Spiegel isn't a great lecturer, which isn't to say he is boring or incompetent. He probably knows his stuff so well and loves to tell anecdotes about world leaders so much that he runs out of time and doesn't follow the outline in a manner that makes note taking easy. Also, he tends to talk really fast and has little arguments with himself - probably all signs that he knows too much and has a hard time whittling all that stuff down so that we understand him. The Middle East class is a survey class, and I warn people who aren't from that part of the world or who don't know anything about the ME about taking this class... we cover four major parts of the ME (Arab-Israeli, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon) and the reading is intense. There is a LOT of material. <p>I seriously think that reading/information volume wise, most other classes would just cover one or at the very most two of these areas. I strongly urge people to partner up with two or three people to work on the study guides. It's almost impossible to work on alone. If you're going to work with one other person, know that for both the midterm and the final, it'll take you a good 25-30 hours to thoroughly write the IDs and essays. So it's easily 60 hours of work for each study guide.</p>

I would have to disagree with the last 2 comments, not only is he a brilliant brilliant person, but hi lectures are amazingly interesting and informative! ONe of the best ive encountered at UCLA love him!