fav class i've ever taken. Dr. Galic is the goat. You can tell he loves what he teaches and really cares about his students. His office hours were an amazing resource and i would consider them mandatory for anyone who wants an A in the class. The first midterm is very hard simply because you don't have enough time to finish but if you grind for the final you'll be fine

overall amazing prof and a fantastic class. would recommend to anyone interested in immunology

Dr. Galic is genuinely one of the best professors at this school. It is such a rarity to find a professor who can effectively communicate in an open and welcoming manner, invites students to ask follow-up questions by cultivating a healthy learning environment, and is very clearly passionate about teaching undergraduate students. Although I had an initial interest in immunotherapy prior to this class, I feel as though I have gained so much more from Dr. Galic's teaching. Admittedly, this is an incredibly hard course with a crazy low midterm average to show for it (~50%); however, Dr. Galic and his office hours empowered me as a student. His unique setup for office hours should be something replicated by other critical life science courses (e.g., biochemistry, genetics, etc.), but Dr. Galic's consideration for his students is spotlighted by how he is often more than willing to spend as long as it takes for his students to understand the material. His office hours are set to be two hours (which is already a crazy amount of time to essentially lecture and explain concepts) from 3-5 PM but he often talks about how he is willing to stay until 8 PM, making sure everyone feels comfortable asking as many questions as needed! As a senior who just graduated and has never written a review on Bruinwalk before, I urge anyone who either has to take this class or is interested in immunology to take this class with Dr. Galic AND make sure you go to all of his office hours (even if you don't have any questions yourself)

This is probably my favorite class I've taken at UCLA. Dr. Galic and Zack are excellent lecturers and really explain the topics well. This class is definitely challenging, but the professors really make it straightforward in terms of what you need to know and what you don't need to know.
In terms of logistics, the class is structured as follows:
Homework: 20%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 50%
The homework is graded on completion and the problems resemble exam questions, so pay attention to that. The exams were online this quarter and were completely open-note. The midterm was an hour and 15 mins for 9 pages for 3 questions, so it was extremely fast paced (not many actually finished the exam), so you can't really rely on your notes too heavily either way. The final was more forgiving on time, being three hours for 5 questions. If you want to succeed in this class, go to Dr. Galic's office hours. Dr. Zack's office hours is formatted as expected (more of a Q&A session than anything else), but Dr. Galic will go through each slide from the past two lectures to clarify anything you need to know.
While this class seems intimidating, I highly recommend taking it with these two professors if possible.

I took this class with Galic and Zack in spring 2022. Honestly my favorite class I’ve taken at UCLA and I’m an MCDB major. I totally recommend this class if you’re willing to work hard to understand everything. Galic is an amazing professor and is very concerned with student learning. Zach is definitely a very smart man and is very knowledgeable, but breezes through the lectures very quickly and is not as clear. Galic uses the full lecture time (1 hour 15 mins) and Zach would finish only 45 mins in. Because of this, I always left Zach’s lectures very confused and unsure. To remedy this, I would go to Galic’s office hours. He just reviews the past two lectures, but he focuses on reviewing Zach’s lectures more. This was extremely helpful and I seriously recommend going to these office hours weekly. The midterm and final are extremely short on time but open note, so I recommend making a comprehensive document that you can command F to find anything you might have forgotten about. The tests are not about memorization as much as understanding, so some people really struggle but others can exceed easily. Left the final thinking that I’ve learned more in this class than most classes I’ve taken at UCLA! Very much recommend taking it with Galic and Zach.

Look, this class is a beast. I took this Spring 2022 with Dr. Zack and Dr. Galic and with Angela Wu as my TA. In all honesty, the teaching staff is what made this class amazing and interesting despite it being incredibly content heavy with difficult concepts. Angela is literally the GOAT and is so passionate about teaching even though she may not come off as it.

As someone who took this class while already having a lot of immunology background, I think that I had a petty significant advantage going into this class, especially on tests, because I was already taught to think in a very hypothetical-situation-oriented way (if that makes any sense). Be prepared to APPLY concepts you learned in lecture to NEW or very familiar hypothetical experiments for every single question you are ever asked in this class (the professors do this because this is more or less what immunologists have to face at work! can confirm). Test questions were of the same nature as homework questions but were harder simply because they combined concepts from multiple weeks into a single question (whereas worksheets were mostly focused on that week's content). The final exam was not cumulative but you are expected to retain basic knowledge from pre-midterm (for example: which Ab light chain rearranges first, etc.) although it will not be the main focus of the questions.

Grade Breakdown:
20% Homework (based on effort, super easy to get 100% here)
30% Midterm
50% Final Exam

Final Tips and Tricks: GO TO SECTION, the TAs are literal gems and put so much effort into review and preparing you for exams that I honestly would have been screwed if I skipped section (attendance is also mandatory though). I never really asked questions so even without participating or staying after it was incredibly helpful.

Content Based Tips that won't make sense yet: Kappa then lambda! Tap1/2 -> MHCI, RAG1/2 -> T and B rearrangement, AID -> class switching AND somatic hypermutation, think of Tolerance and Rejection as unrelated phenomena.

Dr. Galic is hilarious and kind, as well as being an incredible professor. His lectures are funny and engaging and often prompt curiosity in immunology. Make sure to attend OH with him; he's fantastic at explaining things and will often hint on what types of problems might make their way onto the exams. He even remembered me after the quarter ended! Overall, 10/10.

Regarding the class itself, it's pretty difficult. Even though the exams are open note, you need a REALLY good conceptual understanding of immunology to do well on them. My study habits were to review all the lectures and ensure that I knew all of the cellular interactions+key molecular components of them. I wrote down all of the high impact stuff on a cheat sheet. Having a binder full of notes for the exams helps, but don't be fooled--you need to study like it's a closed note class. Going over the problem sets is a good idea since they're just old exam questions. Added bonus: no busy work in this class! Overall, this class was difficult and incredibly rewarding, without micromanagement from the profs.

Very fun but very hard class. The tests are based on problem solving which means you really have to know what you’re talking about, but I think this is better than courses that force you to memorize! Attending the discussions are crucial, but they are led by amazing TAs that really care about your understanding. The discussions truly prepare you for the exams and that was amazing

Dr. Galic is one of my favorite professors. This class lives up to being known as the hardest class for MIMG majors, yet I found it the most rewarding. Put in the work, but also, learn how to properly study and you'll do well. My TA was Emily and she was amazing. Dr. Zack is also very knowledgable, so definitely go to office hours

Though immunology is one of the hardest science upper divs I've taken, Galic is an awesome professor and I would gladly take it with him again. He talks quickly and has an accent, but he'll go over something more slowly when asked, plus the lectures are audiocasted. He co-taught with Dr. Zack and they complement each other super well, and are also hilarious together. The homeworks are very challenging but are graded on effort, not accuracy, and they help prepare you for the tests. The tests are open-note but still study as if they weren't, and just use the notes to double-check tiny details. You won't have enough time to read your notes as if you're learning the material for the first time during an exam. Overall Galic and Zack took a really tough subject and made it super interesting and enjoyable, so i would recommend taking this class with them.

Galic was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. He really put in the effort to get to know each and every one of his students names. Even though Immunology is a super hard class, he makes the class enjoyable and cracks jokes every now and then. His office hours really do help because he'll go more in depth on each slide.