This professor SUCKS..... DO NOT take a class with him unless you want to fail!!!
His lectures don't correspond to his exams and overall he just lectures all over the place.
He really is the only one who knows what he is talking about and he just can NOT teach it to anyone else....
The worst Professor i have ever had....Just WORST

Professor Okin makes this class is much more difficult than what it needs to be. Do not expect to take this class and feel the professors support or like he cares about his student's success in the class. Your grade is based solely on a midterm, final, and TA section participation. While the TA section participation is easy points, the midterm and final determine wether or not you pass the class. The professor post 0 lecture material so you'll have to go rewatch lectures for the slide you need. Professor Okin also does not allow for students to use electronics in class so all your notes will have to be taken on paper. Professor Okin encourages students to sit and listen to his lecture instead of trying to take notes then go back and rewatch lectures to take your notes. Basically, he is asking students to put in twice the amount of work for his class cause I really don't think he understands that students take other classes outside of his own. He does post a study guide for the midterm and final where he outlines key concepts from his lectures. However, his exams do not reflect this material and instead focus on naming soils....The only real support you get in this class is from the TAs who feel much more passionate about student success than the professor.

I wanted to give a more balanced review on this class after reading a lot of people's opinions. I loved this class. The content was fascinating, and I came into the class relatively uninterested in soil. I left wanting to learn more and satisfied with the amount I was able to learn during the quarter. I can understand the negative reviews, but it is about making it work - each class is different, each professor is different, and there are certain things you are expected to do. To be fair, I relied HEAVILY on the textbook. That is representative of the level of depth you are expected to understand and it is necessary to read to do well. The TA review sessions were also a lot clearer and more organized than the lectures (one of my complaints), so go to them! I think it also helps that I have a decent background in chemistry, so all of the chemistry involved in this class (and there is a substantial amount, fair warning) was intuitive. For taxonomy MAKE FLASHCARDS. Okin is wonderful. I did notice that his lectures, however, were hard to follow. There was a lot of skipping back and forth, little organization, and lots of points were not clear at all. I really like his no technology policy personally (I do not own an iPad and always take hand written notes anyways). This class is very, very chemistry and taxonomy centered. I WISH we talked more about the environment and soil on a larger scale but we barely did, maybe a little at the end of the quarter, which was disappointing and contributed to how dense the material felt. I also do not love the grading scheme of like the entire grade (other than ta section participation) being determined by the midterm and final, a bit sad to me. Overall, his class takes extra work to understand the material. It is super interesting but I wish it was better organized.
Simple Notes To Consider:
- No technology policy
- Had to go in person to review midterm exam
- No homework other than readings (necessary to do well IMO)
- Lots of memorization of chemistry and taxonomy
- Unhelpful lecture slides, often confusing/minimal
- Recordings only show slides, cannot see anything written on white board
- Dense content

Similar experience to most of the other reviews for this professor. I would not recommend taking this class unless you have a strong interest in soil and can tolerate learning about the chemistry associated with soil. 75% of the grade in this class is dependent on a singular midterm and the final. Not at all worth the stress if you were just looking for a class to fulfill upper div credits.

Pros:
- No hw assignments, relatively low commitment as far as coursework goes
- Weekly TA meetings are helpful reviews, and you can attend any session during the week (was held over zoom)
- Were given Miterm and Final exam review questions which served as useful practice (*However* these questions were not necessarily representative of the actual exam questions)

Cons:
- Lecture slides are not posted
- Lecture material has no logical flow, and many slides lack sufficient text so it's difficult to take good notes unless you write down every word he says
- Midterm has a RIDICULOUS amount of soil naming terms to memorize, making the test nearly impossible to cram for
- Midterm was not handed back, had to attend TA office hours to see your own exam even though it was taken with blue books
- Material was not presented in a particularly interesting way, didn't feel like I actually learned much about soil as a whole besides the small chemical processes that happen in soil
- The "no technology in class" policy makes it so you have to spend even more time outside of class if you want to write down notes on things you missed in lecture

TO ALL THE STUDENTS SAYING "The other reviews are so harsh...they must not have put in the work... they must not have gone to class." Literally STFU. Im sick of you entitled UCLA students that think you know everyone. This class was AWFUL. Did I get an A?? Yes but at an expense. I did worse in my other classes, I lost a lot of sleep from studying, and I missed shifts at work so I can attend "mandatory" unlisted TA sessions. This class was hard and I shouldn't have to break my back to get barely an A. You people need to stop being so entitled and thinking everyone is just giving a bad review because they are lazy and did not put work in. We all worked out ass off its just a hard fucking class so stop pretending like you are better than everyone else. Theres a reason why he has a lot of bad reviews, like shut up.

Professor Okin is amazing! I took him for Enviro M102(Soils and Environment) and he made me want to pursue a career in the field. He explained soil chemistry in easy ways to understand and made sure that students had all of their questions answered. The class consisted of a midterm, final, and discussions where you had to participate. The exams were a little tough and require memorization of soil orders, sub-orders etc but if you put in the work it is very doable and rewarding. I truly do not understand all of the harsh reviews about Okin as a professor. He is accommodating and makes it very clear from the start what he expects out of his students for the exams. Anyone who left a bad review probably didn't go to lecture and expected to ace the test. Take the class! You won't regret it and will have a newfound appreciation for soil and the Earth!

There are some rather harsh reviews of Dr. Okin on this page and while I can understand why some may feel like that, it is important for those who read Bruinwalk to understand that those are the people who did not put in the effort to rise to the challenge. Don't be deterred by their reviews. Dr. Okin is the reason I went from N. campus to S. Campus at the end of my 2nd year. He helped me discover my love for science and he helped me realize that being a lawyer was actually the last thing I wanted to be.

I took Geog 1 with Dr. Okin and didn't really like him for the first few weeks of the quarter, but eventually he changed my opinion of him completely, this guy is a genius. If you take the opportunity to get to know him, you will learn SO much.

He is really good at explaining things in more than one way until you understand a concept. I got a C in Geog 1, but that had entirely to do with struggles outside of my academic life.

I decided to give his upper div class a shot and it ended up changing my life. It was SO hard and I had to study so much but I ended up getting one of the highest grades on the midterm and an A in his class. Don't be afraid to take this class if you have never taken chemistry before, its going to be hard but you might surprise yourself.

Avoid Dr. Okin at all costs. Not only does he think that he is better than everyone else, but also he finds odd pleasure in tricking students and watching them fail. I took Geography 1 with him the quarter before, and heard that he was a better professor when it comes to upper-division classes because he's not trying to weed out the stragglers. FALSE. It's like he feels better about himself when his students fail and can't understand anything. Okin created this test with about 25 short answer questions and 5 essay questions in the span of an hour and fifteen minutes. He refuses to curve according to the difficulty of his exams. You have to write down and memorize literally everything he says in order to have a fighting chance at passing the class. Also, when he tries to explain these concepts of soils in class, he does not make sure that people are following him. He says that a basic understanding of chemistry is all that is needed to do well in the class. This is also false. Okin went into more Chemistry about soils (probably the most boring topic I can fathom, that he makes even more painful) than I had ever wanted to encounter in my academic career at UCLA. He was extremely unapproachable and explained things in the most complicated ways possible. Please avoid him or face the consequences. Maybe people who are like him will do well in the class. But unless you are inherently born with an in-depth knowledge of the chemical properties of soils, then I suggest you steer clear of this class and even Geography 1 with Okin.

This class is almost entirely about soil chemistry. Do not take this class unless you have a serious interest in chemistry for it's own sake, or soil chemistry specifically. There is virtually nothing here of practical use for the non-chemist. You will learn about soil chemistry at the atomic level: protons, electrons, colloids, CEC, anion and cation exchange, surface charges, isomorphic substitution etc., etc. If you want something practical and useful on soils in the Geog department, take Trimble's Geog 107: Soil and Water Conservation.

If however, you do have an interest in chemistry, Prof. Okin is excellent.

Professor Okin is a great professor. Took his GeoM127 class about soils and he turned a pretty bland subject into a somewhat interesting subject. Best advice to you is to record the lectures or find a friend who does. The textbook is basically worthless. He gives you a set of study questions for the midterm and final. I aced both the midterm and final by just re-listening to his lectures and answering the study questions as they came up. Was not difficult at all if you pay attention in class and understand the concepts which aren't that hard.