Agnew is a breath of fresh air for professors. His class format is 2 take-home essays for a midterm and 2 take-home essays for a final. Prompts are based on the required books and his lectures so it's best to record lectures and read the books. I wouldn't skip class because his slides consist of photos and bullet points to remind himself of key concepts to discuss. His humor is hilarious but you only hear if you are paying attention. He is a super sweet man and a fairly easy grader as long as he can tell you read/know what you're talking about.

Would take again.

Very easy class if you are willing to read four to five books and can listen to 1.5 hrs of lecture in one sitting. No participation, no tests, no quizzes, no project, but 2 essays for both the midterm and the final, where you have little time but if you have done the readings and were paying attention in class, not that hard.

The toughest thing about the class, like most people said, is sitting through 3 hours of lecture that is not engaging unless you really like European Cities. The second most annoying thing is how much reading material is given (4-5 books). Other than that, the class is very manageable because the reading can easily be split up if you create a study group and it's very easy to get A's on both the midterm and final. The midterm is in class and the final was take-home. Professor Agnew gives out potential essay questions for both essays, a list of 6 and you must write about the 2 he chooses. When doing the reading, you don't have to read the book word-for-word, make an essay outline and then fill in the specifics when the essay questions are given. Use some evidence from the lecture but the bulk of the evidence should be from the book. Personally, I chose to prepare for only 3 essays for the midterm, he ended up choosing 1 I knew and 1 I didn't know (stupid me) but I managed to spit out as much as I could recall and extra out of my ass and still ended up with a 90 for the midterm. So he's not too too particular, which I was stressed about, nut needlessly. I would take him again knowing how chill he is with grading because the class can even out a heavy load. I am selling all his books for $10 each *************.

This class is for you if you can: survive three hours-long lectures, scant use of slides, heavy readings (quantity and content), dry humor, relatively high stakes exams, into history and urbanization.

So, this class is about a few very specific cities in Europe and it really involves a lot of historical analysis and concepts. Professor Agnew has a dry sense of humor which is nice, but only to some. The content itself is not difficult. It is finding the stamina to power through his lectures and readings that trip people up. His slides consist of photos from the 1970s and maps with hardly any words. Instead, the content of his lecture is based on whatever he says.

That said, he is extremely helpful and flexible as long as you make yourself known to him during office hours. This was super helpful when studying for the mid-term and final, as long as you know how to ask pointed questions and interpret his answers accordingly.

One note of caution, 20% of the grade is based on participation which consists of two quizzes given out randomly in the quarter. The first one was in Week 2/3 and the other was on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. In these quizzes, he does not care about what you write as long as you have your name on it.

I took this class as a 3 hour lecture once a week. Professor Agnew is a great professor and he definitely knows what he is talking about. With that being said, if you don't do well in long lectures and you aren't into history or reading, this class probably isn't for you. Agnew barely uses slides. 95% of the lecture comes straight from out of his mouth. I did find it hard to pay attention for the entire 3 hours; however, he did give us a 10 minute break halfway through each lecture. I would recommend this class to anyone who doesn't mind doing the readings and attending lectures. Although there are four books that are "required" for this class, the only one that is essential is Jerram's book, read it and you will do well.

The class was split into two lectures as it met only once per week. There were two quizzes that essentially were just a way to account for attendance as they were simple questions that followed what was discussed in lecture. The midterm was in class essay questions and only contained questions of what was presented in lectures or from one of the required book readings. If you keep up with the readings, do the questions for the readings, and take decent notes in class, the test/course should be a breeze. The final was more challenging even though it was take home as you had to really draw upon concepts presented in the course for the essay questions given. Overall, I loved this course, would take this professor again in a heartbeat, but if you're not passionate about history, Europe, or human geography, it could be boring for you.

Fall 2016:
The midterm is no longer take-home and you have to be in class to take it.
Attendance is no longer taken but then the professor hands out popquizzes at the end of class, but which class that it will be handed out, however, is randomized (he gave them on week four and eight). He does not grade them for accuracy i believe but in lieu of having attendance checklists where people sign for their friends that annoyed him.

The final exam is take home and you are first given a list of several questions, which he then picks two for everyone to do and submit.

My advice is to pay a lot of attention before the midterm exam and find a friend to divide the reading up because each chapter in the jerram book is about 80 pages with small font and jumps a lot around cities in europe (for instance, one moment he is writing about london, then it jumps to moscow, and then the next paris. ) that keeping track gets ridiculous

Im not a geography or history major and i ended up with a B+ because i messed up on it, the midterm is worth 30%.

Also, i highly reccomend sitting in front and using a voice recorder because class is 3 hours long with a fifteen minute break. After the break chances are you will be bored out of your mind that you wont learn anything.

I can't believe that a student would be proud of never going to class and getting a B- UCLA seems to have an increasing number of students who have no interest in learning. The admissions office seems to be derelict.

Professor Agnew has a dry sense of humor. This helps the class move along. The class consisted of 2 take home exams. The reading seemed like a lot, but he lets you record his lectures so that helped when writing the paper. He also helps with the paper a lot in office hours. He is a very friendly and knowledgeable professor.

I did not do a single reading, did not attend a single lecture (had a friend sign attendance for me), and got a B-. This should explain.