Professor
James Larkin
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Dr. Larkin is a great professor. Although he goes through his slides quite quickly, he is always more than happy to explain the material during his office hours. I would 100% recommend going to his office hours if you're having trouble. This class isn't a cake walk as it does require lots of reading and work but it's definitely worth it! All in all I would definitely recommend Larkin. I'm selling both books required for this class: The Story of Earth and A Short History of Nearly Everything! If interested text me at **********
Fall 2017 - Dr. Larkin is a great professor. Although he goes through his slides quite quickly, he is always more than happy to explain the material during his office hours. I would 100% recommend going to his office hours if you're having trouble. This class isn't a cake walk as it does require lots of reading and work but it's definitely worth it! All in all I would definitely recommend Larkin. I'm selling both books required for this class: The Story of Earth and A Short History of Nearly Everything! If interested text me at **********
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Most Helpful Review
He is a fast though interesting and coherent lecturer. He is also good at bringing up various current events in astronomy and it really feels like we are at the forefront of the field in the class. Homework and tests are absurdly easy: really not much harder than high-school physics. He gives you any equation with more than three variables to use on the tests: which have calculational type questions that are just like those in the homework and conceptual questions that basically just make sure that you were paying attention in class and reviewed the material before the test. I would definitely not recommend taking this particular class unless you like astrophysics, as it goes pretty fast, though I cannot imagine Larkin being very difficult as a Astro 3 professor. Good class and good professor.
He is a fast though interesting and coherent lecturer. He is also good at bringing up various current events in astronomy and it really feels like we are at the forefront of the field in the class. Homework and tests are absurdly easy: really not much harder than high-school physics. He gives you any equation with more than three variables to use on the tests: which have calculational type questions that are just like those in the homework and conceptual questions that basically just make sure that you were paying attention in class and reviewed the material before the test. I would definitely not recommend taking this particular class unless you like astrophysics, as it goes pretty fast, though I cannot imagine Larkin being very difficult as a Astro 3 professor. Good class and good professor.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Larkin must be the best professor I've had a UCLA so far!! I mean, granted, I'm an astrophysics major taking an astronomy class, so I might be a little biased, but he teaches very well. He answers all questions fully, so no one is confused and he presnet the material very well. More than that, he is a fun teacher. Astro 82 with him must be the only class I've taken where on friday 10th week, when class was getting near over, and he said something to the effect of "Well I haven't been able to go over this last subject as thoroughly as I wanted to, oh well..." I was actually tempted to go to office hours for the sole purpose of asking what else he was going to talk about. All in all, a great teacher!
Professor Larkin must be the best professor I've had a UCLA so far!! I mean, granted, I'm an astrophysics major taking an astronomy class, so I might be a little biased, but he teaches very well. He answers all questions fully, so no one is confused and he presnet the material very well. More than that, he is a fun teacher. Astro 82 with him must be the only class I've taken where on friday 10th week, when class was getting near over, and he said something to the effect of "Well I haven't been able to go over this last subject as thoroughly as I wanted to, oh well..." I was actually tempted to go to office hours for the sole purpose of asking what else he was going to talk about. All in all, a great teacher!
Most Helpful Review
Course Taken: Physics 11 Class breakdown: 10% Participation 10% Quizzes 25% Midterm 1 (Week 4) 25% Midterm 2 (Week 8) 30% Final Personally, I had never taken a Physics course and found some of the material/concepts to be challenging. Although true, Professor Larkin is very approachable and willing to help. He provides study guides before all of his tests. His tests and quizzes are extremely fair and are not out to trick you. I would HIGHLY recommend going to office hours to review any questions that you got wrong or didn't understand on exams. At the end of the course, he curves grades slightly.
Course Taken: Physics 11 Class breakdown: 10% Participation 10% Quizzes 25% Midterm 1 (Week 4) 25% Midterm 2 (Week 8) 30% Final Personally, I had never taken a Physics course and found some of the material/concepts to be challenging. Although true, Professor Larkin is very approachable and willing to help. He provides study guides before all of his tests. His tests and quizzes are extremely fair and are not out to trick you. I would HIGHLY recommend going to office hours to review any questions that you got wrong or didn't understand on exams. At the end of the course, he curves grades slightly.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - I honestly really liked this class, granted thats mainly because it was easy. He goes over interesting material and is a pretty engaging speaker. It's all powerpoint slides though and there's no need to take notes so it is pretty easy to zone out or be looking at the clock as some of the derivations/explanations can be pretty boring. It's pretty cool you get to touch on general relativity and the big bang at the end of the class. His homeworks were all straight forward and pretty easy. Exams were straight off of his study guides and homework problems so as long as you studied those you were fine. I would recommend taking.
Spring 2023 - I honestly really liked this class, granted thats mainly because it was easy. He goes over interesting material and is a pretty engaging speaker. It's all powerpoint slides though and there's no need to take notes so it is pretty easy to zone out or be looking at the clock as some of the derivations/explanations can be pretty boring. It's pretty cool you get to touch on general relativity and the big bang at the end of the class. His homeworks were all straight forward and pretty easy. Exams were straight off of his study guides and homework problems so as long as you studied those you were fine. I would recommend taking.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - While I do think Professor Larkin structures his class in a doable way, and the homeworks/exams aren't too bad, I'm very hesitant to write anything good because I didn't enjoy the class because of him. He lectures mainly with slides and skips through necessary math/tries to cram in more content by going through slides quicker. His lectures on the board were much better but these were few and far between. He also was quite disrespectful and unwilling to accommodate for students at times, i.e. at least two students that I know of came down with serious illnesses and he did not respond to any emails requesting extensions for homework. He was also quite snarky if you asked a question he believed you should already know or if you asked for any change in grading/extra study materials for exams. This behavior, combined with the knowledge of his sexual harassment of a former graduate student here at UCLA, made me incredibly uncomfortable interacting with him and I didn't feel comfortable attending office hours which I feel impacted my learning of the course material. Please read this article if you're considering taking his course: https://medium.com/@emilymartin88/title-ix-inaction-at-ucla-astronomy-61065540a39e
Winter 2024 - While I do think Professor Larkin structures his class in a doable way, and the homeworks/exams aren't too bad, I'm very hesitant to write anything good because I didn't enjoy the class because of him. He lectures mainly with slides and skips through necessary math/tries to cram in more content by going through slides quicker. His lectures on the board were much better but these were few and far between. He also was quite disrespectful and unwilling to accommodate for students at times, i.e. at least two students that I know of came down with serious illnesses and he did not respond to any emails requesting extensions for homework. He was also quite snarky if you asked a question he believed you should already know or if you asked for any change in grading/extra study materials for exams. This behavior, combined with the knowledge of his sexual harassment of a former graduate student here at UCLA, made me incredibly uncomfortable interacting with him and I didn't feel comfortable attending office hours which I feel impacted my learning of the course material. Please read this article if you're considering taking his course: https://medium.com/@emilymartin88/title-ix-inaction-at-ucla-astronomy-61065540a39e
Most Helpful Review
Professor Larkin was one of the better professors I have had at UCLA. His lectures were very straightforward and interesting, and he gave us copies of his lecture notes which really helped supplement the material. The Labs were very hands on, and he was always helpful using the telescopes and computer programs, showing us what to do step by step and then letting us play a little. It was a challenging lab but not overly difficult, and he made it enjoyable and even fun!
Professor Larkin was one of the better professors I have had at UCLA. His lectures were very straightforward and interesting, and he gave us copies of his lecture notes which really helped supplement the material. The Labs were very hands on, and he was always helpful using the telescopes and computer programs, showing us what to do step by step and then letting us play a little. It was a challenging lab but not overly difficult, and he made it enjoyable and even fun!
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