LIFESCI 107
Genetics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, 75 minutes. Requisites: courses 7C, 23L, Chemistry 14A (or 20A), 14C (or 30A). Not open for credit to students with credit for course 4. Advanced Mendelian genetics, recombination, biochemical genetics, mutation, DNA, genetic code, gene regulation, genes in populations. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Dr Pham is an angel given to us by UCLA. Never have I ever had a professor who cared about students this much as well as ensured that each lecture is very engaging and fun for the students. You can tell that he is very passionate about teaching and always wants to make sure that the students' mental health and circumstances are considered during grading and tests. The tests are not that difficult and the content is not that heavy. However, you still need to do the past papers and understand the material well in order to do well in the tests. There is no reason for anybody to not get an A in this class as long as you put in the effort and attention to the class. He is beyond fair in grading and is very understanding if you have any personal issues which may impede your ability to take the test. 100% would reccomend taking him for LS107. If I had a choice, I would take him for any other class he teaches as well.
Winter 2020 - Dr Pham is an angel given to us by UCLA. Never have I ever had a professor who cared about students this much as well as ensured that each lecture is very engaging and fun for the students. You can tell that he is very passionate about teaching and always wants to make sure that the students' mental health and circumstances are considered during grading and tests. The tests are not that difficult and the content is not that heavy. However, you still need to do the past papers and understand the material well in order to do well in the tests. There is no reason for anybody to not get an A in this class as long as you put in the effort and attention to the class. He is beyond fair in grading and is very understanding if you have any personal issues which may impede your ability to take the test. 100% would reccomend taking him for LS107. If I had a choice, I would take him for any other class he teaches as well.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - I love this prof but he completely changed the format of this course and the whole time it was miserable for me. We had SO MANY QUIZZES every week to the point where I'd forget about them completely because of how many there were to keep track of. It used to be almost 100% As in this class, but now you have to score almost 100% on every single exam to get an A in the class and that's near impossible. Also the sheer amount of people who purely cheated (by taking exams in huge groups behind the profs back) was extremely disappointing and embarrassing. Tell me why I got a B+ in this class despite scoring a 95% on the final and a 97% on midterm too. I scored around a 72% on the first midterm (my fault for not studying enough bc i was also enrolled in 3 upper-division chem classes simultaneously) but I'm really disappointed in how many people got near 100% in the class after purely cheating. The material is also extremely dense and not very intuitive, so I don't recommend this at ALL if you don't love biology and statistics (yes there is a lot of math). I got an A+ in LS7B and still struggled a lot towards the beginning of this course because of how many quizzes there were and the high pressure of needing to perform exceptional on all exams.
Winter 2024 - I love this prof but he completely changed the format of this course and the whole time it was miserable for me. We had SO MANY QUIZZES every week to the point where I'd forget about them completely because of how many there were to keep track of. It used to be almost 100% As in this class, but now you have to score almost 100% on every single exam to get an A in the class and that's near impossible. Also the sheer amount of people who purely cheated (by taking exams in huge groups behind the profs back) was extremely disappointing and embarrassing. Tell me why I got a B+ in this class despite scoring a 95% on the final and a 97% on midterm too. I scored around a 72% on the first midterm (my fault for not studying enough bc i was also enrolled in 3 upper-division chem classes simultaneously) but I'm really disappointed in how many people got near 100% in the class after purely cheating. The material is also extremely dense and not very intuitive, so I don't recommend this at ALL if you don't love biology and statistics (yes there is a lot of math). I got an A+ in LS7B and still struggled a lot towards the beginning of this course because of how many quizzes there were and the high pressure of needing to perform exceptional on all exams.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Professor Pham and Genetics 107 with him are easily one of my best experiences with stem professors since coming to UCLA. I had him for 7A as an incoming freshman so he was also my first ever college stem professor, and he remains to be funny, helpful, kind, jolly and pleasant. At the start of the quarter, he already made it clear to us that he wants us to succeed and that many people are going to end up with As. You can tell that this man has a real passion for the subject and he tries explaining every concept slowly, clearly and simply, which is not that commonly seen. The content of this class is not hard at all as long as you make an effort to understand them, and I'm speaking as someone who only went to office hour once at the end of the quarter right before the final. The class is very much manageable, I watched all the pre lecture videos in 2x speed(that's basically your homework) and there's a 4 question quiz after that. He uses those pre-lecture videos to introduce concepts to us and he goes over them again in class, and then he goes over a bunch of practice iclicker questions and explain them in detail, which takes up the majority of class time. One thing I love about his class is he always asks if we have questions, and you can always feel free to raise your hand and ask anytime and he'll call on you to answer your question. There are also weekly quizzes but if you truly make an effort to understand the discussion worksheets they're not hard at all. There are two midterms and a final, and he posts a ton of past exams for practice and they closely resemble the actual exams. It's more practice than you could ever go over, and usually I feel good about taking the test after going through just 3 sets of them. His tests are all MCQ and he usually offers 5pts(out of 100)of extra credit for exam revision. This year for the first midterm the average was lower than he wanted it to be so he even bumped the extra credit to 7.5 points. I think that just goes to show how kind of a person he is and he empathizes with his students. One thing about professor Pham is that he has an accent that some might find harder to understand, but personally I understand him just fine, if not better cuz it makes his jokes funnier and the class more engaging. Overall I love him as a professor and his class and I would definitely recommend taking this class.
Spring 2025 - Professor Pham and Genetics 107 with him are easily one of my best experiences with stem professors since coming to UCLA. I had him for 7A as an incoming freshman so he was also my first ever college stem professor, and he remains to be funny, helpful, kind, jolly and pleasant. At the start of the quarter, he already made it clear to us that he wants us to succeed and that many people are going to end up with As. You can tell that this man has a real passion for the subject and he tries explaining every concept slowly, clearly and simply, which is not that commonly seen. The content of this class is not hard at all as long as you make an effort to understand them, and I'm speaking as someone who only went to office hour once at the end of the quarter right before the final. The class is very much manageable, I watched all the pre lecture videos in 2x speed(that's basically your homework) and there's a 4 question quiz after that. He uses those pre-lecture videos to introduce concepts to us and he goes over them again in class, and then he goes over a bunch of practice iclicker questions and explain them in detail, which takes up the majority of class time. One thing I love about his class is he always asks if we have questions, and you can always feel free to raise your hand and ask anytime and he'll call on you to answer your question. There are also weekly quizzes but if you truly make an effort to understand the discussion worksheets they're not hard at all. There are two midterms and a final, and he posts a ton of past exams for practice and they closely resemble the actual exams. It's more practice than you could ever go over, and usually I feel good about taking the test after going through just 3 sets of them. His tests are all MCQ and he usually offers 5pts(out of 100)of extra credit for exam revision. This year for the first midterm the average was lower than he wanted it to be so he even bumped the extra credit to 7.5 points. I think that just goes to show how kind of a person he is and he empathizes with his students. One thing about professor Pham is that he has an accent that some might find harder to understand, but personally I understand him just fine, if not better cuz it makes his jokes funnier and the class more engaging. Overall I love him as a professor and his class and I would definitely recommend taking this class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Dr. Pham is an absolute blessing to the life sciences department at UCLA! LS 107 was one of my favorite classes that I have taken at UCLA. Dr. Pham was incredibly caring, knowledgable, and was always open to answer questions during lecture, after lecture, and during office hours. Similar to the LS7 series, there were pre-class videos to watch and then quizzes to take. Lecture consisted of practice iClicker genetics problems engaging with the material covered in the pre-class videos. Dr. Pham was incredibly thorough and went over all the iClicker questions slowly and clearly to make sure that all students understood how to solve the problems; the clicker questions often closely resembled the exam questions. Additionally, there was a weekly quiz (almost) every week and then two midterms and a final exam, all online via Canvas. Dr. Pham provided seemingly unlimited practice midterms and final exams from previous years, as well as one online Canvas practice exam for each test that was extremely similar to the real test. After each exam, we were offered 5% extra credit on our exam score which could be earned by answering a short bonus quiz that had similar, but not the same, questions as the ones that were commonly missed on the real exam. Overall, LS 107 with Dr. Pham was an elite experience. He was incredibly patient, clear, and facilitated student learning in a genuine and sweet manner. I strongly recommend Dr. Pham for LS 107 and all life science courses at UCLA; he is the absolute best!
Winter 2024 - Dr. Pham is an absolute blessing to the life sciences department at UCLA! LS 107 was one of my favorite classes that I have taken at UCLA. Dr. Pham was incredibly caring, knowledgable, and was always open to answer questions during lecture, after lecture, and during office hours. Similar to the LS7 series, there were pre-class videos to watch and then quizzes to take. Lecture consisted of practice iClicker genetics problems engaging with the material covered in the pre-class videos. Dr. Pham was incredibly thorough and went over all the iClicker questions slowly and clearly to make sure that all students understood how to solve the problems; the clicker questions often closely resembled the exam questions. Additionally, there was a weekly quiz (almost) every week and then two midterms and a final exam, all online via Canvas. Dr. Pham provided seemingly unlimited practice midterms and final exams from previous years, as well as one online Canvas practice exam for each test that was extremely similar to the real test. After each exam, we were offered 5% extra credit on our exam score which could be earned by answering a short bonus quiz that had similar, but not the same, questions as the ones that were commonly missed on the real exam. Overall, LS 107 with Dr. Pham was an elite experience. He was incredibly patient, clear, and facilitated student learning in a genuine and sweet manner. I strongly recommend Dr. Pham for LS 107 and all life science courses at UCLA; he is the absolute best!
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