- Home
- Search
- Rana Khankan
- All Reviews
Rana Khankan
AD
Based on 156 Users
I took this class to decide if I could major in a hard science; I learned that I cannot. Obviously, the material is very difficult, and you have to put a lot of work into LaunchPad for a good grade. However, Dr. Khankan was a great professor! Her lectures are fine- there's just a lot of participation. Take every extra credit opportunity, as you never really know how you're going to do one the exams until afterwards. There's 2 midterms, 1 final, but a lot of your points will come from LaunchPad, Clickr questions, and the worksheets you do in discussion. Make sure you do LaunchPad on time before every lecture, even if you just click through it and go back later. I had my discussions with Sean, who wasn't very helpful, but my LA was great. It's important to get 100% on every worksheet in discussion, but it usually wasn't too hard, since Sean went over each question before class ended, and usually there were smarter students enrolled that could help. Attendance and participation is very important, but Khankan allowed you to miss up to 2 lectures, since the points were out of a smaller amount than the max. I really appreciate Khankan now, (end of winter quarter 2020- Corona), as she and all other classes have allowed us to prorate our final scores, instead of taking it online at home. Even though this wasn't just her decision, she has been an extremely fair teacher, and went out of her way to help answer questions during lecture.
Amazing teacher. She always explained things very well and she was ALWAYS down to help. LOVED her. she really vouched for us at the end with covid-19. but LS 7A will destroy you if you're not ready for it. the content was hard and the exams were soul crushing... if you want to succeed in this class, review the learning objectives and make sure you can answer them. Tests require lots of critical thinking and complex thought. It is not regurgitation by any means. However, class is heavily padded with launchpad assignments and quizzes. Make sure you understand how the mechanism works (not the details) and you'll be gucci
Okay, honest review time... This class is the HARDEST class I have taken at UCLA and I am so grateful I got it over with. The material itself is not that hard to learn (except the week on osmolarity ew). The workload is a lot because of Launchpad so I would recommend taking easy classes alongside it. The exams are AWFUL (there is a special place in hell for the people who write them). Everyone (including me) failed the first midterm with a D average, so prepare yourself. They will literally say "this part of the body is working abnormally" and from there you are magically supposed to know if it now produces more or less of something???? But honestly, to do well I would say know every diagram given in CLC, lecture, launchpad, and the handouts. SERIOUSLY KNOW THE DIAGRAMS ON THE HANDOUTS, THEY WILL BE ON THE EXAM. And do not let this class become something you dread (like I did) because it really prevented me from doing my best. And, duh, do the extra credit. One day we should all revolt against the LS 7 series !!!!!
Dr. Khankan is a great professor, and she made some concepts really easy to understand. She had plenty of office hours and a few Q&A review sessions, which I thought were great for studying. She would always answer every question in lecture clearly, and it is clear she knows her stuff. Definitely recommend taking this class with her if you have the chance.
This review is mainly for this class, and not about her.
This class is the hardest of 7 series IMO. They packed so much stuff into it that I felt like was pretty unreasonable for a college undergrad (all the systems in the body, gene editing, and cancer). I felt like the class was very poorly organized. It is too much to ask of students to try and study a new system every week and to understand the ins-and-outs of their molecular systems, and I wish they slowed the pacing down. It moves by really fast, and it can be easy to fall behind on the class material/
The tests were really bad, and they often pull tricks with the wording on the questions. It is a pretty difficult class, and it definitely requires constant studying to do well. While Khankan did not release the average for the midterms, I am quite confident that the averages were in the "C" range. The clicker questions are nothing like the level of difficulty that was on the exams. For me, the best study tool were the CLC worksheets
Discussion sections were very poorly organized and were unnecessarily long. They would ask us to complete a "worksheet," which was essentially just a mini-quiz of the week's info within a pretty short time limit. We were often rushed while typing up answers to our questions, and whenever I would ask my TA (Bryanna Chavez) a question, she would always respond back to me with a question, which was extremely frustrating. I understand they are asked to do this, but I wish they would change this policy. Moreover, the worksheets were graded very harshly and they would often take off points if we didn't include certain words even though we would get the general gist of the questions correct.
By now you should know how awful the LS7 Series exams are, and let me tell you, they only get worse in 7C like all these other reviews state. With that being said though, Khankan is the best professor to take this course with as she teaches with such clarity. Khankan is definitely one of my favorite professors I've taken so far. This quarter students from other professors even attended Khankan's lectures because they found that she taught much better for the exams. I cannot say enough good words about professor Khankan especially after taking her with an online course and then an in-person course.
--
Logistics wise though, study for the midterms a lot harder than you studied for 7A and 7B midterms. I would get A's on the 7A and 7B midterms, but got a D on my first 7C midterm. Do all the extra credit and just study hard for exams and you can get an A.
Although Dr. Khankhan is kind and willing to assist students even outside of class, the course itself is too rigorous with too many useless assignments and readings. The professors literally tell us not to take notes because we "won't use them" and instead tell us to use the reading guides, which aren't nearly as helpful, in fact they're useless, but mandatory. The homework problems and practice exams are unhelpful as well because they're nothing like the exam questions in the least. The lectures are very unhelpful, the exam questions are several paragraphs long each with very tricky wording. It's very disingenuous for professors (whose role is to guide and educate students) to try so hard to trick students into getting the wrong answer despite knowing the material well- you can ask any student who has taken the LS7 series and I guarantee you they will agree that the exams are the worst part of the courses. I hope this changes in the future as the LS7 series is supposed to be preparing students in the Life Sciences field, but instead seems to knock them down, forcing them to hate Biology and feel as though the countless hours they have spent mastering the material is nothing but a waste.
Learning from Professor Khankan was absolutely wonderful, and I am grateful for all the knowledge I gained in this class. The tests were slightly hard, but the content was fun as it was all related to human biology.
The professor is amazing. Everyone recommends Dr. Malloy / Dr. B, and they are great as well. Dr. Khankan is just as great in terms of willingness to help students and is also very engaging in lecture, if not better.
LS7A is a course that's exactly the same no matter who your teacher is, so honestly who you take it with doesn't matter beyond which professor you vibe with. All homework / tests is exactly the same across everyone, and it's honestly a lot of work. You get out of the course what you put into it - ie, you get a better grade if u did all the homework/readings than if you didn't.
You DO need an iclicker APP - don't get the physical remote you don't need that. You just need the app but just wait until you get the syllabus (week 0) before you buy anything. Book is Biology How Life Works 11th edition by Morris.
MY ISSUES: the midterms/final. They are called AOLs and they are the absolute worst. A lot of them are worded so vaguely and so many questions are literally wrong. But I suppose the TA strike might have affected this. You can still manage to get an A on the tests if you learn to think like the professors and you read through the iclicker questions and make practice questions for yourself. There's a group portion on tests too that lets you work with an assigned group of people on the exact same question set, so that's also nice to your grades.
Our final was a disaster; at the time I'm writing this 900 people signed a petition for a curve but that's a different story.
Khankan is super nice and a good professor but the tests are astronomically harder than the clicker questions and practice exam questions.
Dr.Khankan is one of the best professors and lecturers at UCLA!!! I had her for 7A and decided to take her for 7C as well and she truly is very caring. She allows us to try the problems on our own and is a very engaging lecturer. However, I will say that the course, 7C, itself is definitely not easy since the material and the exams require a lot of critical thinking and require you to connect a lot of concepts and body systems/processes together. The exams are also a bit tricky with the amount of info they provide and how some things are worded, however, I felt pretty prepared from the exam due to AAP PLF sessions and reviewing the Clicker questions. This course is not at all memorization heavy which I saw a lot of classmates trying to do, they give you the diagrams and pictures in the exam but you just got to connect and critically think!! I personally really loved human physiology and this had to be my favorite course in the 7 series.
I took this class to decide if I could major in a hard science; I learned that I cannot. Obviously, the material is very difficult, and you have to put a lot of work into LaunchPad for a good grade. However, Dr. Khankan was a great professor! Her lectures are fine- there's just a lot of participation. Take every extra credit opportunity, as you never really know how you're going to do one the exams until afterwards. There's 2 midterms, 1 final, but a lot of your points will come from LaunchPad, Clickr questions, and the worksheets you do in discussion. Make sure you do LaunchPad on time before every lecture, even if you just click through it and go back later. I had my discussions with Sean, who wasn't very helpful, but my LA was great. It's important to get 100% on every worksheet in discussion, but it usually wasn't too hard, since Sean went over each question before class ended, and usually there were smarter students enrolled that could help. Attendance and participation is very important, but Khankan allowed you to miss up to 2 lectures, since the points were out of a smaller amount than the max. I really appreciate Khankan now, (end of winter quarter 2020- Corona), as she and all other classes have allowed us to prorate our final scores, instead of taking it online at home. Even though this wasn't just her decision, she has been an extremely fair teacher, and went out of her way to help answer questions during lecture.
Amazing teacher. She always explained things very well and she was ALWAYS down to help. LOVED her. she really vouched for us at the end with covid-19. but LS 7A will destroy you if you're not ready for it. the content was hard and the exams were soul crushing... if you want to succeed in this class, review the learning objectives and make sure you can answer them. Tests require lots of critical thinking and complex thought. It is not regurgitation by any means. However, class is heavily padded with launchpad assignments and quizzes. Make sure you understand how the mechanism works (not the details) and you'll be gucci
Okay, honest review time... This class is the HARDEST class I have taken at UCLA and I am so grateful I got it over with. The material itself is not that hard to learn (except the week on osmolarity ew). The workload is a lot because of Launchpad so I would recommend taking easy classes alongside it. The exams are AWFUL (there is a special place in hell for the people who write them). Everyone (including me) failed the first midterm with a D average, so prepare yourself. They will literally say "this part of the body is working abnormally" and from there you are magically supposed to know if it now produces more or less of something???? But honestly, to do well I would say know every diagram given in CLC, lecture, launchpad, and the handouts. SERIOUSLY KNOW THE DIAGRAMS ON THE HANDOUTS, THEY WILL BE ON THE EXAM. And do not let this class become something you dread (like I did) because it really prevented me from doing my best. And, duh, do the extra credit. One day we should all revolt against the LS 7 series !!!!!
Dr. Khankan is a great professor, and she made some concepts really easy to understand. She had plenty of office hours and a few Q&A review sessions, which I thought were great for studying. She would always answer every question in lecture clearly, and it is clear she knows her stuff. Definitely recommend taking this class with her if you have the chance.
This review is mainly for this class, and not about her.
This class is the hardest of 7 series IMO. They packed so much stuff into it that I felt like was pretty unreasonable for a college undergrad (all the systems in the body, gene editing, and cancer). I felt like the class was very poorly organized. It is too much to ask of students to try and study a new system every week and to understand the ins-and-outs of their molecular systems, and I wish they slowed the pacing down. It moves by really fast, and it can be easy to fall behind on the class material/
The tests were really bad, and they often pull tricks with the wording on the questions. It is a pretty difficult class, and it definitely requires constant studying to do well. While Khankan did not release the average for the midterms, I am quite confident that the averages were in the "C" range. The clicker questions are nothing like the level of difficulty that was on the exams. For me, the best study tool were the CLC worksheets
Discussion sections were very poorly organized and were unnecessarily long. They would ask us to complete a "worksheet," which was essentially just a mini-quiz of the week's info within a pretty short time limit. We were often rushed while typing up answers to our questions, and whenever I would ask my TA (Bryanna Chavez) a question, she would always respond back to me with a question, which was extremely frustrating. I understand they are asked to do this, but I wish they would change this policy. Moreover, the worksheets were graded very harshly and they would often take off points if we didn't include certain words even though we would get the general gist of the questions correct.
By now you should know how awful the LS7 Series exams are, and let me tell you, they only get worse in 7C like all these other reviews state. With that being said though, Khankan is the best professor to take this course with as she teaches with such clarity. Khankan is definitely one of my favorite professors I've taken so far. This quarter students from other professors even attended Khankan's lectures because they found that she taught much better for the exams. I cannot say enough good words about professor Khankan especially after taking her with an online course and then an in-person course.
--
Logistics wise though, study for the midterms a lot harder than you studied for 7A and 7B midterms. I would get A's on the 7A and 7B midterms, but got a D on my first 7C midterm. Do all the extra credit and just study hard for exams and you can get an A.
Although Dr. Khankhan is kind and willing to assist students even outside of class, the course itself is too rigorous with too many useless assignments and readings. The professors literally tell us not to take notes because we "won't use them" and instead tell us to use the reading guides, which aren't nearly as helpful, in fact they're useless, but mandatory. The homework problems and practice exams are unhelpful as well because they're nothing like the exam questions in the least. The lectures are very unhelpful, the exam questions are several paragraphs long each with very tricky wording. It's very disingenuous for professors (whose role is to guide and educate students) to try so hard to trick students into getting the wrong answer despite knowing the material well- you can ask any student who has taken the LS7 series and I guarantee you they will agree that the exams are the worst part of the courses. I hope this changes in the future as the LS7 series is supposed to be preparing students in the Life Sciences field, but instead seems to knock them down, forcing them to hate Biology and feel as though the countless hours they have spent mastering the material is nothing but a waste.
Learning from Professor Khankan was absolutely wonderful, and I am grateful for all the knowledge I gained in this class. The tests were slightly hard, but the content was fun as it was all related to human biology.
The professor is amazing. Everyone recommends Dr. Malloy / Dr. B, and they are great as well. Dr. Khankan is just as great in terms of willingness to help students and is also very engaging in lecture, if not better.
LS7A is a course that's exactly the same no matter who your teacher is, so honestly who you take it with doesn't matter beyond which professor you vibe with. All homework / tests is exactly the same across everyone, and it's honestly a lot of work. You get out of the course what you put into it - ie, you get a better grade if u did all the homework/readings than if you didn't.
You DO need an iclicker APP - don't get the physical remote you don't need that. You just need the app but just wait until you get the syllabus (week 0) before you buy anything. Book is Biology How Life Works 11th edition by Morris.
MY ISSUES: the midterms/final. They are called AOLs and they are the absolute worst. A lot of them are worded so vaguely and so many questions are literally wrong. But I suppose the TA strike might have affected this. You can still manage to get an A on the tests if you learn to think like the professors and you read through the iclicker questions and make practice questions for yourself. There's a group portion on tests too that lets you work with an assigned group of people on the exact same question set, so that's also nice to your grades.
Our final was a disaster; at the time I'm writing this 900 people signed a petition for a curve but that's a different story.
Dr.Khankan is one of the best professors and lecturers at UCLA!!! I had her for 7A and decided to take her for 7C as well and she truly is very caring. She allows us to try the problems on our own and is a very engaging lecturer. However, I will say that the course, 7C, itself is definitely not easy since the material and the exams require a lot of critical thinking and require you to connect a lot of concepts and body systems/processes together. The exams are also a bit tricky with the amount of info they provide and how some things are worded, however, I felt pretty prepared from the exam due to AAP PLF sessions and reviewing the Clicker questions. This course is not at all memorization heavy which I saw a lot of classmates trying to do, they give you the diagrams and pictures in the exam but you just got to connect and critically think!! I personally really loved human physiology and this had to be my favorite course in the 7 series.