Class Taken: PhySci5

Overall Dr. Esdin is a great guy. He seemed to genuinely care about his students and the lifestyle choices we made. He mentioned at the beginning and end of the quarter how he wished it was mandatory for every student at UCLA to take this class before graduation, which I completely agree with (as long as it wasn't at 8am).

To be honest I didn't make it to every class because it was so hard to get up for those 8am science lectures. Although when I did attend lecture they were HUGE eye openers to the choices I make in my lifestyle. He loves to say "My Take Home Message is…." which are just tips/advice on changing some things in your lifestyle. Dr. Esdin was great and I'd love to take another class with him as long as it wasn't at 8am.

Now here is how the class works:
You have lecture every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Be sure to show up to Friday's lectures as he gives out "Hints" which are ACTUAL Midterm/Final Exam questions.
Class Discussions are mandatory but you only have to 4 discussions that are spread throughout the quarter, they are based on collecting data for the project and the TA Asif is a cool guy.
You have a quarter long lifestyle project that is really simple and easily done the day before – although I don’t recommend it. (I did it the night before and still got 100%) The project consists of you recording your diet and activity for a week on an online software and then taking that data and formulating data based on your lifestyle choices. Trust me it is very simple.
You have 3 online quizzes that have 4 questions each and you are given 6 minutes for each. You can use your notes on them but I do recommend taking it with a group of friends as for Dr. Esdin loves to write tricky questions.
Midterm and Final Exam were only 38 questions. The Midterm had a few “Hint” questions on it and had a main focus on sugar breakdowns as for the Final Exam it was more focused on exercise and protein along with a few scattered questions from the other various topics. The Final was not cumulative. Which is awesome because this class is ALL about memorization.

Point Breakdown:
Discussion Attendance: 14 points
3 Quizzes (12 pts. each): 36 points
Midterm: 150 points
Lifestyle Assessment Project: 100 points
Final Exam: 150 points

450 points total – the class is curved based off the class average of the entire point system. He doesn't curve until the end.

Final Grade: C- unfortunately; but I suck at everything science. I would have gotten a D- (62%) but the curve was very nice! As you can see this class is NOT an easy A as stated below but is an eye opener. It somewhat reminded me of High School Biology with a UCLA twist.

If you choose to take this class I wish you the best of luck :)

Chill-ish class but kinda harder than it seems. Tests are pretty hard.

I'm selling the course reader so hit me up if your interested 240-743-9282

The class is super easy, I literally only showed up for the first day, midterm and final and still managed to pass the class. Just reading the coursereader should be able to get you at least a B. Its pretty comprehensive, although there are a couple typos in there.

There is a project that is pretty simple, the TA practically walks you through it.

I took the class last quarter and I'm selling my coursereader and an active iprofile program. Text 415-728-1175 or email b.lam1017@yahoo.com

Prof and the class is great. The curve is reasonable.

SELLING:

Course reader (Fall2014, brand new without marking)
iProfile

msg me if interested: 3104670096

Bad teacher for LS2, take it with Roberts over the summer.

The class is really good and meaningful. it has two online quiz, midterm and final. for the midterm and final, there are about 100 multiple choice in total, which are based on course reader material and lectures.

I am selling course reader and profile, if you are interested. e-mail me 597128225@qq.com

Course Taken: LS2

ABOUT THE PROFESSOR:
He knows how to explain everything extremely well. He engages you in the discussion with relevant analogies. You won't fall asleep.

HIS TESTS:
His tests are... Challenging. I wouldn't say fair, but challenging. A lot of people say just memorize the slides, but his tests do require critical thinking. For instance, if some part of some pathway breaks down due to a mutation, what will still happen/be expressed and what won't.
Please pray that the tests have some free response.

THE CLASS:
LOVE the topics covered. If you're pre-med there's no way to be more sure about you're choice than to take this class.

RESOURCES:
I wish there were podcasts and I wish there were practice tests. Don't look at the book, mostly go over and understand thoroughly the lecture concepts. HIS OFFICE HOURS ARE FANTASTIC.

THINGS I WOULD'VE DONE DIFFERENTLY:
Sleep well the night before the tests (none of that 8 hour B.S., I'm talking a solid 9-12 hours). I feel like if I had my brain to full capacity I could've performed much better than I did. The material is manageable and the course isn't overwhelming.

Fair GE and quite practical to know. Study hard for the midterm and final, which were both almost entirely based off the course reader. This class requires a LOT of memorization. Project was easy and gave you free points, as well as attending discussions. Barely attended lectures and got a B.

Esdin is a really great lecturer!! Almost everything he says is relevant but this means that you need to take really good notes in order to do well. I didn't know this at the time but apparently, it helps a lot to go to office hours. People(life science majors) usually enjoy the content of this class and as a plus Esdin presents it in a very organized way. You'll still need to do a lot of memorizing though! This isn't an easy class in any sense, the tests were fairly difficult!(not solely based on memorization) The second half was taught by Yang, and I thought this part was much more manageable.

PS 136- Cardiovascular Exercise

Fantastic class. Esdin taught this during Session A of 2013. After going through the 111 series of physci, this class was a huge relief in the sense that the topic was extremely interesting and engaging and the class was taught by a great professor. The class covered very relevant information pertaining to cardiovascular disease progression and how exercise and other factors can decrease your risk of a cardiac event.

Lecture topics included: Atherosclerosis, Lipid Metabolism, Diabetes. The grading scheme was like 30 pts participation (attendance), 150 pts midterm, 100 pts for a paper and 150 pts for a final. something like that roughly. the tests were hard, not going to lie at all. I was shitting bricks after the midterm because a lot of it was blank boxes where he would write up a condition or a situation, and you'd have to define it and write an effect. he writes a hard midterm and final so that the class has a nice grading bell cuve. the final paper was very extensive.. It had to be a specific topic of your choosing and 3-4 pages in length, SINGLE SPACED, with at least 10 original journal references.

TIPS:
1.go to office hours. I can't stress this enough. I think it's pretty much a necessity in every phy sci class but just do it. his lectures were at 9-11am MW, and his office hours were usually 8am Wed, but suck it up it's worth it.
2. pick your paper topic early and do not try to write it all in one night. it took me pretty much one full weekend and two all nighters to write mine, but i could've been more efficient.
3. keep your notes from the cardiology part of 111B
4. he says the final is culmulative, but he really just means all the material builds on itself (it does), but he'll really just be focusing on the material after the final.

He says he averages the class around a B-, but I did average on both the midterm and final, got 93/100 on the paper, full participation and ended up with an A. Have faith! this class is definitely worth taking! and buy a used course reader! it's just filled with scientific articles that he doesn't change