Professor Kirkland is amazing! He makes every single one of his lectures engaging and is super passionate about the material. He covered all of the most important aspects in lecture, so just skimming the textbook was enough for some additional context. However, readings for discussions definitely have to be done, but they usually aren't very long and I personally found them much more enjoyable than the textbook.

Here's how grades were determined:
- 15% participation
- 15% 500 word essay
- 20% 3-4 page essay
- 25% midterm
- 25% final

My TA (Andrew) gave plenty of opportunities to participate in discussion and was also very helpful. He gave lots of feedback on the first essay and made his expectations clear despite the fact that there wasn't a provided rubric for it.

The essays themselves were a bit challenging. Though there is a lot of freedom in choosing your topic, all of them required a strong understanding of the course material and your own analysis. Paying attention at lecture and discussion will definitely prepare you to do well on them though.

The midterm and final were both based mostly on memorization, but Professor Kirkland makes it clear what you need to study beforehand by posting the instructions for the exams. There was a lot of memorization involved since you are asked to define vocabulary, identify images, and identify readings as well as provide the time period and significance of each. If you give yourself at least a few days to study before each exam, it will feel like a breeze, especially since you don't have to identify/define every single thing on the exam (and there's extra credit at the end too!) For the final, there is also an essay on top of the other questions, but the prompts are provided beforehand so you can prepare for it.

I would recommend this class for those looking for a GE, but it's not necessarily a super easy one. As long as you're willing to put the work into memorizing, however, getting a good grade is very possible.

This class has a lot of readings, so is a little time consuming in terms of preparing for the discussion sections. However, taking the time to do the readings and participating is super rewarding, and I felt like it was time well spent!

If you do the readings, pay attention in lecture, and study for the tests, this class is very rewarding. Kirkland is super accessible for questions, incredibly understanding, and so passionate that it’s contagious. I went into Classics 10 not caring or knowing a lot about Ancient Greece, but left it genuinely interested in the material and feeling like I learned so much. If you can get Mary as your TA, definitely do so! She was fantastic, led great discussions, responded to emails quickly, and was a super fair grader.

TL;DR, there are a lot of readings, but they’re worth spending the time on in my opinion, 10/10 professor and TA!

Prof Kirkland always gave really engaging and fun lectures that covered all the material you need to know. Readings are helpful but you could probably get through the course without doing them since the lectures are so in-depth. Your grade is based on a midterm and a final that are really easy and 2 essays that are pretty short. Would highly recommend it, especially for GEs.

Great professor! Extremely enthusiastic and engaging and just an all around great guy!

The course is quite easy because the tests often just need you to have memorised content. The content you need to memorise isn’t a whole lot and taking a week to study in advance for the test is enough to ace it. The final is ‘cumulative’ but leans heavily towards content after the midterm to the point that you can only review that content and still score 100 simply because all the tests give a pool of questions from which you choose which ones to answer. The two essays (500 words max and 1000 words respectively) are more difficult because it is up to your TA and from my experience their criteria is more ambiguous and thus it is less likely you can get an easy A on the essays.

The workload is definitely on the lighter side. Each week you need to do a reading (do them because passages will need to be identified on the tests) which only takes around 1hr - 1hr 15min. The textbook has readings too but it’s not actually on the tests. Apart from that preparing 1 week in advance for each test is more than enough and 2 essays spread throughout the quarter is also not a lot of work.

The workload

This was my favorite class this quarter. I really enjoyed learning about ancient Greece, and I believe that the things I learned in this class will stick with me even after its end. The professor is so cool, he's incredibly knowledgeable and fun to talk to. The lectures often contain really interesting stuff, and Professor Kirkland is clearly enthusiastic about the subject. The things you learn about include works like The Iliad, but also things like Herodotus' Histories.
The class is not super hard, although it really depends on how much work you're willing to put in and how interested you are in the class. I came in with some interest in the topic, but if you have no interest whatsoever this class might be a pain in the butt for you.
Grading consists of one short essay, one long essay, a midterm, and a final. The two essays were fun to write for me, because we get to choose the prompt, but unfortunately what TA you get will really influence your grade for these. My TA was a fair grader but I know other people whose TAs were more strict.
The midterm is memorizing vocabulary, identifying passages and analyzing them, and identifying images and analyzing them. Vocabulary is not that difficult, you have to give the definition, an example, and a time period (sounds hard, but a quizlet and some friends to study with will help you on this one). Vocab words are provided, but images are not, so it's a little harder. Again, look for quizlets online and study with friends. Passages are pretty easy to identify if you do the readings, and even if you don't do them, if you know the very basics and maybe read sparknotes apparently it's doable. The questions are never tricky, there are no surprises on any of the tests.
For the final, it's the same but additionally there's a timed essay. Prompts are given ahead of time, and there's so much time provided for the final that it's really not an issue.
Do you need to attend lectures? Not really, I attended them but it's really just to learn some extra stuff. They're recorded, but also not really on the test. If there's a topic you're interested in, you should attend so that you have ideas for the essay, but other than that you can get away with skipping.
Textbooks: The main textbook is only necessary for vocabulary, and you can find it online. However, there are a couple of books that I do recommend you buy. Essential Homer is a really, really good translation in my opinion and much easier to understand than any free ver. of Iliad or Odyssey that you can find online. I think I also bought the Greek Plays book as well as Essential Herodotus. The rest are provided or you can find online. I recommend doing the readings just so that you're not as stressed during the tests

This review is long and kinda rambly but in any case I really do recommend that you take the class if you're interested in ancient Greece. Yes, there's probably not gonna be as much Greek mythology as you'd like but there's a lot beyond mythology and I feel like I learned so much in this class. Professor Kirkland is really cool and I wish I figured that before it was already close to the end of the quarter. If he offers the Getty Villa trip next time, I suggest you go (even if it's close to final! I think it's worth it!)

I loved taking this class with Professor Kirkland! He is a great lecturer and made things interesting. I can tell he really cares about his students. We had an option field trip to the Getty Villa too which was really fun! This class does require a little bit of work though, and discussion participation matters too. The exams do require some studying but as long as you put in a good couple hours you should pass easily.

Professor Kirkland is a very passionate and engaging lecturer, and those were definitely my favorite part of the class. He puts a lot of work into the slides, and tells you everything you need to know for the exams (which were memorizing terms, images, and reading excerpts, plus an essay on the final with the prompts given in advance). There is a quite a bit of reading, but there was a lot of thought in the pacing so the workload was lighter when there was more for other classes. I talked to him quite a bit after class and in office hours, and I always came away knowing more about the Greeks and more curious to 'discover' them. Discussions are just talking about the reading, but will actually have to do the primary readings. This was my favorite class this quarter and I learned about so many different topics. If you might be interested in history, classics, philosophy, art, poetry, human condition, etc. I highly recommend it!

Professor Kirkland is very passionate for the subject of the Greeks. You can tell that he is very interested in his lectures, and uses a lot of hand motions and changes in tone to make the presentation more lively. However, his lectures often utilize a lot of primary source texts, which can often be confusing for some. Throughout the class, there is a moderate amount of reading required (although textbook reading is required, I did not really read it). Primary source readings are a must for each week's discussion, and they can sometimes be long and boring. Nevertheless, the workload is light (2 essays, a midterm, and a final) and the exams are pretty much memorization of Greek terms and images and recognizing passages. Overall, the grading in this class is pretty easy and the professor is a great person. Not sure if I would take the class again though because I am not very passionate for the subject.

Lectures are engaging and the professor is very knowledge about the subject material. Occasionally parts of a lecture will be dry but it varies depending on your own interests. There is a good amount of reading assigned for the class from both textbooks and primary sources, however only the primary sources are really needed to do well. Tests are extremely straightforward and there are no curveballs. Professor Kirkland is a cool dude and learns the name of almost everyone who shows up to lecture consistently. Would recommend the class if you have any interest in the subject material at all, or want to actually learn something. However, if you solely want an easy GE, there are better options.

Kirkland is a very engaging lecturer and made the course material as interesting as it could be. However, as a GE this course has a rather heavy workload with around 80 pages of textbook reading for lecture and 60 pages of primary texts for discussion each week. Art history is an important component of this class (pottery, sculpture…), and there is an artifact identification portion of the exams. I would recommend this class only if you have a strong interest in Greek civilizations dating back to the Bronze Age (this isn't just on Athens and democracy) rather than a slight interest in greek mythology or are looking for an easy GE.