UCLA Students who have taken Life Science Courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>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). </p>

<p>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. </p>

<p>Who are the good LS professors?</p>

<p>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? </p>

<p>Could I possibly take LS 4 in summer session A and LS 3 in summer session C?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help.</p>

2

<p>I had Tabancay for LS 3 during the summer actually. It was okay. I didn't actually think that class was that hard. It's just a lot more memorization (like LS1 and 2 but, different material.) He was a decent professor too and his exams were pretty straight forward. Apparently though, the class was not curved. </p>

<p>I'd say that doing LS 3 and then LS 4 during summer is pretty reasonable especially if you aren't going to take a second class alongside either of them. And I'm not certain, but I do believe that you have to take LS 3 then LS 4 even though LS 3 has nothing to do with LS 4.</p>

3

<p>Do you get tested on the days on Lecture or the days of Discussion?</p>

<p>Lecture runs MWF
and Discussion has like TTH or MW at different times.</p>

<p>Which dicussion would you sign up for given the lecture day?</p>

4

<p>Exams were always during lecture. And as for which discussion... I'd say it depends on how often you want to be on campus. If you only want to be there MWF then go for the MW discussion. If you don't mind being on campus all week, then take the TR discussion.</p>

5

<p>sorry don't mean to hijack the thread but for Tabancay LS 3 they don't care what discussion you go to, correct?</p>

6

<p>There are labs in LS3</p>

7

<p>yes, there are labs in LS3, and some weeks where it is discussion.</p>

8

<p>I'm kind of confused. So the discussions are really labs? BUT for some weeks, there not labs, and instead are actual discussions?</p>

9

<p>During the regular quarter, there are 5 discussions and 5 labs. They alternate between weeks. The same goes for LS2</p>

10

<p>I would highly recommend taking LS3 and LS4 in the summer, especially if you are already done with second year and haven't taken these yet. If you're at the end of your first year, then I would recommend taking chem instead. It will not be too bad if these are the only classes you take and the difficulty of the professor is really a moot point because most LS courses are scaled to have at least 15% A's and A-'s.</p>

<p>also, i would HIGHLY recommend anyone who wants to gets some bench research experience to take LS3 first. The techniques you learn in this class are used in almost all the labs (aside from things like neuroimaging etc.) and it would help you move beyond the typical "making solutions and washing dishes" type work.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
also, i would HIGHLY recommend anyone who wants to gets some bench research experience to take LS3 first. The techniques you learn in this class are used in almost all the labs (aside from things like neuroimaging etc.) and it would help you move beyond the typical "making solutions and washing dishes" type work.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yes. Yes yes and yes. I started working in a research lab the summer after my first year, and it was mindless work because I had no idea what I was doing, just following the protocol for simple assays. But right now, my mind is being blown. I'm being totally enlightened. LS3 is killing me right now but it's pretty cool knowing what's going on in the cell plates you're working on and stuff.</p>