The most caring professor ever. She's a sweetheart and truly cares about her students and wants everyone to do well. Very helpful and friendly and will do everything to help you succeed, that is if you are. She's not as hard as people make it out to be. If you put in the effort, attend lectures and do your part, you will see it pay off in the end. She tries to reward her students and won't try to trick you in any way. Loved having MCDB 165A w/ her. Plus you learn a lot and great prep for med school. Selling Reader, lecture notes w/ slides and brand new textbook cheaper than bookstore price.
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Despite the great amount of her positive evaluations, you have to think twice to decide whether to take this class with Dr. Arispe.

This class requires a huge amount of memorization as well as logical thinking. If you have no research experience, I recommend that you take this class because you'll read cutting-edge research papers and learn about basic and essential experimental methods.

If you're a research person, you'll probably find some of the course materials quite annoying such as reading those papers, particularly if you know well about the methods and are able to follow the logic of any typical article but you have no interest in the topic! And you just learned a little bit more fact rather than real useful knowledge.

Selling course reader. Text ********** *

I took this class after Biochem 153 so the amount of memorization did not seem that daunting. The class was fun in that it required you to applied the things you have learned instead of just regurgitating. The research papers were hard to read at first. By the end of the quarter, I felt like I had learned a new language.

The professor is very caring. After each midterm, she encouraged students who didn't do so well to set up a meeting with her to see how they can improve. She even created extra sample test questions for those who wanted extra help. We would email her the answers, then the TAs and her would personally provide feedback on how our answers were/how we should have included, etc.

This has probably been my favorite class at UCLA so far. It absolutely validated my desire to be an MCDB major. Arispe is super passionate and energetic during her lectures, and her class may reinvent the way you think about cell biology.

That said, I ended up with a B+ in the class. Arispe said it herself that, to do well, you really have to immerse yourself in the material. She has slides that are good, but aren't the most comprehensive. I began the class taking notes on my laptop, and in retrospect, I think taking notes on printouts of the slides would have been much more helpful.

At least in my quarter, grades were based on:
40% for the two midterms
35% for the final
15% for 6 reports based on primary literature articles (lowest score dropped)
10% for an essay like the reports

As previous evaluations say, her exams incorporate T/F and MC (really read these carefully; one seemingly insignificant term can make a huge impact...I can't tell you how many times I facepalmed at my stupid mistakes), short answer, and long answer. The essay questions (like the reports) usually ask you to interpret data (either hypothetical or real) and design experiments. Be sure to include controls.

If this is your first quarter taking an upper division class, don't take it with another upper div. I took 165A with Biochem 153A, and while I got an A in the latter, I found myself struggling to juggle the sheer amount taught in both classes.

All in all, Arispe is FANTASTIC and I would definitely take her.

She's wonderful. I don't think I've ever met a science professor that is as passionate and expressive as she is. She's a great lecturer and a genuinely nice person. I highly recommend taking a class with her before you graduate.

Her tests incorporate T/F, multiple choice, short answer and long answer, and she really likes experimental questions. Every test will ask you to design several experiments, give controls, etc., but with discussion and the papers you read it's not too hard to get used to this. Her exams are very straightforward and fair. You also have to write an essay based on a scientific paper but it's not too hard and the TAs are generally easy graders. Probably one of the easier MCDB classes I've taken.

I did terribly on the first midterm, and with her personal help, I brought up my next midterm score. She seriously cares a lot about how well her students do, which is so much more than I can say for most professors at UCLA.

Her class is REALLY HARD, though, with high volume of material to learn. Plus, you need to apply this material to creating experiments on the test -- not a trivial task. I wouldn't take this class during a particularly difficult quarter.

This was a pretty easy class, I ended up with an A. The kind of annoying thing is that what Dr. Arispe covers in lecture is a really large amount of information, but her exams are heavily based creating and testing your own experiments and use of experimental methods, which can be frustrating when they are not discussed during the class. The section is mandatory and we read weekly science papers which are also included on the exam. Dr. Arispe is a really fair teacher though, she will always take the highest grade in the class and make that the new 100, so even if the class averaged an 80%, if the highest is a 95% the test will be curved even though the average was already really high.

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There are no better way to explain

Coming as a transfer student, I thought I'd easily ace this class as I had back in community college. It was an eye-opening experience to see that I got a C on the first midterm after the curve. I studied my ass off for the second midterm and still just got a B. Got perfect on the paper and almost perfect on the discussion assignments. Went into the final hoping just to get B+ overall. Surprisingly, ended up doing really well on the final and got an A in the class. The materials are really interesting. Moral of the story: don't put off stuff until the last minute (starting to study the weekend before midterm, like I did. Especially if you're a transfer like me).Papers start out to be a pain, but it gets really interesing at the end as you understand them, especially when you're doing the research paper. Suggestion: take this class, or any, for that matter with an interest in learning, and it'll get easier.

These previous evaluations of Dr. Arispe are accurate. Basically, she's absolutely wonderful, very approachable, and very very academically challenging. Keep on top of the work from the beginnning, read the book, and go to office hours if you need help. The course reader was more confusing than helpful for me. I found that towards the end of the quarter, the new material was easier to learn but everything is cumulative so I had more to remember. I think I've learned more from this class than at any other so far at UCLA.