I have never felt so genuinely motivated to invest my maximum effort into this class. He gives study guides that cover anything that could appear in the exams, which have been extremely helpful. I would recommend anyone who takes this class to start filling in the study guides' questions on Word/Google docs on the very first lecture alongside the slides. Please continue to do so during every single lecture and discussion session, especially while your memory about the topics' details are still fresh. It is definitely the most effective way to extract the most important information to ace the exam than just taking notes without a clear direction. I stopped taking any notes after the first two days of class and focused on the study guides for the exams.

You also have short essays (400-500 words) of different readings to turn in every week. Although he allows students to turn in 2 reading assignments late without penalizations, try to finish them by the due date regardless. Parts of the assigned readings are usually included in the lecture slides, it is very important that you acquire the basic ideas of these readings to understand the lecture thoroughly.

Javier is a great professor! Even though the subject matter of SPAN 135 does not seem to be the most exciting, he makes each lecture engaging and interesting to students. The format for the class is very clear, with a short answer reading response due before each class, one midterm, and a final paper. The material of this particular quarter's course got kind of monotonous after a while, but I still felt engaged and motivated to participate in class discussions. Javier gets to know his students and offers help whenever is needed. Many students take whatever class he teaches the next quarter as well. Definitely recommend him.

Professor Patiño is very patient and dedicated. He delivers very clear presentations and cares for his students. （even his syllabus and prompts are well-designed)

Honestly Prof. Patino Loira is one of my favorite professors I have ever met. He is so kind towards his students and wants to make sure everyone gets a fair chance. He is so patient and tries his best to make his lectures engaging. Lecture was two hour blocks twice a week which was only hard sometimes because it was late in the day and I was already tired. He usually tries to pick pretty interesting readings and his exams are VERY fair (he pretty much gives you a list of questions he will ask on the midterm or final). I would 100% take his class again.

Grade Breakdown:
Short Papers and Class Participation (40%)- About 500 word paper about every week (8 in total) about the readings. Answer questions based on the readings basically. Not hard at all.
Midterm Exam (25%) and Final Exam (35%)- These exams are literally as easy they come. A week before the each exam he puts out a study guide with every possible question that might be on the exam. This means all you have to do is complete the study guide and study those questions. Out of those questions only some of them come up of course. Really easy.

The class is really easy but Professor Loira is really boring in my opinion. Attendance is mandatory. He passes around a sheet of paper for you to write your name down to take attendance. You're allowed to miss 3 lectures and one discussion. He uses powerpoints which are posted on CCLE before class. Overall the class really isn't bad it was just having to wait around for the attendance sheet to make its rounds.
r/ucla

Professor Javi is definitely one of my favorites at UCLA. At times, he reminds me of a little kid, and that’s probably why I really liked the class. Attendance is taken by signing into a piece of paper he passes around, and each TA takes attendance in their sections. The lectures are long and packed with a lot of information, and that makes them tiring, but at the same time, they were also interesting. The class itself is pretty easy, since the midterm and final questions are given about a week in advance, so all you have to do is study those questions and memorize them. The weekly readings can get long and boring in the middle of the quarter, but the 500 word essays themselves aren’t too hard to answer.

Pretty much just consisted of papers, super easy midterm and final. He gives study guide and does an entire review before each teach. You just have to pay attention to the review and skim the slide and you'll be fine

I LOVED this class so so much. Professor Patino Loira is literally one of the kindest, most intelligent, and caring professors I've had, and he genuinely wants the class to have a collaborative and positive aura all the time. The lectures aren't mandatory which can be nice because if there is a day where you just don't think you can make it he always posts the recordings of the audio to the lectures as well as the slides so you can just review what happened in lecture on your own time. The exams (there are only 2) were really clear and if you study the study guides that he gives out, you will be totally fine and most people in my discussion section have a high A. There are a total of 8 short papers you have to submit (it's usually one per week) which was annoying at times but thats literally the only hard part of the class and some of the readings were honestly really interesting! I also had an absolutely amazing TA for this class so it might be different if you have a different TA but if you're looking for a fun GE I loved this class!

I loved this class and professor so so much. I usually am not a history person at all but this class was so interesting thanks to the lectures. You only have to write a 500 word essay per week (due b4 tuesday lecture) and attend discussion. You can also turn in two papers late (just before the end of the quarter) without penalty. As long as you pay attention during lecture, the midterm and final were very easy. I also recommend this class if you need diversity/GE credit. This class made me want to pursue a Spanish minor :)

This was a fantastic class, easily my favorite at UCLA so far. There were readings every week from different sources, and we had short papers to go along with them. The prompts were written in such a way that gets you to really think about what you read, which made these assignments fruitful. At lecture I just sat there and absorbed what the professor was saying, as the information that you need for the exams is all on the slides, which were available on CCLE. The professor seemed really excited to teach us about the material, which made lectures engaging and encouraged students to participate, making for an overall enriching learning environment.