Overall, this topic was quite enjoyable to learn about. If you don't have prior knowledge in any of the three religions you may struggle a bit. The class is mainly dependent on two exams and a final paper. The exams are at fairly random dates in the quarter and the prof refrains from calling them midterms or finals. You have a few fill in the blank, some short answers, and then an essay with multiple choices. Professor Bakhos is a personable professor and really REALLY takes time to answer questions, which definitely drags lecture along a bit. She said she'd take attendance often but I really can only count three times she took attendance during the quarter. She does not like technology in her class so she has a technology ban. You can only take notes on paper/in a notebook, however I have seen some students use their laptops occasionally. I found Bakhos to be a much better teacher and helper than any of the two TAs. I had Morgan Hartshorn as my TA, and if you have the option I would say do not choose her. IMO, she was very much a "square" and not a friendly TA. Sections are mandatory, as she takes attendance, and at the beginning of each section is a 2-3 question quiz. With these quizzes however, you will never be able to see your grade unless you go to her office hours. We hardly even discuss the questions from the quiz in section and mostly focus on pretty small details or parts of readings or concepts. This makes it hard to judge how well you are doing in the class overall, as the only grade you receive back are your exams on paper. Nothing is graded in BruinLearn. I will also say that the TA spoke and came off as very condescending to students, especially when we had to go on zoom during the wildfires. She spoke as if you should know concepts already and came off very accusatory. I don't know if this was on purpose but it definitely made discussions harder. The discussions were also in a very socratic seminar style and often times unorganized. She would throw out a broad question and only students who seem to already have knowledge on these subjects would answer. The discussion certainly gave off an intimidating mood and often long periods of silence went on. Morgan Hartshorn did not seem open to creating an environment where discussing in a free-flowing style was possible. I felt like I gathered more in a 57 minute high school class than this 50 minute discussion section. Probably my worst discussion section I've had at my time at UCLA. I think professor Bakhos would make a better discussion leader haha as she really encouraged a friendly environment for learning and discussing.

I have a love-hate relationship with this class. The lectures were grueling, but we had some amazing discussions. I struggled with the distanced-learning since participation was 20% of our grade, and attendance is mandatory. This was probably the worst part of the class because Professor Bakhos talked really slow and wouldn’t record lectures and I couldn’t stay focused on anything she was saying. The breakout rooms were too crowded for everyone to contribute, and most of the time we didn’t even have a TA guiding the conversation. The syllabus also says if you miss more than two discussion sections, you can’t pass. However, our discussion sections were great, and we had a group chat where everyone elaborated on the topics we were covering.

In Professor Bakhos’ defense, though, a lot of my complaints would be resolved if in-person instruction was available. I don’t want to discourage you from taking the course if you’re interested, but I definitely struggled with the new format. She also had pretty chaotic and disorganized energy and I’m sure the transition was difficult for her. She seemed like she cared, and she had moments where she was really funny.

Our exams were take-home, and we had about a week to do them. They had five short answers, and one long essay at the end. I didn’t study or do any of the readings, and I threw something together the night before it was due and still got a B. My TA gave me very specific feedback and this bumped my next exam up to an A. (Shoutout to Aaron)

Overall, it was a cool class, but it’s too much information for 10 weeks (covering three of the world’s largest religions) and there are much easier GEs out there.