Highly recommend for MCDB138. Had two guest lecturers (Lin and Lee). Lee was pretty good but I had hard time understanding Lin because He didn't really explain. Dr. Lyons is super smart. Make sure to go her OH since she kinda provides hints for midterm. She does curve and make sure that 30 percent get A+, A, A-.

What I did - Write down everything she says during lecture, go to her OH, study with friends (test each other and ask what if sth was this). Make sure you distingush each gene type, maternal and zygotic.

Since english is my second language, I had really hard time understanding each lectures but managed to get A-.

Recommend Dr. Lyons for MCDB 138! She is very good at lecturing, and really fair in her exams. She explains concepts well and is clear in what she expects you to know. If you keep up with the lectures during the quarter then it's not a hard class; it's not a lot of memorization, mostly it's understanding key concepts and experiments. Take really, really good notes during lecture and go to her office hours regularly. This was my first MCDB class and I got an A.

I majored in MCDB and did really well in 138. If you need a tutor for 138 (Lin or Lyons) or any other MCDB course, email tinaorsadi at yahoo dot com

No one got 90s in final, high was 89%

She explains things quite clearly.

Midterm: 2 MTs, they involve
1) T/F (2 or 3pt ea)
2) MC (3pt ea)
3) Short Essay (4 to 6pt ea)

Make sure you double check all your T/f & MC question, they worth a lot of point! Essay questions are long and worth very little pt in comparison....

Final: EXTREMELY LONG.....

T/F & MC focus on old material,
while most of the essay questions are material after MT2

Be familiar with ALL the experiments discussed in class...

I was in the A range b4 final & got a B+ in the end....so she hasn't curved it up AT ALL so I guess just few ppl got an A (i.e. >90)..... prepare to work hard

TIPS:
1) DON'T buy the book, just listen to her podcast & jog down EVERYTHING she says....even sth that she briefly mentions is fair game

2) Don't even bother reading the lecture note (not the slides),read them only if you don't understand the slides; they're way too long & contain tons of info that you're not responsible for

Great lecturer, smart professor, awful exams, end of story. Theres so much to know that even her TAs get tripped up on the material or have to refer to their notes. On her test, it doesnt matter how much you study, you won't know how to answer her questions because shes looking for specific answers. You almost feel like your guessing what part of your answer is right.
Good luck.

Good lecturer, a lot of work, and a 22 page final that includes 17 pages of essay questions.

A lot of memorization for this class. Got B in the end. Make sure you study a bit everyday, because it's impossible to memorize all of this a few days before the final, especially if you have other science classes. recommend bruindemand.org for reading the scientific paper since they normally a lot of time to read. very approachable in office hours, but it's not ncessary, again spend time everyday memorizing, memorizing and memorizing. DON'T CRAM!!! and you will be ok.

Dr. Lyons is an incredible professor! She is definitely one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. Her lectures are very organized and she presents the material clearly making it much easier to learn. She is very knowledgeable, welcomes questions and really wants her students to learn. I went to her office hours frequently which was a huge help! She also gives study guides for the midterms and finals which are also very helpful. I found the papers hard and time consuming but it is good practice for learning how to read and understand a scientific paper which will come in handy if you want to go into research or medicine. My TA was also awesome, try to get Dan.
Overall this class was one of my favorites because the subject was very interesting and Lyons did such a good job of teaching. It definitely was a lot of work, but worth it. You will learn a lot!!! To get an A, make sure you understand every lecture and her review notes. And go to office hours :)

EXCELLENT lectures, very organized, and extremely helpful. She is very concerned for the student, for example the projector got broken, so she gave an annotated version of power point. This was my first quarter at UCLA, and i found this class very interesting...Lots of info though, DO NOT FALL BEHIND!!!
DON'T need to buy the book, you might wanna scan it in Drosophila sect (she actually mentioned this in class, and I found it helpful). Her lecture notes and power point will get you the A, just have to uderstand the concepts, ESPECIALLY the experiments (which are very interesting). I didn't record the lectures, you don't need to, she is very clear.