ASTR 1260

For the love of God do not take this class. This has been the worst class I've taken at UVA. The professor is incredibly dry and boring, but he can be funny and interesting if you can find the ability to pay attention. Multiple choice homeworks ask questions about arbitrary numbers he might have mentioned once in lecture. Nothing from the homework is ever reflected in the tests. Lectures on topics (all focused on different ways the world will end) tend to last for days or even weeks, reemphasizing points that are not touched upon in the tests. Writing assignments are sparse, but the grade is given out based on his general feelings towards your paper, not by a strictly defined rubric. It has only been difficult in that it is impossible to pay attention and test questions feel random. I thought the material would make this course worth it, but it doesn't. He finds a way to make the world ending boring.

Didn't think this class was that hard honestly. Most hw answers could be found online or in the powerpoints. Attendance not required but helps to go. Material overall a little dry and boring. Definitely helps to have taken an astronomy before. This coming from an econ major

Do not take this course. This guy is absolutely awful; he has the monotone voice of a robot and he speaks two times slower than the average person speaks. His lectures are extremely dry and meander all over the place. By the time the test comes around, your left with an excessive amount of information; way more than there should be for a 1000 level course. In addition, he never points out what is important, and thus, you don't know what tests will focus on. I ended up having to spend countless hours attempting to memorize an unreasonable amount of information. Lastly, the different topics are poorly connected and each topic is disorganized in itself.

Avoid this class at all costs. Lectures are extremely dry and tests are very difficult to prepare for, considering it's very ambiguous as to what will actually be on the tests. Homeworks and tests are weirdly worded, and it's often hard to find the necessary information to prepare for the exams.

Professor Chevalier is extremely intelligent but he does not make the material accessible to people who aren't astronomy majors. I put off my science class until my third year and I signed up for this course because it was listed as a non-science major course. I regret doing this because this class has been more work than any of my 3000-4000 major courses this semester. The tests are multiple choice but the wording is confusing, the homework is extremely time consuming. I went to every class and I still left lecture confused and stumbled through my homework each week. When I saw Professor Chevalier for help outside of class, I was even more confused when I left his office. I do not recommend taking this class.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! It was way too difficult for a non-science major course. The slides contained too much information, often things that we weren't going to be tested on. The study guides for tests also contained too much information (the final study guide is 21 pages!). The homework was based very loosely off of the slides and it was hard to find or figure out the answers for it, yet it counted as a significant part of our grade. Finally, the tests contained a lot of information that was not on the study guide. Overall, I would not recommend this class to anyone. Even if you like astronomy, the teacher makes it very boring.