Professor Brown made this class incredibly interesting and easy to digest, which I came to appreciate as I took this class as a GE outside my department. There are two books required for this class, but they can easily be found online through libraries, etc. I personally did the readings, from what the weekly MCQ quizzes (5 questions generally) are based on, but the quizzes (at least for this quarter) has unlimited tries leading up to the due date, so you could go back and look for your answer. A large part of your grade is lab, but the TAs are extremely helpful, they essentially guide you through all of the questions while asking for your insight. Go to your section and you will get full credit essentially! There were two exams in this class, not counting quizzes, the midterm and final, which were multiple choice plus one free response question at the end. I found both to be reasonable, nothing surprising if you attended lecture and understood the learning objectives, definitely nothing to fear. I am glad I took this class, it definitely has made me considered taking more GEs in this department and/or another class with Professor Brown.

I took this class with Brown during the Spring Quarter 2020 during quarantine . In general, this was a very great class and overall a relatively easy. There are two lectures per week along with one lab class.
The labs are very easy as the TA goes over everything with you, which means that you are usually finished with the weeks assignment just by attending the section. There are also assigned readings, which I would recommend skimming over them since I did find them somewhat helpful.
Brown assigns weekly quizzes, which are easy points since there are unlimited attempts. I would recommend paying attention during lecture and taking notes as you do NEED to know the material in order to perform well on the midterm and final.
STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE LIKE IT IS THE EXAM! Brown provides a study guide for both the midterm and final so make sure to take them filling everything out. Personally, I found the final to be easier than the midterm and Brown took the best score out the two exams for this quarter.
If you are looking for an easy GE, take this class!

I loved this class so much! Took it during spring 2020/covid-19 quarter.
This class seems to be really great for people with a preexisting interest in dinosaurs. Personally, I love Jurassic Park/World and this class satisfied all my dinosaur curiosities.
Well administered, tests and quizzes are easy, labs are easy, no homework other than reading (which you don't really have to do imo). Lectures are engaging.
I highly recommend this as a science GE. Learning about deep time/evolution really helped me understand humans' place in the universe.

Took this as a GE and I loved, loved, loved this class. I have wanted to take it ever since I heard it was offered at UCLA, and it didn't disappoint. It was such a cool experience to be in a class about dinosaurs as a humanities major and Prof. Brown was great.

I took this in an online format due to covid-19 but if anything that just made the class easier. The books Brown assigns for reading are also GREAT, like seriously so well written and fascinating, I loved them. I had Valeria as a TA and she was fantastic, super kind, helpful, and also willing to share her experience in the field as a paleontologist which I really appreciate. Labs were really easy as long as you came to discussion, as we literally did them question by question with the TA's. Quizzes were a breeze because you could re-do them as many times as you wanted until you got a 100, and the midterm was ridiculously simple as long as you read and went to class (I got a 100). The final was also trivial because you could replace whatever you got on it with your midterm grade, so as long as you do well on that, you're set (and even if you do bad on the midterm, no worries, the final was just as manageable).

My only criticism is that I wish this class talked more about the ecology of dinosaurs, this class mainly talked about bone structure of fossils, bodily processes, identifying species, and stuff like that. As someone who has loved dinosaurs since they were a kid, I really wish we could have talked more about actual behavior patterns/ what it would have been like to live life as a dinosaur. But, this is just personal preference and totally subjective.

Overall, all you need to know is that this class is a super unique, fun, and easy GE, I could not recommend it enough!

I took this Spring of 2020 during the coronavirus quarantines/protests. Even so, it was a really easy class: there are easy quizzes every week with no time limit and unlimited retakes based on the books. The midterm was also easy (got 100%) and based mostly on lecture material. Didn't go to a single lecture or read a single slide after the midterm, and the final was made so that your midterm grade also counts for the final. Labs took longer since they were online but were also basically free points as I had a great TA who walked us through everything. Also, there are two textbooks required, but I barely read either of them and you can find them both online in PDF format!

Overall, if you need an easy GE during spring quarter, take this class! You'll learn a lot about dinosaurs!

This class was sooooo much fun!! It was a light and easy GE and the labs were actually so fun I looked forward to them every week! This class made me realize I think dinosaurs are pretty damn cool and I want to learn more about them

Everything about this class is amazing. I want to be a paleontologist now.

This class is very interesting but definitely not the easiest GE to take. You must memorize a lot of information on multiple species of dinosaurs to where it can get confusing if you don't study enough. I liked this class a lot but it is definitely not a GE you can get away without studying for. Midterm and Final were both in person. The labs for this class were very fun and engaging.

This is an easy and good GE to take freshman year. It’s quite interesting at some points, but is a lot of memorization. The discussions were all lab-based and collaborative work that we do in class. There was barely any outside work other than weekly quizzes about the recent readings and lectures. Definitely take this class if you want an easy GE!

idk i didn't go to class or watch lectures at all. lab attendance mandatory. she posts lectures and slides. labs are easy if someone at your table knows what is going on. but our TA pretty much would just tell us the answers to everything we asked about. you do not have to do the readings at all. weekly 5-question reading quizzes are google-able and have unlimited attempts on bruinlearn. bi-weekly 5-questions lab quizzes also on bruinlearn don't have unlimited attempts, but i didnt know any of the content and googled based on the context of the question and always got 100%. i tried squeezing all the content in the day before the midterm & final, but this is the first class that this method has not worked for with me. there was just way too many concepts and dinos to memorize it was impossible so i gave up. i also thought i failed both exams because i literally guessed on all of the questions. that being said, i got a 52/58 on midterm mcq and 7/7 on one written response question and for the final i got 41/43 on mcq and 14/14 on a couple written response questions. midterm was 28-30 mcq and final was 43 mcq. she deliberately makes the written questions extremely easy, basically the most basic concept you could know. she curved both tests i believe. grade distribution: midterm 15%, labs 40%, weekly reading quizzes 10%, bi-weekly lab quizzes 10%, final 25%. definitely recommend. automatic A