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.

I took this class Winter 2022, when the first half was online and the second half was in person. I'll mainly talk about my in person experience since going forward, this class will probably be in person. The first day of in person class was a closed note midterm, pretty messed up. This class is not easy, probably one of the hardest geography classes i've taken. I would agree with the other review, do NOT be fooled by the distribution, this class was way different this year. Not only is it hard, it's also incredibly boring and very physics and chemistry based. The lecture material was very different than the study guide material. There's just A TON and overwhelming amount of material we need to memorize. So much taxonomy and nomenclature, formulas, reactions, on top of the difficult concepts. It is so overwhelming to make it all fair game for a CLOSED note exam. Okin is a soil expert and this stuff is easy for him so he forgets that us students are new to this and its hard to pick this all up so quickly. The TA sections were all over the place since lecture did not match up to the study guide which was what we covered in TA sessions. Oh yea, he decided to surprise TA sessions on us which were MANDATORY. These TA sessions were NOT listed on myUCLA and nobody knew about them until we were already enrolled. Not sure how this was even allowed, but honestly, pretty messed up to spring them on us when many people have work or other obligations during the TA sessions. The professor was not very good at explaining things, made me even more confused. LOL yea he screamed at a kid on the first day for having his laptop out. He has a no laptop policy and someone was unaware so they had their laptop out. Professor Okin stops the class to scream at him in front of the ENTIRE lecture. There's a mature and professional way to handle that, and he did the exact opposite. Embarrassing a student like that reflects WAY poorly on YOU, not the student. ALSOOO he gave me a C+ in the class and i was like WTF... only for him to check and say Nevermind, you got a B. The stresssss is not worth it. Avoid this class unless you want to get a phd is soil chemistry.

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.

This class is absurdly difficult for a class with no pre-requirements. This is most students' first soil science class, and some have not yet taken any college chemistry classes, yet this class covers what should probably be split into two or three separate courses. The professor generally covers 1-3 of the more technical topics covered in each week's long and dense readings, yet the tests cover the entirety of all the readings at an intense depth. This class manages to be too broad and too deep for one quarter. Additionally, he requires memorization of a small amount of basic chemistry and mineral names, along with requiring students to learn intermediate-level soil classification from scratch for the midterm. I attended most of the lectures in the first half of this class (and watched the recordings for any I missed), attended the discussion sections (which were not mentioned on my.ucla, but count for 25% of your grade), and studied for at least a collective 30 hours in the week and a half before the midterm. My grade after a hefty curve was a C+. Not worth the time or effort. Switched my grade scale to pass/no pass in order to do the bare minimum for the next half of the quarter, as the energy this class took was actively harming my other grades. If you find the material interesting and want to preserve your passion for the subject, just buy the textbook and teach this material to yourself. You will anyways end up doing that if you take the class. The textbook is the 15th edition of The Nature and Properties of Soil by Weil & Brady.

EVERY REVIEW IS TRUE. IF I COULD LEAVE 10 MILLION BAD REVIEWS I WOULD JUST TO SAVE OTHERS THE TROUBLE. I HAVE OVER A 3.0, SO I AM IN NO WAY A BAD STUDENT. THIS IS THE WORST COURSE I’VE EVER TAKEN. OKIN NEVER NEEDS TO TEACH A COURSE EVER AGAIN. THIS COURSE CONSISTS OF TONS OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. THE GRADE COMPOSITION OF A MIDTERM AND A FINAL TAKING UP NEARLY 80% OF YOUR GRADE IS ASININE. HE MAKES THIS COURSE WAY HARDER THAN IT HAS TO BE, AND I’M CONFIDENT THAT HE IS THE WORST GEOGRAPHY PROFESSOR AT UCLA. YOU CAN’T EVEN USE YOUR IPAD FOR NOTES! DUDE GET WITH THE TIMES. IT’S 2024. HE EMAILED ME ABOUT MY MACBOOK MAKING W NOTIFICATION DURING CLASS WHEN PLENTY OF OTHER STUDENTS WERE ON THEIR DEVICES OR ASLEEP IN THEIR CHAIRS BECAUSE IT IS SO BORING AND DISINTERESTING. GO TAKE A CHILL PILL. YOU’D THINK AFTER SEEING A 1.0/5.0 ON BRUINWALK, THAT YOU’D MAKE CHANGES, BUT THIS GUY IS ONE OF THOSE PROFESSORS STUCK IN HIS WAYS. HANG UP THE CLEATS BRO. 👎👎👎👎👎👎

Avoid this class. The grade is based on a midterm and final which are closed notes, all written responses. Requires a lot of memorization, categorization and the chemistry should've been a pre-req. Very misleading for the people who haven't taken chemistry. The midterm was very tough, the average was less than 69% even with "curving". I wouldn't waste my time with this class.