This class was fun at some points and hard to understand at others. You definitely have to study hard in order to get an A, as for me, it wasn't as easy. Midterms were not difficult for me, but the final really got me because there is so much to remember and a surprising amount of mathematical rules that are easy to mix up. Would I take this again? Maybe. Prof Larkin is at least engaging in the lectures which is a plus. Labs take a long time and sometimes require working beyond the two hour lab time. This was in no case a bad class or bad professor or too much work. If you want that A tho, you gotta earn it.

I really enjoyed this class with Prof Larkin. The lectures were straightforward and he gave study guides for the midterms and final. All the exams were based on lectures making it easy to study for. Labs are 20% of your grade and are fairly easy to complete. There's also a textbook but you don't necessarily need to read it as long as you pay attention during lecture. Larkin is fun and really cares about the material and his students. My TA was Jon and he's really chill and approachable. I'd definitely recommend this class and my TA.

I loved this class and thought it was super interesting! The labs were a breeze and this class didnt require math other than a few basic algebra questions. Super interesting content and the professor is super passionate about it which shows. The only 930 am lecture I forced myself to go to because the content was so interesting and woke me up. Learned a lot, and seriously recommend Larkin to make the material that much more interesting!

Prof. Larkin is very knowledgeable in this subject. The class covers some topics like special relativity and general relativity that can be hard to fully grasp, but Prof. Larkin does a very good job at explaining it. He is also available for office hours and is always willing to answer questions. I've been interested in astronomy since I was little, and although I'm not in a STEM major, I found the class very fun. I honestly loved it and the work load was super manageable; this is a great easy science GE!

This class was pretty easy. The midterms and finals were definitely not super easy, but doable. The labs were easy, but long. Larkin was really nice and recorded all of his lectures so you did not have to go to class. He assigns reading in the textbook and that definitely helps.

While I do think Professor Larkin structures his class in a doable way, and the homeworks/exams aren't too bad, I'm very hesitant to write anything good because I didn't enjoy the class because of him. He lectures mainly with slides and skips through necessary math/tries to cram in more content by going through slides quicker. His lectures on the board were much better but these were few and far between. He also was quite disrespectful and unwilling to accommodate for students at times, i.e. at least two students that I know of came down with serious illnesses and he did not respond to any emails requesting extensions for homework. He was also quite snarky if you asked a question he believed you should already know or if you asked for any change in grading/extra study materials for exams. This behavior, combined with the knowledge of his sexual harassment of a former graduate student here at UCLA, made me incredibly uncomfortable interacting with him and I didn't feel comfortable attending office hours which I feel impacted my learning of the course material. Please read this article if you're considering taking his course: https://medium.com/@emilymartin88/title-ix-inaction-at-ucla-astronomy-61065540a39e

Title IX Inaction at UCLA Astronomy: https://medium.com/@emilymartin88/title-ix-inaction-at-ucla-astronomy-61065540a39e

Dr. Larkin is a great professor. Although he goes through his slides quite quickly, he is always more than happy to explain the material during his office hours. I would 100% recommend going to his office hours if you're having trouble. This class isn't a cake walk as it does require lots of reading and work but it's definitely worth it! All in all I would definitely recommend Larkin.
I'm selling both books required for this class: The Story of Earth and A Short History of Nearly Everything! If interested text me at **********

Dr. Larkin is a great professor. Although he goes through his slides quite quickly, he is always more than happy to explain the material during his office hours. I would 100% recommend going to his office hours if you're having trouble. This class isn't a cake walk as it does require lots of reading and work but it's definitely worth it! All in all I would definitely recommend Larkin.
I'm selling both books required for this class: The Story of Earth and A Short History of Nearly Everything! If interested text me at **********

Selling "A Short History of Nearly Everything" at Half Price!
Y************* / **********

BE PREPARED TO WORK! GE clusters have heavy workloads, so don't be fooled when your NSA recommends you this course; however, Prof. Larkin is a great lecturer, and even for me, who is a non-science major, I found the material interesting. He goes through slides fairly fast though, so you'd need to review at home.