I honestly was going to P/NP this class, but I ended up taking the letter grade and passing. (Keep in mind, the whole course was online due to COVID. I'm not sure how it will be when we get back to in person.) The quizzes for discussion was always a single question that was taken from the previous week's Problem Set so as long as you do those, you'll probably do well on the quiz. Both the midterm and exam were open notes and Professor Phelan allowed a flexible schedule for them. I did really well on the Midterm, and I would suggest that you do the short answers first before doing the MC part. The SAs took a lot longer, and I ended up using the full time for both the midterm and final. For the Final, it was a bit harder than the midterm and I ended up getting an 89% on it, but Phelan does offer a lot of EC points. Mean Genes isn't really needed, but the textbook was helpful in providing more info and also study material for the exams.

Learned valuable lessons from this class! However, I would not take it because the stress it caused. I looked for an easy GE and although I read reviews saying it wasn't, everyone around me recommended it. If you're looking to dedicate and put work in, then definitely take this class. His lectures are fun but the reading was unbearable. A lot of people didn't end up reading the textbooks and did well, but to me it was crucial for the PSet and exams. I received an A: 90% on midterm and 86% on final. Phelan was super accommodating and allowed all lectures, discussions, quizzes, and exams to be held online. Also, Phelan's lecture/video productions are on another level! He's a professor who truly cares about teaching, learning, and his students!

I loved Phelan and this class! Really engaging professor that makes the content interesting, and the content already is! It focuses a lot on real world circumstances and is very applicable, a class that makes you think outside the class! Totally recommend this course!

I think a lot of people have already wrote things about the class itself, like its format or whatever, so I'll add my perspective as a psych major: this class definitely makes sense as a pre-req for this major. Someone has already written that the class changed the way they thought, and I definitely second that. I plan on becoming a therapist one day, and a lot of the topics covered made me change the way I approach human behavior—we truly are made of cells and our actions are heavily influenced by our genes (but we are not completely controlled by them and there are ways of "tricking" them). I only realized after a couple weeks into the class that I didn't have to take it because of my AP Bio test, but I definitely do not regret enrolling and would 100% take again. If you have the chance, take this class with Professor Phelan. Even during online, his lectures were engaging, and so was the textbook. I cannot recommend this class enough.
Tips on people who do take the class: I thought the textbook was really helpful but if you need to save time, you can get by just taking notes on the "take home message" but really focusing on the "This is how we do it" section. A lot of quizzes and problem sets are based on this section, so don't just skim it!

Phelan is a great professor, his lectures are succinct and engaging. Midterm was a little tough because of time constraint, but his curve was generous and I went up a whole letter grade. There is a group presentation and debate which are straightforward as long as your groups members pitch in. 5 quizzes, one gets dropped, but you have a week to prepare for them and have answers ready ahead of time. Extra credit opportunity is really fun, do it if you can. Overall, an interesting class that actually inspired my new interest in bio. Would recommend!

Without a doubt one of my favorite classes I have taken here. My only thing that I wish was different about it is that I wish we were in person so that I could have met Prof. Phelan and got to learn from him face to face. His lectures are super put together and are honestly super fun to watch. I was NEVER a bio person but this class made me literally love learning about it. I recommended it to all of my friends and they're almost all taking it winter 2022, definitely take it if you can, it was such a fun GE.

Professor Phelan was a pleasure to be taught by. His lecture videos were so fun and interactive! He made learning fun and funny at times. I will say that this class did contain a lot of busy work and the weekly quizzes during section were annoying and in my opinion a waste of time.

I thought this class would be an easy A based on other Bruin Walk reviews but it definitely isn't! It was asynchronous when I took it and it has a heavy workload. Quizzes and tests have a lot of writing and they're graded very harshly, so it's hard to do well on them.

Unfortunately the class was asynchronous when I took it. I would really like to meet Jay Phelan in person. He does care about students' wellbeing and his lecture recordings are both engaging and funny. My TA Tucker also does a great job of explaining things. Would definitely take again.

Professor Phelan was a great professor who kept lectures engaging and I was genuinely interested in the class. I typically do not biology, but he was able to make the class interesting and made it applicable to our own lives. Some concepts were a bit more difficult than others, but overall the material was not hard.