Course Taken: American Indian Studies M10/World Arts and Culture M23

Overall Professor Reifel was very helpful and understanding. This class is taught solely by guest lectures and she adds her insight in at the very end (usually a 1 minute statement); although she did conduct the last lecture.

Class Breakdown:

Lecture Quizzes: You are assigned a short quiz on the course website – usually 4-5 multiple choice/true or false/fill in the blank/short answer questions (mostly multiple choice) questions. The quiz is based off of the readings before each lecture. They are easy. They are graded on a very unique curve that essentially guarantees you an A on them. You are given until the beginning of lecture to take the quiz.

Lecture/Essays: Each lecture is based off of a different topic in American Indian Studies. At the end of the set period you are assigned an essay and are to find and discuss the common theme of the series of lectures. These are your only major assignments in the class; you have 3 essays during the quarter. For the last essay we were given the option of doing whatever format we wanted. It had to be in a 3-6 page format. It was really creative. I made a syllabus and got 100% on it! The other essays are graded solely off the way your TA grades and the grading rubric.

Discussion: You have weekly discussion with your TA. I had Lawrence Mojado – he was really cool and very helpful. Discussion is mandatory and attendance is taken. This counts as 60 points towards your grade.

Grade Breakdown:
Quizzes: 34 points (2 points per quiz and you take 17 of them)
Papers: 126 points (First 2 essays are 43 points and the last is 40 points)
Discussion: 60 points (Just show up to discussion and earn these easy points!!)
Total: 220 maximum points

Overall the class was very simple. I missed majority of the lectures but it helped that they were podcasted; especially when it came to writing the papers. Honestly lecture is pointless unless you are interested in that week’s topic or the topic as a whole. I would recommend this class to anyone because it is very simple and the professor genuinely wants you to do well.

Final Grade: A! 208/220 (missed points on the first 2 essays and aced everything else)

The evaluation below is very thorough and for the most part still pretty accurate! However, Reifel has changed things up since then. I took the class with her this fall and she's definitely increased the difficulty to try to weed out the people who take it for the easy A and make room for people who are actually interested in the subject.

Lecture Quizzes: usually up in the air, and they weren't very easy. You have to really analyze the readings, and key in on a lot of the fine details for a lot of them. The quizzes are also almost entirely fill in the blank.

Lecture/Essays: The essays didn't change much. The first two are 2-4 pages and the last one is 4-6 pages.

Discussion: Still mandatory, still boring.

Overall - good class. But Reifel and the TAs definitely appreciate those who show up to lecture/ask questions/are interested and engaged vs those who just "sleep in class."

I took this class only because I needed more units, but I'm so glad I did it because this was the easiest class ever lollll

lecture: no need to attend, it is bruincasted (though you are encouraged to)

weekly quizzes: they are not really quizzes but more like homework. No time limit, and you could find the answer directly from the text. Usually it is 4~5 multiple choice questions. You are pretty much guaranteed to get full marks (out of 2) if you are not too stupid. (you get one mark from completing the quiz, and you will get another mark if you don't miss more than one question, and you also have more than one attempt)

no midterm, no final

2 essays, 1 creative project

essays are easy as long as you FOLLOW THE RUBRIC
don't forget any of the citations and you will do fine.

Creative project: easy

discussions were mandatory but pretty chill.

overall: A+

I don't care what anybody else says. THIS is the EASIEST class at UCLA! Dr. Reifel is one of the nicest and genuine professors ever! She admitted to us that we don't need to attend lecture to do well in this class LOL! She & this class are awesome. You do NOT need to read all of the articles. Simply open the "quiz", which is actually homework, read the questions, then skim through the article and find answers to the questions. The three essays are easy as long as you follow the rubric. I mean, come on, HALF of the points come from having correct citations. Super easy class.

Everyone needs to take this class! Not only is it easy, but it covers really important issues that Native Americans face. The only homework is two online quizzes per week, but be sure to complete them all though because the points do add up. The two essays are easy if you follow the rubric. The final is simple and you are allowed to write/create/etc whatever you want. I loved Dr. Reifel and her guest lecturers. My TA, Jeremiah, was great and truly cared about teaching us, but was a semi hard grader.

This is such a valuable class!! Take it not just because it's easy but also because the content of the class is so important