This class is fine and an easy A/A+ if you keep on top of your work. If you're already in a lab or have research experience, some of the experiments may be repetitive, like the ones involving gels or bacterial cells. Your lowest assignment in all of the weekly activities is dropped which is nice. However, your lab experience/how easy your weekly labs are are HIGHLY dependent on your TA and how they run/grade their section.

The writing assignments are kind of a pain. If you familiarize yourself with the example they provide and write based on the rubric, they're fully doable in a few hours though. When you're evaluating your peer's texts, I would highly recommend giving them a 9 or 10, regardless of how good the actual quality is, as that's what most people give and you don't want to be an outlier. There's also a group project which wasn't too bad, but a little tedious to coordinate every week.

Some of the experiments with the goldfish and human physiology weren't as interesting IMO, as I like molecular bio stuff a lot more. But overall, this is a decent class. A lot of the lab lecture content is repetitive so you can get away with just skimming the slides if you want, and maybe reading the lab manual.

The final wasn't too bad, as long as you do the above and have a good understanding of each lab (being able to explain them to someone else is a good starting point).

Overall, not a bad or hard class if you're efficient.

Dr. Pfuegl is so kind! We actually never got to meet him since lectures were held over Zoom and recorded but this man just radiates warmth and care. He was extremely accommodating and understanding of COVID situations.
The class in general is such an easy A (everyone I knew got an A+ even). The workload can be heavy during certain weeks when we have to write research papers but the instructions are very clear and make it easy to get a good grade. The papers are peer-reviewed so usually, the first one is graded more harshly until everyone realizes we should just grade each other's papers kindly since it does not affect our grade if we grade harshly. Even if you don't do well on the papers, there are reflections that usually make up for the points lost from peer reviews. There is no midterm, but there is a final, which was also pretty easy.
During lab we learned so many techniques which were very fun! The TA and LAs usually will guide you very well through the processes. At times it was slightly stressful, but usually, everyone gets full credit on the lab worksheets.

It's like...this class is really easy to get an A in. But I really did not enjoy the process. I had lab at 9am which was too early for me (I work overnight) so I always went to lab in pain, struggled through, struggled through all the random quizzes. For the 3ish essays you do, they're pretty much graded by an algorithm that averages a bunch of reviews from peers so make sure to look at the rubric! And your peer reviews of others determines their grade so in general I found that being more lenient got you a higher grade (yes, you get graded on how accurately you grade others. you can get some extra credit to retrieve points since there is room for error). I never went to lectures because there was no reason to if you do the lab reading. So, I literally never interacted with the professor, it was as if he didn't exist, it's not like they spent a lot of time grading our essays... anyway. THE FINAL WAS DECENTLY HARD AND NOT JUST FROM THE SAME TEST BANK--study lab procedures and why you do each step or use each different material.

This class is very straightforward and low-stress. As long as you do the assignments on time and meet the requirements, you will get a very high grade. The lecture at the beginning of the week is recorded and you really don't have to listen to it in-depth. There are pre-lab quizzes, in-lab quizzes, and post-lab quizzes almost every week, and then there is an in-lab worksheet that you also finish in lab. These are very straightforward. There are also group slides due every week regarding a COVID-19 vaccine, which you will then compile at the end of the quarter and present during week 10. The presentation is graded very leniently. There is also one mini presentation you have to do anytime throughout the quarter which is also very straightforward. The most difficult part of the class is the scientific writing assignments which are basically like a basic research paper. As long as you follow the rubric, you will get a high score. These are entirely peer graded, and you yourself have to grade 6 other peers using the rubric as well. You can make up 5 points on these writing assignments by simply doing a reflection.

LS23L is a required class for a lot of majors and paths, but thankfully it was a pretty good class overall. The labs were a bit of an adjustment for someone with not a big laboratory background but they are definetly doable and the grading was not too bad at all on those. I think the most controversial aspect of this class is the peer reviews but honestly its not that unreasonable to earn full points on those. There will likely be a review from your peer that is unfair but the reflections really helped make up those points. The final was a little on the tougher side but very doable to walk away with a good score with the group exams. Dr. Pfluegl and the lab administrators really do care about their students and their ability to keep up in the class. This was a great class overall and as long as you keep up with the deadlines, you should be good.

Took this class online, so it was basically useless. Labs were so long and basically busywork, and peer reviews took so long. Definitely an easy A class online, but such a waste of time. However, Dr. Pfluegl was a good, honest professor who did their best to give us as good a learning experience as was possible given the circumstances. They were a clear lecturer and tests and assignments were fair, and they organized optional sessions for getting some practice with labs in real life that I found helpful.

it was a good class overall, much easier compared to the LS7 series. it consists of 3 lab reports, 3 peer review sessions, pre/post-lab quizzes that are easy, lab sessions where you work with your group, and a short final. the final was so easy compared to the LS7 series finals, honestly a breath of fresh air. the labs are straightforward and the TAs are helpful. i was very lazy with the work for the class but the grading is very forgiving so even I got a B. honestly take this class and don't be intimidated by the first lecture or first class, it sounds like a lot more work than it really is.

This class was one of the easiest class I've taken at UCLA. You actually need to try to fail this class. The work he gives us was pretty easy, but for a 3 unit class, it definitely felt like a lot.

The labs were meh. Not really interesting, but you can just cruise through them. I never went to his lectures and was fine for this class. He spent half the time of the lecture talking about COVID trends and our mood for the day lmao.

The essays are just busywork but so easy to do well on. He gives the exact rubric that we all peer-review with each other, and your grade for the essay is basically if you did the things on the rubric. (Ex. Did they put a concise title? If yes, give them full points in this category).

The final was relatively easy. As long as you pay a little attention to what's going on in lab, you will be fine for the finals. Honestly, this class doesn't really prepare you that well for any kind of Life Science research you may pursue in the future, but it's an easy A.

Although this class was only three units, it felt like the workload was more than the workload for my 5 unit classes. The labs covered were VERY interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed them even though the class was completely online and it was quite useless to do the labs virtually because it defeats the purpose. I would've enjoyed the content more if I actually had time to understand it There were a lot of pre-class videos and papers to read (lab manuals were sometimes 20+ pages). The labs/discussions were interesting and there was a worksheet for each week. The lectures are recorded and were very repetitive at times.

Now, the real nightmare: the peer review system. The three writing assignments weren't too hard to complete and I finished each in less than a day but the peer review system took A LOT of time. You were assigned 6 other papers to read and review against many criteria and this took me more time to complete than the actual papers. You were also graded on how accurately you graded other people's papers which seems quite unfair given that we all grade differently.

The content wasn't hard and it was actually interesting but there was just A LOT of things to do each week: Pre-lab videos and readings, virtual labs, virtual lab quiz, pre-lab quiz, lab worksheet, lab group slide, post-lab quiz, 3 writing assignments in the quarter and 6 peer reviews for each writing assignment + a group video project and final.

This part did NOT make sense. Around week 10, there was a 2000 word final writing assignment due + the 6 peer reviews that came with it, a final group video project in lab and a final. It felt like there were 3 finals because of the workload.

Honestly, Dr. Pfluegl does an amazing job when teaching this class. It was so easy to understand everything because he had a clear explanation and the ccle site was super organized.