This class I have very mixed feelings about. It was harder than a GE should be but only because I felt you were lured into a false sense of security. The midterm is open textbook, open note, and open slides. However, there was such a limited amount of time to complete it and the questions were weirdly specific and extrapolatory so I ended up getting a 72 on it. I had to grind it out for the final and studied my ass of and ended with an A so its possible to come back because she offers 3% extra credit. However, id definitely advise you to study before the midterm and attend lectures and take notes during it unless you want to have a hard time like me.

Take this course with Professor Moon! She is such a sweet, sweet lady!! So this class is a relatively easy class to take as a GE so long as you do your part and show up to her lectures and take good notes. Without even relying on the textbook, you can finish with a solid A- in the class if you do her fun extra credit assignments. If you do in fact want the textbook, it is kind of pricey ($50) but you truly can use the older versions just fine. I bought an older version and literally opened it max one or two times for the entire quarter because her lectures were so informative and covered key concepts (minus small details ie. the name and date of the most destructive natural disaster in history). There are about 8 weekly quiz based on material learned for the week, a discussion presentation of a natural disaster of your choice, a midterm and a final. Oh, and she lets you use study guides on the exams which is a bonus! I'm a psychology major and I had bare minimum knowledge on natural disasters. I knew how earthquakes worked relatively, I knew about different rocks (ie. igneous or sedimentary) and little bits here and there but not at the level required to do the best in this course. However, when I truly tell you the interesting aspects about this course will never make it feel like you are going to class against your will. I truly loved attending lectures and engaging with the material because it was SO interesting. Professor Moon is super cute and I love how passionate and knowledgeable she is about what she teaches! I needed this class as an additional physical science requirement, and I am so glad I took it. I took this class Pass/No Pass originally because I didn't want to stress, but it truly wasn't needed as I finished with a solid grade, however I really did enjoy the luxury of getting to learn in this class without having to worry about how difficult the exams were (which they weren't as long as you truly put in the work and effort). Yeah I won't lie there were some messy, tricky exam questions, but which UCLA course doesn't have them? Overall though, the amount of extra credit she gives you is amazing and she really really listens to student feedback! At the end of the quarter we only needed to attend like 6/12 weeks of courses to get 100% on the attendance category which was pretty sweet so you didn't have to bother her if you had an emergency, game, or even just simply needed a mental health day. Moral of the story, take this course!