Relatively easy GE, midterm and final requires a lot of studying of the course reader but the quizzes and project are easy 100% grades.

With some effort an A is very likely.

I know a lot of people say that this class is easy, but here's my opinion: if you are not interested in bio/chem and you are an international student who didn't take your bio/chem class in English in high school, DO NOT COME TO THIS CLASS. I chose this class because for me other classes in this quarter is super stressful, so for my fourth class, I decided to follow the comment and chose a "easy A class". However, this class turns out to be the hardest one for my quarter. Professor is indeed a nice and charming guy, however, you will find that going to the lectures is not enough at all. The questions in the mid term and final are from content in course reader, and the professor didn't cover everything in his class. So you still need to read that 100 something pages of course reader and remember EVERY SINGLE DETAIL. As an international student, I find it very hard to remember all those terms and it's not just me - almost all the other students from my home country were complaining about this during the whole quarter.

PHYSCI 5 is a relatively manageable GE, just that it can be rather tedious in that there are quite a few reports to do and places that you can lose points in. Professor Esdin is a clear and concise lecturer, and most of the material he covers is in the textbook, so make sure to study the textbook closely for the midterm and final because he will also test some of the numbers that come out. He also takes attendance, so make sure to go for lecture or lose a sizeable part of your attendance grade. Ensure you do all the nitty-gritty work or risk losing points in unnecessary areas.

If you just need a GE this is a good one to take! It's relatively easy, but he does take attendance so its important to show up to lecture. The midterm and final are slightly challenging but if you study you'll do fine. I really liked him as a lecturer, and the homework was easy enough and came right out of the course reader. The discussions were super easy and only a few times a quarter, and there is only one final project at the end of the quarter, but its really not difficult (everyone I know got 100% or close to it)

The second half of this course was taught by Dr. Esdin, and while I thought he was an engaging lecturer, I don't think his lecture style suited my personal learning style. His lectures are mainly verbal - his slides are almost empty and are mostly pictures. As someone who's a slow writer, it was nearly impossible to jot down all of the information he was saying, which is a HUGE problem, because, on his exams, ANYTHING that he's ever said is fair game. This prompted me to begin recording his lectures. He posts his lecture slides and highly recommends that you them out and bring them to lecture, and this would have certainly helped to copy everything down that you need.
I found his tests to be pretty difficult. He asks very specific questions and sometimes the wording is a bit tricky.
Dr. Esdin definitely requires you to memorize a bunch of useless information, like all of the names of all of the hormones we discussed. I personally don't think memorization of this kind is necessary when 1. Google exists and 2. anyone who needs to memorize this information (pre-meds, maybe) will memorize it over time after seeing this information over and over again in their coursework. Either way, be prepared to cram a bunch of information in your head only to probably forget it after the final is over.
This class has almost no homework outside of reading a few Scientific American articles and being quizzed on them in section. Dr. Esdin did not use the book at all and even stated that he doesn't recommend wasting time trying to study from the book (which begs the question - why did we have to buy the book?). All of the information covered on the exams were mentioned (albeit briefly, sometimes) in lecture.
Dr. Esdin did not podcast his lectures, so attendance was necessary. The lecture slides posted on CCLE will not be enough for you to go off of if you miss a lecture, especially because he occasionally omitted information from the slides posted on CCLE. He took attendance during lecture and would give away information about the test (i.e. "the answer to number 24 will be "b").
Overall, I found Dr. Esdin's portion of the class to be fairly difficult due to the high volume of information he requires you to memorize. The 2nd midterm, which covered half of Dr. Esdin's material, had an average around a 70-72. Conversely, the first midterm (with none of Esdin's material) had an average of 83. Dr. Esdin isn't a bad professor, and you will likely be fine if you have him. Just prepare to attend every lecture and begin the studying process way before the exam date.

This class wasn't THAT bad. Like some of the other reviews on here, I agree that this class was not a walk in the park. But I have to admit that I didn't try that hard in this class and I still got an A. The only hard parts of the class are the exams. Everyone gets 100% on the workbook as long as they do all of it, 100% on the lifestyle project if they can follow simple directions, 100% on lab participation credit by doing the quizzes (they don't grade on accuracy), 100% on lecture attendance as long as you have a friend who can sign you in on days where you cannot go. I honestly didn't find lecture that helpful but I went most of the time just to sign in. To do well on the exams, you pretty much have to memorize the course reader. Another review said this but I'll repeat it because it was true for me too: to get an A in the class, you need to get at least 80% on the exams. The only points I lost in the class were on the midterm and final; I got an 83% and 86%, respectively. At the end, my grade came out to be like 92.8% but I received an A so there was probably a curve. Not a hard class, but the grunt work is a little annoying. Still, if I had to redo college I would still take this as a GE because it's one of the easier ones.

This class wasn't THAT bad. Like some of the other reviews on here, I agree that this class was not a walk in the park. But I have to admit that I didn't try that hard in this class and I still got an A. The only hard parts of the class are the exams. Everyone gets 100% on the workbook as long as they do all of it, 100% on the lifestyle project if they can follow simple directions, 100% on lab participation credit by doing the quizzes (they don't grade on accuracy), 100% on lecture attendance as long as you have a friend who can sign you in on days where you cannot go. I honestly didn't find lecture that helpful but I went most of the time just to sign in. To do well on the exams, you pretty much have to memorize the course reader. Another review said this but I'll repeat it because it was true for me too: to get an A in the class, you need to get at least 80% on the exams. The only points I lost in the class were on the midterm and final; I got an 83% and 86%, respectively. At the end, my grade came out to be like 92.8% but I received an A so there was probably a curve. Not a hard class, but the grunt work is a little annoying. Still, if I had to redo college I would still take this as a GE because it's one of the easier ones.

Easy GE that is very interesting! Workload is very manageable and grading is more than fair, as long as you do the work you will be fine. Grades are based on attendance, 3 open note lab quizzes, 2 open note lecture quizzes, midterm, project, and final. The course reader is essential for the midterm and final. If you can, get Nora as a TA, she is so chill! Selling the course reader (with highlighting) text me if interested 412-328-6229.

Selling fall 2017 course reader along with the workbook and iProfile, text me for pricing 916-661-9704

Dr. Esdin worries about whether most of his students understood the difficult concepts. Thus, he goes over the concepts extensively, which was helpful.