Honestly love this Professor. I'm sure by the many other comments posted you can hear in detail how great of a lecturer he is. He's pretty funny and really wants you to absorb the material through a balance of clicker questions and conceptual slides. Overall, it is structured similarly to the other classes in the LS7 series, but if you like physiology then you're going to love this class.

The material overall is much denser than LS7A and LS7B so you need to have better organization if you want to complete the material ahead of time (ie: launchpad ). That being said since everything was recorded you could easily catch up if you're behind.

Exams: Because of COVID they changed the structure of the exams slightly. The midterms were timed 120 minutes each, around 45 multiple choice questions, worth 2 points each (90 points), and conceptually based on weeks 1-3 for midterm 1 and 4-6 for midterm 2. After each midterm, we had an "exam wrapper" which basically was a chance to get 8 points back on your exam grade by answering a series of questions reflective of what was most missed on each midterm.

The final was timed 150 minutes, 82 multiple choice questions, worth 2.25 points each (meaning you could earn 184.5 out of 180 points). The final was 60% new material ie: weeks 7-10, and 40% review material ie: weeks 1-6. I honestly thought the final was much easier than the midterms, but there was no exam wrapper.

Discussion: Discussions were very helpful! The only issue was that it was sometimes really hard the finish the whole worksheet within the discussion and I spent some time outside of the discussion to finish my responses. But besides that, the TAs were actually amazing.

Other: Just remember to do launchpad to get those assignment points and go to CLC sessions and PLF sessions if you can.

If you're reading this far into the future, this information will probably/hopefully be applicable to you. For those of you that are taking LS7C in summer or fall 2020, good luck.

Esdin was a wonderful professor. He always explained everything thoroughly, gave us time to think about questions, and never failed to answer any question during office hours.

You've likely taken LS 7B so you know all about the Launchpad, participation, difficult exams, etc. As for the changes made during this quarter due to remote learning:

Lectures: Unlike Khankan, Esdin decided to prerecord his lectures and post them on CCLE instead. This prevented us from asking questions during lecture, but this was fine because there was so much material to cover this quarter that all the questions probably would have slowed us down. On the other hand, Esdin still wanted to simulate an actual class environment so he would stop talking for a couple minutes during each clicker question. This was kind of awkward, but didn't bother any of us much, and I just fast-forwarded through the waiting time after I had worked out the answer.

Participation/Clickers: Since we couldn't physically all be in the same class, we took a VERY short (like 2 questions) multiple choice quiz on CCLE after watching each lecture that day. The quizzes opened 50 minutes after lectures were posted and closed at 10:50 PM that day, so you had to watch lecture to answer the questions. I'm pretty sure it wasn't graded on correctness, but we were still given two attempts.

Launchpad: Identical format to LS 7B. Points come from the small quizzes and PEQ. Just power through it, because each week is about a new body system and there's A LOT of information. You got this!!

Discussion: Each discussion session was on Zoom, and we had online worksheets through Gradescope. We would split up into breakout rooms of 4-5 to work on the assignment. Some of the worksheets were super short, but sometimes they took the entire time to finish. It all depends on your TA and Zoom breakout room of course.

CLC: Since everything was online, I took advantage of my time and went to a CLC session each week. This was particularly helpful for the midterm (and would've been for the final). We would just screen share and work on the worksheet shared to the group, and we worked in Zoom breakout rooms.

Midterms/Final: The first midterm was a little challenging, because unlike LS 7A&B, we were introduced to free response questions on Gradescope. We were also given 50 minutes to do 6 FRQs which was not enough time. We had about 30 multiple choice questions on CCLE with 1 hour to do them. It was difficult to finish the free response, so we were given a full hour during the second midterm. If you studied everything from Launchpad, your notes, discussion worksheets, and CLC as much as you can, then you should be okay, just don't freak out if confusing questions arise. You should know by know that's just how the LS series rolls. Due to the protests and just the general chaos of the world, the final was an automatic 100% for everyone!! Thank goodness, because genome browser during the last three weeks of the quarter was stressful and I was burnt out by that point.

ESDIN: As a lecturer, Esdin always took his time to explain everything, which was helpful of course. I ended up speeding the video up 1.5x just as a personal preference. I didn't go to Esdin's office hours often, but when I did I always learned something new and it was a pleasant vibe.

Course topics/studying tips: There was so much information to cover that you have to read Launchpad thoroughly to fully grasp everything though. This isn't like LS 7A; you have to prepare for concepts. I took IB Bio HL 2 in high school and honestly the topics were VERY similar so I feel like that preparation helped me and encouraged me throughout the quarter. A full list of information we went over includes: cell communication, nervous system, endocrine system, motor/muscle systems, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, excretory and digestive systems, immune system, and another three weeks of Genome Browser stuff. What I did to maintain my sanity each week, stop myself from drowning in stress, and just to organize information so I could remember everything was: doing the pre-class worksheets posted on CCLE each week, making flashcards of all the learning objectives with diagrams and detailed info, doing Launchpad early/basically as soon as it was posted so I had time to study and absorb information without rushing it the night before, taking thorough notes of definitions and new info and adding to them during lecture, and checking campuswire and groupme for updates and questions.

Professor Esdin is a really great professor. He's supportive and accommodating to his students, and really wants everybody to succeed. His jokes made online school a bit less boring. He is a clear lecturer and I recommend taking him or Khankan. The midterms, like the entire LS series, are poorly worded and can easily confuse you. Be careful taking the exams, and make sure you really understand the concepts. Also, he didn't mention it in class (its in the syllabus), but its possible to earn a few points extra credit by helping people on Campuswire.

This professor is great and very thorough. Pay attention to lectures and just do the pre-class reading guides to not spend all your time on launchpad. I would say the clickers for this class very a bit easier than what you would see on the actual tests. The 7 series tests were always terrible though.

I liked the content of the class a lot and a many things taught in this course was material many people haven't been exposed to. Professor Esdin is very clear with lecture content and is super engaging! BUT, as you may know, this is part of the LS7 series; there's always something that's gotta be wrong with the class. In this case, it was the exams. I prayed a few days before midterms and the final that the wording was going to be clear, but nope. The wording on the midterms were extremely ambiguous and needlessly tedious to understand, as a result, people often wasted time trying to even comprehend the horrific questions. The final was not terrible however. My recommendation is to read exam problems VERY carefully since supposedly they "don't try to trick you" but really they do. Also, go over in class diagrams and discussion concepts, these two are very important since they will show up on exams. Good luck taking this class!

I hated 7B so much, but this class was infinitely better. It was interesting, and the first 7 weeks were really fun to learn about. I loved my TA Zac, and my discussion was small, so we were able to ask questions and dive deeper into the material. The LA CLC sessions are also super helpful, so I definitely recommend.
As always, Launchpad is annoying, and only slightly helpful. To study, I made one page study guides for each chapter and went over clickers. For each test, I studied the night before and it was sufficient.
My class was joint with Cooper, and he wasn't as engaging as Esdin, but still a good professor.
I believe our class was curved by 1% which bumped me up a grade.
Overall, I would recommend these professors, but as we all know your professor doesn't matter much for the 7 series.

***THIS WRITTEN REVIEW IS STRICTLY FOR JULIE MARTINEZ (TA)***
I literally can not believe how this TA screwed over my grade. She took off points every single week, on every discussion worksheet, off of answers that I would completely base off of her short presentations and slides AND what she would say to me when my break out room would call her in. She looks for VERY specific words -> if you don't include it, automatic 7/8 or less. She ended up dropping my grade a letter grade and it did not get better over the ten weeks. AVOID THIS TA AT ALL COSTS. She seems really nice but literally will not cut you any slack. When I asked her how I could improve, all she basically said was to use more specific words(??) and to try harder(??) I've always scored 100% in discussion for 7A and 7B but this TA really was not it.

As most of the reviews have already said, Dr. Esdin is a fantastic lecturer. He and his accent are very engaging and he brings a lot of energy every time he comes into class. I think he does a very good job of explaining the material in a digestible way, especially when it comes to the clicker questions. His lectures felt a little more built around the clicker questions than Dr. Cooper's but I didn't mind too much because it also means that he spends a great deal of time explaining the answers and how you can figure out similar ones in the future.

Dr. Esdin is pretty clear about what you can expect on an exam, at least as much as I think he could have been. The exam questions for the entire quarter were almost all True/False, which meant that a lot of them are written in a convoluted way so that they will actually be difficult. This is pretty annoying, especially since the TAs are of literally no help during the exams (I asked a TA if one of the questions had a typo and she told me to treat it like a typo if I thought it was one or answer the question normally if I thought it wasn't??). But it means that it's much harder to completely bomb the exam if you don't know anything.

To be honest, I was pretty scared to take this class after reading a lot of reviews. Here's my honest take.

Dr. Esdin is an excellent lecturer. He is funny, knowledgeable, makes class engaging and prepares you well. Dr. Cooper is also a great lecturer. Although his lectures are a lot more information dense and can sometimes be overwhelming, definitely study his diagrams and take good notes to succeed in this class. Class participation and having a good pod are important.

I remember Dr. Esdin telling us on the first day that this class would be extremely relevant and useful for life. That has proven to be more than true. I genuinely learned so much from this class, and for me it was extremely interesting. I believe anyone interested in the medical field will feel the same. I can see the meanings behind many bodily processes now and I know much more about the world and my own self after taking this course.
This class absolutely strengthened my love for medicine and human biology.

LS7C was not an easy class but it was extremely enjoyable and insightful for me. The first midterm was difficult, and the following ones were not easy but better. The way the exams are written are unfair, in my opinion. There is a lot of tricky questions and things specifically incorporated to throw you off. The workload for this class is also quite a lot, and it will be a substantial time commitment. My best advice is study and do work in a smart way. Attend lectures, take good notes, be on top of assignments, and don't overdo the textbook reading guides because a lot of them go above the scope of what you need to know- focus on what's taught in class. Definitely go to problem solving sessions, they help for the exams too. When taking the exams, read the questions carefully and don't get caught up in the paragraphs of stimulus they give you- reference it, but don't spend too much time reading. Know big ideas and how processes work and have a clear understanding of everything talked about in class.

This class is difficult, but it is doable. If you put the work in and take class time seriously, you will succeed. Dr. Esdin and Dr. Cooper are great teachers and if you do your part, they will enable you to succeed. Best of luck!!

*at time of writing the final grade hasn't been posted for me yet*

I know people dog on the ls7 series all the time, but it's not as bad when esdin and cooper is teaching it. Esdin a fun guy and the class is really interesting, while Cooper hand-draws diagrams for the slides which is very cool. Format is pretty much like the rest of the 7 series except for midterms. Expect to see your pcrq, peqs, clickers, etc.

For the exams, they do individual then group, but it's weighed 85/15. The individual is all MCs (read questions carefully like always) and IN PERSON now, but the group section is where things get funky -- you better pray you got a good learning pod for this. The first part of the group section is fine and dandy, infinite time to answer some gradescope questions that is just individual section questions, but the second part is where things go crazy. 15 minutes, 5 questions. Each question has like 6 parts to it, and it can be check all that apply, choose which answer choice is best, or some matching. You need EVERY second for that, and you need to read it carefully. In all honesty, if you have access to a test bank, it's probably the best way to prep for the exams.

Lecture content is pretty cool, just some biological systems but some of them they didn't really touch too much upon that was tested on the exams (e.x. set points). The diagrams they DO test on, they do give handouts in class which is nice, but you need to know what the hell is going on in those diagrams. Usual clickers, but they also grade it on accuracy too (more points given at the end of quarter to help boost clicker grade btw). Just do your best and you should do fine.

Discussions were... interesting to say the least. They delve more into course content, but you should definitely pray that you get a good learning pod where everyone gets along and knows what they are doing. This class also has LAs and they were very cool and helpful in helping you figure out what's going on. Discussions are mandatory... like pretty much everything in the 7 series if you want a good grade.

Oh yeah extra credit is offered, so use campuswire like crazy for up to 3 points.