There is a TON of material in this class which can make it really time-consuming. It is essentially two courses: a lecture that walks you through the evolutionary history of vertebrates and a lab in which you analyze specimens (animals preserved in jars). The lecture is very fast-paced and content-heavy (not recorded, but slides are posted), but Professor Gorlitsky is very approachable and seems passionate about the subject. BY FAR my favorite favorite part of this course is the lab section. It is super interesting to get to see the characteristics you learn about in lecture right there on the specimens and I had a lot of fun learning about lots of different animals! That being said... those lab practicals have a lot of material and you will not be getting above a 70% LOL. The class is curved at the end, and you will pass, I think most people got a B but definitely plenty of As too if you work hard! Final is during week 10. Extra credit offered!

I adore Dr. Gorlitsky, so this review may be slightly biased. This class offers a moderate workload, with weekly readings, one-page written reports on those readings, a required book with material featured on the exams, and a group project that we work on throughout the quarter. Still, I never felt too overwhelmed with any of it because of how engaging Leryn is. She is kind, funny, and really cares about her students. Her office hours are very helpful and can be a key study tool for exams. This class was my favorite of the quarter and I'm so grateful to have ended off my undergrad at UCLA with such a fun course as this one! I would retake this class a million times over :)

I loved every class that I have taken with professor Gorlitsky. Her enthusiasm was clear for every topic she taught and it really translated in her teaching. I never knew how much there was to love about the tropics and all of the unique adaptations of nature. Don't underestimate her exams. I would definitely go to office hours and study. I personally re-wrote and memorized the slides. She does not record her lectures so make sure to take good notes and pay attention. Gorlitsky is one if my favorite profs at UCLA. I think she is very fair but it is not a course that you should underestimate.

class was asynchronous but was announced during the first week that there was mandatory attendance for lecture (if you didn't go, there was an alternate assignment you had to complete to get participation points); lectures were super fast-paced and the instructor was pretty much just reading off of the slides really quickly without explaining anything; lab sections were not helpful - were just given a short pre-recorded lab lecture to watch then were sent the link to like 5-10 different "lab worksheets" that we were supposed to look over ourselves even though more than half of the content was never talked about in the class. this class is super easy if you take it online, but if I had to do all of this in person, it would be EXTREMELY difficult with a lot of memorization. lectures are super fast paced and not that helpful. same with the labs. grading is 2 essays and 2 lab practicums (SO MUCH TO MEMORIZE IF IT'S NOT ONLINE), and each are worth about 25% of the grade. some participation points are taken but not sure how much of the grade it is