Besides what the previous reviews have stated, this is THE class to take especially as a senior in your last quarter at UCLA. When I was figuring out my schedule for my last quarter to graduate, I was not too thrilled to find out that this mcdb class, which was heavily plant based, was one of the only few mcdb electives offered. But he is an incredibly clear and enthusiastic lecturer! The workload is just right. His class is out of 1000 points. Both of his midterms/quizzes are 200 points (final is 400 points), which sounds kind of terrifying at first, but he NEVER tricks you on any of his exams. Everything you need to know for his exams are from his lecture slides and podcasts. When you present your paper with your group in discussion, the TAs seems to love asking about what the controls are in certain figures. One of the things I liked the most about the class was that your name was anonymous if you ask a question on the CCLE discussion board. I liked this because it can encourage you to ask questions, especially for those who are shy. All in all, I highly recommend taking this class, especially after you take MCDB 144 and 165a because a lot of the techniques he discusses overlap.

Definitely take this class if you want a pretty easy upperdiv. There is a lot of information that you have to memorize (pathways, transcription factors, etc) but the midterms are pretty easy and straightforward.

For this class there are two midterms which Dr. Long calls them "in class quizzes", one group presentation in discussion based on a paper, and a final. Each week a group presents however you don't need to know the information from the paper because it's not tested. The most important things are to know all the pathways and tf as well as experimental techniques.

You have to attend lecture because he uses iclickers in lecture. You don't need to get the right answer, but you just have to be there answering the questions. He does let you drop 3 lectures, so you don't have to attend all of them.

Definitely recommend as it's not too boring because Dr. Long is pretty engaging and is very knowledgeable.

Great Class

I am SO VERY glad to have taken this class with Dr. Long.

First, the points breakdown:
10% section group presentation
15% first in-class quiz (which is practically midterm 1)
15% second in-class quiz (midterm 2, non-cumulative)
30% final (50% on materials before the second quiz, 50% on new materials)
25% homework+miniquiz (completion)
5% Discussion attendance
***(This quarter he gave us 2.5% extra credit)***

Don't worry too much about the quizzes -- none of the questions was intended to trick you. Be sure to look over the summary slides Dr. Long provides. TAs are super helpful, too. Going to office hours could serve you well if you ever get confused about anything.
Dr. Long is truly passionate about plants, is very knowledgeable, and cracks good plant jokes here and there to make the class more fun than it already it. Learning about plants isn't boring as you think it would be (if you come into the class not caring about plants like I did) -- it's actually pretty fun. This class made me pay a lot more attention to the plants as I walk by them and appreciate their presence more since now I know how far they came along to look like what they are now and how hard the transcription factors and plant tissues have labored to get things right.
With all being said, I recommend anyone looking for an elective to take this class as I really appreciated the opportunity to have learned about plants that I otherwise wouldn't have. I appreciate the class so much so that I'm thinking of growing my own Arabidopsis and Brachypodium to see what their growth is like!

This was a really great class, and I wasn't interested in plants at first, but professor Long made it super interesting. It is a lot to learn though, as we go through a bunch of transcription factors and pathways throughout the quarter.

I think professor Long is really fair in his exams and assignments, however. This is the breakdown for this quarter: Every week we're assigned one paper to read, usually relevant to the class material. We have to present on one of them. We have four small quizzes that count for completion and two big quizzes which are pretty much like midterms. Then we have a final exam.

I really recommend this class. Really fun and really interesting.

This was a really great class, and I wasn't interested in plants at first, but professor Long made it super interesting. It is a lot to learn though, as we go through a bunch of transcription factors and pathways throughout the quarter.

I think professor Long is really fair in his exams and assignments, however. This is the breakdown for this quarter: Every week we're assigned one paper to read, usually relevant to the class material. We have to present on one of them. We have four small quizzes that count for completion and two big quizzes which are pretty much like midterms. Then we have a final exam.

I really recommend this class. Really fun and really interesting.

I came into this class not giving two craps about plants (sorry Dr. Long LOL, I know you read these and put them on your powerpoints), but I left with a wealth of information and a lot more interest than I did initially. Dr. Long is sooo passionate about his field of study, and it really translates into his lectures. I ended up really enjoying this class and found that, despite the amount of material we went through, that it was super manageable even for people with no interest or background in plant physiology.

Your grade consists of 2 quizzes (midterms), 1 final, 1 group presentation, and discussion/lecture participation. Even though my group mate messed up our presentation, the TA still graded me super fairly and accounted for my own effort and performance. Both the TAs and the professor are super knowledgeable about this field, and they always have office hours, especially before exams, to help. What helped me and a lot of my classmates was rewatching the bruincasts and rereading the powerpoints; in depth analysis of the papers isn't necessary but it may help you with some of the experimental methods sections of the examinations.