overall helped my success in this course. However, despite this, the exams involved intense critical thinking and I felt as though we should have been taught how to approach the questions prior to taking the exams. Yes, we do practice exams every week (PALS) but even before the first one, we were never taught how to approach questions. Professor Julie is very nice and willing to help and my TA, Elena, was very good as well.

Dr. Ko is a very nice person, I very much enjoyed going to lecture. However, her teaching is extremely fast paced and hard to follow. Understandably so, there is definitely a lot of content in this course. The discussions are absolutely horrendous the TA is instructed to "lead you in the right direction". They answer your question with another question. This is frustrating because you are actually graded on accuracy in discussion. The in-class lecture pod assignments are graded by completion. Pre-class assignments are just "busy work" and you don't necessarily need to go over the entire chapter, just filling out the page is the most it will benefit you.

Julie is the sweetest instructor ever; very approachable and makes everyone feel like they belong in STEM. I enjoyed showing up for class.

Grades are based on tests (hard), participation (easy if you just show up to class and discussion), and weekly quizzes and worksheets (busy work, but great way to make up test grades if you do bad on those). In my opinion this class is a definite pass as long as you show up and try.

Dr. Ko is fantastic. I loved her for LS 7A. Although I had previously taken AP Bio, so a lot of content was review, I definitely feel like this class goes very fast. (Think about cramming one semester of AP Bio into 2 months). The class is pretty straightforward though, and I didn't think the exams were too bad. Performing well is totally doable, especially with a great learning pod. Individual AoLs are based on the group phase, so make sure you understand them very clearly. When it comes to the classwork and homework, know that there is a lot. You will need to be proactive with it. Discussions are mandatory as well, and you will be working with your pod during them. As far as Dr. Ko is as a professor, she is awesome. Very nice, and although she lectures fast, her office hours are very insightful, and she does her best to answer everyone's questions.

I thought this class was decent. You take the midterms in groups, but if you have a bad pod, this class will be a headache. Luckily, my pod was very smart and we got 100% on both midterms. The final was a bit tricky, but I still ended with an A after getting a 72% on the final. DO THE EXTRA CREDIT! You will want that extra cushion. Also some of the problem solving sessions were helpful and if your TA is helpful that also helps a lot.