This is my favorite class for my first quarter at UCLA. Dr. Esdin is so so nice and cute that I would definitely take his class in the future. His lecture is so clear that if you take good notes every lecture, the exams will be just a piece of cake for you. This class is not that time consuming as there is no homework, but you do have to finish a post-lecture pop quiz after every lecture (2-4 questions each) and this should be okay. The final project is really EASY! If you have the experience of writing IAs (IB), this project should take you less than a night.

Overall, the workload is very light, the lecture is very interesting and you can definitely learn something, professor Esdin is really nice and helpful, the big project is easy and exams take only a very little proportion of the final grade. If you listen carefully and take good notes in the lecture, you will get an A very easily.

I would strongly recommend this GE to fulfill the lab requirement. I did not spend any time studying outside of the lectures and still got an A. No prior knowledge about bio is required at all and the class is very introductory.

After 4 years here at UCLA, I can honestly say this is the most IMPACTFUL AND USEFUL class I've ever taken. As an engineering major, we are only required to take 1 life science GE, and I am glad I picked this one over astronomy.

This class is the "delete facebook, hit the gym, lawyer up" of classes. If you want to get your diet on track, prevent disease, stay healthy, or get and stay fit and/or jacked (The professor is jacked btw) then you've come to the right place.

BACKGROUND AND RESULTS OF THIS CLASS
I came into this class a lowly skinnyfat freshman with bad acne who felt like excrement every morning getting up to go to this 8 am.
When I was in this class, I started eating better and watching my diet, I started lifting weights and exercising, I started sleeping well.
When I finished this class, I noticed my acne clearing up, I had more energy in the mornings, I was able to lift heavier weights, my muscles started to build up, my stomach became flatter and firmer, and I had more endurance for... activities.
Honest to god I even got abs for a time as I really got into the teachings I learned in this class.

As long as you come into this class with the mindset of improving yourself, I strongly believe what you learn here will significantly change the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

COURSELOAD: It's dry, the tests were pure (multiple choice!) memorization of the expensive course reader, but darn it if you can remember what you read last night then you'll get an A. I personally finished the 3 hour final in only 1 hour if that gives you an idea of the difficulty. As for homework, it's comparable to any other GE. Homework becomes very easy once you learn how to read the course reader efficiently though, maybe 1 hour a week. Much of the course is geared towards preventing disease like cardiovascular disease or diabetes, these parts are dry. Slog through the dry parts to get the sweet nectar of dieting tips.

THE PROFESSOR: The big man himself. An inspiration to gym-goers and dieters everywhere. He is passionate and insightful. Might be hard to see/hear. I recommend sitting in the front if this is still in Moore 100. He's not the funniest or most energetic lecturer, but he does his job well, and really, you're showing up not for the professor, but for yourself and your future health. TIP: One of the lectures will have a "nonsense" question that shows up on midterm/final that he gives the answer to, so if you can't show up because you've got DOMS from working out too hard the night before, make sure you ask a (trustworthy)friend to cover you.

THE DISCUSSION: In a small room in the very bowels of south campus, far from the safety of the dorms, you'll get a review and small quiz on what the course reader said last chapter. Hidden gem though, you take measurements such as bodyfat %, heart rate, height, weight, etc. that will help you track your health progress after you leave the class.

THE PROJECT: If your fitness goals include changing your weight (losing OR gaining) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND paying attention to the project. It will tell you how much you're eating, how much you need to change the amount you're eating, and what types nutriments you're missing out on. The project is also a good opportunity to start hitting the gym if you've never gone before, as you'll instantly see how its affecting your caloric intake.

TLDR: TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU WANT THE BODY AND FITNESS OF A MODEL.
ESPECIALLY TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOUR DIET IS BAD AND YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT.
Caveat: If you're not willing to take the steps to become healthier, this class is not for you, give up the spot so some other more motivated student can take it.

After reading the reviews for this class, I was so excited to take this class because I saw two recurring comments from student reviews: dummy easy science GE and a life changing course. To be completely honest, neither are true in my opinion. The reviews made this class seem like I would have a profound change in my life just from taking this class. The lifestyle assessment was pretty impactful though. This project has you record the foods you eat for the week in an online nutrition journal that gives you a detailed summary of your vitamin/mineral/fat intakes. From there, you make recommendations on how you can improve your health. However, the large bulk of the class, the lectures, the labs, the readings etc. were just about standard physiology. Let my clarify, this IS NOT a bad thing, it was just something I wasn't expecting because the reviews online made the class seem like it would be something else. I really enjoyed this class, despite it being different from what I expected. It was a dumbed-down physiology class for non STEM students that rarely even talked about diet or exercise. We talked about things like body systems, lipid/carb/protein absorption and digestion, and lifestyle diseases. I thought the class would have more practical, everyday type knowledge other than textbook knowledge. I totally recommend this class to anyone who might be interested in these topics. I feel like this is a more accurate depiction of the class (at least how the class is during covid). Another misleading part of the reviews was the easiness of the class. The class definitely was not insanely difficult by any means, but reviews made it seem like I could close my eyes while taking the final and still get 100%. I actually had to put effort into studying so I could maintain an A. You can only lose like 34 points out of 490 to still get an A. After week 5, I had already lost like 22 points. Multiple choice questions are typically worth 2-4 points each and these tests make up 200 points. The multiple choice questions were also stupidly or vaguely worded, so I lost stupid points over poorly structured questions. Luckily, esdin made the project, final, and last quiz very very easy. Some people also said esdin was really unaccomodating for students. Apparently he wouldn't let kids retake quizzes even if they had power outages during the ten minute window for taking the quiz, so some people instantly lost 15-20 points. I never emailed him or had any sort of electronic issue, so I don't have anything I can personally say. For anyone who made it this far, I'd recommend this class. The class was sometimes frustrating, but it was pretty interesting and not the hardest GE in the world.

Honestly I am astounded. Even though I am a first year, I have so much respect for Professor Edsin. He did not let the transition to remote learning and the BLM movement effect his ability to educate and his humanity. He genuinely cares for the wellbeing of his students (which aligns with the subject he teaches)- both physically, mentally, and emotionally. STEM prof are often a win or loose situation, he is undoubtedly a win. I've taken basic anatomy classes before, and so the topics of the lectures were interesting to me. The class comprises of Labs, Lecture quizes, Lab quizes and a final project. All of which were quite easy and were geared to accomodate for your self benefit and health (yes, it is an easy A). Edsin's character exemplifies what it means to be an educator and what true academica stands for. It would be a mistake to not take this class.

Summary: became smarter, became healthier, got a GPA boost, and had an amazing human being as a professor

This class is not going well, I don't know if it is because I am attending the wrong lectures or if he is actually just throwing random questions on his exams. The class is so interesting but his exams are so awful and his lecture quizzes are not even about the lecture. THIS CLASS IS NOT EASY OR WHAT YOU THINK IT IS. Honestly, I am so upset that I took this course but whatever, it is too late now. I personally do not recommend this class to anyone as it is difficult and tedious for a GE. Professor Esdin also tends to hop around subjects without giving warning, making your notes a complete brain fart of what he said in 10 minutes that could have been said a little more briefly. DO NOT TAKE, I REPEAT DO NOT, it is not worth it. I would say this class is only worth it if you are interested in biology, but if you are not please do not put yourself through a nightmare for a GE.

I felt this class was a little misleading. Content was basically biology, very boring and the only real physiology component was the project which actually was interesting. Professor is a nice guy but the questions on all the daily quizzes, biweekly quizzes, midterm, and final were awfully worded. Felt I understood all the material but constantly had to guess on all the vague questions. Class is overall manageable and a light workload, just not interesting and annoying based off the questions.

This was such an easy class to fulfill the life science GE. It's basically like ninth grade bio but easier. Professor Esdin is so considerate of the current time, and clearly just wants people to learn something from his class. There are weekly quizzes, the lowest one was dropped, and a final project which takes in total about 4ish hours, but if you spread it over the quarter it should be fine.

Pros:
Very doable, no homework, tests are not proctored, slides are helpful, but not posted.
Lecture participation quizzes are easy and keep you from falling behind. Exams are multiple choice, and information is easily found in the course reader/lectures.

Cons:
You have to buy iProfile and the course reader which are kind of pricey, and iProfile pretty much sucks. I'm not even sure it works right because according to my diet analysis I'm deficient in everything and should basically be dead. But that's beside the point.

If you have any interest or background in nutrition and/or exercise, this class will feel pretty boring. The information is pretty common knowledge in my view, so I'm not sure if all the people who said this was life-changing just didn't take biology in high school or needed a refresher. Still, would take again, as it was reasonably interesting enough and an easy A.

***COVID-19 REVIEW***
I recently took PHYSCI 5 with Dr. Esdin and had a very positive experience! Dr. Esdin is an incredibly passionate instructor. His extensive knowledge about the course material is evident. He does a great job verbally breaking down the content into simpler ideas by repeating key points in lectures and coming up with helpful analogies. The required course reader is basically an outline of the recorded lectures, but it does cover some specific ideas that aren’t mentioned in lecture, so I would suggest you read it and take notes on those points in case they pop up on a quiz.

I feel that Dr. Esdin structured the class very well because although the class was asynchronous, you couldn’t actually fall behind; we basically had a 12 hour window to watch the lecture each day and take the participation quiz which kept me accountable. Those quizzes were easy points, so as long as you take good, detailed notes on the lectures, you’ll never miss a question.

In terms of the grading in this class, points were distributed among smaller assignments. We had the daily participation quizzes, 5 lecture quizzes, 5 lab quizzes, a midterm, a final, and the lifestyle project. This definitely decreased my stress levels and made sure that I took the time to master the material. The phrasing of the questions on the lecture quizzes and the midterm were a little subjective/misleading at times, so I feel that was the reason why I lost points, not because the material was difficult. The lifestyle report is easy, but very tedious. I’d recommend not waiting until the last minute to start it.

In terms of the bi-weekly lab sections, I had Alice as a TA and she was great! She did a nice job explaining concepts that would be tested on lab quizzes and giving feedback before turning in the lifestyle report.

Overall, I believe that PHYSCI 5 will end up being one of the most relevant courses I will ever take at UCLA. Dr. Esdin is an awesome professor who really cares about his students. Getting an A in this class is totally doable if you put in the work. More than anything, the class will change your outlook on diet and exercise for the better.

This class was entirely online and asynchronous for this quarter.
The class was comprised of lecture quizzes, lab quizzes, attendance quizzes, labs, lifestyle project, midterm and final (optional). To be concise, lecture is straight up out of the course reader. Professor Esdin goes over the main takeaways from the course reader for an hour. I personally liked the idea of the labs, but gauging your own health using them was somewhat inaccessible for me. We also were not required to do conduct test trials. The multiple choice questions in this class were really, really easy but sometimes vague and confusing. It was sometimes difficult to identify what exactly it was asking. My TA took about an hour and a half for each lab/section meeting. I actually liked the iProfile subscription because I realized that my body was in starvation mode and I started making changes in myself. The only thing I disliked was that no ethnic foods were listed. I had to look up similar recipes and nutrition values of traditional Mexican meals to have an estimate to input. Taking the final was optional because Professor Esdin granted everyone an A due to the effect of BLM.