Dr. Young is an amazing teacher. His lectures and engaging, and it's clear that he likes his job. He always makes sense, and he answers everyones questions. He's very knowledgable on the subjects covered in the class. I think this is the most interesting class I've taken at UCLA, not only because of the content, but the professor. The only thing I didn't like about the class is that he'd turn the lights all the way off, and as a tired college student, I'd want to fall asleep. The midterm was easy, and so was the final. I had a great TA (Leslie), who was always ready to help with homework and answer questions. The midterm and final are all multiple choice, and the study guides he gives you are helpful. Make sure you go to the lectures, because the slides are hard to follow unless you listen to bruincast too cause he doesn't write much on the slides. Also, pay attention to what he says you need to know for the final, because he isn't lying to you. I feel like Ed wants the best for me, and I'm thankful for that. I truly think he wants his students to enjoy his class and learn. I would definitely recommend this class!

Super engaging professor! A lot of the material is in the slides so be sure to study that, however oftentimes the slides are just pictures that don't really help unless you went to lecture and heard what he had to say about them. The midterm is easier than the final, as I didn't study hard enough for the final and overall got a B in the class. The textbook is NOT needed at all for the class, since I probably opened it once during the entire quarter and the tests only have material covered in lecture. Be sure to look at quizlets to help for the midterm and the final.

Random tips:

- Know general facts about the different planets, like the distance between the planets and the sun in AU
-He also tests on the topography of Mars and the Moon, so make sure to study those slides to know where stuff like the Sea of Tranquility is.

TAKEN DURING ONLINE QUARTER - If you're looking for an easy GE, this is it. At least when online. I really did try to go to lectures, or watch them later, but the slides are not useful, just pretty pictures of planets or random equations that seem scary but won't be tested on at all. Dr. Young is very sweet, and very passionate and knowledgeable about the subject. That said, I really just couldn't focus during lectures. What I tried to do instead was take really good notes on the readings from the textbook, but gave up on that too. I ended up not really attending lectures in any manner for the majority of the quarter. There is a discussion section per week where you do a CCLE quiz together, but it's for participation so it doesn't matter what grade you get on those as long as you show effort. Other than that, the only other part of your grade is the midterm and final. If you have an internet connection, you'll be fine.

I loved this class. Edward Young is a great professor, and his tests are extremely fair. The only reason I got a B+ was for my complete lack of studying for the final. You have homework due once a week in lab section, but they're all pretty easy handouts. Overall, definitely would recommend as a relatively easy science GE.

Enrolled during my first quarter just to get a GE credit out of the way through a science-related class that seemed at least somewhat interesting.

In the end, I can say EPS SCI 9 definitely is a low maintenance course like the other reviews say. Grading is segmented into four sections: weekly quizzes (online, multiple choice, extremely doable time limits), participation in discussion section (you're given a worksheet, and as long as you try to do it, you get full points; that's literally it), the midterm (in-person, multiple choice with half of the questions being copied verbatim from the earlier quizzes), and the final, which was more difficult than the midterm but still not too challenging. Ours was online due to the TA strike, but don't expect that to be the case going forward.

All in all, I had a good experience with Professor Young - as the other reviews have noted, he's clearly very passionate about the content (often to the point where he descends into very niche tangents). I will say he tends to go through the slides quite quickly and packs a ton of information into the lectures, but the vast majority of it is not assessed in nearly the same detail later on. Just by using some common sense, you'll be able to tell quite easily what he's emphasizing (often too, he just says directly what will be on the tests). Even though I found myself tuning him out quite a bit of the time as the quarter went on, I can say that the content matter itself is actually very interesting. His slides are almost completely based on visuals, so you'll probably be amused enough to not fall asleep. If I were to mention a criticism, I will say Professor Young has a tendency to be a little aloof with technology in terms of responding to messages and emails, so I would recommend talking to him directly at the end of class if necessary. He was always very accommodating and understanding when people did so.

Overall, I would certainly recommend this class to anyone for a straightforward A. The subject is fairly engaging, everything structure-wise is simplistic, the class enrollment wasn't even half full, and the textbook is absolutely not required.

This class seems very difficult at first because the professor uses lots of formulas which makes you it’s a math/physics heavy class. However, don’t worry! There’s no math on the tests and we are given a study guide for the midterm and final. Make sure to study them because it gives you an idea on what you’ll be test on.

Overall, it’s a super easy class with little to no workload :)

Professor Young is absolutely adorable. The class content can sometimes go over your head, but it's definitely an easy GE and he's really passionate about what he teaches, which is always nice to see.

I couldn’t have asked for a better intro class to UCLA. This was my first quarter at UCLA, and Prof Young’s class was lit. He recommends a textbook but it’s not all that useful. Just pay attention to the lectures and big topics and you’ll do just fine!

I highly recommend taking this course. Professor Young is a great professor who is sweet and delivers engaging lectures. The first lecture was actually pretty daunting but the rest were so much easier to follow. In terms of the exams, there's a lot of information that won't be on them but they're still easy to pass. Overall, a valuable course with an interesting professor!

I was super excited to take this class and read a lot of great things about Professor Young. He is super cool and a great professor. The grading consists of one midterm, one final, 4 labs, and 4 homeworks. The lectures themselves could be really dense, as he often went into depth about the math used. This math was never on our exams, which he made clear from the first day. I stopped going to lecture around week 7, because he moved too fast for it to be helpful to me, and he posted the slides online anyways. Most of our grades came from discussion, where we did labs and were given homework. These are very important to go to, since homeworks are due at the beginning, and we weren't told which weeks we would have labs. My TA was Fran, who was super helpful. Discussion usually included a few minutes at the beginning of class for Fran to go over the terms and concepts on the lab or homework, followed by the rest of class being done individually. It was expected to be turned in at the beginning of the following discussion, but labs could usually be completed in one sitting. The homeworks were focused on math, which we weren't tested on, so Fran usually went through how to do the harder questions. The exams were pretty easy, as most of the questions were from the lecture slides. Overall, this is an extremely low maintenence class. I spent maybe 20 minutes a week on homework and labs, if I didn't finish it in class, and about an hour studying for the midterm. The final is cumulative, so it does take longer to study for, but it ended up being very fair.