Y'all need to chill on Deb.

I came in this class expecting the absolute worst on her because everyone I knew had terrible things. And in all honesty, this class turned out to be better than everything that I have heard on her. In addition, I asked a lot of my classmates in the discussion about what they thought of her and they were all positive too and not even one person I talked to had harsh, negative things to say.

Most people who have taken LS 7B have most likely taken 7A so the format is the same.
The course is graded based on two midterms (120 points each), Launchpad activities (150 points total), Clickers (75 points w/ 3 free clicker days), Lab Section (150 points), and an easy survey that the LS core makes you complete (10 points) including, and the Final (200 points).

Because the LS series has a flipped classroom style of learning, students do most of their learning on Launchpad anyway, therefore, I personally do not think who you have as a professor matters. Therefore, I believe how well you do in these classes depends on how well you can self-study on your own. The professor does not matter too much but I still think Deb was still good to have as a teacher.

Deb just goes through clickers (like the rest of the 7B professors) and explains them and while some clickers were confusing, she did a good job explaining them. Not only that, she always had a smile on her face and she remembered a lot of students who came to lecture. She would always stop to make conversation and try to talk to a lot of people about their lives. Not too many know this, but sometimes when students asked questions in class and she would ask them to say the question out loud for the rest of the class to hear, she would personally go back and apologize to that student and say that they had a good question and it was a good learning opportunity for everyone. I used to email Deb sometimes for random questions and she emailed almost immediately or in less than 24 hours. Knowing how busy she is and how many emails she gets from all the courses she teaches, it's nice to know that you are not completely insignificant.

She gave opportunities for extra credit too. There were multiple surveys given out by the LS core throughout the quarter and they at most took me 3-4 min to complete and each survey was an extra 2 points. So you had an opportunity to earn 8 extra credit points (4 surveys).

I am writing this review because I in no way deserved an A in this course. I did mediocre on my midterms and not too well on my final. However, when I looked at my final grade, I saw that I received an A. When I punched in the numbers for my grade it turned out even with doing all the extra credit, I would not have made it but Deb decided to curve everyone up a bit and that is how I received an A instead of an A-. Guys, taking Deb will not screw you. I thought she was great and I believe people should take a chance.

Anyone who claims this class is impossible or that the test questions are unfair is not studying correctly i assure you. I attended literally not even a third of the lectures this entire quarter (gave my clicker to my friend for the rest) and did all the launchpad quizzes by using quizlet. I didn't do a single launchpad reading. All I did was watch the bruincasted lectures at 2x speed and write notes down onto the lecture notes and clicker questions. I studied for both midterms no more than 2 days in advance (meaning I began even looking at the material at all) and I got a 98 and a 97. Yes the tests are difficult, but I promise you if you quite literally just take notes from the lectures and just read the slides/clicker questions you'll sail by without a problem.

I was nervous to take this class with Pires since her reviews are not strong, but I truly believe any faults with this class are issues with the LS7 series as a whole. Like all the other LS7 classes, the tests were poorly worded and often felt like trick questions, but Pires was always very helpful in office hours and would explain clicker/test/PEQ questions at length. Labs in this class were super easy, except 2 weeks where we had take home labs that took significantly longer than the time allotted for a discussion section.
My words of advice (for this class especially) is to attend the problem solving sessions!! for genetics and evolution, it's very easy to let one misunderstanding ruin an entire problem set on a test. The PSS were helpful for this and explained complicated topics that often showed up on exams. If you're taking this class, you're probably a bio major and have to take it anyways, but Pires is a good choice. I think she was a great professor who truly cared about her students and was always very positive and encouraging.

Class Distribution:
Midterm 1 - 120 points
Midterm 2 - 120 points
Final Exam - 200 points
Lab Section - 135 points
Clickers - 72 points
Weekly Launchpad activities - 45
Weekly pre-class review questions - 45
Weekly practice exam questions - 45
Total points possible = 782 (Graded on normal, straight scale)

LS7B was an okay class overall. It's very similar to LS7A, with the same type of clickers and launchpad assignments, the only real difference being the lab sections (which are honestly just longer discussion sections, with some of them being entirely useless). The professors were great and very accommodating, making sure they had extra office hours for exams and they were active on Campuswire too. However, the exams were poorly made, with many vague questions with confusing wording. The first midterm involves a lot of probabilities which can definitely be confusing, and the overall exams had a lot of "what if" type questions which were also confusing. Still, there was lots of extra credit given from simple surveys, midterm reflections, mini midterms (a 6 question "midterm" after the actual midterm), as well as a 1 question leeway on all the exams. Instructors also removed questions that they deemed to be unreasonable. There is no group stage for these exams. The best way to study for the exams in my opinion is to review clicker questions, practice exam questions, practice midterm questions, and going to office hours. Problem solving sessions can be helpful, but didn't really help me too much. Also, you are allowed to miss an entire week of class activities/homework and still get a 100%.

My scores: I got a 100% in all the sections except the exams. Lab sections were pretty leniently graded by my TA. Midterm 1 - 114/120; Midterm 2 - 118/120; Final Exam - 180/200; these scores include the added points from the reflection and mini midterm.

Pires herself was a solid professor who takes her time to answer everyone's questions and genuinely cares about her students, but the monotonous nature, the labs often being busy work, and poorly-made exams of the course diminish her teaching skills.

the bruinwalk reviews for Professor pires do not do her justice. She is by far, one of the best professors I have had at UCLA! She makes class enjoyable by always opening each class with an interesting nature video, and she is incredibly caring and sweet. She also has a very cute dog! I was honestly very worried about this class after the week 2 PEQs because they were really hard, and I heard rumors that the exams were impossible. However, if you took AP bio and AP environmental science, you are cruising for this class. Well, maybe not cruising, but you definitely are in a better position! Pires is so great at explaining concepts very simply, and she helps you with problem solving in a way that suits your style of learning. This class was online, but she still did such a great job. I think the fact that we were online actually benefitted my learning because I was able to ask her questions much more easily, and be able to reference her lectures, compared to the bustling and distracting lecture halls. This quarter was especially hard for me because I had an onset of anxiety and OCD, but she made this class way more bearable. She was very reassuring and never got angry at me for asking "unnecessary" questions.

This is more of a complaint for the class structure and the labs:
some of the labs were very useless, like the ones where we are just doing virtual labs isn't very helpful. I found the week 4 lab with the dog pedigree stuff was very helpful and was great review for the exam! Also, PLEASE STOP GIVING PRELAB READING AND PRE-LAB QUIZZES!!! i literally had a panic attack from the workload, and it was very stress inducing. Week 8 was sheer pain: TONS of lecture reading, a midterm, AND prelab reading on plant biodiversity—keep in mind, none of this pre-lab reading was tested for the class, but we still have to do a launchpad reading. It was very unhelpful, and it just removed energy from me studying for the midterm.

My general studying advice for this class!:
Launchpad stuff: review how many "pages" there are for the launchpad reading and divide it up from the day it opens up on friday over to monday for the tuesday and thursday reading. It saved me a lot of stress from cramming in the reading, which was something i struggled with in 7A

Exams: You can lightly review the note u take from launchpad, but I would also review the PCRQs, the PEQs, PLEASE GO TO THE PROBLEM SOLVING SESSIONS. DO NOT JUST DO THE SHEETS!!! Review the labs (they will ask questions that ask similar topics, but u won't have to recall certain aspects. just be able to connect content u learned in class with data that u see in lab), review the practice midterm/final problems from class, THE CLICKER QUESTIONS TOO!!!
I was very stressed out during this class but I ended with a 99%! It is very doable if you just spread out your studying:
midterm 1: 96%
midterm 2: 102.5%
final exam: 94%

TLDR: Pires is an exceptional professor who is great at explaining concepts and will teach you how to problem solve! I highly HIGHLY recommend you to attend the problem solving sessions!

I had a great experience in 7A so I truly thought it would be the same for 7B. However, this class caused me great stress and I strongly feel that it mainly had to do with the professor. Although I do not think she means harm, she is truly has trouble explaining. She states things in such matter a fact ways that is not conducive to learning. She often causes more confusion than clarification. I stopped going to office hours and had to rely on my peers because I would come out of them feeling like I had wasted time. The content itself I think for me was a bit more confusing than 7As so that did not help. However, it definitely is manageable to do well in. The tests are not easy but there is extra credit opportunities as well as mini midterms that are meant to provide a buffer.

I personally hate the LS series and considering I failed all the exams, I still received a passing grade. This class is super interesting but the setup of the class is annoying. You have to learn all concepts and vocab before attending the lecture. We used launchpad/ iclicker reef for our in-class participation and homework.

* Disclaimer* I took this class entirely online

Dr. Pires really does care about her students and is genuinely a good professor. She is a clear lecturer and good at responding to student questions. A lot of the information you need isn't covered in lecture and you need launchpad to get all the material.

The course is graded similarly to LS7A with a little more emphasis on the exams. There are opportunities to do a mini midterm and get points back that can get you almost 7 percent back on your test.

One nice part about LS7B is that the professors communicate between one another well and that even if you have friends with a different professor the class is exactly the same. Dr. Pires is great and I would recommend taking her but if another section fits better in your schedule for this class, I think it ok to go with the other professor.

Easiest of the series… still failed every exam though. You’ll get an a if you dont miss a launchpad like I did…. Labs were not hard, sometimes finished early! It’s not the worst class ever but it is challenging.

As far as the content for LS7B goes, it's really not that bad.
Pires? The TA's? The workload and exams? All suck. Both the Professor and my unfortunate excuse of a TA (Evan D.) were rude and dismissive when students asked questions. The practice exams given out are nothing like the actual midterms or finals and the launchpad is a huge waste of time. The labs are 2 hours long and you never have enough time to finish them and the TA does not give enough guidance yet grades harshly, taking points off for minute things every week. Pre-Labs for 2/10 weeks are like 7 pages long and never show up on the midterms or finals. Honestly, none of the homework we did ever really felt helpful.
Not to mention they're always due 15 mins after the end of the lab period, EVEN IF it's the TA's fault for not being able to get through all of it on time.

All in all, this class is horrible and I would avoid taking Pires at all costs. I just wish we could have Professor Maloy for all the 7 series, that man is the GOAT