This is the worst GE I've ever taken. The lectures were boring and the exam was based on pure memorization.

I feel terrible for saying this, but good lord is this class boring. I had 100% interest and investment when it began, and it so quickly faded just one week in. You will not do well if you're not great at memorization/slide ID's. I wish the professor would rework the class so the students would have a chance to engage with the material rather than blindly memorize and later forget it.

I did not show up to a single day of class. Discussion was required. My TA, Andrew, a GOD who is more than willing to support his students. Grade is based off of discussion attendance (do not show up late or they will dock points), 3 essays. Not going to lie, if you listen to what the TA tells you to do and actively talk to them about what you need help on, you will get an A. Take notes during discussion, it will help you on essays.

I would say this class is definitely not an easy GE for someone who doesn't like writing like me. I got a B in my first essay, which is why I decided to pass/fail this class in order not to ruin my GPA. There are 3 essays that are 30% each, meaning that if you get a bad first essay, there is pretty much no way back. If you like writing and reading long, old 100 pages articles about ancient stuff, this class might be for you. If not, I would recommend you stay away from this class. Reading the articles almost give me tears every time because it was difficult to understand and I had little interest in it. However, you can not go to class and still get a good grade in this class if you are good at reading and writing.

I took this class when they were offering a hybrid format so I never went to the real lectures and would skim through the ones posted online when they were relevant to the paper assignments. The lectures are pretty boring and long. This class has 3 assignments, each worth 30% and the remaining 10% comes from participation in discussion. I spoke a handful of times in discussion and answered using the Zoom chat function a couple of times and got a 95% for my participation grade. The lectures themselves really aren't that relevant to the papers so most people didn't show up for class. Overall, a great GPA booster but the content itself isn't that interesting.

Professor Papadopoulos is one of the sweetest professors ever. It is clear that he really cares about the material that he is teaching, as well as his students. Some of the archeology projects we learn about were actually conducted by or worked on by him, which is really cool! Lectures are not that interesting if I am going to be honest, but they also are not necessary to attend in order to do well in the class. I took this class winter quarter of 2022, so I took it online the entire quarter. Our grade consisted of discussion participation and three relatively easy papers, so it is quite easy to do well in the class as long as you put in a little bit of effort! If you are looking for an easy GE with a really cool professor, this class is definitely for you.

This class was extremely boring!! The professor is a terrible lecturer and makes the material seem so uninteresting. The tests are based on memorization and I learnt absolutely nothing from this class.

This is the most boring class I've ever taken at UCLA. The professor's lectures are boring as well and the exams are completely based on your ability to memorize images. This class was one of the worst experiences I've had at UCLA.

Papadopoulos was honestly such a gem. He makes it obvious how passionate he is about the material and that makes it easy to become passionate about the material yourself. He lectures in class and it follows the textbook but you don't actually have to do any of the reading for the midterm or the final at all - it's just memorization and identification of different artworks and there's lots of extra credit! Most people got over 100% on the midterm. The readings are only really useful for the 2 papers and the class overall is pretty great, definitely recommend for a very lowkey, easy, interesting GE.

I took this class because I thought it would satisfy two GEs, but it does not (I now realize that is not a thing; however, you do get to choose which GE you want it to satisfy. The lectures are extremely boring and you do not need to go to class. So, take this class if you do not want to attend lecture. The midterm is just all memorization, which is alright but difficult to master and I feel like I did not learn anything. There are two papers worth 25% and then also a final that is similar to the midterm. The professor is very nice though, and has a soothing voice.