If you are interested in taking this class because you heard it was “easy,” it’s not like that anymore. He’s back to his pre-pandemic style of teaching. This means that the only forms of grading in this class are two midterms that are completely multiple choice. If you miss even a few questions on a midterm, the possibility of getting an A in this class will be close to impossible. I really don’t understand this lame sauce professor and why he made this class suck big time again. He makes us students memorize his course reader (that costs $60) word for word. To get a good grade in this class, you need to memorize every word in the course reader. You cannot gloss over anything. For the first test, we had to memorize just under 30 pages! For the final, we had to memorize around 45 pages! This Professor is just not it anymore. He is so out of touch with reality. I really don’t know why he makes us endlessly memorize these random topics. This style of teaching does not solve anything for anybody. I would suggest taking another class if you want a fun life science GE. I even found classes like MCD BIO 138 to be easier than this…and that’s saying something.

Do not take this class. Class was not easy, engaging, nor did I feel like I retained any information. Taking it in person cannot compare to how it was online. If youre looking for an easy A, this is not it. 90% of your grade is from the midterm and final, despite the Professor not being accommodating for Covid and medical-related issues. Exams are multiple choice and on minuscule details in the course reader that students simply memorized and did not have to comprehend. If you miss more than 10 questions total, your chances of an A for the class are slim. His lectures are a useless rendition of the course reader, which is a think textbook that we had to pay $70 to buy because he didn’t want to upload his slides into bruinlearn. You would think for a plant class he would care more about paper waste.

Terrible professor. Requires students to purchase a course reader ($60) to access his slides, which are just diagrams he took from other textbooks. His style of lecturing is also really hard to follow. He interjects with "but we're gonna get into more detail later on" a lot and then you're kind of just wondering if what he just said was important or not. Hard to follow, unhelpfully repetitive, never wore a mask while lecturing, rarely if ever answered emails and he was not helpful. Lecture was not mandatory and it was bruincasted. There was one lecture where audio was never recorded and he didn't do anything to make up for the missing lecture. There was a huge covid surge at the end of the quarter and he refused to accommodate students. We were forced to take an in-person exam and the lecture hall was full and not ventilated. Students with covid were forced to take an Incomplete for their grade until they could make it up another quarter.

Discussion attendance was mandatory and you could only get one excused absence, two unexcused absences resulted in a 0 for the entire attendance grade. Not sure if it was his policy or the TA's but discussion assignments had to be turned in as a physical copy so you're either spending money to print or ripping it out of your course reader. The discussion assignments are also useless in helping you learn anything. Graded on completion at least but a huge waste of time.

Grade is basically midterm, final, discussion assignments, discussion attendance. Exams are based on the "pink slides" of the lecture and you're kind of just memorizing the question and answer word for word.

I would not bother with this class if he is teaching it.

This guy expected us to memorize every little detail in his course reader (which he tried making us buy, but someone in the class scanned it as a PDF and sold it much cheaper). Cramming this useless, irrelevant information was the only way to do well on tests and ultimately succeed in this class. He also tends to play with his hair and pull it back a lot. Really weird in my opinion.

Where do I even begin? This class was definitely my hard class this quarter, and my original hard class turned out to be easier. The midterm was 42 questions and worth 44% of the grade. The final was 51 questions and worth 45% of the grade. The remaining 11% of the grade was based on discussion attendance, discussion worksheets, and the class evaluation. Essentially, you cannot mess up on the midterm or final because each question is around 1 percent of your grade. This meant that you have to memorize everything work for word. Literally, if you didn’t memorize certain parts of the reader word for word, you could not get the right answer. I had to study for two weeks before the midterm and final to memorize everything. Also, idk why but Sack is obsessed with “going back to normal”. Basically he doesn’t wear a mask ever and doesn’t even consider online tests (probably because other Bruinwalk reviews bragged how easy he was during Covid). It was shocking that Sack was threatening students (even GRADUATING SENIORS) with an incomplete if they didn’t take the final in person. He should be more accommodating to students with COVID. It doesn’t help that he hardly ever responds to emails.

This is literally the worst class I have taken at UCLA! Where do I even begin....
First of all, the grading for this class is fucked. 89% of your grade is based on TWO exams. TWO. That is ABSURD. Like the other comments have discussed, you basically have to memorize like 30-50 pages of material each exam, because you literally cannot afford to miss a question. Missing 5 questions on the midterm means that 44% of your grade is a B. That means that if you want an A in the class, assuming that you get full participation for discussion attendance and assignments and the 1% from doing the course evals, you would have to get almost a perfect score on the final to get an A. That is insane! This is a terrible learning model. Multiple people in the class admitted that they just memorized whatever was on the slides but didn't know what anything meant.
Secondly, this class will not accommodate you. You can only miss up to one discussion (with proper documentation) and if you miss two then you lose your entire discussion participation grade. What else, you get COVID during finals? Looks like you'll have to take an incomplete because he would rather die than give an online final.
Third, this class was not COVID conscious at all and often poorly planned. Our midterm situation was deplorable. We were all stuffed into a tiny hallway for 15 minutes because they were running late setting up the exam room (btw, they did not give us extra time even though the exam started late due to their unpreparedness!) We were all crammed next to each other in the lecture hall, no social distancing or space whatsoever. In addition, Professor Sack never wore his mask to lecture (even when the mask mandate was enforced by school guidelines).
If you're going to make a grading scheme this terrible, at least incorporate some extra credit that actually forces students to engage with the material and try to understand it. This is genuinely the only class where I was LESS interested in the material after I finished it. Take EEB 100 or literally anything else before you take this terrible class. Please.

ALL HAIL THE PLANT KING! Professor Sack is legit THE BEST teacher at UCLA, if not the entire world. Granted I took this class during the quarantine quarter when everything was online, Sack was SOOOO understanding of how challenging it was to even open a laptop while at home because motivation levels were at an all-time low; plus, it was during the time when BLM/police brutality protests were going on, so that was extra stressful/sorrowful. I'm certain that a majority of his students (90%) ended with an A/A+. TAKE THIS CLASS!!

Online-class quarantine-edition breakdown:

1 Midterm: Prof Sack sent us a 31 question super chill midterm that was ~literally~ all of the pink slides from the ppts--we had 1 week to complete. Easy to look up from the handouts and lecture recordings! Can be completed in less than 1 day with breaks.

1 Final (non-cumulative): Prof Sack sent us a 62 question also super chill final that was ~literally~ a compilation of all the pink slides from the ppts--we had 1.5 weeks to complete (since the plant king gave us an extension to accommodate for all the protesting). Can be completed in 1-2 days with breaks.

Participation points for just attending the zoom discussions (or if you can't make it, just watch the recordings like I did).

Extra credit for completing a mid-quarter survey.

Professor Sack, if you're reading this, thanks for being the best professor and plant king ever!! I legit would have failed if you did Respondus/recorded timed exams, but your formatting of the midterm and final enabled me to end my final quarter at UCLA with all A/A+s! You made your students very happy and you engrained in us a love for plants that we will have for the rest of our lives.

Easy class just memorization the fu*kin text.

I had professor Sack during COVID-19. He was very sympathetic and made this class easier for all of us. The exams were questions that we had a week + to answer, were open note & it was encouraged to work in groups as long as we used our own words. I'm pretty sure the majority of the class got at least an A-

Sack was not bad at all he was overall pretty chill but did ramble at times. I took this class when the Palestine protests and TA strike were going on which prompted our midterm and final move to online which was open note and collaboration with people was allowed as long as you used your own words. You have to buy the course reader to get access to his lecture notes and handouts. Discussion was mandatory but lecture was not. Your grade is mainly based off of the midterm (30% of ur grade) and final (40% of ur grade), he does offer an extra credit assignment at the end of the quarter which adds 5% to your overall grade. Overall, this class wasn't bad but does require memorization