I came in to the class expecting a decent challenge considering that my friends struggled with Dr. Pham in LS4. I found her book Interactive Genetics on eBay, and it was really helpful. Not only did it help me to understand the concepts, but it helped me understand how she thinks of these problems. The average on each exam (2 midterms and final) was about 70-75, but she gave out about 130 points of clickers when the clicker category was only 90 points. I got about 85 on both midterms and final and an A+ overall. I wish I had taken her for LS 3. I highly recommend Dr. Johnson.

Course Taken: LIFE SCIENCE 3

**Ignore whatever course it says on this review

The Life Sciences series at UCLA is frkn hard, everyone knows that. LS 3 was definitely a pain, I'm not kidding. However, Johnson made it doable. Although like with any other LS 3 class, there'll be a crapload of information, Johnson is an expert lecturer and everything she says MAKES SENSE. AND she doesn't test on anything besides her lectures. Studying all her powerpoint slides are what you need to do well on her tests. And she video casts all her lectures too! Rewatching all of them made my life so much easier when it comes to studying for her class.

BUT!!!!!!! Her TIMED online quizzes were HELLA HARD. They were VERY tricky, and it required about me and four other friends to work on it together. AND IT STILL TOOK US ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF EACH TIME. And some of the quizzes we practically failed. So beware of those. Also, she has clicker questions so you have t come to class every time. AND YOU HAVE TO GET THE CLICKER QUESTIONS RIGHT. You'll get 0 points if you get the question wrong. So class was always stressful. The only saving grace was her amazing teaching skills and her fair tests (but it's extremely detailed so you have to know everything)

I've heard a ton of bad stuff about other LS3 professors, so I would say she's the best of all of them. At least she makes everything easy to study for. OH! I forgot to mention, she makes your grade pretty balanced. Tests are only about maybe half or 60% of your entire grade. The rest are clicker, the stupid online quizzes, masteringbio (which is not too bad), and discussion worksheets (which you get full credit anyway in discussion). So getting an A is very possible in her class, you just have to keep up with everything!

I had her for LS4, as for lectures, it was a little annoying that we bought the course reader when she ended up putting the powerpoints online. the course reader had tiny writing with black and white pictures when sometimes the colors on her slides were useful in understanding them. its easier that its webcasted so you can rewatch the lectures. my TA was amazing, always answered whatever questions i asked. To do well, you should read the book (it helps you understand the course reader better sometimes), read the course reader (make sure you actually know whats going on in transcription, translation, not just the general idea) if you put in the time, it's do-able

COURSE TAKEN: LS3

ABOUT THE PROFESSOR:
She explains everything decently but there's just so much information that you have to re-watch some stuff that you don't understand (pray that it's podcasted). She's like you're average professor. Not good no bad

THE CLASS:
Tough, but extremely interesting. A lot of material and a lot of conceptual details that could mess you up on tests. I re-watched every single lecture via podcast and even then I had to go to office hours. If you just "get it" then good for you.

THE TESTS:
HARD. They were challenging because of they were all multiple choice when I took the course and it just sucks not to get partial credit. I could've easily bumped up a grade level if I the test was free response. Again, memorization will only get you so far, her tests require critical thinking to a certain extent as well (ESPECIALLY THE FINAL).

THINGS I WOULD'VE DONE DIFFERENTLY:
Not much, just prayed that she asked easier MC questions or that the test was free response.
I mean I re-watched all the lectures and I'm still telling you that the class was hard. But doesn't take away that the class had some pretty interesting stuff.

Johnson she is an okay prof. and she not the best as other people say she is(butt kissers)

good things about her
she is nice and all the lecture are bruin-cast so you can go back and watch her lecture for the lectures you missed. thats about it

bad things about her

her exams are experimentally based so this mean you have to you have to understand all lecture slides in the her reader of (200pages) very well in order to do okay in her exam. for example for the first midterm and the final she put a picture a gel and asked question about it.some random shit that you wont care about you will see it in the exam. so know every slide in depth and understand it.

also her exams are like about 8 to 7 pages long but you have 2hours to complete it.

Reading the book can be helpful since it explains some concepts better than she does.

her lecture style, she is boring but not boring to a level where she makes you sleep. and when she lectures i feel that she does not explain the concepts very well which means you have to go for her OH and the read more about it in order to understand

every week there is stupid online quiz(5pt)that you have to do. where you have to read 7 or less pages of a published paper (written in very hard way to understand )and answer 5 multiple choice questions online.

there is also a lab portion which very is point less cuz you dont learn shit but the TA was very good and if unlucky like to me to take Johnson then take Diana because she is the Best TA that Johnson has.

i wont recommended you to take her LS3 class because i mean i did all of the above(reading and re-listening to her lectures) and i still got a B. so if you have the chance take another person(who can teach the material better)then do it. If not then good luck with her.

LS3

Okay, first of all, Professor Johnson is WAY to detail-oriented, and her exams did NOT help for the MCAT. Professor Johnson, it's about SIMPLICITY.

I took LS3 with Johnson fall '08 and it wasn't as bad as many people say. She bruincasts all her lectures and on top of that she uploads her powerpoint presentations plus several practice exams (although the practice exams were nothing like the actual ones). I barely used the textbook since her exams are mainly off of her lectures; thus, you will be fine as long as you review the notes and understand everything in the course reader. Also, her exam curves are VERY generous. As long as you keep up with her lectures, an A or B should be an adequately attainable grade.

LS 3
Perhaps she's not as hard as many people think; sometimes I wish the course to be harder since I find many concepts in the textbook useful and interesting but they're not covered in this course. For the exams, you must understand the concepts, not just memorize. A good way to begin with is to imagine what if something is absent in a given precess. Also, if you do well in chemistry, then you will not find this course hard, although this course is more memorization than chemistry courses. Now the online homework is not timed. Some homework questions can be hard or ambiguous, but most of them are fine. You can disregard this evaluation if you don't get A's most of the time in science classes.