I enrolled in this course because I had the professor before for other EEB classes, and she was awesome (still is!). However, even having a good professor was not enough to make up for how difficult/stressful this class was. There were 2 lab practicals that required an unrealistic amount of memorization, and then 3 research essays that were not as bad in comparison (but still a lot of work). This class burned me out more than any other class had at UCLA, and I probably wouldn't recommend it unless you really love animals.

Professor Gorlitsky is a great professor but the quality of the course strongly depends on whether you get a good TA or not. Mine was meh, so lab sections were meh, and lab practicals were pretty tough.

The lectures were asynchronous and we had meetings once a week that you would either attend and get credit for attending, or submit a summary instead of attending. Labs were in person. You basically handle/study either taxidermied animals or animals preserved in isopropyl alcohol; these would be fair game for lab practicals. There were also some animals not in the lab that we were expected to know. It was kind of a mess.

There are 3 essays, 1-2 pages each on one of 3ish prompts they release. It sounds super easy but my TA graded it pretty ridiculously sometimes making it hard to figure out what they were looking for. It's not not doable, I got over 90% on all three, but it can feel like a lot.

There is an extra credit field trip to the Natural History Museum of LA. This is probably the most pandemic-dependant aspect, since in October/November 2021 there was no particular variant to freak out about, and people felt relatively safe. It's super easy if you're local and totally worth it just because that museum is awesome. If you went with the class on the field trip (again, covid related), all you had to do was show up. If you went on your own, you had to draw a specimen or do paleoart. It's nothing unreasonable. It's actually pretty fun.

Overall, amazing class if you love vertebrates. If you're pre-med idk why you would take this if you didn't absolutely have to.

I really like Dr. Gorlitsky and her lectures are pretty interesting but my TA was a mess this quarter. We didn’t have grades for anything until the last few weeks of the quarter and she would dock off tons of points with very little explanation. Since pretty much your entire grade is based off the TA, just make sure you have a decent one. There is extra credit available and a majority of your grade comes from this one group project. I still have the plant Dr. Gorlitsky gave out on the last day of the quarter, it was a really nice gift

This course is TA-taught. The only interaction my group had with Dr. Gorlitsky and Dr. Lipman was through an hour-long office hour they held, in which we received optional feedback for our initial research project idea. Because the class is TA-taught, your grade will heavily depend on your TA, and the professors will only be accessible if you request extra meetings with them (the professors seem to often be busy, as my group emailed a meeting request and did not receive a response). The course revolves around a group research project in which you write a prospectus (proposal) for, present on twice, and write a final paper for. This class was more work than I expected as several of my group members did not pull their weight, and the only consequence for this is a lower group participation grade, which is a small portion of the grade.

I adore Dr. Gorlitsky, so this review may be slightly biased. This class offers a moderate workload, with weekly readings, one-page written reports on those readings, a required book with material featured on the exams, and a group project that we work on throughout the quarter. Still, I never felt too overwhelmed with any of it because of how engaging Leryn is. She is kind, funny, and really cares about her students. Her office hours are very helpful and can be a key study tool for exams. This class was my favorite of the quarter and I'm so grateful to have ended off my undergrad at UCLA with such a fun course as this one! I would retake this class a million times over :)

When I was first thinking about taking this class, the reviews were a little offputting, but I had to take it anyway. I ended up really enjoying this class. Here is a breakdown:

Lectures: For this quarter the lectures were given as power point presentations with voice overs which are not very interactive. Some people complained that they were long, but if you played them in slide show they actually took the amount of time that they should have ( around an hour and fifteen minutes. She also held an in person class session on Thursday where she showed videos, answered questions, and clarified lecture material from the slides. There were times when the in class presentation was jsut going over the exact same material as the lecture slide, and that was not helpful. But I think watching the videos and talking about the behaviors was very helpful. The slide decks are about 80 slides long each and this might seem daunting. However, she gives you key terms at the beginning of the slides, and those are all you really need to know for the exam. Know the definition of the key terms and be able to apply it.

Exams: The exam we were given was about 36 questions and we had an hour and 15 minutes to take it. A lot of people complained about time constraints, but I honeslty finshed the entire exam in around 45 minutes. For in person exams they normally give 50 questions, so I thought the time was actually generous. It really was not that hard if you studied. If you were unprepared I can see how the timed exam would feel like a lot, but if you studied then the time was mroe than enough. I think studying for the exam was also pretty easy. I started a week before the exam and simply memorized definitions. You DO NOT have to memorize the behavior of every animal to do well in this class. All you have to do is understand definitions and be able to apply them to new examples. Some people complained about not being able to flip between questions, but it was to prevent cheating. If you know the material you should be able to answer confidently and move on.

Discussion: TAs take the homework seriously, and you will likley get points taken off if you can't show that you actually understand the article. If you can show that you read and understood the article and provide a thoughtful question then you will do just fine. We also had to do a presentation on a paper for this class. We weren't allowed to have note cards, and reading off the slides would also result in point loss. Basically just practice your presentation and you will be fine. Participation in discussion is worth points, so you will have to show up.

Weekly quizzes: This was another complaint that came up alot. In my opinion if you paid attention in class you would know the answer. There were quite a few times where the professor literally gave the answer to the quiz question in the power point slides. So pay attention and you will do well on the quizzes.

Extra credit: They offer 10 points of extra credit for doing an off campus volunteer program that is related to habitat restoration. You attend the event, and do a write up on it. It's pretty simple and easy to get the points for it.

The TLTR: The class has gotten way better since the previous reviews and I enjoyed it. If you pay attention and study for the exams you will do well on them. Pay attention in class and you will also do well on quizzes. Discussion Homework grading is harsh so don't BS it or you will pay for it. I thought that overall the exams were fair and so was the class.

I loved every class that I have taken with professor Gorlitsky. Her enthusiasm was clear for every topic she taught and it really translated in her teaching. I never knew how much there was to love about the tropics and all of the unique adaptations of nature. Don't underestimate her exams. I would definitely go to office hours and study. I personally re-wrote and memorized the slides. She does not record her lectures so make sure to take good notes and pay attention. Gorlitsky is one if my favorite profs at UCLA. I think she is very fair but it is not a course that you should underestimate.

class was asynchronous but was announced during the first week that there was mandatory attendance for lecture (if you didn't go, there was an alternate assignment you had to complete to get participation points); lectures were super fast-paced and the instructor was pretty much just reading off of the slides really quickly without explaining anything; lab sections were not helpful - were just given a short pre-recorded lab lecture to watch then were sent the link to like 5-10 different "lab worksheets" that we were supposed to look over ourselves even though more than half of the content was never talked about in the class. this class is super easy if you take it online, but if I had to do all of this in person, it would be EXTREMELY difficult with a lot of memorization. lectures are super fast paced and not that helpful. same with the labs. grading is 2 essays and 2 lab practicums (SO MUCH TO MEMORIZE IF IT'S NOT ONLINE), and each are worth about 25% of the grade. some participation points are taken but not sure how much of the grade it is

Professor Gorlitsky is an amazing professor and the way she runs this class is similar to EEB 100! The class is definitely quite a bit of work but it helps to pad your grade from the exams and is manageable since the assignments build off each other. The assignments we had were weekly one-page discussion homework based on an assigned paper, an annotated bibliography, a literature review, a research proposal built from those two assignments, lecture participation "quizzes" graded on completion, a presentation on your research proposal, and two exams (midterm and final during Week 10). Most of the assignments were during discussion (which did not take the entire 2 hours most of the time) and dependent on your TA (make sure to ask your TA what they expect from everything). Her exams are definitely tough where they test on smaller details from lectures and many short answer questions based on the book you are expected to read and other lecture content. She does offer extra credit project that gives you quite a few points. Overall, I would take this class with her! Tests are definitely rough but as long as you understand the lecture slides and read the tropical book you assign, you should be fine.

In general I don’t recommend taking this class. Your grade is heavily dependent on your team members and also your TA could affect your experience. If you’re lucky with your team members (you don’t choose them!) then it could be manageable but if you’re unlucky like me, you end up doing most of the work yourself to avoid having points deducted from every assignment. They could improve this by giving more weight to individual assignments. The workload is manageable but the TAs are really harsh on grading so make sure you put your best work into every assignment.