The concepts are easy, but the exams are difficult, as you have to apply what you have learned in various scenarios. Nonetheless, the grading is heavily normalized. Dr. Mahan is a solid instructor. Be sure pay attention to what he writes and says in lecture. Do note any of the points he has "starred," and be sure to go to office hours, if you can.

Quite literally one of the hardest upper division biology classes at UCSB. The tests are only based on his lectures, but are still so hard. The averages for midterm one and two were around a 43 and a 50. I will say it was a SUPER interesting class and he's a great teacher, but overall not an easy course.

What a mess this class was. Yeah, he's hilarious and is available for lots of office hours but when the average for both midterms is 40% and he decides to make the final 10x more difficulty covering material that was never taught.. you gotta take a second to look at the teacher. Interesting subject, complete garbage professor.

I would highly recommend taking a class with Mahan. His tests are really hard but he actually cares about the students doing well so if you go to his office hours it helps a lot. If he stars something on the board, 98% chance it will be on the midterm or final.