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.

2 exams, 1 paper, discussion and lecture attendance mandatory. Professor Bakhos is evidently very passionate about religion, and is the type of professor who makes an effort to remember faces/names to interact with the students. With that being said, she does not record or post her lectures, although she does post her notes which are usually just pdfs with a bunch of text on it. The syllabus says attendance is mandatory but they only really took attendance like once. Her lectures are very unorganized, and I personally found it very difficult to follow the timeline or even discern what topic she was talking about as she jumped around a lot. Youtube history videos carried me, and quizlet flashcards did too (there's A LOT of vocab). Would highly recommend doing at least the biblical readings so that you have an idea what is going on during discussion because participation is required. The exam week 10, and then 4-5 page paper due on Tuesday during Finals week was rough. If you have a background in at least one of the 3 religions, you'll be okay, but if you have no religious background like me, this class will be very difficult.

This class is entirely dependent on the TA you have as the professor doesn’t grade anything. The study guides are helpful but I would say the grading is pretty subjective. Not a super easy GE but the workload isn’t bad.

I would not recommend taking this class especially as a STEM major. Very unclear and difficult for people without a religious background.

this class FUCKING CHANGED MY LIFE. I cannot emphasize ENOUGH how incredible this class is and how amazing Prof. Bakhos is. Yes, the readings are a lot, but you're still able to participate in meaningful conversations even if you didn't do all of them. I love this professor so much, she is also great at giving life advice so I def recommend attending her office hours.

Overall, this topic was quite enjoyable to learn about. If you don't have prior knowledge in any of the three religions you may struggle a bit. The class is mainly dependent on two exams and a final paper. The exams are at fairly random dates in the quarter and the prof refrains from calling them midterms or finals. You have a few fill in the blank, some short answers, and then an essay with multiple choices. Professor Bakhos is a personable professor and really REALLY takes time to answer questions, which definitely drags lecture along a bit. She said she'd take attendance often but I really can only count three times she took attendance during the quarter. She does not like technology in her class so she has a technology ban. You can only take notes on paper/in a notebook, however I have seen some students use their laptops occasionally. I found Bakhos to be a much better teacher and helper than any of the two TAs. I had Morgan Hartshorn as my TA, and if you have the option I would say do not choose her. IMO, she was very much a "square" and not a friendly TA. Sections are mandatory, as she takes attendance, and at the beginning of each section is a 2-3 question quiz. With these quizzes however, you will never be able to see your grade unless you go to her office hours. We hardly even discuss the questions from the quiz in section and mostly focus on pretty small details or parts of readings or concepts. This makes it hard to judge how well you are doing in the class overall, as the only grade you receive back are your exams on paper. Nothing is graded in BruinLearn. I will also say that the TA spoke and came off as very condescending to students, especially when we had to go on zoom during the wildfires. She spoke as if you should know concepts already and came off very accusatory. I don't know if this was on purpose but it definitely made discussions harder. The discussions were also in a very socratic seminar style and often times unorganized. She would throw out a broad question and only students who seem to already have knowledge on these subjects would answer. The discussion certainly gave off an intimidating mood and often long periods of silence went on. Morgan Hartshorn did not seem open to creating an environment where discussing in a free-flowing style was possible. I felt like I gathered more in a 57 minute high school class than this 50 minute discussion section. Probably my worst discussion section I've had at my time at UCLA. I think professor Bakhos would make a better discussion leader haha as she really encouraged a friendly environment for learning and discussing.

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this class is manageable~ meaning if you put in enough time to study the material of the three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, you'll be fine. know that your grade is basically a midterm, a final, and the final paper, though.

though, it gets tricky at times because Professor Bakhos is not clear at times, but if you ask her on your own time, that would be helpful. she does use slides, but most of the content is in lectures where it's NOT recorded, so you should definitely come to class! also, professor bakhos is a very interactive professor; she'll remember you after the first or second lecture.

If you do not already have a religious background (grew up either Christain, Jewish, or Muslim) you will be sooo lost and this class is not an intro course. Her lectures were extremely unorganized, jumping from point to point. I was simply unable to keep up with any of her train of thought or points she made during the lecture. None of the lecture slides are posted online so there is really no way to go back and make sure you understood everything.

She assigns a ridiculous amount of reading every week and other than that there is no homework so all that ends up in the grade book is the midterm exam, final exam, final paper, and a small % of section attendance points. The exams are very confusing the study guides are pages of pages of random vocab (some of which isn't even covered). The exams are graded really harshly. I do not recommend this class if you arent either EXTREMELY self-motivated to learn about these religions or you already have a very sufficient understanding of at least one of these religions.

I was looking for a decently easy GE and this definitely fulfilled it. She gets props for being so friendly and concerned, but was kinda boring. She goes off on tangents sometimes and you start to wonder exactly how much of what she's saying you'll actually have to know for the tests/papers. I got an A- in the class without doing too much of the readings, but I had a badass tutor, so I'm guessing if you don't you probably have to skim and pay attention to her remarks about them in class.