ASTR 3
Nature of the Universe
Description: Lecture, three hours; laboratory, two hours. Not open to students with credit for or currently enrolled in course 81 or 82. No special mathematical preparation required beyond that necessary for admission to UCLA in freshman standing. Course for general UCLA students, normally not intending to major in physical sciences. Introduction to vast range of cosmic phenomena including planets in our solar system and beyond, stars, supernova explosions, black holes, galaxies, and universe as whole. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Overall I would say that this class was an easy GE. The material is super engaging - it covers the mind-boggling distances and masses, such as the distance from our galaxy to the nearest galaxy being some millions of light years and the mass of our sun being compressed into areas the size of LA etc. Prof. Consiglio was also very enthusiastic about the lecture material and made a good effort to convey her love of astronomy to the class, as her slides were interesting. Also, the homework was all online on Kudu - an online textbook/quiz site for $50. The homework was mainly based on the videos included on the website, from Crash Course Astronomy - these videos were very interesting and watching them didn't feel like studying. The labs were very easy and I usually finished a good time before they ended. The exams were also pretty easy - all multiple choice, based mainly on homework stuff along with a bit of lecture material. Practice exams were extremely useful as some questions were even re-used on the actual exams. Also, 3% extra credit was possible - 2% for going to Griffith observatory and 1% for something else, however I didn't avail this. Now for the donwsides - it is not very easy to take notes in the class as Prof. Consiglio moves along pretty quick and sometimes she skips slides altogether. Unless you have a laptop and can type reasonably fast (~50 wpm), note taking won't be worth it. All the lectures were available on CCLE afterwards anyway however they're usually about. 60% fluff 40% material. Also, the online textbook Kudu was a bit irritating as I don't usually like to watch videos and I found it very difficult to answer the homework questions with just the text as the questions usually asked for very specific facts only mentioned in the video. The exams were easy however sometimes they would ask very specific facts (such as the orbital period of the moon) which was annoying - for the first midterm we were told that it would focus more on concepts than facts but this was not the case. Overall I would recommend this class if you want an easy GE (especially if its P/NP like me). It can be a bit hard to study for the class but it's so easy that it doesn't matter anyway. As long as you have a decent memory for random things like the rough temperature of the surface of the sun, you should have no problem getting an A.
Winter 2019 - Overall I would say that this class was an easy GE. The material is super engaging - it covers the mind-boggling distances and masses, such as the distance from our galaxy to the nearest galaxy being some millions of light years and the mass of our sun being compressed into areas the size of LA etc. Prof. Consiglio was also very enthusiastic about the lecture material and made a good effort to convey her love of astronomy to the class, as her slides were interesting. Also, the homework was all online on Kudu - an online textbook/quiz site for $50. The homework was mainly based on the videos included on the website, from Crash Course Astronomy - these videos were very interesting and watching them didn't feel like studying. The labs were very easy and I usually finished a good time before they ended. The exams were also pretty easy - all multiple choice, based mainly on homework stuff along with a bit of lecture material. Practice exams were extremely useful as some questions were even re-used on the actual exams. Also, 3% extra credit was possible - 2% for going to Griffith observatory and 1% for something else, however I didn't avail this. Now for the donwsides - it is not very easy to take notes in the class as Prof. Consiglio moves along pretty quick and sometimes she skips slides altogether. Unless you have a laptop and can type reasonably fast (~50 wpm), note taking won't be worth it. All the lectures were available on CCLE afterwards anyway however they're usually about. 60% fluff 40% material. Also, the online textbook Kudu was a bit irritating as I don't usually like to watch videos and I found it very difficult to answer the homework questions with just the text as the questions usually asked for very specific facts only mentioned in the video. The exams were easy however sometimes they would ask very specific facts (such as the orbital period of the moon) which was annoying - for the first midterm we were told that it would focus more on concepts than facts but this was not the case. Overall I would recommend this class if you want an easy GE (especially if its P/NP like me). It can be a bit hard to study for the class but it's so easy that it doesn't matter anyway. As long as you have a decent memory for random things like the rough temperature of the surface of the sun, you should have no problem getting an A.
Most Helpful Review
He was great for Astro 3. Very excited and interesting in lecture. I never fell asleep. He uses lots of slides to keep the class interesting and teaches the class very straightforwardly. You can tell he really cares about the subject matter and his students. I really enjoyed Astro 3 because of him.
He was great for Astro 3. Very excited and interesting in lecture. I never fell asleep. He uses lots of slides to keep the class interesting and teaches the class very straightforwardly. You can tell he really cares about the subject matter and his students. I really enjoyed Astro 3 because of him.
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Winter 2025 - I would consider taking this class again. If you have time to study/memorize some textbook stuff, you will be fine. The grading distribution was the midterms were 45%, the labs were 20%, and the final was 35%. There were three midterms but your score is best out of two. So if you get 0% on one, 50% on another, and 100% on the last one, your midterm grade will be 75%, not 50%. The two best scores are averaged. The midterms are week 4, 6, and 9; each midterm is NOT cumulative and will be based on an average of 4 chapters. There are, I believe, 10 lab assignments (10 pre-lab short pdfs and 10 lab pdfs). I think you only needed to do 8 out of 10, so you could miss two pre-labs and two labs. Other than that, you ABSOLUTELY need to go to lab. It is extremely easy, the TA will walk you through it but you do need to go. Make sure to submit the pre-lab before the lab starts; they are easy but you can email your TA for help if needed. To do well in the class: Go to every single lab, check every lab question with your TA before submitting, do every pre-lab and check with your TA, read every single chapter (a lot of boring, you got this), and answer/study every single end of chapter question/study review questions. The end of chapter questions that ask for answers (not group discussions) WILL appear on the midterms/final, as well the study questions. If you know every single one of those questions and nothing else, you will most likely get at least a 95% on every single midterm. While I had taken an Astronomy class before this, the majority of this content was new to me. By doing the method described above, I consistently score the highest or second highest on every exam. Please study the questions! The final is cumulative and will contain questions from every single chapter, I think, so about 19 chapters. In full honesty, this class was in 147 Dodd which I believe is cursed and I fall asleep there every time. So, I usually skipped class. Still got an A+. Take this class, do the work, and you'll be fine. Misc things: the lectures are boring unfortunately, the room will be cold so bring a jacket, the curve will be amazing every time (highest score goes to 100%), and your bruinlearn is automatically curved at the beginning but the curve may change so beware. Good luck and you got this!
Winter 2025 - I would consider taking this class again. If you have time to study/memorize some textbook stuff, you will be fine. The grading distribution was the midterms were 45%, the labs were 20%, and the final was 35%. There were three midterms but your score is best out of two. So if you get 0% on one, 50% on another, and 100% on the last one, your midterm grade will be 75%, not 50%. The two best scores are averaged. The midterms are week 4, 6, and 9; each midterm is NOT cumulative and will be based on an average of 4 chapters. There are, I believe, 10 lab assignments (10 pre-lab short pdfs and 10 lab pdfs). I think you only needed to do 8 out of 10, so you could miss two pre-labs and two labs. Other than that, you ABSOLUTELY need to go to lab. It is extremely easy, the TA will walk you through it but you do need to go. Make sure to submit the pre-lab before the lab starts; they are easy but you can email your TA for help if needed. To do well in the class: Go to every single lab, check every lab question with your TA before submitting, do every pre-lab and check with your TA, read every single chapter (a lot of boring, you got this), and answer/study every single end of chapter question/study review questions. The end of chapter questions that ask for answers (not group discussions) WILL appear on the midterms/final, as well the study questions. If you know every single one of those questions and nothing else, you will most likely get at least a 95% on every single midterm. While I had taken an Astronomy class before this, the majority of this content was new to me. By doing the method described above, I consistently score the highest or second highest on every exam. Please study the questions! The final is cumulative and will contain questions from every single chapter, I think, so about 19 chapters. In full honesty, this class was in 147 Dodd which I believe is cursed and I fall asleep there every time. So, I usually skipped class. Still got an A+. Take this class, do the work, and you'll be fine. Misc things: the lectures are boring unfortunately, the room will be cold so bring a jacket, the curve will be amazing every time (highest score goes to 100%), and your bruinlearn is automatically curved at the beginning but the curve may change so beware. Good luck and you got this!
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