As someone below said, this class is an easy A as long as you do the work. She offers a ton of pretty easy extra credit (up to 5%, meaning you can go from a B to an A at the end of the quarter). You do have to go to lab, but they're usually pretty easy and straightforward. There are lab quizzes every week, so I'd recommend looking over the lab the day before, but again, they're pretty easy and are also only a tiny bit of your grade. For the midterm and final she allows note sheets and you have the option of taking it with others, so you take it first by yourself and then again in a group of 4, and she averages your two scores to get the final grade. You do have to go to lecture because she requires iClickers.

Wouldn't change a thing about the class. You get two "cheat sheets" when taking the midterm and final. The midterm was a whopping 15 questions so missing a few could easily screw you over while the final had more questions. Overall she's a good professor and she had two guest lecturers this year. iClicker participation is mandatory but its easy points, same with the homework assignments and extra credit assignments.

Easy A if you just do the wok, hated the labs but they were group based. Overall totally recommend and hope to have a class with professor Tripati again!

Overall an OK class, was not expecting to have to put as much time into this class as I did. Lectures are boring, while Tripati definitely knows what she's teaching, she moves very fast and if you didn't do the reading, you will be totally lost. She does genuinely care about the course though, and is very approachable, so if you have any questions, she will be glad to help.

This class requires weekly reading quizzes, which are open book. You can also take them as many times as you like until they close, so those are an easy A. She also assigns bi-weekly writing assignments. These are pretty easy to complete, just don't leave them for the last minute. One thing I didn't like was that the labs seemed totally different from the class. I don't know if that was just me, but it felt like what I was learning in the labs had no connection to what was being taught in lecture. However, the labs were not too difficult. As long as you attend lab and do the lab pre-readings, you will be fine.

Her midterm and final was not too bad. She allows you to take each twice in the time period: one time individually, and the other time in a group. I like this aspect of the class, because it encourages collaboration, and it helps boost your grade: I got a D on the midterm individually, but a C overall with the group component.

This is a semi-easy class? Depends on how you see it. There was a lot of work, and I crammed a lot because I would do them the night before. I didn't spend much time studying, so I did my cheat sheet as minute. I did 7/10 extra credit given, which only boosted my grade by 1%. I attended most lectures to get my iclicker points; I did well on my science community project (full credit).

My midterm: A-
Lab Quizzes: ranged from 6-8
Lab Final: B-
Final: D-

My grade in the class came to be a B, so if I did better on the final, it could of been an A.

This is a great class to take if you're looking for an easy GE (plus lab credit!). Just be sure to keep up with all the little assignments which can be easy to miss at the beginning

Tips to get an A:

Before you do anything, take a look at her Syllabus. All of the graded components are listed there.

1. Do the weekly reading reviews (you can retake them until you get 100, and she only takes the highest score)
2. Have a good understanding of big concepts. You can skim over the details UNLESS they appear in lecture.
3. Try to go to all the lectures. Iclicker Participation is 10% of your grade, but you can skip 3 days
4. Go over lab slides before your weekly lab quiz. Almost all of the questions can be found there, and it's the same info on the Lab Final so it makes studying for that so much easier (the lowest score of the quizzes is also dropped)
5. Don't forget to do the written assignments. There are 4 in total and you have to do all of them. Show you've put in effort and you can get full credit.
6. Extra credit is optional, of course, but it's nice to have the choice there as a fallback plan. I managed to get an A+ without any, but if you forget an assignment it can give you a boost. You can write a summary on a Blue Planet episode and get points for that, so if you're into nature documentaries this one's for you
7. Don't spend that much time writing cheat sheets, it's really not worth it unless you legit didn't learn anything. I hardly touched mine on both the midterm and final

If you have a good grasp of basic science concepts from high school the class will be a breeze so long as you DO THE WORK. I didn't do any readings the second half of the quarter, or pay attention in lecture but crammed hella before the final. So long as you're down for a little last minute stress this is the class for you

I have never talked to Professor Tripati personally, but if you're passionate about the course material I really suggest you go to her office hours. She's a nerd for the earth sciences and cares a lot about her students

One of, if not, the easiest classes I've taken at UCLA. It is super easy to get an A, as long as you do the work. There are a lot of assignments, but they're relatively easy and extra credit is bountiful. Tripati is such a passionate professor and you can really tell she cares about the class. 10/10 would recommend the class. She gives cheat sheets on exams!!

The class overall was very manageable. The workload wasn't too hard: there were weekly OPEN book quizzes online, lab quizzes every week during lab (which were pretty easy depending on how hard the lab was the previous week), etc. Participation is necessary because she incorporates iclicker points every lecture. I'm not really sure if she gave us a free pass for certain amount of lectures but I still went to all lectures. However, her lectures are kind of boring and dry. I actually just went to class to fulfill my iclicker points and during the lecture just watched videos on youtube for most of the lectures.

Tripati is the nicest professor. She is accessible, and seems to care about student learning. However, this class wasn't my cup of tea. I found the material boring, and the assignments a tad paternalistic. She really does try to make it interesting though. And hey, I actually REMEMBER the material, and was able to recite it (with all the stupidity that comes with only knowing a little about something) to my hippy friend in a conversation about the state of the ocean. So Cheers! This is an easy GE! But be prepared to be way more BORED than you thought you could possibly be if you dislike the material. I frankly wish I took a harder class I was interested in. Your choice.

General consensus is that this is an easy class. If you're used to taking more analytical science, engineering, and math classes, this class will feel kind of weird. Class feels like more of a TED talk in the depth that it goes into. The subject material is really interesting, so at times I was disappointed we didn't cover more material.The professor really wants you to do well. She personally told me she liked our final video which felt really nice. She's a sweetheart. Lots of people take this class for an easy A, including lots of student athletes. A lot of stuff is group based. I won't elaborate why I bring these two things up together other than adding that a girl in one of my lab groups didn't know where Africa was on a map.