So many ridiculous works. Very unreasonable.

Maloy is an absolute king. Not only did he adapt well to online learning because of COVID, he also was super lenient to us because of all the hectic stuff going on in the country. Like this guy seriously empathizes with his students and understands.
As for the class itself, I am an engineering student and was told by other engineering students that this class was going to be easy and basically a GPA boost, and they were right. If you had good teachers in high school for AP Bio, this class is basically just a review of everything you did there, and it's a breeze. The only homework is launchpad assignments, which everyone complains about, but I really did not think they were that bad. We had launchpad due two times a week, Tuesday and Thursday, and each assignment literally only took me an hour. On rare occasions maybe like an hour and a half, but also sometimes less than an hour. (I also never took notes on the launchpad material, I know some people do). The tests are not too bad, either; sometimes he puts in some really tricky questions, but even after getting those wrong you can still get an A / high B. I did not study for any of the tests.
Discussion sections and lecture are both mandatory. Both give you grades for participation, and they try to make everything super collaborative. So it's super easy to make friends.

This class is definitely not easy at ALL. It requires sooo much time, to the point where one homework assigned for one night amounts to 3 hours if not more. The midterms are extremely difficult and do not have anything to do with your understanding of the general concepts. They are basically a bunch of diagrams with T/F questions or multiple choice and Maloy makes them so tricky. Many people are failing, however some are doing very well. It all depends on how much time you are willing to put in. This is NOT an easy class and the TAs are not very helpful. The CLC hours are very helpful though. However, I do want to say that the best part about this course was Professor Dasgupta! He was so nice and so kind and helpful and he is a genuinely funny and great professor! I wish he would have taught more than he did.

I scheduled a meeting with him in Week 9. I forgot to go, and I haven't talked to him since.

Dr. Maloy is hands down the best professor I've had . He is really approachable and his office hours are very helpful, He really tries to get to know his students.
The work itself is very doable. My recommendation would be to go to all of the review and office hours he has.
The tests are true/false questions. Not too bad but one word can change the whole answer so read thoroughly.
The class is based on points so try to compile as many as you can to be ready for the midterms and final. I personally did horrible on my midterms and final but because I went to class, did the hw and went to the labs I passed the class. What I'm saying is that if you fail one midterm you still have many more other things to fall back on. It'll be okay.
Study as you go and if you get confused for something ask that same week or you will fall behind.
My grade had nothing to do with Maloy, it was all me. He is a great professor.

Maloy is definitely one of the better professors to start the LS 7 series with. He's very well spoken, clear, and kind to his students. Because of the longevity of this series, all the materials for this class are extremely well organized and students have everything they need to succeed right from the start. Like many, I'm not a fan of the flipped classroom, but I appreciate the time in lecture to work on problems without consequences. It was very helpful to have been shown common trick questions during lecture and have misconceptions corrected early on.

The class is point based so everything is weighted the same. There are tons and tons of assignments that have various due dates throughout the week, which is annoying, but it forces you to spend time focusing on this course a little bit every day. That one study strategy that says to split learning over a long period of time is what comes to mind with this class structure. It definitely worked because I didn't have to study very hard for any of the AOLs, and I still got very decent grades on all three. The learning pod structure was also very beneficial to the course experience. Everyone is randomly placed with 3 other students to form a pod that's meant to work on assignments and group portions of the AOLs together throughout the quarter. Based on what I've seen, a good or bad pod can make or break your experience in this class. Luckily most people are nice, but I found that the people in my pod were the best resource of all.

The professor that you pick for the LS7 series doesn’t matter in terms of difficulty, but they definitely matter in terms of engagement and how likely it is you’ll turn up to lecture. I found Professor Maloy and Professor Braybrook to be engaging, so I tried not to skip lectures (I also had a really good learning pod that I sat with, which definitely helped). The assignments were really easy for this class, but the exams were much more difficult. The first two AoLs were manageable, but the final was unreasonably difficult. The professors also didn’t really reply on Campuswire when students had concerns with the final. Honestly, the professors kind of gave off fake woke vibes with how much they emphasized student mental health but then ignored everybody for a week… but they were still okay I guess.

I will start by saying that most people taking this series don't have a choice so take again/don't take again isn't really relevant. If for whatever reason you're taking this as a GE, don't. Additionally, the professor doesn't matter very much, as the professors all have to use the same materials and everyone takes the same tests. I don't like the structure of the series and neither does anyone else I've spoken to, with very complex and long exams three times throughout the quarter. Your grade is saved somewhat by the second phase when you get to take the exam again with a group, so the helpfulness of that depends on the group you are randomly assigned, which is the same group throughout the quarter. Our final was absolutely insane, with most students I've spoken to mentioning some sort of crying or other emotional breakdown during the exam (they are asynchronous). So note that this sort of shock is possible, but given the response to that exam I imagine they may reconsider before they do something like that again, and I must say most people still did fine given the grades from earlier in the quarter and the extra credit. I really didn't like this professor, he wasn't very responsive and seemed to talk a lot about mental health and caring for students well being and act not at all on these things. He brings his dog to class, however, which is a plus in my book, and as I've said, which professor you get doesn't make too much difference as they all must use the same slides and materials. The class is often annoying, frustrating, and quite a fair bit of work, but there is a lot of extra credit and the tests don't make up too much of the grade. With putting in a bit of work it is very possible to get an A, and the class is just something that must be got though in my opinion.

This class would have been an easy A if it were not due to my sheer laziness. It's structured so that as long as you don't literally fail the tests and do all of the easy/busy work and extra credit you get an easy A. That being said, the tests are disproportionately difficult compared to the material they give you in class. Seriously—it's ALL application. Don't get fooled by the weekly assignments. The discussion worksheets are closer in difficulty, but still much easier than the test questions. The textbook is overly, extremely long and detailed, but you should probably still read through it to get some few important details. I recommend looking over clicker questions (extremely important—some are repeated on the test!) and go to the problem-solving sessions.
Most importantly, don't slack off like I did and don't get fooled by what the syllabus says—they allow wiggle room so you can miss 1 discussion worksheet, 2 lectures, 2 pre-class reading guides, etc. but if you get marked off those points get counted as well. It's really easy to miss deadlines so don't plan on any just because you're lazy.

Overall: LOVE these professors, but BEWARE of the AoLs, and GO TO ALL THE CLC SESSIONS POSSIBLE.
Professor and Maloy and Braybrook taught this class, and I LOVED THEM. They are the best professors I have ever had. However, the assessments of learning (AoLs) related to class material, but only taking notes on class lectures and going to class was NOT enough to pass these AoLs. These tests threw in unrelated topics and subjects that were never discussed in class. The CLC Sessions help you be prepared for these AoLs but if you can, obtained previous classes' AoLs and study them completely. Anyways, Good Luck!