This class is divided into two sections. Genetics is covered in the first couple of weeks, and I found that a little challenging because it was more statistics/problem solving. The rest of the class is evolution and ecology, which I found incredibly straightforward and pretty easy. I found this class to be easier than LS7A. I didn't read launchpad at all throughout the course, and I mostly studied for the exams by rewatching the lectures at 2x speed and I did fine. If you took AP Bio in high school, then you should be totally fine for this class. Prof Kane was an ok lecturer, she did seem interested in the later units though, and brought up examples from her own research, which was interesting.

The style of the LS series is pretty bad, but I like learning about evolution way more than whatever was happening in 7A. Kane made 7B pretty fun. She's nice, and funny, and therefore relatively engaging. Her office hours are really chill, and she explains things pretty clearly if you ask specific questions, and she has review sessions during which she answers questions. It's really the content, more so than her teaching, that trips you up, especially for the first midterm, which was full of probability calculations. The labs aren't terrible, because whenever you get confused as long as you ask your LA or TA you'll do fine. At the end of the quarter, the final became optional (averaged out), but I took it, and I think it did a little better for me as a result. As long as you attend classes on time and complete Launchpad beforehand, you'll do fine.

Kane has to be my favorite professor at UCLA! She is super understanding and truly cares about her students. She made the class enjoyable and was super approachable. Her tests are also fair and consisted of T/F, multiple choice, and short answers. There was also plenty of time to complete the exam. I hope I get the chance to take another class with her before I graduate, but they fill up quick because she really is one of the best professors here at UCLA.

Dr. Kane is very down-to-earth and treats her students like friends, so it's very easy to talk to her. She was a great professor. The class itself isn't bad. The first unit is genetics, which is relatively a bit more difficult (but also fun if you like solving puzzles), and then the ecology and evolution units are much more intuitive. The lab sections are not the best- you're always cramming with time and the worksheets they give us are very long. But overall, it's an interesting class and Dr. Kane was really amazing, especially if you make the effort to get to know her.

I have taken 4 courses with Kane and have no clue what the reviewer before me is saying. Not once did she ever seem like she is trying to gain any power over students (whatever that is supposed to mean) nor does she give any preachy speeches like that.

Shes as chill of a prof as youll have here.

This class is deffinitely not easy, but I feel like it is doable. Launchpad is honestly just a waste of time like usual, but the thing I found the most helpful was making a study guide of all of the learning objectives because the exams are open note open book.
Not gonna lie the final was super hard, the only thing that saved me is that I did super well on the second midterm. Professor Kane is super funny and charismatic and her lectures are actually super interesting because she does worksheets in class so it isn't just lecture the entire time. She definitely gets distracted easily and showed us her dogs a lot, but overall it was a pretty good class.

Total points:
Midterm 1: 120 (10 points extra credit, three within the exam and 2 as a reflection, and 6 as a mini quiz after)
Midterm 2: 120 (same extra credit system as midterm 1)
Final: 200 (no extra credit)
Lab: 135 (can miss one lab worth of points and still get 100%)
Clickers: 72 (based on participation and can miss a ton so easy to get 100%)
Launchpad: 45 (can miss an entire weeks worth of points)
Launchpad review questions: 45 (can miss a week's worth of points)
PEQ's: 45 (miss a week's worth of points)

THIS IS PRETTY LONG AND DETAILED SO BE WARNED:
To start off, Dr. Kane is an "average" professor. I can't really think of anything bad about her lectures, she was pretty clear most of the time, and if not, she'd explain the material again. The lecture material itself is pretty boring unless you are interested in ecology. However, Dr. Kane was pretty fun and nice herself. She definitely tried to connect with her students and make this a pretty welcoming environment. If you're having to choose between a professor who doesn't have any reviews on Bruinwalk, I'd definitely take the safe route and go with Dr. Kane. Nothing can really go wrong with that.

About the class itself, LS7B is everything that is wrong about the LS core curriculum. Launchpad is either too in depth and has nothing to do with the course or lacks material that we need to know for the course, which is honestly ridiculous. A complete waste of time. However, if you don't at least skim, the lectures won't make sense, and you end up guessing on all the clicker questions. The midterms and finals brought confusing wording to a whole new level. One benefit is that the structure is pretty similar to LS7A so it's not a big adjustment.

The point distribution is as follows for this quarter:
Lecture/iClicker: 72 points (80 possible)
Launchpad Assignments: 45 points (50 possible)
Launchpad PRQs: 45 points (50 possible)
Launchpad PEQs: 45 points (50 possible)
Lab Worksheets: 135 points (150 possible)
Midterm 1: 120 points (123 possible)
Midterm 2: 120 points (123 possible)
Final: 200 points

As you can see above, there is a drop for most of the categories, which was honestly really helpful for this class especially. The launchpad assignments and the PRQs were pretty standard and doable. However the launchpad PEQs for this class is where it all went to hell. Most of them are around 10-15 questions in an hour, and never had I actually taken up the whole hour for these PEQs. They were oddly (insanely) hard, especially the for the first four weeks, but they gradually got easier towards the last few weeks. Like LS7A, 7B is a point based class, so just try to rack up as many points as you can. One of the best parts about this class is that the midterms and finals aren't worth as much as they were in 7A since the extra bonus of the labs being worth 135 points instead of the usual discussion being worth around 80 points was really helpful, but I'll get into that a little bit later.

Now on to the midterms and the final. I had no idea what I sat through those 2/3 hours I was supposed to take the test. The tests got progressively harder, making the final the hardest test. The first midterm was alright considering the material was a bit easier in the beginning (despite the absurd difficulty of the PEQs). The second midterm was...rough to say the least. I know a lot of people did really well on it but it was the complete opposite for me, meaning I barely had a passing grade. HOWEVER THIS IS WHEN THIS CLASS COMES IN CLUTCH....THERE'S EXTRA CREDIT AFTER EACH MIDTERM!!!! You can earn up to 8 points extra credit on each mini midterm assignment that's assigned after each midterm. This really helps boost your score and gives you a slight buffer in this class. However, this wasn't an option for the final unfortunately, which also made the final so much harder. The final was the only test I seriously studied for and I barely managed to get a B. However with the help of all the extra credit from the mini midterms and the other small ec assignments (9 points total) and getting full credit on the other categories, I did manage to pull an A out of this class. This just really goes to show how much of a joke this class/this entire series is.

To save the best for last, my lab section was absolutely *chefs kiss*. I had an amazing TA, shoutout to Shomik. I highly recommend having him as your TA if he ever decides to TA for this class again. Unlike the other TAs, he graded the labs based on completion (which was basically a free 135 points) and completely disregarded that BS rule of having to submit lab/discussion work no later than 15 min after the section. I never understood the need to grade discussion work based on accuracy. As mentioned in the LS7B syllabus, students are supposed to cement their understanding of the material in discussion, meaning we are supposed to LEARN and not be worried what grade we receive on each worksheet.

So overall thoughts?
LS Curriculum itself: -10000/5 if thats even possible :/
LS7B itself : 3/5 (saved by my amazing TA)
Dr Kane: 3.5/5 (nothing bad or particularly outstanding, she did her best and she's a fun professor)

If I'm going to be honest, I completely finessed this class. Still don't know how I made it out with an A. I didn't go to a single office hour or problem solving session or run over the learning outcomes for each unit. This is a far cry from the amount of work and effort I put into LS7A. So if you are slacking this quarter, know that you can still do well in this class.

But the real question is, would I take this class again? Heck no, I'm not a masochist.

I think this is my favorite EEB class I've taken at UCLA so far. Dr. Kane was very helpful and nice and this class was very good in terms of having clear expectations. Not an easy class, but definitely reasonable, enjoyable, and interesting. Would definitely recommend it. Also offered some EC!

Have you ever laid eyes upon a Roman Goddess? Have you ever been in the presence of pure deity? Have you ever wondered where Azurik went after the portal closed on him during the Era of Evanescence?

The answer to all these are probably no and they will still be no after you take this class.

It's a lit class tho.
Kane cool.

Dr. Kane is an amazing, approachable, and kind professor. She is engaging and cares about her students' well-being, in addition to their success. I made super-comprehensive study guides to ace this class (A+). It was kind of tedious going through and answering all her study questions but it was useful, and I still have my notes from it that worked out well for me! I can spare you the hassle by sharing my guides.

My friends have all used them to do well in her class too, and I've been asked to sell them a lot, so if you're interested in it, just text or email me at peachgatorade@gmail.com for the midterm and final study guides! They are consistent with all of the 2019 and 2020 course materials. $15 for everything that helped me get an A+ :)