this class is an easy A but that doesn't mean you don't have to try at all and thats where people do badly and say not to take this class. the class had 60 kids enrolled and maybe 20 came to class. and then the majority complained they didn't do well on quizzes and exams. bottom line is harrison's lecture is not interesting or engaging. but if you show up to class and genuinely review the powerpoint before quizzes and exams you can do fine.... especially with the curve. yes, he says you don't need to know dates and then you have to know a stupid amount of dates. also the final had material on it that was so irrelevant and not really covered at all but i think he has to compensate for no one knowing those. the TAs try to be helpful with harrison's exams and throw out questions and give assistance where they can. the labs were easy 100s though there is no reason to not ask your ta questions and get all the answers. overall its 100% possible to get an A in this class you just have to put up with some bullshit along the way and really boring classes.

DO NOT EVER TAKE HIS CLASS!! Yes the workload is practically nonexistent and the labs are very easy BUT he midterm and the final is hard. In my class, no one wanted to go to the fieldtrip so he had to cancel it and he got very butt hurt. He got petty with the quizzes after and graded them very unfair and I'm positive took off points for the fun of it. He said "don't worry, I grade super easy!" And then we got them back and everyone got like 1-3 points out of ten. The midterm and final are multiple choice but he has "none of the above" on every single one and he tests you on dates like crazy: the questions can be very vague that the ta's wouldn't know the answer either. They had to throw out like 4-6 questions on the midterm. And then final was just horrible. Don't take this class, I usually don't complain but that's how much I hated this class. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.

This class is B.S. Stay far away from this liar. He got mad that everyone used the midterm in the test bank and voided it just because the distribution was extremely high. Then made up some story that someone stole the answer key to justify it. Then he made the final ridiculously impossible by making 80 percent of the multiple choice questions with "none of the above". I bet he jacks off to earthquakes at night.

Harrison is a good lecturer but when he is explaining concepts it is hard to understand because he does not explain the concept any further. There are two midterms and a final. The two midterms are each worth 20% and the final is worth 25%. There are two quizzes worth 5% and the labs are worth 30%. Unfortunately, Harrison voided the second midterm in my quarter so that meant the final was worth 45%. So be careful on people who cheat. The book is somewhat useful because in the first midterm he included about 5 questions on the book. All midterms are 60 questions and multiple choice, it is true that the midterm is based on lectures but there are of course some questions that involve further thinking/analysis. There were some random questions and some questions had material that wasn't discussed in class, so I guess you can tell that Harrison reuses old midterms. The final was about 60 questions but since it was increased it was 120 questions 85% of it was on midterm 2 and about 15% was on the pre midterm 2/post midterm 2. The labs are somewhat difficult at times when you are working alone but it is highly recommended to work with a group or partner. The T.A's are very helpful and will give you the answers only if they see you are having a lot of trouble with the question. Harrison during office hours did help to clarify things but when he is explaining concepts it gets even more difficult to understand because he becomes somewhat disorientated. The class is pretty difficult for people who are not familiar with geology but it is an easy course if you pay attention and study the lectures.

Selling textbook for class:

Earthshaking Science: What We Know (and Don't Know) about Earthquakes

Reach me at **********

Super easy class, no hw at all and easy tests. Highly recommend.

Harrison is a decent professor with moderately interesting lectures. His Canadian accent and weird pronunciation of certain words makes his lectures more fun than they actually are, though. All you need to do to get an A in the class is go to your labs: the TA's basically tell you the answers to the lab questions so you can get pretty much 100% on every single lab--some labs even have extra credit points. The other thing you need to do is study the powerpoints. I stopped going to class after week 5 and still got an A on the second midterm and the final. All of his questions are basically just reiterations of the information on the powerpoint--the class is mostly memorization. There are other little assignments in class, like 10 point quizzes, but in the grand scheme of things they don't matter. They're only worth like 3% of your grade. Harrison basically sends you the prompt for the "pop-quiz" and if you're confused at all you can go to his OH to get help--he will literally tell you the answer to the quiz. In the end, just go to lab and memorize the powerpoints. That's all you have to do.

Selling book: EARTHSHAKING SCIENCE : WHAT WE KNOW & DONT KNOW ABOUT EARTH

$20

Text: **********

I took this course in Fall 2011 and got an A+. This course was so easy that I even slept during the class (since it was at noon) for most of the time after midterm 2. Don't hesitate to take this course 'cause all you have to do is to memorize all the PPT and to attend the class, and taking notes is totally UNNECESSARY. Scan the book if you still have nothing to do but play the COD or something, but this isn't important since most of the exam concentrates on the PPT and lectures. Understand, memorize, review, and you can get an A! Professor Mark is a kind person and you can ask him any question and he will definitely help you with it. My TA is John Cantwell, who is really good at his job! Thanks!
总之就是选这门课吧，这门课外国人很多，所以对中国人的分数很有利，你懂得。

So this class was pretty tight. Harrison keeps content pretty interesting. You can find a mojority of his mid term and final exam questions in the test bank. I aced everything in the class, but then got a D on the final (the class average) and it brought me down to an A-. Pretty upset about that, but other than that, good class! I would recomend it to anyone.

Yes, the tests are multiple choice, and they're pretty poorly-thought out. A lot of the questions are worded ambiguously, there were two questions repeated twice on the same exam, and on the final the TAs had to discard a question because even they didn't know what the answer was.

That doesn't mean they're undoable, though. I scored about a 52 out of 60 on each midterm with no more than about 6 hours of studying the night before. Just memorize the powerpoint slides and there's no way you can possibly fail.

The labs are worth 30% of the grade, and it's basically free points since the TAs are ridiculously helpful. Don't miss them.

I got an A in the class with a reasonable amount of effort.