I took this class kind of for fun becasue I heard that you get to spend two weekends out in the desert. As someone who loves the outdoors, I was like why not! Turned out to be a good decision overall because I learnt so much about Geology through this class. For this class, even though EPS SCI 1 is a pre-req, Kevin taught it assuming you did not know anything which was great becasue that was my situation. Kevin is such an engaging lecturer and definitely one of the best teachers I have ever had in my life. You can just feel his passion for the subject matter and he is so approachable. He will always make time for you to answer any questions you may have. The field trips were also incredibly fun and everything kind of just clicked after that. The objective of the trips was to create a geologic map (hence the title) so be warned that it is not that easy and does take a lot of effort on your part. The tests were relatively straightforward and goal based so it was easy to study for them. There were also weekly labs which were challenging but are essential for you to be able to make the map again. A very rewarding expereince and definitely something I will take away as a great memory from college.

Kevin is a great professor who really cares about his students and goes out of his way to help them out. He offers tea in his room if you'd like to chat and has lots of office hours where you can go and talk to him.

The class has many labs, which were difficult to do because the TA had a strong accent. The exams are goal-based, so if you review the slides you'll be more than fine.

The class builds up to a final project of mapping the Rainbow Basin, which is a lot of fun but quite tedious. There are 2 weekends of camping in the basin which is very fun, and you bond with your classmates and with Kevin on the trip.

His only downside is he grades very strictly and rather harshly, meaning that you could easily not get an A if you make little mistakes here and there throughout the quarter. He says, "Everyone here could get an A, but you won't".

I took this class because I wanted to do the geology minor, but now I'm not so sure. The class was really in-depth, and I'm not too sure I want to take classes that are really technical. I like rocks, but now I'm thinking that it's a little but much for me. That's just me, though.

Kevin is the best teacher I've had at UCLA. Not only because he teaches in a funny and clear manner, but also because of his kindness. He is very humorous, caring, and lovely. A number of us in the class had become friends with him. (he also has a lot of small dinosaur figures in his office that you can take for free c:) Buuuuut he talks rather slowly, so I sometimes watch the lecture recordings at 1.5x time speed.
The class itself is fun and easy if you are interested in basic geology stuff. I did really well on the midterm and the final with 2-3 hours of study the day before, otherwise, I don't read or study anything outside of class. Kevin has very clear slides with goals listed in the beginning, if you go through all of them you will be fine for the exams. It has two weekends of field trips in the Mojave desert with a long field project, so the workload is a bit heavy towards the end of the quarter, but it is a great experience for doing fieldwork, making friends, etc.
Labs are also interesting, the TAs are super nice, almost all labs can be done during lab time. The only heavy work we had was the field part. If you are having another class with a heavy workload, you might want to email Kevin and ask him for advice on to take it or not.