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Alexander Julius
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Based on 48 Users
Professor Julius was nice and understanding. He was always understanding with students concerns outside and inside of class. He expressed his support with students who were involved in the events taking place on campus. I felt relieved when he told us not to worry when we were behind in lecture. His strengths include being understanding, supportive, and nice. However, I often felt lost in lecture because he did not use any presentation slides (he would just talk with the readings in front of him) or he did not have a microphone. It was difficult to follow along in what he was saying because I could not hear and he did not have a clear structure to what he was saying. I felt very lost because the readings were confusing and I relied heavily on my TA's discussion section because they had slides and did a good job breaking down the readings. I wish the professor began the beginning of the quarter with introducing himself and his goals for the class. I wish he had slides and offered information about the readings before we started reading because I did not know many terms in the readings or people mentioned. I feel that although he was nice and willing to help, his lectures were very confusing and he would often go on many tangents when he was lecturing. I feel that most of my peers felt that discussion sections with their TA's were more helpful to break down the readings. Overall, I think he was very nice and understanding of students concerns, I just feel that his teaching style is difficult to follow.
take this class if you can tolerate philosophy and only want to think about the class once a week. ok here's the thing. I went to the first lecture all ready to learn about philosophy and I left with the intention of never going to lecture again. The only thing I actually did for this class was go to discussion-- I didn't do the readings or go to lecture. My TA, Moises, was awesome and he basically summarized everything in 50 minutes that the prof couldn't do in 2.5 hours. There are only three assignments total which were all super doable and my TA let us turn in our rough drafts for editing, basically ensuring an A on each paper. Even if you wanted to go to lecture, he records it and I found it more helpful to listen to him in 2x speed when I was trying to find info for the papers anyways. So I guess I would recommend it lol
This class should be relatively doable with a minimal time commitment. I will spend most of this review talking about the TAs since they really make or break your enjoyment in this class. I did not go to any lectures, which is mostly the reason why I can't say anything about the professor.
My TA was Moises, and to say he was pretty great would be an understatement. He is extremely knowledgable, very forgiving with grade deadlines (I had to ask for a one day extension on 2 of the 3 papers, both of which were granted), grades rapidly (he finished grading our final paper in around 4 days), and leaves great feedback to make sure you do better on future papers. I, admittedly, went to very few discussions, but the ones I did go to were super eye opening, he really does ask questions that make you think, and not in the "I'm 14 and this is so deep" way. You can tell that he loves what he does, and I wholeheartedly recommend him. He provides many opportunities to to check your paper before the deadline to ensure you get the best grade possible. He wants you to succeed and learn. Please give him the time and respect that he deserves; he is simply awesome.
Moving on to the logistics of the class, your grade is solely determined by 3 papers, which are entirely based on the reading. Doing the assigned reading and going to discussion is more than enough work to do very well in this class. That's... kinda it actually; again, this is a class that is defined by the TA you get.
This is a fascinating class. As a political science major, I might be biased, but I found its topics to be captivating and thought-provoking.
The class is divided into three writing assignments that each make up 1/3 of your final grade. Work hard on these assignments, consult your TA (important), and triple-check every statement you make – your TA is likely a philosophy wizard, so be careful!
There are weekly readings, which are a lot – don't worry, there is a way around this. I used the lecture time to review spark notes of each chapter of the readings and took detailed notes. I completely blocked out what the professor was saying – he tends to ramble without a PPT, although I'm sure it's very interesting if you pay attention.
I used this formula for all three writing assignments and got A's on all of them. Overall, it's a low-time commitment GE if you play your cards right.
Lecture is disorganized, unexciting, and really quite useless. The class is redeemed by great TAs, great readings, and fair, interesting assignments. Just go to discussion, and do the readings, and this is a great class.
As for the grading, it's pretty easy but beware of great discrepancies in difficulty among TAs.
The Professor was a nice guy and was interested in what he was teaching. He was always nervous when he taught and could be boring. There were only three papers for the course which should've made it easy. However, the grade is completely based off of the TA. I had a TA who wanted specific answers and allowed for no creativity in the papers. He was the hardest TA, an English stickler, and ended up giving me a B+. If you take the class make sure your TA is good and has background in philosophy (my TA was not even a philosophy major).
Take this class for an easy A. Don't take this class if you actually want to learn. Lecture was very difficult to pay attention in. In my opinion, the material was boring and his charisma did not help one bit. He does not have the speaking skills to teach by simply lecturing. A power point could have easily helped his lectures.
he is literally the most boring lecturer ive had the displeasure of listening to. on the other hand, this class is ridiculously easy. two essays on three readings each and a final. you dont need to and should NOT attend lecture. you dont have to go to section but you should to find out what your ta wants in your papers. the class is totally up to your ta and the overall grades are not curved with the other sections. so if you get a shitty ta like i did, tony, you and the rest in your section will average a C on all your papers while your classmates all get As for writing the same EXACT thing. i know because i had friends with other tas who i worked on my papers with and had the same arguments as, and in my opinion, my papers were better written than theirs. also, you dont get your first paper back til 7th week which is too late to switch to pass/no pass so make sure to get a good ta and its a superrr easy A.
Grade is 100% up to the T.A. I got a TA that graded harder than he should've so I got an A- :(
This class talks about stuff like "if a homeless person is unable to do basic things like use the bathroom, is he unfree to do those things?" or "if a person is unable to get a good job, and resorts to welfare, is he/she taking advantage of the system or is the system unjust?"
If you like this kind of stuff, you'll have a fun time in this class, but if not, you'll just thing it's crazy overanalysis of random bull. Still, you have to write 3 essays and that is solely what your grade is based on.
Lecture is pretty much pointless, I went for the first couple weeks thinking I would learn something, but ended up just going on reddit for an hour. The last couple weeks, I just got some extra sleep. The TA's usually just go over everything. And it's one article per week. If you even want to read it (I didn't)
Took Philosophy 6 during Fall 2011. Boring lectures, do not go. I didn't learn anything, it was hard to pay attention to his points and he doesn't use a microphone for the big lecture hall. I would go and try to pay attention but only succeeded to do so for the first 5-10 minutes and then dozed off.
The TA goes over everything during discussion and he posted summaries and analyses online.
There are 3 papers, no quizzes, no midterms. That's good. Learn how to write like a philosopher to get a good grade! it's different than other writings...
The readings were boring and too long and confusing.
I got an A- overall which I am sore about because the class didn't seem too hard but I still received an A-.
Overall, it's a pretty chill class, do not really need to go to lecture, the professor doesn't even care if you show up. He is pretty chill. In the first class he mentioned how he didn't want to be called Professor or by his last name, just A.J. so after a while you forget his name.
Definitely go to TA's office hours because they are the ones who grade your papers.
Professor Julius was nice and understanding. He was always understanding with students concerns outside and inside of class. He expressed his support with students who were involved in the events taking place on campus. I felt relieved when he told us not to worry when we were behind in lecture. His strengths include being understanding, supportive, and nice. However, I often felt lost in lecture because he did not use any presentation slides (he would just talk with the readings in front of him) or he did not have a microphone. It was difficult to follow along in what he was saying because I could not hear and he did not have a clear structure to what he was saying. I felt very lost because the readings were confusing and I relied heavily on my TA's discussion section because they had slides and did a good job breaking down the readings. I wish the professor began the beginning of the quarter with introducing himself and his goals for the class. I wish he had slides and offered information about the readings before we started reading because I did not know many terms in the readings or people mentioned. I feel that although he was nice and willing to help, his lectures were very confusing and he would often go on many tangents when he was lecturing. I feel that most of my peers felt that discussion sections with their TA's were more helpful to break down the readings. Overall, I think he was very nice and understanding of students concerns, I just feel that his teaching style is difficult to follow.
take this class if you can tolerate philosophy and only want to think about the class once a week. ok here's the thing. I went to the first lecture all ready to learn about philosophy and I left with the intention of never going to lecture again. The only thing I actually did for this class was go to discussion-- I didn't do the readings or go to lecture. My TA, Moises, was awesome and he basically summarized everything in 50 minutes that the prof couldn't do in 2.5 hours. There are only three assignments total which were all super doable and my TA let us turn in our rough drafts for editing, basically ensuring an A on each paper. Even if you wanted to go to lecture, he records it and I found it more helpful to listen to him in 2x speed when I was trying to find info for the papers anyways. So I guess I would recommend it lol
This class should be relatively doable with a minimal time commitment. I will spend most of this review talking about the TAs since they really make or break your enjoyment in this class. I did not go to any lectures, which is mostly the reason why I can't say anything about the professor.
My TA was Moises, and to say he was pretty great would be an understatement. He is extremely knowledgable, very forgiving with grade deadlines (I had to ask for a one day extension on 2 of the 3 papers, both of which were granted), grades rapidly (he finished grading our final paper in around 4 days), and leaves great feedback to make sure you do better on future papers. I, admittedly, went to very few discussions, but the ones I did go to were super eye opening, he really does ask questions that make you think, and not in the "I'm 14 and this is so deep" way. You can tell that he loves what he does, and I wholeheartedly recommend him. He provides many opportunities to to check your paper before the deadline to ensure you get the best grade possible. He wants you to succeed and learn. Please give him the time and respect that he deserves; he is simply awesome.
Moving on to the logistics of the class, your grade is solely determined by 3 papers, which are entirely based on the reading. Doing the assigned reading and going to discussion is more than enough work to do very well in this class. That's... kinda it actually; again, this is a class that is defined by the TA you get.
This is a fascinating class. As a political science major, I might be biased, but I found its topics to be captivating and thought-provoking.
The class is divided into three writing assignments that each make up 1/3 of your final grade. Work hard on these assignments, consult your TA (important), and triple-check every statement you make – your TA is likely a philosophy wizard, so be careful!
There are weekly readings, which are a lot – don't worry, there is a way around this. I used the lecture time to review spark notes of each chapter of the readings and took detailed notes. I completely blocked out what the professor was saying – he tends to ramble without a PPT, although I'm sure it's very interesting if you pay attention.
I used this formula for all three writing assignments and got A's on all of them. Overall, it's a low-time commitment GE if you play your cards right.
Lecture is disorganized, unexciting, and really quite useless. The class is redeemed by great TAs, great readings, and fair, interesting assignments. Just go to discussion, and do the readings, and this is a great class.
As for the grading, it's pretty easy but beware of great discrepancies in difficulty among TAs.
The Professor was a nice guy and was interested in what he was teaching. He was always nervous when he taught and could be boring. There were only three papers for the course which should've made it easy. However, the grade is completely based off of the TA. I had a TA who wanted specific answers and allowed for no creativity in the papers. He was the hardest TA, an English stickler, and ended up giving me a B+. If you take the class make sure your TA is good and has background in philosophy (my TA was not even a philosophy major).
Take this class for an easy A. Don't take this class if you actually want to learn. Lecture was very difficult to pay attention in. In my opinion, the material was boring and his charisma did not help one bit. He does not have the speaking skills to teach by simply lecturing. A power point could have easily helped his lectures.
he is literally the most boring lecturer ive had the displeasure of listening to. on the other hand, this class is ridiculously easy. two essays on three readings each and a final. you dont need to and should NOT attend lecture. you dont have to go to section but you should to find out what your ta wants in your papers. the class is totally up to your ta and the overall grades are not curved with the other sections. so if you get a shitty ta like i did, tony, you and the rest in your section will average a C on all your papers while your classmates all get As for writing the same EXACT thing. i know because i had friends with other tas who i worked on my papers with and had the same arguments as, and in my opinion, my papers were better written than theirs. also, you dont get your first paper back til 7th week which is too late to switch to pass/no pass so make sure to get a good ta and its a superrr easy A.
Grade is 100% up to the T.A. I got a TA that graded harder than he should've so I got an A- :(
This class talks about stuff like "if a homeless person is unable to do basic things like use the bathroom, is he unfree to do those things?" or "if a person is unable to get a good job, and resorts to welfare, is he/she taking advantage of the system or is the system unjust?"
If you like this kind of stuff, you'll have a fun time in this class, but if not, you'll just thing it's crazy overanalysis of random bull. Still, you have to write 3 essays and that is solely what your grade is based on.
Lecture is pretty much pointless, I went for the first couple weeks thinking I would learn something, but ended up just going on reddit for an hour. The last couple weeks, I just got some extra sleep. The TA's usually just go over everything. And it's one article per week. If you even want to read it (I didn't)
Took Philosophy 6 during Fall 2011. Boring lectures, do not go. I didn't learn anything, it was hard to pay attention to his points and he doesn't use a microphone for the big lecture hall. I would go and try to pay attention but only succeeded to do so for the first 5-10 minutes and then dozed off.
The TA goes over everything during discussion and he posted summaries and analyses online.
There are 3 papers, no quizzes, no midterms. That's good. Learn how to write like a philosopher to get a good grade! it's different than other writings...
The readings were boring and too long and confusing.
I got an A- overall which I am sore about because the class didn't seem too hard but I still received an A-.
Overall, it's a pretty chill class, do not really need to go to lecture, the professor doesn't even care if you show up. He is pretty chill. In the first class he mentioned how he didn't want to be called Professor or by his last name, just A.J. so after a while you forget his name.
Definitely go to TA's office hours because they are the ones who grade your papers.