Dr. Esdin was very accommodating during the remote summer session and he always had our best interest at heart. There were a lot of quizzes (lecture quiz and a separate quiz based on a weekly paper) and daily participation quizzes. The final paper was pretty extensive but he gives you an interesting topic and enough time to do it. The exams were tough; we were allowed to use our notes but it was not helpful for the exams. Overall, this was an amazing class and I highly recommend!

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

Took Dr. Esdin for the exercise class. When I first saw this class on the course website, I didn't think it would be that bad; we're learning about the benefits of exercise right? ... NO, this class is pretty intense and there is a LOT of material covered in 6 weeks (Summer). The class is basically about how a bad diet can affect your health (atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, etc), and we learn how it is affected at the physiological/molecular level. The details get pretty intense, especially when you learn how atherosclerosis develops.

In addition, there is a diet/health analysis paper (3-4 pages, single-spaced) due during finals week, 3 homework assignments (short quizzes), and two exams (midterm/final). He also gives you 20 scientific journals to read, which takes forever, but manageable if you read like 5 per week.

I really liked this class and learned a lot of valuable information regarding diet and exercise, but what sucks about this class is that it's curved (just like any other physci class). So it gets harder to get an A when you're competing with the rest of the class (about 60 students). The grade distribution is like 25-35% As, 30-40% Bs, and 30% Cs or something like that. If you're going to take this class, make sure you don't get rocked by the curve. Also, it's good to take this class after taking PS111B since some of the materials overlap.