Professor
Jochen Stutz
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Your grade is based on online activities/homework (23%), discussion attendance/worksheets (12%), midterm (25%), and final (40%). The homework and discussion activities are relatively easy but you genuinely need to study for the exams. As in, re-watch the lectures and pay attention to the details, because you'll get a C if you just look over the slides. My main complaint is how poorly written the exam questions were, especially given how heavily weighted the exams are in the overall grade. Like, I went to office hours to go over what I got wrong on my midterm, and for most of the questions, the professor was like, "Oh yeah, that question's kind of ambiguous" and just moved on. I will say that he was pretty helpful over email/office hours about other course-related things though. Anyway, if you have good study habits, this class is an easy A. Overall would recommend.
Spring 2020 - Your grade is based on online activities/homework (23%), discussion attendance/worksheets (12%), midterm (25%), and final (40%). The homework and discussion activities are relatively easy but you genuinely need to study for the exams. As in, re-watch the lectures and pay attention to the details, because you'll get a C if you just look over the slides. My main complaint is how poorly written the exam questions were, especially given how heavily weighted the exams are in the overall grade. Like, I went to office hours to go over what I got wrong on my midterm, and for most of the questions, the professor was like, "Oh yeah, that question's kind of ambiguous" and just moved on. I will say that he was pretty helpful over email/office hours about other course-related things though. Anyway, if you have good study habits, this class is an easy A. Overall would recommend.
Most Helpful Review
The person's review below me is whack. Stutz' class is the easiest shit I've probably taken at UCLA. The exams are simple, all u need to really do is read his lecture slides(and he posts those online). Both midterm and final are like 70 percent multiple choice, and the remaining 30 percent is easy fill in the blanks. HW and In class assignments account for the remaining 30% of your grade, and these are like free As. Personally, I only studied like 2-3 hours for the final, and I ended up getting an A- on the final and an A in the class. The bad thing about Stutz is that his lectures are insanely boring, and the half of the class that is attending lecture is asleep. But hey, you dont have to go to lecture since he does have podcasts and he posts his slides online. Also, buy the textbook. Even though its only "recommended" it helps a lot with homework and you can use it to study for his final.
The person's review below me is whack. Stutz' class is the easiest shit I've probably taken at UCLA. The exams are simple, all u need to really do is read his lecture slides(and he posts those online). Both midterm and final are like 70 percent multiple choice, and the remaining 30 percent is easy fill in the blanks. HW and In class assignments account for the remaining 30% of your grade, and these are like free As. Personally, I only studied like 2-3 hours for the final, and I ended up getting an A- on the final and an A in the class. The bad thing about Stutz is that his lectures are insanely boring, and the half of the class that is attending lecture is asleep. But hey, you dont have to go to lecture since he does have podcasts and he posts his slides online. Also, buy the textbook. Even though its only "recommended" it helps a lot with homework and you can use it to study for his final.
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Most Helpful Review
I had never taken an AOS class before, but 145 had no AOS prereqs and it looked pretty interesting, so I gave it a shot. That said, I thought Dr. Stutz was a great professor. Our class had less than 20 people, and he learned who everyone was, so he knew that I wasn't an AOS major and had never heard of many of the basic concepts covered in the class such as albedo and adiabatic lapse rates. He was always very patient with me and took the time to explain these fundamental concepts to me during discussion section, and I ended up doing very well on the midterm despite not knowing nearly as much about the atmosphere as the other AOS majors in the class. I would recommend Dr. Stutz. He is very kind and laid back, and often gave us extra time to finish our homework assignments even after the due date passed. His philosophy is to assign difficult homework problems that really make you think hard, but to make up for this his exams are much easier, and he even promises you that the midterm and final will not be nearly as hard as the homework. The only inconvenient thing about him is that he's always traveling to AOS events and meetings both out of the state and out of the country - it was nice sometimes because he would cancel class, but then that also meant that he was less available to answer our emails or help us if we were having trouble with the homework. All in all, he's a nice man who actually cares about teaching apart form his research, and I am glad that I took AOS 145 with him.
I had never taken an AOS class before, but 145 had no AOS prereqs and it looked pretty interesting, so I gave it a shot. That said, I thought Dr. Stutz was a great professor. Our class had less than 20 people, and he learned who everyone was, so he knew that I wasn't an AOS major and had never heard of many of the basic concepts covered in the class such as albedo and adiabatic lapse rates. He was always very patient with me and took the time to explain these fundamental concepts to me during discussion section, and I ended up doing very well on the midterm despite not knowing nearly as much about the atmosphere as the other AOS majors in the class. I would recommend Dr. Stutz. He is very kind and laid back, and often gave us extra time to finish our homework assignments even after the due date passed. His philosophy is to assign difficult homework problems that really make you think hard, but to make up for this his exams are much easier, and he even promises you that the midterm and final will not be nearly as hard as the homework. The only inconvenient thing about him is that he's always traveling to AOS events and meetings both out of the state and out of the country - it was nice sometimes because he would cancel class, but then that also meant that he was less available to answer our emails or help us if we were having trouble with the homework. All in all, he's a nice man who actually cares about teaching apart form his research, and I am glad that I took AOS 145 with him.