Literally the worst class I have ever taken. Total of 4 homeworks, midterm, and final. Nobody goes to lecture, a complete waste of time since he just reads the slides. TAs are all assholes and grade the tests insanely hard. Its a GE and they grade like an upper div. They graded the midterm so tough, they would get offended that you didnt know the answer. No help on homeworks either or gave 0 feedback. My TA was at least mildly okay but would spend discussions going so far off topic where he would talk about what he’s learning in grad school and then finish with “you dont have to know this stuff”. Focuses mostly on the ocean because hes an oceanographer and will get offended if you dont understand at their level. Midterm and final review study guides were complete trash. Powerpoints of like 80 slides picked from random lectures that the TAs made when they dont know whats actually going to be on the final. Final was totally cummulative when we werent given any notice besides at the last lecture of the last class. Questions on the final and midterm werent even on the study guides. Literally avoid this class at all costs. The only good thing is the curve and the curve doesnt help much when you do awful on tests.

I usually dont think classes are that bad when I read these reviews, but just do yourself a favor and pick from the 100 other GEs offered.

Do yourself a favor and do not take this class. The lectures are boring and redundant. The professor basically reads the words off of his slides with no further explanation. There are 4 homework that total up to 20% of your grade, and they are graded very harshly and my TA did not even explain to me why he took points off of the problems I missed. Most of the material on the homework is math based and in lecture we would be presented some formulas and there would be no explanation as to how to apply them, so basically you're on your own to learn how to do the irrelevant homeworks. The midterm was extremely difficult and not what our TA's told us to study. There was a curve but even so it is not a grade I would like to receive in a GE that I try my best to keep up with and understand. In my discussion my TA is very unenthusiastic and does a horrible job going over what we have learned in lecture, most of the class is bored and does not pay any attention because it is pointless. We did not even learn that our final exam is cumulative until Week 10, giving us a week to go over the whole quarter's lectures. This class is going to bring down my GPA and it is very disappointing because I genuinely was interested to take this class. If you read the course title and are pulled in by the word "policy," don't take this class because policy is only discussed in Week 10. Overall I sincerely regret taking this class and wish I had spent my time taking a more interesting and worthwhile GE.

This lab doesn't require you to show up. Prof posts assignments and you do them and turn them in. There are 4 assignments- 2 had absolutely nothing to do with the class while the other 2 were freebies. TA didn't provide help when asked and (Matthew Mckinney) and would never provide reasoning as to why he deducted points. Also, he never returned the lab assignments so there was no way to question your grades and points. Bad logic behind the lab itself. Prof's instructions would be confusing and would not clarify unless he deemed it necessary.

Professor Bianchi is great! He's enthusiastic and engaging and posts slides online. His slides say EVERYTHING you need to know. After the midterm people will stop coming to class since the tests (multiple choice and graph free responses) are ENTIRELY based on his power points (where ALL the information is presented). There are also 4 homeworks (which all the steps to do them are labeled so its easy) a midterm and final.

In his class, you go, you listen to him talk nonstop for 1:15hr and then leave. It is clear he likes the subject and he explains it really well. However, you DONT NEED to go to class since the 2 exams (midterm and final) are about the bullet points from his slides (that he posts online before every class and lets them online forever). To do well on his exams just READ all the slides well and memorize the important parts WELL, and know some details (he asks very random details-from the slides- in exams)

Midterm and Final are very similar. Midterm is 25 multiple choice and 3 graphs/free responses. Final is 35 multiple choice and 6 graphs/free responses. To do well on both, MEMORIZE THE SLIDES that's all. Details and non details are important and its the same to listen to those details in class than to read them on the slides so just start studying for both early enough. Midterm was 9 power points and final was another 9 (but some questions were cumulative so basically 18 PP).

To do well on the free response/graph part, you have to UNDERSTAND the homeworks. The homeworks are graphs and he will ask you to identify points in the graph etc so ask TA before handing in homeworks. Will help a lot since understanding the 4 homeworks is CRUCIAL to the free response part in exams.

Finally, suddenly the class is weighted to befeit EVERYONE, so magically I ended having an A- which is a miracle but it was since I did better in the final and because of the weight of grades he gave in the end. GREAT PHYSICAL SCIENCE G.E. If you need lab, do it, its like the homeworks but 4 more and you satisfy your lab requirement.

The class is very interesting and straightforward and the professor is very clear. When I first attended the class I thought it was going to be very boring because his slides were crammed with information and the lecture seemed too long. However, the material is very interesting and well put together, so if you are into the topic you'll like it.
We had 4 homeworks (20%), 1 midterm (35%) and 1 final. The homeworks are really easy, there is little to no math needed and it is easy to get 100% but if you want to be sure just do them before discussion and ask the TA's if you have any questions.
The midterm was also easy. The first half was made up of multiple choice questions; most of them were pretty straightforward, but some people complained about the way they were worded so if you don't understand just ask during the exam. The second half was made up of short answers, they were not as easy, but they were doable if you had an understanding of the concepts.
Overall, an easy A if you attend the lectures, listen and go over the slides. You can totally skip a lecture in this class because you'll probably understand from the slides.

I took this class in my first quarter at UCLA and this was by far my favorite class of the quarter. Prof. Bianchi is a really nice, sweet professor who is very passionate yet rational about the subject matter. The workload is VERY light (4 pretty easy homeworks that take about 20 mins each). To be honest, if you go to lectures and actually care about what Prof. Bianchi is talking about (which we all should), it's really hard to miss out on getting an A.

The one thing I would say is that I definitely got the impression that my TA (McCoy) was superior to the other TAs. He knew the material really well, dropped a lot of hints about what would be on the midterm and final and held review sessions for both. I went to every discussion because they were really good for reviewing the material. He's also just a super nice, normal grad student who went to school in Hawaii and is an avid surfer. You get the picture.

Also, for the midterm and final, I just reviewed all the slides and memorized the different policies and treaties and got a low A on both. I got curved to an A+. Some people I know got WAY lower scores on the midterm and final and ended up with an A- because of the curve. It's REALLY friendly and Prof. Bianchi and the TAs make that clear.

Your success in this class lives and dies by your understanding/memory of the powerpoint slides. Coming to lectures is not entirely necessary, since he posts the slides online. However, attending the lecture helps with retention and makes last-minute cramming less stressful, so I would advise that you go anyway, especially since he's solidly engaging to listen to. I definitely thought the content was interesting, and not just brute-force memorization. You will not need to remember completely minute details, you can get a sense pretty easily about what types of stuff will be tested by what is emphasized.
The midterm and final are not hard. If you understand and remember the presentations well, they're an easy A. The homework is pretty easy and I would make absolutely sure you know how to do everything on it going into the midterm and final, since FRQs are largely based on homework, especially the ones where you have to do a bit of math. Going to discussion is unnecessary if you feel you have a good grasp on the class, but could be helpful if you don't get something.
He is a smart man who is clearly passionate about the subject, I would definitely recommend this course as a GE.

I really enjoyed this class it wasn't super hard but it does require effort to do the homework assignments but honestly it wasn't bad. His accent was a little distracting in the beginning but you get used to it, and it isn't hard to understand. Really recommend this class with Daniel McCoy as the TA, he's amazing! Helps you understand the main ideas and takeaway from class and what to expect on the tests, and can help clarify the homework problems. I really recommend this class if you want to learn more about climate change, and the best part is there's no textbook or readings, and he posts all his lecture slides.

I'm writing this review before the class is over in case someone is thinking about adding this to your schedule. FRANKLY, this class is not as easy as the grade scale makes it look. To some people, the information come naturally, but if you are anything like me, hopefully you find this review useful.

There are two grade break downs. One where you prioritize exam scores and the second where you get points for attend class, in-class quizzes, and discussion points. Most people opt for the latter.

There is a field trip to Santa Monica where you get to do some testing on the Zodiac. It was so much fun, totally the best part of the class. It gets cold so bring a jacket.

My TA Daniel is the bomb.com. He is basically the only reason I found this class doable. I never felt dumb making him go over every single question with me. He is super knowledgeable, very approachable and just a great TA. Take him if you can.

The homework assignments start out easy, but then get more difficult. I never took an AOS class before, but this one has A LOT of basic chemistry. Chemistry with a slant of atmosphere makes it weird, because you are trying to piece together information, sometimes based solely on the units. Go to Daniel, he is your AOS god, he will grace you with mercy and knowledge.

Anyways I'm not sure I would recommend this class to people looking for an easy A. The workload is not enormous, but I feel like some people get the info and others have to put in a decent amount of effort just to understand what the heck is happening.

I enjoyed this class and Prof Bianchi is a very passionate lecturer. I have definitely learned a lot about the topics in the class.
There is a clicker quiz every week on the previous week material (3 questions) at the beginning of lecture, can miss up to 4 lectures, 2 discussions.
There is a field trip to the Santa Monica Bay which was really cool, there was a pre and post cruise assignment.
6 homeworks in total, as a bio major, was difficult for me and lots of others. I was always at TA OH which made it possible to finish the homework since they are graded very meticulously. The lectures taught the concepts, but didn’t show how to do calculations which made it hard. Homeworks account for 20% of the grade and its easy to miss points. However the TA’s were very helpful and knowledgeable, but to get an A in the class, you would have to go to the TA. Homework’s may be 5 questions, but have parts a-g sometimes.
The midterm and finals are modeled after the homework, so if you can do those, you’ll be fine. (Can drop one homework) but recommend to do all of them to do well on the exam.
Overall, enjoyed the class, but I would say the homework is the hardest part, not an easy A class
Check reviews for AOS 105 because it’s the same class