People complaining about this man's accent are really trying to cover up the fact they didn't do as well as they wanted to purely due to their own incompetence. Pham's lectures are fast-paced, but he goes over the clicker questions very well, which are all that really matter. I never attended his office hours but every time I asked him something after class, he was nothing but kind and extremely helpful. The LS Core Curriculum have a specific way of explaining problems and he does a great job of explaining what type of knowledge is expected of us. I would go to his lectures to figure out what type of material will be tested and go to your TA's office hours instead because they offer much more personal help.

Dr Pham is an angel given to us by UCLA. Never have I ever had a professor who cared about students this much as well as ensured that each lecture is very engaging and fun for the students.
You can tell that he is very passionate about teaching and always wants to make sure that the students' mental health and circumstances are considered during grading and tests. The tests are not that difficult and the content is not that heavy. However, you still need to do the past papers and understand the material well in order to do well in the tests.
There is no reason for anybody to not get an A in this class as long as you put in the effort and attention to the class. He is beyond fair in grading and is very understanding if you have any personal issues which may impede your ability to take the test.
100% would reccomend taking him for LS107. If I had a choice, I would take him for any other class he teaches as well.

LS4: Pham is good, but his accent is really hard to understand, so when you're first learning the material from him, it's hard to understand what he's saying, but his slides make up for it, so the next time he talks about it, you'll understand given that you study.

Dr.Pham is SUCH A GOOD PROFESSOR. You will be teaching a lot of the material to yourself so make sure to make use of the preclass worksheets and reading guides. These will help you focus on the important material since launchpad has soooo much to take in. Pham is a fast lecturer, but if you ask him to slow down or go over something again, he is always more than happy to do it. He also encourages questions like no other! He clearly (and I'm talking crystal clear) cares about his students :') Cellular biology can be complicated, but he will make sure you know he is there as a welcoming resource.

Grading scheme for *****LS 4*****:
Midterm - 125 points
Final - 250 points
Class participation - 37.5 points (5 lowest scores dropped)
Discussion quizzes - 35 points (2 lowest scores dropped)
Online quizzes - 37.5 points (3 lowest scored dropped)

Professor Pham:
This class was done in a "flipped classroom" way. We had to watch lecture videos (which did not feature Professor Pham, but another guy) that were previous podcasts. Then before each lecture we had to complete a three question multiple choice quiz on CCLE. And then in lecture we mostly went over clicker questions along with some more review of content. My lecture was MWF, but the other one was TR and they had two midterms for some reason while we only had one. Professor Pham was in my opinion a really great professor. He's actually really hilarious and really cares about his students. His accent is not even that bad to be honest. May be jarring at first but it's really easy to overcome. In lecture he is pretty entertaining and is really understanding. I really liked having him as a professor.

TA Ashot Papikian:
We had discussion sections once a week for like a little over an hour. They were structured differently between each TA, but we did a discussion quiz for the first 10-15 minutes of class and then went over a series of questions from the textbook. My TA was a little bit dry, and no one was very participatory, but he was generally pretty helpful. He's a little monotone but you can tell he tried to help us as much as he could.

PLF Juliana Smith:
If you're in AAP and Juliana is a PLF, I highly recommend having her. She really helped hone in on the concepts of the course and gave a lot of great examples with extensive explanations for the answers. She is very nice. A little bit awkward, but a really great educator. I feel like I owe a lot of my success in this class to her.

Midterm grade: 113/125
So I went into this midterm really really confident. I understood all of the concepts and went over a handful of past midterms (Pham provides literally all his past midterms on CCLE) and then went over the answer keys for the rest of his past midterms because I got tired of doing them. Pham does a lot of the same or similar questions, so it's pretty essential to go over his past midterms. I fucked up with the instructions for one of the questions, which is why I got a lower grade than I expected.

Final grade: 231.5/250
The final was a little bit more difficult, but not by much, because it covered a lot of the material from after the midterm and a little bit of material before the midterm. It was still manageable if you studied his past second midterms and practice final questions. Again, the questions are to be expected based on what he gives you. So study the past questions and you should do well.

Class participation grade: 37.5/37.5
The clicker questions during lecture were not graded on whether you get the answer right. It was just counted as credit if you answered at least 50% of the clicker questions from that lecture. The number of questions varied from a few to a lot. The lecture slides were posted before each lecture, so I just retyped them. It also included the clicker questions, so I completed those before class as well. I think it's a good idea to really try on clickers as much as you can, because they're good practice.

Discussion quizzes grade: 35/35
Each TA made their own quizzes for their discussion. I heard that some TAs gave really hard quizzes, but Ashot made really easy ones, so it was pretty simple to get full credit on them. The quizzes consisted of one question from the book. If you want, you can do all of the assigned problems in the textbook, but it's not graded or required. Since my TA's quizzes were easy, I didn't need to do the book problems beforehand to do well on the quizzes.

Online quizzes grade: 37.5/37.5
Each pre-lecture quiz was three-multiple choice questions on CCLE. Sometimes the third question was just an opinion-based one and not graded. But you could try on the questions as much as you want, but you will be graded accordingly based on how many tries it took you to get the right answer. These were pretty simple if you watched the lecture videos carefully and took good notes on them.

Overall grade: A
Overall, I'm a big fan of the flipped classroom method. I thought it was really helpful for me to watch the lecture videos at my own pace where I could rewind as necessary, And going over a lot of practice problems in lecture were also really helpful. I find it much more efficient and effective than trying to squeeze all the content in 50-minute intervals.

One of the best classes I have taken at UCLA. I had taken genetics in AP biology in high school, and in LS 7B, failed to really grasp the concept, and hated everything about genetics. I told myself that I would avoid LS 107 at all costs.
My friend convinced me to join the class a week after it had started, and I was really hesitant to. But I need to graduate on time, and this course would help me do that. Hands down, this is one the best courses I have taken at UCLA. I came to UNDERSTAND genetics and love the concept. Pham is really hard to understand because of his accent, but is an incredibly helpful professor. He helped me catch up on the quizzes and material for the first week that I missed, and helped me change my discussion twice. The class is curved, because on a straight scale, I should have received an A-, but ended up with an A. There are 2 weekly quizzes on CCLE based on the video lectures, but they are relatively easy and count for a small portion of your grade. I had one of the best TA's ever (Lee) and learned more so from her than the professor himself. The 2 midterms were relatively easy and fair. Pham literally gives you all the LS 107 past midterms up to the year 2009. He changes numbers on questions, and has the same sort of questions for the midterms. The final was a bit harder, even though he posted some finals from previous years. If you are the type of person that learns from doing problems and past answers, then this is a class for you. Glad I took this class, learned way more than I expected, and my attitude toward the subject has changed. For those looking for a science upper division class, look no further.

LS4

I thought Pham was a really great professor. Yea, his accent's a little thick, but pay attention and you'll be able to understand what he's staying. Also, he's EXTREMELY nice. People would always ask him questions while he was lecturing and he would answer every single one of them. Even if it was a question to repeat what he said. I went up to him after lecture once to ask him how to do a problem and he walked through it with me and made sure I completely understood at the end. I've never had a professor so nice.

Regarding his tests. Yea they can be tricky, but he gives you ALL of his past tests. So do them! If you have questions, go to his office hours and ask him. He'll show you the tricks and the shortcuts that make the problems so much easier.

In short, I loved taking LS4 with Pham. I got an A just by doing as many of his past tests that I could, all the homework, and asking questions when I had them. And honestly, that was the first A I had ever gotten in a science class.

Also, taking LS4 with Pham over summer is significantly easier than the regular school year. But just as doable during the regular school year if you do the homework and past tests.

The flipped classroom format of this class means it relies on self-learning a lot through assigned readings/quizzes on the online textbook. Each week there are videos, textbook pages, and mini-quizzes (2-6 questions), which make up a fair amount of points (the class is out of 702 points). Staying on top of these is a must - you fall behind and it's really tough to get back on your feet. They are also super easy points that might push you from an A- to an A at the end.

The tests are quite difficult but Pham teaches you well on how to think through problems -- the questions force you to make connections with what you already know, which is why you need to stay on top of readings. There are also CLC sessions (kinda like office hours but led by Learning Assistants) that are of utmost important if you want to do well in the class. They provide worksheets that are of similar difficulty to the tests and the LAs help you walk through the problems and make connections. A lot of people who didn't do well in this class didn't go to these. They are a MUST.

Pham himself is a great guy. He makes funny jokes once in awhile and cares a LOT about his students. His accent takes a bit to get used to, but it's entirely understandable. He could be a bit more helpful when explaining clicker questions in class, but he will always expand more after class or in his office hours.

The class was overall solid, and Pham is a really cool guy. The tests had really high averages (like 80-90 I think) and extra credit on top of that. Flipped format, but mandatory clickers during lecture, mandatory discussion, and 2 weekly quizzes. I'd definitely recommend it, the concepts were intimidating but very well explained.

LS4

I don't know why everyone is bashing this guy.
He's a great professor - extremely knowledgable, passionate and friendly. The course itself is a sedative but Pham does a great job keeping my attention and I'm 100% focused during lectures.

The class is difficult by nature - if you hated 3C you're in for another trip - but he posts ALL his past tests - just do (and understand) every single one and you'll be good come midterm/ finals.

I can't stand complainers, suck it up and put in the work and you'll get the results you want. Don't blame the professor - there are so many resources out there for you to use.

Lastly, enough about his accent... it's thick, but seriously grow up. He knows his shit. Respect it.