This was probably the most "easy" catfished class I've ever taken. The professor was very off-topic the majority of the time, yapping about Yap, trying to relate it to the topics at hand, but would end up rambling about his time there. After the first few lectures, he just so happened to mention that some of the stuff relating to what he talked about in Yap would be somewhat relevant to the midterm and was never clear as to what specifically. He also said the slides he reads from would be important to mark down, slides he'd be going through at 100 mph and not even let some of us finish due to shortness of time. Time he'd waste yapping about Yap. He didn't post his slides OR record his lectures, which made it much more difficult and made it clear that in order to retrieve any information we missed, we'd have to go to him personally and review his slides. He had one midterm, 2 papers, and one final. He'd produce us a study guide for both exams, but simply a list of topics that we'd have to review from the notes taken by ourselves. The papers were pretty unorganized in terms of what they'd ask for and were never specific. When asking TAs for examples, they were very stingy in letting us read any past papers or a simple paragraph example. I'm sure no one would've been dumb enough to simply copy off an already used paper. Overall, I feel like for a typically "easy" class, this was unnecessarily overcomplicated.

As a first-year at UCLA, idk what I was expecting taking Anthro 3, but it sure wasn't this. The whole 10 weeks I took this class, I was either crashing out over the reading, crashing out over lecture, or just crashing out in general

Let me break it down for you so you know what to expect.

First off, Professor Throop's syllabus is very thorough. He lists what will be covered in each lecture, organizes his Canvas page well, and overall, answers most general questions.

This is how grades were sorted:
Section Attendance & Participation: 20%
Written Assignments: 40%
Multiple-Choice Exams: 40%

There was a lot of reading for this class. We read two full-length ethnographies which to me, as a complete 'beginner' to college, were at times difficult to understand, especially when it came to the main points. On top of that, he'd sometimes assign PDFs which were again made for anthropologists, and those were even harder to understand. Plus, they were pretty long, and took me a while to read, even with me being a fast reader.

We had two written assignments, both with a partner. One was going to a location and basically observing people there, and the other was an interview reflection with our partner. The premise was to write a paper afterwards about what we noticed, tying in lecture material -- except for the fact that it was really confusing to even know what to write about, or get guidance on the paper. If you have a chill TA you're fine...but I don't know how the other TAs graded it.

Section Attendance was HUGE for this class. I missed one section and my section grade went down 10%. Go. To. Section.

The exams were both fully MCQ, with a list of terms and topics provided prior. A lot of terms came from his sayings in lecture, so if you don't go to lecture (which btw, isn't recorded at all) you sort of need to hope for the best and get notes from someone. Overall, though, they weren't awful. Very doable.

Overall...I wouldn't recommend taking this class with Throop. He rambles during lecture, the lectures aren't posted at all, and the structure of the class felt like too much compared to my other courses. It felt like I'd go from 0 to 100 week by week, and I was constantly rushing even while being on schedule.

Save yourselves the headache. Just take a different GE.

Professor Throop was a great professor and I really enjoyed his class. It was a decently easy class as long as you study and pay attention in lectures as he does not post the lecture slides. There were 2 assignments which were essays; one based off of observations and one based off of interviewing a classmate. The TAs grade pretty generously and don't expect you to write anything revolutionary so just make sure you follow the prompt. Other than that there was one midterm and one final. Everyone I have talked to agreed the final was significantly harder than the midterm which was unexpected, but he ended up curving the final grade and I believe most people ended with an A. Midterm was pretty easy if you studied and the final was mostly based off of the second half of the class. Overall, I found the subject pretty interesting and the essays were fun to write so I definitely recommend this class but know that you actually have to put in the work for this class, it won't be an easy A.

Worst class ever

Avoid this class if you can I think there are many easier GEs to take. The midterm was unnecessarily difficult, as lectures are not recorded, and it is hard to decipher what is important information and what isn't on the slides. He will go on tangents that are very unrelated to any of the material, which makes lectures unengaging and monotonous. Discussions are mandatory, and many of my friends in different sections complain about how much work their discussions are, but I was lucky to get an easier TA. There are two five-page essay assignments due with little to no instruction, and there is no rubric, so you don't even know what points you get off. Reading assignments are unfairly long so it is near impossible to fully read each text assigned without dedicating many hours. Avoid this class if you can, I'm sure if you are interested in anthropology there are many easier anthro classes to take.

Probably wouldn't take this class again. I would only recommend if you enjoy philosophy. The lectures are pretty intense, minimal information on the slides except for definitions of words and the slides are not posted. He is a pretty monotonous, boring speaker and goes on MANY tangents so you have to stay on your toes to make sure you're getting what's relevant. Readings are mandatory but minimally relevant. Textbooks are sometimes referenced in class but articles and other readings were rarely, if ever talked about. Section participation is 20% with weekly discussion questions submitted on the readings which are then discussed in section. Throop is pretty egotistical and loves to talk about his personal experiences in his 2 year field study in micronesia, although this class is supposed to introduce us to cultures and societies around the world, i now consider myself an expert in the culture of Yap, an island in micronesia. A solid portion of his lectures is him trauma dumping his past experiences or reliving his glory days. He had two writing assignments for this class, both were intensely vague in the prompt and left everyone slightly confused. at the very least, his exams are relatively easy! they pull a lot from the few slides he creates and from the readings. lots of "what was the authors position/main message/background in their piece ..." and simple definition questions, very little application of concepts. if you take notes and fill out the study guide you should be fine.

I am an incoming freshman, and this was my first quarter along with two other classes. I have never taken or even heard of anthropology, and this class is not easy, in the sense that you will get a free A. You have to read the 9 research papers, about 1-2 per week depending on breaks / midterms, etc. and two books, about 150 pages of useful text in each.

The lectures are not recorded, and Professor Throop mainly has big ideas that he puts on the presentation, and explains more in depth in his dialogue (for instance, the concept of 'karma', or certain anthropologists). It is your responsibility to write down the notes adequately enough to study, because that is the only thing you will have to base your test knowledge off of. I learned that sitting near the front of the class had me concentrate better and memorize the information easier, that way I did not need to go back and review again after until before the exams. Make sure you attend all lectures, or have two people you can ask for their notes in case you miss one (I missed a few classes and this came in clutch).

There is a midterm and final study guide containing the main ideas the exams will go over, but I fully memorized and read through both, and a lot of concepts did not appear in the tests. To be honest, you don't have to read both books, just the first few chapters, and have an in-depth understanding of the text and message trying to be conveyed (ex: concepts of suffering, social stratification).

The tests are very fair and build off of the lectures and readings. The language the questions and answers are made up of are hard to understand, but that's to be expected from English-structured classes like anthropology. I would highly suggest not just reviewing the study guide's concepts, but also specific concepts mentioned in lectures. Professor Throop loves to ask questions similar to "As mentioned in lecture, Professor Throop introduces up the idea of ____ which relates to ___".

There are two projects: one on ethnographic writing, which is basically just observing people and writing down what you learned / how it relates to the concepts in class, and another one with an interview conducted with a classmate and again correlating it to concepts and readings from class. If you write these well, genuinely try your best and provide time for them, you will get an A in this class. I don't think either writing took me more than a few hours to complete from start to finish.

From literally every person that I talked to throughout this class, not a single one read all the readings or books, and instead did an AI summary of it. What you put in is what you give out. The expectation of everyone here is to do your best and not find the easy way out.

Overall, I enjoyed this class a lot, and learned a lot of new ideas and a different way of thinking because of it. If you are going to take it, come in with an open mind and give it your best.