Take this class! It's a MUST.

What I really like about this class
-10 Extra Credit Reports available that can boost your grade
-Extra Credit Questions available in midterm/final
-The fact that midterms/finals are focused on understanding concepts instead of memorizing little details and facts
-Week 10 film festival is really really entertaining
-Science communication project is fun. It is the assignment we can enjoy doing it.
-How the grading is evenly weighted: instead of weighing the midterm/final heavily, you spread our the grading well. 12% quizzes, 12% participation, 30% labs, 25% final, 15% midterm, 8% science communication project.

What I would like to change about this class
-Labs (especially graphing or plotting points) can be tedious

Tips for succeeding in this class
1) Take your online quizzes seriously. You have 2 hours for that. Use that time.
2) Go to labs prepared. Labs quizzes are not hard if you do the readings.
3) This class has video podcast. Rewatch them. Know the concepts. Concepts. Concepts. Concepts. The professor wants you to understand the concepts, not the details.
4) Go to her class. Don't miss it more than 2 times.
5) If you put in enough effort, you will get an A. Not an easy A class but just put in your effort.
6) Do many extra credits (total 5 points available).
7) Go to her office hours. She is extremely helpful, caring and understanding. I can guarantee she will help you for sure.

I GIVE PROF TRIPATI A 10!

I believe I was the one who told Bruinwalk to start this page because I simply could not express how much I hate her so I need help from others.
I have a friend also in this class. He sits in the front of the room for every lecture, takes notes carefully, and reviews every night. I wouldn't imagine anyone else study this hard for GE. When he was writing eval for this class, all he put on the back was "FUCK", cuz this is probably the class that screwed up his 4.0 GPA.
I mean the prof is a genius, a genius of making something interesting painful as hell and something easy hard as hell. Not to mention her pop quizzes which makes up 20% of the grade. She actually made the third quiz a take-home assignment but expect us to write a two page single space review on a 45min documentary.
And she has absolutely no teaching abilities. 100+ slides every class, are you fucking kidding me. She couldn't even finish half of them. Not too mention how much she likes high resolution pictures. I don't even remember how many times my adobe pdf crashed trying to open her slides.
I just feel I would teach much much better than her after taking this class.
Oceanography is a good GE to take but AVOID TRIPATI!!!!

My friend took oceanography before and she told me this course was an easy GE. However, things were totally different when I took this course, just because of this professor. She was the most horrible teacher I met in UCLA. At the beginning of the first class, she told us that no laptop was allowed in her class. However, one day, her computer shut down and she asked students if we had laptops so she could borrow. Also, she said that it was okay not to attend lecture, because not everyone was lecture-study person. However she had pop quiz! Besides, a week later she sent email to notice that if you couldn't come to the lecture or would leave early, you should send her email in advance! Isn't it ridiculous？You said not everynoe was lecture-study person! Give another example, her 3rd quiz was a taken-home two-page paper. Just one day before the due date, she sent a email saying that it was single -spaced. Single-spaced, couldn't you tell us ealier, not one day right before the due date? Are you kidding me?
Now I think you can understand which kind of person she is. Feel free to take oceanography, because the course itself is not hard. But avoid this teacher!!! She made this course hard! Maybe just because she is too smart to teach this easy course.

Take this class! Before taking this class I checked bruin walk and read so many awful reviews and did not want to take this class but since it was the only class that fit my schedule that counted as as GE I enrolled and I am glad I did. You won't get an A with just showing up to class so if you are looking for that type of class this is not for you. However, it is not a class that is too demanding of your time. I took 4 courses and was an officer for two organizations when I took this course and was able to manage just fine. I found the content of the class very interesting, especially through the videos presented in lecture. Professor Tripati is very passionate and genuinely cares about you understanding and doing well in the course. I went to see her the first day at office hours and she let me borrow the textbook for the quarter so if the price of the textbook is a concern talk to her. I did not enroll with friends in this course so I didnt look forward to the group work of the midterm and final but I was able to join a group with other classmates with little effort since she helped the class get into groups during class. For themultimedia assignment i made a webpage on my own with wix.com and took about 2 hours to complete in total and got full credit for the assignment. Lab is not hard at all, there are quizzes before each lab and as long as you read over your lab from the previous week before lab you are good. Oh and they post the answer to the labs on the wall outside the lab room so check those out. Each week I would just make sure I was familiar with the concepts covered in lecture by reading those sections in the book, not necessarily the whole chapter and I ended up with an A. Really, this class is not hard. The only way you won't pass is if you don't open your book at all or sleep through lecture. I really enjoyed it and am sure you will too.

I am disappointed in UCLA for hiring someone like her in the first place. She is smart and I know that and she knows that. But that obviously does not make you a good teacher because she was the worst teacher I have ever met at UCLA. She is so goddamn rude and gives us 100+ powerpoints per lecture. It's just like are you fucking kidding me.
To the good reviews...- I bet she wrote them herself because there was absolutely no way anyone could enjoy that class. Actually, the class could have been interesting if our professor wasn't so disorganized and so ridiculously rude! I have mediocre prof. all the time but this is the first time I had to email Bruinwalk to make her page.

I am sorry but her review sessions were complete shit. I left within the first 10 minutes. She would just sit there looking like a dumbass and ask people to ask her questions. When they would ask her she would give the most rude and mediocre answers I have ever heard.

Oh and listen to this. She gave us such little time for the midterm so my friend went to her office to talk about it. She told him to go to the Disability office if he had problems. Like are you serious UCLA, you're raising our tuitions and making us pay thousands of dollars for a lady like her?

The final was plain ridiculous. Random questions that I don't even know where she pulled from. It was obviously not the slideshows because I basically wrote all the slideshows on the piece of paper that let us use and it didn't help me at all. It was so obvious she was trying to make us all fail and suffer by putting ridiculously hard questions.

So to those who are even considering to take this class- DON'T. i took Comm 10 last year. I looked it up on bruinwalk before I took it and it said it was hard but I took it anyway.I really regret it because it messed up my GPA but hey at least I learned something from that class and the prof. was knowledgable and nice. This class on the other hand, the subject is boring as hell and the prof is just plain horrible.

We had evaluations at the end of the year and I just put "Fire her"

I mean take Intro to Oceanography with a different teacher if you want to take the course. I heard the course was really a breeze when it was with different professors.Just avoid Tripati at all costs. It was a waste of my money and time.

Professor Tripati cares more about student learning than any other professor that I have had the pleasure of learning from. Making sure that her students leave class with a full understanding of oceanography and its impacts on our everyday lives is her number one priority. She is easy to learn from, and assigns a reasonable amount of work. Not to mention—her exams are EASY. She provides a question bank before hand, so as long as you learn the answers, you can then BRING THEM TO THE TEST on two sheets of paper. The midterm was only 15 questions long, multiple choice, and afterwards we had a group test with the EXACT same questions. While she can be a little strict in terms of attendance (she took attendance the day before Thanksgiving) she is very understanding in all other aspects. Plus she offers relevant extra credit, which I greatly appreciate. I would definitely recommend this professor and class to my peers.

If you want a great science GE, take this with Prof Tripati. One midterm, one final (two sections: individual and group), one science communication project (pretty easy and interesting), attendance, labs, and extra credits. To earn an A, you just need to do what the prof wants you to do. The labs are pretty tedious but they are also doable. The prof shows great concern to students. When I met her in the Geology building, she even recognized me and asked for my opinions of the class. Although the lectures are boring sometimes, she tries to make the slides easy to read and insert some fun videos. She's the kindest professor I've met in my first quarter at UCLA.

THIS CLASS IS AN EASY A. How do you do this? Just do the work. The breakdown of this class includes lab quizzes, online review quizzes, midterm, final, video project, and in class participation. Don't bother buying the book, since her lectures contain all the information you need for the final. Study for lab quizzes by studying what you learned the week before (easy points). Show up to class and use your iclicker. Both the midterm and final are done as groups.. Not to mention that you can do extra credit video summaries that can boost your grade by 5%. This class is gold if you're looking for an easy science GE.

This is a revision of the post (below).

I would like to note my blatant negligence in blaming Professor Tripati for my sometimes frustrating experience in her class. It is indeed difficult to appease everyone in a class of 300+ students with so many different learning styles and needs, and I neglected this factor as a student who isn't aware of what other students may need. Everyone's experience with her is different, but one cannot deny her fairness in the course and earnest attempts in making it an enjoyable experience.

Prof. Tripati is a wonderful professor, perhaps one of the most attentive, responsive, and genuinely sincere. She has addressed my concerns on numerous occasions, even at times when I randomly dropped by. She didn't tell me to wait for office hours; she immediately and earnestly assisted me. For that, I am grateful.

I did learn a lot in the class, more than I thought I would. I walked in thinking marine biology, but I effectively learned geography, chemistry, biology, and physics through interesting topics. The course provides a variety of learning opportunities and expands one's knowledge regarding the sciences.

Take it for the experience, if not for the fantastic professor who defeats every negative stereotype of a university professor in charge of a large class.

Professor Tripati is a very nice, knowledgable professor. However, her class was not a good experience. If you are the type of student who likes straightforward, organized teaching with clear instruction... this is not the class for you. Tripati is very disorganized, which isn't completely her fault because the information is a mile wide and an inch deep. She missed somewhere around six lectures this quarter, which makes up about a fifth of all of the lectures. Not a huge deal because the grad students were incredibly helpful, but still a bit disappointing.

Oh, and also, if you are looking for a marine biology class... TURN AWAY NOW! This class is all about the oceans interaction with our environment - aka, lots of global warming talk, El Nino events, atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, ect. The material can be interesting of course, but if you are here for the sea otters and dolphins... you have been warned.

Yes, it was an easy A. But it was also an oddly stressful A. Her test banks have 200 very general questions that are not helpful when studying for a 15 question midterm (yes, 15 questions). Her powerpoints are pretty worthless if you try looking at them on your own - most are pictures, iCicker questions, general definitions, and corny jokes.

Tripati is a very friendly, approachable professor and if you are actually interested in the ocean and climate change, then this class could be right for you. Overall, I am glad this class boosted my GPA, but could've done without it.