I took Phi Sci 5 in Spring 2014 and got an A+.

Professor: Professor Esdin is great. He's very passionate about this subject, and it shows. He doesn't come across as preachy at all, either. One caveat - he doesn't email back promptly, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker because he makes many things quite clear in the first place.

Lecture: It's pretty interesting and Professor Esdin is a relatively entertaining lecturer. But you'd want to go to lecture even if he wasn't, because Esdin gives out attendance points, free exam questions, and sometimes 100% on a quiz. Seriously, do everything that you can to attend every lecture even if it means crawling out of your bed and going there in your fluffy PJs.

Even though I go to lecture, I generally don't pay attention to it because it's a super dumbed down version of the course reader, which is what you really need to memorise if you want an A.

Grading: There's 1 midterm, 1 workbook, 2 quizzes, 1 lifestyle report, 1 final and a lot of attendance points in section and discussion. All of the tests are multiple choice. If you memorise the course reader (easier said than done, so get started early!), you should be fine for all of the tests. By the way, by memorise, I really mean down to the little details and not just the broad concepts. There was a question on the midterm that expected me to know the average lifespan of a person who lived 100 years ago or whatever; it was literally one or two sentences in the course reader.

Get started on the workbook and lifestyle report early and finish it as soon as you can. Don't procrastinate on either of them because even though they're easy, it's tedious. When you think you're done with the lifestyle report, print it out and match it against the Esdin or the TA's specifications/requirements.

Overall: You should definitely take this class before you graduate because it contains important knowledge for how you should live your day-to-day life and avoid health scams like X or Y diet. I'm not kidding when I say this class can change your life and your family's life, for the better.

In terms of grading, as long as you're able to memorise A LOT of detailed stuff and willing to not procrastinate (haha) and go to lecture, you'll ace the class.

Professor Esdin is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA, and PhySci 5 is such an awesome class. It's really one of the few classes where I feel like what you learn about nutrition, exercise and just how your body works is super applicable to real life.

The class has a midterm and a final that is noncumulative, as well as a workbook (but he just grades it for completion at the end of the quarter), a project that is pretty manageable and two quizzes that are online that you are assigned to do over a weekend.

Tips:

1) YOU NEED TO GO TO CLASS!!! Professor Esdin is a super entertaining and engaging professor, and he has a sign-in sheet and attendance actually ends up being a significant portion of your grade. Besides that, he sometimes hands out midterm questions and extra points. Also, his lectures will really guide you to what you should be focusing on in the course reader, since some parts of the course reader can be way more detailed than what he actually wants you to know for the exams. Definitely attend every lecture, you will not be disappointed by the time you took to do so.

2) Study the course reader; focus on what he says during lecture and make sure you know those sections of the course reader very well.

Interesting lectures, points for attendance (even in discussion). Read the course reader according to schedule and work on the workbook related to the chapter, don't fuck up like I did. Not reading the course reader thoroughly messed up my exam scores. And an iProfile project- easy- just time consuming, DON'T put it off to the last minute. TA does a fantastic job on explaining the project, with lots of guides. Lastly, a few easy peasy quizzes.
Overall: loved it, love Esdin, wish I approached this class with the above advice.

Great GE, even for international students. I walked away with some real useful knowledge.

Prof. Esdin makes the class accessible and easy to understand; the TA, Asif, is also awesome when it comes to test prep. Definitely attend ALL review sessions if you want good grades with shorter review time.

Also selling:
the NEWEST edition (2015 Fall) of coursereader- great condition with no marks on it
iprofile account (which expires on September 2016 so you can resell it after you finish the class)

Message me at **********

Selling the course reader/articles for $25 that you will have to read for quizzes! text me at ********** if interested

Selling the Science of Biology 10th edition. Loos leaf edition in a binder. Perfect condition no writing or wear. $75. Contact me if interested ************* or text me at **********

Dr. Esdin is an absolute sweetheart. Hands down, the BEST professor I have had thus far at UCLA. He cares so much about his students and puts in a lot of effort to make lectures entertaining and captivating. Yes, his tests are hard as hell but if you study a lot, and study consistently, you'll do just fine. I took LS2 over the summer so it was incredibly fast paced but Dr. Esdin was extremely gracious in cutting down the workload a little towards the end to make it more bearable.

We also had Dr. Roberts for a week but I wasn't a fan of his teaching style. He talks really fast and it's hard to pick out what to focus on because he has 60 slides per lecture and spends time talking about all of them.

Overall, LS2 was an amazing course with Dr. Esdin, as everyone says. The material is excellent and so is the professor teaching it. I would highly recommend you wait to take this class with Esdin if you can't get in, because the wait is definitely worth it. We deserve this kind of experience at this world class university, so I wouldn't settle for anything short of the best.

Got an A.

Esdin is a great lecturer, but he gives extremely hard and detailed exams. I did not learn AP biology in high school and really regret now; I couldn't find a way to digest tons of new words and knowledge. I was hurt really hard by the curve and ended up with a C-... gonna retake this class :(
What you should learn from my failure: develop a good study habit and memorize every single slide!!!!

I took Esdin/Roberts.

Esdin is a really good lecturer. He speaks slowly and clearly, and is very eloquent and well-spoken. However, his tests are extremely difficult. I took three years of biology in high school and did not do well at all in this class. I recommend that you record every lecture and memorize every word that this man speaks. LS2 consists of an insane amount of material to memorize. His free response questions are extremely difficult because he grades so specifically. Make sure you take good notes, because if you miss one little thing, you could be screwed for the exams. I recorded every lecture and memorized everything in said lectures for the final exam (which was not cumulative), but still got a C. Definitely a difficult class.

Class taken during S15. He just made the final exam not cumulative which was really nice. His lectures are engaging and reasonably paced. No clicker for his part of the course. Record and relisten to his lectures as prior reviews have recommended, filling in your lecture slides which are always posted in advance

Midterm 1 average with all Yang material, tricky free-response: 71

Midterm 2 average with mostly Yang material and very straightforward, some trickier Esdin material: 76

Final grade policy: Esdin claims he's always had a curve for his class, has never curved grades down, will always make 90+ an A even if a quarter of the class earns it, has no quotas on his A's he gives out, and that 20% of the class can usually achieve A's. Not bad.

The 4 discussion quizzes administered throughout the quarter (on readings that have nothing to do with exam material) and the mandatory section in general are a drag, but doable/survivable.

Yang taught first half of course, and while some people gave her grief she wasn't too bad of a lecturer. They cut more and more material as the years go on according to her, but she still had to rush. She genuinely cares about students, triple-checking that everyone's clicker worked fine and that her office hours were accessible. I understood her accent absolutely fine give or take 5 words in the quarter...some people need to check their outright racism.

Go to her office hours on exam day. Few took advantage of this glaringly advantageous opportunity to talk with the creator of the exam.

LS2 with Esdin/Yang was not as scary as I thought it would be for sure, but then again I've yet to take the final so *knocks on wood*