LIFESCI 7A
Cell and Molecular Biology
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, 75 minutes. Introduction to basic principles of cell structure and cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Fall 2019 - POINTS BREAKDOWN: - 68 points for iClickers - 90 points for midterm 1 - 120 points for midterm 2 - 72 points possible out of 80 for weekly discussion participation (so you can miss one discussion and still get full points) - 10 points for CCLE Reflections (which I found useless, but they were easy points) - 45 points for launchpad PCRQs - 45 points for launchpad PEQs - 45 points for launchpad assignments - 200 points for final - Extra Credit: varies by quarter I think, but for Fall 2019, there was like 5 or 6 EC points available - TOTAL POINTS (w/out EC): 695 points Yeah, this class is hard. This quarter, the class was taught by two professors, Maloy and Braybrook, but from what I saw Maloy teaches most of the content. Both professors were good lecturers, they had an abundance of office hours during the quarter and before tests. Lecture structure is a lot of active participation, and the iClickers are a big part of that. During lecture, there are a lot of iClicker ?'s, and you are expected to work them out with the people around you because they can be quite challenging at times. If you don't like to participate and the TA's see you, they WILL come up to you and challenge you to work out the problems with them. You're not safe anywhere, even in the back of the classroom sitting on the floor. Once, when Braybrook was lecturing, Maloy was going around and caught a bunch of us in the back not actively participating. He worked with us for the rest of the lecture, making sure we knew what was going on. While it can be annoying, especially because my lecture was at 9am and I didn't want to be doing anything at that time, it is really nice that the professors and TA's/LA's are so insistent. It makes you feel like they really care that everyone is getting the most out of their lecture time. DO NOT DISCOUNT THE IMPORTANCE OF LECTURE. Go to all your lectures!! As you may have read/heard before, launchpad kind of sucks. It's good for background info I guess, but the professors are really going to let you know what you need to understand from launchpad. And what they talk about is what's on the tests, in excruciating and often confusing specificity. Take advantage of study sessions hosted weekly by your LA's, I never went (my bad) but I heard they were super useful for practicing how to answer the questions as they are formatted on the tests. And they're formatted wack af, so you need the practice. Don't fall behind, try to work with others as much as you can, and by God, take advantage of the resources they give you in the form of office hours and study sessions. If I had done all these things, I probably could have gotten an A-, or a solid B if I tried a little more. This class is honestly really difficult, but it can be easier if you don't fuck around and actually focus. These professors aren't dicks, they want you to succeed. So good luck and happy studying! You can do it :)
Fall 2019 - POINTS BREAKDOWN: - 68 points for iClickers - 90 points for midterm 1 - 120 points for midterm 2 - 72 points possible out of 80 for weekly discussion participation (so you can miss one discussion and still get full points) - 10 points for CCLE Reflections (which I found useless, but they were easy points) - 45 points for launchpad PCRQs - 45 points for launchpad PEQs - 45 points for launchpad assignments - 200 points for final - Extra Credit: varies by quarter I think, but for Fall 2019, there was like 5 or 6 EC points available - TOTAL POINTS (w/out EC): 695 points Yeah, this class is hard. This quarter, the class was taught by two professors, Maloy and Braybrook, but from what I saw Maloy teaches most of the content. Both professors were good lecturers, they had an abundance of office hours during the quarter and before tests. Lecture structure is a lot of active participation, and the iClickers are a big part of that. During lecture, there are a lot of iClicker ?'s, and you are expected to work them out with the people around you because they can be quite challenging at times. If you don't like to participate and the TA's see you, they WILL come up to you and challenge you to work out the problems with them. You're not safe anywhere, even in the back of the classroom sitting on the floor. Once, when Braybrook was lecturing, Maloy was going around and caught a bunch of us in the back not actively participating. He worked with us for the rest of the lecture, making sure we knew what was going on. While it can be annoying, especially because my lecture was at 9am and I didn't want to be doing anything at that time, it is really nice that the professors and TA's/LA's are so insistent. It makes you feel like they really care that everyone is getting the most out of their lecture time. DO NOT DISCOUNT THE IMPORTANCE OF LECTURE. Go to all your lectures!! As you may have read/heard before, launchpad kind of sucks. It's good for background info I guess, but the professors are really going to let you know what you need to understand from launchpad. And what they talk about is what's on the tests, in excruciating and often confusing specificity. Take advantage of study sessions hosted weekly by your LA's, I never went (my bad) but I heard they were super useful for practicing how to answer the questions as they are formatted on the tests. And they're formatted wack af, so you need the practice. Don't fall behind, try to work with others as much as you can, and by God, take advantage of the resources they give you in the form of office hours and study sessions. If I had done all these things, I probably could have gotten an A-, or a solid B if I tried a little more. This class is honestly really difficult, but it can be easier if you don't fuck around and actually focus. These professors aren't dicks, they want you to succeed. So good luck and happy studying! You can do it :)
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Professor Campbell really does try to connect with his students and be engaging, but unfortunately, lectures can still be really boring. I had ls7a with both him and Maloy, and when Campbell was teaching, I definitely found it harder to pay attention to his lectures. Also, sometimes his explanations were a little ambiguous.
Spring 2021 - Professor Campbell really does try to connect with his students and be engaging, but unfortunately, lectures can still be really boring. I had ls7a with both him and Maloy, and when Campbell was teaching, I definitely found it harder to pay attention to his lectures. Also, sometimes his explanations were a little ambiguous.
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Fall 2021 - Dr. Chen taught the second half of LS7A after Dr. Maloy this quarter. Though she was not as good as Dr. Maloy, she was still a great professor and lecturer. You can tell she is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about the material covered and always went out of her way to answer any questions we had about the material. She does move VERY fast in lectures, but other than that she is a very solid professor. Highly recommend!
Fall 2021 - Dr. Chen taught the second half of LS7A after Dr. Maloy this quarter. Though she was not as good as Dr. Maloy, she was still a great professor and lecturer. You can tell she is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about the material covered and always went out of her way to answer any questions we had about the material. She does move VERY fast in lectures, but other than that she is a very solid professor. Highly recommend!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - While the whole LS7 series is not structured really well, Professor Khankan makes the best out of it. By always being engaging, funny, and very informative of the material, she makes this series not so bad after all. In all honesty, she is the best professor for LS7A!
Winter 2020 - While the whole LS7 series is not structured really well, Professor Khankan makes the best out of it. By always being engaging, funny, and very informative of the material, she makes this series not so bad after all. In all honesty, she is the best professor for LS7A!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Im sure this class would be a lot easier in person, but if you are not willing to teach yourself all of the course material, I do not recommend taking this course. I think that because it's online she is making us learn it all by ourselves through the text book reading assignments. Class time is dedicated to clicker questions which she poorly explains. It really all depends on your TA. This material is difficult and she does not do a good job of explaining it.
Fall 2020 - Im sure this class would be a lot easier in person, but if you are not willing to teach yourself all of the course material, I do not recommend taking this course. I think that because it's online she is making us learn it all by ourselves through the text book reading assignments. Class time is dedicated to clicker questions which she poorly explains. It really all depends on your TA. This material is difficult and she does not do a good job of explaining it.
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Fall 2019 - Dr. Lin only taught our class for about 4 weeks and was a co-professor with another professor. This man is so difficult to understand, goes way too fast, and does not show compassion to his students. Every class, me and my peers left confused. I think he is a good person, and was a bit funny, but he is just a horrible, terrible instructor. I had to depend on Bruincasts from another professor just to understand the material. DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HIM, you will learn nothing!
Fall 2019 - Dr. Lin only taught our class for about 4 weeks and was a co-professor with another professor. This man is so difficult to understand, goes way too fast, and does not show compassion to his students. Every class, me and my peers left confused. I think he is a good person, and was a bit funny, but he is just a horrible, terrible instructor. I had to depend on Bruincasts from another professor just to understand the material. DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HIM, you will learn nothing!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Dr.Maloy's lectures are very engaging. His method of "reversed classroom" is challenging but I got a lot from it. The online textbook is absolutely USELESS. It only provides basic information. If you want to ace midterms and final, do not waste your time rereading that piece of garbage. Go to his office hours as often as you can, especially the ones he hosts towards the time for midterms and finals. They are so crucial for acing the tests. Honestly, I learned more from his office hours than his lectures. He is so patient with every student and with every question. Don't worry about asking a "dumb" question, because somehow, Dr. Maloy will connect your "dumb" question to some other mind-blowing concept. Honestly, one of the best professor one can hope to have.
Fall 2019 - Dr.Maloy's lectures are very engaging. His method of "reversed classroom" is challenging but I got a lot from it. The online textbook is absolutely USELESS. It only provides basic information. If you want to ace midterms and final, do not waste your time rereading that piece of garbage. Go to his office hours as often as you can, especially the ones he hosts towards the time for midterms and finals. They are so crucial for acing the tests. Honestly, I learned more from his office hours than his lectures. He is so patient with every student and with every question. Don't worry about asking a "dumb" question, because somehow, Dr. Maloy will connect your "dumb" question to some other mind-blowing concept. Honestly, one of the best professor one can hope to have.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - (Took this class during COVID) This class is pretty difficult. I think the LS 7 series in general is less about memorization but more about actually understanding concepts and applying them to new situations you've never seen before, which can be difficult for people who haven't done so in high school etc. It's pretty similar to AP bio in a sense where you apply your knowledge instead of just regurgitating it. Even though this class was a lot of work, the LS 7A professors made accommodations for online learning which I think saved a lot of people's grades: group exams. For the 2 midterms and the final, there were two phases: an individual phase, where you would take the exam by yourself (open from 6 AM - 8 PM on a single day), and a group phase, where you would be assigned a group of 3 other people and have about two days to set up a time, talk about the exam, and individually submit a second copy of exam (all on CCLE). Your score for the midterms/final is an average of the individual and group phase exams. So yeah, you could straight up fail the individual portion but get carried in the group phase and come out with a relatively decent score, which I think really helped people out and changed perspectives on this course because I only heard negative things coming in (however there were students who *still* complained... despite having group exams). I'm not sure if the professors will continue doing this when things get back to normal, but I think it will really help the LS 7 series be more respected because there are many, many complaints about this series. As far as I know LS 7B and 7C have different kinds of accommodations in regards to helping recovering lost points on exams, but anything helps. In regards to the professor, I took it when McEvoy was co-teaching with Pires. I found Pires to be a lot more knowledgeable and prepared to answer questions, but I do recognize that it was probably McEvoy's first time teaching 7A (if I'm not mistaken) and I wouldn't call her "bad" by any means. They were both pretty good and kind. Be prepared to work hard in this class. It takes a lot of time to go through weekly launchpad readings but actually reading it and *not* just skimming it will actually help you learn the concepts, but I do get that sometimes launchpad content can give you more than you actually need to know. Clicker questions are probably the best practice tool you have in that class as they represent the questions on the midterms/final pretty well, so make sure to go through them while studying and be able to justify why an answer is correct or incorrect. A lot of people say they "skipped through launchpad" and "barely paid attention in lecture" and then wonder why they have a bad grade, I don't get it. If you're disciplined enough and put in the work you'll get the grade you deserve! You can do it! Good luck!
Fall 2020 - (Took this class during COVID) This class is pretty difficult. I think the LS 7 series in general is less about memorization but more about actually understanding concepts and applying them to new situations you've never seen before, which can be difficult for people who haven't done so in high school etc. It's pretty similar to AP bio in a sense where you apply your knowledge instead of just regurgitating it. Even though this class was a lot of work, the LS 7A professors made accommodations for online learning which I think saved a lot of people's grades: group exams. For the 2 midterms and the final, there were two phases: an individual phase, where you would take the exam by yourself (open from 6 AM - 8 PM on a single day), and a group phase, where you would be assigned a group of 3 other people and have about two days to set up a time, talk about the exam, and individually submit a second copy of exam (all on CCLE). Your score for the midterms/final is an average of the individual and group phase exams. So yeah, you could straight up fail the individual portion but get carried in the group phase and come out with a relatively decent score, which I think really helped people out and changed perspectives on this course because I only heard negative things coming in (however there were students who *still* complained... despite having group exams). I'm not sure if the professors will continue doing this when things get back to normal, but I think it will really help the LS 7 series be more respected because there are many, many complaints about this series. As far as I know LS 7B and 7C have different kinds of accommodations in regards to helping recovering lost points on exams, but anything helps. In regards to the professor, I took it when McEvoy was co-teaching with Pires. I found Pires to be a lot more knowledgeable and prepared to answer questions, but I do recognize that it was probably McEvoy's first time teaching 7A (if I'm not mistaken) and I wouldn't call her "bad" by any means. They were both pretty good and kind. Be prepared to work hard in this class. It takes a lot of time to go through weekly launchpad readings but actually reading it and *not* just skimming it will actually help you learn the concepts, but I do get that sometimes launchpad content can give you more than you actually need to know. Clicker questions are probably the best practice tool you have in that class as they represent the questions on the midterms/final pretty well, so make sure to go through them while studying and be able to justify why an answer is correct or incorrect. A lot of people say they "skipped through launchpad" and "barely paid attention in lecture" and then wonder why they have a bad grade, I don't get it. If you're disciplined enough and put in the work you'll get the grade you deserve! You can do it! Good luck!
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - World best professor. I took AP bio in high school and frankly the class was mostly a review. The class moved really quickly and the professor did an amazing job of keeping class engaging and fun despite being online. It felt like Aly really put in the work before class to make sure lectures were polished and clicker questions were well written. It was an amazing class (especially for being online).
Summer 2020 - World best professor. I took AP bio in high school and frankly the class was mostly a review. The class moved really quickly and the professor did an amazing job of keeping class engaging and fun despite being online. It felt like Aly really put in the work before class to make sure lectures were polished and clicker questions were well written. It was an amazing class (especially for being online).
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