One of the easiest GEs I've taken at UCLA. Class consists of a midterm, weekly homeworks due in discussion, and a final. Midterm and final were same number of questions and same duration - only about an hour and 15 minutes. Homeworks only take about 30 minutes to complete. Points are also awarded for attending discussion. I didn't have to go to a single lecture after midterm as the slides are posted online, but going to lecture definitely helps clarify some concepts and there are some pointers and facts that appear on the tests but aren't in the slides. Barely any math, and the material is quite interesting - mostly just facts. Final was slightly tricky, but NOT CUMULATIVE. If you do the bare minimum - homework, attend lectures, and just read through the slides, you could still get away with a pretty good grade.

Margot is a friendly French man and his lectures are simple and straightforward, though at times monotonous. The tests were based on the lectures and the slides, so studying for them was not complicated. He requires a small textbook that isn't expensive, but I didn't read it once because it covered a lot of the same things that were covered in lecture. The material itself was interesting and covered a wide range of topics.

If you're a south campus major that just needs to take a life science GE then this class is comically easy. I didn't go to a single lecture other than the very first one, and all the slides are posted online. We did have weekly homeworks that we had to turn in during discussion, but they're ridiculously easy if you know a marginal amount of math and science (plus all the answers are always easily found in the lecture slides). Not only is this class stupid simple, but the material is actually cool as hell.

It was co-taught with Prof. Treude. This was my hardest science GE. The class requires you to have a solid foundation in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and bio, none of which I had. I would go to class and leave more confused than before, to the point where I ended up changing my grading basis. It seemed easier for others, but the lectures went by too fast and required lots of outside work to keep up, unless you're a bit of a space nerd. Extra credit is offered, but it isn't much.

First half of the class is mainly biology (with ties to astronomy), whereas the second half is more purely astronomy.

Teaching: Both had organized and visually appealing slides. While I initially found her boring, I came to appreciate the effort and passion she has for her field. JLM is more engaging and funny, but both are solid professors.

Homework: Simple! Multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank, short 1 or 2 sentence answers. 40% of the grade, able to drop lowest 2 of 8 scores.

Textbook: "Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction" Tiny $10 book but covered the content of the course quite well. Could forego; they only ask a couple questions from the book on both exams.

Exams: Treude's midterm was quite straightforward and most of us did really well. However, JLM's final was a nightmare. I couldn't believe some of the questions he asked because there were a few definition or memorization questions that were barely discussed (if at all. And then the majority of questions were conceptual and IMO unnecessarily difficult. Questions from the book were also extremely obscure...

I really don't understand why the questions on the final were not more representative of the time and effort put into certain subjects of the course. I got a 90 on the midterm and 71 on the final. To put this into perspective, 158 students out of 422 got a 90 or above on the midterm, and only ONE MEASLY KID got a 90 or above on the final. And only 38 students on the midterm got below a 70 versus 271 on the final. I expected better out of JLM.

I do not feel like my score represented my actual knowledge of the material, and that's the worst feeling! I expected to kill this final and get an A+ in the class overall, especially considering that I did the extra credit too. Yes, I still got an A, but it's disappointing to feel cheated by a terribly written final. There is still a generous curve - my friend got a C+ on the midterm and D+ on the final (which was below/above average respectively) and ended up with an A-. However, don't let the other reviews fool you into thinking you can get an A+ while doing nothing. While there is very little daily work, the astronomy portion will require some effort.

As a lover of astronomy, I really appreciated the class as a whole. But man, that final... X_X.

The easiest classes I've ever taken. Tests are really easy (1 hr for both midterm and final, MC-style, non-cumulative), but make sure you know everything from the slides (especially the tiny details in graphs/pictures of the slides etc) cause this is a pretty memorization intensive class. Homework is worth like 40% of your grade so don't slack off, they're really easy and basically recap what was covered. You don't need to go to lectures honestly, as your TA will recap everything during discussion sesh. Extra credit is not that useful (like maximum 1% boost, don't sweat about it)

TL;DR: You'll do extra well if you're passionate about the material, which is super cool, but you'll do just as fine (easy A) if you're not. Overall it's a really fun class.

Loved Jean-Luc. Funny, quirky guy. Lectures are quite boring at times, but not nearly as bad as the Treude lectures in my opinion. Short weekly assignments that I finished usually in 30 minutes or less. Midterm and final were multiple choice, not too difficult if you review posted slides beforehand. Offers a small amount of extra credit for visiting certain locations around LA and writing a brief reflection. Take this if you want an easy GE and you don’t mind sitting through boring lectures.

I am honestly confused by everyone saying that this class is hard...the expectations are totally clear and reasonable. The whole reason we take GEs is to be basically proficient in multiple areas. I don't know how you are expecting to be a contributing member of society if you can't take the time to understand science on this low of a level. I found the class to be interesting and the work load was the lowest out of any GE I've taken at UCLA-including humanities. Both the final and midterm were cake if you just went over the slides and took the time to understand them.

I took this class online during COVID and I enjoyed it. There are two professors that teach this course: Margot focuses on the astronomy/physics parts whereas Treude on the chemistry/biology section. The lectures themselves can get kind of boring since they're just reading off the slides, but they are recorded and you can always watch them at a later time. If you have some sort of background to these fields / have been exposed to them, the material is really easy but for some that do not, I understand how it can be somewhat difficult. The class is broken down the following way:

Homework (40%)
Midterm (30%)
Final (30%)

For the homework assignments, they are assigned weekly. The best 6 out of 8 count towards your final grade, and they all come straight from the lecture. They are very easy if you have the lectures in front of you and can just look through them. I also found the midterm and the final to be fair. The exams are open notes/lecture/recordings so I would recommend going through them right before the exams. If you've been paying attention during lecture that's all you really need to do well on them. There are also a few random questions that get thrown into the exams that are from the textbook, so make sure you at least have it with you so you can ctrl + f .

I would definitely recommend this class for anyone looking for a fairly easy science GE. Lecture content is engaging and the prof is always willing to go further into depth in a given topic when someone asks a question. Weekly homework is a quick quiz on the lectures which usually don't take very long at all. If you have a strong science background, this class will be almost no work at all for you, but even if you don't, all the concepts are explained very well. Overall a very engaging and easy class to take.