Halpin sucks. Seriously, she REALLY blows. Worst professor I've EVER had. I've The fact that I've been pushed here SOLELY for the purpose of reviewing her should speak volumes to that.

This review is NOT grade-sourgrapes. I've maintained a 90+% exam average, ONLY because I've retained memories of the upper division coursework I've completed prior. If you're taking LS with Halpin, do your upper divs FIRST.

She makes the students buy a license for online lecture "participation". Totally trivial and unnecessary (what are we, still in highschool?)

Her exams are LONG and TEDIOUS. Commit EVERYTHING on her lecture slides to memory.

Lab grades are iffy. You're gambling on the T.A. there.

The only positive thing that can be said about her LS1 class is that you can miss her lectures because they are boring, directionless, irrelevant, and entirely USELESS. Get some sleep instead. Because that's all you would have been doing anyway. ZzzzzZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzz......

To reiterate what has been said by so many others - Halpin is NOT an educator. She does NOT LIKE YOU. She does NOT CARE about YOU. She has NO RESPECT for YOU. WHATSOEVER.

The consistency of the student body's hatred of her is a direct reflection of her attitude towards us; We do not like her. We do not care about her. We have no respect for her.

As we damn well SHOULDN'T.

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If you're on the verge of graduating, remembered your upper div material, and just need 5 units you can stay home for, you might consider taking this class, AT YOUR OWN RISK.

If this is one of your first biology classes, IT IS NOT WORTH IT. Taking this class leaves a dark cloud of RESENTMENT over your head, the last thing you need to stay with your for your duration as an undergraduate.

The sooner ATROCIOUS M. HAPLESS is removed from teaching, the better off the freshmen and sophomore bio students will be.

Pipe dream, though, considering the sway she holds with the department.

I took LS 1 with Professor Halpin. Her lectures were basically her powerpoint slides and didn't really deviate. The midterms and final were a combination of multiple choice and short answer. The short answer sections were surprisingly specific, so those were easy to lose points on. She made us use clickers, but you didn't have to get the questions right, you just had to answer at least one every lecture. Labs were pretty chill, so they helped with the final grade. All in all, a pretty interesting course, although LS 1 isn't really the most relevant material for life science majors, especially pre-med. Not the easiest course, but not the most difficult.

Ok maybe those grades posted above are from a class that were fortunate enough to get the stupid curve, but I do not know how for LS1 Spring quarter 2012 the curve did not happen because litterally more than half scored a C or below on tests. She is literally just horrible, do yourself a favor and stay away because Chem 14 A was way easier.

i took LS 1: Halpin is a pretty good teacher for ls. The class isn't easy so you will have to work for your A. She bases her tests off her lecture notes so don't bother reading the textbook. The book has extra information that she won't even test you on. She goes through concepts rather quickly and will make you stay until the last second of class. Unfortunately I was cursed with a horrible TA who graded so much harder than the other TA's. Lab is about 20% of your grade. The good thing about the class is the clicker questions that are easy points to boost your grade. Her tests are hard and do not consist of very many questions. Each multiple choice is worth 5 points so your grade can easily drop. Her tests consists of short answer so you have to make sure you understand her slides and what she has gone over. [Side note: She's a bit awkward and says umm every 2 seconds haha]

Lectures were nicely organized and had great clarity. Videos and lecture demos (like the bird wing) helped a lot.

Once upon a time, there was an LS1 professor at UCLA named Dr. Halpin. She sucked. The end.

by far the worst professor i have ever had in my entire life. save yourself. DO. NOT. TAKE. HER.

I absolutely loved this course. It made me love my major- biology- so much more. Professor Halpin did a great job keeping lectures interesting by showing videos that exemplified the concepts we were learning. She kept the class engaged and focused by having survey questions that served as good checkmarks to make sure that we were understanding the concepts. I really liked how she presented the material and did her best to simplify the more complicated material. Though at times there were some technological difficulties, Professor Halpin worked around them well. I would highly recommend this course to my peers. I am sad that this quarter is ending because I honestly looked forward to every lecture. Thanks for reminding me why I chose to be a biology major and for making this class so
interesting!

honestly, she's not horrible but just be prepared to memorize everything to the last detail. her slides are important but you should also use the textbook. her slides are extremely general and when she gives the exams, the small random details will come from the textbook (from a random caption on a picture or something like that). it's not a hard class per se but you need to dedicate a lot of time to it. so don't take it with any other time demanding courses. the labs are a joke. they're worksheets not real reports and you pretty much walk around the botanical gardens looking for leaves and write stuff on a worksheet.

If you absolutely cannot avoid taking Halpin, please read only the tips section and disregard everything else. I do not want to depress you. In fact, she's a wonderful person. You'll do swell. Chin up. And good luck. :)

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The fact that I actually created an account to leave a review should speak volumes about how strongly I feel about her. I admit this is partially a case of sour grapes because she released the grades on the 25th. However, I believe my review still rings true.

If you can avoid her, for the love of God, please do.

Professor Halpin does not exactly read off her slides as the other reviewers suggest. However, what you need to know for her class is located on the slides. So, you don't really need to listen to her. She WILL keep you in class for the full fifty minutes. Sometimes she will let you out early; most times she will let you out exactly at the fifty minute mark or a little bit later. I'm not saying that she isn't entitled to the full fifty minutes of the class; however, she will call you back if she sees you or the entire class getting up to leave a minute early. This annoyed me greatly because I had only ten minutes to make it across campus to my next class. I say if we want to leave early and miss something, it's on us. Let us face the consequences ourselves. Don't drag us back. We were all falling asleep anyway.

I scored on average about 15% higher than the average on the midterms and final. I ended up with a B+. I would honestly love to know how the rest of my classmates fared.

TIPS:
1. Memorization of her slides is key. Surprisingly, some questions actually did force you to apply them a few concepts.
2. Not everything you memorize will be on the exam.
3. I went to the test bank for past exams because some reviews said that she reused a lot of her questions. However, this is no longer true. About only 1 or 2 questions ended up being recycled on her midterms. Past final exams weren't available at the test bank. Though, if you want the practice, I am not advising against looking at past exams to familiarize yourself with how her exams and grading style are.
4. You should get old labs from your friends to know how to do the lab write-ups because the page limit is ridiculous. I usually ended up writing at least twice that, and it took hours to cut it down.
5. Do the lab quizzes with a friend. Not all quiz questions are the same.
6. The answers to the reading quiz questions from the Mastering Biology website can usually be looked up online.
7. Every. point. counts.

As a person, she seems alright. Not someone I would EVER want to associate with, but still alright.
As a lecturer, I've had worse.
As a professor, I hate her. With a passion.
And if she is one of the better LS1 professors, may God have mercy on us all.

Also, either the grades for the Spring 2010 LS1 class are straight up wrong or those students are incredibly gifted.