This has been my favorite class at UCLA so far. This class is so interesting and the professor is so passionate and smart in what he teaches. I wouldn’t say it is an easy A because you do need to go to class to have a good grade. But that didn’t matter, I didn’t want to skip one single class because they were all so cool. The days that I had this class were my fav days of the week. Super recommended.

what can i say other than i love phelan. i will literally add his name to my tombstone. HE'S AMAZINGGGG. i took this as a prereq but my god did i love it. he genuinely wants his students to succeed and pass his class so he offers extra credit that can give you up to 20 extra points. he does exam reviews and even automatically gives an A to the top 20 people who get the highest score on the final. this man is going to heaven

Take this class! -Especially psych majors!
This class is super engaging and professor Phelan is a lot of students favorites! (I know people taking his university studies seminar simply bc they loved him in Lifesci 15). At the end of the quarter there is an easy way to earn extra credit through making a parody video! Weekly quiz grades are somewhat TA dependent, but if you write out answers to all of the problems on the set he hands out, then you'll be fine (they pick one of the questions from the set and that is the quiz, they don't change anything about the question). I would highly advise going to lecture rather than watching recordings, it is super engaging and way more memorable. I thought the midterm was completely fair, the final was a bit more detail oriented, but still fair. Make sure to attend or watch his review sessions. He does a great job at connecting topics to real world scenarios, and you don't need to have a lot of biology background to succeed! I wouldn't call it an "easy A" GE like some art/humanities classes are, but I would argue it's A LOT easier than any other lifesci class that I know of (7 series, 30 series, etc), and if you put in effort, your grade will reflect it.

I loved this class! I'm usually not a bio person but this class was really interesting - in fact, he makes a point to make everyone realize that they are a "science person," no matter what their strengths are. The topics were very relevant to life, and Phelan always presents them in a way that is super engaging and entertaining. Dr. Phelan himself is really knowledgeable (all of his stories of the people he's met and the things he's done are absolutely bonkers, he's genuinely so cool) and he's also incredibly personable and funny. I honestly woke up wanting to go to his class because if I didn't, I felt like I was missing out on something. He literally gave me FOMO for LECTURES. All in all, a pretty easy class with a reasonable workload, definitely not effortless but entirely doable. Phelan is a really cool guy, and my one regret is not talking to him personally more, so if you take his class, do that!! Don't be scared, ask him about his research or something. Highly recommend this class!

As someone who took this course as both a psych prerequisite and a GE, I would recommend LS 15 to anybody! Of course, this is a STEM course, but I feel like the nature of it is a bit humanities-oriented (there's a decent amount of writing and a mandatory debate). Dr. Phelan is one of the rare professors who I feel truly understands HOW students learn and fully takes that in account when teaching the course. At its heart, this is an introductory course on evolutionary biology and human physiology. To some, this may seem boring, but Dr. Phelan is such an engaging lecturer and the content is so varied that I promise you it isn't!

I wouldn't necessarily consider this a difficult course, but you definitely need to put in effort and consistently study to succeed. The exams were challenging but fair. Some found the multiple choice more tricky while others struggled more with the short answer questions due to the level of specificity expected by the graders. No matter what, you need to know the concepts (as well as lots of examples of them) well if you want to do well. Personally, I found the midterm more difficult than the final; however, that was probably just because the final was fully MC due to the TA strike. As far as the discussion section quizzes, they are based on a single short answer question randomly selected from the week's problem set. At least in my section, I feel like the quiz questions and grading got progressively easier throughout the quarter (my first quiz score was like 9/15 lol but I scored 15/15 on the last three quizzes). While the discussion section presentation and debate (which involves very broad topics) may seem intimidating for some, in my experience they are graded quite leniently. I've heard he usually curves the course at the end of the quarter, but I'm not 100% sure. Nevertheless, if you stay on top of things and are a decent test taker, you're more than capable of doing well in this class!

As a whole, Dr. Phelan's teaching philosophy revolves around highlighting how biology is applicable to the real-world. In my opinion, he went above and beyond in accomplishing this. Yes, LS 15 does include some of the rote memorization necessary in any biology class, but the societal implications of lots of the concepts (reciprocal altruism, DNA fingerprinting, human emotions, etc.) is what I feel really makes the class content special. This is a meaningful, interesting, and thought-provoking course I think any UCLA student would find worthwhile!!

This class isn't incredibly easy, but if you study and pay attention during lectures you will be completely fine. The midterm and final are all based on the lectures and the review sessions (these are key you should definitely go to them), and even if you get a bad grade their are tons of other assignments that factor in to the final grade. I never did any of the reading and I was completely fine so don't bother buying the textbooks. The class itself is super interesting and I still think about some of the things we learned about. It's easy to pay attention in class because the material is interesting so that makes studying when the exams come around a lot easier. There is a considerable amount of work for this class but again it isn't boring and its manageable as long as you stay on top of everything.

This class really changed my perspective on biology. Look, I'm still not a huge fan of science but Phelan made its boring parts fun. He's engaging and makes watching lectures easy with his prerecorded vides (which felt like watching youtube videos). I was able to maintain a good grade in the class considering I did all the reading and took notes on his videos, but it's not just an easy A. You will need to study for the exams. They aren't insanely difficult, but his questions come from both materials. All in all i genuinely had a fun time learning in his class and Phelan really knows how to put on a smile on your face. I recommend taking it for your science GE as it actually does provide you will some useful knowledge. (Also, get the pdf copies of the books not the hard cover)

I loved taking this class with Professor Phelan. This course was quite manageable and easy to keep up with if you pay attention with the lectures and study before exams. He gives helpful material and a clear layout of each week. He was a great professor for this course, and worked hard to make sure every student was prepared and learning. I would recommend this GE to anyone who needs to fulfill it and wants a more general science GE.

I am conflicted about this class and review. While taking this class, it was easily the best course I've ever taken, high school/college combined. It was the very first STEM class I felt engaged and motivated in, and the only one I felt successful in. I scored 100% on every quiz, did the extra credit, scored well on the midterm, etc. Fall quarter I had been severely sick (going home every weekend, etc.). I was still recovering in Winter quarter. At the very end of the quarter, I had a flare up and fell severely ill, right at the time of the final. I got a C. Going into the final I had almost (if not) an A+. This one test dropped me to a 92.9%. On the point scale out of 723, I was 1.5 points away from an A. It is very out of character for me to email teachers asking for a grade alteration, but in this case I felt it was necessary. Anyways, my grade wasn't changed, nor did I get a response. I get it. Big picture, I guess it doesn't matter, but because I was bed-ridden for 4 months during fall quarter, my grades suffered a bit and I needed every A to help my GPA, so this was a bit of a sore reality.
Overall, Professor Phelan is still one of the best professors I've every had, and did really love his class. It just made me sad that I didn't feel like my work was reflected in my grade.

First, I want to say that this class was much harder than I anticipated. The reviews led me to believe that it was much more laid back than it actually was. There were moments when I genuinely thought I was not going to succeed, despite trying my absolute best on assignments, quizzes, exams, and extra credit opportunities. As a student who does not enjoy math and science classes, I was hoping (based on the reviews) that this class would be less taxing in comparison to other STEM classes I have taken. At no point in the class was I confident that I was going to end with an A. I did everything I could to get an A: communicated with the professor and TA, did the extra credit, watched all the lecture videos, read and took thorough notes on all the assigned readings, etc. Even so, I wasn’t sure about my grade until the very end of the quarter. Don’t get me wrong, Professor Phelan is an AMAZING lecturer. I thought he made the content very accessible and digestible. I just had a hard time with the content itself.

Quizzes: It is definitely worth your while to do the entire problem set before the quiz and answer each question thoroughly. The quizzes are graded pretty harshly so it’s good to be prepared with a good answer.

Exams: The exams had both fair and difficult questions. I would highly recommend going to the review session and taking notes on his responses. The specific questions he goes over during the review won’t be on the exam, but they do help with understanding the material if you are lost.

Debate: For the debate, be sure to pick a topic and reach out to your group early. It was very clear who came prepared for the debates and who didn’t, so it was easy to pick winners in that case. Supposedly, the winners get extra credit but my team won and we did not receive extra credit so I’m not sure if that still happens.

Discussion Posts: I don’t really know what to suggest for the discussion posts because my grades for them were all over the place. I would suggest writing as much explanation as you can for your response. I think you get extra credit if you respond to other people’s discussion posts, so that’s something worth doing!

All in all, take advantage of all extra credit opportunities, and don’t be afraid to approach the professor/your TA. Good luck!