listen. you know the hell of the 7 series by now. Dr. K is great: she's funny, she gives EC, she has review sessions before exams, she gives candy when you answer questions in class. All that being said, it is not enough to save you from this class. You can study, you can attend office hours, you can cry and pray and the midterms will ruin you. I took this class during the spring '24 TA strike and the campus closures and there were no grading adjustments despite the normal course being pretty thrown off. The material is interesting though, and I appreciate the point system with easy points to grab.

I think I'm kind of an outlier on opinion of 7C (or for the LS7 series in general, at least after chatting with my friends), so take this review however you may.
Let's start off with some facts.
The grading scheme is pretty much the same across the 7 series so if you've taken 7A and/or 7B before at UCLA, then there's nothing new. The whole format is more similar to 7A than 7B though, because our tests are online. There is a lot more material in the pre-class assignments though, and instead of 5?10? PCRQs like in 7A and 7B, you'll have 16-40 PCRQs per lecture, which is a LOT (especially if you were just chilling with the easy workload in 7A/B, huge jump I know). Most lectures have ~20 PCRQs though; I guess they just like scaring people at the beginning of the quarter. Extra credit is answering campuswire questions/receiving upvotes and the feedback surveys. And you have gradescope pod assignments like in 7A/B, so nothing new here.
I think people complain about the tests the most. Tests are definitely harder than the exams previous two classes, but for me they were manageable. The majority of questions are still in the format of [given a scenario] [what happens if we change xyz]? and so it requires you to fully understand the system, what leads to what, and kind of like logic games--you trace your way to the answer. To fully understand the material... you will need outside help. TAs/LAs in CLC and Professors in Office Hours are the best resources to go to when you need help. For the CLCs--don't speedrun through the worksheet and leave after you finish it! Try to check every question with a TA/LA to make sure you don't miss any tiny concept.
Onto my review for Khankan... I really like her; she's an excellent lecturer and can answer your questions thoroughly. She gives out candies to people who answer her questions! So raise your hand and participate :) I think the 7 series does a great job in choosing the professors (although some may disagree).
Just be prepared for extra work and get extra help if needed! Good luck and you got this!

I feel like problem solving sessions helped the most, we would look directly at diagrams studied in the exams.

Dr. K is a wonderful lecturer and person. She explains things in such a way that makes the material extremely clear and she is always willing to help a student.
7C is the same exact show as before: reading guides, pre-class questions, practice exam questions due once a week, and the spattering of self-reflection assignments. 7C was definitely the hardest in the series, but with enough work, anyone can pull through. The easiest way to succeed in this class is to go to the problem solving sessions every single week and keep active on campuswire (forum for student questions). These two things together allow you to master the concepts and eventually apply that knowledge on the exams.

Since this is the last part of the 7 series I won't go much into detail, especially about the exams. The class was really fun overall. I loved learning about the body and learned to appreciate how we evolved such complex bodies, and how every second they are working to keep us alive. It's amazing! The class grading wasn't great, though. Every time we had a discussion sheet returned to us with a grade, it had at least half a point taken off, and before submitting we were never told what the grading rubric was or anything like that, so we were in the dark about what to write down and what was expected from us. The tests also sucked, as they were unclear and when I asked on campuswire about the test questions and how they were unclear, the prof said we are only supposed to use info we learned in class, but how am I supposed to know what I learned in class or outside? To me, it all mashes into one, so I can't tell where I learned certain things. Grades kept getting changed after tests came out because even the professors themselves don't know what the correct answers were. The LS7 series is a mess, but it's necessary for all life sciences majors, so you make do.

This class felt like being transported back into high school, probably because the vast majority of students taking it are freshmen and the instructors know this. An incessant amount of "reflection questions", short quizzes, discussion worksheets, pre-discussion worksheets, iClicker questions, and extra credit activities... as a second year taking this class, a lot of it felt very repetitive and unnecessary, especially my mandatory 8 am discussion section.
In contrast to the very "beginner-friendly" tone of the lectures, the exams in this class are quite difficult, with multiple choice questions formulated so that you trip up on them and a very detailed knowledge of the material required to do well. Although this class is taught well and Professor Khankan clearly cares about her students, the combined workload of all the different small assignments was a lot.

Took Khankan in fall 2018. She's a pretty good teacher, but there's a lot of material to memorize. If you're interested in getting the answers to previous launchpad PEQs and PCRQs, email me at *************

About the class in general: 7C is undoubtedly the hardest of the 7 series. While I personally found the content more interesting and engaging than what was taught in 7A/B, it is a ton of material that you really have to understand; merely memorising bodily systems and anatomy will not fly.

The required assignments are time-consuming. The reading guides are four pages and are due at the beginning of the week. The pre-class reading questions are not spaced out between lectures; I remember there was one week where there were over 110 questions due on Tuesday and only 10 or so due on Thursday. I never really read back on a reading guide (though I think the act of completing them was helpful) and the PCRQ questions are quite elementary and are not similar to exam questions. However, I will say that the practice exams (PEQs) each week are extremely helpful as they require an actual understanding of the content.

Lectures are required because there are completion-based iClickers to track participation. Dr. Khankan moves a bit fast but it was needed to cover all of the material. She was clear, concise, and was still able to answer questions in lecture. Sometimes, diagrams were printed out on slips of paper and passed out to help students with understanding, which I appreciated.

The exams are take-home, on Canvas, and difficult. Despite not changing any of my work/study habits from the previous 7 series classes, I got around a 75% on the first midterm, which was certainly a wake-up call. I found that going through the clicker questions and PEQ questions and understanding why the incorrect answer choices were incorrect was an efficient and effective way to study, as opposed to rereading the textbook like some may try to do. Just like the exams from 7A/B, some of the questions are ambiguously worded, some convoluted, and a few where multiple answers seem correct depending on how you look at the problem and which time frame you consider. The instructional team may regrade a couple of questions to address this. The group stage is 20% of the exam grade and has two parts: one part uses the same diagrams and the same questions as the individual stage, and one part uses the same diagrams but asks different questions.

Lab sections were helpful. The worksheets really solidify your understanding of the content and it is a good opportunity to collaborate with your peers. However, I will note that when cross-checking with peers in different sections, there were some inconsistencies in the information that was given by different TAs/LAs.

There was extra credit offered and I would take advantage of every single opportunity no matter how time/effort-consuming they may be; every point matters in this class!

Regarding Dr. Khankan herself: she is clearly knowledgeable in the subject and is readily available during office hours and on Campuswire to answer any questions you may have. Before the class started, I requested accommodation for iClickers since I was unable to attend some of the lectures. Despite it requiring extra grading for her personally, she understood my situation and gave me an accommodation which I appreciated very much!

Dr. Khankan was one of the worst professors I've had at UCLA so far. The entire 7 series is so badly structured, but this class was the worst. It is completely packed with content, meaning that, if you don't have a great teacher, it's completely on you to learn everything from the textbook. This teacher didn't offer support to the students and when I reached out to her about some issues I was having, she completely disregarded me and was incredibly unhelpful. I think that professors should be people in your college experience that help you maneuver the whole situation and feel more comfortable, but obviously, that's not a given. All of my other STEM professors this year have been pretty bad overall, but Dr.Khankan really made my experience in this class a bad one. She gave off an arrogant and unapproachable feeling in class, and I would have felt silly asking her questions, so I didn't. She completely relied on the TA's for all student support, and even told me I should have talked to them before her. I understand that she's probably busy, but in choosing to teach a class, she is also accepting the role of leader and mentor for all her students, which I don't think she fulfilled. The people that did well in this class devoted a ton of time to it, did all the readings (with notes), studied for many additional hours on top of class assignments, and went to all the problem solving sessions. I understand that college level classes are more difficult and rigorous, but this level of workload is kind of ridiculous.
Despite the horrible structure of the class, a good professor would make it easy and even challenging in a way that motivates students. I know because I sat in on another lecture and was completely blown away by the difference. Dr. Khankan is unhelpful and was extremely rude to me when I tried to explain my situation to her. She basically accused me of lying to her, which wasn't the reaction I was expecting or hoping for from a professional. She refused to try to understand my situation and repeated the same things again and again in response. I did not feel like she cared at all about what I was trying to tell her, and it seemed like teaching was a burden to her. I would never choose to take another class from her, and I would never ever recommend her classes to anyone else. If you can avoid her, you should. The average grades in her class are way lower than they should be and this material can be so much easier with a better teacher.
Overall, the 7 series sucks and UCLA needs to find a better way to teach this material. I took IB biology for two years and had already learned it, and it was still a mess when I was trying to relearn everything. Biology at UCLA is so highly spoken of, but I was really disappointed after taking this class. It completely burned me out and I lost a lot of motivation and excitement about my major and experience at UCLA. Don't take her classes guys

The bottom line is that this class is hard. I honestly did not think that I would do well up until the final. I almost failed the first midterm, which was terrifying at the time. The content of the class is awesome - I think I learned a lot and would take it again - if there were no tests. Adding on to that, the tests were awful. Not the best experience. My advice would be to earn as much extra credit as you can. Every point does matter. I think that if you are able to do well in the other categories, it can bring up your grade immensely. Khankan is a good lecturer, but going to lecture isn't enough. Go to the CLC hours and do extra practice. If you actually study for this class and learn the content, you will probably do well in it.