Like many of you, I had to take this course because it is required for my major. Not to cause extreme worry, but this was my least favorite course this quarter for several reasons.

Labs - which are really just discussion sections that require you to wear closed-toe shoes, were either way too long or way too short. Usually, we just do a worksheet in pairs or groups which doesn't take too long, but eventually these worksheets became small packets. It became a task just to finish all the questions, but at least it wasn't difficult. A couple weeks required us to walk down to the UCLA Botanical Garden (which imo is quite a trek) which was fun to get outside of ugly South Campus, but had no real practical purpose. In short, labs are easy but are a little tedious, and the straightforward questions that we went over in lab aren't like the ones on the exam. My TA Jess was very sweet and helpful, but with evolution some topics are a bit broad and tricky, which was not her fault, but it's difficult for anyone to get a concrete answer if every time "it depends".

Exams - jfc these are actually the worst part of this class. Apparently the head of the LS7 series heard complaints that the tests were too easy...and as a result she made them almost impossible to get an A on. I thought the first midterm on probability/meiosis went *okay* and I got an 85, the class average was an 81. There were so many probability questions that there really wasn't any time after calculations to check your answers, and I heard some people couldn't even finish the exam. The second midterm on evolution was absolute trash, no joke, it was so hard (for me). I scored a 77, the class got a 84. :(( This was probably my fault, because I didn't study as much as I could've and taking this class at 8am didn't help me to focus.

Launchpad wasn't actually a huge sore spot this quarter, and you should be used to doing it if you've taken LS7A. This quarter, only the pre-class review questions and practice exam questions are graded, which makes it easier to keep track of things and not accidentally miss points. Although if you're one of those people who just skims Launchpad and doesn't read and magically does well on exams - yeah, that might be a little harder. Especially considering how concept-based this course is, it's rally important to read the boring paragraphs and the examples, because some of same examples from the textbook were on the midterms and final!!

Bottom line - it IS possible to get an A in this class, or at least an A-. I calculated my grade and I was actually supposed to get an 89%/B+, but my professor decided to extend the range down so I got an A- (much to my pleasant surprise). As long as you complete all your launchpad assignments, attend class (or at least don't miss more than 3 days for participation), and generally study as best as you can, there should be nothing to worry about. YOU GOT THIS!!

Overall, Marcot was the most eh professor I've taken in my time here. However, he wasn't too bad. The LS 7 series is set up in a really annoying format, so he didn't have much to do with that. However, I felt that he could have helped us out by having more than one one-hour office hour each week. Also, there was a mistake on my midterm score, and when I emailed him about it, he just chose not to email me back, which I think is just not a fair response. Honestly, the class content is extremely dry, but I think he did the best with what he had.

Jon was a good lecturer, however he was kind of slow and finished the syllabus for the 1st midterm on the day of the exam. Jon was also not very responsive during the COvid 19 outbreak and everything was deflected to Dr Pires.

Take this from someone who earned a C+ in 7A. I found this class enjoyable. I wish I was exaggerating or lying but I really liked this class. The concepts (Genetics and Evolution) were fun to learn and the class was manageable.
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LECTURES
Overall, the lectures were okay. Marcot is an alright professor. He seems to know his stuff, but he's not the best when explaining. There were multiple times when he would give vague answers to valid questions, so that was a bit annoying. His office hours were EXTREMELY limited (he set aside one hour each week for all the three classes he taught to share; that's over a thousand students!) and I found them to not be helpful at all. I went for the first few weeks and then I gave up after Week 6.
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LAB SECTION
Oh geez. This is one of the few things I dreaded about this class. The lab sections were two hours long (on paper), but they usually lasted for about one and a half hours. It's kind of stupid, especially when you're "required" to wear PPE to fill out worksheets. Yeah, I'll totally get hurt from paper. My TA was chill and for the first week, he cared about you wearing PPE, but after that, he just gave up (That's probably due to the fact it was an 8 am lab section). For the first few weeks, the lab sections pertained to our lectures and I found them helpful but towards the middle of the quarter, they made no sense and correlated to nothing that we learned in lecture. Also, you'll have to make a trip to the Botanical Garden for one of those labs to observe things (what a waste of one hour of my life)
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MIDTERMS
I thought the first midterm was manageable (I got a 90%) and it was mostly applicational. You just had to know how to draw and read pedigrees and calculate probabilities. I found the second midterm (I got an 80%) to be more challenging as most of the questions were worded poorly and the pictures provided were not helpful in answering the questions.
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FINAL EXAM
So due to our situation with the rest of Winter Quarter and Finals Week of 2020 being moved online, the final exam was also online. I personally didn't take the final exam because after calculating my grade, I knew I was going to receive an A- anyway so I just wanted to spare myself some time and mentality. From what I heard, the final exam was extremely difficult, but I don't have a say in this as I didn't take it.
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EXTRA CREDIT
Like with 7A, this class offers few opportunities for extra credit (like with surveys and evaluations).

Dr. Marcot encourages discussion and questions amongst his students. Compared to my LS7A experience with Dr. Maloy, Marcot's office hours and review sessions were significantly less frequent, and it was harder to get clear answers to your questions. It also always felt like we were perpetually behind on lecture material because we spent so much time discussing open-ended clicker questions. In all honesty, I found that his office hours weren't that helpful, so you don't have to prioritize going to them. CLC sessions, on the other hand, are incredibly helpful so definitely take advantage of them!

The first midterm was a timecrunch so don't spend too much time checking over each question, just focus on getting everything done first. And also definitely do not spend too much time on a question, if you realize you're not getting it after 5 minutes it's best to move on to another section and come back to it later. Make sure to familiarize yourself with solving pedigrees fast; you'll have to draw a lot of pedigrees in a relatively short amount of time. The second midterm is less of a time crunch and MUCH more conceptual than the first, but the questions can be vague/hypothetical/difficult to interpret. For Midterm 2, I would recommend familiarizing yourself with all the basic concepts and making your own questions based on scenarios provided in class.

Also, if you want detailed notes on the textbook/study guides, just shoot an email to ************* and I'll send them to you! It's free, I just want to help future students succeed (and I also spent way too much time taking them) :)

Marcot is a decent professor. He's really nice and willing to help, but the course material isn't difficult and not the most interesting. He also exudes major dad energy and has cute animal screensavers. My only gripe with him was that he says "um" a lot. Like a lot. So if you can tolerate that then Marcot isn't a bad option; its the 7 series though so it's pretty standardized across all lectures. The class was about a lecture behind for the majority of the quarter compared to the other sections, but that was only because of 2 Monday holidays. Midterm 1 mainly focused on pedigrees, so make sure to understand how to analyze them using basic probabilities and Punnett squares so that you're not in a time crunch. Midterm 2 was 80% T/F and the content (evolution) was easy so no worries there. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the final was changed to optional.

I feel like these other reviews are more about the poor quality of the LS series and LS7B in general rather than being directed at Marcot. Overall, I thought he was a very engaging lecturer who knew what he was talking about. It's not his fault that he usually has to answer, "we need more info." It's the design of the LS7 series at work, so don't direct your anger at him. (Don't worry, I hate it too, but Marcot was just doing his job, and I think he did it well)