Do NOT get Sarah Al-Hiyari as a TA. She was rude and didn't care about helping the students in her discussion sections. Her sections were pointless, I stopped attending after the second one. She didn't even know she was a TA for LS 3 when a student came in asking if we were the discussion for LS 3. She is a horrible person as is and would not recommend her.

Had Pyle first half of the quarter. Pyle is a really nice lady, but she does NOT have knack for teaching. She seems bored with the material, and she doesn't seem to understand how to communicate an idea effectively to people who don't understand it and/or haven't seen it before. Teachers need to be able to see where we as students are coming from, what we are probably thinking, and therefore guide us in a way that is logical. It really is an art. Pyle cannot do this. This is why her lectures seem more like a spewing of incoherent information than teaching. That being said, don't freak out if you get Pyle. You'll still learn the material, it's really not that hard, and you'll have lots of slides to study from. Her tests are fair, she's just not a good teacher. If you can, though, sign up for peer learning. Its a free class that just reviews LS 3 material, and it has helped tremendously.

I only had Dr. Pyle for the first half of LS3. Her lectures were very boring since she all she really did was read off the lecture slides. However, I did like that the material that was tested on the exams was strictly from the lectures slides (most LS classes). The lectures were recorded so you could always go back and watch it later if you got bored during class. In my opinion, her midterm was fair (mean=79%) and there didn't seem to be any surprises. If you want to enjoy the lecture and and actually get a professor's insight on the material then choose someone else, but if only care about the grade you get in the class then you should be fine with her.

Pyle was an overall nice person, but her lectures were boring and felt like she was talking at you and going off on a tangent. Her multiple choice was very easy but her free response seemed almost impossible. Overall, would not take this professor again. If you wanna do good, I recommend studying the slides and memorizing them.

I had the combination of Deb Pires and April Pyle, and the last couple weeks when it was Pyle I really disliked coming to class . She tried to make attempts at jokes to make the class a bit more interesting, but it just didn't work out for her . Also, sitting through clicker questions for 6 minutes after finishing discussing it for 1 minute made the class feel like it was 3 hours long instead of the 1 hour 15 min .

I had Pyle/Wall. I'll only talk about Pyle.
As a lecturer: Meh, not bad
She reads off the slides, which is not always a bad thing because you can actually focus on what's on the slides and not all the extra details she says that's not on the slides. I would definitely say she can improve because I fell asleep in every lecture but I rewatched them later and I would say she's a so-so lecturer. She explains concepts too generally sometimes, often repeating the words "key regulatory" or "gene expression" for every single slide.
Fairness of Exams: Very fair.
Definitely her tests were fair. Everything you need to know for that test is on her slides, not the textbook. She may test on very little details but she also asks many questions that are very big concepts that you should know if you're hoping for an A in the class. The test was not tricky although some were poorly worded, leading me to miss points that I could've gotten. However, I have no other complaints about her tests being unfair or difficult if you just study her slides in depth.
Office Hours: N/A
Never went
As a person: I mean...idk in lecture she's always seemed nice and approachable. Not super energetic but she doesn't seem like a bad person.
Tips on how to do well: It's as simple as, pay attention in lecture (watch more than once if you need to), memorize all of her slides including the examples and pictures. That's literally it. Her tests are fair, just know the slides, know the examples, know how to draw stuff and recall specific examples...she even gives us extra credit on the exam with questions that she gives us answers to during lecture.

(LS7A Spring '19) April Pyle is mildly racist towards non-white students; she treats them and talks to them differently and is not a kind professor overall. She's from Tennessee, so... no wonder. Terrible at explaining things, very monotone lecturer, is super unhelpful in answering questions, not really sure why she is teaching. Definitely the worst professor I've had to date.

Pyle is worthless. I'm a junior at UCLA and have never had a more useless professor. Her slides make no sense and are very poorly organized. This is unfortunate because all she does is read off the slides. I went through all my notes that I took in class and they were just what the slides said reworded. I stopped taking notes. If you want to learn molecular biology, don't expect to learn it from your UCLA world class faculty. Sure, Pyle's nice and friendly, but basically, just replace her with a robot reading off the slides for the hour and you get the same thing. The only reason I did well in the class was because I did LS3 Peer Learning. HIGHLY RECOMMEND PEER LEARNING. HIGHLY DO NOT RECOMMEND PYLE.

Selling LS3 Textbook
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE GENE
Author: Watson, Baker, Bell, Gann, Levine, Losick
Custom Edition for UCLA

I'll let you bargain for a deal (:

*************

i had this class in fall 2019 with Pires and Pyle. Pires was good but i literally could not stand Pyle. She was so confusing and her explanations were literally terrible. She made me love Pires bc of how bad she was in comparison. Jeez.