Professor Beatley is passionate about sustainability and environmentalism, and this class is heavily skewed towards those concepts - much more so than the field of urban planning in general. Lectures are a little boring and long-winded. Weekly readings consist of textbook chapters and a few articles. They're optional, but I recommend reviewing them before exams. Midterm and final are short answer format, and Professor Beatley will give you a list of terms to study in advance. Make a study guide out of those and make sure you understand the overarching themes. The final paper is worth a big chunk of your grade - make sure to start it early. #tCF2020

If you're looking for a class where you literally don't have to do shit, this is the class you're looking for. There are 2 exams (short answer questions) and a 15-page research paper (it's not as bad as it sounds). Before I took the class, pretty much everyone got As but my semester (fall 2019) I guess he changed the way he graded things and many people, including myself, got Bs. But still, a B for a class that I never attended lecture for and never read or even bought the textbooks, is not something I can complain about. If you actually want to learn something, this class will not give you that, but if you want a low-stress and low-time commitment class, I would definitely recommend PLAN 1010.

It doesn't get much easier than PLAN 1010. No need to buy any books or do any of the readings, ever. Lecture is somewhat interesting and useful for getting a good sense of the general themes that you need to know, but it's also a great time to watch Champions League football or just skip entirely.

Yeah this class is easy. Definitely a GPA booster. A midterm, a final, and a final paper. The midterm and final basically just need you to memorize a set of 150ish words (it sounds like a lot but it really isn't) in order to define seven of them and then write a 3 paragraph essay as part of the test. The final paper is 10-15 pages on your hometown, which as a person who hates writing seemed daunting but there is so much planning info out there on most towns/counties/cities that it really is not that bad. Most people do not go to lecture (I skipped only a few) and the people who do go don't pay too much attention because a lot of the stuff that is covered is mostly common sense. Prof. Beatley is a nice guy but is not a great lecturer so you'll definitely see a few people slumped if you go to lecture. Also, I did not buy a single one of the books nor did any of the readings and still pulled an A. In sum, not a difficult class and lecture is pretty dry but you might learn something interesting (I think I did).

Beatley is such a nice man and truly loves what he does. Most people don't go to class since there is no sort of attendance and all of his notes are online. There is no homework and the only grades come from exams and one 10-15 page paper. The exams are pretty easy and he lets you leave the classroom to take them. Overall its a chill class if you're looking for a break in a hard schedule.

Beatley is one of my favorite professors at UVa; he is so passionate, excited, friendly, and cares about each student. His class is very interesting and doesn't require much work outside of the classroom. It's an easy A if you put in the effort on the final paper and study for the midterm and final. He allows extra credit opportunities if you need it and often holds class field trips around Charlottesville. I highly recommend this class.

Probably the best class for an easy A at UVA. There are 2 exams and a paper. The paper is graded pretty easily, and the exams are non-cumulative vocal tests where you pick something like 7 out of 12 terms and 1 of 3 long response questions.

All the vocab is already on quizlets and doesn't change much year to year. For the vocab, you have to give examples and how the term relates to planning. Usually some terms are the examples; for example "gotham greens" might be a "rooftop garden." Just know the broader concepts really well and have one or two examples down. Beatley is a really knowledgeable person, but the lectures are dry. He cares a lot about nature and biophilia; he even let people take the exams wherever they wanted like "under a tree," or more realistically, in a library.

You don't have to go to class. I was interested in this stuff and still only went to about 4 lectures the entire semester; I got an A. That being said, if you don't cram well for the exams, you will probably get 1 or 2 points off each definition (out of 10) and could end up with a B+ or A-. I actually learned some cool stuff from studying the terms for the exams. They're usually cool buildings or projects that you wouldn't think about normally. I learned a decent amount, had a 3 credit class I didn't go to, and got an A, pretty solid experience.

Easy A. You only have to work hard 3 times in the semester: the midterm, the paper, and the final which are all of your grades but easy. The midterm and the final consist of terms and a short essay. Prof. Beatley gives you a list of ~200 terms that he will choose ~20 from and you will have to define ~10 of them: what they are, their significance in terms of planning, and maybe an example from class. There are flashcards online, but I found it easier to remember them if I googled them myself. The essay is an overall planning issue, such as housing, Biophilia, food, etc. DON’T BUY THE BOOKS. I made this mistake despite other reviews saying that you will not need them. You really don’t need them. They weren’t expensive, but still money I could have saved. Professor Beatley is a really nice guy and renowned in the planning world, but his voice makes it very easy to fall asleep, unfortunately. The material was pretty interesting and common sense/easy to understand. Therefore, attending classes is not even necessary, but helpful for the essay portion of midterm/final. The paper is 10 pages, so it was agony for this engineer to write, but it should be pretty easy if you’re used to writing papers. It’s just a planning analysis for your hometown and you can write in first person. Overall, highly recommended if you’re looking for an interesting easy class.

Easiest class at UVA. The professor is extremely passionate, but the course content is really self explanatory and very much common sense. To be honest I didn't go to a lot of his lectures. Once you've been to them for a month, you get an idea of content for the class. Just be sure to study the notecards for the midterm and the final. There is even a quizlet of the vocab needed for these exams. For the final project, based on your home town and how it can be improved in terms of planning... I basically wrote the whole 10 page paper in first person, using personal stories and experiences the night before it was due and did well on it. Nothing to fret over at all.
He says the readings are necessary, but they really aren't. I honestly wouldn't even recommend buying them.

Very easy class. I found the lectures to be interesting, but you do not need to go to the lectures if you don't want to. There are readings, which are also very interesting, but you don't need to do the readings if you don't want to. Beatley is very interesting person who loves urban planning and sustainability and can talk for hours. He hands out a very extensive study guide, where most of the answers can be found online, or in the main planning textbook. The tests are very straightforward and if you do the study guide and memorize a good chunk of the study guide, you will do fine. Note that he isn't looking for a one word answer, but a fairly decent explanation. The only other grade for the class comes from the community analysis paper, which is pretty straightforward if you look through your city/county's general plan. He also posts example papers that are very good references for what he is looking for. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone in the college who is looking for an easier class with little workload and for those in the A school who are required to take it, know that it does not require much of your time or energy, but is still fairly interesting.