Class Structure:
Weekly reading responses: 20%
Section participation: 20%
Midterm: 20%
Final Exam: 40%

This class was a pretty simple and straightforward class. I wouldn't say it as an easy 'A', but it is extremely doable 'A' if you just attend lecture. The workload is really low, and you don't really have to do much.

The class itself was somewhat interesting if you want to learn about how science has evolved in the past 2-3 centuries. Professor Alexander would lecture the entire class time, and it was more of a story time lecture compared to others. As long as you take decent notes while he is lecturing, you will be golden for this class.

There were no essays for this class, but there were weekly paragraph responses (took about 1 hour to finish each). We were only required to complete 7 out of the 9 that he posts, and they were basically graded for completion. Discussion section was mandatory, but it mainly just a chat about our opinions on the content of the class. Pretty easygoing. My TA was Max Nikol, who was great.

The exams were all in person and were done through Blue Books (essentially a 10 page blank notebook you buy from the UCLA Store). The midterm was 4 term IDs and 1 essay (50 mins). The final was 8 Term IDs and 2 essays (3 hours). The term IDs were defining a few terms out of a word bank that he sends out a few days before the exam. He gives 2 essay prompts for each essay, and we only need to pick one of them to write about. They were pretty simple, and if you went to lecture you will be totally fine for these. There is a bit of memorization involved with this class (remembering years, names, important events, etc), but it is not at all horrible.

TLDR: Overall, good class, great professor, the content was kinda interesting. Very doable 'A'

This is the first time the class was taught in-person after the covid lockdown.
With that said, here's what you need to know about this class:
The professor is nice. He is not a good lecturer though. I am one of those students who always pays attention and asks questions, but for the first time I could not stop myself from sleeping in this class.
His slides just contain pictures. Granted, he has words/lists on there SOMETIMES, but I could probably count the number of times on one hand. His slides are mostly not helpful.
The readings are A LOT. Most people were able to go by without the readings, but I didn't skip them because I was scared I'd miss something important. Some of it IS really important, but some of it is super useless in relation to the class. The reading assignments get heavier as the weeks pass by. You are only asked to do 7 though, so you are allowed to skip on a couple.
After you read the typically 50+ pages of ancient scientists and science assigned, you are asked to write a "reading response," which will be graded by your TA. I had Luke as my TA and he is an absolute sweetheart, he helped me through office hours, email, in-person, and was always super nice about it. I'd say they are graded pretty easily, and I've heard people with other TA's say the same. Writing the reading responses did help in the long run.
Those were the only assignments; reading, and writing a response.
The midterm was defining 4 terms and an essay, and the final defining 8 terms and two essays. I'd argue there's plenty of time for both, and as long as you pay attention to what each scientist/philosopher/astronomer did, you'll be fine. I know people who slept through class and didn't do the readings who still got A's on the midterm (it just took some studying the night before though).
You can definitely study for it within one night. I studied for my final the night before and aced it.
I went into the class not going what it's even about, but came out pretty interested and knowledgeable of the material (the professor is super smart btw, he knows SO MUCH, just isn't the best at conveying it).
I'd definitely recommend this class if you're interested in the history of how modern science came about. Also, compared to other GE's, this one is REALLY easy/light (especially in terms of writing). Just a lot of reading (which you can arguably skip, but you didn't hear it from me).
Also, the midterm is 20% of your grade, final is 40% and the reading responses 40%.
I liked that this class only had that one HW assignment per week. Thinking back, if I could focus on the reading, the response would not take too long at all (but I couldn't focus bc ngl some readings are pretty boring-- I did like some of them though).

PS: I am selling ALL notes for this class (I did all the readings, so including reading notes) for $20, and also selling the two textbooks needed for this class for $40!! contact me if you are interested: **********

Great professor, really cares about the subject and is always enthusiastic in lecture. Readings could be tedious but on the whole pretty interesting and engaging. No big papers, only weekly reading responses that were super easy.

Great professor, really cares about the subject and is always enthusiastic in lecture. Readings could be tedious but on the whole pretty interesting and engaging. No big papers, only weekly reading responses that were super easy.

This class covers very interesting material, although, the readings (and some lectures) could be rather dense at times. I think Professor Alexander is a great lecturer and genuinely cares about his students—even in a remote, asynchronous class. Professor Alexander is a great guy and wants to talk to you during office hours, so go visit him. Overall, this class was not hard nor was it really THAT easy. The essays for the midterm and final were a bother to write, but if you put in all the work (i.e. get 100s on the weekly, one-page reading papers and write thoughtful, structured midterm and final essays citing the textbook) then you should get an A/A-.

amazing class. I learned so much, super easy GE. definitely take it if you can. I think you write 2 papers and a final, not hard. asynchronous bc of covid but mandatory discussion sections. if you're a south campus major this will be very interesting to you and worth it!

This class was a fairly easy GE. Just two papers and ten reading responses in total make up all of the work in this class. The reading responses are fairly straightforward. Just use evidence from the readings and you should be able to get an A on most of them. They usually turn out to be like 3/4 of a page. Overall, the material was hit or miss. Some weeks had very interesting topics, while others were so painstakingly boring. The class sometimes felt like we were analyzing the readings through a philosophical lens, comparing and contrasting the methods that natural philosophers used to acquire knowledge. I just do not find that sort of thing interesting. The readings themselves were about 40-50 pages per week. They were just a handful of secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources were often straightforward while primary sources were often confusing. Lectures are not needed to get a good grade. I never watched most of them because they were posted after we had already submitted the week's reading response. I waited for the midterm/final paper to watch some of the lectures (specifically the lectures that pertained to the essay question). Overall, an easy GE with some interesting material. Prof Alexander seems like a really great prof. However, the class was asynchronous.

Super easy GE. Never watched a lecture, just skimmed the readings each week which was more than enough for the weekly responses (like 150 words) and the papers (3-4 page midterm and two 2-3 page papers for final). TAs grade everything so talk in discussion and get them to like you.

Lectures were pretty interesting, but the slides has basically no words on it, so you may need to review the lecture recording more than once. Prof is a pretty good speaker and tries his best to make the content interesting. I found the content itself to be somewhat interesting, but nothing special. There were weekly readings, with a single paragraph response every week. The readings themselves were really dry and kind of hard to understand (mostly the primary source readings). This definitely was my least favorite part of the class, but it was bearable. Midterm was a single 3-4 page essay due over 1 week, and final was two 2-3 page essays due over 1 week. Both had several topics to choose from, which were pretty easy to write on (the prompts provided a lot of questions, so the essays were basically guided for you). Overall, the class was not bad, with the main complaint being the really shitty weekly readings.

This class was pretty laid back in the online format. One reading response per week and three essays in total comprise your whole grade. I'd recommend it for someone who has an otherwise heavy course load, or if you are interested in the Scientific Revolution in general. The readings are a mixed bag in my opinion. Some explain the information really well, but some are really banal and not really necessary to understand what is going on. That especially goes for many of the assigned primary sources readings. Thankfully, the book I rented already had key ideas highlighted. It made my work so much easier.