She is definitely not as difficult as her reviews make her seem. Just do the readings and go to lecture and you'll be fine, trust me

Professor Raphael is super kind, generous, and understanding! She is also insanely knowledgeable and very helpful when answering questions. The only reason I think the easiness of this class is a 3, is because the concepts themselves can be hard to grasp or visualize. There is also a little bit of math in this course, but I found it to be very easy for me (I took 5 math classes at UCLA though, so I think my experience and comfort with math helped me a lot--math is on a basic level). However, many of my classmates who have not taken math for a few years found the math to be very difficult. But she is amazing at explaining the concepts super thoroughly and providing examples to aid learning. I love this class so much because it challenged me! If you put effort into studying and reading, you will learn so much about our planet and even about everyday climatological events in our lives. I highly recommend this class, especially if you are scared of the math! :)

I loved professor Raphael, she was an engaging lecturer, extremely knowledgeable about the material, and funny during lecture. She gives out 4 HW assignment throughout the quarter which are worth 30% of your overall grade, but shes more than willing to help you if you're confused. The assignments themselves were intimidating at first but I never got anything below a 88% on them, they were just a bit time consuming but not hard. She's also extremely helpful through the discussion board which I personally found extremely helpful since I could never make it to her office hours. Her midterms are very straight forward, she doesnt try to trick you at all, although I do recommend memorizing definitions rather than in your own words. Her final was the same format as the midterm, and I came to realize her final was a lot easier than the midterm. I personally found the second half of the class to be easier than the first half but I overall really enjoyed this class more than I thought I would. I also enjoyed going to lecture, as I found it extremely helpful since Professor Raphael has a way of explaining things very clearly. I definitely reccomend both this class and this professor, if you put in the effort it's a very enjoyable class with interesting material.

Professor Raphael was wonderful. She is super engaging, often humorous, and clearly knowledgable about climatology. I absolutely loved this class. If you got an assignment back and were unhappy with how the TAs graded it, you could resubmit it for her to look over it and perfect the grade. Tests were super reasonable, and her sample midterm literally had questions included on the tests. For each type of problem, she lets you pick a few to answer so you can really show your strengths. I know people complained about this class, but if you aren't interested in the subject matter then of course you aren't going to like it. I thought I learned a lot about how our atmosphere/world works, and she gives great real-life examples so that you can see our climate in action. I loved this class and I think if you are interested in the subject then you would love her.

The class is about the basic organizing principles of climate and helps explain the underlying mathematical and organizational concepts that climatologists use to understand how climates develop. Raphael is a decent professor, albeit the material is dry. She tests on content that is in the slides, answers any question you may pose during class, and is quite responsive to discussion board posts. The content of the course was not really an issue to understand. It was rather simple and reading the textbook would help reinforce those concepts. The class is 30% homework, 30% midterm, and 40% final. To be blunt, the grader for this class was HORRIBLE. The class had repeated grading issues for the homework and midterm that were incredibly unfair. I am 95% sure the grading was divvied up between the professor (good) and a TA (bad). The grading discrepancies were huge, even with people that had the exact same answers. I personally feel that Raphael did not take responsibility for this issue and did not hold that TA accountable to proper standards. The principal of it is simply this: the majority of students should not have to go back to the professor time after time to get homework regraded. There is obviously an issue with how the grading was handled since this was the case. If I could give any advice to anyone taking this class, always post on the discussion board with questions you may have about the homework. That and the textbook will help you immensely. The midterm and final are honestly both memorization games, so start studying early to get all those definitions and concepts in your head. The exams are a combination of definitions and essays on various topics from the class, and the final is practically a second midterm.

tldr; Grading for this class sucks and takes away from actually learning the content which is simple and useful. You can manage to get a decent grade if you fight for it. Exams and homework are extremely manageable.

Professor Raphael cares about her students learning and is helpful in office hours. I would take her class again

very straightforward class with v straightforward exams. professor is a fair grader, but do recommend memorizing definitions rather than rephrasing.

however. boring lectures.

I thought Geog104 was going to be my most difficult class but it turned out to be the most interesting and I did well. Professor Raphael was a great lecturer. She was very clear and repeated the information often to make sure it was understood. Exams were 5 definitions, 3 short answer, and one essay. There were 4 homework assignments that she explained in class. They were not too difficult, but do take some time. The class does involve equations and understanding of key concepts that relate to climates, but the way she teaches makes the concepts easier to understand. I recommend taking this class and this professor.

Professor Raphael is a wonderful professor, but this is a difficult class. It is not about the weather at all, and it is not similar to her tropical climatology class. There is plenty of math involved, which took me off guard. There are 4 assignments as well as a midterm and a final. The assignments are time consuming but graded very fairly, and are important to do in order to understand the material for the exams. The exams include definitions, short answer and a long essay question.

Although Raphael is a nice professor, but be careful in choosing to take her class. I had many issues with the homeworks and exams being unfairly graded by the TA. I brought this to her attention multiple times and every time she made an excuse for the TA instead of addressing the problem. The topic of the course is interesting, but the class was not worth taking after having to fight her for the grade I deserved and still not receiving it. Avoid if you have other options.