Dr. Margot is enticing and his course is relatively easy. If you are searching for a GE to take I would highly recommend this course as it is what inspired me to intern for aerospace organizations. However, make sure you take advantage of his extra credit opportunity. The only reason I ended with a B+ opposed to an A- was because I missed one problem on the final and I had not done the EC opportunity.

Personally, I wasn't very interested in astronomy, but if I had to learn in from someone, I'm glad it was from Margot. His lectures are extremely organized and clear-cut, posted the night before so you can print them out. There is textbook reading, but its not too bad. The first half of the class is more reading-intensive but it lessens as time goes by. Grading is divided into quizzes, homework, midterm, and final. You get to drop you 2 lowest quiz scores and 2 lowest homework assignments, so an A in the class is definitely attainable. Overall, Margot is a fair professor, who's clearly passionate about astronomy and tries to help all his students understand the subject well.

TAKE THE PROFESSOR!
GRADE INFLATION RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!

I took ESS 9 Winter 2013 and ended up with final grade of 96. I got 59% on first midterm and 50% on final exam. (Both below the mean) .But I did the extra credit which is computed as (End grade +20)/120. Although the midterm was discouraging, the guy hands out 99% of the time. No matter what, he will make sure you fail. But in bare minimum work and you should still come out with an A-.

Both TA's are really helpful and will help you understand the material.
The HW and quizes are very simple and you can do them in group. Really 95% of the class got at least 95% on both of these. (Super easy).

Took ESS9

Super easy GE, easy A. Ended up with an A+ put little work into the class. Selling textbook for the course, new and no marks on it.

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This is a good professor and a good class to take for an easy GE.
if you're at all interested in astronomy or space, or even if you're not, this is a fairly interesting class.
Prof Margot is very fun and enthusiastic about his teaching and loves questions. His 1 midterm and final were challenging but fair and there is a generous curve.
He posts his slides from lecture online and no other study tools, but this is OK because these are all you need.
You do NOT need to buy or even read the textbook, although it could help some (and the readings are reasonably short). If you do choose to buy the textbook, he allows you to buy even very old versions of it, which you can find online for under $10.
My grade in this class was an A+

Professor Margot is phenomenal! He's one of the most amazing professors I had at UCLA so far. He makes ESS9 very reasonable, especially for North Campus majors. As a South Campus major (physics), the first half of the course was review of basic properties of nature from your average high school science class (Ex: What is science vs. what isnt?, atoms, light, Newton's Laws, etc.) But I still went to lecture since Professor Margot is a brilliant lecturer. He posts his lecture slides night before which definitely help. Even if you already know and understand, he is definitely able to captivate you... especially with the demo's. If you're a North Campus major and have forgotten all your basic science, don't fear! Professor Margot usually has multiple demos per lecture to help you understand the concepts. The second half of the curriculum was spent applying the principles of nature we learned from the first half of the quarter to understand the planets and our solar system. This way, Professor Margot shed light on properties of celestial bodies without having you memorize rote facts. Because he thoroughly explains the underlying principles, facts that you should know become logical. In addition, our TA (Sebastiano Padovan) was awesome! Attending discussion sections was mandatory since we had weekly quizzes consisting of 4 questions at the end of section. Quizzes, in-class midterm, and final were all very reasonable. Sebastiano did a great job with helping us understand key concepts that may have been briefly touched in lecture using "labs" (aka. worksheets). Perhaps the only drawback for North Campus majors are the little math that was involved. But honestly, you will see math in any physical science course. But dont worry since the scariest math you will see is your multiplication tables on your homework. Homework was always pretty simple. I usually started homework about 30 minutes before it was due every week and always finished on time.

Overall, Professor Margot was amazing! Great lecturer/professor! (His research is also quite fascinating and definitely relevant to the course!) If I had the opportunity, I'd definitely take him again. Took this class for fun and I don't regret it! Final Grade: A+

He's a great professor but its not as easy as the way people before me saying this is a really easy class. I got a 52 and 50 on my midterm and final (both slightly below the mean), aced all the quizzes and hw and ended up with a B-. This isn't an easy GE class like people say. If you are interested in astronomy, this is a great class to take but be warned about what grade you get.

Professor Margot is an excellent lecturer. He is very passionate and his lectures are fun. This course was easy, just basic biology, geology, and astronomy. TA's were excellent too. The textbook is not necessary, as the tests are based on the lectures. The book is a great read, but you'll be fine with a PDF or not buying it at all if you don't want to spend +$100 for it.
The homework and classwork is really easy, and is given every week by the TA during discussion, where the TA goes over the material discussed in the lecture. And there is a midterm and final of course.

JLM was absolutely terrific. He had a great presence in class and his lectures were pretty fun to attend. Great class, great material, great professor.

The co-instructor Tina Treude should be commended for her efforts as well.

One of the most passionate professors I've had. Take this class