Cities Past and Present was the best class I have ever taken at UCLA. She is so chill. There were 20 people in the class and we sat around each day and talked about cities- what we thought of them, how they made us feel, why people moved into and out of them, etc etc. We only had two small ethnographies to write, a two question midterm, and a final paper (plus three 10pt, 1 page ec summary papers that would bump your entire grade up by a whole letter grade). The reading was very interesting and the discussions were great. We all laughed a lot and shared our personal feelings. She has a great way of sparking converstaion and asking you to look deeper. Keep in mind, classes are laidback but you still have to do the reading for the exam. Not intensively, but you MUST cite author's names and fieldsites to support your arguments (which she gives to you- along with a study guide). I got an A+ and it's almost impossible not to. One day Prof Smith even brought in Japanese HipHop for us to listen to. Great Professor and very nice lady!

A lot of your grade depends on your TA, as they are the ones who will be grading your paper. The helpful thing to do is to go into office hours and have your TA read over your paper before turning it in. This was, they'll tell you what you want. Do the extra credit ASAP, you can get a boost of 5%. Overall, the midterm and finals are super easy. Both are multiple choice.

Overall, this class was pretty good. Monica tries to lighten up the lectures on a pretty boring topic with the occasional joke and the lectures are bruincasted for when you really don't want to go to class. Also, you never have to do the assigned reading to get all necessary information which is great. The TA grading was pretty uneven for the two papers, so try to get Jaime Vela if possible. The midterm and final are both multiple choice and VERY easy. She also offers up to 5% extra credit, so I actually ended with over 100% in the class. Overall this was a fine class, not a super interesting topic but we love Monica and it's an easy GE.

As a person who had never taken an anthropology/archaeology class before, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this class. The professor is an engaging lecturer and follows the slides so it's not hard to keep up. There are weekly readings but you don't really have to read every single one since she goes over them in lecture. There were two essays that were fairly easy, and a third one for extra credit. The midterm and final are both multiple choice. You'll do fine on them if you pay attention in lecture and have a grasp of the overall timeline.

hard to imagine how I could attend every lecture, participate in every discussion, and study very thoroughly for the final and end up with a such a bad grade.

don't expect the professor to answer your emails.
do expect this to be another GE that should be easy but is graded ridiculously by TAs who seem to have a problem with every single person in your discussion section.

don't expect that your hard work will pay off in this class. if you're already enrolled in this class, well, good luck Charlie.

If u think it is a easy GE, do not take it. If u dont have interest in anthropology or archaeology, do not take it bc it will be a disaster. The stuff was so boring and made me fall asleep. i went to lectures most of the time but i did not learn anything more than my friend who seldom went attend class. The essays were graded harshly and although TA promised to help review the first draft, he got impatient and said that was all i can help by throwing me two sentences which were not constructive suggestions. Plus i got points distracted for both papers for the APA format. I swear that i checked the format online and even asked people in the writing center and did that following instructions carefully. I really wonder what is the TA's problem.

The essays in this class are graded very subjectively by the TA's and Monica didn't care much when this concern was brought up by multiple classmates. It is helpful to bring your rough draft to your TA and get feedback. Make sure to memorize important dates for the midterm and the final. Some midterm questions are reused on the final, so review them. Most if the material comes from lectures, with a little bit from the weekly readings. Overall, not the easiest GE if your TA is a harsh grader.

As a fourth year anthro major, I thought taking this class would be a breeze. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
There was 2 papers, a midterm, and final.
The grades I received did not reflect on my investment and work I put in for this class.
The TA’s graded their sections and the essays were graded very subjectively and who you had as a TA affected your overall performance. ( I had Eden)
This is the first class at UCLA where I had received lower than a B on a paper so I was very shocked to see my performance on the papers.
For the exams, they were way too specific and some questions did not reflect on the class. I had a hard as well on the exams.
Overall, do not recommend to take this class unless it is required.
Welp. I only have one quarter left... If I don’t pass, that’s another story.
I hope professors and TA’s take these evaluations in consideration.

something about her voice bothered the heck out of me...so monotone. she's a nice lady but i just got annoyed..exams were mostly lecture based. i did no reading only studied 1/2 days before the midterm and final but literally memorized every detail, i'm a bio major so when i mean memorrize it all I MEAN IT. did no reading, paper was graded harshly a shocking C that screwed up my grade. don't take it unless you're anthro major.

She's a great teacher who loves her job and actually wants to teach! She communicates everything in her lectures very clearly, she's friendly, helpful with any question you might have, and eager to interact with her students, even in large lecture classes. Her tests are straight forward, and she seems to pull most of her material from the lectures and key site specific information. I would highly recommend Professor Smith!