I took this class after having Cooper (good) and Edgerton (horrible) for LS2 (way more memorizing) so my perceptions were a bit different from the ones below. Overall I thought this class wasn't that bad.

Most of the lectures got pretty boring, so just try to stay interested. I could tell she really cared about what she was teaching and about student learning. She was overall a really sweet lady.

I'm someone who would go to class anyways (especially since I had 8am chem right before) so I didn't mind the clicker questions 1) if you are nodding off, you know to press your clicker when the room goes oddly silent, and 2)think of them as easy participation points! (answers don't matter) *there were a lot of technical difficulties..that was annoying.

A good thing about this class is that it's not based solely on the midterms and finals, which to me is very stressful. I agree with the previous posts that lab demos felt like SUCH a waste of time and the TAs were definitely picky about the grading. The fact is, you have to do it no matter who you take for LS1, so just hold your nose and get through it! As for lab write ups, I felt like the first 2 weeks and week 10's were the most time consuming but the ones in between were much shorter/easier. For the write ups just be really thorough and follow all the guideline questions and requirements. Remember that not all of the answers are told to you in demo so you might have to do a little thinking or googling!

Lab Quizzes and reading quizzes= more pretty easy points. I always did the readings before, that way I didn't have to do them during the week. Plus it helps you keep up with the material. as someone below mentioned *hint* google...
Try to always get at 9 or 10s cuz it will definitely add up at the end!

MI= I thought it would be SUPER easy but it was a little more challenging than I expected. Still, it wasn't bad and the average was really high. Do the practice questions she provides, because they tend to show up on the tests.

MII= SUPER hard...lots of random details and I spent like 5 minutes on all of the graph/data table questions... needless to say, the average was much lower than the first midterm. I think she felt bad though, because she did give us a 13 point ec quiz, so that made up for not curving the test. Also many questions/answer choices are worded so that they're really vague/confusing, and apparently her answer key was kind of wrong or something..so there was a lot of confusion.

Final= not that bad..I just took it last night and I was expecting it to be horrible, but it was mostly conceptual stuff from MI and the last unit on ecology. 100q/3hr pretty chill. She used a lot of old clicker questions. **be sure to write down answers to clicker questions during class!

In general, focus on textbook, practice problems, clicker questions, and yes, reskim through those annoying lab readings. (also the discussion board can be helpful!)

-->A haiku about this class, before you read my actual evaluation.

Do not take this class.
Trust me, just do not take it.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

~~~~Everyone, please go read the review below under 5/30/2013. It is scary accurate and I can't tell you how true it is.~~~~~

For the love of God, DO NOT TAKE LS1 WITH PIRES. She will seriously fuck up your gpa. It really pisses me off because the material of LS1 isn't even hard. It's just evolution, animals, ecology, which is much easier than anything like O Chem (which I GOT A HIGHER GRADE IN THAN THIS CLASS). But she makes it difficult by FUCKING YOU OVER ON ALL THE TESTS. Then, she proceeds to fuck you over even more by refusing to curve the class.

Her tests are ridiculous and unfair. She tests you on things that aren't even in the book. Even if you know the material from the book and lectures well, you will bomb the test because she picks out specific, tiny, minute details that are completely irrelevant. Also, she doesn't curve the class, and we all got a 65% average on the midterm and were seriously screwed.

Her lectures are also really bad. She's a horrible teacher, she puts up slides with random pictures of animals and just blabs. If you read the book you're better off. But of course she makes this a clicker class and if you don't go to lecture, your grade will suffer even more.

The demos are awful. I felt like I was in a high school biology class, walking around the room looking at random pictures of animals and taking notes and then you have to write an entire lab report about it. And I happened to get a terrible TA who graded ridiculously hard, Gustavo. If you get ONE TINY THING WRONG on the entire report, he gives you a 50% on the ENTIRE THING. Even though the rest of the content is correct. And I would spend hours trying to perfect these reports, trying to avoid a terrible grade, but it never worked.

I'm about to take the final in an hour, but I'm just so annoyed at this class I had to write the review beforehand. But there is no doubt in my mind that this final will be awful and I will end up getting a horrid grade in this class.

I got a 5 on the AP Biology exam, I used to love biology, I am a biology major, but thanks to Pires I'm getting a C if I'm lucky, and I'm switching to Physiology.

JUST. DON'T. DO. IT. TRUST. ME. she is the Lavelle of Life Sciences. If you care about your gpa for med school, or you just care about your gpa in general, you will skip out a quarter and wait to take this class with a better professor.

You're welcome for the warning.

trust me. just read the review that was posted on 5/30/2013.

trust me just don't take LS1 with her.

just...trust me this once

In general, I believe LS 1 with any professor isn't a class you should take unless you have the time and effort for it. So, if you've done your research/asked others about the class, you should already expect to really WORK for this class if you want a decent grade... I came in with the mentality that I would die in this class, and surprisingly, I'm not doing as bad as I thought I would.

On to the review:
I thought Pires was an okay professor. I can understand why some may not like the way she teaches since she often briefly mentions important topics that you should know for the tests and expects you to read the book for more detail (and really, be best friends with the book and know it damn well). Personally though, I don't have much of a problem with the way she teaches, but that may be because I have a fair understanding of the book material. It's impossible to read every word in the book and still have a life though, so I usually just find myself skimming the important points. I thought the clicker questions were really helpful in helping to understand the material though (plus, she puts some of the clicker questions on tests, so I think it's helpful to actually try answering the clicker questions instead of just randomly clicking a button for credit). Also, contrary to other reviews though, I got the impression that she does care about her students. Now, I've never talked to her in any way, but at least her attitude towards students in the class isn't bad, and you can tell she has a passion for the subject.
Her tests can be quite brutal (especially with the second midterm, with many of the questions testing you on really random facts and your ability to interpret paragraph-like questions that usually include wtf-is-this type of graphs). But, thankfully, she offered a few extra credit questions on both midterms... for the first midterm, she was also nice enough to include many of the questions from the practice midterm, so those were some nice freebie points.

Labs are really super annoying and a waste of time... just pray that you get a good T.A. that doesn't take off too many points on your lab assignments because those add up and can hurt your grade. Quizzes are usually pretty easy...hint: Google.

Overall, I thought she wasn't bad, but I probably had that impression because I was prepared for what the class would throw at me to begin with. If you need the class, Pires is not a bad professor to take it with as long as you have the right mentality and put in the effort, but prepare it to be a life sucker... maybe try taking other easy A classes along with this one.

I'm going to submit an evaluation before the final and grades, just because it is more accurate about how this professor is. To begin, my friend, who has a high gpa took this class before and warned me against taking it, because he ended up with a C+. On the first day of class, this professor will tell you that this class is very doable, and that she does not curve (the average will be a C+). At this point in time, I must have been focused so intensely on a hot chick, because I clearly should have gotten the hell out of there. Not running out of there like the last 50 meters of a marathon was my first and most fatal mistake -- a mistake which lead me to embark on an adventure that is most tragic, an adventure which is embodied in this comedic, yet accurate post, or essay, or admonition or whatever it seems like.

First things first. What I disliked about her is her style of teaching. Most professors understand that students have other priorities and responsibilities, and care enough to explicitly tell students that the tests will either be based on the powerpoints or the book, not both. Pires does not. Pires is under the hilarious misconception that LS1 will be the only class that her students will be taking this quarter. She believes that the students enrolled have travelled far and wide, from the deepest and most obscure corners of the earth to UCLA, in order to enroll in this class. Furthermore, she thinks that all her students have lived the first 18-20 years of their lives seeking this moment—a moment to learn from the master of plants, bugs, and fungus. And last but not least, Pires gives off the impression that LS1 will be absolutely crucial for students to learn in order to continue living successful, fruitful lives—a discussion which I will save for another time.

One day, I decided to really take this class seriously and see how I can better prepare myself for her tests, which should probably be renamed to “pigs in a slaughterhouse”. I asked her during office hours what we should study, and after giving it quite a bit of thought, she was kind enough to brief me on her testing protocol, which I will give you a glimpse of: listen to my podcasts carefully when you go home, read all the chapters assigned and memorize them, study all the lab handouts (10-20 pages each roughly, about 10 of them = 150-200 pages), and make sure you also memorize my powerpoints. After hearing this, I once again failed to dart out of her office hours immediately and drop the class. Now that I think about it, I must have been staring at yet another hot chick, because not dropping this class like Skrillex drops his bass was my second and equally fatal mistake, causing my gpa to weep uncontrollably as it repents for my duo of fatal mistakes.

Anyways, the next point of attack will focus on her tests. Her style of testing is somewhat a combination of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and Kim Jong Un’s attempt at firing a rocket to space. In other words, the test is so bloody ruthless that it was actually funny—I actually LOL-ed during the test after seeing some of the questions. On the second midterm we had, she tested us on so much material not covered in notes, lecture, or all other facets of information that she expected us to study, and even the TAs felt it was absolutely unfair. On top of that, she purposely adds numerous trick questions in there to scam fatigued test takers, as if 75 multiple choice questions (a third of which are big paragraph/graphs questions) were not already enough to transform even the most astute test takers into weary old geezers. The average was a 64% -- keep in mind, this class is not curved.

This class, by far, is the most difficult class i have come across during my more than ¾ finished career at UCLA. I used to laugh at the reviews under me and think that they were just idiots who overreacted to her class. Unfortunately for me, this was my third fatal mistake. Do not take this class unless you have no other choice and cannot graduate without it. Actually, scratch that. Just take my word for it, and don’t take this class.

I took this class first quarter of my freshman year at 8am and still managed to pull off a B+. The class isn't that hard to understand, you just have to do a lot of memorization of kinda pointless stuff if you want to get good grades. I don't get why people are hating on her, sure she's not the best teacher I've had, but she's not rude or stupid or anything.

Okay, honestly she is not as bad as most people make her out to be. I personally think the material is just more boring than I'm used to, and that made it feel like the work was hard. She first says there is no curve, but eventually there is. The labs were whatever. your T.A. grades your reports and stuff, so hopefully you don't end up with an anal t.a. Jordan was really chill. The weekly reading and lab quizzes online were annoying, but doable. I think they also helped keep me on track with the work. Oh, and you definitely have to read the book. She tests you on things you would have never known if you went to all her lectures but didn't read the book thoroughly. There are clicker questions so you have to attend lecture. Sounds overwhelming I know but if you do the work I think you'll get the grade you deserve.

I liked her. She's a nice enough lady; she will put random slides in her presentations with little facts just to be interesting. Can't fall asleep in her class though, she uses clickers to take attendance and if you miss even answering one question (you don't have to get it right, but you do have to submit an answer), your participation grade goes down for that class. Granted, each class's participation isn't worth much, but they add up. You have reading quizzes and demo quizzes basically every week, over the reading: generally a chapter a week. The book gives you almost all the info you need for midterm & final, but it's good to pay attention in class just for what she emphasizes so you know what she tests on. Oh and demos are easy, but can be kind of boring.

About 60% of your grade will come
from 2 midterms and 1 final which
were all multiple choice. The other
40% will come from quizzes, labs, and participation.

You are expected to do 1 chapter reading quiz and
1 demo quiz each week as well as read 2 chapters.
Demos are just busy work, just making observations
on fossils, bugs, animals, vidoes, etc. and then
write-ups.

The class is fairly difficult in MY opinion but
could be easier or harder depending on who you are.
Straight out of the grade book, there are about 200
students in the class.
First midterm: 21 A's
Second midterm: 4 A's
Final: 6 A's
class averages were 77%, 65%, and 76%.
Exams are hard, mostly conceptual and scenario, no
definition type questions. Her reviews are just Q&A
and she gives out broad study guides that do not help.
And practice multiple choice questions with no answers to check.

Great professor! Yes, she is difficult, but she expects you to learn and apply your learning, not regurgitate memorized facts. I thought her lectures were entertaining. She has a great love for what she teaches. Sometimes they can be random, but the topics in lecture are focused on the test. If you learn what she likes to talk about, the tests actually become easier to study for. I definitely recommend her because she cares about your grade and what she teaches.