LS 1!! SELLING TEXT BOOK!!

I had Lloyd-Smith for LS 1. He was an awesome teacher in my opinion. His lectures were very organized and he was excited about teaching. He isn't a boring lecturer which is a plus. LS 1 is a lot of memorizing. I am selling the book I used for Alfaro/Lloyd's LS1 class.

It's used obviously but is in great condition! Some pages have highlighted texts and handwritten notes that may help you (;
Evolution: Making Sense of Life textbook
Zimmer 1 Pub: Univ of Chicago Press
ISBN: **********363

HMU at ********** if interested!

I would advise against taking EEB C119A with professor Lloyd-Smith. Personally, I rarely pronounce my sentiments against a class or an instructor. However, the applicability of R in an ecological context is minimal. Coming from a technical background, I must assert that this class requires crude memorization and adept tolerance: long psets, quizzes, labs, and papers. Am I a PhD candidate? I have an evident suspicion that the professor does not wish for me to succeed in his class. If you do not have a prophetic gift for ecology or a personal connection with the professor (ie. work in his lab), please reconsider.

Professor Lloyd-Smith taught the Ecology section of my LS1 class.

I liked Lloyd-Smith a lot! His lectures are very interesting and he often started them off with some funny video that was relevant to what we were talking about. He is Canadian and his accent is awesome. He is a really nice guy too and very approachable. I would definitely recommend taking him for LS1 or any other class he teaches.

COURSE TAKEN: LS 1

Fall 2015 Grading Scheme:
*Midterm 1 - 200 points
*Midterm 2 - 200 points
*Final - 200 points
Demonstrations - 180 points
Participation - 120 points
Total - 900 points
*The better grade, either Midterm 1 or the section on the final, or Midterm 2 or the section on the final, will be the score that is counted

Professor Lloyd-Smith:
Lloyd-Smith is an amazing professor! He really knows how to concisely, yet effectively, explain content. His powerpoints were always well organized, and he almost always completed every slide in lecture, unlike Alfaro. He has a bit of dry humor, but he has bouts of hilarity in class. His voice can be dry also, but it isn't too difficult to pay attention in class.

TA Jeffrey Lee:
He's pretty nice and a bit awkward, but a cool TA. Demos were kind of pointless, but he made them not totally horrible. In regards to his effectiveness in helping teach class concepts, I'm not sure, but he made demo concepts clear enough.

Midterm 1 Grade: 159/200 | 29/35
The first midterm took everybody by surprise. It is comprised of 50 multiple choice questions. He put very tricky questions on the midterm and I felt like he didn't prepare us well enough to do well on it. He included questions on readings in the book, so read those assigned sections. However, I did a little better on his portion of the final, which was 35 multiple choice questions, so that replaced my midterm score. I was a little pissed to find that he used a lot of the same questions he gave on the midterm. So I recommend going to your TA after midterm grades are up to go over the answer key.

Midterm 2 Grade: 192/192 | 0/33
I was really confident going into the second midterm, I was very sure of almost all of my answers and left knowing I did nearly perfect. Lloyd-Smith is a really great professor and he prepared us well to take his midterm. He didn't really include any content on readings, but there were a couple random ones on demo content. He is also really fair with grading as he took out some questions some students said were confusingly worded. I didn't bother looking at his section on the final, 35 multiple choice again, since I got a 100% on the midterm. But I heard from a friend that the questions were harder. I recommend just paying good attention in lecture and writing good notes. In studying, I found that I understood the concepts well enough through lecture that I didn't need to go over them too much later on.

Final Grade: 42/50
Yeh is very soft-spoken, so I recommend sitting closer to the front, though she tries her best to keep the microphone loud enough. The final was 50 multiple choice questions, but there was no way to replace this score, so you only got one shot. Yeh's lectures were a bit boring, as she's a bit monotone and goes quite slow, but the content was easier to grasp I feel. The questions on the final were fair I think.

Demonstrations Grade: 193/200
In demo you'd have in-class assignments to be turned in at the end of the class, and then take-home assignments, which include worksheets, short papers, etcetera. They were all a little bs, but they're easy to do. You may get knocked off a few points for small things, but overall, they're fine.

Participation Grade: 42/43
There were five participations each section, so fifteen total, and you were allowed to miss two of them. Alfaro had all in-class ones, Lloyd-Smith and Yeh both had a mix. The latter two were better with keeping in-class participations shorter. But their outside participations were longer than the in-class ones, especially Lloyd-Smith's, which was a bit annoying. But they're not graded intensely, so as long as you do them basically, you'll get credit. There was also a participation grade for demos, but I barely participated, if at all, and I only got one less point.

Overall Grade: A-
Overall I think this is a decent crop of professors to take LS 1 with, if only for Lloyd-Smith. The course material isn't too difficult, and the exams were kind of stupid but doable. I was expecting an A, but I guess I'll be content with an A-.

LS1:

Lloyd Smith taught the last section of LS1 for my class, along with alfaro and yeh. He was very enthusiastic about his material, and I found his section the most interesting. However, the exam he wrote(i.e., the final) was kind of difficult. I got an 84 which ended up being within the top 16% of the class. The first two exams thankfully were incredibly easy, though. If you're taking LS1 I'd definitely recommend him, Alfaro, and Yeh. Yeh's midterm was by far the easiest of the three.

Of the 3 professors for LS1, (Alfaro/Lloyd-Smith/Yeh), Dr. Lloyd-Smith was my favorite. His lectures are engaging and his slides are formatted to be an excellent study tool. He uses a separate book from the other two professors, but I found it to be crystal clear and supported/elaborated what he talked about in class. Plus, he is canadian, and every once and a while will say something that sounds uber canadian. Overall a really sweet guy, who is passionate and engaged in what he teaches.

Selling Evolution: Making Sense of Life 2nd Edition textbook and Principles of Life that you will use for Alfaro, Lloyd Smith, and Yeh for this class. Message me at ************* if interested.

A great class for any major who wants to learn more about R. This class involves a group project that worths 50% of your grade. They will assign your teammate(s) based on your skills and familiarity with R. It's very likely that one math major would be paired with a bio major, and trust me, it is actually a great idea!
There will be several quizzes and homework assignments. The homework might seem extremely hard at first but you will nail it if you go step by step and seek help from the prof and TA. Make sure to take advantage of the extra credits on quizzes and hw since they might save your ass as there is no curve of grades. BTW Christian is the best TA I've ever had at UCLA, if he still teaches this class, make sure to go to his office hour.
Prof Lloyd-Smith is very approachable and helpful, gave organized and engaging lectures as he always does.

I took LS1 with Lloyd-Smith and he was a great professor! On the first day of class he asked us all what fields we were going into to see what kind of students he was dealing with, and when he saw that most of us were pre-med, he made sure that in every lecture he spent the last ten or fifteen minutes on a medically related example. He is very fair- he puts extra credit on the exams to compensate for any ambiguous questions, very willingly throws out any quiz questions that people find difficult or unfair, and he holds extra office hours before the exam. LS1 was really boring, but his section of the course was the most interesting, and he has a sense of humor and was the only professor in my LS1 class who podcasted.

Take him if you get the chance!