EVSC 2800

This course was great! I am a chem major, but I took this class as an elective. This course was fairly easy and Prof Limaye is great. The class is set up very well, and there are optional office hours which can give you a 5% grade boost. Definitely go to office hours at least to meet Prof Limaye. Friday discussions are very laid back. Focus on the lectures and what he says in discussions for the exams. Read the textbook for deeper understanding, but don't focus on it for the exams. Exams are relatively strictly timed (only 50 min), but you get one sheet of notes for the exam, so that makes it more doable. Overall easy class, but definitely pay attention to small details on the exams and weekly assignments because they will take off points for VERY minor issues...I ended up getting an A- and not an A because of this.

I found that the pacing of the first 1/2 was perfect. A fair amount of memorization is needed for exams. There were three easy but a little tedious assignments throughout the semester. Attendance is not counted, but there are many in class activities, and 10 have to be completed for credit. I didn't really read the textbook but I did well without much extra effort. By the second exam (2/3 way through the course) the class lost a lot of structure and went into a geologic take on climate change and other human-made topics that more tenuously connected to the subject.
The class is 1-2 hours a week max and I recommend it if you need an easy science credit. If you are interested in geology or environmental science, look for a higher-level course that skips the filler or take your chances with a different professor. I was disappointed that the course only gave an elementary explanation of how the landscape of America/Virginia was formed, but I understand that may be beyond the scope of an intro course. The professor is a nice guy, very passionate; no shade to him, there just wasn't enough content to justify about 1/2-1/3 of the course's length.