I took this as a GE as a north campus major. I wouldn't really recommend it and there are lots of other GEs out there. This class involves lots of math and there's a lab every week.

I took this class during the online winter quarter and as a GE, so that might affect my review. I'm also bad at math

The concepts we learned were cool and the lectures/homework made them easy to understand.
overall I felt like this class was disorganized (not a big deal though because most people take it as a GE). The professor is also really nice, willing to answer questions, and explains the concepts well. If you are confused on topics there is a lot of resources online, within the homework, within the lectures, etc.
If you're better at math than me you'll do fine.

Overall though the class felt very unorganized. The class included 1) lectures 2) labs and 3) homework assignments. The lectures were not mandatory and the slides were available on Bruin Learn. Labs included a pre-lab and lab assignments, both were graded, but you didn't have to do all of them. My TA for the Labs was great but they often felt like busy work and didn't really expand or connect to the concepts in lectures in super meaningful ways. The homework was probably my least favorite part though - it's one of those homework platforms where you have to buy the textbook in order to access the homework, which is frustrating and makes it more inaccessible for some people. The homework questions were found on Quizlet which was handy but the videos were just crash course videos, so it was annoying to have to pay just to access the readings/videos which I could have found elsewhere. The midterms (there are two) /final are HARD and I did way better on the class assignments than the tests. Normally I don't mind if a class doesn't provide a study guide, since no one is really entitled to having one BUT I literally had no idea what to focus on because there was so much material and it felt disorganized. Practice midterms/final were given so we could "see what the exam would look like" but everything was multiple choice so that didn't really matter anyway. It would have been helpful if I had a more concrete idea of what to study, especially with the equations (write down ALL THE EQUATIONS!)

This class was easy enough but, I had more trouble with the tests than understanding the information... if that makes sense. Lectures were easy enough to understand and discussions were very helpful but when it came to the exams I felt they were harder and included things we didn't learn directly in class.

This class was not the worse despite how little effort I put into the course. Treu was a sweet guy and you can tell he is passionate about the topics, but the lectures weren't mandatory and sort of hard to follow along. You don't really need to attend lectures to do well in the course. The main part of the class that determines your grade is the exams (2 midterms, 1 cumulative final). The two midterms contained 32 multiple choice questions and the final had 40 questions. It was open-note but there are a good amount of application questions and to be honest, I can see why he made it open note because the exams were still a little bit confusing and difficult. There was some math involved but it wasn't the worst since he provided us some examples in the practice exams he provides, but some of the concept questions were difficult to answer. I will say that the first midterm average was like 78%, while most people did a lot better on midterm 2 and the final. However, there is not a lot of structure and resources in the course, and I typically felt pretty unprepared each exams because the practice questions were very dry and minimal. Besides that, he offered 1.5% extra credit this quarter for attending a live stream and writing what we learned, which was pretty nice. The grading distribution you see does reflect this course accurately as Prof Treu wants everybody to succeed and do well in the course! He is super accommodating if reach out to him and typically responds very fast. Overall, Astro 3 is highly dependent on your professor and I HIGHLY recommend taking it with Treu (typically teaches winter I think) to fulfill the science + lab GE requirement (5 units)! Definitely not 100% easy, but I would say easy/medium difficulty.

Super sweet guy. I honestly don't recommend going to all the lectures because the slides are posted online and he doesn't cover a lot on the tests. GO TO DISCUSSION! It's optional but will basically teach you everything you need for the tests. An easy GE

writing this during my discussion class right now with Gibbs because with all due respect this is the worst GE I've taken at UCLA. the lecture slides' audio has TONS of background noise that drown out the professor's voice, but even if audio were clear the complex concepts of this class are glossed over and understated. The exam asked like 5 vague, broad questions that we needed to answer in about 200 words, and when it was graded on gradescope we got points off for things like "did not say that Planet X did Y". It was ridiculous. Although I've tried to ask questions to get deeper understanding, the TA does not know how to answer adequately most of the time. There ARE EASIER GEs that you should take. AVOID this one. Too much work than it is worth. You won't learn much at all.

This class was super fun. I really recommend taking this class with Treu. Sometimes I feel like profs here don't really like having to teach classes. However, Treu was always so enthusiastic about astronomy. You could tell that he was a prof who really liked teaching and working with students. As for the class, the grading scheme was 20% Labs, 20% homework on kudu (the online textbook), 20% for midterm 1, 20% for midterm 2, and 20% for the final. Labs were fairly straightforward. Ask for help from your TA and work with your group mates and you should get close to 100% on the labs. Homework was super easy too. All of the tests were pretty difficult. HOWEVER, the class was curved to compensate for the tricky tests. First of all, the grading scale was generous. 95% is an A+, 90% is an A, 85% is an A- etc. You could also earn up to 5% extra credit by participating on campuswire. Just answer student questions and you'll get the extra credit. Overall, the course was extremely interesting. His slides had a lot of pictures and it was cool to see some of the awesome celestial phenomena. If you have an interest in astronomy, I highly recommend taking this class. Treu was awesome, and it's a fairly easy GE.

This class if very fun if you enjoy astronomy. If you don't, don't take this class as an easy A unless you're good at math/physics. Overall I really liked Treu and he way really helpful. Tests are pretty tough but he ends up giving extra credit and he rounds up your grade, so if you get an 85% in the class, you can get an A if you do the 5% extra credit.

Honestly, I liked the content of this class and found astronomy super interesting. As someone who took AP Physics C in HS but did terribly in bio/chem, astronomy was pretty intriguing. The 2 timed, open note midterms were kinda stressful for me. I felt like there weren't enough practice/application problems (he gave out a practice midterm of 20 questions after the first midterm because of some requests) but even those weren't as difficult as the mathematical applications in the actual test. Did decently on both. Didn't study too much for the final but it was a lot easier in my opinion, and with the extra 5% Campuswire EC i got a good grade.
However, I found his lectures to be fairly boring. It just was not engaging, and his slides were organized in a brutally painful way so that they were hard to follow, and the important information wasn't really there 1/4 of the time. Again, just imo. He also didn't explain things too well in my opinion. Of course, super amazing, bright, talented guy but I did not enjoy his lectures at all and ended up watching them recorded and pausing to take notes (you can't really take notes during the lecture because he speeds through the slides).
Also, KUDU is really just watching a PBS video of a guy talking SUPER quickly for 10 minutes (so you have to take notes and process it all). And then reading a ton of stuff that is basically a repeat of lecture, but occasionally there's more you just don't know when it's comin for ya.
Labs are super easy IMO but I know other people struggled. I had Nick F and I loved him.
Again, love Treu but I just felt like this class wasn't worth it. I ended with a good grade so it's not really worth stressing over because of the EC & grade curve, but i personally thought it was mediocre. Learned some INSANE COOL THINGS THOUGH!

Professor Treu is brilliant! It was genuinely such an honor to be able to be taught by such a well-spoken and interesting professor. I never felt afraid to ask a question if something was unclear and he genuinely made an effort to ensure that he was making sense. My TA (Philip) was equally as helpful and the labs were not too difficult as long as you understood the lectures too. The tests are definitely not a walk in the park, but reading the Kudu textbook and making sure you pay attention during lecture helps. There were also some opportunities to raise your grade because the tests weren’t the only thing going into the gradebook. As for COVID adjustments, the lectures occurred on Zoom but attendance was not mandatory and the lectures were recorded and posted. I loved this class and recommend it highly to anyone willing to put in the work!