I had LS2 with him over the summer. He's alright. Not worth all the hype though. He hardly goes into any detail during lecture, but ends each lecture 30 minutes early.

Probably good for LS15, a GE. If you want to actually learn the material in a detailed level, take it with Esdin instead.

I took Phelan for LS 2 during summer 2011. Honestly, it was fine.

His class is not that hard, especially if you took AP Bio sometime during high school. However, that's not to say that the workload was light, because it wasn't.

The material in LS 2 is not difficult, the hard part is just remembering the details.

Phelan is a great professor, if you have the choice between him and another professor, do everything you can to get into his class. I know a lot of people take Esdin for LS 2, but those people have no idea what they're missing.

If you're like most South campus kids and you've never had a good professor at UCLA, take Phelan.

Don't take LS2 in the summer.

There are only about 120 people taking the class and the Life Science department only gives a certain percentage of As to people. About 20 people dropped, bringing down the class to about 100 people, so not a lot of people got As.

LS2 is difficult. Not in the fact that the concepts are hard, but in the fact that you have to cram so much information. Which is another reason why you should not take this in the summer. Phelan said that he would not reduce the material just because it's summer. So we basically learned 10 weeks of material in a 6 week summer session.

Your grade consists of:

4 "papers" where you read articles and answer his prompt. Make sure you answer every question on his prompt.

5 labs, some of which are group ones. This also includes pre-labs quizzes. Be as detailed and as thorough as possible because your TAs will not be generous when they're grading these. Don't choose your friends as partners; choose people that are willing to work just as hard as you.

Participation points. Just go to discussion and ask questions, that's all.

Prep-U quizzes. It's an online program where you can take online quizzes on the book and they'll give you harder and harder questions as you do better and better. Do as many of these as possible, make sure you hit mastery level 8 on every chapter before a test. No, not because it guarantees your mastery of the chapter. But because Phelan's multiple choice on his tests basically all come from Prep-U. If you're familiar with the questions (cough memorize them) then you'll breeze through the multiple choice and you'll have a lot of time to answer the free response questions.

Two midterms and a final. They consist of a multiple choice section and a free response. Multiple choice is easy if you do Prep-U religiously. Free response is up to you how much you pay attention in lecture. You need to be very, very, very, very, VERY detailed in your answer if you want full points. Be prepared for an extreme hand cramp by the end of the test.

Overall Phelan really cares about his students and he really wants you to do well. He's a super nice guy and he adds little anecdotes in his lectures that make the class engaging. I'm never bored in his class.

I would definitely recommend him for LS2.

Firstoff, this has been the most enriching course I've taken thus far at UCLA. I expected to go to class and be somewhat bored, listening to someone read off a powerpoint, but this was not at all how his class was. He uses pictures, personal anecdotes, and random facts that make the lectures interesting and memorable (helpful for exams). I highly recommend office hours (he sometimes gives hints for exams) and he's just great to talk to as a person overall. Listen to every detail he talks about in lectures (this will help for exams) and use the book as supplemental material to his lectures. I came out of this class learning more than I ever expected, able to just natural apply course material to my life without even noticing/trying to. In sum, amazing professor, enriching class!

Dr. Phelan is by the far the best professor I had my first year of college. He takes the time to get to know his students by constantly encouraging us to come to office hours or sign up to have lunch with him. He is a very patient, knowledgeable, interesting and funny professor. His lectures are quite organized and he basically tells you what he will be testing on through his big red questions and take home messages. Thus, going to lecture and listening to him carefully is absolutely necessary for doing well on the exams. I would say it's also probably helpful to watch the Bruincast after the lecture, but it never worked for me and never worked for other people I asked. Discussion is also helpful because the TAs are told what subjects to cover and most of the time those very same topics are found on the exam. The labs are very simple and super hard to mess up; just make sure to be extremely thorough on the lab reports. As for the class exams, they always consisted of about 20 multiple choice and 6 short answers. Although the multiple choice was always very easy, Dr. Phelan looks for great detail on the short answers. It is quite feasible to get good scores on this portion if you just go over the questions he posed in class and know all the details associated with his take home messages. He says you shouldn't focus on reading the textbook, but I found this extremely helpful and I still recommend doing it. I got an A in the class and my study strategy for the exams was always reading the parts of the chapters that pertained to his lectures, doing Prep-U questions, going over his lecture notes and practicing writing potential essays based on his take home messages and questions.

Take Dr. Phelan for LS 2. He is beyond awesome.

Professor Phelan is one of the best professors that I've had during my two years at UCLA. At first the amount of material that will be covered seems extremely daunting but he simplifies so much of the material that it is not very hard to upkeep with it. His lectures are quite entertaining and not dry at all. Make sure to write down some of his side stories pertaining to the biology he is covering along with the questions and answers he posts during his lectures. These stories and questions are the ones that he will be using for his midterms and final exam. His exams are not very difficult but they do need some studying. The book is very helpful in explaining the material further but questions do not come directly from it most of the times. Make sure to buy Prep-U because it is very instrumental for the multiple choice portion of the test. Overall he's a great professor and makes LS 2 a great class to take.

One of the best teachers at UCLA.
He's exams are very hard and i felt like I ran out of time on the midterms. I will say his exams are fair though, he never gave an exam question on a topic he did not discuss in class. So go to class, his classes are fun and interesting. It is still important to read the book but if you don't have time then just make sure you go to his lectures. He also encourages students to buy prep-u which is an online site that just give you multiple choice questions, he pulls a lot of his multiple choice questions form this site so just spend the money because it is worth it.

He was a great professor. His lectures were very interesting and he was great to talk to in office hours. He doesn't post his lecture slides or his answer keys for the tests online which is annoying. You have to attend lecture if you want the notes or podcast them. His lecture notes a extremely important because he gives you clues about what will be on the exam. Also, hisn otes are very broad so you have to read the book to get the entire concept because you are tested on the concept in depth, so you can't depend soley on his notes. His exams are not easy but not super hard either, they are very conceptual so you have to actually know what you are talking about to get a good grade and his final exam is hard! Overall, if you attend office hours and have a good TA, you'll do fine