Her lectures were very dry and she had a monotone voice. Lectures were recorded in podcast format and available online to listen to so going to class wasn't that important. Grading consisted of two papers, midterm, final, and discussion participation. Everything is graded by your TA so it just depends on what kind of grader your TA is. Midterm and final weren't all that difficult, as she gives out a study guide for terms/essays that you need to study for. 1st paper was easier than the 2nd one because the second prompt was a more open ended question but it wasn't especially difficult. I ended up pretty much writing both papers the night before and pulling an all-nighter but I never went to class. I would advise otherwise or to listen to the podcasts because I pretty much had to find all of the information needed the night before.

I ended the class with a B 86%
Her lectures are terribly boring. I personally thought colonial history by itself is extremely boring (when comparing to cold war and 20th century and civil war). Her monotone voice doesn't really help. There are two essays and one midterm. The midterm is relatively easy to study for as she gives you a good study guide. The hard part is getting a good grade on the midterm. I personally had a rough TA who wanted really specific details on the midterm. This is a writing class so the test has no mc or T/F. The tests are essay style with short essays and one long one. My TA was not satisfied with answers I felt were more than sufficient. Moreover, my Ta was not satisfied adequately by my papers. All in all, your TA will make or break ur grade. The reason i got a B as opposed to the B+ was because i got 87% on participation when I actively participated in the class. In other words, just pray you have a TA nice with grading. THere is not too much reading, although it is extremely tedious. You can get away with not going to lectures if you do the reading. Her lectures are usually posted online. You might be able to get away with not reading if you follow on the main ideas and recurring themes throughout the class, and leave adequate time to answer all the specific identities on the study guide.

Ultimately, this class brought my GPA down, was very boring, and imo a waste of time. But hey, its college.

Very monotone lecturer, so impossible to stay awake/pay attention. Read the books assigned reading, and ask your T/A for help on the essays. Midterm and Final come with long study guides, but helpful to your success.