This professor is definitely a genius- started college when she was 12, and she does all this intense research...but being incredibly smart does not make you a good teacher. Prof. Tripati's lectures consist of 100-slide Powerpoints, and she just reads the first 40 (at most) and then says you're responsible for the rest of the slideshow. That actually wouldn't be that bad if you could just skip lecture (since the slides are online)...OH BUT WAIT, you have to go to lecture because there are POP QUIZZES- that's right, pop quizzes in a lecture hall of 300.. In the end, the quizzes were not difficult, but she got everyone to panic by telling us we had 5 minutes to write a page and a half- not surprisingly, she got pretty crappy answers, so she allowed us to re-do it. This is just one of many examples that illustrates the unpleasant nature of this class- the material isn't difficult, but it is presented in a way that convinces you that you're stupid and incompetent.

Also, the prof. seems soft-spoken and nice at first, but she can be really rude. This was especially evident during the review sessions. For instance, I asked a question, and she told me, "That's common sense." Another student asked where the subtropics are, and she said "You should know that, and if you don't, Google it." How hard is it to say "around 30 degrees" and be done with it? Yet another student asked, "How should we study?" (pretty standard question for a review), and she snapped, "You should've been studying this whole quarter." Overall, I really dreaded every class, every lab (the horrible 2-hour labs, lab quiz every week, and a lab final..at least the pre-readings were helpful and my TA was nice), and the exams. The midterm was relatively easy, but the final—MC, short answers, and long answers— took me over 3 hours and that was with 2 double-sided cheat sheets, because the questions were so random and frustrating. What ticked me off the most was all she did was talk about the "big picture" during her lectures and then she hits you with the most trivial, detailed questions in the world on the final.

My advice:
(1) Don't take this class if you can avoid it- I've taken 3 other GREAT science GEs, so they are out there, and you don't have to settle for Oceanography.
(2) If you get stuck in this class last minute (like I did), don't despair. It is possible to get an A. Go to lecture, always keep up on the slides, read the book (helped me a lot), and FORM A STUDY GROUP. I met two awesome people in my lab, and they really kept me on track with the material. Also, like someone else said, get to know the TAs. They're pretty rad and can answer your questions.

This professor was so horrible. Honestly if you read this and even think about taking her class, you are setting yourself up for a horrible quarter. I dreaded every Tuesday and Thursday because her lectures are so boring and ridiculous. She has absolutely no concept of time and obviously does not realize that this class is a GE. The final took 3 hours and 15 minutes to finish and the questions are not straightforward at all. She lets you take 2 sheets of notes to use on the final, but it doesn't really help considering she asks off the wall questions. The midterm was not too difficult, but the final was totally different. She seems to care about her students at first but towards the end of the quarter she was not at all willing to make meetings outside her ONE office hour from 2-3 on Tuesdays. Her review sessions before the midterm and final are pointless - she just answers student questions and lectures about how you should be studying for her class every single day of the quarter. At the beginning of the quarter, she made the entire class write down 5 concepts from the previous lecture, which weren't even graded. She also has 4 pop quizzes in lecture. She must have realized that this wouldn't work, though, because three of them ended up being take-home quizzes. Lab is dreadful as well - it connects to the class, but is not as "insanely easy" as she says it is. The TAs tend to be very helpful, so if you decide to take this class despite the horrible reviews, I would advise you to talk to them as often as possible, especially Dan.