Abs loved this class and Claire. Claire is the kindest person ever. I went to almost every single Office Hours and she is so kind and understanding and helpful with actually learning the language. When teaching new languages it is so important to be encouraging because otherwise, it's really scary! Claire was so encouraging to everybody even when we'd get a lot of stuff wrong. Claire is amazing both as a person and as an instructor.
Class structure prioritized participation. Attendance was required and worth 15% of your grade. There were homeworks after every class which were super easy and quick. Took no more than an hour, but they were really easy so it felt shorter even. Sometimes I could get them done in 10 mins. HW was 10% of grade. 3 Quizzes (30%) with extensive practice quizzes on Canvas so if you studied you could def get an A on all of them, and 3 Compositions (20%) no more than a page long. The Final (25%) was hard though! I got a 90 on it.
I would definitely recommend going to Office Hours if you really want to learn Italian. You can just practice speaking, which is really how you learn the language!
Overall, I would absolutely recommend taking this class and going to OH. It was not stressful at all. For the quizzes just do the practice tests like 5 times and there's no way you won't get an A! I also recommend making flashcards for new vocab.