Professor Mechoso is nice and kind, but his accent is (at least for me) too difficult to understand. To be faithful, I never listened to the lecture: remembering everything from the slides would be enough. His exams are pretty much about details, especially numbers and figures, so make sure you recite them (and go to the discussion section! That helps a lot). It would be hard to earn 100% on exams but the homework and labs are very easy. He also curves the class so much, so don't worry if you don't do well on the exams.
Final Grade (for both AOS1&1L): A+.

Although Professor Mechoso is nice, funny, and tries to make the class understandable (personally loved his references to How I Met Your Mother!), the lectures were pretty boring and sometimes hard to understand with his accent, so I took advantage of the podcasts several times. I thought the tests were tricky and slightly hard. Personally, I didn't do so well on the midterm and final - was disappointed considering I studied a looot for this class. But since he curves the tests, I managed to get a B for the quarter. He gives out homework 4 times per quarter, which are pretty doable if you attend TA office hours. Overall, not as easy as I expected.

He was wonderful. Really funny and such. Go to the test bank and pick up past quizzes of his because the ones he give will have the exact same questions. Got a B in it which I could've improved had I not skipped out on one bit about La Nina and stuff, but if you show up and work you'll be perfectly fine.

first off, mechoso is very hard to understand for the first few weeks of class. if you arent used to strong accents, this will be a challenge. but, i recommend taking the class. the stuff is pretty easy and even though it seems cofusing when he presents it, the TAs help a lot. section is super helpful, so go! he does a nice curve so if you try hard youll get a good grade. also, the lab is ridiculously easy so definitely take it. its four papers throughout the course, but they are graded very easy (like 100% on all of them if you just follow the directions and answer all the questions). so, this class was a bit of a pain in the butt, but im glad i took it.

If you want to do well in this class, please listen to what i have to say!!. I can help you!! First of all, this class is not very difficult, a great GPA booster. Mechoso starts off the year always positive and funny. Lets just say the first day of class I knew i made the right choice. Now about the exams, they are entirely composed of his lectures. GO TO LECTURE!!!!! GO TO LECUTRE!!!!! he says stuff in lecture that is not covered in powerpoints. Alright, I admit I didn't go to lecture the last few weeks. But I at least listened to his podcasts. You should at least do that if you're not going to go to lecture. Back to the exams, they are entirely composed of his lecture points. The final exam, midterm, and quiz are not very difficult as long as you study, i promise. Trust me. Don't listen to what other comments have to say. If you study well his lectures, participate in discussion (which I'll tell you which TA to pick) and actually try on the homework, you will definitely succeed. Next, the TAs. When choosing your section, please, please, PLEASE, PLEASE, choose either Schwartz or Pittman. Marla Schwartz is really helpful and is extremely clear. Best TA ever. She communicates very well with the class, provides us with examples and creates fake exam questions to give us in discussion to keep us on our toes and let us know what kinds of questions are asked on exams. Next is Dustin Pittman. He is really good and solid. If you either have Dustin or Marla, you're set. They both go to lecture and pay attention. If you are confused about anything professor says, because I admit sometimes he was difficult to understand, they will clear up any questions you have. On the other hand, the last TA Alex Jousse is french and difficult to answer at times. He doesn't answers questions very well in my opinion, (marla is better!!) they both ran the review session and she kicked ass. Jousse doesn't go to lecture either. So in his discussion, he simply repeats the lecture instead of clarifying and providing extra help which is what discussion is for. Long story short, please enroll with Marla Schwartz or Dustin Pittman! Like I said, if you study discussion slides, go to lecture, participate, and listen to his podcasts if you're absent, you should be good!!!

I took Climate Change with Mechoso and he is an absolutely adorable, little, old man! His lectures are pretty entertaining so I honestly have no idea why some of these posts say that Mechoso's boring. He tries to make the lectures a little personal by asking questions and learning some of his students' names. I do have to admit that I thought this class would be a drag and therefore was my back-up back-up class, but boy was I wrong. I ended up learning a lot and it is quite an easy class. The only sorta bad thing is that his TAs are a little snooty but going to discussions are extremely helpful. All in all, I recommend taking this class definitely.

I had Professor Mechoso for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 1 and 1L. He is definitely one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. A&OS1 with Mechoso is pretty easy. I don't know why some other people have posted they found the lectures boring. Even if you don't like the subject matter seeing this cooky old man tell risque jokes makes waking up for a morning class a lot easier. I have learned about ozone in just about every science class I have ever taken since middle school but never before have I heard it described as a ménage à trois. He also threw in a reference to Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter Paul and Marry) on the last day of class. There are a home works due every two weeks, which if you pay attention in class and use google can be completed in under an hour. In and of themselves the the quiz, midterm, and final are hard and less than a half dozen people in a class of 80 get over a 90% but he curves the class like crazy. About the only downside is that if you get what looks like a horrible percentage score on those exams you aren't going to know whether you got an A or a B until the very end of the class because he curves the overall class grades not the individual exam grades. As far as the lab section is concerned this a great class for getting the that GE out of the way or just boosting your overall GPA. There are four labs, which are basically essays. Essentially you just describe what is supposed to happen when the earth experiences/experienced different climate phenomena. For example in one of the labs we had to write about the real world impacts of El Nino, how much property damage occurs, what areas experience flooding, what areas experience drought and so on. There are only four labs. I put in a bout two and half hours of time into each of them and I ended averaging a 99.5% for and I got and A+ in the one unit lab section. To be blunt about it approximately half of my "research" for the labs came from wikipedia. In short Professor Mechoso is awesome and this is an easy GE. A&OS is a small department and Professor Mechoso unashamedly uses the easy curve of A&OS1 and 1L to try to recruit students into the A&OS major or minor. Take his class.

He's a nice guy, but I hated every minute of this class. I was SO HAPPY when it was over. I tried going to a lecture for the first couple weeks but then I stopped going because it was SO BORING and I wasn't learning a thing. His accent is sadly very difficult to understand and I found the lectures and subject material to be BORING. The class has 2 quizzes, a midterm, and a final, which were so hard to study for because his Power Points don't explain anything very well. I got Bs and Cs on everything but he curved the class so much that I got an A- in the end. He's a very easy grader--I'm pretty sure he gave almost everyone in the class a B+ or higher.

I am generally interested in climate change but this class was too technical and sciency to be interesting. I don't recommend it for North Campus majors like myself. Even though I ended up with an A-, it was so annoying to spend hours trying to learn such boring stuff and I never really learned anything--I gained nothing from this class.

Professor Mechoso is really nice though!