Professor Phelan is absolutely a wonderful teacher; however, my TA, Angela Lee, is not quite good, sometimes even unfair, for the quizzes and debate. Take this class, and avoid her.

Phelan was awesome. Every lecture was clear and well organized. There was also lecture recordings in case you missed lecture or wanted to review. The tests were fairly straightforward, and the weekly quizzes in class weren't bad at all. The debate aspect of the class took some coordination, but was a fun experience overall. Pro tip: do the music video project! Be creative and Phelan will 100% reward you for it (pretty sure it saved my grade).

This is the best class ever

This class is one of the best classes I've taken at UCLA, thanks to how awesome Professor Phelan is. He is single-handedly one of the coolest professors I've had, and makes his lectures very enjoyable while teaching a lot of very interesting things. That being said, the tests in this class were difficult. Many of the questions were very in depth and specific, and if you didn't include certain key words in your answers the TA's would take points off. The tests will require a good amount of studying if you want to do well. The lab/discussion sections also took a fair amount of work and effort, and the spoken presentations/debates were graded pretty harshly, at least in my discussion group. However, don't let this discourage you from taking this class though, as it truly was one of the most interesting classes I have taken at UCLA. The topics covered are super engaging, eye-opening, and make you think, even if you aren't majoring in a science related field.

I feel like the information in this class was very applicable to other classes. Although it was life sciences, the logic taught behind the material made it seem very worthwhile, and the lectures were very engaging. I really recommend this for a GE.

This is a great class for people that don't like sciences AKA me. HOWEVER, be ready to read so so so much. This class asks a lot of you for a GE so you must be ready to give it all. I had two midterms the same day I took it for this class and honestly it almost killed me. However I do recommend it. I don't know how I feel about the exams. However Dr. Phelan is the best. AMAZING LECTURES, you actually learn about stuff that is interesting.

Pros
- Very interesting
- Broadcasted
- Short lectures
- Funny professor

Cons
- You are one in a million
- TONS of reading
- Hard exams
- Studying A LOT
- Depends a lot on which TA you get

After taking AP Bio in high school, I felt adequately prepared for this class as it's mainly simple introductory concepts and if you did fairly well in it you'll probably do fine in this course. But what made Phelan such a worthwhile professor is that he takes biology to a whole new level. This class literally changed the way I think about the world through the lenses of biology. Plus, the bruincast is nice because you don't need to show up physically and it's definitely a great course for a first-year. Although this class isn't a complete easy A as there is studying involved for tests and weekly quizzes, you can just study the quizlets and you'll be fine and there's a curve at the end of the quarter that helped me hugely as I only scored a 78 and 72 on the midterm and final respectively but still ended with an A-. Overall, take this class.

I loved this class and would recommend it to everyone

Phelan is the best professor ever! Lectures are very interesting and engaging. There are bruincasts, but I went to every lecture because he's so funny. I actually felt like I learned a lot about life from this class even though I don't like biology.
Workload: There are a lot of readings each week. To do the problem set (useful for quizzes), you kind of have to do all the readings. There's also a group debate, which is fairly easy. I would say the workload is fairly light if you love Phelan like I do.
Weekly quiz: one question taken from the problem set. My suggestion to ace the quizzes is GO TO TA'S OFFICE HOUR! If you don't know how to answer a question on the problem set, just go to OH and they would pretty much give you the answer.
Tests: Go to test bank if you are anxious about the midterm. Looking at previous midterms is really helpful. He often gives similar questions, especially short answers. Study hard for the tests and you would do great.
Take Phelan if you can! I would definitely love to take another class with him.

Professor Phelan is remarkable. I'm someone who doesn't like biology in the slightest; even for me, Phelan managed to make lectures fascinating. The material is really interesting, and (most of the time) it feels directly applicable to your life.
The tests are hard. He holds review sessions which are really, really helpful. Go to those, study your notes and the textbook, and you should be fine.
The main textbook, "What is Life?", is 100% required for the course. "Mean Genes" isn't as necessary, but it's certainly helpful, and it's a fun read.
TAKE THIS CLASS. I cannot stress that enough. It was fairly labor-intensive, but I got a lot out of it, and learned some really cool stuff about behavioral evolution.