Dr. Phelan is an extremely engaging lecturer. He is truly interested in the material he is putting forth and his lectures exemplify this. I learned an immense amount of information and the course made me reconsider a lot of assumptions I had made in my life prior to taking the course. He wants his students to succeed, and offers extra credit if you need it. Lectures are Bruincasted. While the assigned workload is pretty low, there is a fair amount of material you need to understand to succeed on the exams and definitely do not underestimate the difficulty of the class. Relatively easy GE, but 100% worth taking for the professor (probably one of the best lecturers I've had at UCLA), and for the knowledge you will acquire.

tl;dr: Professor Phelan is the best. Perfect balance of fun and teaching. Class is not too difficult. Would take again.
Professor Phelan has to be the best professor on campus. This is the beginning of my second year here and I'd already given up hope on finding a professor who was funny and entertaining until I came across him. He never fails to make the class laugh at least a couple times every lecture. He likes to entertain and he likes to tell funny anecdotes from his own life, but there is always a connection to the topic at hand. He likes to connect what we're learning in class to our own lives and offers examples at how it does.
The class itself is not too hard. There are weekly quizzes which are based on weekly problem sets (usually about 5-8 Q's) in which one question from the problem set is the quiz question. The midterm and final both can be pretty tough if you don't study, but as long as you put in the work, it should be a fairly easy pass. During discussion sections there are weekly debates between two groups but it shouldn't really be too bad even if you're shy, especially if you have a chill TA who makes you feel comfortable (Ana Rubio in my case, would definitely recommend).
Answers for the problem sets can also be found online (StuDocu.com). Good Luck. 100% recommend and would take again.
r/ucla

At this point, all that’s been said is pretty much all that can be said. The class is extremely interesting and the professor is always engaging. But, like everyone else has said, the tests are HARD! Before the midterm, I studied a somewhat reasonable amount and got a D-. I decided to amp up my studying for the final...and got a D. Keep in mind that the TAs are looking for very concept-specific knowledge. But when I tell you the curve is SO REAL, I mean it! As you can see, I still ended up with a B! More than anything, I think it just shows that Professor Phelan is much more concerned with the students focusing on gaining the knowledge than on getting a certain grade. Overall, I’d say this class was amazing and I’d recommend it to everyone!!!

Phelan is an engaging lecturer and the material is very intriguing, even as someone who isn’t crazy about biology or science. The class itself required a good amount of effort, and I had to study pretty hard to get an A. The tests are half multiple choice and half free response, and there are weekly quizzes in section that are supposed to prepare you for the free response part of the exams. However, the material itself was interesting and Phelan almost always had real world applications for us college students. My TA ( Maral Sakayan ) was really helpful in her office hours and she made everything very clear; I’m pretty sure I got a good grade because of her. Consulting the SAC test bank was very helpful and there were a few questions from old test that were exactly the same on the exam. There is a textbook required and although we did use it for section assignments, I didn’t read the actual material because it was a lot. Phelan provided LaunchPad resources for study tools but did not require everyone to purchase access to it. Lectures were Bruincasted but the lecture hall was always packed anyways!

Dr. Phelan was my first college professor ever so he was the one to set my expectations-and he set them VERY high. Not only is he the funniest guy ever, his lectures are always interesting and engaging (also he ties personal stories into his main points which is very helpful) When he asks for class participation in class (which isn't very often), PARTICIPATE! It is worth it, trust me. The workload includes readings that go along with the lecture (the tests however are only based on information from lecture), attending lecture to take notes (lectures are also bruincasted in case you miss one), individual participation in a debate in your discussion class on a topic related to the class, problem sets given each second lecture of the week (not checked but recommended to complete because you are quizzed on), and weekly quizzes in your discussion section on only ONE question (out of 6-9 questions, they are also all on quizlet if you need to check answers) on the problem set. Make sure you pick your TA wisely, however, because some of them give harder quizzes than others... Personally, my TA Kacey seemed to be the most knowledgable and helpful but she gave the more difficult quizzes than the other TAs (when comparing to my friends) The midterm was a little difficult in terms of time management because it was a lot of multiple choice, long, and short answer questions in about an hour and fifteen minutes. All in all, this is the best class (out of four LOL) that I've taken so far! :)

THE BEST CLASS AT UCLA!! Professor Phelan is an amazing professor and such an engaging lecturer. The tests are not necessarily easy but, if you put in work, an A is definitely do-able. I highly recommend this class.

I LOVED this class! I can't say enough nice things about Professor Phelan. He was so engaging and you could tell he really cared about making sure we all understood the concepts. He tells funny stories, interacts with the class, and makes things that should be bland, interesting.
His review sessions are SO helpful! Definitely go to them, he has one for the midterm and one for the final. He goes over questions and key concepts and usually his practice questions (or some version of them) will show up on the test. He does a good job of emphasizing what's really necessary for the exams.
There are weekly quizzes in discussion, but you're given a list of questions to go along with the textbook reading and the quiz question will be one from the list, so it's not that bad.
I found reading the textbook super helpful. It helped me review the material he went over in class, because he does teach . He wrote the other book we read, Mean Genes, and it was really interesting and easy to understand.
10/10 loved this class

Selling the What is life? Newest edition.(4th) book loose leaf and also mean genes.
Text me if interested **********

Selling "What Is Life? A Guide to Biology with Physiology" (4th edition). and "Mean Genes"
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Amazing professor!

Phelan is an amazing professor. Even if you think you are not interested in life science in the slightest, TAKE THIS CLASS. there is quite a bit of weekly work but it's all interesting and the quizzes you take in section every week are given to you in a packet the week prior, the TAs just pick a random one and you have to answer it. Super easy, super interesting, and Phelan really makes it worth it. If you were to take only one class during college it should be this one - regardless of major.