EVSC 3300

Took this class last fall. I will say, this isn't an easy course; definitely the most difficult core envi-sci courses I've had to take for the major. With that said, Bob Davis is the only thing that made this course bearable. He's super knowledgeable and passionate about atmosphere and weather, and although his lectures are a little all over the place, the course is very do-able. Homeworks are difficult, but if you go to office hours and get help you can absolutely get a good score on every assignment. Homeworks focus more on the math portion of the course, which is very physics heavy. You don't need a physics background to do well in the course, but it certainly helps to have a little background. Prof. Davis teaches all the basic concepts you need to understand, so you'll be fine if you've never taken a physics course in your life. Exams are concept-related, which I found less confusing than the homeworks. Some exams are harder than others, but once you take one, you can figure out how you should be studying since this topic is a little more niche. Prof. Davis makes class super fun; there's never a dull lecture listening to this instructor. He lives and breathes atmosphere and weather, and will be happy to answer any of your questions in lecture/office hours. Even if you struggle in the beginning, if you go to office hours and get the help you need or work with some of your classmates to study, you can definitely end up with at least a B.

This class is by far one of the most difficult courses, BUT also one of the most enjoyable courses, I've taken at UVA. Bob/Robert is one of the funniest professors here, in my opinion. He sometimes makes bad but funny jokes during lectures (especially the times when his voice gets high-pitched and he uses that as an opportunity to make jokes). The course itself is also interesting. You'll get to make your own forecast, and you'll learn a lot about seasonality and weather, and the reasoning behind them. At the beginning of the semester, Bob gave us the option to choose how we're graded, but generally, each exam is worth 20-24% of the course grade. We have three exams in total, approximately 9 weekly quizzes, 3 problem sets, and occasionally learning catalytic during lectures. The weekly quizzes are worth about 10% of the course grade, problem sets are 6.7% each, each exam 20%, and learning catalytic is 10% (if you choose to have everything graded). Honestly, nothing is easy and all of the assignments/exams are difficult for me so going to office hours is extremely helpful. At the beginning of the year I legitimately thought I was going to get a D in the class, but going to office hours makes all the materials doable (I ended with an A-). Toward the end of the semester, we had a bonus opportunity to participate in the forecast competition. The reward for the competition was 1st place gets a letter grade boost, 2nd place gets 1/3 of a letter grade boost, and 3rd place gets a handshake with Bob. For everyone who participated they get 3.33 bonus exam points, whoever beats the National Weather forecast and/or Bob also gets additional bonus points etc. This course is heavily curved, for example, 84-87% is an A- and 88-92% is an A. This course doesn't have recorded lectures (at least not that I know of) and the exams themselves have bonus questions that were from the lecture, so don't skip. The difficulty of the labs varied, and the lab was graded separately from the course. For me, the more time you invest in this course the better grade you'll get. Always go to Bob's before exam office hours. Don't procrastinate on the problem sets because they are difficult and you definitely will need help. Don't stress too much about the exams because Bob accepts reasonable appeals for the exam results, for example, on our 1st exam there were some ambiguous questions that the majority of us got wrong so he corrected them. Bob is flexible and responds to emails very quickly. Overall, great course. If you are interested in wind/ocean currents, weather, climate, or seasons, you should take this course.

Professor Davis was a very entertaining and engaging lecturer. It is clear he is very passionate about the material. With that being said, his exams are very difficult. I studied a lot (10+ hours) for each exam and still did not end up with an A overall in the course. Many questions come from what he writes on the chalkboard, making it difficult to go back and review important concepts. Taking detailed notes is a must in this course. The problem sets are out of 20 points which means a small mistake costs you 5 points overall (out of 100) which is frustrating. At the beginning of the semester we got to choose our grading option. Everyone had to include exams and problem sets, but you could choose to include in-class questions and/or weekly lecture quizzes. Most courses that do in-class questions or quizzes make them easy and use them as a way to boost grades. This was not the case. The quizzes were very challenging - people rarely got 100% on them. Quizzes were out of 6 points, so missing one question meant you got a 83%. Similarly, the in-class questions were challenging and not much time was provided to answer. Furthermore, I think students should be able to select their grading option at the end of the semester so they can decide which option is going to benefit them the most. #tCFF23

Professor Davis is definitely passionate about the material but I wouldn't recommend this class unless you have to take it as an EVSC major. All of his test questions come from what he writes on the chalkboard during lecture. He also makes the test questions very difficult even if you know all of the material well.