Course Taken: LS2

This class was great! Professor Esdin is such a great lecturer. I really recommend taking his LS2 class. It definitely is not a walk in the park as the tests require great understanding and application of the course material, but definitely doable. I recommend going to his office hours; he really cares for all of his students.

Professor Esdin is smart, clear, and just sweet. This class is easy, the perfect thing for my first quarter at UCLA. Going to lecture is helpful, you know what he puts emphasis on for the tests and he clarifies what can be sometimes confusing science jargon in the course reader. Get started on the project as soon as it is assigned, go to lecture, read the course reader (with a highlighter! so helpful), and you will be fine. Plus, you actually learn information relevant to your daily life! And Esdin tells funny stories in class, especially the diabetes one :) Take it and find out!

LS 2
I took LS 2 with Esdin in Summer 2014. Mostly, his lectures and slides are clear. However, his exam is very poorly worded and confusing. Once I found that the exam key must be wrong, he refused to regrade.

I took LS 2 with Arnold/Esdin in Winter Quarter.

Esdin: I LOVE ESDIN. BEST TEACHER EVER.
His lectures are very engaging and he explains things very well. To do well, I recopied all the notes into a separate notebook and went to his office hours. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. He often drops hints at test questions. If you hear "that's a good idea for a test question" WRITE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY.

His tests are completely based on lecture and they are very fair.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TEACHER. He deserves like an 8 or something at least on BW.

Arnold: His lectures are pretty boring and he does not seem to teach the right material...All I learned was stuff about fish and lizard mating...
Fortunately, his multiple choice questions are pretty easy and his tests are also lecture based...
All in all, he was boring and his office hours were useless but he was not super difficult...

Grade Received in LS2: A

Professor Esdin is awesome! He didn't reg. this class until the second week, so I missed some classes and works, but he ended up gave me some points to those works which is absolutely great!
And there is a Chinese TA whose classes may not be fun, but she is very nice and helpful! Recommend her rather than the other TA.

*** I am selling the course reader, feel free to text me if you are interested, **********.

Professor Esdin seemed highly knowledgeable about physiology,and bio in general. His tests are hard as hell. I gave up my life studying for LS2 and I only managed to pull a "D". This was my first exposure to college level biology material, because all my AP's in high school were in humanities. Here is the "takehome message" for all you guys. Take 14B before you enroll in this class.If you have not had AP bio borrow your friends bio book and read it before hand. Multiply your standard UCLA study hours by 6, that should be adequate. I honestly feel crushed. My dream since I was 4 was to become a doctor. I don't know of any medical schools that take students who have D's on their transcript, even with re-takes. Kudos to UCLA the school that fucks with your future goals!

Course Taken: LS2

Take this professor if you want an enjoyable life science course. His tests are extremely fair. As long as you put in the work, you should be fine. His lectures are very clear and concise. Dr. Esdin is way better than any of the other LS professors that I've taken.

I had Dr. Esdin for LS4.

This was the first time he taught the class outside of UCLA extension on campus and he was great. The class is definitely not easy but manageable if you pay attention to class notes, do the genetic problems, and pay attention to the example problems he did in class.

Most LS4 classes just have a bunch of genetic problems but Esdin will also add in short answer, multiple choice, and fill in the blank which adds to the difficulty. Some questions were very detail specific so make sure to pay attention during lecture. As for the genetic problems, emphasize the ones he did in class as opposed to the ones he did in the book to do well on those.

He responds to emails usually within 24 hours and has plenty of office hours before exams. I would recommend taking him because he is a great lecturer and the exams were overall straight forward with usually only 1 or 2 hard questions out of 12-14.

Took Phy Sci 5 Winter 2013.

Not a walk in the park, but not too bad as a GE.

No essays and hw, but there are online quizzes, mt, final, and project.

3 online quizes which you take at home. Short, like 3 questions. Not too bad.

MT: multi choice, done on computers in the computer rooms. You gotta study.. some of it is common sense but don't be a retard and assume its gunna be handed to you.

final: same as MT. but a bit harder i think. Study the course reader.

project: TA helps you through it. It isnt that bad. Just record your diet/activity for a week, then analyze stuff about it. Again, the TA helps you through it during discussions.

Overall, its not a horrible GE, but it is memorizing. Of course the big idea is to basically eat more fiber and exercise more frequently, but theres also details youre tested on like enzymes and muscle types and all that. So... dont expect it to be ridiculously easy like some people might say.

Also... 8am when i took it. But lectures arent really that important. Just the coursereader.

I agree with most everything that has been said about PhySci5 but wanted to emphasize the way the class is curved. After the midterm, which I got a 76% on, I was really worried I wouldn't be able to earn an A/A- in the course. I studied a lot for the final which I got an B+ on and I was able to get an A in the class. If you ace the attendance/quiz/project (or close to ace) points and get a B- average on the tests you can get an A. I would recommend this class (having this information in mind all along!).