I've heard a lot of good things about this class, and I also needed the GE requirement fulfillment so why not.

First off, this is class is not as easy as it seems. It was already difficult because it was a 9am class. Attendance is required, unless you have someone to sign you in. Lectures are not as interesting as many says. It's literally him throwing information at us and expects us to understand everything. He doesn't stop because obviously there is a lot to cover. I didn't learn much in lectures and I sure as hell did not learn much from the readings. The readings are purely information (very long and detailed). The tests are basically random facts you should know from the readings, but if the readings are long, what are you supposed to know right? Exactly. It is purely memorization.

Lab: the TA has a heavy accent so it is difficult to follow. He talks fast and does not really stop. He does try to get people to ask questions, but everyone is confused about what he was talking about.

Overall, the class is basically the professor and TA throwing information at you and expects you to know it well. There may be perks in the class, but it doesn't make up for the fact that I didn't learn much from it.

Holy crap this class was hard.

I have heard so many good things about this class, some saying it is the "best and easiest GE you'll ever take." I think this class is extremely overrated.

"Easy A" is not the words to describe this class. If you put a lot of effort into this class and really do the work, then yes, this class is manageable. But don't think about taking this course as an easy A that will require minimal work. You won't do well.

He takes participation, has a workbook, project, discussion labs, two lecture quizzes, and three lab quizzes. And there are two exams.

The workbook and project are not hard, just time consuming. The discussion labs are easy, but the discussion quizzes are more difficult than you think. But he ended up giving everyone full points for everything related to discussion section, as long as you attended. These aren't the things that make the course difficult.

The exams are annoying. Literally every word in the course reader is considered "fair game" on the exam, and he'll put some of the most obscure questions that you either know or you don't. They'll be one small random fact from the entire chapter. You simply have to know everything. It is really annoying, and there is no way to really guess or just figure it out when you get to the test, because it is very very specific. You either know it or you don't. During lecture, he just spits out information, and you're expected to know it.

I got an A because I memorized everything like crazy in a short amount of time. If you read and MEMORIZE the chapters as you go through the quarter as he assigns it, you'll be fine. But don't do what I did. Its about 15-20 pages a week, which isn't too bad.

The class is not "easy." If you put in the work, its easy, but don't expect to be able to skim through the material, zone out through lecture, but still pull out an A no problem. You literally have to memorize all the information he gives you, and it's not as easy as it seems.

Materials
None!

Grading
Midterm 1 100
Midterm 2 100
Final 180
Quizzes 40
Discussion 10
There was a slight curve in our favor. I got a B+ with an 84.4% total. According to the syllabus, the rough distribution is as follows:
20% A
20% B
40% C
10-20% D

Lectures
Dr. Friscia's lectures were audiocasted, but Dr. Esdin's weren't. Everything tested was from the lectures. Friscia's lectures were boring, but he got the job done. Esdin, however, was a god. I loved listening to him, since the way he organized his lectures was impeccable. Each lecture felt like a narrative. Not only that, but he gave many examples to make this biology relevant to us. You could tell that he was truly an expert and lover of biology. Re-listening to his lectures before an exam did wonders for sorting out all of the information in my brain.

Discussion
We had four papers to read throughout the quarter and were tested on them on even weeks. While the articles constituted light reading, I suggest taking them seriously because the quizzes were tough. They were a mixture of fill-in-the-blank, true/false, and multiple-choice. Since they were written by TAs, who have little experience writing questions, they were tougher than they needed to be. For example, there was a fill-in-the-blank where we had to write the scientific name of some drug. I got a 30/40, and I feel like this was the difference between my B+ and an A- (assuming 85% was the A- cutoff).

Exams
These were tough. A bunch of multiple-choice followed by some short responses. Friscia's questions were easier than Esdin's, so for him, it was more a matter of organizing the information. Esdin's questions were tough because of the all the details that could confuse you in the multiple-choice. His short answers were kind of regurgitations of what he said in lectures, such as list the steps in this process. One of them was missed by almost everyone, which asked for an application of one little thing that he mentioned during lecture.
The medians were:
Midterm 1 82
Midterm 2 74.6
Final 138 (77%)

Tips
- Although Friscia's lectures were audiocasted, you should still attend lecture because he wrote notes on the projector that he wouldn't say out loud. One of the diagrams he made appeared on the exam.
- Friscia provided chapter review worksheets after every lecture. Some of the questions on them appeared on the exams.
- Record Esdin's lectures and marathon them before the exams.

tl;dr I regard Dr. Esdin highly and would consider it a loss in your UCLA career if you didn't take him. Dr. Friscia was fair and somewhat easy. Unfortunately, the exams are tough and there is nothing that you can do about it.

He was a great professor. Very engaging and passionate about the topic. His tests were easyish if you study. Lots of memorization needed.

SELLING: the NEWEST edition (2015 Fall) of coursereader- great condition with some highlighting
completed workbook

iprofile account (which expires on September 2016 so you can resell it after you finish the class)

email me : *************

Do whatever you can to take LS 2 with Esdin. He is the most effective professor I have had at ucla, I will not forget the material. He also bumped up my grade from A- to A. The tests are all real life application problems which get tricky but he gives you everything you need to be prepared. And take it over summer if you can because he is much more lenient. He loves teaching and tries very hard to make sure his students understand everything.

Oh Esdin, the man I love and hate. Took LS 2 with him one year ago and ended up with C-, seriously the hardest class and the worst grade I have ever had. And here I am, sitting in his LS2 class again and surprised about how much his lecturing styles has changed. A decent lecturer as always, he now applies a strategy called "flipped classroom" and asks us to watch lecture videos at home. During normal lectures he goes over those concepts by having us discuss with neighbors and answer clicker questions. He no longer requires us to memorize all the info on slides (he even provides figures from slides on exams!) but encourages us to understand those concepts from real-life applications. His exams are way easier than those I took last year, the average of midterm last year was 70% and now it is 84%. And he even gives out extra credits if you give any feedback on his video lectures (which bumped my grade from A- to A).
TL;DR: Take Esdin for LS2, especially during summer sessions lol.

Dr. Esdin was for sure one of my favorites during my first year.

As the LS 1-4 series is being phased out, the department is trying out a "flipped classroom" style of teaching. What this entails is watching video lectures before you come to class, and then having more of a discussion than a lecture in-class. The videos are essentially what you would have seen on Bruincast for Esdin's past LS 2 classes. In class he uses different slides to reiterate the most important concepts from the videos and expand upon them with examples, which could be in the form of clicker questions, mini discussions, and/or worksheets. LS 2 is also changing in that it's shifting from memorizing all the details to understanding concepts and applying them in new situations.
Both changes worked out great for me since I was able to focus much better on the videos than the textbook (which is good for reference but isn't really necessary) and I'm not a memorization machine like many who take this class.

Now onto Esdin himself: He's a great lecturer who really knows his stuff and more importantly knows how to engage his students. On top of that he can be pretty funny at times and he's definitely approachable if you have questions. LS 2 contains a lot of info, and a good number of students have seen a lot of it before in AP Bio (as I did) but Esdin conveys the information well enough that it shouldn't be a disadvantage not to have taken it. If you are someone who really cares about the grade that much (no judgment here, I am one such premed) then take Esdin's class over the summer if possible. One look at the grade distributions should tell you, but he is a self-proclaimed "softie" during the summer as far as the curve goes. During the summer the exams are all multiple-choice and very manageable if you know the fundamentals well enough.

TL;DR: Take Esdin for LS 2, I don't think you'll regret it. For added grade security take him during the summer.

I really actually enjoyed this class and the professor. I feel like he's a pretty chill guy. He's really engaging and makes jokes. He is a very good lecturer, very good at teaching, very clear. You have to watch lecture videos (about an hr, more or less) and then do a 5 question video quiz before almost every class. I thought this was really helpful because you can pause anytime he is lecturing to be able to write down any notes you need and go at your own pace. In class, he has required clicker questions, but he gave you full credit if you did it. In lectures, he expands on the topic and explains more about it. They're really helpful to go to because the clicker questions and everything, gives you some experience about how his tests are going to be. He's very organized. You don't need any books for this class. Everything you need is on CCLE. All the slides and videos are on there. The discussion sections are mandatory, but it's worth it and really helpful because they also expand on the topic. The two midterms and exam are all multiple choice, but the thing is, they are difficult. It's because it's biology, and wording is always going to be maybe confusing. You have to try to think like he thinks. You don't know if you're gonna be overthinking the question or you're supposed to think a lot about the question. If you know your stuff, that's what's going to make you do badly on the exams, so just hope you do well. I really liked this class though. I highly recommend this teacher for LS2.