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!).

Great class and great professor. I highly recommend it. It's not as easy as some people make it out to be. Attending lectures will help a lot and reading the course reader and study guide will help too. Esdin is very easy and interesting to listen to. He's a great professor and the class is very interesting! Definitely take it!! The TA Daniel was excellent too!

Course Taken: LS 2

I had Esdin/Bok for LS 2 and even though Esdin spoke VERY quickly with his heavy accent during lectures, he was a good professor overall. I thought his exams were alright, some of the questions were a little ridiculous but the averages came out to a 70%. In lecture, the best way to take notes is to save the lecture slides that he posts online and then type notes directly onto them.

The lab portion of this class (which they are omitting in the future) was a HUGE portion of our grade, and since everyone did so well in it, I'm not sure if the class was actually curved in the end. The best way to study for his exams is to organize his lecture notes since your notes from class might be difficult to follow and just memorize them. The TA's even admit that this is one of the heaviest LS classes with regards to the amount of information you have to know, so just know the slides by heart. Study the slides and you'll be fine.

--LS2--

So this guy is fantastic - clear notes, exams strictly based on lectures instead of that gargantuan book - it's all good.

LS2 is normally regarded as a difficult class by the general populous, but he makes it easier. If you want to learn, write out all of his slides into conceptual pictures (e.g. process of the digestive system), and you are sure to get a good grade. His first exam is bad, but the second one is extremely fair. Study lots for the final, though not cumulative, it can get fairly detailed. Very personable, excellent professor.

Dr. Esdin is a good lecturer, he explains things well and his slides help. He doesn't post them consistently though. He'll post slides from certain weeks but not others. If you're taking PhySci5, it's a lot of memorization and really important to know all the little details both in the lectures and reader, but if you do know them, it's pretty easy to do well on the midterm and final which are both multiple choice.