Apparently, NSAs try to get students to enroll in this class at freshman orientation... I was told it was relatively easy and straightforward, but this class was pretty difficult in my opinion. Be prepared for an intense final, and keep up with the readings. The geology unit after the midterm is quite boring, and Prof. McKeegan is knowledgeable, but not as engaging as Prof. Larkin. I ended up dropping out of the cluster after fall quarter, but I know a lot of people stay to finish the full year.

Professor Larkin is a great lecturer. He's extremely intelligent and knows how to convey tough topics in physics and astronomy in a way that everyone can understand. He will be the lecturer for much of the first quarter.

This class is geared toward non-STEM majors, so the material does not go too in depth, and the tests are pretty straightforward with few conceptual questions. There is one midterm and one final as well as weekly quizzes that are submitted online before lecture. They do keep track of attendance via iClickers, but they are pretty lenient. You can get a good participation grade as long as you attend a majority of the lectures.

In terms of the sections, I did find them to be a bit dry. However, they are pretty easy and my TA (Scott Sunell) was super nice and helpful. There is one paper that you have to do, but it's pretty easy, and you are guided through the process throughout the semester. I did feel that the paper was graded more harshly than any other assignment throughout the semester, but it was still a fair grade.

Overall, this is a pretty easy (but engaging!) GE cluster with professors who are really knowledgable and put a great amount of effort into making the cluster enjoyable.

This Cluster is probably one of the more doable ones. I definitely had to put in work and study A LOT for the final but I like how this class does not give any one assignment a lot of weight. Yeah the final is 30% but I got a B- on the final and still ended with an A (I did do well on the other assignment and the midterm though). The final was pretty hard but everyone pretty much agreed. They don’t curve anything so all the grades you receive are just raw grades BUT I think at the end of the quarter they do give a small boost depending on how the class did overall so for example maybe I got a 90% in the class but the boosted everyone’s grade 4%, not 100% sure. Anyways, the class is doable but you have to put in the work and go to lecture! I reccomend it. It also gives u a little gpa boost if u do well because it’s 6.0 credits instead of 5.0 like most classes! (:

Probably the easiest set of classes I've done at UCLA. The whole Cluster 70 series was a breeze. If you took a lot of advanced science classes in high school, these series of classes will basically be an easier version of that. If you are in orientation and aren't sure if you should do this class because a lot of people are saying "clusters are so much work, they're packed, etc." don't listen to them, this cluster at least, is super easy. The essays and projects are super easy to do too, always received A's on them even when I spent no more than a day total working on it. Don't be discouraged by people from taking this cluster series, especially if you're a north campus major that just so happens to have been really good at science during high school.

Larkin is an amazing lecturer. He explains all of the concepts so well and is passionate about the subject. I went to office hours often and was blown away every time. He is very engaging and friendly in person as well. This class did have outside reading which was a bit annoying but would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend taking this cluster.

the class was very challenging for a freshman, I got very lucky because of the coronavirus. Larkin curved the grade in the class and the final was easier than it was originally planned to be. I recommend taking this class only if you are looking into the major if you're attempting to fulfill a science GE with the lab take GEO 5 of PHYSCI 5. The class was very interesting but the exams are difficult, however, he is a good lecturer. The class is also time-consuming because there are a lot of readings and you have to be very comfortable with the concepts of the class because the exam options are often very similar.

Only criticism is that he speaks pretty fast, so it's really hard to get everything down during lecture. As a result, I highly (HIGHLY!!!) recommend listening to the lecture again over Bruincast to catch the details and really understand his explanations, which will come in handy during the FRQ parts of the tests. The concepts he teaches are, in my opinion, often hard to grasp, so they're hard to digest in a day or two (so study a week in advance! Even if it's in short bursts). Otherwise, Larkin's a very engaging lecturer and tests what he teaches - it's just a matter of grasping all the material.

Larkin is amazing in lecture and office hours. A great conversationalist and extremely thorough yet understandable while teaching rather complex topics.

If you care about the material, this class is great. Sadly, I do not, so I didn't do as well as I would've liked. The paper is incredibly easy to get a good grade on, as well as the labs. The quizzes are a little less than weekly and count for only 10% on top of attendance. The midterm and final murdered me, though. I only studied for Maybe a day for each, though. All I'm saying, is if you want a B in the class, it's easy. If you want an A, have some passion and study skills for the class. I highly recommend Alex Fisher, he's the best TA what a guy, truly helpful and a lenient grader if you do the work.

Larkin was definitely my favorite of the 3 professors that taught the cluster this quarter (the other two were McKeegan and Lawrence). His lectures were informative and generally interesting, and he does a pretty good job of explaining some of the more complicated aspects of the material. In general, I'd recommend this cluster to anyone looking for some relatively easy but still interesting science GEs. The workload for the first quarter was pretty manageable: a "research" paper, a midterm, and a final (plus weekly lab assignments). The midterm and final weren't too difficult, and I think they slightly curve everyone's grade up at the end of the quarter (the syllabus was kinda unclear). Also, I found that I didn't really need any of the books listed in the syllabus as they were only used a couple of times and I was able to find PDFs.