DO NOT trust Bruinwalk guys........

Really enjoyed Professor McClendon's course. Very informative and nice. She knowns what she's talking about. I would say, though, I wish her lecture slides were a bit more organized and she gave an outline at the beginning of the lecture to make it easier to follow. Other than that, an overall good class I highly recommend taking.

If you care about your GPA, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. The way it is graded makes it near impossible to get an A, if you miss a single point in the class you will get an A- at best. This was not specified on the syllabus anywhere nor explained at any point during this class even after the grades were sent out.

The workload of this class was probably the least of any of my classes at UCLA so far and all of it is rather easy. This means your entire grade basically comes down to your TA and, as always, some just gave 100s on every assignment while others were extremely harsh about rough drafts, essays, and participation.

Overall, if you just want a super easy GE that you're gonna pass, this is the one to take. However, the grading system is extremely confusing and poorly communicated and getting an A is next to impossible unless you luck out and your TA give you 100s on everything. I would not take again.

Overall the class was okay and the content was manageable. However, the professor is extremely unclear about her grading policies. In order to get an A in the class, you must get an A on every single assignment as A+'s are not accounted for. This was not included in her syllabus, and no one knew until final grades came out. Overall the workload is easy, however if you get a single A-, your grade will be an A- no matter the weight of the assignment. Moreover, many of the TA's grade in a very unsynchronous manner. Some TA's will give easy 100's, whereas others are extremely strict about participation and essay grades. Overall, the professor is extremely unhelpful about her grading policy, which essentially disables you from making up scores. You are essentially being punished for doing any work below an A, as you cannot make up the work by doing great on other assignments.

4/5 across the board. Great personality, cool and engaging lectures, but most of my colleagues and I got Bs on essays, exams, and rough drafts. TA IS HORRIBLE. Couldn't spell Bridesmaid for the life of her, surprised she got into college period.

Thought I’d at least get an A- but oh well.
I would take again in the future!

I wouldn't trust the bruinwalk reviews. The TAs were told to grade the essays harshly. There were a lot of assignments that involved going to the library and weren't worth any part of your grade. However if you didn't do an assignment she would fail you. Overall the class workload wasn't that bad, but the grading was difficult. The fact that lectures were very boring and not recorded made the class contributed to most of the difficulty.

This class seemed fine during the duration of it but once grades came out, everybody was left disappointed. She doesn’t tell us how things are graded (we all assumed it was based off percentages) but your final grade is an average determined from letter grades only? Keep in mind that 100% on an assignment is an A, not an A+ so in order to get an A in the class, you have to get almost 100 on every assignment (for instance, one person had As on every assignment other than one A- and still got an A- in the class). Although we voiced our concerns to the professor, she is unresponsive and refuses to listen to student concerns even when the entire class emails her. Overall, this class seems like it would be easy but the professor communicates poorly.

Initially, I was not looking forward to this class at all. But History 1B was a lot more interesting and enjoyable than I thought.

Professor McClendon’s lectures were quite funny. She is very passionate about her work but she also tries to make it understandable for everyone as she knows that not everyone is coming from a history-oriented background.

I recognized some of the stuff from my high school classes and for all the new concepts that were entirely foreign to me, I went to office hours or read the textbook. She is open to all questions, no matter how silly they may be.

The workload of the class was manageable. There were a few in-class activities (worksheets) and a library scavenger hunt. There were no tests in the class, although we had a small in-class quiz that was only 10% of our entire grade. We had to match terms to definitions. Not too bad.

The midterm was a 4-5 page paper on one of three primary sources. We chose one and then did an analysis of it (who wrote it/why/when/intended audience/is it credible). This was not an easy essay to write. As a non-history major, I had to think really hard and attend my TA’s office hours to get help. I highly recommend going to the TA’s office hours. It will help you so much. The final was just a revised version of our midterm essay.

Don’t go into this class expecting it to be a breeze. You must pay attention during lecture and participate during discussion. Discussion participation was worth 30% of our grades.

If you want a history GE that isn’t too hard with an awesome professor, I highly recommend taking History 1B with Professor McClendon.

Professor McClendon is an incredibly nice, sympathetic, funny, and helpful professor. Her lectures can get dry occasionally and contain a lot of material but it is very interesting and she makes amazing wide connections between different aspects of western history which helps inform us how things they are today came to be. Discussion section is mandatory for your grade, so just go, the TA's are very nice and helpful. Textbook is not necessary, but very interesting and will certainly guarantee you an A on the final. Most of your grade is participation in the discussion section and 3 very short very easy papers that are a breeze. Overall this class is enjoyable, easy, and a great way to fulfill a GE or a lower division history requirement if your in the major.

McClendon is awesome. She's a super funny old lady and she doesn't take shit from people. She requires everyone to go to office hours once, and it was honestly a really good experience. The class can be a lot of reading but it isn't super necessary. The textbook is super expensive, I didn't buy it and just read it at the library and I ended with an A so. You have 3 small papers worth 10, 15 and 20% of your grade. They're easy and open prompts so it's not hard to do well on them. The final was probably the hardest part of the class, but it was easy to study for. Discussion is really important in this class and worth 30% of your grade, so go and you should be fine.