EVSC 2800

I really liked this course! I thought this was by far the easiest of the four core classes (I ended with over a 100, which the rest of my grades didn't even approach), and I thought Professor Nelson did a pretty good job with the lectures. She often lectured at a pretty fast pace, and going over the slides before each exam was absolutely necessary. However, I didn't ever really have a hard time following any of the subject matter - it was all very surface level (except for the rocks and minerals, which I'll get to in a second), so as long as you can memorize a few key concepts from each lecture, you'll be fine for the exam.
The first midterm for this course was significantly different from the rest of the class afterwards. There was a lot of memorization involved, and the sort of questions asked were very different than the other exams. If the start of the class feels like a lot to keep track of, don't worry - it will get much easier.

This was my favorite class of the semester! Professor Nelson is one of my favorite professor's that I have had at UVA so far. She very nice, helpful, and approachable if you ever have any questions about course related content. She does lecture very quickly, so make sure you go over the slides after to ensure you did not miss anything. The exams are fair and not too difficult. It is critical that you go over the provided study guide and review slides, as exams are pretty much all lecture based. Doing the textbook reading is good to review concepts from lecture, but it is not essential to do well in the course. I will say the final caught me a little off guard. I found it to be significantly harder than the two midterms. Professor Nelson provides a lot of extra credit opportunities including bonus questions on exams and a paper, so getting an A in the class is very doable. Geology rocks!