Don't believe these reviews. The only accurate thing they said was about a curve. Even then, this class is terrible. The professor is nice but is useless when it comes to receiving help. My TA is horrible- snobby and is not at all helpful when it comes to providing help. I decided to ask the professor for help because the TA was a waste of time and the professor was super vague and not helpful at all.
The assignments are extremely difficult and have NOTHING to do with the lectures. They DO involve a lot of math and the wording is too damn confusing. The professor and the TA themselves tend to send an email clarifying for every assignment. The labs are worse. They are confusing and not clear at all. The mid-term was the exact same thing- it made no sense and the TA's told us to focus on the wrong things and to memorize stuff that was not even on the exam. Overall, a huge waste of time and this class will most likely bring down my GPA. The worst GE I have taken in my 2 years at UCLA!!

I wish I had known that this class would be absolutely NOTHING I expected.
I strongly dislike this class and the only reason I don't say 'hate' is because that is a very strong word.
Half of the reviews listed are 100% WRONG. This class is TERRIBLE, BORING, and a huge waste of time. The TA i had basically would humiliate me and be so degrading when I went to his office house twice. I won't say his name for privacy reasons but I will update after the quarter officially ends. Every time I would go, he would say things like "Well if you read the instructions there, you would understand it" or even "The information you need is right there and that should be enough for the problem." He would always do these rude faces whenever I would ask him a question and change his tone into a sarcastic one. I would always leave without help and wanting to cry. I do not remember ever feeling this humiliated.
The professor is bad if not the same as horrible. I asked him for help and I mentioned how I did not feel comfortable with the TA's "assistance" and I he said was that the TA is supposed to be one I seek help for and to look at the power-points.
The lectures are boring and progressively, less students would come and I did too and instead started investing that time to go to office hours for another amazing professor. By week 10, about 1/4 of the class was actually there.
The assignments are BAD. Just to sum it up, the assignments did not correlate at all with the lectures as did the labs. The mid-term questions also had concepts that we never covered during lectures and the TAs told us to focus on concepts that were completely unnessesary. Also, it was NEVER mentioned that the final would be cumulative. We only found out on the final lecture, which gave us a week to study EVERYTHING. Literally probably more than 500 slides. Ridiculous. Also, the grades are graded severely and never want to give proper feedback. Instead, they write stupid useless comments such as "???" or "I dont know what you mean". Does it look like I'm going to write a reply back and explain what I mean? Like I said, the assignments make no sense, and yet, top it off with ridiculous, absurd grading.The TAs in this class should be reported for purposely leading students to fail the class, mistreating a student and causing distress. The professor should also be more responsible and dedicate time in lecture to be more profound in lectures instead of repeating every slide. Waste of time and don't recommend at all. Avoid at all cost. If you're taking this class, make sure you take with another professor.

I find it hilarious how the reviews that praise this professor say the exact same thing :
"Got an A by just reviewing the slides and never went to class. Easy class and would recommend with this professor. If you review the slides and do the assignments, you're guaranteed an A".

Lies. Lies. Lies. This professor alongside his pack of TAs are the most half ass staff I've ever encountered at UCLA. As far as my TA was, he was horrible and really mean. The reviews that talk positively about Daniel are most likely correct because he was the only TA who went out of his way to hold review sessions and also put together a study-guide (although useless, but I give him props).
Don't believe those reviews who say this class was an "easy A". I went to every single lecture/ discussion and still did fairly poorly on the exams even with a curve. The professor always said there would be no need for math but all the assignments required math. Also, the final was practically nothing we were told would be on the exam. I tried AAP sessions, office hours and even trying to get help out the Professor but Bianchi would say to go to my TA. I wish people were more honest in their reviews instead of probably making fake account just because they're in love with Bianchi.
Also, to the reviewer who said that we probably didn't work hard and wanted the grade given, I hope that the next time you get a half-ass professor like this one, you aren't in the same position as dozens of other kids in the class who also said that this class was trash.

This class was ridiculous. I'm like 90% sure that your grade is dependent on your TA. My TA was this dude called Matthew McKinney- a straight up douchebag who acted like he was the new Elon Musk. I hated going to his office hours because he would straight up act like a complete ass. My friend was in this class too and got a C and would go to office hours and the TA would refuse to provide adequate help. Avoid this class and this TA at all costs. The dude would never even show up to the final or the mid-term and he coincidentally had a conference the week of finals, and was the ONLY TA that didn't provide office hours and didn't show up to the final. Yet, he was the one who deducted points for everything, graded insanely hard, and treated you like you were an idiot. Hope this guy doesn't come back as a TA because he sure as hell doesn't deserve it.

Okay this class is definitely NOT as bad as all the reviews make it out to be, although that could just be because I had Daniel McCoy as my TA. Just to give you an idea of the kind of TA Danny is compared to the other TAs: he's consistently the only TA who comes to lecture (one of the them didn't even come to the final), students who have other TAs come to Danny's office hours for help, he's the one who hosts review sessions for exams and sends out review slides, he's the one who gives the lecture when Professor Bianchi isn't there. He's honestly probably the reason why a people get good grades in this class. Professor Bianchi goes through the slides super fast during lecture and isn't exactly helpful either, but Danny breaks things down super clearly during discussion and is always happy to answer questions.

The grading for this class is 20% homework, 35% midterm, 45% final. The homework's pretty easy, especially if you go to Danny for help, he'll walk you through it and basically give you the answers. Same goes for the labs if you're taking that. The exams aren't bad at all, it's a lot of basic, surface level questions that are from the slides and homework. Again, Danny does his very best to tell you everything you need to know for the exams. He's been a TA for this class for a couple years so he'll tell you what's been on previous exams. Going to lecture helps reinforce the information, but if you're a self-learner, everything's pretty much on the slides. The curve is extremely generous, you could probably get like an 80 and get an A-.

Overall, fairly easy GE, just get help from Danny if you want to succeed in this class.

Horrible Class. Unrealistically hard and not worth it. Bianchi is a very sweet professor but his exams will make you wish you never enrolled. If you do decide to take the course make sure to get D. McCoy as your T.A, he is extremely knowledgeable and seems to know more than the other TA's. Bottom line-don't take it.

I loveddd this class. I'm not an A&O major and haven't taken a chem course in years but this was super doable. Prof Bianchi is passionate about what he teaches and it shows.

Each week there's a clicker quiz but it's mostly for attendance so you get free points for showing up.
His powerpoints are well organized and made available before lecture so you can download them and follow at your own pace.

There were 6 homeworks in total. They can be tricky but as long as you read the questions carefully and follow the powerpoints the answers will become apparent!

Average for the midterm was pretty high. Highly recommend!

Horrible lab. TA refused to provide adequate help and had the tendency to make it extremely obvious that he thought you were stupid. I suggest taking your lab req with another professor. The assignments are usually flawed and they won't take the initiative to write an email explaining the mistake until the evening before it is due. I agree with the reviews that say it is absurd that we still have to turn in a hard copy of the assignment. These TAs should be banned from "teaching". The assignments were extremely hard and they had nothing to do with our lectures.

This class was by one of the best I've taken at UCLA. The workload is light and even if you're not necessarily interested in the subject the professor still makes the lectures fun to listen to. There's only one midterm and final and if you study the lecture slides a lot you'll get an A. Definitely would recommend to anybody.

I took this class my first quarter as a first-year, and liked it much more than I thought. Classes pertaining to physical geography were not really my forte, but I heard great things about Professor Bianchi and decided to take it. No regrets, really - it's quite an easy GE with interesting material that is not too hard to cover. Professor Bianchi makes the tests and material easier to digest as well, without too many tedious requirements. His tests consist of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. While some of the multiple choice questions can be slightly tricky, most are easy, and the short answer questions are graded quite leniently so your overall marks will probably be alright. The curve for the class is also pretty generous, so in terms of grades, it's nothing to worry about. Considering my lack of talent in this subject, my grade proves that the professor was really good and the class caters well to beginners :)