NEUROSC M101A
Neuroscience: From Molecules to Mind -- Cellular and Systems Neuroscience
Description: (Same as Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology M175A, Physiological Science M180A, and Psychology M117A.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, 90 minutes. Requisites: Chemistry 14C or 30A (14C may be taken concurrently), Life Sciences 2 or 7C, Physics 1B or 1BH or 5C or 6B. Not open for credit to students with credit for Physiological Science 111A. For Neuroscience and Physiological Science majors, grade of C- or better is required to proceed to Neuroscience M101B or Physiological Science 111B. Cellular neurophysiology, membrane potential, action potentials, and synaptic transmission. Sensory systems and motor system; how assemblies of neurons process complex information and control movement. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Chandler is a really nice guy, cracks many jokes, and overall quite entertaining to be around. His material is on electrophysiology, so a lot about ion channels and gradients and some applications of physics - he goes quite in-depth with this stuff because he likes to treat it as a puzzle, giving you piece by piece until the whole picture is created. So it really is hard to understand what you need to know for the exam, so I recommend grasping the big ideas. He likes to advertise his reader as like the holy grail for this class - I didn't find it too helpful, but it's the best study/review resource you've got, so use it! His exam is 9 short answers in an hour-ish so you better know your stuff and be able to convey it in a concise manner. The mean was an 82. Grading Scheme (out of 400): 300 points - 100 for each module's exam 80 points - 10 points for each of 9 quizzes, lowest dropped 10 points - two clinical correlations (summaries of a presentation) 5 points - seminar attendance + summary 5 points - discussion participation
Fall 2021 - Chandler is a really nice guy, cracks many jokes, and overall quite entertaining to be around. His material is on electrophysiology, so a lot about ion channels and gradients and some applications of physics - he goes quite in-depth with this stuff because he likes to treat it as a puzzle, giving you piece by piece until the whole picture is created. So it really is hard to understand what you need to know for the exam, so I recommend grasping the big ideas. He likes to advertise his reader as like the holy grail for this class - I didn't find it too helpful, but it's the best study/review resource you've got, so use it! His exam is 9 short answers in an hour-ish so you better know your stuff and be able to convey it in a concise manner. The mean was an 82. Grading Scheme (out of 400): 300 points - 100 for each module's exam 80 points - 10 points for each of 9 quizzes, lowest dropped 10 points - two clinical correlations (summaries of a presentation) 5 points - seminar attendance + summary 5 points - discussion participation
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Most Helpful Review
I agree that he can be incredibly cranky. He really dislikes questions that are thinly veiled attempts to determine the content of the exam. He is not fond of academic prima donnas who expect an A and aren't afraid to let him know it. My impression is that he has little patience for interactions that indicate more concern for the letter grade than for learning the material. Avoid these transgressions and you should do OK with him. Do NOT take his crabbiness personally. Having said all that, I thought he was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. His lectures were excellent and made a difficult topic very clear. He was by no means "easy", but he gave us all of the tools we needed to learn the material. He answered questions posted to the webpage promptly and thoroughly. Exam questions were sometimes difficult, but straightforward. Hard work in this class really pays off.
I agree that he can be incredibly cranky. He really dislikes questions that are thinly veiled attempts to determine the content of the exam. He is not fond of academic prima donnas who expect an A and aren't afraid to let him know it. My impression is that he has little patience for interactions that indicate more concern for the letter grade than for learning the material. Avoid these transgressions and you should do OK with him. Do NOT take his crabbiness personally. Having said all that, I thought he was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. His lectures were excellent and made a difficult topic very clear. He was by no means "easy", but he gave us all of the tools we needed to learn the material. He answered questions posted to the webpage promptly and thoroughly. Exam questions were sometimes difficult, but straightforward. Hard work in this class really pays off.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - He is so smart and expects everyone to be at his level and that makes his lectures hard to understand. This professor was the most understanding Neuroscience professor ever. His exam was fair, and his quizzes were clear. The biggest reason for this review is to emphasize that he was the only understanding Neuro professor during this pandemic. God bless his kind soul. Read the book, take good notes and you'll be fine for his module.
Fall 2020 - He is so smart and expects everyone to be at his level and that makes his lectures hard to understand. This professor was the most understanding Neuroscience professor ever. His exam was fair, and his quizzes were clear. The biggest reason for this review is to emphasize that he was the only understanding Neuro professor during this pandemic. God bless his kind soul. Read the book, take good notes and you'll be fine for his module.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I just made a bruinwalk account because I feel the need to inform others of this issue. You might be thinking "if you take such issue with this class, why not complain to the head of the department?". This would be the best recourse if Dr. White herself wasn't the head of the department. Heretofore I find myself writing this review. As others have said, never in my four years of higher education have I been so let down by a class. I've earned bad grades in classes that were totally justified. Either I didn't work hard enough, or I didn't have a good grasp of the material. However, this is the first time that I felt like I was GIVEN a grade rather than earned it. This class, minus the Dr. White module, was pretty much okay. However, the whole experience has been completely soured for me. Going into it I was super excited to finally dive into the world of neuroscience and coming out of this class I feel like the next two classes in the series are just a burden. This is mostly due to Dr. White's module. The material of the module isn't too shocking by any means. It's a bit tough, but nothing I wouldn't expect from a class like this. We've all taken way harder classes than this. Even the quizzes were a bit easier for this module than they had been in Dr. Chandler's module. However, the exam for this module is a slap in the face as a student. The questions seemed okay and I came out of it feeling completely neutral. This is because of the fact that prior to the exam, Dr. White lulled us into a sense of security saying we wouldn't need to worry, and we should be concise and brief on the exam. Then, the exams are returned to us, and the scores are far lower than the previous module. The comments left by the graders were extremely confusing, and we were essentially expected to write essays for each of the nine questions in an hour. If the exam was as Dr. White had described, the scores would have been better. Her solution is to give everyone ten points, which are forfeited if a regrade is requested. Another reviewer has said that the points were forfeited if the regrade was more than ten points, which is false. It was forfeited period. Clearly she cares more about the average rather than actually assessing our learning. The Machiavellian style of grading by the TA's isn't helpful at all. If you're reading this prior to taking this class and Dr. White is still teaching it, then get the heck out of this major and study something that will treat you fairly rather than just see you as a number on the registrar. If you decide to stick around, then I would recommend brushing up on your AP english stuff prior to the exam if you want to do well. Good luck.
Fall 2020 - I just made a bruinwalk account because I feel the need to inform others of this issue. You might be thinking "if you take such issue with this class, why not complain to the head of the department?". This would be the best recourse if Dr. White herself wasn't the head of the department. Heretofore I find myself writing this review. As others have said, never in my four years of higher education have I been so let down by a class. I've earned bad grades in classes that were totally justified. Either I didn't work hard enough, or I didn't have a good grasp of the material. However, this is the first time that I felt like I was GIVEN a grade rather than earned it. This class, minus the Dr. White module, was pretty much okay. However, the whole experience has been completely soured for me. Going into it I was super excited to finally dive into the world of neuroscience and coming out of this class I feel like the next two classes in the series are just a burden. This is mostly due to Dr. White's module. The material of the module isn't too shocking by any means. It's a bit tough, but nothing I wouldn't expect from a class like this. We've all taken way harder classes than this. Even the quizzes were a bit easier for this module than they had been in Dr. Chandler's module. However, the exam for this module is a slap in the face as a student. The questions seemed okay and I came out of it feeling completely neutral. This is because of the fact that prior to the exam, Dr. White lulled us into a sense of security saying we wouldn't need to worry, and we should be concise and brief on the exam. Then, the exams are returned to us, and the scores are far lower than the previous module. The comments left by the graders were extremely confusing, and we were essentially expected to write essays for each of the nine questions in an hour. If the exam was as Dr. White had described, the scores would have been better. Her solution is to give everyone ten points, which are forfeited if a regrade is requested. Another reviewer has said that the points were forfeited if the regrade was more than ten points, which is false. It was forfeited period. Clearly she cares more about the average rather than actually assessing our learning. The Machiavellian style of grading by the TA's isn't helpful at all. If you're reading this prior to taking this class and Dr. White is still teaching it, then get the heck out of this major and study something that will treat you fairly rather than just see you as a number on the registrar. If you decide to stick around, then I would recommend brushing up on your AP english stuff prior to the exam if you want to do well. Good luck.
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