Professor Tripati is a very nice, knowledgable professor. However, her class was not a good experience. If you are the type of student who likes straightforward, organized teaching with clear instruction... this is not the class for you. Tripati is very disorganized, which isn't completely her fault because the information is a mile wide and an inch deep. She missed somewhere around six lectures this quarter, which makes up about a fifth of all of the lectures. Not a huge deal because the grad students were incredibly helpful, but still a bit disappointing.

Oh, and also, if you are looking for a marine biology class... TURN AWAY NOW! This class is all about the oceans interaction with our environment - aka, lots of global warming talk, El Nino events, atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, ect. The material can be interesting of course, but if you are here for the sea otters and dolphins... you have been warned.

Yes, it was an easy A. But it was also an oddly stressful A. Her test banks have 200 very general questions that are not helpful when studying for a 15 question midterm (yes, 15 questions). Her powerpoints are pretty worthless if you try looking at them on your own - most are pictures, iCicker questions, general definitions, and corny jokes.

Tripati is a very friendly, approachable professor and if you are actually interested in the ocean and climate change, then this class could be right for you. Overall, I am glad this class boosted my GPA, but could've done without it.

This is a revision of the post (below).

I would like to note my blatant negligence in blaming Professor Tripati for my sometimes frustrating experience in her class. It is indeed difficult to appease everyone in a class of 300+ students with so many different learning styles and needs, and I neglected this factor as a student who isn't aware of what other students may need. Everyone's experience with her is different, but one cannot deny her fairness in the course and earnest attempts in making it an enjoyable experience.

Prof. Tripati is a wonderful professor, perhaps one of the most attentive, responsive, and genuinely sincere. She has addressed my concerns on numerous occasions, even at times when I randomly dropped by. She didn't tell me to wait for office hours; she immediately and earnestly assisted me. For that, I am grateful.

I did learn a lot in the class, more than I thought I would. I walked in thinking marine biology, but I effectively learned geography, chemistry, biology, and physics through interesting topics. The course provides a variety of learning opportunities and expands one's knowledge regarding the sciences.

Take it for the experience, if not for the fantastic professor who defeats every negative stereotype of a university professor in charge of a large class.

Honestly, this class is a hit or miss. It's a hit with students due to its "easiness" with a light workload (consisting on weekly review Qs, lab sessions, and clicker-based attendance). It's a miss due to Tripati's often confusing teaching style, where she goes either too fast or too slow, too vague or too in-depth, and organized or super disorganized.

It's GREAT that she uploads her PPTs, but most of the slides are vague or practically empty (with only pictures), so it's hard to rely on them without listening to the 1-hr podcasts (which can be total wastes of time). Lecture is EXTREMELY hard to get through without a laptop, because she speaks too fast to catch everything (which brings us back to the podcasts and PPTs).

Midterm was 15 Qs. 30 min each for indiv. and group section. Final was about 60 Qs (shouldn't take more than 1 hour, but extra 30 min for double checking). Honestly, don't spend TOO much time on your cheat sheet. I spent an entire day, and I only used 1/10 of it.

Your best, most time-efficient chance at this class? Go to class WITH a laptop to take notes to make filling out the midterm/final review simple, and do the extra credit.

Also, if you are interested in purchasing a book (crucial for acing those weekly quizzes), I have the bound 10th edition for sale. Email me at *************. I promise a more than fair price, as I know the stress with spending hours searching for decent offers!

If you want a great science GE, take this with Prof Tripati. One midterm, one final (two sections: individual and group), one science communication project (pretty easy and interesting), attendance, labs, and extra credits. To earn an A, you just need to do what the prof wants you to do. The labs are pretty tedious but they are also doable. The prof shows great concern to students. When I met her in the Geology building, she even recognized me and asked for my opinions of the class. Although the lectures are boring sometimes, she tries to make the slides easy to read and insert some fun videos. She's the kindest professor I've met in my first quarter at UCLA.

Professor Tripati cares more about student learning than any other professor that I have had the pleasure of learning from. Making sure that her students leave class with a full understanding of oceanography and its impacts on our everyday lives is her number one priority. She is easy to learn from, and assigns a reasonable amount of work. Not to mention—her exams are EASY. She provides a question bank before hand, so as long as you learn the answers, you can then BRING THEM TO THE TEST on two sheets of paper. The midterm was only 15 questions long, multiple choice, and afterwards we had a group test with the EXACT same questions. While she can be a little strict in terms of attendance (she took attendance the day before Thanksgiving) she is very understanding in all other aspects. Plus she offers relevant extra credit, which I greatly appreciate. I would definitely recommend this professor and class to my peers.

Awesome class! I learned a ton and never felt like it was too time-consuming. The Science Communication Project was really fun to make as well. Overall, a great class to take! I definitely recommend it!

Professor Tripati's Oceanography class was a piece of cake. I came in thinking I wasn't going to like the class (I'm a ling major) but she actually did a really good job of making it enjoyable as well as easy. There are some readings and labs and then the online quizzes and that's really all there is aside formt he midterm and final. Both exams are also made extremely by the fact that you are allowed to make a 2 page cheat sheet as well as by the fact that you actually get to work in a group on the tests. I mean honestly it really couldn't be any easier.

Take this class! It's a MUST.

What I really like about this class
-10 Extra Credit Reports available that can boost your grade
-Extra Credit Questions available in midterm/final
-The fact that midterms/finals are focused on understanding concepts instead of memorizing little details and facts
-Week 10 film festival is really really entertaining
-Science communication project is fun. It is the assignment we can enjoy doing it.
-How the grading is evenly weighted: instead of weighing the midterm/final heavily, you spread our the grading well. 12% quizzes, 12% participation, 30% labs, 25% final, 15% midterm, 8% science communication project.

What I would like to change about this class
-Labs (especially graphing or plotting points) can be tedious

Tips for succeeding in this class
1) Take your online quizzes seriously. You have 2 hours for that. Use that time.
2) Go to labs prepared. Labs quizzes are not hard if you do the readings.
3) This class has video podcast. Rewatch them. Know the concepts. Concepts. Concepts. Concepts. The professor wants you to understand the concepts, not the details.
4) Go to her class. Don't miss it more than 2 times.
5) If you put in enough effort, you will get an A. Not an easy A class but just put in your effort.
6) Do many extra credits (total 5 points available).
7) Go to her office hours. She is extremely helpful, caring and understanding. I can guarantee she will help you for sure.

I GIVE PROF TRIPATI A 10!

Oceanography with Professor Tripati was excellent. She is extremely passionate and effective at communicating the material in an understandable way. Lab sections and work are really easy and really helped boost my grade because I attended every section and did all the work. Lectures can get boring but the professor seems to do all she can to avoid this. Midterm and Final are quite difficult but there is a group component to each which really helped me understand the material better (it also helped my grade quite significantly). I learned a lot and enjoyed the class and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in oceanography and wants to learn more.

Professor Tripati is GREAT. If you're thinking about taking Oceanography with her, the first thing you need to do is completely ignore the reviews near the bottom of the page. I guess she had just started teaching at that point, because things are totally different now and she is a top-notch professor who works really, really hard to make the class better every quarter. You can tell her your honest opinion and she will actually try to change (unlike some stubborn professors too stuck in their ways).

Pros: If you put in even the slightest bit of effort and attend labs, you'll do well. The tests are extremely straightforward so all you have to do is pay attention in lecture. You can for sure succeed if you put in a little bit of effort; this is one of those classes that depends solely on how hard you work and not on your inherent "smarts". You get cheat sheets on tests as well as tons of super easy extra credit opportunities. I was really dreading the video project but it ended up being pretty easy and straightforward.

Cons: The midterm and final are group tests, which I really didn't like because it always ends up being kids who studied giving the answers to kids who didn't study. However, I think she realized this for the final and let us choose whether we want to do it individually or with a group, which I appreciated (even though I did it with a group anyway).

Seriously if you're looking for a pretty easy class with a chill professor, take Professor Tripati's class. She's also really nice and (somehow) responds to all the emails, so if you have any questions about anything don't be afraid to ask her.