Great class and great professor

I loved this class! Although it was at 9am, I tried my best to make it because I enjoy the material so much. Also, Esdin takes attendance by passing around a sign in sheet. He lectures based off slides that he writes on, and typically, he lets the class out early. You have to buy a Course Reader for this course, which includes a textbook, workbook, and iProfile account. The workbook is fairly easy, and all the answers come from the textbook/lectures. The iProfile account is used to complete the big project for this class. Discussion is biweekly, and typically involves some kind of group work to determine your resting heart rate, etc. for the project. There are two quizzes in discussion, but you are allowed to use any paper notes that you take during the lecture during discussion. The project can be a lot if you save it for the last minute, so it is recommended that you start on it as early as you can. The midterm was online, and I believe the final was too (but I opted out of it this quarter bc of corona). The tests in this class are pretty easy if you're on top of your work, and it was all multiple choice. Esdin was a very good lecturer, and I learned a lot from him. I would definitely recommend this class if you are looking for an easy GE or if you are interested in this material.

I enjoyed this class and learned a lot of valuable information about the importance of maintaining good health through a healthy diet and exercise. The class is overall pretty easy. The exams are very detailed, however, and require a lot of studying and memorizing the course reader in order to do well. The project is tedious but is an easy 100 points if you follow all the rules. Overall I recommend this class!

Lectures: He takes attendance for his lectures, which is quite unfortunate because if he didn't, I would not attend a single one. He goes really slow and covers the bare minimum compared to the information in the course reader. He's a funny and nice professor, but his lectures bored me and I often listened to music during them.
Tests: Everyone stresses memorizing your course reader and you'll do fine on the midterm. I took that literally and memorized everything. Do not do this lol it's a waste of time. While you should focus more on the information in the course reader than from the lectures, the midterm really wasn't as thorough and specific as it was made out to be. I didn't take the final because he made it optional (due to coronavirus and online classes). There were 2 online quizzes that you had the weekend to do and they were 5 questions each and you could just use your notes on them.
Homework: There's no homework, just reading the course reader. I would keep up with this, even though there's no hard deadline.
Labs: The labs were every other week, which was really nice. There were lab quizzes but they were based on things you did that day, so you didn't need to prepare ahead of time.
Overall: Take this class! It's an easy GE and actually really helpful if you want to learn about health/fitness.

Generous professor. Lecture attendance is mandatory. I personally didn't go a lot, but it did make the readings from the course reader easier to understand so would definitely recommend going to class. DON'T FALL BEHIND ON READINGS. Falling behind just makes it a lot harder to cram before the midterms/final (or maybe might be just me because I suck at memorization). Labs also take attendance, but they're pretty easy and helpful for the project. My TA (Aref) was very helpful, would definitely recommend. Labs are scheduled for 1 hour and 50 minutes, but don't usually last the entire time. Lab quizzes are given at the end of the activities. You have about 25 minutes to do them, but it is plenty of time and pretty straightforward. I got full points on all 3. Project can be done in an all nighter, but would definitely recommend starting at least a week before the due date to not stress out as much. Workbook can be done in a few days, doesn't require to read the entire chapter, but definitely should to understand the content. Overall, doable class if you do your part in putting in the effort.

I love Esdin. He's so sweet and funny and the class isn't very hard if you read the course reader. You can afford to skip lectures as long as you don't let it tank your attendance grade. I probably attended 80% of the lectures, and read the course reader through before the midterm and final. Overall, the class is interesting and not too much work.

If you want an easy GE, take this class. This class has a really low time commitment and you do learn a lot of valuable information here. If you are already into working out, fitness, dieting, etc., then definitely take this class: it'll make this already easy class easier and keep you motivated in achieving your goals. The most important thing about this class is to take it one bite at a time. Complete a workbook chapter per week and start the lifestyle project early. The professor really emphasizes that this class isn't one that should create any stress and it's absolutely true. The professor himself is really sweet, caring, and kind. The only bad thing about this class is you have to be there at 9 AM, but being in class that early wasn't even bad because both the material and professor Esdin were really interesting! Do yourself a favor and take PhySci 5 with Professor Esdin.

This class is very applicable to not only life, but to other classes in the LS realm. I feel like it added and increased my knowledge of previously learned topics. Esdin is an AMAZING professor and I would recommend taking a class with him while at UCLA. He makes lectures engaging and very easy to follow along. I appreciate how much he understands his students needs and concerns. I have never had a professor who was so easy at explaining difficult concepts. Tests, labs, homework, and project were very manageable and not boring!! This class truly made an impact on me.

This is a review for LS 7C, which has the same content as LS 2. Much of what can be said of Dr. Esdin is said in the review posted below. He is a good professor who knows what he is talking about, but his exams are super hard, despite being only T/F or Increase/Decrease/No change sort of questions. You have to understand the material at a conceptual level (if I increase this, how will it affect this mechanism)? Make sure you don't lose points to launchpad activities or clickers, because you want to maximize the amount of points you would lose on exams. Discussion worksheets are also a must for review, because similar questions pop up on the exam.

Overall, Dr. Esdin was very accommodating with the transition to remote learning. LS7C is so much more interesting and genuinely applicable than LS7B and I definitely enjoyed learning about the content so much more. We covered topics like body systems, cell communication, CRISPR, etc.

Although LaunchPad as usual is annoying, I found it to be much less of a chore compared to 7B. The last few weeks were mainly video lectures (which you honestly don't need to watch because they don't relate to what's covered in the actual lecture). Since classes were entirely online for this quarter, we still had 2 midterms, each of them with a FRQ portion and a MCQ portion. All are open-note. I feel that they made the MCQ portion easier than you would expect for typical LS7C exams, but the FRQ portion could be challenging (the answer key is very specific and the TAs could grade hard). Discussions are mandatory as usual and submitted on GradeScope.

For studying, I would definitely recommend going to CLC sessions – the LAs are all incredibly helpful! Take advantage of your LA's knowledge in discussion section as well, they're often more willing to guide you through the answers :) Also take advantage of CampusWire, it's a great resource and other students' explanations are always really helpful!