EVSC 2050

Read the book the day before the exam and get an A. Easy as that. I spent the whole class on Tumblr. That being said, Macko is a cool guy.

This was honestly the worst class I have taken at UVA in my four years. But, I'm not a science person. Macko's lectures have nothing to do with what's on the exam and the labs are impossible.

Read the book; get an A or B depending on how focused your reading is. Macko is a great guy and super passionate about the material, but the lectures are very rambling and not very helpful for preparing for the tests. Labs aren't too difficult. Not too bad of a class as long as you have time to put into the reading.

This is not an "easy A." It's not a fun way to get the science credit out of the way. You'll only talk about the marine biology aspect of it all in the last few weeks - otherwise, unless you're genuinely curious about the salinity and temperatures of the oceans, or what causes waves, start walking in the other direction, like, yesterday. If you're an EVSC major, you'll maybe kinda enjoy the class, but if not, there aren't even words to describe how miserable you'll be.

Great Class. Macko can ramble a little bit and be a little crazy but he's a great guy. Super easy for me even though almost everyone else I talked to in the class found it difficult. He curves the class at the end so an 80 average is usually the cutoff for an A-. Lab Grade (Just a couple easy assignments), four tests, and a midterm all worth 20% of the grade. (He drops either the final or midterm with the lowest score).

This is perhaps the worst class I have ever taken at the University. 80% of the grade consists of the best 3 scores out of 4 exams and the other 20% comes from labs out of a lab manual. It's not really possible to get above a 75% or so on the labs unless you go to office hours and talk to the Macko personally to get the answers he wants. As far as lecture goes, it's completely pointless. However, Macko will occasionally give quizzes in lecture for bonus points on the exams to entice students to actually show up to class. Exams come directly from the textbook, so before each one, you need to cram 5 chapters from the book by reading them over and over again. It's incredibly tedious. The material itself is very boring (discusses how salinty values change in different parts of the ocean, etc.--very few interesting topics in oceanography discussed.) The professor is also unapproachable and responds rudely to emails, etc. All around just a bad class you shouldn't take. It's preposterous that you spend money for this experience.

Like many of you know, there is a difference between being a nice professor and being an efficient professor. Unfortunately, this class was the former. He spent most (and I mean *most*) of the class talking about stories that didn't directly relate to the assignments or tests, gave convoluted, graph-intensive labs that were only accompanied by a ten-minute blurb about them in class, had extremely-unhelpful/disorganized powerpoint lectures and spoke so quietly that if you were stuck in the back row, you could barely hear what he was saying, let alone decipher what parts of his prolonged tangents would be useful for the class. Although he does offer optional discussion classes, I find it a waste of time to spend an extra hour going over material that could have just as easily been covered in the main lecture. Unless you have to take this class for your major—in which case you have no choice but to take it—it is in your best interest to find another alternative class to complete your requirements/credit count.

This class is pretty easy, but also super boring. I stopped going to lecture about two weeks into classes and just read the book. The book is a MUST, the exams follow the book, not the lectures. The labs are an easy grade, just go to the TA and they explain everything.

I took this class because I heard it was an easy way to meet the core requirements for non-science majors. Theoretically this class shouldn't be hard but Macko's teaching style screws you over big time. His lectures are all over the place and involve a lot of show and tell of sea shells and coral, as well as personal stories or random animal facts. Reading the book is crucial to learning anything in this class, but the exam doesn't really reflect textbook information. He does curve at the end of the course, and drops the lowest of your exam grades, but this was definitely my least favorite class this semester.

I took this class because I am interested in pursuing marine biology in the future and I though it would be a fun class, but I also read previous comments knowing this class would be rough. This class WAS rough. Listen to course forum! The lectures were very boring and not worth going to because all he does is tell stories that are irrelevant to the test. Sometimes he does extra credit in class. All you do is read the textbook for the tests but the tests are so specific you have to read each chapter cover to cover. The labs are a good chunk of your grade, and if you go to the TA you will go 100s on them. Do not take this class if you want an A class, this class is a lot of work and not worth the effort.