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.

Professor Brown is an amazing professor but for a four-unit class, there was quite a bit of work including lab work. The assignments in the class included: lecture activities, lab quizzes, lab assignments, two lab practicals, a midterm and final, and a scientific writing assignment. Lectures were podcasted and were helpful to just listen to as lecture attendance wasn't mandatory but attending lectures made it easier to complete the lecture activities. The hardest part of the class was definitely the labs which required looking at a lot of fossils and understanding details about them and their geologic time period placements. This was definitely the hardest part of the course and some earth science knowledge could be very useful but not required at all. Our TA was super sweet and always willing to help but grading on the lab reports can be a bit harsh at times as only a few questions were graded for correctness and needed very specific details for answers which can dock you quite a few points. Lab practicals were somewhat difficult since some of the fossils are ones that you may have not seen before and you are expected to explain in detail what you are looking at or how it relates to the geological time scale. You are expected to have the geologic timeline memorized very early on in the class but it comes with practice over time. Regular class exams were surprisingly fairer and easier than I thought and they were just based on main themes or details from her slides and learning objectives and were noncumulative. Overall, this class is quite a bit of work for being a 4-unit class with a lab so if you want an easier or lighter lab class to take, then take another one. However, this class ended up being more interesting than I thought and was just a lot of busy work but the grading scheme was very forgiving and you can do well in this class!

I came into the class literally feeling like I was thrown off a boat. The labs seem impossible at first but the TAs grade super fairly and you can find a lot of info on her slides and online to complete them. The tests were much easier than I expected. Mostly multiple choice and fill in the blanks, and one essay question that you could prepare for in advance. The only con I have is that it is quite a lot of work and material. Additionally, Dr. Brown likes to talk in riddles which makes it hard to listen. Rather than being straightforward about a fact, she will add in like 20 extra words for no reason. I had to listen to her podcast several times to just comprehend her sentences. I feel like the class ended up being an easy A for a lot of people at the end, but you definitely have to study a lot.

Dr. Brown is an absolutely brilliant woman. There are few dinosaurs in this class, but it was still one of the most interesting and well-structured classes I've ever taken at UCLA. There are no curveballs on exams—everything you expect to be on them will be on them. The labs are super cool because you get to hold actual fossils!

Take this class!

Professor Caitlin Brown is a good professor who cares about the subject and her students. I would love to take another class with her, if it would count towards my major. I petitioned to take this class and it was an incredibly good decision. THIS CLASS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT DINOSAURS, IT IS MOSTLY ABOUT THE HISTORY AND OVERALL REVIEW OF PALEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY AND METHODS PALEONTOLOGISTS USE TO DATE ROCKS AND FOSSILS AND PLACE THEM IN SPACE IN TIME. This class goes over some really interesting stuff that I became even more passionate about as time went on, and Professor Brown made it more engaging. My criticisms of this professor are that her lectures are pretty dense, but the slides are really good for helping and following along, and reviewing. The labs were a big chunk of class, but to me, the content was super engaging and fun to learn, I wish I could have learned more but being online takes away from the rock examination portion of the class, no feeling for texture, orientating them correctly, seeing large vs small grained rocks, etc.. What I did not like is that most of the assignments in this class were groupwork to randomly assigned groups, and I have to say, I really did not like that, it actively detracted from a class I love and held me back intellectually, which was huge for me. I left lab early once out of frustration with my partners. Thankfully my TA, Deep, let me work in a group with some people I was compatible with. She assigns a really engaging and easy-to-read textbook, the 6th extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. I would say that this class is a little bit too heavy on the homework, with 9 labs, 2 review papers, 2 lecture exams, and 2 lab exams, with 3 labs, 1 final, 1 lab exam, and 1 paper due in the last 2 weeks, in fact, allowing for an adequate time for labs to be completed thoroughly, some assignments were even due during spring break. I didn't have enough time to submit the final paper with all I had going on academically. I appreciated that there was a pre-uploaded syllabus because I needed it to petition for the class LOL. All tests, and assignments were fairly graded and ask fair questions, a bit on the lenient side for the labs I would say, but I haven't gotten a lot of grades back as of now, March 26th. Overall, take this class but be prepared for a bit more work than average.