Highly recommend this class and professor. Lots of content given and tested on, but it is a very reasonable amount of work per week. Very clear instructions for assignments. It is a perfect GE in my opinion with very minimal interaction and commitment needed.

This class is NOT easy. I'm going straight to the point. The professor's asynchronous lectures don't help very much. The textbook is helpful for the quizzes. T.A is very helpful as well, But, this as your G.E requirement, I would NOT consider it, for the reason being that the midterm and final have different questions and different understandings from what you learn in the asynchronous lectures and the textbook that don't meet the standard of these questions on the midterm and final. Please, take a different G.E., don't consider, it unless you want to challenge yourself or try to major in a specific field that requires this class.

This is not an easy GE. Tests are very difficult and have extremely niche/random questions. Most of the questions are exactly like the chapter reading quizzes(some are the same exact questions). Wouldnt recommend to someone not actually interested in the subject.

This class is so difficult. I thought it would be fairly easy and decided to take it as a GE and it is the hardest GE, if not hardest class, I've taken. I took the asynchronous version of the class and the lectures do not align with the readings and are long and often tangential. You can not tell what the professor is just adding as additional information and things that you need to commit to memory. The midterm and final each make up 20% of the grade. The material itself is not very hard but there is SO MUCH of it and the professor does not test on conceptual understanding. The midterm and final questions come from the book and are extremely niche. Sections of the book that you'd assume are just throw away examples and information actually appear on the tests. I'm not sure if he changed the structure of the class but I would recommend not taking it unless you are majoring in something related to Earth Science or have an extreme interest in this topic.

a lot of cool content to cover, and a self-paced environment that let students tackle the content at their own speed
Professor did not communicate much about his exams, TA's did not know about the content on the exams, no study guide provided for midterm or final

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.

I'm a geography major and found this course very difficult. His lectures are very difficult to stay awake during because he speaks very fast and kind of quietly. You don't necessarily have to do the readings because he discusses it all in lecture, but they do help clarify. His tests are REALLY difficult. The labs are really annoying but pretty easy. Overall, Okin makes a potentially interesting topic confusing and boring. I would not recommend.

It's kind of hard if you take it as a GE. As many evaluations said his voice goes very low from time to time. Multiple choice questions are tricky. Not recommended for those who are not interested in physical geography.

Selling textbook for GEOG1. Please contact me : *************

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 didn't know why i stick with this GE. I wasn't engage in the material. Professor Okins is an Ok professor. Sometimes you might feel sleepy in his class because he talks monotone and sometime very low that you can barely hear him. He does use a mic though. The labs are very elementary and easy . They are like writing definitions for the terms. but yea . Selling the textbook . text me at **********