I really enjoyed the class. The lectures were interesting, and she had some cool video clips to show different organisms. Don''t listen to the haters, she a good prof.

Halpin is the best professor I have had at UCLA. Inspired me to change my major to EBE. Yes, you have to memorize things. Surprise! College is learning stuff. The tests are fair. This class prepped me for later course work really well. The grade is percentage unless the average falls to low. In other words, she picks whichever system gives the students the best grade depending on how they do.

I usually write long reviews about professors, whether they are good or bad. However, Halpin doesn’t deserve that. She sucks. Don’t take her. Her class sucks. The tests are hard. Attendance is mandatory. The online homework is pointless. And the TAs grade like idiots on the demos. Wait for another professor, even if they are only slightly better.

Professor halpin is very knowledgable about the subject and pretty entertaining. She does her best to make the course interesting - which can be hard with such a dry subject. Great class!

I had her for ls 1 and I loved her. Got an A- but that was because I messed up in lab portion of grade. Her exams are fair enough and based on lecture only. She is enthusiastic about bio and easy to follow. don't hesitate to take her, but be prepared to memorize a shitload.

Wow there are some pretty dramatic people below. Very immature. Neither the course nor the professor were bad. In fact, the professor was a very good speaker and the material was interesting.

Honestly, I hate Halpin with a burning passion, with an intensity that exceeds the burning of one thousand suns. Yea, she sucks. I received a C- in the class, I did every lab, attended every lecture (I also had a broken ankle all quarter and was on crutches) and still barely passed. Most of my friends didn't pass and will have to suffer through this hell again. If I were you, I would wait till Halpin got fired to take this class, go ahead and take LS2 etc, botany is boring anyways.

If you are unfortunate enough to take this class with Halpin, bring some homework to do during lecture because they are completely and utterly useless. My friends and I would listen to the podcasts, and hear Halpin asking us to be quiet at least a few times a lecture. Truly a great experience.

I took LS1 with Professor Halpin Winter of 2009. She is a pretty decent teacher when it comes to LS1. She assigns clicker questions to make sure you come to lecture (slightly annoying). But it's an easy 10% of your grade (you don't have to answer any correct or all, just one during the lecture to show that you were there; so you can come late as well if need be) Her tests are not that long (2 hours for the midterm, 3 for the final). I did them in a half hour/ hour. Most of the people I asked were 15 to 30 min above that... So, you have LOTS of time... However, because her tests are shorter, it seems that one question is worth A LOT of points (especially short answer for me, it really freaked me out sometimes that 1 short answer question was 16 points out of 70.) Her tests are based pretty much off of the lecture slides, and she posts them online for easy studying. You may have to go into the text for supplement reading if she posts to read or what I did was I used it to review for the experiments done because she usually has 1 or 2 questions about it on the tests. She also is pretty nonchalant and fair. She tries to be funny (and actually succeeds often) and tries to make the class interesting. The labs for LS1 though are pretty mundane although ridiculously easy, so again easy points for that A! Overall, if you put in the effort, you'll do well. Just know that it is a pre-req for all Life Science majors, so pretty much you'll be dealing with a ton of pre-meds (I'm one too) and the class curve is pretty high. Luckily it's a straight curve, so just do well for yourself. Also, the material may be boring and a lot at times but give yourself approx. 3 good days and you can memorize it all for the midterm/final no problem. Overall, Professor Halpin is a really good professor and (non-sequitor : marine biologist). I would take her again just because I know, at least she's fair and tries. Also.. Mac user.

had her for ls 1..i liked her as a teacher..but not an easy A..not that the material is hard although must memorize alot b/c the tests basically have kinna random facts that u need to kno. i don't kno my grade yet, expecting a b/b plus n normally an a student but the class isn't that scary.

She taught 5 weeks of Ecology in this class and she did many not-so-nice things. She forced everyone in the class to buy a $40-$50 clicker to force students to come to class (attendance based on answering questions). I was extremely ticked off because the class was only 5 weeks long and that was a lot of money wasted to use twice per week. She would read from the slides word for word and not really go into much depth, which made people fall asleep because there's nothing worse than being read to during class. Her exam was fair but the multiple choice was ridiculously hard, probably to lower the overall scores. She is nothing special, just your typical dry professor.