I think there is a lot of fear around taking this class because students have heard that the course is pretty difficult in comparison to other PHYSCI electives that one could take. However, from my point of view, this class was great. One of the big drawbacks for students to sign up for the class is the daunting "50 minute research presentation". In reality, you yourself are only talking for about 15-20 minutes because you have at least one other partner to present with you. Also, you get an entire week+ to prepare and talk to your TA, who can explain any part of the paper you do not understand. Moreover, you are just presenting to a small discussion group, not the whole lecture. In terms of exams, they are VERY fair based off of what she teaches in the class. Like the previous review said, Professor Phelps teaches through experiments and their most significant findings, so as long as you know what happened in a certain experiment, you will do great. There is not a lot of "take this experiment and apply it to some abstract concept". It's more like "what happened in this experiment or paper". Lastly, the critiques are the same length as the PHYSCI 111 series critiques, but they are much better in my opinion because they ask for you to connect the paper to lecture material, which is more beneficial for learning content. Overall, this class was very overhyped in terms of difficulty (I know you're going to see that I got an A+, but trust me, this is only like my second A+ ever) and the professor was very kind and accommodating. As long as you take notes during lecture, you will do well!

This class right here is the phy sci elective of all phy sci electives. It is pretty different from the other easy-going, not-like-the-core electives. This class requires allooott of work and understanding of the material. Definitely not something you take as a student with senioritis or a junior struggling with 111B. Phelps does NOT play with the minimal effort and understanding. You need to put work into this class. This class is straight-scaled. It will change next year but this quarter:

3 non-cumulative quizzes: 80 points
50 minute long paper presentation: 40 points
Participation and attendance: 20 points
Critiques: 60 points
TOTAL: 200

I was not a fan of how this class was taught. She packed soooo much info into an hour and 15 minutes. It was also purely based on research. She taught experiment after experiment and paper after paper. It was pretty exhausting. BUT I do feel a lot more confident in my research abilities and my paper reading abilities. Overall, would I take it again? Sure. Would I take it as a senior about the graduate? No.