This is a review for TOM FRANCIS. He is a grad student who taught the class under Professor Blank (who did not teach the class but was listed as the instructor).

This class was great. I've heard mixed reviews about the difficulty of this course, but I think it was very beginner-friendly with Tom. The readings were a bit dense, but that was the hardest part of the class. You can definitely get away with skimming them. The choose-your-own style of the final essay was awesome since I really got to explore what I wanted to learn about. This class focuses on Indo-European languages, but if you have a passion for a non Indo-European language, you were definitely allowed to explore that as well. Homework was quite light and as long as you didn't use Chat-GPT, you could easily get an A. There are a few trick-questions made to trip up AI but are easy if you just do them yourself.

Overall, would definitely recommend.

The name of this class is kind of deceiving because it's not really about actual medicine; it's more about history/philosophy. You don't have to go to lecture because it's so boring and you won't really learn anything. Basically I just read the readings/skimmed the slides before discussion so I had material to speak about. There are 4 total papers (1 is a midterm, 1 is a final) and I would read the readings in a lot more depth to write those. It can feel like you are constantly writing a paper because there is not much time in between them. They were graded pretty easily, though, and there was an extra credit opportunity at the end that will move your grade up 3%. I would definitely recommend this class as a GE overall.

As a humanities and stem double major, I went into this class disregarding a lot of what other reviewers said. Somehow, most of the readings in this class are so technical that the literature nerd within me was not satisfied, and the medicine was inaccurate and sparse to the point that my pre-med self was not interested. There is no official textbook for the course since Dr. Blank considers his slides the textbook. I think this is fair because he is extremely knowledgeable, and those slides have a lot of great information, but that does not mean the lectures are not boring. As someone who is interested in this field, this class is really difficult to get into purely because of the pace where you do not have time to close read everything. That said, the class is pretty easy, so if you're looking for something where lectures aren't mandatory and you can get by doing only the readings for the essays, it's is perfect for you. Grading is pretty lenient and the TA's are very helpful. Dr. Blank is an engaging professor, and he made the most of what is not the most fascinating material. I definitely learned something from every assignment.

This is a pretty easy GE to take. Professor Blank was extremely accommodating to the class and made the final take home rather than in person due to many conflicts. The assignments are pretty easy to complete; two essays (super easy if you understand the readings), midterm, final, discussion questions and participation. Both the midterm and final questions were given in advance so you had more time to work on them. There are also extra credit opportunities. I didn't really attend lecture because I had a time conflict but it was still manageable; just make sure to review his slides and keep up with some readings (not all readings are necessary). Personally, I didn't read much of them, just the ones I needed for the assignments and it was fine. Also, my TA was super nice and helpful (highly recommend Zach Gram if possible)!

Pretty solid GE class. The readings can be pretty dense and complicated and Blank's lectures can get very detailed and dry. Still, I liked Blank as a professor. He's a very nice guy. I didn't go to lecture very much by the end of the quarter because I found the lectures a bit too dense and context-heavy. I think the structure of the class was fairly reasonable; there were 2 essays along with the midterm and final essays. All were take-home and fairly short. The midterm and final essays were two 750 word essays each, which goes very quickly. The other two were about four pages or less.
The class is more philosophical than scientific, which I liked. It does discuss some of the medical methods used in ancient Greece and Rome, but it has more to do with the various medical philosophies of the time. A lot of it was still applicable to modern medicine, which was cool. I honestly had no interest in the topic going into the class, but I was fairly interested by the end.
Honestly, your TA is more important than Blank in this class. It was really useful to have the TAs break down the readings, especially because they were usually super long and wordy. Section was usually super helpful for the essays. Discussion was super key in this class. If Grant Hussong is TAing, I would take him. He was a great TA. He definitely takes on a more gender-studies angle of the class too, so it you're interested in women's health, I found his takes really interesting. The other TAs seemed good too, though. Our essay averages were usually in the 89-92 range, so getting an A in this class is definitely doable, and in my opinion, easy, if you put a little bit of effort into the essays.

This class was a good, interesting GE. Two papers, midterm and final were also take home papers. The content is not bad. Going to lecture is good if you're really interested in this stuff or if you want to know what's going on, but not necessary. His slides are really helpful, and for the essays, you need to read the text and understand it. Discussion is mandatory, but I liked going because it kept me in the loop for the class and was helpful when it came time to write the papers. My TA, Grant, was amazing. He was very helpful when I emailed him many questions about the papers and texts, but I found that he graded a little more harshly than my peers' TA. At the end of the day, your TA determines how you do in the class because they grade your papers, but as long as you reach out to them for help and actually try on the papers you should be fine!

This class is a pretty easy way to fulfill the historical analysis or literary and cultural analysis GE requirement. The workload was pretty light. For the whole 10 weeks we had to post 10 discussion questions in pairs (5 weeks of questions) and we could choose any 5 weeks to do it. These were based on the readings which I hardly read, just skimmed the first few pages for question material. There are 2 papers based on readings which were fairly doable. My TA Grant was awesome and graded pretty generously. The midterm was take home and basically 2 essay questions, 750 words each no intro or conclusion. This quarter Professor Blank decided to make the final the same format which was great (no in person essay on finals week). I only went to one lecture throughout the whole quarter and got a 97%. A lot of STEM majors take this class so even if you're not a great writer, you'll do fine.

Professor Blank certainly loves teaching. He's eager to explain and reexplain difficult concepts. He tries very hard to make grading fair, and he's quite possibly the most intelligent professor I've encountered at UCLA. These qualities, along with his quirky sense of humor made for an educational and entertaining quarter of Greek.

Dr. Blank is a really cool guy. For Classics 148, your grade is based on 3 short papers (you DO four and drop the lowest one). There was no final. The papers were kind of hard, though. If you go to class and do the reading you should do okay--you can also go to his office hours, which really help. As with anything, you have to put some effort into your grade. He has a very dry sense of humor..very witty! =) The one day I missed class, I heard he was hilarious...I was kind of bummed. He seems very proper, so to hear that he was using slang was really funny. I can SO see him driving a Jaguar and sipping a Martini on weekends at his friends mansion in the hills. ;) You'll know what I mean if you take his class. At first, I was really intimidated by him, but he is actually very friendly once you get to know him. I really enjoyed the class and got a B+.

Professor Blank's grading is more than fair. There were 3 three-page papers (you get a choice of 10 different topics). Most people in our class did really bad - so he decided to eliminate our lowest score and then curve the grades up. His paper grading can be tough but his comments on our papers are very helpful in improving our writing. He's always available to help - he let us email him our papers the weekend before the final paper was due so he can proof our ideas for us. He's so nice!

In regards to his lectures, he's very knowledgable and organized, even witty at times. Go to class - his worksheets are very helpful when writing papers. The workload is pretty light - the readings were pretty light. In response to previous postings - if philosophy isn't your thing, you shouldn't take this class.

Anyway, I think Professor Blank is pretty cool. =)