Professor Mclean is straight-up GOD. I am not even kidding. If you are worried about an A, this class will give you loads of opportunities to get there, including telescope viewing activities and random extra credits by the professor. But this class isn't just about the grade because Professor Mclean is the most genuine, funny and dedicated professor I've seen at UCLA. He is actually concerned about your learning and class performance and continuously motivates you throughout the quarter. If the class isn't performing well on labs, he will literally give a 100% to all students on the homework sets. If the midterm didn't go well, he will give extra weight to homework. He will break down the coursework to the simplest syllabus and will give you hints about what he will ask you in the midterms and finals. And let's not even talk about the study guide, because that is literally all you need to read for the exams, and I cannot emphasize that enough. Damn, I wish every professor was Ian Mclean at UCLA.

THIS IS NOT AN EASY SCIENCE G.E. We had to use Kudu this quarter instead of a textbook which was ridiculously annoying and didn't teach me anything that a physical textbook couldn't. Weekly homework through Kudu which were so strangely phrased, and not even similar to the midterm and final, despite what he kept saying. He reads from his slides in lecture, which are posted online, so you really don't have to go (even though I did to try and understand wtf was going on). Finding old midterms and finals will be your saving grace, as he repeats the same questions a lot. He doesn't curve it, so it's pretty damn hard to get an A in the class. There is also an extra credit opportunity. The labs are annoying but you can find the answers online and do pretty well in them (they're what saved my grade). He's a nice professor, but I honestly can't think of a reason for anyone to take this class unless you wanna meet athletes because they're about 30% of the class lol.

THIS IS NOT AN EASY SCIENCE GE! You definitely need to do studying beyond the slides and the homework questions. Maybe it was just this quarter since they tried to do a "no textbook and only online hw" thing, but very few homework questions were actually on the final. If you want an easy GE, take physci 10. It's much more doable to get an A in that class and you learn information that will benefit you for the rest of your life. One of the TAs, Mathew, is very tough on grading labs and this definitely had an impact on my grade. I think if I had better lab grades and that I did better on the final, I would have gotten an A. I took this GE thinking it would be an easy GE but it was my lowest grade this quarter.

Prof. Mclean is a passionate, intelligent speaker who knows exactly how to phrase his lectures in a way that is captivating and informative. He clearly cares about the subject matter and gets excited over the little things we take for granted in the field of astronomy. I highly recommend this class and this teacher, and I look forward to taking other classes from him in the future. It's imperative to go to all the lectures, not only because some of the homework questions come directly from his lectures, but because your understanding and appreciation of the material will be so much deeper upon hearing Prof. Mclean speak about it. This course covers everything, from our own planet to the most distant reaches of the cosmos. You'll never view the sun the same way again, and you'll probably spend too much time thinking about black holes and spaghettification (yes, that's an actual scientific term). 10/10 would recommend this course, though it's very difficult to get an A. As long as you show up, it's hard not to get a B, but anything higher will require some extra effort. It's a good thing he offer's extra credit!

Astronomy 3, anyone has McLean Astro 3 final (with keys), please send to ************* ASAP, thank you very much.

look at his physics department profile for more information

McLean is by far one of my favorite professors. I loved his class, and I am sad that he is not hear this year. He is on sabbatical. In any case, if anyone is even remotely interested in astro you will love this class. He has a scottish accent which only makes class all that much more enjoyable. Never boring, always helpful. I hope he gets an award!

If I could add another major i would add astro because of this man.

GREAT GREAT TEACHER

one of the easiest classes i've taken at ucla. all his notes are posted online so i never went to lecture, and you don't need to read the book because it's exactly the same as his lecture slides. the labs were the only part that were a little harder, but the TAs are helpful. professor mclean is really nice though and you can tell he really loves astronomy. definitely recommend this class. i didn't do too much work and still got an A.

It is true that Astro 3 with Prof. McLean is one of the easiest GEs. There is one really cheap trick to get an A: Review a couple of past exams. He repeats at least 70% of the questions from the past exams. I got a 100% on the first midterm and a 98% on the final with this trick. So there really is no excuse not to get an A.

Awesome professor. If you want to take an interesting class that won't stress you out and will probably help your GPA, take astro 3 with professor McLean. He knows his stuff and tries to make students want to learn more about the subject.