The professor is a great lecturer and tries to make the material as entertaining as possible. However, unless you enjoy neuroscience, it's likely that you won't find this class too interesting. Since the class was bruincasted and the lecture slides were available online, not that many people showed up to class. Personally, I found the material extremely boring, but not particularly hard to learn. If you actually attend lecture, takes notes, and study the notes and lectures slides, it shouldn't be hard to get an A. The tests are extremely straightforward. They consist of multiple choice, short one-word answer questions, and a couple short responses (1 paragraph). For the tests, you either memorized the material or you didn't, there's very little hard thinking involved.

Homework consisted of some easy (but tedious) coloring pages, but are an easy way to boost your grade. He also offers a small amount of extra credit for doing clicker questions in class. Tests usually had an median of 79-83%.
In conclusion, this is probably a little too much work if you want a super easy GE, but if you are interested in neuroscience, I think this class is worth taking.

Overall I think the class was definitely fair and not too bad for a GE. There is a lot of material to cover and the lectures can feel long sometimes, but Dr. Babiec gives a break in the middle, can sometimes be funny, and is clearly passionate about what he's teaching. As some other people have said there are 4 non-cumulative tests that are weighted equally, so you don't have to worry about cramming for a final or anything, and as long as you study the slides you're good. There's no discussion for the class and some coloring assignments for homework, which can admittedly take a while but are really easy ways to boost your grade. It's a decent class and I definitely felt like I knew what was expected throughout the quarter.

I liked this class! Lecture was kind of late so I often didn't go, but you don't really need to, as all the lectures were posted and I just watched those and took avid notes. All the slides are always posted though but that is not enough; you must watch the lectures. Writing down the content from the slides onto your cheat sheet for tests is not enough; I do feel you have to actually understand stuff. I got a 91, 85, and 97.5 on the 3 tests, which is probably an A- average but the coloring homework helps. Not necessarily with understanding but your grade -- it takes a while, so start early-ish! Tests weren't that stressful as you have ample time, they're equally weighted, and you get a cheat sheet. However, sometimes the multiple choice would be from completely random things mentioned once in lecture or ask about weird analogies that we never talked about. But other than that I do feel tests were basically fair, and most of the time, the things I missed were truly my fault. I can't say much about the professor because I never went to office hours nor did I really attend lecture, but he seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he would be helpful. This was the first GE I've ever taken, so I can't say how it is as a GE but everyone in my class said it was the hardest/most work they've ever had to do for a GE. I didn't think it was awful, but maybe most GEs are just easy/easier? Anyway, I did find this class super interesting and I'm glad I took it for my LS GE rather than LS 7A or anything like that because those just don't sound interesting to me. I truly found the content super interesting and I'm glad I took the class. Advice I have is just if you decide to not go to lecture, totally fine, but just don't get behind! Try to watch as soon as it comes out, and take avid notes and don't skip the video around, actually pause and rewind if you're confused. I would get behind for a few days and then have like 8 hours of lecture to watch and it wasn't fun. And take advantage of the cheat sheet! People who only wrote down like 10 words seemed to struggle. Also, every single test he asks about a disease (why it occurs, symptoms, etc) so always study the diseases he presents! And do NOT buy the book nor read it (unless just for fun). The readings will literally never come up on tests; all test material is based on lectures and only lectures. ALSO take the survey before the class starts! It adds a point to your average even if you just click random stuff (what I did). Have fun!

This class was not enjoyable. At all. I took this as a GE because I was interested in learning the basics of the brain but the way this class was structured made it very difficult. Watching lectures on your own time while only having a grade consisting of 4 non cumulative module tests may seem easy but the lectures are SO DENSE. If you do take this class though I suggest writing super detailed notes.

I think that Walter changed the class since last year because the 4 tests now have a mix of multiple choice, very short answer, and short answer. This course is definitely not the easy A that the reviews above mention. There is a lot of material to process and the lectures get pretty boring sometimes. By the end of the quarter, barely half the class showed up on any given day. Overall, I would not recommend anyone to take this class for a GE.

This class was an easy A for me, but overall I thought it was quite boring and uninteresting, so it isn't a course I'd take again. As other reviews have mentioned, the material is extremely dense. I went into the class interested in learning about neuroscience but the material was so dense that the class just wasn't very enjoyable and I don't feel like I got anything worthwhile out of it other than a GPA boost.

Exams are 80% of the grade, which is a lot for a GE, so it's important to prepare well for them. The best way to prepare for the exams in my opinion is to take super detailed notes during lecture and review the notes. There were a couple questions from the slides but I prioritized reviewing my notes rather than the slides, and that worked pretty well for me, as I got over 90% on all three exams. Babiec lets you bring a one-sided cheat sheet with 10pt font, so really use that to your advantage. Fortunately, each exam is weighted equally, so there is no cumulative final.

Additionally, homeworks are 20% of the grade. There are four homeworks and they are coloring worksheets. Others have mentioned that the homeworks are a good way to improve your grade in the class, but for me personally, that was not the case. I did not find the homeworks very useful for preparing for the exams or for understanding the content better, and they did not help my grade either, as I actually did worse on the homeworks than on the exams. So I stopped doing them after the second one. If you don't do a homework, your score for that homework gets substituted with the average of your three exam scores. There is also an extra credit survey offered at the start of the course which adds a point to your overall average.

I liked the professor, he is very kind and helpful and you can tell he cares about the subject. For tests, there are 3 tests which are all equally weighted and each of them only test one module (so there is no cumulative final). The material can be dense at times and there are a lot of new terms to learn but overall it isn't too difficult, especially if you have some background knowledge (I took AP Psych in high school and a lot of the biology information was covered in this class). The lectures weren't super engaging but they were easy to follow and he did crack some jokes. For homework, there were 4 homework assignments. They are basically just labeled coloring which was easy but time consuming as each one was very detailed. This isn't a super easy GE but overall I thought it was ok.

A relatively easy class to get a B in, no cramming required since all three tests are weighted equally. You get a cheat sheet for the exams which is nice. Lectures were really boring but the best way to learn the material. I have basically no background in science but I got a B with minimal effort. Would recommend for a science GE.

Everything on the tests are stuff that the Professor talks about in class. Sometimes the exam questions can be a little tricky because he puts questions in there purposely to trick you, but if you read closely then you will do well (although I did second guess myself a lot on some of the multiple choice questions, but the free response were really simple, such as knowing neurological diseases).

I hope to retain the information I learned in this class, as it is all so applicable and interesting considering how it gives context as to how the body functions.
I took this class during COVID, and all the lectures are recorded. They are ridiculously dense, and you will need to pause every 10 seconds to digest what you just watched.
I got an A by taking notes on OneNote as I watched the videos. The exams are open note, but you won't have a lot of time to look back at them to find the answers.
The best way I can describe this class is that the lectures are way too hard for the easy exams.
You do not need the textbook, don't waste your money.