UCLA Students who have taken Life Science Courses

[SnYpaJY]

I am trying to decide if I should take LS 3 and LS 4 during the summer. (Summer Session A will be LS 3 and Session C will be LS 4).

I am a transfer student waiting to see if I will get accepted to UCLA. I have already completed the LS 1 and 2 equivalent at my junior college.

If you have experience with the LS series or know anything about the LS series, please let me know if you would do this and why. I've heard LS 3 is super hard, so I thought to myself, why not take it in 6 weeks and focus solely on that class? Maybe I could use my time more wisely, being a premed with zero research so far.

Who are the good LS professors?

By the way, the LS 3 teacher for Summer Session A is Professor Tabancay and the LS 4 teacher for Summer Session C is Professor McWorther. Has anyone heard anything about these two instructors, and how they go about teaching/grading?

Thanks for all the help.

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[ReptarBar]

go here and ask:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/

i am a ucla student but i havent taken ls3/4 yet, so i cant help.

 

[8mile]

tabancay was hard for ls3, but most if not all of the ls3 classes are hard, regardless of the teacher. If you want to get ls3 out of the way, then take it during the summer.

 

[ucladoc2b]

LS courses at UCLA are not extremely difficult material wise; I found the material to be very straight forward, conceptual, and interesting.

What makes them difficult is the level of competition in those classes (some of the highest achieving high school students who turned into some of the highest achieving undergrads). You will be curved with these students. LS overall has a very strict grading curve; while it is easy to get a B or C in those classes, As typically are limited to fewer than 17% of the class (the average grade in most of these classes is set at 2.3-2.6. I used to work for one of the LS professors who taught several of the classes so I am not simply speculating). The competition and curve are the reasons why these classes are pretty difficult.

I would recommend working my way into these classes slowly. The transition from JC to a four year university can be daunting. I would take some other classes in the summer so that you can learn "how" to take these classes (study habits, test taking, grading, et cetera).

 

[Lukkie]

ls3 has the reputation of being the hardest class in the series. its a lot of research techniques, getting into the nitty gritty of how DNA is synthesized, all the little enzymes involved, etc. i took it way back in the day with Simons (head of the LS core dept, at least back then), didnt really learn much in lecture so i just crammed the book hard.

LS4 is genetics and my class (which i took in summer) was extremely conceptual based. lot of tricky questions that you'd expect in a genetics class but i loved it. i think this class is taught very differently between different professors so you might not get the same experience i did.

the average for these classes iirc was something like B/B- or B-/C+.

just bust your butt in these courses (just like in all south campus classes) and they are very doable.

 

[Long Dong]

I took LS3 with Berk he wrote the text book we used. LS4 with Johnson she won some teaching award. Both realy great teachers but again I took these classes almost 10 years ago. Oh yeah Lucay (not sure of spelling) is great for O-chem. Not sure if any of these peeps are still around.

 

[DreamPills]

I took LS3 with Berk he wrote the text book we used. LS4 with Johnson she won some teaching award. Both realy great teachers but again I took these classes almost 10 years ago. Oh yeah Lucay (not sure of spelling) is great for O-chem. Not sure if any of these peeps are still around.

haha. i had berk for MIMG 132. we used a textbook he wrote too. haha.

i took ls4 over the summer. i really like genetics, so i had a good time. i know some people really struggled with it and some even dropped the course the day of the final. i took it over the summer between transferring from a CC to UCLA. i suggest taking something you are comfortable with since six weeks is really really short just to get used to the quarter system, etc.

 

[SnYpaJY]

haha. i had berk for MIMG 132. we used a textbook he wrote too. haha.

i took ls4 over the summer. i really like genetics, so i had a good time. i know some people really struggled with it and some even dropped the course the day of the final. i took it over the summer between transferring from a CC to UCLA. i suggest taking something you are comfortable with since six weeks is really really short just to get used to the quarter system, etc.

I'm planning on doing the same thing. It makes sense to just do one class this summer to get used to the system.

Can I take LS 4 in summer session A and LS 3 in summer session C?

 

[DreamPills]

i think ls3 is required for ls4. so you might have to take ls3 in session a and ls4 in session c. if not, go for it.

 

[SnYpaJY]

Pham is teaching LS 3 in session A. I've heard bad things about this professor, what do you guys think?

Mcworther is teaching LS 4 for both, session A and C, so I guess I have no other option but to take it with him/her.

Are there separate labs associated with LS3 and LS4, or are they integrated into the dicussions?

 

[SnYpaJY]

Anyone know anything about LS 3 in the summer?

 

[eight sat up]

.

 

[Lukkie]

Pham is teaching LS 3 in session A. I've heard bad things about this professor, what do you guys think?

Mcworther is teaching LS 4 for both, session A and C, so I guess I have no other option but to take it with him/her.

Are there separate labs associated with LS3 and LS4, or are they integrated into the dicussions?

LS3 has labs and discussions... basically you sign up for a lab section and a lecture section, but like half the 'labs' are actually discussions

LS4 has no labs, just discussions