Teo is such a good teacher. This is my second class with him and I enjoyed it very much. It's an easy A pretty much if you keep of with lecture and readings you should do well.

Teo Ruiz is one of the treasures of the History Department. After all, not only will you find his portrait in Covel, but he also received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012. Despite all this, he's extremely down to earth, friendly (he prefers that everyone call him Teo), funny and a downright great lecturer.

I had him as my professor both for summer travel study in Paris and online. He's very focused on helping you understand what life was like in the Middle Ages so that you can better empathize with the people you are reading about. His extensive knowledge of the period results in many interesting side stories that relate to the material that may not be on the final but are interesting to hear regardless. His exams and essays are very fair and you will do well if you do the readings, which are manageable, and pay attention to his lectures. But beyond just earning grades, taking a class with Teo is all about interacting with one of the best historians out there and learning as much as you can from him.

I recommend this class to literally anyone at UCLA just for the experience, and it helps that it is not tough and the grading is fair. His classes are certainly a highlight of my UCLA career.

Selling everything for History 1B.
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This is my second course with Teo. Honestly, I'm speechless. He did it again. He is LITERALLY the best professor at UCLA. I am left fascinated, once more, by his intellect, teaching style, and ingeniousness. He is a boss! A round of applause to Professor Ruiz!! Thank you for opening my eyes to the beauty of history, you are the epitome of the perfect professor. #flawless #Teo #best-professor-on-planet-Earth

See you next Quarter! Lol!

Also, I want to give a shout-out to my amazing TA, Sunkyu. You did a fabulous job, and truly need to become a teacher or professor. You go girl!

Also, none of ya'll aftermarket students better be hatin' on professor Ruiz just for getting a low grade (AKA the grade you deserve). This man is generous enough with his grading, and tries ridiculously hard to make sure his students exit the classroom having learned something useful (whether academic or not). #ghetto-fabulous

And to the insensitive ignoramus who cheated on the exam this quarter (FYI the exam questions were given more than a week in advance, so you had plenty of time to prepare), I wish you the best of luck, because you are going to need it. Professor Ruiz was right when he said "Cheaters will NEVER prosper." I would take your action of dishonesty and mistrust and try and learn from it. Shame on you.

Final Grade: A

XOXO Gossip Girl,

JK it's Gary (again)

I took 1B with Professor Ruiz.
He is the best professor in the History department because he makes sure that you get the grade you want.

Final Grade: A+ (you probably wont get an A+ but you should still take the course).

Took his online IB class summer session A. Teo (call him by this, not Dr. Ruiz or anything of that sort) is a good lecturer who made history interesting. There was a lot of reading, but I did all of it and it was fine.

Grade breakdown is like this: 20% one four page midterm on a book, 20% on another one, 30% discussion board posts, and 30% final exam (2 essays, 3 pgs. each). The papers weren't too bad, but I consider myself to be a good writer, especially as a South Campus major.

My TA was not one of the really harsh, nitpicky ones, so I am grateful for that. She allowed students to send outlines and thesis statements of their essays to get them reviewed. DO THIS-it helps!

Also, Teo did offer to look over essays, and even though he was in Europe on time, he responded to both my e-mails on a fairly timely basis. I did learn interesting things in the class even though I didn't agree with all his personal opinions.

That said, Teo seems like a well-meaning person and one of the few professors who does truly care about his students and his field even after so many years of doing it. Bottom line, if you are a good writer, take his class, but if you have problems in writing essays, you can and most likely will have problems.

It felt nice to take my first GE at UCLA, and I'm glad I took it with Teo. I got an A, and by taking your writing seriously (and having a good TA), it is possibly for others as well.

I took a summer online class. He is a good professor, and his lecture is wonderful. The problem is that some TAs in his class were so horrible that they intentionally graded so harshly even though writing center people said my essay was great. I put my great effort on my midterm and final essay but ended up getting A-. Don't take his 6 week online class because you can't get any great feedback from your TAs.

I took this class online during the Summer, because I wanted to see what all the fuss about Ruiz was about. I must say, taking his class in 6 weeks was one of the most challenging experiences I've ever had. It was a painstaking amount of reading.

They assigned 6 books that had to be read in 6 weeks, plus extra online readings; I don't know how, but I got an A- without reading a single book, other than a few chapters from two of the textbooks, and a summarized version of another.

Every Friday, there were two mini essay reports due based on lectures and readings, a 5-page midterm, and an 8-page final.

I wish I would've taken this class during the normal school year in 10 weeks, as I know I would've been able to enjoy it much more.

About the class itself: I normally don't care much for history, but I must say that the reviews about Teo are very accurate... Yes, he teaches you about life itself, he will change your outlook on things, he teaches with an incomparable passion (Remember, I'm writing all this having only seen him on a video lecture; imagine what he's like in real life). I HIGHLY recommend taking him during the 10-week quarter.

Teo is the best prof I've had! His class was excedingly easy. Going to class was entertaining, and unlike most history classes you don't have to take very many notes, maybe half a page a day. Teo is wonderful, approachable, and truely cares about his students. He quit his job as head of department because he became a professor to teach not to do admin stuff. Take any of his classes, they will raise your GPA and will be enjoyable.

If you want to learn anything about History, don't take his class. Yes, he's funny and quirky, but his jokes (like answering students' cell phones that ring in class) get really redundant. He's a nice guy, and the class is easy, but it's all pretty worthless. Show up for the social aspect-- it's a huge athlete/greek class-- rather than the learning aspect. The honors section was the best thing I did-- it was less work than what I heard about the other sections, and the discussions were pretty worthwhile. No midterm, a take home final... bring a crossword to class instead of a notebook.