Professor Pham is one of my favorite professors that I had last quarter. You can tell that he genuinely cares about his students and he is always a very helpful resource. This class has a lot of pre-class work of taking notes and reading on LaunchPad, it is a lot of work but it's manageable. The 7 series tests are pretty challenging, but an A is definitely attainable in this class.

Professor Pham was an incredible professor. He was super patient with everyone and would spend hours helping students outside of class. The class itself has some busy work, but I could not recommend taking LS7B with Professor Pham more.

GOAT as usually. Cares a lot about whether students can learn well, and he also does the work into making information clear. He may either do lecture recordings of more content or do faster lectures and have you all ask questions during OHs. Either way, he is very helpful and clear. Exams are the same for all and can be quite hard. Regardless, passing is easy since relatively no brainer homework and labs should earn you a significant portion of points guaranteed.

SUCH A FUN CLASS AND AN AMAZING PROFESSOR! Pham was the absolute sweetest and one of the best professors I've had here. He really cares about his students and answers every question we have. His exams are very easy if you do the past exams that he posts on CCLE, because the question types are very similar. The class gets harder in the second half of the quarter, but still doable if you don't get behind. The only negative thing I have to say about this class was that we were a little behind, so we weren't able to get through all the material which I was looking forward to. But this might have just been for this quarter! Definitely recommend taking with Pham!

I took Professor Pham for 7C this summer session and I'm glad he was our Professor for such a complicated class. He would explain the diagrams and not proceed until everyone felt comfortable enough to do, which I found to be extremely helpful because for a limited summer class, you are overwhelmed with so much information. For future students, please pay attention to the diagrams shown in lecture slides. Clickers seemed easy, but the wording on exams were confusing and I remember reading that the average was around a C- for the first midterm and not much improvement on the second midterm. I don't think I would place much of the blame on Professor Pham because he really did more than we could've asked for. Attend PSS sessions because the diagrams from the worksheets are almost copy and paste onto the exams. Discussions were ok, but I didn't really find the material to translate onto the exams so if you feel stuck during section, just reach out to your pod or TA. I found only the last couple discussion sections to show material that was useful for the final (feedback loops as well from the endocrine system). Overall, my experience with the Life Sci series at UCLA was not the best due to the exams. I liked Professor Pham and would recommend him if he is available for you in either 7A or 7C, as I had him for both and he prepared me enough to pass both courses. I just think the sequence is stressful and if you are not required to take these classes, don't and find something easier that will make your life better.

Dr.Pham deeply cares for his students who take his course. He makes sure to answer your questions thoroughly and is open to feedback on the structure of his class. I loved going to his class as he made genetics so much more engaging, and he oftentimes stays late during his OHs to make sure every student is cared for. I highly recommend taking his course when he is teaching 7B. An absolutely wonderful professor!

The professor had a strong accent, so it was hard for me to understand him. I hated this class sm. I'm not very strong in bio, but my pod helped sm!!! Have a good relationship with your pod, as you will need them during the group phases of the midterms! Also, if you bomb the AOLs, you will still pass. Don't stress about it. I got a 10/60 on the first AOL, and I still passed :) One more thing, for the individual phase of the midterms and final, STUDY THE GROUP AOL!!!! It's the same types of questions, just worded differently. Hope this helps!

I really enjoyed this class! Definitely not an easy A like this class seemed to have been known for when it was online, but also not an impossible A. Professor Pham is a funny, sweet guy and posts his old midterms for practice, so definitely take advantage of those (stick to midterms from like 2022-present) as they are VERY similar to what you'll see on tests! Basically, just do as many practice problems as you can as if this was a math class because you can't really bs your way to an answer. Discussion is required, attendance is required, and a few quiz grades and missed discussions get dropped from your total grade.

To be frankly honest, this course was extremely hard. Dr. Pham is an incredible professor who is willing to provide support. However, I still was not able to build a strong base of conceptual skills. I believe this is due to the fast paced nature of this class. I spend most of my time understanding and memorizing biological processes instead of focusing on the application part. I would advise anyone taking that class to facilitate their learning by watching a bunch of youtube videos. At some point in this course, you are your own teacher. So it felt like I constantly had to teach myself everything, especially because notes were assigned before lecture.

Also, please keep up with the material. Skipping a day without doing any review can really hinder your learning process. You must stay consistent because that is the key for success. One method that worked for me is using a whiteboard and explaining a lesson as if I am a teacher--that really reinforces the information in your brain. The most effective way that worked out for me was going over the group phases of AOL 1, 2, & 3. In other words, I articulated and demystified the group tests (aka group AOL) so I can grasp a sense of the actual individual phases of midterm 1, midterm 2, and the final exam. The only way to truly feel ready for a test is by doing a bunch of practice, practice, practice.

Moreover, please do not waste your time with trying to understand things beyond the learning goals. Purely focus on the learning goals that the professor sets. I found myself meticulous about every single detail and information. That's absolutely not the best way to approach this class. You don't have to know EVERYTHING. That's just working harder and wasting energy on something you are not even being tested on. Work smarter by checking off every single learning goal!

Dr. Pham is the sweetest professor ever. Me personally, I didn't attend any office hour because I was nervous and scared. I regret not doing so because towards the end of the quarter I got a chance to speak with the professor and he definitely displayed geniune care about the success of his students. So please, reach out for help! Other helpful resources are PLF sessions (under AAP) and Problem Solving Sessions. More information can be found online.

Good luck!

ap bio 2.0 nothing different, however if you struggled in ap bio you will struggle here too. lifesci 7 series is indeed very standardized but explanation and lecture engagement are what vary from professor to professor. pham isn't the most engaging or best at teaching imo, i've heard better explanations of the same concepts from other professors teaching the course. i lwk thought how bad could it be after reading reviews about pham's accent before going into the class, but if i'm being real honest, it would be pretty difficult to understand what he's saying at times. you have to physically sit with your discussion pod group during lecture and complete a pod assignment at each lecture which i thought wasn't very helpful, and i kinda disagree with the flipped class structure for teaching gen bio that requires both conceptual understanding and memorization of biological processes. the course is definitely structured for you to easily get that A; attend all lectures, do all your hw assignments, reading guides, discussion work, + extra credit, etc. sooo many easy points up for grabs all you need to do is lock in for aoLs. each aoL (midterm/final) had a group phase and an individual phase, which were weighted differently for each exam. make sure to get the 100 for group phase, easy points again, and review clicker questions and the group phase question format for the individual phase held during the usual lecture. also would say this is a course where you can get a lot of help from the LAs in your discussion section or at PSS workshops bc they know exactly how you will be tested on the material you learn in class basically. (not that i went to those but lmao)