damn, this class was a trip.
I decided to take this cluster on a whim and although, I did pretty bad, I have no regrets lol
the course material is a mixture of astronomy and physics but like none of the math, so it's just about learning dense material thru only concepts. I struggled a lot with this course because I am not a science major AT ALL. but the professors understand that and designed the course for non-STEM majors. I did well in participation, on the quiz readings, final paper and all other assignments except for the midterm and final. I totally failed the midterm and then barely passed the final but the curve helped to boost my grade up a bit.
take this class if you are willing to put in a lot more effort into learning dense material
ps.
yes, I will be taking this cluster for the next two quarters, even if I barely passed, I want to knock out those science GE's lol

Pros:
- Larkin is extremely engaging and thorough. He's one of the better lecturers (out of Friscia, Lawrence, and McKeegan, although Friscia does not lecture fall quarter). He also (as almost all the professors do) understand that this is a class taken by a lot of non-STEM majors for their GE credit, so he explains concepts in easy terms.
- The class has a lot of busywork (e.g. reading quizzes), so you have more to pad your grade. THIS IS NECESSARY. If anything, try to do well on labs/readings/quizzes/clicker questions, because they are easy. I'll explain more below.
- You don't even have to buy the books for this class, you can find them easily online. Most of the time, you don't even need books. A lot of the readings are Larkin's supplemental readings that they post online.

Cons:
- You can do well on everything, but then fail the midterm and final, as I did. For some reason, they don't feel like they properly encapsulate anything else covered in the class. They go much more in-depth, so you have to put a lot more work into studying for them. They cover more than the review sessions go over (although the review sessions are very helpful).
- The amount of work for this class was much more than any other class. It makes sense, because it is a cluster, but it's very easy to fall behind.
- The labs seem irrelevant to what the class is trying to teach. Concepts covered in labs are not reflective of concepts covered in lectures. But pay attention in labs, because material from them will be on tests.

I highly recommend this class if you think you might be interested in the subject. The first quarter deals with the more "spacey" topics, basically taking you from the beginning of the universe to the creation of Earth. Winter quarter then picks up from there and goes into evolution and the formation of the surface of the Earth. I'm not a very sciency person, so some of the concepts were pretty difficult to grasp, but the instructors do their best to break it down. Professor Larkin was especially good at this, to the point that I felt I even had pretty good grasp on the material.

Overall, the workload was pretty heavy, but I didn't feel like it was unmanageable. There was a reading or two every week as well as an online quiz. A clicker is required for participation, but you only need to answer once for credit for that day, and you only need credit for half the days to get full participation. The research paper is not that hard and you basically get walked through it by the TAs. I would say the most difficult part of this class was the midterm and final, as you're expected to know the content pretty in-depth.

Lastly, I highly recommend the field trips! It's a great way to get to know the professors and classmates, and also they're actually pretty applicable to the class.

Professor Larkin was very considerate considering Covid and the BLM protests. He genuinely wants you to learn the concepts. Because the quarter was online, the tests were only mathematical, with no conceptual component. Took me a while to figure that out and change my style of note-taking. The tests are very similar to the homework! You can also find homework from past years through google, which are helpful for studying.

This class was so so interesting. If you have any interest in space and how the universe works- TAKE THIS! It was so incredibly cool. It's like one big planetarium lecture and I feel like it changed the way I see the world around me. Tests are definitely tough but if you look at previous midterm and final questions you are totally fine. Just take good notes, pay attention, and study at least a little and you should be fine. The professors are really nice and approachable and love to answer any questions you may have. I highly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in space, want's 4 GE's for only 3 quarter's worth of classes, and want to make friends. Also, they send out study questions for each test. ANSWER THOSE THOROUGHLY and just drill urself with those questions and you are set. Larkin is super interesting to hear lecture and my TA Jesus was super chill.

Prof. was super nice and understanding about everything going on in the pandemic. Lectures were recorded and fast-paced with a small quiz (3-6 Q's) each week. The workload might feel like a lot at times, but it was manageable. We were supposed to read multiple, long chapters from the textbook each week, and there were 2 midterms. All exams were multiple-choice, which was great!

I struggled in the class, but a lot of students did well, so I wouldn't say that the class nor the prof. were a problem. I was not very good with the labs, they were physics/math heavy.

Bottom Line: Cool prof, lots of work, you might struggle in labs if you're not the best at math, but nice class!

Quite easy class but much more work than I expected for a GE if you choose to do the readings. I started to barely skim them at the end because they were too time-consuming. Overall would recommend for an easy GE.

Extremely Interesting class!!!! Professor Larkin is very humorous and is very good at keeping things light and engaging!!! He is the single most eloquent and clear professor I have. Although speaks quite fast and requires your full attention. The tests are easy.

Astro 3 is a decent science GE, as a north campus major science isn't really my forte but if you put in enough work in studying you can do alright in the class. Grades are determined mostly by two midterms and a final which are very important to study for, Professor Larkin provides very helpful study guides for these and the lecture slides and recordings are also available. I would recommend attending the lectures regularly and reading parts of the textbook to supplement notes when studying for the tests. The labs aren't too hard but they often took a long time and were extremely tedious.

I loved this class SO MUCH. Probably going to be one of my favorites here at UCLA. The textbook is super reasonably priced (I barely even looked at it though, you don't really need to), the tests are super straightforward if you do the study guides, and Professor Larkin is so sweet honestly. It's easy to get an A as long as you go to the labs and do the study guides, you don't even have to go to lectures, I stopped showing up after week one, watched the recorded lectures, and did pretty well! Seriously loved this class cause I love astronomy so much. Little math is needed! Take itttt!!!