Professor
Caitlin Brown
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - I wanted to write an in depth review about this class because the bruinwalk reviews were old and not helpful to me when I enrolled. This review is mainly intended for Bio majors because the class does count for one of the evolution requirements, even though the course is for geology majors. I received an A+ in this class so succeeding is definitely doable, especially considering this was my hardest quarter by far at UCLA. The way the class operates is there is one midterm, two lab practicals, and one final. You do receive points for the labs you do each week, and there are two one page long paper literature review assignments that you do throughout the quarter. For lab, the most helpful thing to know is that you should learn the genus names of whatever study guide your TA makes for the lab practical. It seemed like no matter how much you ask your TA you never get a clear answer of what you should be studying, so definitely use the study guide as a resource. It is super helpful if you and your class decide to make a shared google photo album with all of the lab specimens so you can refer back to them when you are studying!! Prof Brown is incredibly kind, but does talk extremely fast, so I recommend either writing down notes of what she says on a paper/doc or directly on the slides if you have an ipad. I would get overwhelmed with trying to write down what was on the slides instead of what she said so be cautious not to overwhelm yourself. Also if you are taking this class in winter, DO NOT sign up for lab on Monday, it will not make your quarter nice. You are required to do a make up lab when there are Monday holiday's so do yourself a solid and do a Tuesday-Thursday lab. Also practice the geologic timescale and just commit that to memory. It isn't super difficult to memorize, but you'll get a better understanding of the time periods if you simply practice writing them down each day.
Winter 2023 - I wanted to write an in depth review about this class because the bruinwalk reviews were old and not helpful to me when I enrolled. This review is mainly intended for Bio majors because the class does count for one of the evolution requirements, even though the course is for geology majors. I received an A+ in this class so succeeding is definitely doable, especially considering this was my hardest quarter by far at UCLA. The way the class operates is there is one midterm, two lab practicals, and one final. You do receive points for the labs you do each week, and there are two one page long paper literature review assignments that you do throughout the quarter. For lab, the most helpful thing to know is that you should learn the genus names of whatever study guide your TA makes for the lab practical. It seemed like no matter how much you ask your TA you never get a clear answer of what you should be studying, so definitely use the study guide as a resource. It is super helpful if you and your class decide to make a shared google photo album with all of the lab specimens so you can refer back to them when you are studying!! Prof Brown is incredibly kind, but does talk extremely fast, so I recommend either writing down notes of what she says on a paper/doc or directly on the slides if you have an ipad. I would get overwhelmed with trying to write down what was on the slides instead of what she said so be cautious not to overwhelm yourself. Also if you are taking this class in winter, DO NOT sign up for lab on Monday, it will not make your quarter nice. You are required to do a make up lab when there are Monday holiday's so do yourself a solid and do a Tuesday-Thursday lab. Also practice the geologic timescale and just commit that to memory. It isn't super difficult to memorize, but you'll get a better understanding of the time periods if you simply practice writing them down each day.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - To preface, I took this class online so it might have been a lot easier than it usually is. Professor Brown is one of my favorite Professors I've had at UCLA and I highly recommend taking a class with her any chance that you can. Her lectures were dense but super interesting and she loves what she does so it is super fun listening to her. Recommendations: For her tests she takes exactly what she puts on her slides or says in class. She gives you learning objectives at the beginning of each lecture that are reflected on the midterm and that is all you need to study. If you take good notes during class you can fill out the learning objectives with little no effort whatsoever and then you're all set for the tests. She has three tests all weighted equally: midterm 1, midterm 2, midterm 3 (which is the the final). The first midterm was medium difficulty, the second midterm was supposed to be harder but I did better than I did on the first, and the last midterm/final is the easiest test which is supposed to boost your grade. PS the TAs are great for this class and are super helpful answering study questions.
Spring 2020 - To preface, I took this class online so it might have been a lot easier than it usually is. Professor Brown is one of my favorite Professors I've had at UCLA and I highly recommend taking a class with her any chance that you can. Her lectures were dense but super interesting and she loves what she does so it is super fun listening to her. Recommendations: For her tests she takes exactly what she puts on her slides or says in class. She gives you learning objectives at the beginning of each lecture that are reflected on the midterm and that is all you need to study. If you take good notes during class you can fill out the learning objectives with little no effort whatsoever and then you're all set for the tests. She has three tests all weighted equally: midterm 1, midterm 2, midterm 3 (which is the the final). The first midterm was medium difficulty, the second midterm was supposed to be harder but I did better than I did on the first, and the last midterm/final is the easiest test which is supposed to boost your grade. PS the TAs are great for this class and are super helpful answering study questions.
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