Ancient Near East 15

One of the best teachers I've had! She is so engaging and absolutely hilarious. Not to mention she's super hot. I highly recommend taking her-- she is very knowledgeable and class is super fun. Would definitely take her again!

Amazing professor! One of the hardest classes I've taken but with one of the best professor I've had. The material was difficult but she made it fun and really knew how to explain things. You have to put a lot of time into this class, it's not an easy A. I highly recommend and would definitely take any other class that Kara is teaching!

Professor Cooney is an EXCELLENT professor. Her lectures are interesting and enjoyable. She really cares for her students. One of the very best classes I have taken at UCLA and I highly recommend her courses.

I did not enjoy this class very much. The professor was interesting and engaging, but your grade depends entirely on your TA, and if you don't get a good TA you won't get a good grade. My TA was really strict and picky about each of his assignments, and that affected the grade I got at the end of the quarter. There are also a lot of readings that she posts for the quarter, and there are a lot that aren't helpful. She is a good professor but she gives all the power to the TA's, and she doesn't really check on them or pay attention to how they run their sections. Most of your grade will be based on the final paper, and again it's important you get a good TA.

Selling all required reading:

"The Penguin: Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations"
"The Woman Who Would Be King"
"Cleopatra"

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Professor Cooney really cares about her students and the learning. She is funny and relatable and presents the material well. The course includes one midterm, one final, and a paper. Each week of the quarter is dedicated to a geographic area and she provides slides for the lectures. There are assigned readings each week as well that you will go over in discussion sections. I personally did not keep up with the readings and sometimes missed lecture but was able to prepare for the exams. My TA had groups of students prepare outlines for the midterm and final (which are in the forms of essays) which was helpful. The prompt for the final essay is given at the very beginning of the quarter because it is very open ended. There are certain checkpoints that the TA maintained so that you don't end up working on the essay the day before it's due. I personally found the content very interesting to consider and learn more about. In general, the workload can become a bit much if you cram for the exams like I did but it is manageable. Would recommend as a GE!

This was a a really interesting and engaging class but definitely not easy. If you want to get a good grade you have to put in the effort. You have about 2-3 readings a week on top of books that you have to keep up with. Also you'll have to make notes so that you can include the readings for your exams because they don't always come up in lecture or discussion. You also have to write a 15 page research paper on any topic of you choosing. The exams are tough (you do get to prepare for the exam essays in advance but also keep in mind that they're not easy questions or expectations- you basically have to make 3-5 essays for preparation and then memorize or at least learn them well, so you can write them out in class).
Another thing is that the professor really is amazing and does make the lectures come to life BUT she doesn't have any involvement with your actual assignments, which means that your grade is entirely dependent on you TA. So, despite the fact that this was a really engaging class, I think I would have reconsidered enrolling if I knew how much work it would be.

This class was much harder than I expected it to be. It is heavily based on your TA and how they grade. My TA was pretty tough and expected a lot from our class. I thought it was going to be an easy, but interesting TA but it actually took a lot of time and effort, especially considering there was a 12 page final paper as well as a final exam

Cooney is so funny. I really enjoyed her lectures. I did well in the class by attending all lectures and doing very minimal reading. She gives you the test questions before the tests, so it is easy to prepare and you know what is expected of you. I definitely enjoyed this class and highly recommend it as a fun, easy GE where you actually learn a lot of history!!

The best part of this class was Professor Cooney's lecture. She made jokes and was very engaging, which made lectures pretty interesting. I thought the material covered was also pretty interesting, but the readings could be somewhat lengthy. There is also a 12 pg essay, which was a lot of work but not too bad. TAs can provide you with feedback at their OH and you can also turn in an optional rough draft in which they critique it. If you do that, you should be able to get a good grade on it. Note the TAs are the ones who grade the essay so their feedback is in way more important than Professor Cooney's. Also, the essay is worth more points that the final and the midterm (35% vs 30% and 25%). The midterm and final are also essays, but you're given the questions in advance so you should make outlines and write practice essays for them if you can. I did that and managed to get a 98 on the midterm.