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- J L Mitchell
- A&O SCI 3
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I would recommend this class overall. Mitchell is a SUPER nice guy and you can tell he really wants his students to succeed. The workload is pretty light too, with one discussion packet every week and homework on canvas with about 20 questions. The midterm and final largely consist of the clicker questions, homework, and discussion questions very often, and they are not too hard. If you don't study THE TEXTBOOK, however, the final may be hard. If you really want to do well in the class you should study both his lectures AND the textbook to make sure you really understand the content. TA wasn't much help, though. Overall I would recommend this class as a GE, and it gets much more interesting towards the end too once you really understand the content and weather mechanisms. You just have to be patient with yourself when understanding the fundamentals of the course and after that it's genuinely very interesting to learn about the weather.
Mitchell is by far the best professor I have had at UCLA. He is almost everything you could want in a professor: Approachable, understanding, fair, generous, and predictable. I took this class for a GE but now am considering an AOS minor because I enjoyed this class so much.
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Now about the class: Mitchell offered +10% extra credit for attendance to lecture and discussion (lecture attendance taken through participation of online quizzes and discussion attendance taken via submission of discussion assignment). Homework was super easy and usually just fill in the blank or multiple choice. Do not use Quizlet for the homeworks, because homework questions are directly reused on the tests so it's important you understand them. The tests are pretty easy. They were 2/3 multiple choice 1/3 free response. Averages on the tests (2 total) were ~70% but if you take notes during class and READ THE TEXTBOOK, you can easily get well above the average. I suggest READING THE TEXTBOOK because Mitchell really means it when he says material from both the lectures and textbook will be on the test (so stuff he does not even mention in lecture). He does not curve, but the +10% EC is more than enough to offset that.
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Discussion assignments are also super useful. FRQs on the tests usually included a copy and pasted discussion assignment (and discussion assignments are graded for completion. Complete them all and you get +5% EC).
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As for the content of the class, it's a surprising amount of conceptual material like physics (no real computations though, just imagining). A few equations and good amount of graphs, but nothing beyond basic algebra is needed. Mitchell also posts all of his lecture sides, and does some live weather predicting at the start of class once you slog through the basics and conceptual parts of meteorology (which is like the first 6 weeks, and also the "hardest" part of the class).
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If you have ANY interest in the weather, take this class. I had a lot of fun, but come to class caffeinated because Mitchell is super monotone, lectures with the lights dim, and some of the earlier content isn't very interesting (which he acknowledges).
Professor Mitchell is a really good professor. I took this class for a GE and if you're looking for an easy GE, then this is the class for you. The workload is manageable and not difficult at all.
I'm selling my book for this class: Understanding Weather and Climate by Edward Aguado and James E. Burt if anyone needs it.
Send me an email at ************* if interested.
I would recommend this class overall. Mitchell is a SUPER nice guy and you can tell he really wants his students to succeed. The workload is pretty light too, with one discussion packet every week and homework on canvas with about 20 questions. The midterm and final largely consist of the clicker questions, homework, and discussion questions very often, and they are not too hard. If you don't study THE TEXTBOOK, however, the final may be hard. If you really want to do well in the class you should study both his lectures AND the textbook to make sure you really understand the content. TA wasn't much help, though. Overall I would recommend this class as a GE, and it gets much more interesting towards the end too once you really understand the content and weather mechanisms. You just have to be patient with yourself when understanding the fundamentals of the course and after that it's genuinely very interesting to learn about the weather.
Mitchell is by far the best professor I have had at UCLA. He is almost everything you could want in a professor: Approachable, understanding, fair, generous, and predictable. I took this class for a GE but now am considering an AOS minor because I enjoyed this class so much.
-
Now about the class: Mitchell offered +10% extra credit for attendance to lecture and discussion (lecture attendance taken through participation of online quizzes and discussion attendance taken via submission of discussion assignment). Homework was super easy and usually just fill in the blank or multiple choice. Do not use Quizlet for the homeworks, because homework questions are directly reused on the tests so it's important you understand them. The tests are pretty easy. They were 2/3 multiple choice 1/3 free response. Averages on the tests (2 total) were ~70% but if you take notes during class and READ THE TEXTBOOK, you can easily get well above the average. I suggest READING THE TEXTBOOK because Mitchell really means it when he says material from both the lectures and textbook will be on the test (so stuff he does not even mention in lecture). He does not curve, but the +10% EC is more than enough to offset that.
-
Discussion assignments are also super useful. FRQs on the tests usually included a copy and pasted discussion assignment (and discussion assignments are graded for completion. Complete them all and you get +5% EC).
-
As for the content of the class, it's a surprising amount of conceptual material like physics (no real computations though, just imagining). A few equations and good amount of graphs, but nothing beyond basic algebra is needed. Mitchell also posts all of his lecture sides, and does some live weather predicting at the start of class once you slog through the basics and conceptual parts of meteorology (which is like the first 6 weeks, and also the "hardest" part of the class).
-
If you have ANY interest in the weather, take this class. I had a lot of fun, but come to class caffeinated because Mitchell is super monotone, lectures with the lights dim, and some of the earlier content isn't very interesting (which he acknowledges).
Professor Mitchell is a really good professor. I took this class for a GE and if you're looking for an easy GE, then this is the class for you. The workload is manageable and not difficult at all.
I'm selling my book for this class: Understanding Weather and Climate by Edward Aguado and James E. Burt if anyone needs it.
Send me an email at ************* if interested.
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