Prof Vasquez is super sweet and helpful! This was an easy GE and our grades consisted of mostly discussion participation, three 2-page papers, and a final (optional for my quarter). Honestly you can get by without doing the readings because she goes over the same thing in lecture and her slides are very clear and give you enough information. I opted out of the final exam so I didn't have an exam testing my knowledge of the content (I heard the final was kinda rough though). The three papers aren't too difficult and mostly train you to think analytically and apply the content you learn. The lectures can get boring sometimes if you're not interested in Romans though, but overall this is a great class that I'd recommend!

This class is an easy GE, but in my opinion it was extremely boring.

Professor Vasquez is an absolute gem!! She is so incredibly sweet, genuinely wants her students to do well, and has been extremely accommodating with everything that is going on with COVID and Zoom school etc. Her lectures are engaging and the homework load is pretty light. There are only three major assignments, which are three essays that she gives extensive instructions for so as long as you try on them you will do well. My TA was also really helpful and she offered to give us feedback during office hours on portions of our essays before we turn them in to make sure we were on the right track. There is no midterm, no tests throughout the course, and the final was optional. Overall, I would definitely recommend taking this as a GE, I had a great time and I was never even much of a history person in high school.

I loved Classics 20 with Professor Vazquez! Daily readings/homework was very short. The midterm is very straightforward and fair if you have a decent understanding of the material. If you pay attention in lecture and read at least one of the assigned readings, you'll be fine. The two essays can be easy if you know what she's looking for, so take the discussion section with her if you can! Professor Vazquez is very sweet and she cares a lot about her students; she really knows the material. I would highly recommend this class to others. If you're willing to put in the effort into this class, its an "easy" A!

This was a really cool course. I feel like we all have tidbits of knowledge about Ancient Rome and this class did a good job of filling in the gaps in my general knowledge. Professor Vasquez is incredibly knowledgable, and willing to answer questions after class!

Professor Vazquez is super chill and approachable. Her lectures are relatively short but very detailed. The workload is definitely manageable: weekly readings from two separate textbooks that correlate with her lectures, 1 short and easy reading comprehension quiz per week, 3 short papers with soft deadlines, and an optional movie review. The final is also optional.

Professor Vasquez was extremely kind, understanding, and engaging, especially during Covid times. Since everything is online, she makes sure to record her lectures and puts the slides on CCLE so you can have access to them. Attendance during the lectures is not mandatory, but her lectures are engaging. We had three short papers due throughout the quarter, but the hard deadline for them was at the end of the quarter. The TAs were super helpful and graded the papers fairly. The discussion sections are graded on attendance/participation, but the discussions are usually very interesting. Overall, if you need to fulfill a GE, you should take this class!

I would highly recommend taking this course as an easy GE; the lectures were pretty basic and interesting enough, and the TAs were super friendly and conducted fun discussion sections. Prof and the TAs were very understanding and accommodating during these covid times, and the final was optional. The only workload was weekly reading quizzes that were only graded on completion, and three 2-page essays for the entire quarter that didn't require extensive research or knowledge on Ancient Rome.

Professor Vasquez is fantastic and my favorite professor so far. I really enjoyed learning about the Romans, her lectures were not boring.

The class consists of weekly quizzes, a midterm, 3 papers, and a final.
Weekly Quizzes: 10 points each, unlimited tries and open book/note so you will always get 100% on each one
Midterm: Consists of 3 sections- define vocabulary words ( I believe it was 3), read a short passage and describe what historical event is happening ~2 paragraphs, answer an essay prompt 2-3 pages. It was given during normal lecture time and I had about a couple mins to spare after finishing. The study guide is EXACTLY like the midterm. She gives you what topics the short passage and essay could potentially be and what was on the actual midterm was always given in the study guide. I knew exactly what to study so it was perfect. The class average was in the A range.
3 papers: The first paper was an analysis of a historical artifact, you could choose between 3 different ones. It had to be 3-4 pages. I got a 90/100 on it. The second paper was the hardest of the 3 but still doable. We had to compare and contrast 2 accounts of a specific historical figure. It had to be 4-5 pages long. I got a 84/100 on it. The last paper was a critical fabulation of this cursed tablet (will probably change next year not sure). Basically just a story you create about the person who created the cursed tablet using evidence of the day to day life of Romans from lecture or the class textbooks. This was only 2-3 pages and the easiest paper. I got a 95/100. For all 3 papers she gave a sample paper so you knew exactly how to write it.
Final: The final was the exact same format as the midterm just based on weeks 6-10 instead of 1-5. The study guide was also the exact same. You have like 3 hours to do it but youll def finish in less than 2 hours since it is formatted to fit in a 50 minute lecture like the midterm.

The lecture and discussion sections did not have mandatory attendance. I NEVER read any of the textbook and regret not opting out of the Achieve. So I highly recommended opting out since I got an A without reading any of the textbooks. I also missed a lot of discussion since it didn't really help, but the TA was super nice! I usually only went to discussion before a paper was due just in case they had any tips. She doesn't just read off slides which I really like so I just download the slides she posts before lecture and just add any comments she makes to the slides that aren't already mentioned there.

HIGHLY recommend you take Classics 20 with Professor Vasquez.

I found this class to be very cool, as so many aspects of Rome are still recognizable today. Our grade was based on 3 essays and participation. The final was optional, but I took it to help average out my grade. It was hard to know your grade at any given time because the TAs didn't put in the essay and participation scores until the day until the final, or in many cases not until after the quarter was over. However, I found this class to be a really engaging and fun GE.