Neuroscience C177 is an upper-division neuroscience elective all about the neurobiology of different types of drugs (opioids, stimulants, "party" drugs, benzodiazepines, alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, etc). This class was taught by a panel of three instructors. Dr. Evans was the main instructor and did about half of the lectures of the course, and the other two instructors did the other half approximately.
Overall, this class was quite difficult, and there was a lot of work involved. The exams were quite rigorous and required a decent bit of memorization and a lot of conceptual understanding. There was also a group presentation for this class, which required a lot of work. However, there was a lot of very interesting and valuable content that we discussed, and the panel of professors were all very knowledgable and informative.
Class Logistics: Midterm was worth 20%, Final was worth 25%, Group Presentation was worth 30%, and Participation/Attendance was worth 25%. There was 1% EC if the overwhelming majority of the class filled out the end of course survey, but we missed out on that this quarter.
Dr. Evans was an incredibly knowledgable, caring, and funny professor. We learned a lot of extremely valuable and detailed information about how drugs work on the brain and body. While the material was difficult and the exams were rigorous, I really enjoyed my experience in this class.
As mentioned earlier, each class would begin with a 25 minute group presentation (of around 3-4 students), followed by a 15 minute Q&A, and then the rest of the class time would be a traditional lecture by one of the professors. Each student was assigned to present on one day throughout the quarter, based on a topic of interest (on the first day of class, we rank our top 5 drugs of interest). Based on which drugs you want to present about, the teaching team pairs you into a group to prepare a 25 minute oral slideshow presentation in front of the class. The presentation is mainly graded on content, which is the same grade for the whole group, but there is some percentage allocated for individual speaking style and ability to answer questions from the crowd. Overall, the presentation is worth a significant 30% of your overall grade, but they grade it quite generously (I think the class average was around a 96% for the presentation). The midterm average and final average were both around 85%.
In summary, this class was very enjoyable and we learned a lot of relevant and important material. All of the professors were great and knowledgeable, especially Dr. Evans! With that being said, the class is still challenging and requires a lot of work outside the classroom in studying for exams and preparing for the group presentation. I would still strongly recommend, especially if you have an interest in learning about how drugs affect the brain!

Ever since taking Dr. Evans' Pharmacology of Cannabinoids class, I have been looking forward to taking this one. Sure enough, it did not disappoint! This is definitely one of the best classes I have taken at UCLA. It wasn't necessarily an easy class, but I never dreaded having to attend or study for it because the material is so relevant and engaging. Most of the class centers around a group presentation that a team gives each week, addressing drugs that the professors did not cover in their lectures. The first hour of the class is lecture, and the second hour is presentation/follow up questions. The faculty are a hilarious cast of characters that were all so fun to learn from, and definitely beyond experts in their fields. All four professors who taught this class obviously care deeply about the students and always went above and beyond to help us, even if it meant meeting with us on weekends to give us extra feedback on our presentation materials. The material wasn't difficult, just a lot of memorizing drug names, schedules, classes, and effects. No where near the level of Neuro 102 though, but Anki cards are definitely the way to go. There were a few questions on the tests that felt like curveballs, but Dr. Evans is super generous with his grading policies (if more than 60% of students miss a question, he throws it out) and I believe he ended up curving the final as well. If you are looking for an easy, throw-away elective to just scrape by in, this class isn't the one. But if you're looking for a fun and engaging class that will allow you to better understand contemporary societal issues, drug research and development, and help you think critically about public policy, take this one.

I just graduated from UCLA with a major in neuroscience, and I can confidently say that this class was the best class I took as a neuroscience major. Dr. Evans is wonderfully engaging and presented the material in such a way that was both informative and fun. It is clear how much he values teaching and how much he cares about his students. At the end of the course each student presented on a particular drug that hadn't yet been discussed, which was a different but effective way of learning and presenting the material. I left the class having learned so much about not only the mechanisms and long-term effects of different drug classes, but also inspired to explore this field as a potential career interest. I would highly encourage any neuroscience major to take this course. You will not be disappointed!

This class was taught in conjunction with Dr. London, and in my opinion, both professors did a wonderful job on teaching me about how different classes of drugs are metabolized by the brain and also what the long-term effects of these drugs are. I like that this class not only taught us the science behind how drugs have specific cell targets (think g-protein coupled receptors) but also we delved a bit into the social consequences of drugs and the different programs in place to stop drug abuse. I found the subject so engaging that I ended up taking an honors seminar taught by one of our guest lecturers, Dr. Christine Grella. Dr. Evans is an engaging lecturer who welcomes comments and questions at any time, and never made me feel like any question was too simple or "stupid." I found the exams to be fairly graded, and if any of us had issues with a particular question, we would go through the exam as a class and discuss the questions that tripped us up. Often times, Dr. Evans and the TA's would throw out questions that over half the class got wrong. Overall, I think Dr. Evans is a wonderful professor and mentor, and I would love to take another class of his. I highly recommend this class as one of your Neuroscience upper divs, I have taken knowledge from this class and relied upon it long after graduating UCLA!

Neuroscience C177 is a fantastic class and Dr. Evans is a great teacher. I recently graduated from UCLA as a neuroscience major, and I can confidently say that this class was the most interesting and applicable neuroscience class I took and overall one of the best classes I've taken at UCLA. The tests are fair, there is very little to no required reading, and if you do your work you will do well. Each student gives a presentation on a drug of their choice, and I learned a lot from doing my own research and from listening to everyone else. Walking out of the final for the class, you have learned how every major drug works and the legality behind it, which is pretty cool. Dr. Evans is an expert on the subject, and his lectures are informative and engaging. I am by no means a morning person, but I enjoyed waking up and going to this class. He intersperses humor into his material to make it fun, is very open to helping students (he always responded to my emails promptly), and is a genuinely nice person who cares about his students' learning. I'm not sure why he has any low reviews; I could not recommend this class higher, and I have recommended it to all the neuroscience majors I know.

Great professor, great class, but the grading is entirely arbitrary and makes no sense...

And if you try and email him or the ta's expect to get no reply.