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

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.

This class was quite boring often times but fairly easy. I got good scores on my midterm, final, and writing assignments, but a B in participation, which I feel prevented me from switching from B+ to an A or A-. Participation is worth 25% of the grade and even though I attended all sections and spoke in many of them, I guess the quality of my participation was a B, hence the overal B+……. I wouldn’t take this class again but if you do speak and input many things in discussion. I also feel you don’t really know your status in the class until the end because we are not updated, and the grading is sort of weird.

Professor McClendon was a genuinely kind and witty person who cared about the success of her students. Her classes were not the most interesting (who can blame her, it's medieval European history) and I constantly fell asleep. There were one-page essays that were relatively easy, but graded harshly by the TA's. She made us go on "scavenger hunts" at Powell and YRL as well as other activities that taught us how to check out books and navigate our way in libraries for research. We were also required to visit her office hours, which can be daunting at first but ultimately allowed me to become comfortable talking to all my professors. My TA personally required students to actively participate in section and I am pretty sure all the other TA's did the same. One pet peeve of mine towards the class was that grades were never inputted until the last day so I never knew the grade distribution leading up to an A- . You have to go to every single class, because although the lectures are podcasted, the professor only puts up broad info on the slides with most of the valuable information coming from listening to her. There is a required textbook, but I survived the entire quarter barely reading a single page. Overall, I , I would definitely take another class with her again.

Muriel was one of the sweetest, most helpful Professors I have met at UCLA. She is very funny as well. As a history major, her class was not the most interesting and sitting in Rolfe 1200 made the class just that more dreary. However, the three one page essays were fairly easy as I got three solid A's on each. She makes you do a few easy activities and its mandatory to visit her for at least one office hour visit which allows you to see her great personality. The only real issue I had with the class was the grading structure. Still to this day do not know how I received an A- but never wanted to bring such info up with her because she was very nice! I would recommend to anyone history major or not to take this class!

I probably paid attention to 3 of the lectures...yikes. I definitely recommend handwritten notes if you are easily distracted like me. The grade is mostly based on participation and papers. Participation is entirely determined by your TA, so make sure you talk during discussion and seem to know about the readings. The papers are based on the documents, and should include ideas from your discussion. I only read one chapter of the textbook as well; don't waste time and money on it Overall, I didn't do anything in lecture, but really participated in discussion and got an A in the class.

Professor McClendon cares deeply about student success. This class is designed for freshmen, which is reflected in her assignments: scavenger hunts in libraries, a mandatory (and not at all intimidating) office hours visit, and three one-page, single-spaced papers. The final is not challenging. There is a provided list of terms you should review, which will help you study for the rest of the test: short answers and a longer essay with a broad prompt. If you want to learn a lot about Western Civilization, buy the textbook and keep up with the weekly readings. If cost is a concern or you won't have time to do readings, just check out the textbook in the library when you feel the need to review.

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.

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.