The class content is great and she is a great lecturer, however her midterm was filled with unfair, trick questions and the average was a 73%. I don't believe she genuinely wants her students to do well.

The ratings and grade distribution you're seeing are from when the class was online, do not go based on those if you are taking this in person. Unless you want to ruin your GPA, don't take this class with McEvoy. Lectures were excruciating to get through and the professor was reading off the slides with little to no explanation of mechanisms (which is a huge part of this class) and when students would ask questions during class, she would never have an answer. The workload is little, there's one assignment due in the beginning and you can work with a partner. The midterm was cruel and unusual punishment and didn't test our knowledge on important topics at all. The professor gave us 0 direction for what the final was going to look like and provided us with a "study guide" with nothing useful on it. No practice questions, no key concepts we should know, and literally nothing valuable. The class average was a low C and everyone was pissed off afterward. I'm an upperclassman already in the HBS major, so this is a weeder class that I'm required to take. If you're Pre-HBS, take this with a different professor, and if you're not Pre-HBS, why would you even consider taking this class?

(Took this class during COVID)

This class is pretty difficult. I think the LS 7 series in general is less about memorization but more about actually understanding concepts and applying them to new situations you've never seen before, which can be difficult for people who haven't done so in high school etc. It's pretty similar to AP bio in a sense where you apply your knowledge instead of just regurgitating it.

Even though this class was a lot of work, the LS 7A professors made accommodations for online learning which I think saved a lot of people's grades: group exams. For the 2 midterms and the final, there were two phases: an individual phase, where you would take the exam by yourself (open from 6 AM - 8 PM on a single day), and a group phase, where you would be assigned a group of 3 other people and have about two days to set up a time, talk about the exam, and individually submit a second copy of exam (all on CCLE). Your score for the midterms/final is an average of the individual and group phase exams. So yeah, you could straight up fail the individual portion but get carried in the group phase and come out with a relatively decent score, which I think really helped people out and changed perspectives on this course because I only heard negative things coming in (however there were students who *still* complained... despite having group exams). I'm not sure if the professors will continue doing this when things get back to normal, but I think it will really help the LS 7 series be more respected because there are many, many complaints about this series. As far as I know LS 7B and 7C have different kinds of accommodations in regards to helping recovering lost points on exams, but anything helps.

In regards to the professor, I took it when McEvoy was co-teaching with Pires. I found Pires to be a lot more knowledgeable and prepared to answer questions, but I do recognize that it was probably McEvoy's first time teaching 7A (if I'm not mistaken) and I wouldn't call her "bad" by any means. They were both pretty good and kind.

Be prepared to work hard in this class. It takes a lot of time to go through weekly launchpad readings but actually reading it and *not* just skimming it will actually help you learn the concepts, but I do get that sometimes launchpad content can give you more than you actually need to know. Clicker questions are probably the best practice tool you have in that class as they represent the questions on the midterms/final pretty well, so make sure to go through them while studying and be able to justify why an answer is correct or incorrect. A lot of people say they "skipped through launchpad" and "barely paid attention in lecture" and then wonder why they have a bad grade, I don't get it. If you're disciplined enough and put in the work you'll get the grade you deserve! You can do it! Good luck!

Take this class if you want to ruin your gpa. This was this first in person section for McEvoy and it was a disaster. She offered online open response exams during covid and then made ridiculous exams in person. The class averaged a C-/D+ and she does not care. She seems to see this as an ego boost making her exams ridiculously hard. She offers no support, revisions, or any chance to even talk about the exam. My upper division courses are easier than her class. Do not take this class with her as she does not care about your grades or simply being fair.

Not to be pretentious or a know-it-all…but I honestly think this class is pretty easy and really really interesting. You learn a lot about antibiotic resistance and why feeding it to animals is a thing/problematic at the same time, and right now we’re learning about heat and it’s super cool. I will say that the past reviews are a little bit inaccurate—you don’t need to go to lecture at all because 1. they’re recorded (without video though—just audio) and 2. they literally just read off the slide. I don’t know about Venkat, but McEvoy definitely does. If anything, just go over the slides on your own and skip the recording to a part whenever you need some explanation. And not all of the readings are necessary—they repeat pretty much exactly what’s said in lecture, with a little extra information. I just skimmed through a lot of them and skipped the ones I deemed unimportant. The weekly assignments are super easy, just about like 200-300 words (I forgot how long) and discussion is just based off of attendance, with you being allowed to skip 1 as a buffer.
I will say that a lot of the questions on the Unit 1 Exam were very specific about things she brushed over for like 2 seconds during lecture and dedicated half a slide to, and the MCQ was kind of mean (2 of the above. Not even ‘A and B’ or ‘B and C’—just 2. seriously?) but it’s not as bad as people make it out to be. I’d say this class is really insightful and worth taking.

Please give this class a chance! It was genuinely one of the best classes I’ve taken so far at UCLA and is very much interdisciplinary for people who don’t like science, and are looking for a science GE to take (think social issues like redlining, prison industrial complex, etc combined with healthcare). Prof. McEvoy was a great lecturer who mostly repeats, then expands on the slides. Yes, the first exam was unnecessarily hard (especially the mc, oh my). But Prof. McEvoy definitely recognized that and not only held a exam review session, where she gave several unfairly worded mc qs back and some students free response points back (even though my TA explicitly stated they were not doing regrades before this) but also gave 5 extra credit points on the exam for students who attended the next lecture. They heard the student’s complaints about the multiple choice and made the second exam all free response, with 3 ec for lecture attendees again. This was the first quarter the class held exams in person, and it showed—it doesn’t mean that it’ll be like this for the next class.

Lecture attendance isn’t required as the audio is recorded. They did give extra credit to only lecture attendants though.

The breakdown:
55% 2 exams
20% final paper
25% participation, 2 assignments

For the written portion of the exams, I highly recommend skimming over the readings and slides, and making a study guide that explains how the examples given in the readings tie to some of the core concepts of each unit. For the multiple choice, review the slides!! Some questions were super specific, however Prof. McEvoy’s slides were clear and wrote all the info you needed. She was also really kind about any questions related to course content and logistics. Hope this was helpful :)

Took this class with Pires and McEvoy. Clickers are used and you get points for it so you'll want to attend. It's flipped style with loads of work due on an overpriced online textbook (no way around it). The 7 series is clearly a weeder for LS majors and premed students. The material is pretty much going to be the same no matter the professor, but in this case let me warn you.

Pires and McEvoy suck.

My friends took this class with a different professor and had a way better time (and did significantly better). Not only are they boring and unhelpful teachers, but they're also super unaccommodating. CAE students beware! I got a concussion during the quarter and they refused to excuse any attendance or adjust clicker points, they didn't follow university requested accommodations, and they ignored emails after the grades were released where I followed up about these things. Do yourself a favor and take this class with a nicer professor.

Professor McEvoy is a fairly good professor. She's helpful and will meet with you for other things if necessary - she met with me for advising on a potential project I was going to take up. Though she didn't contribute very much, she still took her time and energy to meet with me. Most of the class was primarily structured with lectures (recorded and posted, attendance not required) and assignments (I believe we had 8 in total to pick from, each week you chose one - you could do repeats, just had to add up to 8). The exams were easy and straightforward - couldn't really get them wrong as long as you absorbed the content you learned, took notes, and reviewed them prior to the exam. Not too intensive on studying.

I don't necessarily feel like I learned much important information from this class.. I did take it during spring 2020 when a lot of final exams and projects were called off. Professor McEvoy taught the class with Professor C.M. Kelty - I think a lot of the information I learned were all covered by previous biology and environmental science courses, which is somewhat to be expected. The book that we had to read was somewhat interesting but also mildly boring at the same time (I think it's a department chosen thing though..). I wasn't particularly attracted to the department either after this course, just because the content was (personally) a little uninteresting. But, we did cover some interesting articles and information about topics like antibiotic resistance, which I definitely enjoyed.

Overall, the course was good for the purpose of fulfilling a GE, but it was by no means super intriguing or beneficial to me in any further extent.

I just hate the LS Series because you have to teach yourself everything and are expected to know it by lecture. I took this class with Dr. Mcevoy and Dr. Pires and both are pretty boring. Mcevoy taught the first half and Pires taught second half. I literally failed both midterms and final, I got an F for all and I still passed the class with a B. You will be fine but if can take another class you should.

Pay attention in lectures and you will be fine. The only heavy work for this class is the readings, and I usually hate reading, but if I managed it, you should be fine. I found the class genuinely interesting, so that helped get through the readings. The TAs are all usually very chill, and there's a weekly section work for 6 weeks, but it wasn't that hard to do. Overall, an enjoyable class!