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Patrick Wen
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Based on 238 Users
Great professor, just as good as everyone says he is. Really cares about his students and what he's teaching, never wants to trick anybody. Workload was very light and exams were really easy and straightforward, just do the reading or at least skim it if you can. Loved this class and would recommend it to anyone.
As the person below me attests, I am someone who did all the reading and ended up with an A- in this class (ironically, my worst class this quarter).
Doing well in this class is absolutely about how well you do on the exams. I got an A on the paper, but a 17/20 and 18/20 on the midterm bumped me down to an A-. I know many people who did not do all the reading but did better than I did. Be warned of this! Please, read each question carefully on the exam, as the small number of questions really leaves you in a vulnerable spot if you do not answer correctly.
Regardless, I'm not too upset about my grade, as I enjoyed this class so so much! I found nearly all the readings and movies to be extremely fascinating, and Professor Wen's enthusiasm for the content made coming to lecture every week genuinely enjoyable. He cares a lot about his students and you can tell he's extremely knowledgable about the content he teaches. I hope that I'll be able to take another Scandinavian class with him while at UCLA.
Please take this class if there are spots left. This might've been my easiest 5 units at UCLA. It's still an interesting class, though. There are only two tests: a short multiple choice midterm and final, and most of the information is on fairytales that we're already familiar with.
Also, I'm selling a course reader for $20 if anyone needs one! I originally bought it for $50 in fall 2019. Email *************.
** COVID-19 Review **
—
Since I took this class during Covid, it was asynchronous so your experience will likely be slightly different. Asynchronous class during Covid had 2 pre-recorded lectures a week and no discussion, though Wen hosted office hours for anyone to ask questions. I definitely think this class lives up to the “easiest GE” name. For online class, we had 50% of our grade based on multiple choice quizzes and 50% based on discussion forum posts. Quizzes were really easy and open note/book, and as long as you somewhat knew the plot of the readings and payed attention to the lectures, you were guaranteed a 100%. Discussion forum posts were about films relating to the week’s themes, and were basically graded on participation so as long as they were long enough and related to the subject. All the readings were available somewhere on the internet (and he provides a copy of Babette’s Feast on CCLE) so don’t bother buying the course reader. You can get extra credit from participating in a mock trial after Hrafnkel’s Saga, but you probably won’t need it as long as you put the bare minimum effort into everything else.
—
Highly recommend this class as an easy GE, the readings and films were fun too!
Taking this class was the best decision I made as an incoming freshman. I have made a ton of friends, learned so much about the origin of my favorite childhood stories, and received a good grade in this course. Yes, the course is fairly easy, BUT Prof. Wen is an amazing lecturer. I chose path 1 (asynchronous version with weekly quizzes on lectures/readings), so I never got much interaction with him, but you could see the passion he has for this course. He’s extremely well-spoken, and a great explainer. For PATH 1, there are 9 reading quizzes, and the lowest one is dropped. In addition, there’s two small essays, one where you choose your own topic. I actually enjoyed the readings because they deviated from the classic Disney fairy tales we know and are familiar with today. All things told, this is a great class. Genuinely would love to have Wen as my professor in the future as well.
Selling all textbooks for $29.99 (originally purchased for $64.55 at UCLA Store, receipt included)
6 Books included:
1. Hunger
2. The Dwarf
3. Naive.Super
4. Anecdotes of Destiny
5. Shadow and other tales
6. Several short sentences about writing
Text ********** or email *************
This class was definitely not as easy as I expected, and it was probably because the grading system changed a bit from past years. This year, there was one paper, 2 midterms, and a participation grade, where the paper and participation were 10% and the midterms were 40% each. For participation, he would just call randomly on people in the class and if you weren't called on throughout the quarter, this would still mean you would get full credit for participation. Because the midterms counted so much and each midterm only had 20 questions, there was very little room for error. Overall though, still highly recommend for a GE! It is still relatively easy to get a good grade and Professor Wen is a great and enthusiastic lecturer. He seems to really care about his students too and the readings were honestly quite fun to read because they were just Scandinavian stories. I'm selling the books and course reader as the syllabus doesn't really change from year to year --
selling the coursereader and Anecdotes of Destiny, Hunger, and Naive Super for cheaper. Hmu if you want the course readers and/or books at *************!
Great professor, just as good as everyone says he is. Really cares about his students and what he's teaching, never wants to trick anybody. Workload was very light and exams were really easy and straightforward, just do the reading or at least skim it if you can. Loved this class and would recommend it to anyone.
As the person below me attests, I am someone who did all the reading and ended up with an A- in this class (ironically, my worst class this quarter).
Doing well in this class is absolutely about how well you do on the exams. I got an A on the paper, but a 17/20 and 18/20 on the midterm bumped me down to an A-. I know many people who did not do all the reading but did better than I did. Be warned of this! Please, read each question carefully on the exam, as the small number of questions really leaves you in a vulnerable spot if you do not answer correctly.
Regardless, I'm not too upset about my grade, as I enjoyed this class so so much! I found nearly all the readings and movies to be extremely fascinating, and Professor Wen's enthusiasm for the content made coming to lecture every week genuinely enjoyable. He cares a lot about his students and you can tell he's extremely knowledgable about the content he teaches. I hope that I'll be able to take another Scandinavian class with him while at UCLA.
Please take this class if there are spots left. This might've been my easiest 5 units at UCLA. It's still an interesting class, though. There are only two tests: a short multiple choice midterm and final, and most of the information is on fairytales that we're already familiar with.
Also, I'm selling a course reader for $20 if anyone needs one! I originally bought it for $50 in fall 2019. Email *************.
** COVID-19 Review **
—
Since I took this class during Covid, it was asynchronous so your experience will likely be slightly different. Asynchronous class during Covid had 2 pre-recorded lectures a week and no discussion, though Wen hosted office hours for anyone to ask questions. I definitely think this class lives up to the “easiest GE” name. For online class, we had 50% of our grade based on multiple choice quizzes and 50% based on discussion forum posts. Quizzes were really easy and open note/book, and as long as you somewhat knew the plot of the readings and payed attention to the lectures, you were guaranteed a 100%. Discussion forum posts were about films relating to the week’s themes, and were basically graded on participation so as long as they were long enough and related to the subject. All the readings were available somewhere on the internet (and he provides a copy of Babette’s Feast on CCLE) so don’t bother buying the course reader. You can get extra credit from participating in a mock trial after Hrafnkel’s Saga, but you probably won’t need it as long as you put the bare minimum effort into everything else.
—
Highly recommend this class as an easy GE, the readings and films were fun too!
Taking this class was the best decision I made as an incoming freshman. I have made a ton of friends, learned so much about the origin of my favorite childhood stories, and received a good grade in this course. Yes, the course is fairly easy, BUT Prof. Wen is an amazing lecturer. I chose path 1 (asynchronous version with weekly quizzes on lectures/readings), so I never got much interaction with him, but you could see the passion he has for this course. He’s extremely well-spoken, and a great explainer. For PATH 1, there are 9 reading quizzes, and the lowest one is dropped. In addition, there’s two small essays, one where you choose your own topic. I actually enjoyed the readings because they deviated from the classic Disney fairy tales we know and are familiar with today. All things told, this is a great class. Genuinely would love to have Wen as my professor in the future as well.
Selling all textbooks for $29.99 (originally purchased for $64.55 at UCLA Store, receipt included)
6 Books included:
1. Hunger
2. The Dwarf
3. Naive.Super
4. Anecdotes of Destiny
5. Shadow and other tales
6. Several short sentences about writing
Text ********** or email *************
This class was definitely not as easy as I expected, and it was probably because the grading system changed a bit from past years. This year, there was one paper, 2 midterms, and a participation grade, where the paper and participation were 10% and the midterms were 40% each. For participation, he would just call randomly on people in the class and if you weren't called on throughout the quarter, this would still mean you would get full credit for participation. Because the midterms counted so much and each midterm only had 20 questions, there was very little room for error. Overall though, still highly recommend for a GE! It is still relatively easy to get a good grade and Professor Wen is a great and enthusiastic lecturer. He seems to really care about his students too and the readings were honestly quite fun to read because they were just Scandinavian stories. I'm selling the books and course reader as the syllabus doesn't really change from year to year --
selling the coursereader and Anecdotes of Destiny, Hunger, and Naive Super for cheaper. Hmu if you want the course readers and/or books at *************!