This is probably the hardest class I've taken so far at UCLA. It's not really a geography class, but a biogeography class. The textbook is VERY dense and you have to know everything for the midterm and final. He cares about what he teaches, but the lectures can be very dry sometimes. His random bursts of humor are funny though. I don't think this class is being offered anymore, but if it is...take it with caution!

Walter is a very nice professor, he really loves his work, especially id species. You will definately find that out if you take him. His lectures are sparce in comparrison with his exams. There ia a lot of reading, but if you read and memorize any hand outs you should be fine. I did quite well on the midterm. I sitll have to take the final. The final is 60% of the grade, but al his exams are multiple choice. You really have to do the readings or you will be completely lost. overall this class was sort of interesting, learned some things. But it is not a breeze in the park, sometimes his exams will include the most randomest questions. But he does grade on a curve.

Where do I start? First of all, his lectures are mostly just his own personal thoughts. He shows a lot of pictures, puts up some graphs from the book and mumbles something about them, and talks about how important it is to conserve the environment. That said, you really don't need to go to class, except for the occasional announcement. He required a 5pg single spaced essay that wasn't too bad, but his midterms and finals were hard! It was all on the reading from a terribly boring and dense book. Pretty much nothing he talks about in class was on the exams. So like others were saying, don't be fooled by his gentle demeanor and low key lectures. If you want to take this class, be warned that it is extremely boring - one of the dullest classes I've ever taken in my 4 years at UCLA. And you pretty much have to do ALL of the reading to get an A, and I usually get A's in classes without doing any of the reading.