The first half of this class felt easy and manageable but the second half became incredibly hard. I felt like the second half was not taught that well and the exam questions were incredibly hard. Besides that, everything else was good, helpful, and concise. Would recommend this class.

This class is asynchronous; however, discussion sections are live via Zoom and attendance is mandatory so make sure to pick a time that works for you for that. I felt like discussion was a waste of my time though but you still have to go. It is a flipped classroom so there is videos from other professors first and then Maloy uploads an asynchronous video going over problems on Monday and Wednesday (there are 2 modules a week). Each module took me about 2 hours on 2x speed. I felt like the material wasn't too hard but the tests and quizzes (one attempt, for a grade) had a few questions that were IMPOSSIBBLEEEEEE that brought down your grade a lot. I got a 70 on the final but ended up with an A because he gave 60 points of extra credit (the final was worth 200 points!) and I got As on the first two tests. The tests were all open all day, untimed, but like I said some questions were very hard and things that were not gone over during the lecture. However, the class itself did not take up too much of my time so it is manageable if you have a job or are taking other classes if you have to take it and have friends taking the class that you can study with. Overall though I would not recommend taking this class because of the tough tests and quizzes.

The Life Science 7 series are recognized as "weeder classes" and this class beautifully achieves this title. Office hours, problem solving sessions, external resources and more were insufficient to prepare me for every single one of these class' examinations.

My reflection and advice as a former English major to a pre-health track (to those who think they may struggle): Email your questions, stay in office hours, request one-on-one help (if possible) until the brains of the teacher assistants and professor explode. Don't walk away from class not understanding lecture material—if you're like me you will likely never look into it later OR still remain confused.

Best of luck!

Maloy is such a sweetheart. I'm so glad I took LS7A as a freshman fall quarter because it was such a good wholesome introduction to college. This class was essentially AP Bio, just with a lot more group work and reading. Fun, easy, collaborative.

i took this course my 1st quarter freshman year and it definitely felt like i was jumping straight into a typical course at ucla (although there was definitely some hand-holding involved along the way). textbook readings were v useful but also v dense and a lot of the stuff we were tested on in the 2 midterms and final didnt appear on the reading guide worksheets or in the lecture slides but could only be found in specific areas of the reading assignments. my professors (maloy and b) were a delight: super engaging during class and very quick 2 personally respond 2 any questions via campuswire. my teaching assistant and learning assistant were the most useful in terms of learning course material although they did end up joining the strike which made the end of my quarter significantly more difficult than the start in my opinion (proof that teaching assistants and the work they do r so vital and they should be paid accordingly so!!). as mentioned, the exams were v difficult but as i am sure many people have said all of the homework assignments, iclicker participation, and 20 extra credit points makes it more than possible to earn an a in this class without getting a 93% or higher on every assessment. overall, i did not find the course material itself super interesting (it mostly focuses on atoms, cells, molecules, dna, and other microscopic subjects) but this is personal bias as I am looking forward to studying genetics and organs in life science 7b and life science 7c. i also found my learning pod super helpful as the group portions of r assessments significantly helped me raise my grades and since we all communicated effectively and participated in post-class "pod-work" together but i have heard horror stories about inaffective learning pods whose corrections have actually lowered student's exam grades so b warned!

I'll split this review into two parts the class and the professor:
(This class was taught by two professors, Dr. Chen and Dr. Maloy)
(Dr. Maloy taught the beginning and the end and Dr. Chen taught the middle)
(Each professor taught what they specialized in Dr. Maloy taught cells, cellular energetics. Dr. Chen taught everything about proteins gene expression recombinant DNA and all the Biotech subjects)

The first part about the class is the same as my review for Dr. Chen since they both taught the class

The class:
Oh jeez where do I even start with the 7 series. Right off the bat I'll just say that professor does not make a difference in how the class is run. The whole 7 series is ran as a "reverse classroom" so essentially you learn the material on your own before lecture. Then at lecture you do answer some iclicker questions that help you understand the content. Your midterms and final (AOL's) are split into a group section and an individual section. Your pod (group) makes a big difference because you do the group section with them. The AOL's are not too bad with the exception of the final. The whole concept around them is that "you don't memorize because you can just look it up, why memoize glycolysis, when you can just find it on google images, we are going to test how well you can apply the knowledge." Essentially making the questions similar to AP Bio. The first two AOL's were pretty easy for me and before the final I had a 97% in the class but the last AOL was more difficult and dropped me to a 91%. I would say the only way you can practice for these are looking at past AOL questions because those are the only way you can see how they want you to apply the knowledge. The class is run on a point based system and is made so that you are allowed to miss some assignments and still get 100% in that given section. Overall 7A is not too bad especially if you took AP Bio because most of the content is the same with the exception of going a little bit more in depth into the content and some new content within already learned AP Bio content. The 7 in general is pretty odd for a university lass but it should to bad and is manageable.

The Professor:
Dr. Maloy is great, he is very good at simplifying very complex and nuanced topics to things that people have trouble understanding. He is super kind and understanding as well as a very engaging lecturer. I really enjoyed taking 7A with him. Also he brings his dog to class sometimes, his dog is great too.

Maloy is definitely one of the better professors to start the LS 7 series with. He's very well spoken, clear, and kind to his students. Because of the longevity of this series, all the materials for this class are extremely well organized and students have everything they need to succeed right from the start. Like many, I'm not a fan of the flipped classroom, but I appreciate the time in lecture to work on problems without consequences. It was very helpful to have been shown common trick questions during lecture and have misconceptions corrected early on.

The class is point based so everything is weighted the same. There are tons and tons of assignments that have various due dates throughout the week, which is annoying, but it forces you to spend time focusing on this course a little bit every day. That one study strategy that says to split learning over a long period of time is what comes to mind with this class structure. It definitely worked because I didn't have to study very hard for any of the AOLs, and I still got very decent grades on all three. The learning pod structure was also very beneficial to the course experience. Everyone is randomly placed with 3 other students to form a pod that's meant to work on assignments and group portions of the AOLs together throughout the quarter. Based on what I've seen, a good or bad pod can make or break your experience in this class. Luckily most people are nice, but I found that the people in my pod were the best resource of all.

The professor that you pick for the LS7 series doesn’t matter in terms of difficulty, but they definitely matter in terms of engagement and how likely it is you’ll turn up to lecture. I found Professor Maloy and Professor Braybrook to be engaging, so I tried not to skip lectures (I also had a really good learning pod that I sat with, which definitely helped). The assignments were really easy for this class, but the exams were much more difficult. The first two AoLs were manageable, but the final was unreasonably difficult. The professors also didn’t really reply on Campuswire when students had concerns with the final. Honestly, the professors kind of gave off fake woke vibes with how much they emphasized student mental health but then ignored everybody for a week… but they were still okay I guess.

I will start by saying that most people taking this series don't have a choice so take again/don't take again isn't really relevant. If for whatever reason you're taking this as a GE, don't. Additionally, the professor doesn't matter very much, as the professors all have to use the same materials and everyone takes the same tests. I don't like the structure of the series and neither does anyone else I've spoken to, with very complex and long exams three times throughout the quarter. Your grade is saved somewhat by the second phase when you get to take the exam again with a group, so the helpfulness of that depends on the group you are randomly assigned, which is the same group throughout the quarter. Our final was absolutely insane, with most students I've spoken to mentioning some sort of crying or other emotional breakdown during the exam (they are asynchronous). So note that this sort of shock is possible, but given the response to that exam I imagine they may reconsider before they do something like that again, and I must say most people still did fine given the grades from earlier in the quarter and the extra credit. I really didn't like this professor, he wasn't very responsive and seemed to talk a lot about mental health and caring for students well being and act not at all on these things. He brings his dog to class, however, which is a plus in my book, and as I've said, which professor you get doesn't make too much difference as they all must use the same slides and materials. The class is often annoying, frustrating, and quite a fair bit of work, but there is a lot of extra credit and the tests don't make up too much of the grade. With putting in a bit of work it is very possible to get an A, and the class is just something that must be got though in my opinion.

This class would have been an easy A if it were not due to my sheer laziness. It's structured so that as long as you don't literally fail the tests and do all of the easy/busy work and extra credit you get an easy A. That being said, the tests are disproportionately difficult compared to the material they give you in class. Seriously—it's ALL application. Don't get fooled by the weekly assignments. The discussion worksheets are closer in difficulty, but still much easier than the test questions. The textbook is overly, extremely long and detailed, but you should probably still read through it to get some few important details. I recommend looking over clicker questions (extremely important—some are repeated on the test!) and go to the problem-solving sessions.
Most importantly, don't slack off like I did and don't get fooled by what the syllabus says—they allow wiggle room so you can miss 1 discussion worksheet, 2 lectures, 2 pre-class reading guides, etc. but if you get marked off those points get counted as well. It's really easy to miss deadlines so don't plan on any just because you're lazy.