Very brilliant professor and very good professor for first years. Studying for tests start on Day 1. The key to doing well on exams is engaging yourself in lectures and connecting the concepts together rather than remembering random facts. Not an easy A, but a very informative class nonetheless.

Great professor- probably my favorite at UCLA so far. Puts all his lectures online and tries to relate the subject material to things applicable to us. The class was very fair. Just pay attention in lecture and GO to his review sessions. I found that a couple of questions on the midterm/final were actually directly addressed in his review sessions... so they're definitely worth your time. take his class!

His lectures are a bit annoying at times, and it's really hard to stay awake. I haven't decided whether it's his style of teaching or the monotony of the subject, but I think it's fair to say it's a combination. The labs are a free 40% of your grade, and his curve is very lenient for grades so the labs are definitely a way to secure atleast a B. The first midterm results were lackluster for most of the class, and it wasn't an easy test but it was definitely manageable with 3-4 hours of studying (I got very high 90s). I found that all of his questions came off the concepts from the study guide. So to study, I would say just answer as many study guide questions as you can (thoroughly), and whatever you don't get.. go back to the podcasts and fill in the answer. Don't read, and please don't even buy the book. Going to class is sometimes beneficial because the podcasts don't always have clear quality but other than that, it's a fairly easy A.

Took Geog 1.

He was an outstanding professor. There were a few idiots in class who thought it would be okay to have a conversation in class while the professor is lecturer. At not one time did he ever kick anyone out that wasn't already annoying several other students.

He's a very interesting professor, easy to reach in office hours and seems truly dedicated to student learning despite his "wanna-be bad boy" attitude at the beginning of the class. He basically tried to scare anyone looking for an easy A off. Regardless, it was an easy B for me. I didn't crack open the book once. The labs are a given. You simply need to worry about being able to apply the concepts learned to varying situations and you should be set to go.

Okin is a painfully boring lecturer. His tests are multiple choice but they can be kind of difficult if you don't study intensely for them. Be careful that on the midterm and final he will focus on topics that he didn't stress that were going to be on there. Luckily, the labs are super easy so that helps boost your grade. I got a B+ in the class, but probably could have done better if I'd tried harder or ever gone to lecture. Overall, it's a decent class but there are definitely better classes to take for easy G.E.s.

I think Professor Okin is a very fair Professor given it's UCLA. He is extremely knowledgable and is very apparent (in a good way). However, the class is not easy! The concepts for the 1st 1/2 of the class can be hard which talk about The earth's origin (big bang), The earth in space and structure, plate tectonics, earthquakes, then where it gets challenging is when he talks about Atmosphere, Climate and weather. He talks about the physical and chemical processes going on here so he does go in depth talking about the chemistry behind it but doesn't expect you to remember the very small details. He is more interesting in the bigger concept but there is ALOT of concept to remember.

The class is 40% labs (Easy, if you put effort you should get 90%+), then 30% midterm and 30% Final both of which are Multiple Choice. Make no mistake, his tests are Multiple Choice however they are hard! He likes asking questions like "All the following are true except" and put in answers that are either very similar or have one tiny detail that makes the others false and one true.
Although the 1st 1/2 of the class is harder concept and the 2nd 1/2 I felt was definitely easier to understand, The test for the final (At least I felt) was definitely harder than expected and for me harder than the midterm. BTW average for the midterm was 68% but he makes it so that the 68% is the new 75% and accordingly shifts everyones scores up. Like I said, very fair professor but not easy since tests are hard.

Key to success is do the Study guides and watch all the podcasts while doing the Study Guide AND put effort into the labs because they are graded and they are what hold your grade up. No need to even buy the book, I forgot I had it by week 4 and I got a B+ in the class.

I learned valuable information in this class because it teaches you about the processes in earth which is where we live. Now I know why it rains at different latitudes, why certain parts have different climates, why rivers meander, why we have mountains, how clouds form, how earth was formed and much much more and all in-depth. However, this class will require a lot time if you want a good grade especially for those study guides which have about 80-110 questions and each questions has between 2-5 questions and most are like "Explain why it doesn't rain at 30degrees latitude form the equator" which generates long answers. So if you don't have the time, don't take it but if you do and want to learn about the processes in our world then I highly recommend it.

Only con about professor Okin is that sometimes it's hard to hear what he says because his voice can be very very low at times so you do miss things and when listening to the podcast you can go from barely able to hear him to all of a sudden, his voice just skyrocketing up (I think this is a technical issue with the recording) which is not pleasant or good for the ears.

I wouldn't recommend taking this class unless you have to or are interested in physical geography; I needed to take it for my major. I ended up with an A- in the class, even though I expected to get a B or B+ going into the final (based on what I got on the midterm). The class is 30% midterm, 30% final, and 40% lab. His tests are all multiple choice, but the questions are not basic and not always straight forward. I wasn't a huge fan of the labs; a lot of them felt like busy work and kind of elementary, though some of them were helpful. I attended every single lecture, read 95% of the readings, and did well on all of the labs. He does podcast all of his lectures, though I never listened to any of them. He seems to expect you to watch all of the podcasts in addition to coming to lecture, which was frustrating considering I attended every lecture and took notes. Point is - it's not impossible to do well in his class by any means, but you have to understand on Day 1 that the class will require more than just showing up and taking the tests.

While I didn't connect to Professor Okin's way of teaching, he is very knowledgable and a clear lecturer. He makes a point to go over key topics more than once and he provides multiple resources to his students.

Avoid Dr. Okin at all costs. Not only does he think that he is better than everyone else, but also he finds odd pleasure in tricking students and watching them fail. I took Geography 1 with him the quarter before, and heard that he was a better professor when it comes to upper-division classes because he's not trying to weed out the stragglers. FALSE. It's like he feels better about himself when his students fail and can't understand anything. Okin created this test with about 25 short answer questions and 5 essay questions in the span of an hour and fifteen minutes. He refuses to curve according to the difficulty of his exams. You have to write down and memorize literally everything he says in order to have a fighting chance at passing the class. Also, when he tries to explain these concepts of soils in class, he does not make sure that people are following him. He says that a basic understanding of chemistry is all that is needed to do well in the class. This is also false. Okin went into more Chemistry about soils (probably the most boring topic I can fathom, that he makes even more painful) than I had ever wanted to encounter in my academic career at UCLA. He was extremely unapproachable and explained things in the most complicated ways possible. Please avoid him or face the consequences. Maybe people who are like him will do well in the class. But unless you are inherently born with an in-depth knowledge of the chemical properties of soils, then I suggest you steer clear of this class and even Geography 1 with Okin.

This class is almost entirely about soil chemistry. Do not take this class unless you have a serious interest in chemistry for it's own sake, or soil chemistry specifically. There is virtually nothing here of practical use for the non-chemist. You will learn about soil chemistry at the atomic level: protons, electrons, colloids, CEC, anion and cation exchange, surface charges, isomorphic substitution etc., etc. If you want something practical and useful on soils in the Geog department, take Trimble's Geog 107: Soil and Water Conservation.

If however, you do have an interest in chemistry, Prof. Okin is excellent.

Prof. Okin is a great professor and I would recommend this class to anyone, if you're up for a challenge. I struggled in this class, but it only motivated me to try harder. I feel that for UCLA standards, Prof. Okin has a perfect combination of challenging, but not impossible. Keep in mind, however, that I took this class remotely, and that I am unsure how this class is taught in person. All in all, I really enjoyed the class and the content.