I want to preface this with the fact that I took this class as a GE with no prior interest in Slavic Civilizations (which I don't recommend).

Koropeckyj was honestly such an interesting professor. He was witty, very knowledgeable, and passionate about his subject. However, he taught the kind of class where he wanted you to leave knowing the content, and not necessarily for you to get an A.

You must go to every class. Attendance isn't mandatory, but he randomly calls on one person a day to share a modern news story about the country or region he is lecturing about that day (so be prepared). And you have to write every single thing he says down during the lecture. Not kidding. The tests are online on a lockdown browser, and some of the questions are about some little thing we talked about. I scored Bs and Cs and I believe those were about the averages of each test. There are 4 tests throughout the whole quarter (so no midterm or final test, though the unit tests will fall on those weeks).

There is one assignment per week, a discussion post. There is usually a 2-3 hour movie to watch or about a 150-page novel or story to read and respond to a week. The discussion posts (at least in my quarter) were graded on whether you successfully analyzed the material in response to a prompt and if you tied it to what we were learning in class.

The final includes a webinar on a Slavic civilization we did not touch on in class. You are put into groups to make this as well as a traditional dish from the region you were assigned. During finals week, it's just a potluck! (And the online test, and the webinar).

Overall, he may be one of the most interesting professors I will ever learn from. If this class is in your major, it may be one of your favorite classes you'll take! But if you're just looking for a GE, I would definitely think about how much you want to take this class because while I'm grateful I took it, I don't know if it was the best choice for me. Definitely my hardest class at UCLA so far.

Get out. Now. This is ridiculously hard for a GE, and the professor is very unforgiving. My TA also graded our discussion posts publicly on the discussion board, so we could all see the comments he gave to everyone in the class. Do not recommend this unless you're sincerely interested in learning about Slavic culture.

So, I came into this class as a person from one of the regions discussed during this course and as someone extremely interested in slavic civilization. I could definitely see this class being a drag for anyone who is just taking it for a requirement and who isn’t interested in the material. THAT BEING SAID, Koropeckyj is a great professor and you will learn a lot in this class. He is detailed, which does translate into the tests, so TAKE DETAILED NOTES! I basically took notes transcript style of both his and the TA’s (Lydia was also wonderful) lectures. This helped me tremendously as did doing the readings. They are long, but do them. They are asked about on the tests sometimes. If you are interested in this topic, take this class! Be diligent about your notes and the readings and you won’t regret it.

One of my favorite classes at UCLA. Dr. Koropeckyj is really funny, but his humor is pretty dry or sarcastic so if that's not your thing you probably won't appreciate it. Here's how to succeed in this class: write down absolutely everything he says in lecture, transcript-style. You will not regret it. Once he releases the "things to know" list for each test, you'll have plenty of information to supplement each word/definition. Pay attention to general literary/nationalistic themes (like myths and symbols) because the short answers will be on those. The material is very interesting if you like history. Participating a little goes a long way: go to a couple office hours, ask a couple questions, just demonstrate your interest in the class, and it will pay off if you mess up somehow or need extra help. Depending on your TA, your discussion section will really help. Lavery is great - he'll summarize the important info and the books.

If you're like me and don't like writing essays, this class (might) be for you. Your whole grade is based on 3 midterms and a final. The tests are structured with a short answer section (mostly about the readings) and a "mishmash" of questions (matching, fill in the blank, circling, listing stuff). The tests aren't hard, IF you did the study guide he posts before every test. This is not a GE that you can bs and end up with an A.

My main advice for this class is, go to lecture, take notes on what he says (his whole lecture is him speaking--no powerpoint), do the study guides, and go to discussion. The TA will summarize the readings and say what the main points are.

In terms of the content of the course, I didn't find it super interesting, but I did learn a lot and I'm glad I took this course.

This class focuses on four "social dramas": Polish Solidarity, Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, the Yugoslav wars, and Ukrainian Euromaidan. The material was really fascinating, but Professor Koropeckyj had high expectations for what students could regurgitate on a test in 45 minutes. There were four tests (taken during section) which constituted the majority of the grade, and we were also graded on section participation and a small group project. I would call the tests tricky, and despite studying a week in advance for tests, would eek out B's or A-'s at best because he didn't usually test "big picture" concepts but finer details sometimes only mentioned in passing. My advice would be to write down every word you can during lecture, read all of the assigned materials (which are reasonable in quantity) and study his lectures diligently as far in advance as possible since it seems difficult to succeed on tests with a superficial or broad knowledge of the topics. An A is doable if you have the time to invest.

I went into the class because I really wanted to learn about the Slavic people, and I can say that he does teach very well. I learned a lot, but I cannot recommend this class because the tests are too difficult and not enough time is given. Each test asks you about people, dates, battles, short essays, and even spelling out the Cyrillic names in English. Not an easy GE, and I can say that I regret taking this class because as a South Campus major, this is the worst grade I have gotten ever.

I would recommend this course for someone who needs to fulfill their Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice GE but doesn't like overanalyzing novels, or for someone who wants to fulfill their Philosophical and Linguistic Analysis GE without actually doing anything philosophy-related. Or for anyone who wants to learn more about Polish/Ukrainian/Czechoslovakian history and culture and understand more about whats happening with their present political states. But this is not an easy, minimal-effort type GE !!

Professor Koropeckyj asks a lot of his students and his lecturing style is very fast paced, but if you take detailed notes and make flashcards of the important names, dates, locations (everything he gives u in the 'things to review' lists) you will be fine. He has a sort of tough love mentality to his teaching, and is big on singling out individuals to check if youre paying attention, but if you are up to speed on the material you should be safe(ish).

We had 3 discussion section "tests" (aka midterms - worth 50% of the final grade in total) spaced out throughout the course. The final was long - 25 IDs, annotating a map, 1 essay, and lots of little qs. There was also quite a bit of assigned reading/material - pretty much a short novel/collection of poems/foreign film per week. This class didn't have any long formal essays.

HONORS 80: I am selling (all) the required textbooks for the honors class. They are all in great condition, if not new, and at a reasonable price. Text me for more details. **********

I took this class last quarter and found it to be pretty interesting. This course conveniently satisfies both the diversity requirement and visual arts GE along with any other Arts and Humanity GE. The course was straightforward with three tests accounting for 50% of the grade and the final 45% and the last 5% based on discussion board participation. Before the tests and final he gave us a study guide which contained all the identification questions he could ask which made half the test easy by just memorizing them. The essay/ paragraph questions are a little more surprising but if you paid attention to lectures and knew the plot of the novels were pretty easy. I'd suggest reading the novels if you could but I would not say it is necessary if you take good notes during discussion where the plot is summarized by the TA. paying attention to lecture would be the only other tip otherwise this should be an easy GE that satisfies many requirements and gives you a comprehensive idea of Eastern Europe