Professor Illes is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. I have taken four of her classes, and from the first one that I took, I got into the habit of going to her office hours. She was extremely helpful in reiterating content from her lectures and making me understand the concepts if I had questions. She has a wealth of knowledge and actually passes that on to her students so they can succeed beyond the test -- something not all professors are masterful at. She is also an entertaining lecturer, and I was never bored in any of her classes, despite the fact that each lecture was three hours long. She usually kept it balanced by showing some videos relevant to the course material in between her speeches. If you want an excellent geography class, you should definitely take Professor Illes' classes. It's difficult to find even a decent professor, but Illes goes above and beyond to make her classes enjoyable and informative, and the information from her classes actually stick!

Great professor!! I've had her for Animal Geog., Conservation in Developing Countries, and Geog. 5. Smart. entertaining, passionate, and very clear in what she expects from you. Her exams are straight forward and don't aim to trick you. You do have to take good notes and know them well before you head into her exams, but it's comforting to know that as long as you put in the effort you will get a good grade (and learn something in the process). Her work loads are fair. She does have 10-page research papers in her upper-division classes, but they are more than do-able, as she gives you the entire term to work on them. You can't go wrong with Prof. Illes. I wish UCLA would get more professors like her.

Illes was my first professor at UCLA, and I've had her for 3 classes. She is GREAT. Very reasonable about grading. If you attend every class and take good notes, you will likely get an A. Very helpful and responds to e-mails quickly. Extremely knowledgable from her research experience and her lectures are very engaging. Also has a good sense of humor, which makes 3 hour lectures a little more enjoyable. Tests (a midterm and a final) are combination of short answers and essays, both of which are on basic principles and ideas that were taught. Weekly readings are worth 10% and are interesting and do not take much time. Also a research paper on an animal of your choice for another 10%. If you are debating taking any of her classes, DEFINITELY do.

This professor is incredibly rude and bossy. Whenever students asked questions she answered with a very condescending tone.