This class has a lot of reading with pre-class assignments 3 times a week and a post-class assignment once a week. I spend probably around 15 hours a week (on top of class time) completing the reading and homework! The tests are also really hard but Dr. Parker offers a lot of extra credit so it is totally feasible to get a good grade if you put in the time. The course material was really interesting and I'm glad I took the course, just be ready for lots of work!

This was the hardest class I have taken at UCLA. I honestly thought I was going to get a B. It demands so much work from you. In the first half taught by Dr. Parker, there would be learning objectives for us to use when doing our readings. There are pre-lecture assignments and weekly post-class assignments (graded). Clickers during lectures were not graded. In this first half of the quarter, I did my readings and answered the questions on the learning objectives.I have no lab background whatsoever and this class is 95% based on designing experiments and application problems on the exams. This is really tough, and as Dr. Parker recommends, definitely make a giant experimental toolkit with all of the experimental methods that the lectures have covered. I would say the readings are not that important, and that the lecture experimental methods are what will be tested. In the second half of the class, I gave up on doing the readings and entirely focused on transcribing the lectures.

For the exam prep, I suggest having detailed lecture notes, the experimental toolkit, discussion section questions, and practice problem sets filled out for quick reference. For the practice problems I highly recommend looking on campuswire to compare answers. Most of the time, I'm entirely unsure if my experimental design is good, so it's extremely helpful to see how other students designed theirs.
There are so many extra credit opportunities in this class (~40 points in total). Take advantage of them!!! There are also buffer points on the exams and/or question thrown out.

For the midterms, I got ~3-5 points above the average on each of the midterms (I got a B-, B) and A+ on the final.

I took this class virtually in Fall 2020 with Dr. Parker and Dr. Hill. The class switched professors Week 5, and the quality of the course immediately dropped, although I will be talking more about that on Dr. Hill's page.

Dr. Parker was amazing. She emphasized in her introduction at the beginning of the quarter that she is interested in the process of teaching and learning, and this passion was obvious in the way she taught. She taught this class exactly like the LS 7 series (although the tests were extremely different which I'll get to.)

The course breakdown:
Concept Inventories and Course Evals 20
Smartworks Pre-Class Assignments 125 (a few dropped)
Smartworks Post-Class Assignments 80 (a few dropped)
Discussion Section Worksheets 40 (1 absence allowed)
Discussion Section Participation 50
Exams 350 (2 midterms, 1 final)
Total 665

A couple things of note here:
- Like the LS 7 series, there are pre-class (every class) and post-class (weekly) assignments connected to a textbook which is very similar to Launchpad that I believe you have to purchase access to.
- Also like LS 7 series, there is a mandatory discussion where we go over application of concepts, although I enjoyed it. I think as an adjustment for COVID, as long as you went to discussion you would get all 40 points and then at the end of the quarter, you would get the remaining 50 points by grading how involved your groupmates were (and they would grade you).
- By the end of the quarter, you had the opportunity for around 30? points of extra credit from doing things like posting on the forum, doing evaluations, and going to the MIMG 101 poster conference and reviewing posters.

Lectures were completely asynchronous and pre-recorded which I did not like, but was generally okay for Dr. Parker. Dr. Hill, in contrast, uploaded almost every lecture, reading list, pre-class assignment, and post-class assignment late.

Dr. Parker's lectures were similar to LS 7 series lectures, where she put interactive questions (like asynchronous clicker questions) into the lecture that were not worth any points. Her slides were clear and effective.

Tests were very different from the LS 7 series. They were open-notes and free-response with emphasis on being experimental, where, for example, you would be given something that scientists would want to figure out and you would write about the procedures, controls, results, etc that you would use/expect in performing that experiment. I thought that the tests were clear but a bit of a time crunch -- the professors were aware of this and responsive and as a result, gave 3.75 hours for the final. The midterms and finals all had some extra credit, although medians (averages not published) were low. The median of the first midterm was 76% and 23% of students scored below a 60 (36% scored a 70 or lower). The second midterm had a median of 80% where 13% of students scored below a 60 (25% scored a 70 or lower). While these are low grades, they were boosted by numerous extra credit opportunities and points from other categories like discussion.

Probably the most intense part of the class was its workload. There was a lot of reading assigned every class and when you're taking this class, it is so easy to fall behind. The pre-class and post-class assignments rely on the reading but are not completely related to the class material (like Launchpad). I read and took notes on everything when Dr. Parker taught, which took maybe 2hr/night, but after switching to Dr. Hill, I decided to do much less reading and did not suffer, making me think that readings are not completely necessary. Dr. Parker also published learning objectives before each lecture, and that is how I guided my notes for the readings. Dr. Hill did not publish any, and when asked to, he told students to infer them from his slides.

I felt like Dr. Parker was responsive and responsible and very committed to the success of her students. My experience in this course was definitely hindered by Dr. Hill, but I would recommend anyone to take this course with Dr. Parker.