The lectures were unclear, confusing, and altogether unhelpful. We often wasted time at the beginning of classes on technical difficulties and other things rather than lecture material. Soraya's explanation of the material was all over the place, I had no idea what content to even study for. I did learn a lot in discussion sections, and I don't think it would be too hard to get an A if you have a good TA who helps to clarify things, but in my opinion the lectures were essentially pointless.

That aside, what was most concerning were Soraya's policies regarding the pandemic and general accessibility concerns. She refused to upload lecture slides for the first week of class. Her reasoning was that posting slides would disincentivize people from coming to class, and give 'spoilers' to the material. I personally have never had a professor who has refused to provide slides, and as someone who prefers to take notes directly on the slides during lecture this was a bit frustrating. To her credit, after many students brought up their concerns during lecture, she eventually agreed.

The biggest issue was when UCLA announced the transition back to in person classes mid-winter quarter. She stated that she would only hold lectures in-person, and offered NO virtual options such as recordings. If you had to miss a class, she said you could come to in-person office hours, but even then she said she was only able to clarify lecture material, not teach content you missed. She argued that this is how things would be 'in normal times,' even though we are clearly experiencing extraordinary circumstances (and even pre-pandemic many professors offered Bruincast). As far as I know this is completely unheard of, and very insensitive to students' concerns for health, not to mention students with disabilities or those who were unable to travel back to LA at such short notice. It essentially punishes students who are unable to come to class even if they have COVID, and puts every student's health at risk. Pretty ironic for a class about scientific ethics.

Soraya is super nice and really cares about student learning, lectures might be dry but that's because the readings are dense! Use your resources and utilize your TA's (shoutout to Courtney!) The class isn't that bad, you'll be fine.

Soraya is the least articulate professor I have ever had. Almost the whole time no one understood the point she was trying to make (and 75% of the class was asleep). It was kinda sad, I felt bad. She does this thing where she will talk and talk and talk, lose her train of thought, then start mumbling something and go on to the next topic. Really annoying.

For the assigned readings, I recommend at least skimming over them. The longer ones I just made sure I knew the main points. I read through the short ones.

Here is the good news. The midterm and finals are doable. Just make sure to review the slides, and I mean really review them. Make sure you can explain what the concept trying to be made is. Go to office hours (for your TA) and just ask them what the point of every slide was, tying it back to the main concepts. Elizabeth Seger was the best TA. I don't know if she will be a TA again, but all I can say is that a good TA is essential for this class (so ask around and change sections if you must, that's what I did).

The tests are blue book / free response. Usually 5 short answer (definition type questions) that you pick from a list of 10, and as well a short essay prompt that you pick from 2-3 prompts. Final and midterm are the same length.

Ended the class with an A. I really didn't put in that much effort other than going to every lecture and section, and making sure I had a general understanding of the main concepts.