Professor
Carol Bakhos
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Most Helpful Review
Such a great professor! I only had her for a Fiat Lux (Religion 19) but had a blast. She but so much time into getting to know us individually and was always very insightful. She is very well-versed in all of the Abrahamic religions, not just Judaism. Whereas most highly intelligent professors don't care much about interacting with the class, Professor Bakhos invited us to dinner and would stay for usually 1-2 hours talking about the class, current events, and life in general. I definitely recommend taking her for any class.
Such a great professor! I only had her for a Fiat Lux (Religion 19) but had a blast. She but so much time into getting to know us individually and was always very insightful. She is very well-versed in all of the Abrahamic religions, not just Judaism. Whereas most highly intelligent professors don't care much about interacting with the class, Professor Bakhos invited us to dinner and would stay for usually 1-2 hours talking about the class, current events, and life in general. I definitely recommend taking her for any class.
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Winter 2025 - If you are looking for an easy GE, DO NOT take this class. The workload is very manageable as your participation grade comes from attendance, participation in discussion, and a short quiz during your discussion section. There aren't any outside assignments. However, this means most of your grade comes from the two tests, each worth 30%. Some reviews will tell you there is no final exam for this class, but the first exam is basically a midterm and the second exam is basically a final, just with less time since it's during a class period. Prof. Bakhos gives a study guide of terms to know for each exam, but the fill in the blank and essay questions on the exams are extremely niche and random, so the exams end up being difficult. There is a final essay worth 25% of your grade but it is pretty doable if you put a little effort (unlike the tests). In terms of her teaching, Prof. Bakhos sucks. She just yaps all class about random stuff and has a rule against having devices out during class, so lecture is pretty unbearable. I went to almost all the lectures but there was no way to know what was important for the exams and what were tangents. Plus, she doesn't post any lecture slides, so you have to take notes on paper. Overall, unless you have a strong background in one of these religions, especially christianity or islam, don't take this class. Prof Bakhos doesn't teach well and the exams are unnecessarily difficult.
Winter 2025 - If you are looking for an easy GE, DO NOT take this class. The workload is very manageable as your participation grade comes from attendance, participation in discussion, and a short quiz during your discussion section. There aren't any outside assignments. However, this means most of your grade comes from the two tests, each worth 30%. Some reviews will tell you there is no final exam for this class, but the first exam is basically a midterm and the second exam is basically a final, just with less time since it's during a class period. Prof. Bakhos gives a study guide of terms to know for each exam, but the fill in the blank and essay questions on the exams are extremely niche and random, so the exams end up being difficult. There is a final essay worth 25% of your grade but it is pretty doable if you put a little effort (unlike the tests). In terms of her teaching, Prof. Bakhos sucks. She just yaps all class about random stuff and has a rule against having devices out during class, so lecture is pretty unbearable. I went to almost all the lectures but there was no way to know what was important for the exams and what were tangents. Plus, she doesn't post any lecture slides, so you have to take notes on paper. Overall, unless you have a strong background in one of these religions, especially christianity or islam, don't take this class. Prof Bakhos doesn't teach well and the exams are unnecessarily difficult.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - If you have no knowledge of religion (which I did not) I would make sure you understand the amount of work you are getting into when taking this class. You truly do learn a lot about all 3 religions which requires reading and lots of memorization. Not the easiest GE but the professor is nice and has office hours you can attend. Interesting concepts but slides were sometimes boring and in trying to have a "discussion based class" it often ended up with tangents answering religious students very complex questions that had nothing to do with the concepts and were not understandable for other students. Attendance is randomly taken like three times throughout the quarter and she posts very helpful study guides for each exam that truly have everything you need to know on them. Consists of 2 exams and a final paper where you choose one of around 3 topics. Overall take the class if you have an interest and are not afraid of reading, but keep in mind it is definitely not the easiest GE out there.
Winter 2025 - If you have no knowledge of religion (which I did not) I would make sure you understand the amount of work you are getting into when taking this class. You truly do learn a lot about all 3 religions which requires reading and lots of memorization. Not the easiest GE but the professor is nice and has office hours you can attend. Interesting concepts but slides were sometimes boring and in trying to have a "discussion based class" it often ended up with tangents answering religious students very complex questions that had nothing to do with the concepts and were not understandable for other students. Attendance is randomly taken like three times throughout the quarter and she posts very helpful study guides for each exam that truly have everything you need to know on them. Consists of 2 exams and a final paper where you choose one of around 3 topics. Overall take the class if you have an interest and are not afraid of reading, but keep in mind it is definitely not the easiest GE out there.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Not sure if Professor Bakhos changed her curriculum during Covid or if I’m taking the wrong class, because the class I took is MUCH more difficult than the class all the other reviewers were talking about. I took this class as a GE thinking it would be fun and interesting like everyone said, but boy was I wrong. This course's grade was mostly comprised of 3 different sets of take-home essays throughout the quarter, each of which had you writing at least 7 essays (5 short and 2 long). On top of that, you also had an additional paper to write in week 9. There is SO much writing, this class should've honestly qualified for a Writing II class (except it's not, so lose-lose). Furthermore, it seems like she was looking for very specific answers for these essays, but also didn't want to "give away the answers". I honestly felt that she wasn't that helpful during office hours or Q&A sessions, but considering these essays are basically our midterm and final, I can somewhat understand why she might not be too keen on handing out answers to people. However, her lecture style (which mostly involves talking/getting sidetracked on people's questions while flipping through a handful of slides with scarce information) has not held up well over zoom and imo wasn't very helpful when it came to writing the actual essays. Which means that, in order to find the answers for each essay, you're going to have to be re-reading the textbook thrice over, scanning your minimal lecture "notes", and deep-searching Google for more information. Is this an interesting class? Certainly some parts are fascinating to learn about. But the biggest flaw with this class is that there is too much information and not enough time to learn it all, which made the take-home essays a wonderful, "on-your-own" experience for me. Before you take this class, ask yourself: Am I willing to sacrifice my entire sleep schedule over the course of 4 separate weeks for a GE? If the answer's no, then maybe avoid it and get some sleep. Sidenote: Participation is MANDATORY in this class. They had some policy where if you missed 2 or more discussion sections, you couldn't pass the course, which I felt was kind of unforgiving, especially during Covid.
Winter 2021 - Not sure if Professor Bakhos changed her curriculum during Covid or if I’m taking the wrong class, because the class I took is MUCH more difficult than the class all the other reviewers were talking about. I took this class as a GE thinking it would be fun and interesting like everyone said, but boy was I wrong. This course's grade was mostly comprised of 3 different sets of take-home essays throughout the quarter, each of which had you writing at least 7 essays (5 short and 2 long). On top of that, you also had an additional paper to write in week 9. There is SO much writing, this class should've honestly qualified for a Writing II class (except it's not, so lose-lose). Furthermore, it seems like she was looking for very specific answers for these essays, but also didn't want to "give away the answers". I honestly felt that she wasn't that helpful during office hours or Q&A sessions, but considering these essays are basically our midterm and final, I can somewhat understand why she might not be too keen on handing out answers to people. However, her lecture style (which mostly involves talking/getting sidetracked on people's questions while flipping through a handful of slides with scarce information) has not held up well over zoom and imo wasn't very helpful when it came to writing the actual essays. Which means that, in order to find the answers for each essay, you're going to have to be re-reading the textbook thrice over, scanning your minimal lecture "notes", and deep-searching Google for more information. Is this an interesting class? Certainly some parts are fascinating to learn about. But the biggest flaw with this class is that there is too much information and not enough time to learn it all, which made the take-home essays a wonderful, "on-your-own" experience for me. Before you take this class, ask yourself: Am I willing to sacrifice my entire sleep schedule over the course of 4 separate weeks for a GE? If the answer's no, then maybe avoid it and get some sleep. Sidenote: Participation is MANDATORY in this class. They had some policy where if you missed 2 or more discussion sections, you couldn't pass the course, which I felt was kind of unforgiving, especially during Covid.
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