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.

This was a great class that I really enjoyed. It was challenging at times and pushed me and kept me on my toes. The class had 2 midterms and a final, along with pre-class quizzes and weekly quizzes as well. The first midterm was incredibly easy, but the second one was definitely harder and a lot of students ran out of time/scored significantly lower than the first. At times, it felt like the material was rushed but I can definitely understand why Dr. Pham wanted to get all of the material to us so we'd be prepared for the final. I loved how he required attendance by having iClicker Reef points, but also recorded the lecture so we can go back and re-do/review the clicker questions in our own time when we were studying for the exams. Like most LS classes, this was also a flipped classroom where most of the pre-class videos introduce/teach you what will be in class and we mainly do clicker questions in class. The questions for the pre-class quizzes are pretty easy and you can have multiple attempts at each question, but each wrong attempt for that question costs you 1/3 of the points. The weekly quizzes only allow 1 attempt and are just once a week, mostly during Friday and due at the end of the weekend.

Midterms are open for the entire day, but you only have a 2 hour window and the clock starts once you open the exam on CCLE. So get comfy and block out 2 hours at the best time that works for you to take it. The final is structured the same time window, but you're allowed 3 hours instead of 2. The TA videos are awesome for reviewing for the exams as well.

Dr. Pham is an incredibly passionate professor who really cares about his students and made this a great learning experience despite the external events going on. Definitely take this course with him! :)

The final was really fair

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.

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.

I could not recommend a better Life Science elective than 107 with Dr. Pham. He is truly a gift to this Earth; you can tell he fully cares about the wellbeing of his students and has an honest mastery over the material. He never hesitates to answer as many questions as are had during lecture (even some of the not-so-bright questions). His discussion worksheets are challenging at times, but fully reflect the difficulty of exam questions (exam questions are sometimes easier than the discussion worksheets). The grade breakdown is relatively simple, with points allotted for four missed class sessions, two missed discussion sections, a few missed quizzes, etc. The midterms were fair and honestly quite fun (I seamlessly received near-perfect grades on both), and the final was fairly simple as well.

The only trick to this class is that it gets SIGNIFICANTLY harder at the end. The content up to the first midterm is almost all 7B, with some new content being introduced for the second midterm. The final adds in bacteriophage genetics, a concept entirely new to me, and one that was somewhat difficult to get down. After watching Dr. Pham's recorded lectures a couple of times, though, I managed okay for the final.

Overall, I strongly recommend taking this class with this professor! If anything, I believe you'll have a good time and take many things away from it!

I’m not gonna lie… this class freaked me out for half of the quarter. I felt totally lost and bombarded by material. The two first exams were rough, but the final was super easy which was a relief for a lot of people because it was worth the most points. He basically tells you what is going to be on the final. The hardest part about learning in this class is that he will give you practice problems, show you how to do them, and then give you another problem that is related but you still have to do it differently (and he doesn’t show you how to do it). I feel like the class is a lot of guessing and asking questions rather than actual teaching. You really really have to understand everything he shows you, the TAs show you and the practice tests too. I didn’t love this class, but I also didn’t hate it.

I don't know why people say this class is an easy A because you actually do need to put in the work. This class is flipped where he has you watch lecture videos before lecture. Weekly the class consisted of watching pre-class lecture videos (1hr-1 1/2 hours long), taking a pre-class lecture quiz, a weekly quiz that was based on discussion worksheets. Sometimes there were two lecture video topics a week so it'd be slightly overwhelming since assignments doubled for that week but it was doable. I felt like my discussion section wasn't that helpful but I heard there were a few good TAs. It starts off really easy but as the quarter goes on the topics start becoming harder. Lecture was mainly him doing clicker questions based off of what was talked about in the lecture video also attendance is mandatory. I will admit the midterms/final was hard but the good think is he offers EC after the exams 5pts minimum at least. Overall, he was really sweet, had tons of OHs, and drops some assignments.

I absolutely loved this class and Dr. Pham. The class was flipped (watched lectures at home and did problems in class) which was perfect for this type of class. The subject material was sometimes challenging but Dr. Pham explained it so well and it was nice having the video lectures to reference too. The class was great and really, really interesting. I would definitely recommend taking it!

Dr. Pham is absolutely amazing. Even with the fast-paced nature of the summer quarter, he made sure it was not rushed and even removed some things from the syllabus to ensure that each previous topic was covered fully. There were pre-class lectures and quizzes like the pre-major LS series, 9 quizzes, discussion worksheets, 2 midterms, and 1 final. Scores were dropped so you could easily miss a week of class and 3 quizzes were dropped as well. There are tons of practice exams provided by Dr. Pham, and he also provides a practice exam right before each exam which is very similar to the actual exam. Lectures themselves consisted of clicker questions through iClicker, which did require participation and attendance in lecture, but you could miss 3 days.

PHAM IS THE BESTTTTTT! despite taking this over the summer, the class didn't feel rushed at all and Pham is so understanding and patient with students. There are 9 quizzes throughout the class, 3(!!!) of which are dropped. There are also pre-class assignments and video quizzes w 2 attempts, like the other LS7 classes. There were also so many past exams available to study from (every quarter for the last 8 years)!! Before the 2 midterms and final, he released a practice exam that was pretty much the exact same as the actual exam which was so useful for studying. I was concerned that this class would be too much during the summer, but it's so manageable, the content is fun, and you have lots of flexibility with Pham. take this class with him you won't regret it!!! <3