I 1000% agree with the last review. This class was unnecessarily difficult, considering it’s literally about soil. The midterm and final account for over 75% of your grade (combined), and the rest is for participation in TA sections that were not mentioned on MyUCLA. With half the quarter being online, he still gave us the midterm in person - to no surprise, most of us didn’t do well. The content is also really confusing and he requires you to memorize a lot (taxonomy, etc), which makes it all 10x harder. Lots of chemistry too, to the point where it should have been a pre-requisite to take the class. He also has a weirdly strict notebook policy, and doesn’t hesitate to yell at anyone who has a laptop/ ipad in sight - he completely humiliated someone during lecture who was just taking notes on his laptop. Unless you love dirt, do NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Worst one I have taken at UCLA by far.

This professor SUCKS..... DO NOT take a class with him unless you want to fail!!!
His lectures don't correspond to his exams and overall he just lectures all over the place.
He really is the only one who knows what he is talking about and he just can NOT teach it to anyone else....
The worst Professor i have ever had....Just WORST

Do not be fooled by the grade distribution. It was when this class was completely online-open exams. I took this class Winter 2022 and it was horrible and extremely difficult. The first half of the class was completely asynchonous, and the FIRST time we ever met in person was for a CLOSED note midterm. Honestly so horrible, online learning was rough and then you give us an in person exam for the first time ever seeing you?? This class was so hard. FULL of soil chemistry and physics. He expects you to memorize so much information its so overwhelming. The worst class I have ever taken my 4 years at UCLA so far. We also had surprise TA sections that counted towards our grade when it was NOT listed on myUCLA at all. So i signed up for this class planning it around my work schedule, and then he decided to add mandatory TA sections which were not helpful at all because lecture was very disconnected from TA sessions. Professor is also cocky and doesn't take criticism well. He screamed at a kid infront of the entire class for having a laptop. Super embarrassing for that guy and very unprofessional for Greg to call him out like that. He has some sort of Superiority complex . This was truly a horrible class. Not interesting at all. I worked my ass off and still didnt do well because of all the material and intense concepts. Only take this class if youre a chemistry major.

Highly recommend this class and professor. Lots of content given and tested on, but it is a very reasonable amount of work per week. Very clear instructions for assignments. It is a perfect GE in my opinion with very minimal interaction and commitment needed.

Prof Okin is kind of a douche. it feels like he wants to be one of those amazing life-changing professors, and thus accordingly tries to be "cool" and "bad-ass". however, he just falls flat. because he tries to do his lectures in a really conversational, "make-it-interesting-by-not-reading-off-the-powerpoint" style, he takes forever to say what could be said in a few words. that are on the powerpoint. also, it seems like he has some perverse need to kick a certain number of people out of class every quarter, and thus assert is position of power over us mere students. he kicked three out this quarter, and one or two in both lectures from last year i listened to online. it's really weird and stupid.
all that being said, if you can get through his lecture this class is really easy. labs are an easy 40% of your grade, and the tests, while being so ridiculously specific it's hard to study effectively for them, are curved so much that it doesn't really matter...

Okin was a very mediocre professor. I found it very hard to pay attention to his lectures during the first half of the quarter, but the second half was actually pretty interesting, probably because he knew more about it so he was more enthusiastic about the material. However, I enjoyed his teaching style and he was very fair, so if you are interested in physical geography I would highly recommend this class. If you have no interest whatsoever, I would choose another class because the material is a bit dry if you have no interest.

不推荐，比较难，同类中有简单很多的课，底下的评论都是外国人写的，外国人学这种课都很认真

I liked Okin and I got an A- without even reading the book (which by the way was kind of a waste of money). and if you talk to him outside of class, you'll understand why. He seems somewhat intimidating during lecture, but he's really interested in what he's teaching. I look forward to taking more classes with him.

I just finished Geog 1 and I really enjoyed it (and did well). My advice for this class would be to attend all his lectures (if you miss one watch it online and take notes as if you were in class) because his exams are based mostly on the things he says. The readings for the text book help support what he teaches, but don't stress over them. Skim the chapters. Look at the graphs. Read over the chapter summaries. Also, make sure you get full credit on all of your labs. They are not hard. It is just a matter of going to section and getting them done. It is a simple way to secure a high grade not based on exam scores. All in all, Okin is a great professor and he puts in the time (like having exam review sessions) to help you get a good grade. Take this class!

The best word that I can think of to describe Professor Okin is fair. He's a very good lecturer--it's easy to understand him, he conveys information well, and he does a good job of putting the right amount of information on the powerpoint slides. His lectures are straightforward, and there's no tricks in either the material or the exams. As long as you know the material, you will do well--it's simple memorization. That said, there is A LOT of information given to you in ten weeks, and I wouldn't call this class an easy A--there are quite a few questions that appear on the exams that are tricky in the sense that they cover details that are easily forgotten. I personally thought the midterm was easier than the final, but I also put in more time studying for the midterm. They're both well curved--I think an 80% on the midterm ended up as a 93%, or something similar. He gives very extensive study guides for each exam--thoroughly answer each question, listen to each podcast over again (he puts them all online--use this resource!!), and you'll do well.