Writing reviews for the 7 series is difficult because the professors are often great, while the class itself kind of sucks. I think this is really the case here as Dr. Pham was really a fantastic professor, but he could not get me to care about the class even though I really enjoyed his lectures. Dr. Pham is funny, engaging, explains concepts well, and he is one of those teachers that cares about students and feels like he's on our side. I never went to office hours, so I cannot speak for that, but whenever I asked questions in class he did a really good job of explaining the material. Participation really matters and I recommend engaging with him during lecture by asking and answering questions because it helps a lot with facilitating learning. The lectures themselves were clear, interesting, but kind of slow. As a bio major, none of the stuff we covered in this class was new to me, and I know we have to go over it because not everyone took ap bio and apes in high school, but if you have, it can be slow going sometimes. The labs are usually completely irrelevant to what we are covering and altogether not very helpful. They very much have the "busy work" vibe. If you ask people who took the series, they say that 7b is the easiest. I disagree. I think 7a is actually easier, but the transition to college makes it more difficult. The exam questions are still very strange and the amount of effort you put in studying does not reflect in your score. It's definitely doable to have an A, but this class is very frustrating on the exam front. I highly recommend getting your hands on a previous year's exam because that's really the only way to fully prepare yourself for the strange and vague questions.

TL;DR: If you don't have to take this class, don't (unless you really love genetics but even then). If you do have to take this class, Dr. Pham is fantastic, and I highly recommend him as an instructor.

Took for my major and so far this has been the easiest of the 7 series, I wasn't all that interested in the topics but with studying the iclicker questions and slides I was able to do pretty well overall. Expected to get an A- but somehow they gave me an A (better for me!). The main problem with this class is that they would change the answers to tests after the scores have been given, so if you thought you got an A- on the exam, like me, and then after two days they regrade it so you get a B+, which is frustrating to say the least. I would definitely recommend they improve on making sure all answers are accurate BEFORE telling students what they got. Still, if you have to take it, don't stress, you'll do fine.

I absolutely loved this class and Dr. Pham. The class was flipped (watched lectures at home and did problems in class) which was perfect for this type of class. The subject material was sometimes challenging but Dr. Pham explained it so well and it was nice having the video lectures to reference too. The class was great and really, really interesting. I would definitely recommend taking it!

Professor Pham is an incredibly knowledgable, caring, and engaging professor. He knows all the content extremely well, always checks in during the lectures to make sure that all students are understanding, and offers various opportunities to seek help and ask him questions. Professor Pham was extremely clear and understandable, and just overall a genuinely great guy.
The way the LS 7A class is structured/formatted is standardized across all the professors, so all the following information has nothing to do with Pham himself, but rather just how the class is like. Overall, the LS 7A class was quite easy and forgiving. There are a lot of completion points simply for doing easy work like pre-class assignments and discussion worksheets. Additionally, there was a lot of extra credit given this quarter - 16 points worth (more than a 2% bump if you do all of it). There were 3 tests ("Assessments of Learning") throughout the quarter - can be thought of as 2 midterms and a final. These "AOLs" were online (through Canvas) and multiple choice. The AOLs were difficult because the questions were often phrased quite vaguely and there seemed to be multiple correct answers; additionally, sometimes there were also typos in the questions which caused more confusion. While each AOL definitely had at least 5-10 "suspicious" questions, the class is overall still an easy A just because of the way it is structured with all the fluff points and extra credit.
Overall, Professor Pham is awesome! The LS 7A class was mostly good as well - should be an easy A as long as you do all the work, although the 3 AOLs will be tough.

Dr. Pham is absolutely amazing. Even with the fast-paced nature of the summer quarter, he made sure it was not rushed and even removed some things from the syllabus to ensure that each previous topic was covered fully. There were pre-class lectures and quizzes like the pre-major LS series, 9 quizzes, discussion worksheets, 2 midterms, and 1 final. Scores were dropped so you could easily miss a week of class and 3 quizzes were dropped as well. There are tons of practice exams provided by Dr. Pham, and he also provides a practice exam right before each exam which is very similar to the actual exam. Lectures themselves consisted of clicker questions through iClicker, which did require participation and attendance in lecture, but you could miss 3 days.

PHAM IS THE BESTTTTTT! despite taking this over the summer, the class didn't feel rushed at all and Pham is so understanding and patient with students. There are 9 quizzes throughout the class, 3(!!!) of which are dropped. There are also pre-class assignments and video quizzes w 2 attempts, like the other LS7 classes. There were also so many past exams available to study from (every quarter for the last 8 years)!! Before the 2 midterms and final, he released a practice exam that was pretty much the exact same as the actual exam which was so useful for studying. I was concerned that this class would be too much during the summer, but it's so manageable, the content is fun, and you have lots of flexibility with Pham. take this class with him you won't regret it!!! <3

Course: LS3

I tell you his goods and bads.

Goods: He is a pretty good lecturer. He explains well and his presentation slides are great. He enjoys teaching and he is a pretty approachable in office hour. You can ask any questions to him because he has a huge knowledge on LS3 and LS4.

Bads: He does not give good amount of A range (only 15-20%) and he set the median in B-. So if you are worried about the grade, then may take with other lecturers. He has a thick accent so if you have problem with accent, avoid him.

MCDB 60 is a relatively easy class. There was memorization required for both midterms and final, and he is a stickler for word-choice, but the tests themselves were very predictable. He gives you all the materials you need, and honestly, an evening of good study for each test will hold you in good stead. Creating a study guide helps with memorization of his mantras. There was almost no work, and the little work that we had was pretty interesting. Pham is a very passionate lecturer and encourages participation, and we had interesting discussions outside of class on topics such as race and intelligence. He is extremely compassionate, and while you may get very bored in lecture, you don't want to let him down. I'm a chemical engineering major, and I took this class for funsies my first quarter freshman year. It was honestly pretty easy. The juniors and seniors and pretty lazy, and the class isn't really curved so their performance one way or another doesn't affect you. For people who thought this class was hard or filled with work, they're probably the type of people who think that one hour of a homework spread out over a quarter is way too difficult.

This is class was not a easy GE course. I study hard for the midterm and and final and I got a overall grade B. The finals and midterms were all graded by the TAs so if you have a bad TA like me, you are in bad shape. Another thing about this class is that 12 hours of community service is require. So, if you don't do the 12 hour of community service it will be a big impact on your grade.

I took MCDB 60 with Pham in the spring and could not handle the work load as a freshman. Most of the people in the class were upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) so it made the class very hard to keep up with. The workload was somewhat intimidating and this left me studying for this class more than my other science classes. Pham himself is not the greatest professor either. He has a moderately thick accent which was hard to decipher at times. All in all, I would not recommend pham. If you don't have to, don't take him