ACTUAL CLASS: English 10A (Literature to the 1700s)
SPRING 2015

I was scared coming into this class based on the reviews that said Prof. Jager was unfriendly and the grading was harsh, but thankfully I did NOT get this experience at all. After taking the class, I'm surprised at all the reviews that said he was condescending or loved the sound of his own voice; after the initial intimidation, I found him to be friendly and good-humored, and he even made us laugh someone often. I got the feeling that the other students really liked him too.

I had little interest in medieval & Renaissance literature and kind of dreaded the class material, but the way he explains it in his lectures made it pretty interesting! He does have his notes on paper in front of him, but I didn't actually notice for a while because he's so animated during his lecture. He so clearly knows and loves this stuff. You just have to WRITE FAST, and WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING. Probably the single real complaint I have for this class is that he doesn't allow laptops. His exams can sometimes cover details in his lectures that you didn't think you had to write down, so you better write everything down. It'll pay off in the end, albeit with some cramped hands.

Exams themselves require a lot of studying, but are not impossible. It's pretty much knowing the lecture information (which is a lot), being able to recognize texts, memorizing terms, and identifying literary features.

You also only write two, 4-5 page essays, so that's nice! 2 essays + midterm + final + discussion section make up your grade.

Can't speak to his essay grading because he never graded mine, but my T.A. seemed to grade fairly. All of the T.A.s seemed nice, too.

In summation: really good professor, good T.A. (Ellen Truxaw), fair grading, and interesting lectures. Not a heavy reading load, surprisingly. WRITE FAST, WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING.