If you're reading this far into the future, this information will probably/hopefully be applicable to you. For those of you that are taking LS7C in summer or fall 2020, good luck.

Esdin was a wonderful professor. He always explained everything thoroughly, gave us time to think about questions, and never failed to answer any question during office hours.

You've likely taken LS 7B so you know all about the Launchpad, participation, difficult exams, etc. As for the changes made during this quarter due to remote learning:

Lectures: Unlike Khankan, Esdin decided to prerecord his lectures and post them on CCLE instead. This prevented us from asking questions during lecture, but this was fine because there was so much material to cover this quarter that all the questions probably would have slowed us down. On the other hand, Esdin still wanted to simulate an actual class environment so he would stop talking for a couple minutes during each clicker question. This was kind of awkward, but didn't bother any of us much, and I just fast-forwarded through the waiting time after I had worked out the answer.

Participation/Clickers: Since we couldn't physically all be in the same class, we took a VERY short (like 2 questions) multiple choice quiz on CCLE after watching each lecture that day. The quizzes opened 50 minutes after lectures were posted and closed at 10:50 PM that day, so you had to watch lecture to answer the questions. I'm pretty sure it wasn't graded on correctness, but we were still given two attempts.

Launchpad: Identical format to LS 7B. Points come from the small quizzes and PEQ. Just power through it, because each week is about a new body system and there's A LOT of information. You got this!!

Discussion: Each discussion session was on Zoom, and we had online worksheets through Gradescope. We would split up into breakout rooms of 4-5 to work on the assignment. Some of the worksheets were super short, but sometimes they took the entire time to finish. It all depends on your TA and Zoom breakout room of course.

CLC: Since everything was online, I took advantage of my time and went to a CLC session each week. This was particularly helpful for the midterm (and would've been for the final). We would just screen share and work on the worksheet shared to the group, and we worked in Zoom breakout rooms.

Midterms/Final: The first midterm was a little challenging, because unlike LS 7A&B, we were introduced to free response questions on Gradescope. We were also given 50 minutes to do 6 FRQs which was not enough time. We had about 30 multiple choice questions on CCLE with 1 hour to do them. It was difficult to finish the free response, so we were given a full hour during the second midterm. If you studied everything from Launchpad, your notes, discussion worksheets, and CLC as much as you can, then you should be okay, just don't freak out if confusing questions arise. You should know by know that's just how the LS series rolls. Due to the protests and just the general chaos of the world, the final was an automatic 100% for everyone!! Thank goodness, because genome browser during the last three weeks of the quarter was stressful and I was burnt out by that point.

ESDIN: As a lecturer, Esdin always took his time to explain everything, which was helpful of course. I ended up speeding the video up 1.5x just as a personal preference. I didn't go to Esdin's office hours often, but when I did I always learned something new and it was a pleasant vibe.

Course topics/studying tips: There was so much information to cover that you have to read Launchpad thoroughly to fully grasp everything though. This isn't like LS 7A; you have to prepare for concepts. I took IB Bio HL 2 in high school and honestly the topics were VERY similar so I feel like that preparation helped me and encouraged me throughout the quarter. A full list of information we went over includes: cell communication, nervous system, endocrine system, motor/muscle systems, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, excretory and digestive systems, immune system, and another three weeks of Genome Browser stuff. What I did to maintain my sanity each week, stop myself from drowning in stress, and just to organize information so I could remember everything was: doing the pre-class worksheets posted on CCLE each week, making flashcards of all the learning objectives with diagrams and detailed info, doing Launchpad early/basically as soon as it was posted so I had time to study and absorb information without rushing it the night before, taking thorough notes of definitions and new info and adding to them during lecture, and checking campuswire and groupme for updates and questions.

Honestly love this Professor. I'm sure by the many other comments posted you can hear in detail how great of a lecturer he is. He's pretty funny and really wants you to absorb the material through a balance of clicker questions and conceptual slides. Overall, it is structured similarly to the other classes in the LS7 series, but if you like physiology then you're going to love this class.

The material overall is much denser than LS7A and LS7B so you need to have better organization if you want to complete the material ahead of time (ie: launchpad ). That being said since everything was recorded you could easily catch up if you're behind.

Exams: Because of COVID they changed the structure of the exams slightly. The midterms were timed 120 minutes each, around 45 multiple choice questions, worth 2 points each (90 points), and conceptually based on weeks 1-3 for midterm 1 and 4-6 for midterm 2. After each midterm, we had an "exam wrapper" which basically was a chance to get 8 points back on your exam grade by answering a series of questions reflective of what was most missed on each midterm.

The final was timed 150 minutes, 82 multiple choice questions, worth 2.25 points each (meaning you could earn 184.5 out of 180 points). The final was 60% new material ie: weeks 7-10, and 40% review material ie: weeks 1-6. I honestly thought the final was much easier than the midterms, but there was no exam wrapper.

Discussion: Discussions were very helpful! The only issue was that it was sometimes really hard the finish the whole worksheet within the discussion and I spent some time outside of the discussion to finish my responses. But besides that, the TAs were actually amazing.

Other: Just remember to do launchpad to get those assignment points and go to CLC sessions and PLF sessions if you can.

Professor Esdin is a really great professor. He's supportive and accommodating to his students, and really wants everybody to succeed. His jokes made online school a bit less boring. He is a clear lecturer and I recommend taking him or Khankan. The midterms, like the entire LS series, are poorly worded and can easily confuse you. Be careful taking the exams, and make sure you really understand the concepts. Also, he didn't mention it in class (its in the syllabus), but its possible to earn a few points extra credit by helping people on Campuswire.

This professor is great and very thorough. Pay attention to lectures and just do the pre-class reading guides to not spend all your time on launchpad. I would say the clickers for this class very a bit easier than what you would see on the actual tests. The 7 series tests were always terrible though.

I liked the content of the class a lot and a many things taught in this course was material many people haven't been exposed to. Professor Esdin is very clear with lecture content and is super engaging! BUT, as you may know, this is part of the LS7 series; there's always something that's gotta be wrong with the class. In this case, it was the exams. I prayed a few days before midterms and the final that the wording was going to be clear, but nope. The wording on the midterms were extremely ambiguous and needlessly tedious to understand, as a result, people often wasted time trying to even comprehend the horrific questions. The final was not terrible however. My recommendation is to read exam problems VERY carefully since supposedly they "don't try to trick you" but really they do. Also, go over in class diagrams and discussion concepts, these two are very important since they will show up on exams. Good luck taking this class!

I hated 7B so much, but this class was infinitely better. It was interesting, and the first 7 weeks were really fun to learn about. I loved my TA Zac, and my discussion was small, so we were able to ask questions and dive deeper into the material. The LA CLC sessions are also super helpful, so I definitely recommend.
As always, Launchpad is annoying, and only slightly helpful. To study, I made one page study guides for each chapter and went over clickers. For each test, I studied the night before and it was sufficient.
My class was joint with Cooper, and he wasn't as engaging as Esdin, but still a good professor.
I believe our class was curved by 1% which bumped me up a grade.
Overall, I would recommend these professors, but as we all know your professor doesn't matter much for the 7 series.

***THIS WRITTEN REVIEW IS STRICTLY FOR JULIE MARTINEZ (TA)***
I literally can not believe how this TA screwed over my grade. She took off points every single week, on every discussion worksheet, off of answers that I would completely base off of her short presentations and slides AND what she would say to me when my break out room would call her in. She looks for VERY specific words -> if you don't include it, automatic 7/8 or less. She ended up dropping my grade a letter grade and it did not get better over the ten weeks. AVOID THIS TA AT ALL COSTS. She seems really nice but literally will not cut you any slack. When I asked her how I could improve, all she basically said was to use more specific words(??) and to try harder(??) I've always scored 100% in discussion for 7A and 7B but this TA really was not it.

Worst class ever. Fk this bullshit life science.

Going into 7c, I was absolutely terrified because of how many bad things I have heard about this class, but I ended up really enjoying it. Is it the hardest of the 7 series? For sure. Is it nearly as bad as people say it is? Definitely not. As far as professors go, Dr. Esdin is my favorite life science professor. He explains things very well in a way that prompts you to think the way the exams want you to think, and he distributes time spent on topics very effectively. I think he's mainly a lecturer, so he actually is a really great teacher. I feel like I learned a lot in this class, and that is coming from someone who has taken 5 anatomy/physiology classes throughout high school. I definitely recommend going to office hours, especially Dr. Esdin's office hours since he is always happy to answer questions and understands what you're asking him. He actually listens to students and responds to emails quickly. He has a dry sense of humor, which some people appreciate, and some don't. I also recommend going to the CLC sessions since many of the exam questions are similar in how they approach concepts. Reading the textbook is pretty pointless, but Dr. Esdin's lecture slides have most of the information you need, so I used those to study and did very well. Overall, if you have to take 7c, take Dr. Esdin's class if you can manage three classes a week.

Professor Esdin is amazing. He is very supportive of all his students and takes his time to make sure that you understand the material. The class content in his course is definitely more challenging than the previous 7 series courses, but by doing the assigned work and keeping up with lectures, you can do very well. His lectures are clear and very thorough for all the material and you can tell that he cares about the success of the students in the class.

The tests are challenging and since they are standardized for the whole series, the professor you have doesn't really impact its difficulty. However, I can say that having taken the 7 series with a different professor each quarter, Esdin was definitely the most helpful and engaging. 100% recommend Professor Esdin for 7C.